Solution!

I'm abandoning this blog, though it will stay up with all the old blog posts. All new posts will be at:

grattons.blogspot.com

Admin Lockout

In case you were wondering why we're still celebrating Halloween on the blog background, it's because somehow I've locked myself out as an administrator of my own blog and now can't do anything but post and edit posts.
If anyone knows what the heck I've done and has some suggestions, I'd appreciate it. I've emailed Google twice and have yet to hear back. So, until further notice: Happy Halloween.

New toys and old toys

A new toy: Drew's paint set from Beth and Lewie. I kept reminding her to take her paintbrush and go "water, paint, paper." She tried to recite and remember, but usually went "paint, paper, water."

Old toy: Drew has become quite the accomplished tricycle rider over the past few weeks. She got the trike for her birthday and hasn't used it in awhile. Here she is, about 3 inches from Mommy and her new toy - a DSLR camera!
She pedals pretty fast and steers surprisingly well.
Of course she never wants any help climbing on or off, she can do it "all by myself."
New toy: While Daddy and Grammy were out at Toys R Us buying a Wii (Grammy really wanted it), they also came back with a helmet for Drew since she took a spill the other day on the trike.
Checking out her Princess elbow pads.
This morning Drew helped Daddy make pancakes and eggs. She likes to crack eggs and whisk (she says it is awesome).
Some footage from Mommy's new camera...still working on understanding all the settings, but I already look like a way better photographer because of the new camera!

Christmas 09

Drew in her Christmas Tea outfit...couldn't resist throwing this photo in. Grammy got this skirt in Scotland the year she was born and has been waiting for her to be able to wear it.

Drew in her Christmas dress. She is also wearing a bracelet she got for her baptism but wasn't able to wear it back then because her wrists were too chubby.
Family photo on Christmas Eve at Aunt Nancy and Uncle Don's house.
A beautiful new (faux) fur coat.
Like her Auntie Kels, she is a huge Wizard of Oz fan and got Barbie-Dorothy this year.
Christmas morning we had to physically wake her up at 11:15 (Merry Christmas to us!) to see what Santa brought her. This picture is literally about 2 minutes after she woke up, we sort of rushed her, regretfully.
Of all her many gifts, the candy cane was one of the top. Whoever coined the phrase "easy as taking candy from a baby" didn't know what the hell they were talking about.
She got a "Baby Alive" from Santa, which actually pees and poops. We have not activated that feature yet.
She loved her Disney Princess Vanity/Piano. It has pretend lipstick (another favorite item), brush, perfume, eyeshadow, tambourine and a whistle. She loves it.
I took a few shots with my brand new camera (yesss!) and realized the detail was so good you can actually see the outline of all the chapstick Drew had been slathering on all day.
Christmas Day family photo. Unfortunately by this point she had spilled apple juice, milk, yogurt and chocolate over her beautiful dress. We may have to take a fake one next week when we get to the laundry.
Working on her 5th cookie....Drew will argue it's less than that because she was "sharing" with Grammy.
Drew got her very own camera for Christmas...
...we are now hoping she will quit stealing ours. We just downloaded our camera and found about 12 pictures similar to this:
Of the 17 lbs. of meat we had ready for Christmas Dinner, we have about 10 lbs. of leftovers.
Grammy and Drew doing a little dancing at the end of the night.
Merry Christmas everyone, hope yours was as blessed as ours.

Gratton Family Christmas Card

Merry Christmas!

Carol's Caroling Party

An active participant in this year's Caroling/White Elephant/Karaoke party, Drew passed out presents, helped unwrapped and hijacked some liquor minis.
Not sure why this was considered a good idea, but we all decided to take the classic group Prom shot on the stairs. Bonus points if you can find Baby Lauren.
Jeremy, David and Scott grew out facial hair for Movember, and then shaved everything but their moustaches for the caroling party.
They were all very proud, the wives were fairly embarrassed and more than once did we catch them in a corner comparing and sharing shaving techniques.
Meet Tom Selleck, Mario, and Starsky. Or, as Kelsey prefers to call them Future Cold Case Perps.

Drew and Baby Lauren

Drew is always super excited to see Lauren and always wants to hold her. She also always asks if Lauren wants to play with her toys and always speaks in a high-pitched baby voice when talking to her. On this day, she told us "I'm a good daddy.....I'm a good mommy."
These were taken at Grammy's Christmas Tea with the ladies. Drew got to drink out of her plastic Disney Princess tea cup (some Lipton Green Tea) but was way more into Lauren.

What working Mommies miss while at work....

"Ms. Gratton, this is your 10:30am wake-up call."
Apparently, someone had a few drinks before bed last night. Check out Drew's face, she doesn't even know what's going on right now. That was one hard night's sleep.

The bulge you see in the picture above is a diaper full of wee-wee.

Playing catchup...

Sorry for the delayed posts...we've been in Memphis for a week and several times I've tried to upload pictures but Blogger wouldn't let me.

Before Memphis, we decorated Grammy and Boppa's tree. Drew has discovered the kitchen stools and thus, all hell has broken loose here. This is one of her more helpful ideas.

In Memphis, Drew helped her Grandma and Pa and Aunt Wendy make a beautiful Gingerbread House. It is amazing there was any candy left for decorating.

Then she helped decorate that tree and even told Pa where to place the high ornaments on the tree.

Very proud of her work on the Christmas tree and Gingerbread House.

Drew and her new friend, Sarah Guff. Their daddies have known each other a very long time (some would say too long) and now they both have little girls who look (and act) just like them.

We also got to go to Enchanted Forest and look at other Gingerbread Houses, Choo-Choo Trains and other Christmas decorations.

Drew got to see Santa again, and although a little nervous, she sat on his lap and when he asked what she wanted for Christmas, she said....

a candy cane!

She got lots of fun presents from her grandparents and great aunts and cousins...her she is with one of her favorites: her princess sleeping bag.

Breakfast with Santa at El Niguel

This year Drew was much more pleased to visit with Santa. She was excited to see him and although started out a little nervous, warmed up and happily sat on his lap. When he asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she said: "a toy."

Here is a shot from last year's joyride. If you want to see more from 2008, click here.
Drew and the other kids watching a little play about Frosty, the bad Christmas fairy and KooKoo the Christmas Elf...You can't see her excitement from here but she was singing and dancing when the Frosty song came on.

Drew and Meghan are each a little taller, with longer hair (Drew can actually wear a bow this year), and were really happy to see each other.

We got a quick family photo in front of the golf course before Daddy and Boppa's tee time at noon.
To see videos, click here.