Greshams - Est. 2007

Sheesh. What a busy summer this has been. In short, in the life of Heath Gresham, if it can go wrong, it does. I learned this early on... My parents had a place at Lake Brownwood, and at 17, Heath and I rarely made it down there without a flat on the boat or pickup. A day trip to a deer (mainly quail, really) lease outside of Tahoka in college usually meant he'd be back by dinner. Uhhh, try a stuck ranger/mule/whatever it was at the time in the river, walking probably 5+ miles back to the pickup in the heat of the day with nothing to drink, and no cell phone service. If it could go wrong, it did. I rode with him down to his deer lease at Big Lake one time, and we had a blow out on his AirStream (high class) on a Sunday afternoon (Holiday weekend too, if I remember right) in Stanton.... If you don't know the area, "up a creek" is the key phrase that day. He's had to back a module builder down a busy street trying to get one home one time because he couldn't clear an underpass, and then I think he ended up dropping it off somewhere and going back to get it because his pickup was acting up..? I can't remember all of the details, but you catch my drift.

So, all that to say, this year has been exhausting. In March, Heath and I got in on some land at Olton. Heath has been looking for more land for a while, and it just so happened to spark his interest over night. Another over night decision came in June, when he took a planter up there after thinking he wouldn't until next year. Did you catch the "in June" part? Not the ideal time for a farmer to be taking on land, and I won't even start on the drought. So, Heath has been spread extremely thin. We go days without catching a meal with him, and there have been several days when Landry doesn't see him because she's asleep when he leaves and asleep when he gets home. He's been so close to being caught up for several weeks now, but as his luck would have it, it just hasn't worked out that way. Like last night, we thought we'd get him home in time for supper, but as soon as he got into town, he had to turn around and go right back up there. I'm hoping he can really get caught up this week, and then rest up while the kids and I are at Disney World!

I'm really not complaining. I hope it doesn't come across that way. If anything, I'm overwhelmed with pride at how dedicated Heath is to his work and making a good life for our kids. I know, on the flip side, we get to have him home during that down months of farming. I'm thankful for that! And for that reason, I have decided to keep Luke at home another year. I think I had posted a few months ago about putting him in PDO at our church, but after the way this summer has gone, I think one more year without the commitment of school would be nice. He's only 3 anyway. We have plenty of time to get him prepared for Kindergarten! We might look into some fun/educational stuff for him to do instead.

Needless to say, the kids and I have been spending lots of time at home. :) We have been to some fun birthday parties and play dates, and we are getting geared up for our trip. We leave next Thursday! I think we'll have a blast. Landry has gotten big enough to not only be entertained by Luke, but to even help entertain him! He pushes her around the house on his little riding cars, and he tattles on her when she's playing in the toilet or has something in her mouth. She's stolen his breakfast while I was in the shower, and she changes the channels while he's trying to watch TV. They're great for each other! I think it's a blessing to get to have them close in age.

As for milestones for Luke...... He had his first sleepover here at the house AND went for his first sleepover (besides grandparents) this week! His Uncle D took him and his "befriend and brudder" Jaxon to Joyland, and then they came back here and spent the night. Then a few nights after that, Luke went and spent the night over at their house. They play so good together! It's neat to watch them be so silly together. I saw a quiz on pinterest a few weeks ago and gave it to Luke. Here's how it went.

1. What's your favorite color? Red

2. What's your favorite toy? Buzz, and nother Buzz. Two buzzes.

3. What's your favorite fruit? Strawvries.

4. What's your favorite movie? Store Story. (Toy Story)

5. What's your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Spiderman cupcakes.

6. What's your favorite shirt? Store Story shirt.

7. What's your favorite game? Store Story. (Wii game)

8. What's your favorite snack? Fee Fer Yogurt. (Phineas & Ferb Yogurt)

9. What's your favorite animal? I love horseys.

10. What's your favorite song? Twinkle wittle star.

11. What's your favorite book? Store Story book.. It was big. It was square.

12. Who's your best friend? My befriend Jaxon.

13. What's your favorite cereal? Cinn toast crunch.

14. What's your favorite thing to do outside? Paint.

15. What's your favorite drink? Chockat milk.

16. What's your favorite holiday? Nope. (Didn't understand)

17. What's your favorite thing to take to bed? Daddy. Daddy's big. And I'm big, too. Daddy's bigger.

18. What's your favorite breakfast food? Cereal.

19. What was on your birthday cake? Mike the Knight

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? I be Lightning Queen.

Landry just turned 11 months old, and she is extremely mobile. She crawls all over the house, and she has started pulling up and walking around furniture. She uses a little rocking chair we have of Heath's when he was little to push around and use as a walker. She loves to be outside, and she is quite the picky eater! I gave her milk for the first time yesterday, and she acted offended. Haha. She doesn't like it at all. Even when she gets ahold of Luke's chocolate milk cups, she takes one drink and puts it back down. Besides the baby snacks and crackers, she will eat cereal, cinnamon toast, strawberries, oranges, and greek yogurt. I have to sneak veggies in! She gags at the sight of most new foods. Completely opposite of her brother... He'd eat anything you'd put in front of him. She says Dadda, Mama, Bubba, and Hi. She's a sweet girl, friendly, and a cuddler. She loves bath time, and sometimes, I put her in the kitchen sink with the water running so I can get supper ready or groceries unloaded. When Heath comes home, she rubs on his face and hugs on him. It's pretty cute!

Luke as Spiderman.

Luke usually falls asleep while I put Landry down for her nap. I come out to find him in some pretty random positions! Haha!

This was on our pajama & fort day. :)

Painting on the back porch.

Haha!

Cousin time. :)

Sitting in the pickup at Olton while Heath and Luke walk a pivot.

More cousin time!

Luke loves Tayta Head.

Heath got Luke a 4wheeler. Landry wanted to ride on one, too. She loved it and cried to get off!

So glad they love each other!

Luke on the bluetooth on the farm.

Luke and the Abney boys put donuts on Landry. She just loved the attention!

This was in the evening on Mother's Day after the kids were dedicated at church.

Heath spraying. We ended up with quite a bit of grain this year.

Landry has a blast on this thing. She'll climb up on it and squeal for Luke to come push her. :)

"My son is 3." No! These words are not supposed to come out of my mouth yet! But, I am exactly where I wanted to be at this point in my life. I wanted to be a young mom, and I am lucky that things have worked out for us like they have.... But, I'm only 25, and I'm cleaning out baby stuff! Crazy. I love it though. Heath and I are planning a trip when he gets through stripping this year. It's gonna be fun. AND! The kids and I are going to Disney World in August! I'm super excited. We are going with our sweet Stanley friends. They are like Disney World experts. So, we're gonna tag along and learn the ins and outs without having to read the books and all that jazz. It's gonna be fun.

We celebrated Luke's birthday all week last week. He was so anxious for it to be his birthday because we have celebrated so many birthdays lately and gone to buy gifts for other people, so I think he was starting to wonder if he would ever get to have his birthday! His actual birthday was Tuesday, the 5th, and we started the day off going to tumbling. He was excited for his coaches to tell him "Happy Birthday" that day. When we came home, my parents brought his gifts over, and we went to his place of choice for lunch, which was Dairy Queen. We got him a chocolate sundae for dessert and put candles in it for him. JoJo (my cousin Amber) came over that afternoon and brought him gifts, too, and we sat outside and played with him. We cooked hamburgers that night after Heath got home with JoJo and Jeremy. He opened his gifts from us, and he blew out candles again in the cookies I made for dessert. It was a great day!
For his birthday party, we rented an inflatable slide and had friends and family over. He had a Mike the Knight birthday cake, and he played with bubbles with his friends, too. We are thankful to have so many good friends around his age! Having them here made for a great party.

Luke at 2 years old was very challenging for us. We have loved him through it, but it has been exhausting at times. Honestly, he's just now faithfully sleeping through the night. I sometimes blame myself for how rigid I tried to be with him. Everything was by the book..... Don't rock, don't nurse to sleep, let him cry, yada yada..... Man, if I would've realized how fast that stage is over, I would've rocked him for miles like I have Landry. In fact, I think part of the healing for him has been for him to be nurtured by Heath and me, so he's developed a sense of security he didn't have in the beginning. And, I could be completely off. Maybe it's just his age and outgrowing cutting teeth and being afraid of the dark..? But I do blame myself for part of it. I've rocked him more in the last year than I did in the first year, simply because I see how fast he's gonna outgrow my arms and that chair. Ah, we live and learn though. Hindsight is always 20/20, right?!

He is going to start a PDO program at our church in the fall. I'm excited for him. It's a good way for us to take baby steps into getting him in school, I think. It will be at our church, and he loves going to church now, so I'm looking forward to it for him. We plan on starting him a year late in school since he has a summer birthday, so this will give him something to do before we get him into preschool.

At 3 years old, here are some of his favorites:
- Foods: Strawberries, grapes, chicken, pizza, cinnamon toast crunch, green beans, salad, chocolate milk, and ice cream
- Friends: Jaxon and Kale
- Color: Seems to be Red
- Toys: McQueen cars, Gator, Baseball, Golf, and Batman costume/mask
- Restaurant: Blue Sky and ChickFilA
- Songs: Twinkle Twinkle, Real Gone (Cars), and You've Got a Friend in Me (Toy Story)

As for Landry, she is now 9 1/2 months old, and like Luke was, she is in no hurry to get moving. She army crawls across the house, and when she thinks she's going really fast, she breaths fast but moves no faster. She loves all foods but is getting to where she would rather feed herself than have baby food. She still nurses, but she's gotten pretty good with juice in a sippy cup. Her foods of choice are ritz crackers and frozen fruit in her teether. She just got her first tooth last week! It's starting to show just a little bit when she smiles. She sleeps from about 8:30-8 most nights. She wakes up maybe once a week to eat during the night. She does 2 naps a day, but she can go on 1 if she needs to. She'll swim no matter how cold the water is, and she loves for Luke to give her attention! She giggles so much when he hovers over her and tickles her. Part of it is for the tickling, and the other part is just because he's giving her attention. She loves men! She cries if Heath comes home and doesn't hold her, and she loves to go to her Papa and cuddle. She's pretty much the sweetest thing and not a form of birth control if you're looking for one! Ha!

So, here are some pictures!

Headed to tumbling on his birthday.