Christmas in Michigan

Since Blake and I both work in the school system it is quite nice to have two weeks off together.  Normally we would leave after the last day of school and have 2 weeks of vacation with our families.  HOWEVER, now that we have a kid I am finding that there is always a catch and we can NEVER leave on time.  The day we were suppose to leave we took Grady to the doctor because he had another ear infection and after much thought we decided to take him to the ENT for further testing to see if he needed tubes.  After our consultation with the doctor, he advised us to have tubes put in immediately, so on Dec 23 (a week after school has been out) Grady had surgery.  He did so well and the nurses were so impressed that he was laughing and smiling the whole time.  He even fell asleep before he was put under! 

So finally Friday, Dec 23, after Grady's surgery, we drove 10 hours to get to my family in Michigan!  We had a great time and got to see lots of family.  We were extremely lazy because I had a lot of great babysitters that would feed, bath, and watch Grady 24/7.  My parents both had the opportunity to take time off of work and allow Blake and I to chill out.  What a blessing it is to have great family!  Grady got to meet all of his aunts, uncles, cousins, second-cousins, etc and he was the life of the party.  He received so many presents and I know from here on out Blake and I don't need to spend any money on him for Christmas.  The only bad part about going home this year was that there was NO SNOW.  We were so sad because Oma Bock got Grady a sled and we didn't even have a chance to use it. 

 My dad "G Frank" and Grady

 Playing with his new toy

 Hanging out with Oma, I love this pic because I have the same exact one of me sitting on my "Oma's" lap.

 Grandma and Grady eating breakfast

I think the best part about going home was being with my brother.  We have gotten so much closer over the last few months and we got to meet his lovely girlfriend, Kelsey.   We got to watch him play a little soccer and as you saw in my last post, he had a lot of fun with Grady!  I absolutely love his girlfriend and it was fun getting to know and hang out with her.

 Cousin Sarah, Austin, and Kelsey

Grady also had the chance to meet some of my high school friends.  Jillian was home and we went and visited the Bodley family.  Shelby Smith Paulk and her kids Riley, Lincoln, and Emmeryson, and Becky Marx Keogh and her little girl EVcame over for a fun-filled playdate, and we also saw Kristina Reid and her little girl Karis.