Moments, Milestones and Miracles

This is me trying to cram what should be multiple blog posts into one big one.

To start off, here are some funny family moments from our kiddos who always keep us laughing!


(Camdyn is frustrating Grayson)
Grayson: "Someday, when you're not looking, I'm going to sell her!"

Grayson: "Come on truck. Let's get a move on. What's your problem?"
(He gets his road rage from his Daddy)

Brad: "Grayson, what should we name the baby?"
Grayson: "Let's name him nugget!" (In case you're not a Veggie Tale fan, that one comes from "Moe and the Big Exit")
Me: "That sounds like a great nickname for the baby."
Grayson: "Not a nickname, I want that to be the real name. Nugget Smith!"

Me: "Grayson, will you please bring me the trash from your bathroom?"
Grayson: "$10 Mommy"
(Another wonderful catch phrase he picked up from his Daddy)

Grayson: "Daddy, what do polar bears eat?" (as we're watching a documentary on polar bears)
Brad: "Well, they eat other animals made of meat."
Grayson: "Do they eat people?"
Brad: "They can."
Grayson: "I don't want a polar bear to eat me!"

(Grayson got a new tape measure and was measuring everything. He stretched it across Brad's rear end.)
Grayson: "Man, Daddy, your bottom is pretty big!"
(In case you've ever seen my husband, his bottom is pretty much non-existent which made it all the funnier)

Brad: "Let's get out of this joint!"
Grayson: "What's a joint?"
(If he was a little older, this conversation could have gone in a very different direction)

(A kid was getting pretty physical with Grayson on a bounce house recently. Because of a thousand conversations of "do not hit," Grayson was just trying to get away instead of defend himself. Brad was on his way to intervene when an older child got involved and helped Grayson up.)
Grayson: "Daddy, he was beating me up. That was the first time that ever happened before."

Grayson: "Grandma, are you old?"
Grandma: "I'm getting there."
Grayson: "Because if you're old, you can park in those special spots at the front." (pointing to the handicap spots)

Camdyn: "nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, Ba-Man" (running around the house with Grayson's Bat-Man action figure)
Can you tell she has a brother? Poor girl has no chance of being a girly girl!

Our little miracle achieved a major milestone recently: Graduating from Pre-School!

I should really begin the story of pre-school graduation with earlier in the day. After hearing from my doctor that things were progressing quicker than we'd like and the chances of an early delivery were likely, it had been an emotional roller coaster of a day as we contemplated how we might handle another stay in the NICU. As I'm holding back tears on the way to graduation...

Grayson: "Mommy, why are you crying?
Me: "Mommy is just scared this baby is going to be born too early and we're going to have to leave him or her at the hospital the way we had to leave you at the hospital. But, you know what, we need to just pray and trust God with this."
Grayson: "Mommy, maybe we can pray now?" (followed by the most precious prayer ever uttered for his little sibling to be)
Somewhere along the way my 5-year-old became smarter than me and I couldn't be more blessed!

I remember the music minister's wife at our church in College Station joking that she always got more out of the children's sermons than she did out of the real ones. And that's pretty much exactly what happened to me at pre-school graduation.

As our boy and his classmates sang song after song about God's love, I found tears pouring down my face as I listened to the lyrics of songs like, "Oh what a Miracle am I" and "Come to Worship," as the Lord reminded me of his faithfulness and of the Grace he poured out on us and used to mold us as parents through Grayson's birth and NICU stay. And that he was standing ready to pour out Grace on us over and over again no matter what trials and tribulations came our way.

Five years after his surprise birth, our boy, who we've always considered a miracle, continues to be a constant reminder of God's faithfulness in our family! I'm sure I'll be crying the same tears at his high-school graduation which my husband so kindly pointed out in the midst of my tears is only 13 years away!