Grayson's Blessing

Grayson was so dang cute on his big day! He didn't make a peep which made Brandon so happy!
Brandon did a wonderful job, the Spirit was so strong. We are grateful for our family and friends who made this day special for us. My brother Kason brought my grandparents down for the day! My grandpa really wanted to be there and it meant so much to me! I know it wasn't easy getting them here. Its so hard for them to travel these days!

Fun day, but glad its over with, I'm not gonna lie!!!!!!!

getting him all ready for his big day!

{ March 6th, 2011 }



grandma and grandpa McDonald
grandma and grandpa Prisbreygreat grandma and grandpa pope
Nate loves Grayson and is so cute with him!

Grayson 2 months!

I've been putting this off long enough... my baby is 2 months!

Things I need to remember:

* our porker weighs 11lbs 5 oz

*he started smiling on March 4th

*he was blessed on March 6th

*he always has to be sucking on something, hand, binky or whatever! I refuse to let him be a thumb sucker! good thing when he sucks on his cute little hand he tucks his thumb in and never gets it in his mouth

*the kid would eat all day if I let him and would drink anything. (he didn't poop for almost a week, so we gave him some apple juice. I kept waiting for him to make faces because it was cold and not milk, well it didn't phase him. He loved it)

*he is still not on a schedule and I'm looking forward to the day we will be again!

*he's been sleeping one long stretch at nights

*he likes his car seat

*he's not a spitter like Hadley was

*he LOVES Hadley, he will just sit there and watch her play or smile at her

*he makes the cutest sounds when he's "talking" to us

*loves his daddy

*poops every time we sit down for church

*loves bath time

*loves to be held, he's a little more "needy" than Hadley was as a baby but we are loving it.








Hadley 3 yrs and 9 months:

weighs 37lbs

almost 42 inches



*she is being the best little helper lately. She loves helping with dinner and dishes.

*loves saying prayers. Our prayer tonight was "bless our dinner. Heavenly Father, well....... Grayson cries all the time. Amen"

*loves baths, horses, dinosaurs, soccer, her friends, bambi, school.

She makes me laugh daily and has the best little imagination ever.

Grandma and Grandpa Great!

{ February 11th }

I have the best grandparents in the world and have been so excited for them to meet my little Grayson. We had a little scare with my grandma so I thought I better get my butt up there to make this introduction. The kids did great on our first road trip with Grayson and no daddy!

Meeting Kade and Sydney Grandma Pope
Grandpa Pope
Cousin Taylee
Hanging out with Grandpa Pris

My Hadley!

Oh Hadley, where do I start?

This girl makes me smile, laugh, happy, crazy and she sure makes me mad!
This age is fun, exhausting and emotionally draining me lately. We are in the sensitive, competitive and gets embarrassed easy phase.

Funny and sweet things to remember though:



She was being so naughty while I was nursing Grayson and I asked her why she was so mad and her response, "I just want long hair like Rapunzel and my hair is just too short."

Her prayer the other night, "Heavenly Father, grateful for this day. Grateful mommy can pump to make Grayson happy. Amen."

While I was reading our Easy to Read Book of Mormon to her she tells me that the Holy Ghost protects us. I asked her who she heard this from and she said her primary teachers. She says the Holy Ghost says watch out you don't want to trip!

She then asked me why Jesus doesn't go to church.

She was naughty at preschool and cried most of the time, when I picked her up she said, "mommy I just missed you so much so I cried at school today."
And then later that day she told me she cried at school because she just hates the letter Q.

Oh I hope I make it past this stage! Mommies, if have some good advice I need it!

She is obsessed with her scooter and we've been taking advantage of this great weather before it gets to hot by going on some fun scooter rides!

Aunt Cailtin

{ Feb 2-6 }

We had such a fun visit from Aunt Caitlin! She came down to help out after I had Grayson. She was soo helpful that I kept offering for her to move in. We had a lot of fun cooking, shopping, playing games (I made her and Brandon play every night since there was more than just us two) and going out to dinner. We even had time for the two of us to go have lunch and get pedicures. It was fun having girl time and hanging out, wish we could do this more!

Grayson is 1 month!

I can't believe my little man is 1 month today! Is it sad I'm actually depressed about it?! Why does it have to go by so fast?

We have enjoyed this last month with Grayson so much. He is such a sweet little guy and brings so much joy to our family. There is nothing sweeter than a newborn and their little spirit!

Things to remember:

* as of last week he weighed 8lb 4 oz
* this kid is loud! His grunts, sneezes, moans and farts!
* he is always pooping compared to Hadley when she was a newborn!
* he was jaundice and had to get his heal pricked every other day for a week.
* most nights he sleeps 3 - 5 hrs. (wish the 5 hr stretch was more consistent)
* he sleeps the best in the swing or his bouncer/cradle thing.
* he lost a pound after he was born.
* we made it through his circumcision.
* he loves to be held and snuggled.
* sometimes he likes to be swaddled.
* he gets MAD when he is hungry and waking up.
* he is a chill little baby!

His little pose he does during diaper changes.

He is pretty patient and lets us girlies do what we want with him!



Hadley at 3 1/2
She is silly, fun, funny, sassy, sensitive and dramatic!

Things to remember about this little woman:

* When she came to the hospital she said, "Is this my brother? This is totally awesome! He is adorable!"

* We never had the "talk" of how Grayson would be eating. The first time I nursed she said, "Mom, what are you doing?" After we explained to her she said, "that is GROSS"

* For the first week she kept asking if he could crawl yet and that she wanted to teach him.

* It took her 2 weeks but now she talks to him, helps with his binky, burps him and loves wiping his butt.

* Does NOT like to hold her brother yet.

* One morning I pumped instead of nursing him, I asked her if she'd feed him while I did my hair. With a scared little face she says, "I don't want to pump milk out of my boobies!"

* finally she said to us the other night while we were driving to dinner, "I love being a big sister!"

*She says, "Chaa." Instead of "yes"

* She calls Grayson our chunky monkey.

* She tells people, "this is my brother Grayson, he has a big head"

*She calls the roads car tracks.
our downstairs closet a horse pantry. (we keep her toys and her horse bucket in there)

Grayson Bennion McDonald

Birth Story:

Sunday January 16th, 1-4PM.: (At this point I've been at a 4cm for almost 2 weeks and having contractions, and been on bed rest until I made it to 37 weeks. I had been off bed rest for 3 days at this point) We are at church and I'm having major cramps and contractions the whole time. I kept telling my friend Kristine I think I peed my pants. Right when I get home and make it to the bathroom I realize my water broke. I called my sister in law Erin who is a nurse to ask her advice. I didn't want the hospital to tell me I'm just peeing my pants and send me home! She tells me to go in and get checked. Brandon calls my mom but we tell her not to leave until we know I'm in labor.

4:30 pm : I call Kristine to see if we can bring Hadley over. We drop her off and Brandon and I are starving, we are talking about going through a drive through before we go to the hospital. My contractions are getting worse so I tell him lets just go get checked first.

5:05 pm: We check in at the hospital, they send me to triage. They come in to check me. My water is broke and I'm at a 7 cm. I'm kinda freaking out praying that I get an epidural before my little man makes his arrival! They hurry and get me an IV and start all the stuff so I can get my epidural. Call my mom and tell her to get here fast if she wants to see anything!

5:45 pm: They take me to the delivery room. I'm having really strong contractions, still begging for my epidural, and squeezing the crap out of Brandon's hand!

6 pm: My epidural man comes on in!

6:20 pm: I'm dying still and having back labor. The nurses are telling me how great I'm doing and that I can tolerate pain. And how I better have him by 7 because that is when all there shifts end. I'm thinking no I'm going to die if this thing doesn't kick in and I don't want to push until I'm numb!

6:30 pm: I'm almost good and numb, they check me and I'm at a 9 cm. They call the doctor, we call my mom. They are both hurrying!

6:40 pm: My doctor comes in while we do a practice push, she immediately jumps in and I keep pushing.

6:54 pm: Grayson arrives! 3 weeks early, weighing 7lbs 11 oz. 19 1/2 inches long.

6:56 ish pm: Right when they put him on the scale my mom walks in! She heard him crying in the hall and barely missed it :(

Monday January 17th: My awesome doctor and one of our fabulous delivery nurses come to visit and just say hi!

My mom and Hadley came to hang out with me for a bit so Brandon could go home and have a break. I can't sleep in the hospital, I kept him up all night talking about how cute our baby was and what the heck we were going to name him. I had some friends come visit too so that made our day better too!

Jealous of our awesome view?!


I don't know if all hospitals do this but at ours they do a nice dinner for the mom and dad. (Since its at the hospital its probably the most expensive meal we will have!) So here is our date night in the hospital. Also this was the moment where we had to turn in the birth certificate so we had to decide on a name!


And late Monday night they let us go home!!!!!!!!!


Grayson brought Hadley a Jessie doll from Toy Story.
She picked out a giraffe for him but threw it on the couch when she noticed he brought her something!



This birth was completely different from Hadley's. It was just me and Brandon and everything went so fast! It was pretty cool. We had amazing nurses who were so much fun that whole night! We have been so blessed. I can't believe this whole thing is over, it was a long time coming trying to even get pregnant with this little guy and we are so grateful to have him in our lives. We are so grateful for our ward and our friends who have been so thoughtful and good to us through out this whole thing!