The Sweet Life of the Smiths

Is Santa Coming to Town?

2011-12-20T22:16:00.000-08:00

To do Santa or not to do Santa? That is the question.

Brad and I have struggled with how we would handle Santa with our children pretty much since we first got married and first started talking about it. We know families who we love and respect on both sides of the Santa argument. The reasons we've heard for not doing it have ranged from not wanting to lie to their kids, not wanting kids to confuse the myth of Santa with the truth of Jesus, ect. ect. ect.

We both grew up doing Santa and loved it, so we definitely don't see anything wrong with it. But the question is, what is right for our family and what do we want our own Christmas traditions to look like? In asking ourselves that question, we both admit that in general, there is a strong focus on presents, decorating, shopping, ect, when it comes to Christmas. And maybe even for us (people who know and celebrate Christmas because of the birth of Christ), that the real meaning of Christmas gets a little overshadowed by these other things. So, the one thing we're sure of is that we really want Christmas to be about CHRIST for us and our children. So, the question is, how do we do that?

So, we've tried really hard to make sure everything we do points back to Jesus. For example, this year, as we decorated our house with Christmas lights, we talked with Grayson about how Jesus is the light the world. And every time he receives a present, we talk with him about how Christmas is Jesus' birthday and that's why we give and receive gifts. And how Jesus is God's gift to us!!!

Grayson is all about Christmas this year, which has made it a very special Christmas so far to watch it all through is eyes. He just lights up at the tree and the lights and it is so fun to watch his amazement of it all. And he is very aware of Santa (which is why this year, we've had to actually make a decision). I mean, Santa is everywhere! TV, store windows, in front of our neighbor's house, and every waiter and store clerk asks Grayson what Santa is bringing him. We certainly are not trying to eliminate Santa from Christmas, and we couldn't even if we tried. But, we're trying not to focus on him. Every time Santa comes up, just like everything else, we try and point him back to Jesus. Who does Santa love? "Jesus!" And why did Santa give presents to boys and girls who didn't have anything? "Because he loves Jesus!" With every question Grayson has about Santa, we try and answer with the truth of who Saint Nicholas really was (a generous man who loved the Lord and should be recognized). Now, lucky for us, a three-year-old doesn't know the difference between past and present tense nor really the difference between pretend and reality, so we're not too worried about him going to church or pre-school and blabbing to his friends about how Santa isn't real. And we're not sitting down and having a heart to heart with him about how he's just a myth. But like everything else, we're trying to emphasize Jesus and point everything back to him!

I for one questioned if by not "doing the whole Santa thing" if we were in some way taking away some of the magic of Christmas from our children. But, as I've sat and read book after book this year about the birth of Jesus to Grayson, I've been reminded of the magic of the REAL Christmas story. To see his eyes light up every time he sees the stable with all the animals who watched as Mary and Joseph brought a baby into this world, who came to this world to save it. In telling him THAT story, and seeing the magic of that story through his eyes, I wonder if for the first time, if a story I've heard my whole life is penetrating my heart in a new way. And I realize how silly it might have been for me to wonder if the real meaning of Christmas in and of itself wasn't enough. Because Jesus is always enough! And I find myself praying that my children cling to that truth all the days of their life!

Merry Christmas from The Smith's!

2011-12-19T20:19:00.000-08:00

We didn't get around to doing Christmas cards this year (our new addition along with our very active three-year-old is keeping us busy), so please enjoy a little online Christmas spirit from The Smith's! :)

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Grayson Greatness & Camdyn Cuteness

2011-11-10T19:18:00.000-08:00

Just a couple Grayson Funnies...

Grayson just finished up his first season of soccer, which he really wasn't all about. He was the youngest on his team, and after about the second game, Brad and I were seriously questioning our parental judgement in starting him so early. Brad was also the coach, which mostly entailed keeping the children on the field and making sure they were kicking the ball towards the right goal :) Despite the fact that it took some coaxing to keep Grayson on the field during play time, he had a great time rough housing with the other kids and pulling their jerseys whether they wanted him to or not. The one time he really took off with the ball, he kicked it past the goal and was headed into the soccer game playing in the adjacent field. He did get pretty excited about snack time each week though. Here are a few photos that I think capture the season.

During the final game, one of his teammates tripped over the ball and fell down on his hands and knees. Grayson thought it would be a good idea to go ride the kid. Brad had to pull him off his teammate which he was sitting on like a horse before the game could continue.

Speaking of horses...

Tonight we asked Grayson what we should get Camdyn for Christmas and after much thought he said, "a horse." After we explained that we would have no where to keep a horse, he settled for a play horse for his little sister.

The third and my personal favorite:

Our wonderful friends the Williams kept Grayson and Camdyn the other day for me while I went to an event for the non-profit I write for. Grayson was playing with some toy skate boards and little people. They were lining them all up and counting them when Grayson asked, "Why are the boarders all white?" When they asked him what he meant, he pointed to their skin. I think he gave Jonathan and Carrie quite a laugh. (Good to know our child is aware of racial diversity :)

Now, for some Camdyn Cuteness. I call this photo, "The Epitome of Girlyness." Our neighbor made Camdyn this outfit and she hadn't had a chance to wear it yet, and since it's about to get and stay cold, I put her in it for church on Sunday. Brad thought it was completely over the top ridiculous, but I know from experience with Grayson that I only have a short window of time before she gets an opinion of of her own on what she should wear...and for things to fit.

This one is for the grandparents....

2011-11-04T18:53:00.000-07:00

And Aunts and Uncles of course! Since our Camdyn is growing up so fast, just thought I'd share a little video of her (Please forgive my baby talk voice)

Halloween....and such

2011-10-31T13:59:00.000-07:00

Since I'm averaging a blog about every two months right now, I thought I'd just throw out a couple cute stories and photos of our kiddos taken since Camdyn was born (along with our Halloween pics.)

Grayson entered his "why" phase early in the summer which has made for some pretty interesting conversations. We've also been realizing that 3 must be a lot like raising a teenager with the exception that he's still somewhat snugly and we can still put him over our knee and spank him. But, he recently learned the phrase, "It's not fair" (which we have no idea where he picked that up) and he's quick to grunt as he reluctantly walks off to follow whatever instructions we give him. And when I ask him about his day after pre-school, after answering a question or two, he is quick to say, "Okay, Mommy, I'm not going to answer any more questions." (3 going on 13....Lord help us!)

The other day we were at Chick-Fil-A and Brad said...

Brad: "Okay, buddy, I need you to eat two more chicken nuggets before you go play."

(Grayson then slams his head on the table in defeat)

Gray: "I have no choices!" (in the saddest, most pathetic voice you've ever heard)

Another day, I was changing Camdyn's diaper when Grayson said...

Gray: "I'm going to teach her to go potty on the big "boy" potty when she gets bigger."

Me: "That's a great idea buddy. Mommy would love for you to teach her that."

Gray: "I'm going to teach her to push her "tee tee" down so she doesn't spray."

Me: "Actually, buddy, she doesn't have a "tee tee" because she's a girl."

Gray: "She's going to grow a "tee tee" tomorrow???" (Oh my, I hope not)

Me: "No buddy, only boys have "tee tees." (Thankfully, that was the end of that conversation.)

And some cute pics of our kiddos....

Introducing....

2011-09-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

Camdyn McLaine Smith, Born Monday, 8/22/11 at 10:11am, 6lbs 12 oz, 19 1/4 inches long

Her Birth Story...

Everyone (including my doctor) told me I couldn't expect my labor and delivery to be anything like Grayson's since he was a preemie, and my water spontaneously breaking and my dilating so quickly was most likely unique to his birth. But, in reality, our experience with Camdyn couldn't have been more similar.

I saw my doctor the Thursday before she was born and I was dilated three cm. My doctor told me she expected me to deliver within the week. She sent me to the hospital that day for them to monitor me for a little bit just to make sure I wasn't having contractions and didn't know it. At that point, we called my mom to come in Sunday night, as we wanted to savor one last weekend as a family, just the three of us. At approximately 7:11am Monday morning (my water broke with Grayson at 7:15am on a Sunday morning), I felt a pop. About the time it occurred to me that it could have been my water breaking, I felt a little trickle down my leg as I climbed out of bed. Of course, with my experience with Grayson and being the obsessive planner that I am, I had already been driving around with a packed suit case for at least three weeks, and all our toiletries were laid out on the counter. I yelled to Brad that my water broke and we started throwing last minute items into a plastic bag. About that time, Grayson walked into our room, and Brad said, "Guess what buddy, your little sister is going to be born today!" and Grayson then yelled, "YAY!!!" Of course, once we got out the video camera, he refused to repeat his reaction. We were calm and out the door within 10 minutes of my announcement.

We then were quickly on the road right in the middle of Houston rush hour traffic on the first day of school. Luckily, we could hop in the HOV lane, which they had just extended to our exit literally the week before. As we made calls to family, I still was feeling no contractions. It took us about 45 min to get to the hospital (record time for that time of day), and I finally started having contractions about 20 min before we arrived. And at that point, they came on strong and were about 2/3 minutes apart. At that point, I told Brad, "Oh my gosh, this is going to be just like last time, you watch. This is happening really fast. I'm going to be 8cm by the time we get to the hospital."

On the way to the hospital, we passed a Camden Estate Apartments (Camden/Camdyn had been our front runner name for the few months leading up to her birth, although we disagreed on the spelling) at the exact same time we were behind an 18 wheeler with McLaine across the back (one of three possible favorites for a middle name), which I quickly claimed as a "sign" that that was to be her name.

Once we got up to the L&D floor, the nurses were taking their time with paperwork. I'm pretty sure they thought I was just being a wuss with all my screams. In fact, my nurse even apologized to me afterwards ("I knew you were in pain, I just didn't realize you were in that much pain"). Originally when she checked me, she said she didn't think my water had broken, but a few minutes later the OBGYN assured her that it had and that I was already dilated to 8cm (this is where I turned to Brad and said, "I told you so.") At one point, I even had Brad go into the hall and hurry everyone up because I knew I wasn't going to get an epidural if they didn't hurry (which being the nice guy that he is, I'm sure he walked out there politely and calmly and asked if they could please hurry it up a bit...unlike his wife who was in a panic at this point.) After what felt like an eternity of pain, the anesthesiologist was in my room and the on-call OBGYN informed me that I was 9/9.5cm dilated. She and the nurse asked me one more time if I was sure I wanted an epidural (that it might go faster without one). About the time I was ready to agree to do it naturally, the OBGYN asked me how long I pushed with my first child. When I told her an hour and five minutes, she responded, "You pushed an hour and five minutes with a less than five pound baby??!!!?" "Get her the epidural, she is probably going to need it!" At that point, they asked Brad to leave the room and gave me the epidural. I then said a silent prayer asking God to protect me from being one of those extremely rare cases of paralysis from the epidural because I was too big of a wuss to do it naturally (an irrational prayer I know, but at that point, I don't know if any of my thoughts were all that rational).

Brad later told me that I was like a different person once I got the epidural. And if I had to do it again, I would get it again because I was actually able to enjoy the experience after that. I told Brad natural child birth was kind of like running a marathon to me. While I'd love to say that I did it, I'm not really willing to go through the pain it takes to do it. Although I then pushed for only 20 minutes, I was fully aware then of what was going on and I actually got to see my daughter being born with a sane mind.

And our sweet Camdyn (even though we didn't finalize her name until the end of the day) made her arrival at 10:11am (Grayson was born at 10:43am), exactly three hours after my water broke. And I will never forget the sound of her sweet cry and how she felt and sounded when they placed her on my chest...the sweetest feeling in the whole world and something I longer for ever since I didn't get to experience that with Grayson.

Afterwards, the OBGYN congratulated me for nearly doing it all naturally and commented that the worst thing I screamed was "shoot" which she thought was pretty funny (although it was pretty obvious to everyone that the vowel in that word was changed only at the very last possible second). Overall, it was a pretty smooth delivery minus the fact that the nurse missed my vein in both arms, so the pitocin was just going into my tissue, leaving my arms swelled up like Popeye, which later forced her to shove with all her might on my stomach to get out all the blood clots (which was about as painful as the contractions).

Grayson got to meet his little sister later that evening and was reluctant to let anyone else hold her. In fact, he kept saying, "two more minutes Grandma, and then I get her back." So far, he absolutely adores her! If anything, he is just a little too loving, and wants to hug and kiss all over her all the time. We have been thankful to have alot of help from family and friends so far. And we are loving being a family of four! We praise God for his perfect timing and for growing our family with this beautiful baby girl!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2011-07-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

We are so thankful that you were born 28 years ago so we could have the most wonderful husband and father in the world! Love you!

Grayson Greatness

2011-07-12T19:20:00.000-07:00

Grayson to Brad: "Daddy, you ate the last pop tart, and I wanted it. You made a mean choice to eat my pop tart!"

Grayson to me: "Mommy, stop arguing with me!" (It's scary when your child says something in the exact tone that you say it in.)

Grayson to me: "Mommy, you going to go tee tee in a cup today?" (In the doctor's office waiting room at the top of his lungs)

Grayson to Brad and me: "You okay, baby?" and "I love you baby!"
(He has quickly picked this one up from hearing us say it to one another and to him, and he doesn't understand that it's inappropriate to call his Mommy and Daddy 'baby.')

Me: Grayson, what would you think if we named the baby X? (No, I'm not putting the name here until we know for sure, which probably won't be until she's born.)
Grayson: "No, I like Jecca" (the special name he came up with for his baby sister, which he insists is her name). "You can name another baby that."

It's Official - 32 Weeks

2011-07-12T18:22:00.000-07:00

As of today, I am officially the most pregnant I've ever been! After delivering Grayson at 31 1/3 weeks, 32 weeks is actually a pretty big milestone for us.Brad keeps saying that he feels like we're just living on borrowed time now.

Despite sporadic moments of paranoia where I convince myself I'm in labor and random anxiety attacks where I wake up insistent that we take a birthing class despite the fact that I've already given birth but feel like I learned nothing, I really am loving being pregnant, just as much as I did the first time around. Yes, I have my back pain, heart burn and restless nights, but its not enough to take away from the thankfulness I feel every day I am still pregnant.

I get asked the question alot why I delivered early with Grayson, and medically speaking, no one knows for sure. While spotting through my first 14 weeks with Grayson, and thinking for sure I was miscarrying at 11 weeks after waking up gushing blood (sorry if this is TMI, but welcome to pregnancy!), a sonogram showed a clot on my placenta. At that time, my doctor said that most women who have clots on their placenta (which is apparently more common than you think) go on to have completely normal pregnancies, which is what we all assumed was the case when I stopped spotting. He said a very small percentage end up having late miscarriages (we will forever be thankful that God spared us from that) and a small percentage deliver early. Of course, this conversation came quickly rushing back when my water spontaneously broke at 31 weeks, and 3 1/2 hours later our precious angel entered the world (although despite his early arrival, his NICU stay was the longest six weeks of our lives).

Because of Gray's early arrival, we have done certain things a little early this time around. For starters, the nursery for the most part is already complete. And, believe it or not, I've actually already packed a bag for the hospital (surprisingly by my husband's request). Because of how quickly Grayson came and because I have occasional visions of delivering on the side of the highway tying to make it to the hospital, I'm actually researching private ambulance companies that I could call if worse came to worse and I couldn't make it in time :) (Don't laugh, if you were in my shoes, you might be doing the same thing)

Despite the anxiety of it all, we are so excited to meet our little girl (even though we don't really want to meet her for at least another 5 weeks) and I have a feeling it's going to be totally different than having a little boy! As we've already discovered just through marriage, boys and girls are each wonderfully unique in their own ways and each have their own set of issues! :)

Pregnancy Pics

2011-07-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

We had plans to take maternity photos when I was pregnant with Grayson, but that obviously got scrapped when he made his early arrival (along with the birthing, breast feeding and child care class :) so we took advantage of the opportunity to take them this time around!

A Nursery & Shower for our Little Girl

2011-06-19T19:00:00.000-07:00

Her nursery...so far. The big space above the crib will be where letters for her name will go once we have one :)

A special thanks to Carrie for sewing the beautiful chair covers and helping me make the mobile! I can't wait to see her bed skirt!

Just a few from her baby shower...Melissa has the really good ones on her camera, but for now, just a few from my sister's camera.

Family, Friends & Grayson Greatness

2011-06-19T18:09:00.000-07:00

Amy -- how did we not take any pictures while you were here? :(

Our out of town friends...The Hargroves & as Brad likes to call her "Les is More"

Nana, Pops & Uncle Blake (and our trip to Galveston)

Miranda & Pete...Love you girls!

Memorial Day with our friends the Shearers

Must Be Pregnant

2011-05-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

5 Months (23 1/2 weeks) and I must officially be pregnant. I finally started getting the "stranger" comments this week...the when are you due, how far along are you, do you know what you're having yet from random strangers. This is incidentally almost exactly when it started happening with Grayson.

It all started with the receptionist at our vet's office. As I was trying to pay, Grayson was being his normal rambunctuous self, running up and down the hallway, when she looked at me with this "I feel really sorry for you" look and said, "And you have another one on the way???" (Thanks alot for the encouragement lady!)

Besides all of a sudden looking obviously pregnant to the outside world, the scale has started to pick up some of the pounds from this baby bump, also something that didn't happen until now with Grayson. For whatever reason, I gain very little weight in the first half of my pregnancies, but when it finally starts coming, it comes at a frighteningly rapid rate. Although it could be partially blamed on the pretty seriously addition to kit kats I have going on right now. (Luckily a friend of mine informed me recently that kit kats are apparantly one of the most low-fat/low-calorie candy bar because of the wafers, which I don't plan to Google just in case she's wrong.)

Overall, I'm feeling great and loving being pregnant with first trimester nausea gone and not quite to third trimester aches and pains. We still don't have a name and at the rate we're going, we may still be calling her Baby Girl Smith when she's 13! But, as my husband so annoyingly likes to remind me, we still have time.

The Progression...

11 Weeks

15 Weeks

19 Weeks

21 Weeks

23 Weeks

Easter-Ness

2011-04-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

Our Easter Weekend

Helping Daddy wash the car

Thought I'd throw in a pregnant pic...my friend Melissa is about two months ahead of me in this process

The "famous" tree at Pappasitos (story below)

Just a couple weekend stories from our little boy...

As I was getting ready for dinner Friday night, I was trying to decide between a couple pairs of shoes. I'm standing in front of the mirror when Grayson walked in and says, "Oh yes, Mommy, that looks cute, you look cute!" -- It's his new catch phrase which has also been used recently for his baby sister's sonogram pictures and fabric at Hobby Lobby. When I showed him a little dress that my Grandpa already purchased for his little sister, he said "Mommy, that's beautiful. That's a princess dress." (You think he spends enough time hanging out with little girls?)

We also spent time leading up to Easter trying to focus and teach Grayson the real meaning of Easter. We read the story of Jesus' death and resurrection over and over again in his children's Bible at his request. When we dropped him off in his class at church on Sunday, before we could even get out the door, he told his teacher, "Hey, Jesus died, he got dead (very matter of factly)." (Apparantly we fixated a little too much on Jesus' death on the cross and not enough on his resurrection. Maybe that part will click next year?)

And the best for last...we were at dinner Friday night with our good friends the Shearers. After dinner, we were hanging out on the outdoor patio of Pappasitos when we look over just in time to see Grayson pull down his pants and begin peeing on the tree planted in the middle of the restraunt's patio. (Granted, we have allowed him to go on a couple trees at the park when a bathroom wasn't accessible, but apparently in his mind, all trees are fair game.) Guard your plants!

Milestones

2011-04-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

This post dates all the way back to February, about a month before Grayson turned three. In a matter of days, Grayson took two major steps towards becoming a “Big Boy.” He moved into a big boy bed and he began potty training.

The two steps came somewhat in preparation for baby #2, but primarily because he was nearing three and ready.

His big boy bed used to be the bunk beds (without the top bunk) that his Daddy and Uncle Blake used when they were little, and he loves them. Grayson and Brad like to hide in the trundle bed underneath, pretending to be worms.

The funny thing is, even though he’s no longer in a crib, he still doesn’t climb out of his bed. He stays there and yells for us to come get him in the mornings and after nap.

The second milestone has not been quite as easy of a transition, but not nearly as bad as I anticipated it being in my mind.

I’m hesitant to use the term “potty trained” just because until he’s big enough to go in the bathroom, turn on the light, get on the potty, use it, flush, wash his hands and leave all by himself, I don’t know if he’s fully there. But, with the exception of an occasional accident and random-three day periods where he forgets all he has learned, he’s doing pretty good.

I didn’t use any “method” per se, just a mix of advice from other moms and things I read online, and we figured out what worked best for Grayson. But here is the bulk of what we did!

We threw out our diapers altogether and went straight to either bare bottom of underwear (at home of course).

We stayed home for about 3/4 days straight (minus the park) so he could get the hang of it.

We used pull ups only for nap, night time and outings (until we were sure he had it down).

We got REALLY excited every time he went and gave him something special as a reward…a piece of candy or a small prize.

We used the toilet seat adapter instead of the little potty that sits on the floor (mainly because Mommy thinks those are disgusting).

We taught him to sing the ABCs while he washes his hands to make sure he washes for long enough and to make it fun.

We use flushable wipes because for some reason we found it too hard to get him completely clean with just toilet paper (TMI?).

We are currently sticking with pull-ups for night time and nap for now until we are sure he is ready to make it the whole night through (which our pediatrician agrees is a development issue, not a training issue).

The first four or so days were definitely the toughest, but with a tiny bit of noticeable progress each day, we pushed through, and the brunt of it was over within the week. Who knew I’d ever get so excited about bodily functions (Gross, I know!) or take so much pride in my child for learning something I once considered so basic? But, even AS he was peeing on my couch (thank the Lord for leather furniture and hard wood floors) on day two, yelling “Mommy, I have to go potty!” there was pride that at least he was getting it on some level, and I was encouraged to press on.

Since the start he has gone from holding it so long that he only goes twice a day to telling me every fifteen minutes that he has to go, because he’s ready to receive another prize.

Potty training is by far one of the most exhausting things I’ve ever done in my life, and all those people who say, “Oh, you’ll be so glad when you don’t have to mess with diapers any more”….Seriously, do they know how much more work potty training is in comparison to diapers? I definitely don’t regret waiting, and I’m glad I didn’t try and push it before he/I was ready, but I will definitely be thankful for all the progress when baby two arrives.

My two favorite potty training stories so far...

When my sister and David were here before his birthday and Grayson had a little accident, my sister said, “Uh, Brad, I think your son has little M&M’s coming out of his pants.” I then walked over and asked, “Grayson, did you have an accident?” and he replied, “It’s just M&M’s Mommy!” (Thanks for that Aunt Whitney!)

And then there was one day on the potty when he wrinkled up his “little boy part” and said, “Look, Mommy, it’s a flower!” (Oh my! What do you do with that?)

Majority Wins…

2011-04-04T18:16:00.001-07:00

Baby Smith is a GIRL!!!

Congrats to the 63% who voted girl (including Grayson and me). And I think most everyone who admitted what they voted or told me what they thought picked girl. And most people said they picked girl because Grayson did, which is pretty funny. I guess our son really does have the gift of prophesy!

It’s funny, even though that’s what I voted and even though that’s how I felt my whole first trimester, I still expected to go in and hear boy. For whatever reason, I’ve always had in my head that I would have all one gender or the other, either a house full of girls or a house full of boys. I just never really considered the possibility of having both (what a crazy concept!). And while I LOVE having a boy, I know there was always a tiny part of me hoping to have a girl at some point and scared that I might be the slightest bit disappointed if we found out we were having another boy (even though I hated to admit that I might feel that way and knew I would love to have another boy). After all, we waited and prayed and begged for this pregnancy, so how could I possibly hope for anything but a healthy/on-time child. So, when I heard the word “girl” today, I was shocked. And I started crying before repeating at least ten times, “We’re having a girl?!” Before the lab tech told us what she was, she asked me if I thought we were having a girl because I kept calling the baby a “she” (which I didn’t even realize I was doing).

When we told Grayson that he was having a little sister, he didn’t seem to shocked. I guess he thought, “Duh, that’s what I’ve been telling you people!” When we showed him the sonogram photos, he asked where the baby’s teeth were.

Needless to say we are rejoicing over this perfect, healthy little baby girl! Let the planning begin!

Also, thank you to all of you who left comments, sent texts, called and prayed over the progesterone issue. The FDA stepped in on Thursday of last week and ok’d pharmacies to make a cheaper version of the injections and I received my first of 16 today! (http://health.usnews.com/health-news/managing-your-healthcare/articles/2011/03/31/health-highlights-march-31-2011)

P.S. They are by far the most painful shots I’ve ever had in my life!

Cast Your Votes

2011-03-30T13:10:00.001-07:00

Monday is the big day! Will Baby Smith be another boy or a girl? Go to the left column of our blog and cast your vote, and leave us a comment telling us what you voted and why.

So far, I only voted for Grayson, who is the only one in our family who seems pretty confident in his guess for a girl. Brad and I both initially thought girl when we first found out I was pregnant, but Brad’s feelings quickly went away and he has no idea one way or the other now. I was pretty confident throughout my first trimester that we were having a girl, but in just the last 4 weeks, I’ve wondered if maybe it’s another boy. And now as it gets closer, I have no idea.

With Grayson, from the beginning, both Brad and I thought boy. I had about one week at the end of my first trimester that I thought, maybe it’s a girl? But by the time we walked into our appointment, before the sonogram even began, Brad and I both informed the doctor that we knew it was a boy. Not that knowing stopped me from crying my eyes out once I knew for sure (I had always planned on a house full of girls….and yes, I might just be a horrible mother for that.) But now, I don’t think you’ll find anyone out there who loves having a little boy more than I do. And even though he exhausts me to no end, I’d be happy to have three more just like him!

I know it’s the PC answer to say, “We don’t care,” but since when have we ever cared about being PC? And we certainly weren’t concerned the first time around when we unapologetically answered, “Brad wants a boy and Haley wants a girl.” But, this time, I think it’s safe and honest to say that we truly don’t care. We want a healthy baby and we pray that baby is born on time, and that he or she gets to come home from the hospital when we do!

Monday is also the day that I am/was scheduled to begin progesterone injections (which are proven to reduce a repeat pre-mature birth from 55% to 37%). However, due to KV Pharmaceuticals gaining exclusive rights to these injections (now renamed Makena), the price per dosage has risen from $10 to $1500, making the price per pregnancy go from $300 to $30,000. While there is a chance of receiving financial assistance and insurance covering part of this cost, it could still easily cost $5,000 throughout a pregnancy even after insurance. This issue is so new (this month actually!) that even doctors aren’t sure how to direct their patients, and alternative treatment really isn’t available from what I’ve read.

http://blogs.forbes.com/davidwhelan/2011/03/11/is-kv-pharmaceutical-a-flat-out-evil-company/?partner=yahootix

(The answer to the title of this article is yes BTW!)

After stressing and crying over the issue the last few days, and with reminders from my always calm husband, we have come to the conclusion (even though we knew it all along) that we trust in the LORD and not in science or in medicine. So, if I am to have these shots, he will make a way. And if not, he still has this baby in his hands! Even as Brad and I were praying about this last night, for the first time Brad felt the baby move (I THINK I have been feeling him/her for the last 2 or 3 weeks) and it was just another reminder of the miracle growing inside me, and that God is still in control!

Party Animals

2011-03-24T07:44:00.001-07:00

Just a few pics from Gray’s Bday week

His Mommy, Daddy, Aunt Whitney and Uncle Day took him to the rodeo on his real Bday!

And we had his party on Saturday

Yummy cookies made special by Aunt Elaine

We didn’t get a good pic of Gray hitting the piñata, but I love Jon Michael’s face in this one (he was serious)

It was also our little neighbor Nick’s Bday so we sang to him too. When we started singing, Grayson started singing Happy Birthday to himself! Smile

And he wanted to stop after each present to play with it before he opened another one (which made opening presents quite the process)

He got a motorized car for his Bday (I’m afraid we won’t have any more present ideas after this year…I think he got it all)

Monday, when my neighbor saw me (and my pregnant belly) driving the car back by myself from the park because Grayson refused to finish the trek, she told me she wanted to video it and put it on YouTube (currently I don’t break the weight limit, but I’m sure that will change in the next month).

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!

2011-03-16T10:16:00.000-07:00

My baby turned three today!

It’s hard to believe that our early arrival who didn’t even cry when he was born is now this rambunctious little boy who never stops!

We surprised him this morning with a swing set that his wonderful Daddy spent the past three days putting together! (You can tell he’s still half asleep.)

This is the first year that he is fully aware of exactly what is means for it to be his birthday. In fact, we have been talking about it all month. He kind of loves his birthday (like his Mommy)!

My phone has rang off the hook today with people calling to wish him a special day although so far he has refused to talk to any of them. When I accused him of being grumpy, he said, “I want to stay grumpy!” I started telling him if he didn’t start talking to people they weren’t going to come to his party or give him presents and he quickly got on the phone and said, “Please still give me presents!” (Little stinker!)

And he doesn’t quite know what to say back when I tell him Happy Birthday. He keeps responding with “Happy Birthday Mommy!”

Brad and I laid in bed this morning before our little angel woke up talking about that day three years ago. We were laying in bed early that Sunday morning (after returning to San Antonio from my sister’s wedding) when I woke up with what I thought was me peeing uncontrollably. As I sat on my hands and knees leisurely cleaning up water on the floor, Brad suggested that we call the doc (good call). We brushed our teeth and in no real hurry made our way to the hospital (still sure I was not in labor). We arrived approximately 45 minutes after my water broke. About that time, I went from feeling nothing to the worst pain I’d ever felt in my life, when a nurse decided to check me to see if I was dilated. She then informed me I was 8 cm. And I then yelled at the top of my lungs, “Are you kidding me?” While Brad finished our hospital paper work (cause who registers at 7 months?), they took me straight from the examining room to the delivery room, where I received a spinal in just enough time to push. And an hour and five minutes later, our little boy made his arrival into this world. We didn’t get to hold him and he didn’t make a sound, which was utterly terrifying at the time, but just before the NICU nurses rushed him out, they gave us a peek at his full head of hair (which later fell out) and beautiful blue eyes (which later changed to a beautiful brown). It was both the most terrifying and wonderful day of our lives and we will never forget it!

Happy third birthday Grayson Parker! You bring so much joy to our lives!

14 Weeks

2011-03-07T22:36:00.000-08:00

Grayson is going to be a Big Brother! We are scheduled to welcome his little brother or sister into the world somewhere around Sept. 6, 2011!

He amazingly seems to understand exactly what is going on. As soon as we told him that there was a baby in my tummy, he responded, “the baby is still growing!” I guess we had had enough pregnant friends at that point that he had the concept down.

In the hundred of times we’ve asked him by now if he is having a little brother or a little sister, he always answers with a confident “a little sister!” (we promise no one brainwashed him.) We were wondering if maybe he had the gift of prophesy, but he’s also told me a couple times that there are “two babies in there” (which we know is not the case), so we’re not taking his prediction too seriously. He also keeps telling us that the baby is going to be a giant (because why else would it take so long to grow?)

Tonight Brad asked him what we should name the baby and he said, “Zacchaeus!” (who he learned about at church two weeks ago and has been asking us to sing the song every night at bedtime). We thought a little girl named Zacchaeus Smith would be pretty cute!

Pregnancy…

We found out Jan. 3 that we were expecting our second little miracle (which I found out later was ironically the same day my parents found out they were pregnant with me…which my Dad remembered crazily enough). It was an answer to prayer and a wonderful way to ring in the New Year and celebrate our 5th anniversary!

So, why wait until 14 weeks to finally blog about it? Well, for starters, because of a very scary pregnancy with Grayson and his early arrival, and then experiencing a very early on miscarriage trying to get pregnant this time around, we don’t take pregnancy lightly! Aside from our own experiences, we have precious friends and people we know who have experienced late miscarriages, still births, infertility and trials that are a constant reminder that life is fragile and we are not promised tomorrow!

After Grayson was born and we were assured by our doc that we had no reason to think that whatever happened to cause his pre-mature birth would happen again, we prayed that next time around, we would get to experience a no-scare, routine pregnancy, bringing a healthy baby home from the hospital with us. As crazy as it sounds to women who spend most of their pregnancy throwing up, I actually prayed for the nausea and all the text-book symptoms that go along with pregnancy (not matter how not fun they might be). I needed that confirmation, and I got it! (another reason for the scarce blogging these days) Even with our prayers, we didn’t know if bleeding during pregnancy was just my norm (because it is for 20-25% of women) but we’ve been thankful to find out this time around that it’s not. In fact, this pregnancy has been night and day different from my pregnancy with Grayson so far and we’ve been thankful.

And it has been an even stronger reminder of what a miracle he is!!! Because had it been up to my body, he would not be here! He is a constant reminder of God’s faithfulness and sovereignty!

And this baby is already a constant reminder of God’s perfect timing & plan for our lives!

Grayson Greatness

2011-02-04T17:14:00.001-08:00

Just a couple stories for you Ags...

#1

In the midst of the rolling power outages (that we don't know are happening yet), I hear Grayson's voice bright and early Wednesday morning. At the time, I wasn't sure if it was part of a dream, I was hearing him on the monitor or if he was actually in our room. All I know is it's pitch dark and Brad isn't in bed. I shortly feel Grayson's little hands on my face and realize he's in our room. At the time, I thought perhaps he had gotten up early and Brad got him out of bed and sat him in front of the TV (as he sometimes does so I can have an extra half hour of sleep). I couldn't see what time it was, which was when I realized the power had gone out. And it finally clicked what Grayson was saying to me..."It's not working! It's not working!"

As we stumbled out of the room to find the flash light and my cell phone to call Brad, I finally realize it's about 6:30AM (Grayson doesn't usually wake until 7:30/8). I call Brad and he had left about 45 minutes prior to this and both Grayson and I were still sound asleep and the power was on.

So, our little monkey had climbed out of his crib, opened his door and made his way across the house in the pitch black to come inform me that that thing that wasn't working were his night light and fan :) We spent the morning snuggled up tight in blankets making shadow puppet with the flash light, which he loved, while for the next 6 hours, the power turned on for an hour and then off for 45 minutes and so on. It's very hard to explain to a two-year old why they can't follow their normal morning TV routine.

Later in the afternoon, he was watching one of his Boz videos when the DVD started skipping, he put his hands on his head with all of the drama and distress of a real life crisis and said, "It's happening again!" :) Over the last few days, he has purposely gone and turned off the lights and asked if we could play with the flash light...overall it was a very educational day learning about electricity.

#2

I took Grayson to Chick-Fil-A last week for a little Chicken Minis for me and a little play time for him. I'm sitting in the play area talking to one of the other Moms when Grayson looks over at her son (about his age) and goes, "Come Here, BOY!" (in much the same tone his Daddy sometimes jokingly says, 'Where's my Dinner, WOMAN?')

I was slightly mortified, but luckily the Mom thought it was funny. Grayson and I then had a lesson in politeness and asking children their names before demanding that they play with you, although I'm quite sure it went in one hear and straight out the other.

#3

Tonight we're at a Birthday party for a friend of ours who is turning 30 tomorrow. His wife wanted to have everyone pray over him. I'm sitting on the stairs with Grayson and another little boy trying to keep his not so quiet whispering to a minumum. He starts "whispering" about something, and one of the guests turns around to look at him. Grayson points and yells at the top of his lungs, "That guy not praying!!!"

(So embarrassing except for the fact that my laughter was probably more disruptive than his outburst)

5 Years and Counting!

2011-01-05T22:19:00.001-08:00

January 6, 2006

How do you sum up five years of marriage? I wish I had some amazing pearls of wisdom to write here, but we're still learning. And I know we forever will be. But, when you get married, and you say your vows, "for better or for worse," no one really knows what "better" or "worse" is really going to look like. Already in five years, life has brought trials that we couldn't have predicted, and joys that were more than we hoped for. And through all of it, I've stepped back and thought, "God really knew what we would need when he put us together!"

Brad, I love you even more today then I did back then! Thank you for being you!

Some Final Pics from 2010

2010-12-30T12:47:00.000-08:00

"Happy Birthday Jesus Baby!"

Please forgive my horrible singing in the background!

CHRISTMAS DAY

CHRISTMAS EVE

What "adults" do after all the kids go to bed

"Messy Kisses" for Gam-Ma

Christmas 101 Dalmations McDonalds Happy Meal Toys, my sister and I collected years ago

An Aggie Uniform...this gift got the best reaction

No, he didn't get an iphone for Christmas, he's just obsessed with my sister's, and sadly can operate it much better than either of his parents

His First Wish Bone

Christmas Light Looking

Grayson & Grandpa

Christmas with the Smiths -- Me Maw, Gramps, Aunt Barbara and new baby cousin Annabel (Brad's cousin Natalie's daughter)

Grayson with Great Me Maw & Gramps

AMY'S WEDDING!!! & My favorite girls (plus Brad)...there's just something about being with old friends!

JUST A RANDOM ONE
To avoid going down for a nap, Grayson says, "But, I wanna watch football with Daddy!" Way to know your audience, my friend!

Getting ready for Christmas! This is a ski slope that used to be my grandparents that my sister and I would enjoy watching for hours, and now Grayson is doing the same!

THANKSGIVING in Round Rock at Elaine and Josh's new home (Brad's parents always seem to avoid making it in our pics...I think it's a conspiracy)

Uncle Blake and Gray have the same "I just woke up from my nap" look (or the same "I'm on drugs" look)

Gray's new Drum Sticks from Uncle Josh and Aunt Elaine (Thanks alot guys!)

The Silly Smith Kids

Grayson is seriously focused on beating Uncle Josh at video games

I don't know what Elaine is doing here...but it's a funny pic

We got to meet Elliot Roberts (Josh & Courtney's new baby) while we were in Austin

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Thanks for keeping up with us in 2010!!!

He Keeps Us Entertained

2010-12-22T13:29:00.000-08:00

My sister and brother-in-law have had Gray for the past 5 days while we took part in our dear friend Amy's wedding festivities and finished last minute Christmas preparations. We of course missed him, but enjoyed our time alone! And he was too busy keeping my family entertained to miss us!

Whit and my Mom were out to dinner the other night with Gray when he asked for an onion off of one of their plates. My Mom says, "No night night kisses for Gam-Ma if you eat that onion." Grayson thought intently about that for a minute before he attacked my Mom with what he called "Messy Kisses" rubbing his bar-b-que/cheeto stained face all over her!

How's that for no night-night kisses Gam-Ma?

Whit and David were in the drive-thru at Taco Bell yesterday with Grayson and after every food item my bro-in-law ordered, Gray yells from the back seat (not in anger, just in general disagreement), "No....no....no....no....no....no...." And as the lady lists the order back over the intercom, he yells matter of factly, "Yes.... yes....yes....yes....yes...." So my sister turns and asks, "Grayson, is there something you would like?"

Grayson: "Chuck-E-Cheese!"

Since he has only been there twice ever, and not in the last six months, we have no idea what triggered the sudden desire for Chuck-E-Cheese, but he quickly agreed to settle for mac-n-cheese instead.

We finally got our son back last night. As we walked in the door, he ran to Brad, and my sister says, "Grayson, look who else is here (pointing to me)!"

Grayson: "TAG!!!" (Our dog)

I see where I rank in this family! Whatever!

Last night, Brad and I are reading our Christmas family Bible verse with Grayson and he is adding one more star to his "Nativity Count-Down Craft." Brad says, "Look buddy, you only have a couple more stars to put on before Christmas." I said, "Grayson, whose birthday is on Christmas?"

Grayson: "Jesus Cake!"

We are wondering if he thinks Cake is Jesus' last name???

Merry Christmas from Our Family to Yours

2010-12-20T13:23:00.000-08:00

BLESSED
So much to be grateful for this Christmas season.
Brad, Haley & Grayson

While getting Christmas cards is one of my favorite things, it's a lot of work and it's not cheap to send them :) So, this year, we went easy on ourselves. We ordered 20 and mailed them out as we received them. So, in case you're not one of those people who sent us a Christmas card, and therefore, did not receive one from us, or in case you're thinking, where is my usual Christmas card from The Smith's?, we still want to wish you a Merry Christmas. So from Our Home to Yours.....God Bless You This Christmas Season!!!

Grayson Greatness & Christmas Ideas for Moms with Tots

2010-11-30T18:32:00.000-08:00

Since Grayson is finally at an age where he is beginning to understand what Christmas is really all about (or at least what it should be about), we're trying to be more intentional this year with how we celebrate...which brings me to some Grayson Greatness!

Story #1

I found a cute little Advent Nativity craft at Hobby Lobby where you stick on the people and animals in the Nativity scene, and then it comes with 25 stars to count down the days until Christmas. I was explaining how it worked for Grayson today...

Me: "After you put one star on every day, and all 25 are on there, it will be Christmas, which is Jesus' Birthday!"

Grayson intently studied Baby Jesus for a few minutes and said, "Where his cake?"

So, Brad and I decided we would just have to make one of our traditions making Baby Jesus a cake this year :)

Story #2

I knew we needed to clear out some of Grayson's toys before the hopeless spoiling begins by our families. I thought about just sneaking in his room when he wasn't looking and gathering the ones I knew he didn't play with and weren't sentimental enough to pass along to his future siblings, but I decided to run the idea by him first.

Me: "Hey buddy, how would you feel if we gave away some of your toys that you don't play with anymore to some kids who don't have toys?"

Gray: "Kids no have toys?"

Me: "No, there are some kids who don't have any toys. Would it be okay if we give away a few of yours?"

Gray: "Yes, I give my toys to kids who no have toys!" As he started quickly filling boxes with his toys.

I had to remind him that we didn't need to give away ALL his toys, only the ones that weren't special or he didn't play with anymore. It was precious to see his sweet little heart.....and when Brad got home, he proudly shouted, "I give my toys to kids!" He was still talking about it as he went to sleep tonight :)

He was pretty upset that Baby Jesus didn't have any cake :)

Ideas for Moms

As we establish our own family traditions and I have looked for curriculum for our pre-school department at church, I have run across a few cool things that I thought I might pass along to other Moms who might be looking.

Ministry-To-Children.com
I love this website! For Christmas, they have printable children books that break the Christmas story down into 3 parts for little ones, a free printable Advent coloring book, a book that ties many of our Christmas traditions back to Christ, and many other cool activities. You can also sign up for a weekly e-newsletter that will send you cool lessons, games and crafts throughout the year!

Verses for Advent
I was also looking for Christmas verses broken down over 25 days to read for family devos over the month. With as much as I hear people talk about Advent, I thought it would be an easy find, but it really wasn't. So, I just made my own, re-working the break down from a few different websites. So, in the off chance that anyone else is looking, I thought I'd paste them below. This is NIV but it would be easy to translate into a children's version.

Dec. 1:

Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Micah 5:2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

Dec. 2:

Matthew 1:18-24 “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.”

Dec. 3

Luke 1:26-33 “In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Dec 4

Luke 2:1-5 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.”

Dec. 5

Luke 2:6-7 “While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.”

Dec. 6

Luke 2:8-9 “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.”

Luke 2:10-12 “But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Dec. 7

Luke 2:13-14 “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Dec. 8

Luke 2:15-16 “When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.

Dec. 9

Luke 2:17-18 “When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.”

Dec. 10

Luke 2:19 “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

Dec. 11

Luke 2:20 “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”

Dec. 12

Luke 2:21 “On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.”

Dec. 13

Isaiah 9:6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Dec. 14

Matthew 2:1-2 “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

Dec. 15

Matthew 2:3-6 “When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler ho will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Dec. 16

Matthew 2:7-8 “Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

Dec. 17

Matthew 2:9 “After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.”

Dec. 18

Matthew 2:10-11 “When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.”

Dec. 19

Matthew 2:12-15 “And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Dec. 20

Galatians 4:4-5 “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”

Dec. 21

1 John 4:7-16 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”

Dec. 22

John 14:6 “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Dec. 23

John 8:12 “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Dec. 24

Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Dec. 25

Psalm 100 “Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Thank You God For...

2010-11-23T18:10:00.000-08:00

I know we should take time year round to list everything we're thankful for and remember all God has done and is doing for us, but Thanksgiving is a good reminder to take time to do that. When Brad and I look back on the last year, these are the things that stand out to us. (And Smith Fam...please keep this post in mind on Thursday when we go around the table to say what we're thankful for...I already did mine, and it's even in writing :)

Brad's new job, one that allows a more flexible schedule and more time for us as a family

Our new home (and the fact that our old one sold so quickly)

Our new church (one that challenges and stretches us and has given us ample opportunities to serve)

New Friends

Living close to our friends the Williams and Shearers again

The Aggies winning some football games (that one was from Brad specifically) :)

Our little chef helped bake Thanksgiving pies tonight and came up with his own list of things to be thankful for. His list included...

His Mommy and Daddy (Good Boy!)

His Backyard (He's all boy)

"The Boys" (Jon Michael and Jalyn Williams)

Zeke (Jon Michael and Jalyn's cousin who he met on Sunday and hit it off with...really his only criteria for a best friend is that they be his age and male)

Food (Good call! He loves his snacks)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! We are so thankful for our friends and family, especially the ones who care about us enough to read our blog! :)

The Faith of a Child

2010-11-07T19:55:00.000-08:00

Today at church, Grayson learned that God listens...he heard about the story of Hannah in 1 Samuel, when she prayed for a child and God heard her. His teacher told him that God is in heaven, but he is also all around us, and is listening to every word we pray. So, tonight, we were talking about that.

Grayson said, "God's at church."

And I said, "Yes, God is at church, but he is also here at home."

Grayson looked around and said, "I no see him."

I said, "We can't see him, but we know he's here."

After looking around several more times and assuring me that he didn't see God so he must not be here, and me assuring him that he was here even though we couldn't see him, Grayson said, "It's too hard."

I said, "Yes, baby, it is hard."

Seeing as we, as adults, still struggle with this, it's understandable to see how a 2year old might have trouble. But it brings such joy to our hearts to watch him try.

Lord, give this precious little boy a heart to know and love you despite all the unexplainable questions!

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them. Mark 10:14-16

Our Little Gorilla

2010-11-04T23:12:00.001-07:00

One neighbor passed out juice boxes, and Grayson had to drink his then and there

When your bedtime is 8:00, you better get started before it gets dark

This was when Grayson sternly held up his finger and said "No More" (pics Mom)

What a difference a year makes! Last year, we couldn't get him in his costume and this year, we couldn't get him out. At the risk of sounding totally sac-religious, I have a growing love of Halloween since becoming a Mom (obviously not for it's meaning). There is just nothing cuter than seeing kiddos (and no I don't mean high schoolers who need to put on a little more clothes) all dressed up and so excited about going to knock on doors to get "CANDY!" So excited in fact that after saying "Tricky, Tricky" (we couldn't get trick or treat out of him) and taking a piece of candy, our little gorilla barely makes it off the porch before he tries to sit down in each of our neighbor's yards to eat his candy before going to the next house :)

Honduras

2010-10-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itE-k7hChWM
Brad got to go to Honduras last week on a mission trip with three other guys from our church. God did amazing things in and through the team. I won't even begin to try to recount the stories second hand, and hopefully Brad will write his own post eventually about the trip, but above is a link to a video from the trip!

And they had a little fun too! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tobFdxXw030

2010 Family Photos

2010-10-10T12:39:00.000-07:00

Just a few of my faves (I kind of have trouble narrowing down my favorites). If you're looking for a VERY reasonably priced photographer and live in the Houston area, our friend Karina is the best!

An Excuse Not to Cook

2010-10-06T17:59:00.000-07:00

Brad says I'm getting creative with my excuses not to cook (as if E.Coli, sinus & bladder infections weren't enough), but I promise I'm not desperate enough to chisel away the glass in our oven, even though Brad swears he saw me hide the hammer right before he got home :) Really though, I was baking chicken on a baking sheet when I heard a loud pop. I racked my brain trying to figure out what "rule" I broke to cause this, but I got nothing. Thanks goodness for home warranties (praying it's covered)!

Yay Amy!!!

2010-10-06T17:47:00.000-07:00

Not many people are special enough to have a blog post dedicated to them, but Amy is! AMY IS ENGAGED!!! Yay! Evan, thanks so much for letting us be part of the special night. It was a wonderful celebration and a great excuse to see some of our favorite peeps!

"I'll Make Money"

2010-10-01T15:34:00.000-07:00

The other morning Grayson was wanting Brad to play with him, but Brad was trying to work.

Brad: "Buddy, I can't play right now, Daddy has to work."

Gray: "No work."

Brad: "Grayson, do you like living in this house?"

Gray: "Uh-huh."

Brad: "Do you like your room and your toys?"

Gray: "Uh-huh."

Brad: "Do you like to eat and wear clothes?"

Gray: "Yeah!"

Brad: "Then Daddy has to work and make money."

Gray: "I'll make money!"

Then he ran off to get his piggy bank and give it to Brad :)

Our Trip to Aggieland

2010-10-01T15:02:00.001-07:00

Brad had a recuiting trip at A&M last week, so my friend Lauren and I decided to make a day of it with the kiddos. I asked Grayson that morning if he wanted to go to "Aggieland," and his face just lit up. I of course realized then that it kind of sounded like a theme park and that in his head he was probably imagining something a little bit more fun than College Station. After eating lunch at one of our favorite pizza places right off campus, Grayson asked me, "Go see Aggies?" I said "Yes, baby, these are the Aggies. Look everyone with a maroon shirt and this ring (pointing to my A&M ring) is an Aggie." He laughed and said, "No, Mommy." It made me wonder what in his mind an Aggie really was (since nobody really knows anyway :) Then, after I convinced him, he insisted on wearing my ring, which I was not willing to lose as we treked across campus, so I "made" him an Aggie "ring" out of a ponytail holder, which he wore proudly! Here are some photos from our day in Aggieland!

The kids were trying to steal the "good luck" pennies off the Sul Ross statue

Doesn't this one look like a "senior" portrait?

That's a "Gig Em" Aggies if you didn't catch the thumbs up

Yes, that's the Century Tree our kids are climbing on

I guess that means by "tradition" that Grayson is destined to marry either Hayley or Katelyn

We ended the trip with a stroll down memory lane. This is the "ghetto" duplex Brad and i lived in our first 6 months of marriage. If you're thinking the outside isn't that bad, I promise the inside was and our crazy (literally) neighbor made the experience unforgettable

Imperfect Parenting

2010-09-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

I know many of you reading this probably think of Brad and me as being awesome parents (yeah right!) but I have to let you in on a little secret, we SO are not! And as our little sponge gets older and older and adds about 50 words to his vocab per day, it's becoming more and more evident. Let's just start with the fact that his new catch phrase is, "Oh, Gosh," which I can only assume he picked up from me since I frequent the expression, "Oh My Gosh." I guess it could be worse. I mean, with my TBS sitcoms, I should be thankful that he's not picking up on other phrases...at least not yet.

But the best was last weekend when I jokingly (sometimes I'm serious) punched Brad in the arm after he made one of his typical smart aleck comments. Grayson followed right behind me and gave Brad a second punch on the leg. Not that Brad didn't deserve it :) but I quickly said, "No, no baby, Mommy should not have hit Daddy. We don't hit." Then later that same evening in an attempt to take Grayson with us to the drive-in movie (Oh, how we love that our favorite films have become movies like Ramona and Beezus), Brad responded in frustration to Grayson's climbing all over us with a angry flick on the foot (Did I mention we're not perfect parents?) Later as Brad was putting Grayson to bed, he apologized for flicking him, "Daddy should not have done that buddy and I'm sorry." Grayson responded with...."Yeah, Daddy hit Grayson." And Brad of course apologized again and Grayson then responded with..."And Mommy hit Daddy." After apologizing a third time on behalf of both of us......we laughingly hit our knees and prayed that God would give us Grace not to screw up our children!

For any grandparents or aunts and uncles reading this, please don't file for custody. I guess I'm not too worried, I have video evidence of Brad's Dad beating him when he was little :)....again I'm sure it was well deserved even then.

Silly Stories....By Grayson

2010-08-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday as I was saying a prayer with Grayson before nap time, I asked him, "Grayson, who do we pray to?" and he said, "God"(Gaw). I said, "That's right. Now let's pray to God." But then as I started to pray at the top of his lungs, he starts going "Gaw, Gaw, Gaw, Gaw, Gaw, Gaw." I was caught off guard and I opened my eyes to see what was going on and he still had his closed and had the most intense, expressive look on his face. Although I thought it was completely precious and there could not possibly be a prayer more glorifying to our heavenly father than this, it sounded a little bit like a turkey and it was all I could do not to bust out laughing!

After being cooped up in the house for the last week and a half, our poor little two year old has been bouncing off the walls. So today we finally got to go on our weekly play date with friends. I took him to this place called Bouncin' Bears (best place ever!), which is a huge inflatable playground filled with moon walks and obstacle courses, so he could burn off some of that built up energy. I asked him this morning if he wanted to go to Bouncin' Bears....You should have seen his face! His eyes got huge and he asked, "Me, jump wid bears???" Then he decided if we were going to jump with bears, he needed to take his little stuffed animal A&M bear with us. And not only did the bear have to ride with us, but he needed to be buckled up in the back seat too! The three of us had a ball bouncing (thankfully, since it could have been disastrous seeing as our tummies are still somewhat rumbly)!

Thanks for letting me share cute little two-year old stories. Afterall, this is my life! :)

Summer Fun Photos

2010-08-26T17:34:00.001-07:00

As we wrap up summer, August was by far the busiest month for our family. Grayson and I traveled to Dallas and all three of us spent almost a week in San Antonio, where I had the wonderful privledge of helping throw my good friend Courtney Roberts a baby shower. Unfortunately, we ended the trip by contracting E.Coli at one of our favorite restraunts in San Antonio and have consequently been quarantined here in Houston going on almost two weeks now. Before we got home, we kept saying that we couldn't wait to get home and just be home. Now we're saying, I can't wait to see the outside of our house! Overall, minus the last week and a half, it was a good summer! And here are some photos to remember the fun we had!

Create your own slideshow

Another Year Older

2010-07-26T21:56:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow (July 27) is my sweet husband's birthday! So, if you're reading this and are his friend and not just a blog stalker :), don't forget to text/email/call him to wish him a Happy One!

We were discussing our birthdays this weekend (since we turn 27 within 2 days of one another)and how we can tell we're getting old because....

-We are actually starting to take it as a compliment when people think we're a couple years younger than we actually are. But, not too old that we don't still get offended when people think we're 19/20/21 :)
-We can actually now be classified as "late 20s" instead of "mid 20s"...scary
-11pm actually qualifies as a "late" night for us
-Redbox is an exciting date night for us (or maybe that just classifes us as cheap, I'm not sure)
-It takes a second to remember how old we are when someone asks

Historically Brad's birthday is not a really big deal to him (unlike me) and rarely does he actually want something. But thankfully today Brad got on a shopping kick (which happens maybe once a year) and actually went out and purchased himself a new fishing pole and pair of chacos (from me of course) for his birthday! I think maybe I've been a bad influence on him in teaching him how to be selfish and milk his birthday for all it's worth! :)

Anyway, Happy Birthday my Love! I hope you have a Wonderful Day!

Galveston

2010-07-24T11:55:00.001-07:00

The word "beach" is loosely defined when it comes to Galveston and if it's possible these photos actually make it look dirtier thant it really was. But when you're two, if there's waves and sand (or mud), it still counts! Grayson had his first trip to the beach last weekend, and LOVED it! Technically, it was his second time at the beach because we tried to take him back in March, but we were there for about five minutes and then it started raining on us so we turned around and came home. So the trip worked out a little better this time around.

Hayley Austin & Gray being buried in the sand

What are we teaching our children?

Gray and Katelyn riding on the "sand turtle" Brad & Hayden built (the Dads were a little more into building it than the kids)

Happy 4th!

2010-07-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

Yes, I realize I am a little late on a 4th of July post, but our computer was attacked by a hard core virus this week which has kept us from doing most things online, which kind of makes you realize how completely dependent you are on the internet for everything! In the end, a brilliant kid from our church was able to help us out, although I think it was me laying hands on the computer and praying over it :) that finally did the trick. Moral of the story: Don't download movies from websites, especially shady ones that your brother-in-law recommends (Thanks Blake!).

We had a fantastic July 4th with our good friends Ryan and Melissa and their family at the lake. I can say Grayson had a stronger appreciation for the holiday this year in comparison to last year. There were no breakdowns about wearing a life jacket and he thought the fire works were the best thing ever. The entire weekend, we heard, "Peeeease more Pop Pops...Peeease more Pop Pops." We ended the weekend by watching fire works out in the middle of the lake on the boat, which we had never done before, and it was a blast. We then shot off our own fireworks, which Gray was not as big a fan of, he did not like being that close to the sparks or noise, and was highly concerned for his Daddy's safety. He didn't even want to come near the sparklers.

We joked about how we would continue splitting Christmas and Thanksgiving between our families, but we wanted to spend every 4th with the Shearers/Norths!

"Driving" the boat with Ryan

We didn't even need the boat as long as we brought the tube inside, he was happy!

Family Pics!

You think we wore him out?

Toddler Quirkiness

2010-06-29T13:38:00.000-07:00

Most things that Grayson does, I usually write off as "normal" toddler quirkiness. Like only wanting to wear a certain pair of shoes or a certain outfit, sleeping with a certain blanket or stuffed animal, only coloring with a certain color crayon...the list could go on.

But lately, he has displayed what I call an aversion to ponytails :) Yes, ponytails! If I'm wearing my hair down and then I go to put it up in a ponytail, he quickly runs over and pulls down my hands and says, "No, Mommy, no." Or even if I walk out of that bathroom with my hair already in a ponytail, he runs to try and take it out. At first I thought maybe it was just me, but he recenlty did it to his Aunt Elaine too. Sometimes, I take it down and say, "Oh, does Mommy's hair look prettier down?" and he replies "no" and walks off. So, I can only assume that maybe it just doesn't look AS bad down as it does up!

The New House

2010-06-24T17:30:00.000-07:00

I dedicate this post to Lauren Perkins who has been persistently reminding me to post pics of our new house once we got our stuff in it :)

Gray's room, we are acclamating him early!

His room is in desperate need of some curtains, but one improvement at a time...

The dining room, which has also become Brad's office since it's the only table in the house big enough to spread blue prints across

Our office/

/Gray's Play Room

The Guest Room (So, come stay with us!)

The Master

Kitchen/Breakfast

Living

Daddy's Day

2010-06-20T16:46:00.000-07:00

A Father/Son Sunday Afternoon Nap

Grayson was so proud to give Daddy his Father's Day gift that he made

Gray wants to be just like Daddy (even when Daddy is being a goober)

Coloring Father's Day Pics for Daddy

One says "I Love You Daddy" and the other says "Happy Father's Day"

Homemade book marks made with the Williams fam for Brad
(Carrie is encouraging my crafty side)

Gray likes to wear the bookmarks around his neck :)

Proverbs 20:7 "The righteous man leads a blameless life; blessed are his children after him."

Mystery Solved

2010-06-18T15:41:00.000-07:00

Our guest room/Grayson's bathroom toilet started acting funny a few days ago. It was still flushing a little bit, but it would fill up with water first and then drain very slowly. We finally got to Home Depot to buy something to snake it with today. Ironically, I had been half joking a few weeks back about Grayson trying to flush things down it. Apparently, he finally succeeded! He keeps our lives exciting!

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Houston Thus Far

2010-06-16T18:12:00.000-07:00

While I can't say that we're in love with the city of Houston, we are learning to love our little suburb in North Houston. When driving from downtown home, it's like a breath of fresh air when you enter the suburbs and see the trees lining the streets. While we have loved our new house from the beginning, the city itself is just starting to feel a little bit like home, which is probably why I haven't wanted to blog about our lives here until now. I guess I finally have something positive to say :)

It's really pretty funny to think about since Brad had to practically drag me from Dallas to San Antonio kicking and screaming (no, not literally, just complaining and pouting.) But once we got there, our life just fell into place so quickly, and we fell in love with the city (Brad for the second time). It was as if the Lord just poured blessing after blessing upon us in the first month of being there...a wonderful church, friends...and a beautiful baby boy 7 months later. I guess he knew how much we were going to need those things if we were going to survive Gray's early arrival and 6 week stay in the hospital. Because that transition ended up being so easy, it really wasn't terribly difficult to think about moving again, although we were of course so sad to be leaving our wonderful family and friends in San Antonio.

But, the transition just hasn't happened quite as easily as we would have hoped here. While Brad is loving his new position, unfortunately, I was laid off from my ideal, part time, work from home job and the church search has been anything but fast. One of the best things about being here has been getting to reconnect with some old friends. But, in four months of living here, we have also had to say good-bye to 2 of our wonderful friends who already lived here when we arrived :( We miss you Miranda and Lauren&Andrew!

But, things have been looking up the past few weeks starting with finding a church home! FINALLY! After visiting 7 churches (yes, we realize that's a ridiculous amount), we were about ready to just pick one and dive in since we were tired of searching when a friend of ours told us about a new start up church right in our area. Then when several staff members from our church in San Antonio recommended the same church, we decided to at least check it out. After the first Sunday we still weren't positive if that's where God wanted us, but we felt like we should go back. The next week, I met a girl at the gym and I came home to tell Brad that I felt like I needed to pray that I would run into her again. Then when we walked into church that next Sunday, there she was! That was the last of several things confirming it in our hearts that that's where we should be. It has felt good to finally find a church home....who knew how long 4 months could feel not being plugged into a body of believers. And we're so excited that some of our best friends from Dallas (Heather & Chris) will be moving to the Houston area very soon, which helps ease the transition even more!

While I'm still getting used to being solely a stay at home Mom, I'm learning to love it more every day. Sometimes I just sit back and watch Grayson and just think how cute he is and how precious his little personality is. While certain things in life aren't always how I imagined them (like having a career :), I almost always can't believe that being a wife and a mom are exactly what I hoped they would be (hard work but wonderful)!

Grayson's Great Adventures

2010-06-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

Pictures Galore!!! Our Summer Time Fun Thus Far!

Grayson and I went to the Houston Aquarium today with the Austin girls where Gray rode his first ferris wheel, a train through a shark tunnel, and viewed a million kind of fish. BTW, try explaining to a toddler why a fish is called a "Lion Fish"...Gray didn't know whether to roar or pucker his lips. We also got to see White Tigers, which were uncomfortably eyeing our children, probably thinking what a nice snack they'd make, while I was trying to figure out exactly how thick the glass was in between us. The best part of the day, and by best, I mean the most chaotic, was when running around in the shooting fountains, Hayley starting pulling off her pants to pee while Grayson was slipping left and right nearly splitting his head open and Katelyn was trying to run away. I think between the five of us, we were enough entertainment for the whole park!

An unexpected down pour put a slight damper on the ferris wheel ride.

A carosel is always a fave!

Gray went on his first camping trip a few weeks ago with his Uncle Josh & Blake and Aunt Elaine. He did surprisingly well, although with an air matress and pack n' play in our tent, we weren't exactly roughing it. But we thought camping with a toddler was roughing it enough!

Before our neighborhood pool opened, Gray kicked off the summer swimming with his new girlsfriends Hayley and Katelyn. With the fisher price slide going into the pool and a fancy sprinkler, we felt like we had our own little resort rigged up right in the back yard.

When April came down for her birthday, Grayson quickly snatched her away to play with his leggos, an activity April was more than skilled at due to her billion nephews.

Gray discovered Brad's hat in our closet and decided he looked better in it than Brad. I told him he was quite fashionable, but slightly out of season.

And Tag was the best medicine about a month ago when Gray was feeling under the weather. Our fabulous dog just laid their, keeping Gray company making sure he didn't fall off the couch.

Lauren Banks practiced her photography skills on Gray at a downtown lap pad before she left us to go to Dallas :( Something about starting her residency or some crap like that! :)

I'll try to be better about blogging this summer, so I don't have to catch up a months worth of pics in one post!

Our Almost Flood

2010-06-03T14:04:00.001-07:00

Things were a little TOO quiet last night when I was cooking dinner and Brad was watching the news. I walked into Grayson's bathroom just in time to see him try to flush an entire roll of toilet paper for who knows how many times. Luckily it had only overflowed a tiny bit before we fished it out. We took it to mean he was maybe ready to start potty training. But today when I took out his "big boy" potty seat, he was happy sitting on it for a little bit before he then wanted to flush his shoe, shirt, shorts, ect down it. So maybe it's just a sign that we need to baby proof the bathroom :)

The First "I Love You"

2010-05-18T19:42:00.000-07:00

I've been working diligently with Grayson the past month on saying, "I Love You," but I hadn't had any luck so far. This weekend my sweet friend April was in town celebrating her birthday (Happy Birthday April!) with us. As Gray was telling her good-night, he said, "Bye-Bye, love you!" I of course then freaked out when he said it. But, I was pretty bummed that our little stinker didn't say his first "I Love You" to Mom or Dad :( But, April felt honored, as she should :) I guess he's starting early hitting on pretty girls!

Girls, Girls, Girls

Speaking of pretty girls, Brad and I decided that Grayson is destined to be friends with only girls. Starting with the fact that not one of our friends who have had babies so far (with the exception of the Hargroves, but they live far away :( have had a single boy, Gray has been surrounded by only girls his whole life thus far. We thought when we moved to Houston, maybe we can make friends with some couples with boys? But, I took Gray to a play group with one of the churches we visited a couple weeks ago. There were at least 10 moms there, and I kid you not, every single one of them had one or two girls....not a single other boy in the entire group. I told Grayson to just pick one since the odds are definitely in his favor! I also got his "end of year" photo book from his Mother's Day Out program last week and every picture was of him and three little girls...I must admit, it was pretty cute.

7 Years and Counting

Also, today marks "7 Years of Dating" for Brad and me. No, I'm not that annoying girl (Courtney Roberts...JK) who celebrates all our anniversaries of dating, engagement, first kiss, ect, ect, ect but I did happen to remember today and couldn't believe we were old enough to have been together for that long! I'm sure 7 years doesn't sound like a super long time for all you old folks reading this :) but it counts as an "era" in my book. One things for sure, Brad's hair is much better than the fro he had when I met him back then! :)

The Back Up Plan

2010-04-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

Not the movie...but an actual back up plan. We were planning on taking Grayson on his first camping trip this past weekend with his Aunt Elaine and Uncle Josh, but rain in Bryan put a halt to that idea. Instead, the Ponders spent the weekend in Houston with us. Because they love their newphew so much, they actually had fun doing toddler activities such as catching frogs in the backyard and flying a kite at the park (although I seriously think that was more for Josh and Brad than Gray). Gray did love dragging Lilly around there tho (she's a perfect size for him). Elaine & Josh even got excited about helping us give Grayson a bath. Although we can't wait for the day to be an aunt and uncle for their little ones, we told them, we might not get SO excited about helping give a bath after giving so many to our own :) But, we'll fake it for them!

Smith Family Fashion Show

2010-04-22T20:54:00.001-07:00

We were getting ready to go out the other night and Brad was getting dressed. For whatever reason he decided to start trying on all of his random clothes in the closet. Despite my calling him a girl (since I'm the one who usually changes clothes 15 times before making a decision), he continued to mis-match all sorts of outfits on both him and Grayson. Maybe he was trying to stumble upon a new fashion trend of something...I don't know.

Compromise

2010-04-22T20:48:00.000-07:00

The other night, Brad and I wanted to watch American Idol and Grayson wanted to watch Dora (for the seventeenth time that day). As a compromise Brad and I watched Idol on the TV and Gray watched Dora on the laptop. I think we may have our priorities a little out of wack :)

Happy Easter....He is Risen

2010-04-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

"Move that rock, Jesus is Alive!" -- that's what Grayson learned in Sunday School. He can't quite repeat it, but he smiles every time we say it!

Our Easter weekend started Thursday night when we got to keep our friends Jonathan's and Carrie's boys (Jon Michael and Jalyn). The boys came to stay with us because their parents were really sick. We hunted Easter eggs a few times on Thursday night and Friday. In fact, we must have hid them well because one is still missing somewhere in our yard, but we did find a hot wheels car in a tree for whatever reason. We started Friday morning with breakfast a Chick-Fil-A. Since I accidently left my wedding ring at home, I think people were trying to decide if I was the Nanny or if I started having kids at age 15. We "attempted" to dye Easter eggs Friday afternoon, but Jon Michael (7) was really the only one who had the attention span for it. It turned into smashing Easter eggs. I told Brad I wasn't going to attempt Easter Egg dying again until Grayson was six.

We spent Easter Lunch at Miranda and Emily's house so Grayson could play with Emily's niece, Hallie, where despite my previous ban of Easter egg dying, we attempted it once again. "Dying Easter Eggs" turned into throwing Easter eggs. Between both children being covered in dye and in their diapers, throwing the Easter eggs in the front yard, while Brad ate the left overs, we thought we should rename the holiday, "White Trash Easter."

The Easter egg hunt was not much better. Between temper tantrums and attack of the aunt bed, we decided to call it a day and put them both down for a nap. Despite the fact that nothing ever goes as planned with little ones, it was a wonderful day spent with wonderful friends!

Another digital greeting by Smilebox

Two!

2010-04-03T11:42:00.001-07:00

A few weeks back we celebrated Grayson's second birthday with an impomptu party at Chuck-E-Cheese. He's lucky in the fact that his birthday always falls during the week of Spring Break which brings lots of family and friends to town regardless if we plan a party. Despite him being under the weather and starting the day with a trip to the doctor for an ear infection (no longer contagious), he enjoyed his fun filled day/week of birthday celebration! Of all his presents and fun adventures, his favorite was a baloon from his Uncle David! It's all about the simple things in life when it comes to kiddos.

Gray with Great Uncle Larry!

My 82 year old Grandpa still going down slides with his great grandson!

Gray's cool new toy chest from Grandma (Mommy and Daddy were really excited about this present)

Cool new light-up car shoes from Grandpa (Gray prefers to play more with these than actually wear them :)

We really didn't even need tokens, Grayson was just thrilled to run around and "sit" on the rides....but Brad bought a ton anyway...and in the end, it was Brad I was having to drag out of there, not Grayson

With Brad's red shirt, he was confused as an employee a couple times, with one kid complaining to him about how a machine took his token

A much cleaner cake experience at two than one!

The Wonderful Williams family came to make Grayson's birthday so special (Carrie even missed Beth Moore to come)!

Amy spent her time at skeet ball playing "with Grayson." I was trying to be the "good" Mom and not let my child climb on the machines, but then Amy started setting a bad example :) and all control of our child was lost after that.

Amy helped make the cake. Being the perfectionist that she is, she thought it was pretty bad, but we were happy! And obviously so was Gray!

Gray's Bday playdate with Megan Luff

"Helping" put together his new John Deer Tractor Tri-Cycle from Nana & Pops

Yee-Haw

2010-03-11T20:57:00.000-08:00

Create a greeting card

We felt like true Houstonians last night when we attended the Houston rodeo, which is apparantly a really big deal. One of Brad's vendors gave us tickets to go see Rascal Flatts (who we love!). And we found out that the Houston rodeo is not just a rodeo but some fun combination of the State Fair, Rodeo and Concert. Grayson loved the petting zoo, running from animal to animal to pat all of them. He looked like he owned the place. We think he's destined to be a farmer when he grows up, but I think that's more of something you inherit these days, not something you just become. He also loved his first theme park ride, which he technically was not even tall enough to ride and we didn't even have tickets, but when he ran through the gate and started climbing up onto one of the bees, the guys told me to just go ahead. Sometimes it pays off having an out of control toddler :) None of us really cared all that much about the rodeo part, with the exception of a little sport I discovered for the first time called Mutton Bustin, which is the cutest thing I've ever seen. Since Brad's parents have sheep on their property, I'm thinking we could start training Grayson to participate in the event :) A great time was had by all, with maybe the exception of the guy who sat in front of us who Grayson tapped or touched or kicked at least 15 times on accident....who are those people who are dumb enough to bring their 2-year-old to the rodeo??? Lauren Banks & Me sitting in the tire of the giant John Deer Tractor And this is Grayson's back-pack, which we purchased for pre-school a few days ago. He is all of a sudden obsessed with it and insists on bringing it everywhere. Doesn't he look like he's running away from home?

Thank You for your Prayers

2010-03-04T11:37:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to thank everyone who prayed for my Mom and for the sweet emails, texts and voicemails we received.

My Mom had the heart cath this morning and everything went well. They did not have to put in a stint because she only had about 50% blockage, which is actually pretty normal for a diabetic, and they don't take action unless it's 70% or more. So, it looks like her heart issues were a result of the severity of the pnemonia, and she most likely did not have a heart attack. Thank God!

She will have to have heart exams regularly moving forward and someday something may need to be done, but not now. It was definitely best case scenario and she should be able to go home tomorrow or Saturday. Praise the Lord! She is ready! And so are we!

An Update

2010-03-02T18:22:00.001-08:00

Hey all!

Just a quick update tonight. Momma is looking really good. She had catheter and all IV lines removed except one port in case they need to draw blood again. She would have been moved to the cardiac step-down unit today but they didn't have any available beds so they're going to keep her again overnight in ICU. The doctors suspect coronary artery disease and the plan is to have a heart catherization done on Thursday and if a stint in needed they will put that in during the procedure. Thank you for the prayers and support and please continue to pray! Our family really appreciates it.

Whitney Coben (Haley's sister)

My Mom

2010-02-28T20:51:00.000-08:00

Hi wonderful friends:

Thank you for the sweet texts, voicemails, emails, ect and most importantly prayers. I appreciate each one, I just haven't had time to respond to them.

Basically, on Tuesday my Mom went into the hospital with what we thought was dehydration from a bad stomach bug. Then penmonia was discovered and then heart issues. Now they speculate that she may have even had a heart attack which manifested itself as stomach issues (common in women apparantly). Friday night she was moved to the ICU because she was basically headed towards septic shock, with her kidneys starting to fail, acid in the blood, unable to get her blood pressure up, ect. ect ect. In the opinion of my sister and me and some of the nurses, a pulminary doctor should have been brought in much sooner than he was and she should have been tranfered to ICU sooner than she was.

But, thanks to the LORD and your prayers, she has had 100% improvement in the last day and a half. Basically, all of the issues she was experiencing are gone and all of those things I listed are back to normal. Praise God! The doctors kept us in the dark enough that we didn't even realize the severity of the situation until they already had it under control, which I don't know if that's good or bad, but that's what happened.

It is a possibility that she may be released out of ICU as early as tomorrow. We don't know if that's good or bad because she wasn't necessarily recieiving proper care when she was on the general care floor. At one point her blood sugar even dropoped to 15, which is just neglegence in my opinion, but I'll save my soap box about the health care industry for another time :) I thank God for my wonderful friends in the medical field that I know are making a positive difference in the lives or their patients every day!!! There are not enough of you out there!

Anyway, I'll send updates as things progress. Please keep up the prayers and THANK YOU!

Haley

Almost Houstonians

2010-02-17T18:11:00.000-08:00

Bye House! :( "Where'd it go?"

Our Wonderful Life Group

My San Antonio Girls

Calvin Hargrove

I don't know that we're "official" Houstonians yet. We own a home here, but we're not yet living in it. But the hotel we're staying at is in Houston. Does that count? Either way, we'll be official come Friday...only two days to go!

I know I personally don't always recognize God's hand in my life, but it has been so evident in this move. We prayed specifically that our house in San Antonio would get a contract on it in a time period of two days and we had our first showing on day two and the very same people put a contract on it in on day three. Considering we had so many..."This is a bad time of year to sell a house," "Good luck in this market," "you've only lived in it for a year," and "You will definitely lose money," comments, it was all a huge confirmation that this is God's plan for us when it all happened so easily. We were able to find a house that we love in Houston in one weekend with hardly any negotiation required. When I showed my mom pics of our new house to be, she asked, "Well, my Gosh, did you even special order the paint colors in your prayer?" Even the packers who came to our house were believers and prayed over me as they were leaving. It was so cool! As crazy and stressful as the whole process has been, God has really provided for us every step of the way.

In the last few weeks since I've had a chance to blog, lots of note worthy things have taken place. First, we got to meet Calvin Hargrove, Luke and Steph's little boy, who is PRECIOUS! If you read their blog, you of course already know about our visit since Luke blogs about 100 entries in the time I do one....seriously, Luke, it's a little out of hand. And that's the reason for the whole "Luke is the best person in the world" blog entry because he is a computer hacker and stole my identity.

Our wonderful San Antonio friends threw us a good-bye party and I pretty much sobbed all through church on Sunday having to say good-bye to them. What, me, emotional? Shocking I know.

We also said good-bye to our first house :( We took Gray to say bye after it was all empty. At first, he seemed concerned that his toys were not there, but then he was just excited to have all the room to play and started running around in circles.

Personalize your own invite

Here are some pics of the new house. This is not our stuff, but since it may be a little bit before the house is set up (knowing us only a couple days) I'm posting pics of the house with the seller's stuff :) That way, if someone finds something they want to steal, they won't know where to go to steal it because it's not ours!

Latest News

2010-02-08T16:55:00.001-08:00

Luke Hargrove is the biggest CHUMP in the world who steals people's passwords and hacks into their blogs and writes untrue statements.

Happy Birthday Friend!

2010-01-29T10:14:00.000-08:00

I can only think of a couple people who are as big of freaks about their birthdays as I am (2 actually, Amy Shelton and Courtney Roberts) and TODAY is Courtney's birthday!!! It also happens to be my half birthday, and no, I don't really celebrate half birthdays, but it's still kind of cool that I have two friends whose birthdays are on my half birthday (Happy Birthday DREW!!!). But, I want to take this opportunity to wish Courtney a very special day and tell her how much I love her!!!

For some reason, when you get married it gets even harder to make friends because not only do you have to click with someone, but you have the click with their spouse and your spouse has to click with both of them, it just adds a whole different dynamic to the friend making process. In fact, I can only think of a handful of couples to where all the factors have lined up. But, Josh and Courtney are definitely one of those couples.

As we've been preparing ourselves to close our San Antonio "life-chapter," I've been getting pretty emotional about leaving our friends here (shocking I know, me emotional?) I just am overwhelmed looking back over our lives to see how God has provided for us no matter where we are. I have to confess that I drug my feet quite stubbornly when we moved here to San Antonio, but once we arrived God blessed us immediately...from giving us a great place to live, friends, a wonderful church home and a son, which we didn't even have to wait nine months to meet :) With all those blessings, we also have faced lots of challenges over the past 2 1/2 years and we were forced to learn a hard lesson....how to ask for help! I know it is our, as I'm sure it is for most people, tendency to want to be the ones who "have it all together" (HA!) and we'd just rather be serving than the ones being served. But, out of all the lessons (and let me tell you, there have been quite a few) that we have learned here, that is definitely the one that really stands out. In learning that lesson, we also have realized that it takes a special kind of friend to let your guard down with and ask when you need something. And usually they're only the friends that you have a long history with, but that is what has been so wonderful about San Antonio, God gave us that special connection with people here without having to have a long history, the kind of relationships that only he can ordain.

So, I would like to thank ALL of our wonderful San Antonio friends for seeing us through one crisis after another during out time here and for loving us even though we so DON'T have it all together :)

Courtney, Happy 25th Birthday!!! Brad and I feel so lucky to have you and Josh in our lives!

Grayson Has a Lovey

2010-01-28T13:09:00.001-08:00

Everyone talks about how their child has a special blankie or animal that they carry around with them all the time, or that they just have to sleep with. Thus far, Gray has not really cared about any of his stuffed animals, which is why I questioned why he kept getting them as gifts. But, all of a sudden a week or two ago, he decided he was attached to one of his stuffed animals. Which one.....BOZ....now for those of you not familiar, Boz, the big green bear, is a Christian series of books and videos. They teach not only family values and the love of God, but also numbers, colors, shapes and all the educational things you find on Sesame street. It's by far one of both mine and Grayson's favorite things that we've discovered.

So, for Christmas my sister and David added to our Boz collection with a couple new videos and a stuffed animal Boz. Grayson at the time treated it like any other stuffed animal he owns (ignored it) so I stuck it up in his stuffed animal holder on the back of his door. Just the other day, I heard him in his room screaming something that started with a "B". Now, you have to understand, everything in Grayson's world sounds a lot like "Ba"....for Ball, Bottle, Bath...the list goes on. But, when I went in there to check on him, he was standing behind his door yelling "Ba, Boz, Ba" and pointing to the green bear. I got it down for him, and every since the thing has been attached to his hip.

Boz comes to the high chair for breakfast, he rides in the car with us, he goes to pre-school, and out to dinner, he is truly one of the family! Yesterday, Grayson woke up with a disastrous diaper (which happens on occassion) but the lovely part about this morning was that it had actually come off of him and was all the way down his leg by the time he woke up. So, of course, we had to do an emergency load of laundry with not only his PJs but blankets, sheets, matress cover, and oh yes, Boz. Well, during the time it took for Boz to finish his cycles in the washer & dryer, you would have thought the sky was falling. Every 15 mins, Gray was walking over to the laundry room asking if Boz was done. He was having a very hard time understanding why Boz's bath was taking so much longer than Grayson's baths normally take.

But, we survived and in just a few weeks the Smiths, including Boz, will be starting a new life in Houston!

Terrible Twos....Here we Come

2010-01-05T18:33:00.000-08:00

A few days before Christmas, we had our first incident of Grayson climbing out of his crib. We knew it would happen someday, but we didn't think it would be as early as 21 months. Luckily, thus far, it was a one day fluke, but we're trying to prepare outselves for it to become habit. I mean, what do you do when a child climbs out of their crib? Do they make cages to keep them in? Don't worry, we would never really seriously cage our child, although there are moments where the thought crosses our minds.

After having a wonderful, healthy Christmas, Grayson rang in the New Year with a yucky case of RSV. For those of you who aren't parents, it's an upper-respiratory bronchial virus which in our case requires daily breathing treatments. The good news (haha) is that the medicine in the breathing treatments is a stimulant, which makes our already very active boy into a tornado. Seriously, we're giving a child who is already 110% boy a stimulant, it's really quite a hilarious concept. I don't know if the med is giving him super-child powers too, but he started opening up our child locks this week that we have on our doors. Child proof locks were the best invention ever from the time Gray was about 15/16 months until now.....now nothing is safe, I mean NOTHING! Some children are early at speaking and reading...ours is a little Houdini protege.

Besides getting into EVERYTHING, Gray is becoming such a little helper. Tonight when I was dumping our smaller trash cans into the main one, he insisted on carrying the smaller ones and dumping them for me and then taking them back to their original rooms. It was so cute! He was huffing and puffing trying to carry our heavy bathroom one, which I'm sure is great for him when the poor thing is already struggling to breath. But, I think having a boy may come in handy with house hold chores as he gets older :)

In other news from the Smiths, Brad and I celebrate four wonderful (most days anyway)years of marriage tomorrow! I can't belive it has been four years! And in those four years, we have lived in three cities and about to move to our fourth, plus three apartments and a house, about to move to our fifth dwelling place. That's got to be some kind of record. I have informed my husband that I'd rather not keep up this migrating record in the future. Our house goes on the market on Thursday, please keep us in your prayers for a quick sale. While we love our San Antonio friends and are not excited to leave them, Brad will have to start traveling to Houston soon regardless if we've sold our house or not. We do not want to do the long distance family thing for long!

Gray's First Trip to the Emergency Room & Haircut

2009-12-21T11:34:00.000-08:00

The last 12 hours have been very eventful for the Smith Family. Grayson had his first trip to the minor emergency clinic last night after he nose dived into the coffee table at about 8:00 last night, and came home with two stiches. While we have the coffee table with rounded edges, it does have wicker drawers and one was sticking out. He fell at just the right angle to get a cut right between his eyes. Keep in mind, he probably nose dives into some piece of furniture or the floor at least once a week, and usually much harder than this, but this time, he had a real battle wound:( The doctor shortly realized that glue wasn't going to work since the spot kept opening up every time Grayson moved his face. So, we had to do the whole strap him down, numbing injection, stitches thing. Poor baby! He took it like a champ though. I'm sure it was harder on Mom & Dad watching than it was on him. The forgiving, never holds grudges, little boy even gave the doc a high five after the procedure, forgetting all about the screaming he had been doing right before hand. I of course took lots of pictures to mark his entrance into boyhood since I have a feeling, this won't be our last trip to the emergency room.

And only 12 hours later, Grayson got his first hair cut. We put it off until 21 months because we love his curls, but the curls were starting to turn into a shag, so we knew it was time. Sadly, the lady gave him much more than a trim. But, with a squirmy toddler, I think it's hard to do just a trim. It's sad, between the stiches and hair cut, I think Gray went from a baby to a little boy over night :( The sad thing is, I think I wanted to cry more over the hair cut than the stiches and Gray was about as equally unhappy with both. Between the two, we should have some great Christmas photos this year!

Videos of Gray

2009-12-19T12:30:00.000-08:00

If anyone reads this consistently, you're probably wondering what has gotten into me, and frankly I don't know. I've just felt inspired to blog recently. I decided someday I would print this blog and use it as a family scrapbook (when I have plenty of money to take it to kinkos and print on fancy paper and bind). Therefore, I don't want to miss marking precious moments that I will forget happened in just a short while.

I've also been wanting to post video for a while, but didn't really want to use YouTube and I didn't have any other suggestions, until I realized you could use Smile Box. Anyway, here are a few clips of our precious little boy. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox collage

It's frightening when you realize that at only 21 months you can already hear your child repeating things you say and doing things like you. I went to take Gray's shoes off for his nap yesterday and I just set them on his diaper changing table because we were getting out later and he would need them on again. But, when he saw that I put them there, he went and got them and put them in his shoe basket under the crib....clearly letting me know that "that's not where they go Mom" (in his own little language of course). It looks like I'm successfully passing my OCDness onto my child :) Scary, I know!

Editing my Blog

2009-12-18T15:15:00.001-08:00

So, I decided to try and spice up my blog yesterday by making a banner. I spent what seemed like forever working on it. Because Paint is the only image editing program we have on our computer and I was too lazy to download anything else, I was very limited on what I could do. I learned that Paint is the worst program of all times! It is extremely unforgiving and won't let you go back and edit pictures of text boxes once they're placed. Before anyone points it out to me, I know the pictures are fuzzy and the title looks funny, but I decided I didn't want to waste anymore of my life making it better. So, feel free to leave comments/lies about how cute it looks so I won't feel like my hard work was for nothing :)

I think editing my blog may be my way of avoiding doing the things I really need to be doing....like reading a 100 page relocation package that Brad's company sent us. I've never understood why it takes so many pages to communicate basic information. If I was ever in charge of an instruction manual, it would be five sentences and it someone couldn't figure out what to do from that, they shouldn't purchase my product.

And we're off to take Grayson Christmas lights watching with the Roberts....

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2009-12-14T13:08:00.001-08:00

Christmas time has always been one of my favorite times of the year, as I am sure it is for most people. Although I am a big "no Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving" nazi, when the day after Thanksgiving arrives, it's all about Christmas. I love Christmas trees, lights, cards, music....the list goes on. But one of my favorite things is that I usually get to reconnect with friends that sometimes I haven't talked to in a year. It all starts with the "What's your address?" emails or texts when I'm working on Christmas cards.

P.S. If you get a Christmas card, please forgive the 1900s virgin Mary stamps as they were the only ones left at H-E-B. We haven't converted to Renassance Catholisism in case you're wondering :)

This is also our first year with a full size Christmas tree. Because we never wanted to deal with storing one in an apartment, we've always had our 3 and a half foot Charlie Brown Christmas tree until this year. We even put out outside lights for the first time (as this is the first year we actually had a house to put them on), and by we I mean Brad, which was no easy task since our roof is very steep. It is totally worth it though (at least to me since I didn't do any work on those :) every time we drive up to the house and see them and when we look back and see Grayson's eyes light up as we pull in and out of the garage.

I took Grayson to the library today with his two girlfriends, Isabella and Megan, (since none of our friends have boys) for a toddler story time. They sang Christmas carols and read Christmas books. At first, he had this look on his face like, "what is up with these crazy people?" but by the end he was dancing and clapping along. He is talking all day long now and asking me lots of questions, not that I understand them except for a few words here and there, but he still looks at me as though he's expecting an answer. Sometimes I fear what I am answering yes and no to exactly.

I thought he'd be shaking the ornaments off our Christmas tree, but for whatever reason, he hasn't laid a hand on it. It could be that he recenlty broke an ornament in Pier 1 and learned his lesson from that, who knows, but we've been grateful.

We still don't have our house up for sale, but a move to Houston is still in the works. We should be putting our house up for sale this month, but who knows. I've decided I'm not too big of a fan of corporate America and their inability to tell me where I will be living this next year :) We'll keep you posted though!

Here are a few recents pics....Merry Christmas from the Smiths!

This one is from Thanksgiving! Grayson was very excited to play in my sister's dryer. The sad thing is both my sister and I could both fit in it too :)

Brad did a great job hanging out lights without breaking anything! We also inherited a beautiful "JOY" sign from my parents, which adds a nice touch.

Here is Grayson in his Christmas sweater, something that is only cute at this age, and should not be worn by 40 year old men at office parties :)

Grayson got to open a few presents at Thanksgiving with my family since we will be with Brad's this year for Christmas...presents including his first set of legos and a tri-cycle....of course he still had the most fun with the box.

And he loved putting that bike together with his Daddy!

Baby Hargrove

2009-12-14T12:38:00.001-08:00

Two of our very best friends, Luke and Stephanie Hargrove, became parents yesterday to a beautiful little boy named Calvin.....and as funny as it is they picked the name from Calvin and Hobbs :) I just finshed watching a video on their blog (http://www.stephanieandluke.com/) of Calvin's first 15 minutes of life. He is beautiful and we are so excited for them!

I grew up with Luke and he was/is one of the most mischevious kids on the planet, which is why the idea of him being a Dad and a Dad of a boy no less, is very humorous. I could tell story after story about Luke...like the time he accidently toilet papered my next door neighbor's house thinking it was mine, or when he stole my tires and put my car up on jacks so I couldn't leave the house, or when he decided to roller blade holding onto a rope tied to the back of our friend's mini van...oh how the list goes on. :)

Luke and Stephanie are going to be wonderful parents, but watch out world, there is another Hargrove on the lose! Welcome to the world Calvin! And good luck Steph! And Luke, just remember when he comes home from school and tells you that he got in trouble for making dry ice bombs, he can't help it because it's in his genes! :)

Fall Festivities

2009-11-11T14:47:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I don't blog because I feel like I have nothing new to report and other times (like recently) I don't even know where to start. October was a crazy month for the Smith family. Elaine (Brad's sis) got married, so Grayson now has a new Uncle Josh!!! (Sorry, Josh Roberts, we're going to have to teach Gray to call you something else now.) We went to Colorado to visit Evan and Lauren Perkins who are in seminary there and we did our usual fall festivities such as the pumpkin patch, weekend company, and Halloween. I had to make a little slide show (below) for those of you who are not on facebook or haven't already seen our pics. Lauren is an amazing photographer and took some wonderful photos, which is really quite amazing when you consider the incooperativeness (don't know if that's really a word) of our grumpy little toddler. I was framing some of the pics today which required taking some of his baby ones out of frames :( and couldn't even believe that he was the same child who was born 2 months early and couldn't even breath on his own. Now, he is this little crazy thing who is all over the place and doesn't stop unless he's asleep. I had to try really hard not to cry when thinking about it. He is growing up too fast!

Taking Grayson on an airplane was probably our biggest adventure of all. When you put a little boy who doesn't like to sit still in a confined place where there's really no way to mask the screaming or take hime outside, it can be quite a challenge. The best part was when Grayson first started squealing and Brad tried to fix the problem by covering Gray's mouth with his hand, which just turned the noise into an even louder, yet slightly muffled, scream. I thought for sure the people next to us were going to call CPS :) We made it there and back though. I'm sure everyone on the plane hated us, but we'll never see them again, so we're not too worried.

Despite all of our crazy activities, for those of you who don't know already, we found out that we are moving to Houston (we don't know when and we don't know where yet) because Brad got a promotion with his job. I'm SO proud of him, but still sad to leave our San Antonio friends :( We are excited about reconnecting with some of our old peeps in Houston tho! We're guessing the change will most likely happen around the first of the year, so please keep us in your prayers! Hopefully it won't be another two months before I find time to blog again, but I make not promises :) I just don't know how you weekly/daily bloggers do it!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

18 Months

2009-09-18T12:28:00.000-07:00

Grayson turned 18 months on Wednesday. Wow, how time flies! The past few months have proven it to be a very fun but exhausting age. Even as I type, he came running up with something in his mouth. I have no clue where he got it from, but it looked like food and it smelled like food, so I'm just hoping it was food. When I picked him up from the gym yesterday, he was putting his finger up another child's nose (lovely, huh?)

It has become so evident lately the differences between a boy and a girl toddler. He is all boy from running everywhere to "discovering himself" :) to bumping his head ten times a day without even acknowledging the fact that it hurt. It's an age where there's really no reason to go to the gym because you're burning so many calories chasing him around, except for the fact that you need to already be in pretty good shape to do all that chasing.

He is chattering away non-stop, not that we know what he's saying because except for the 10 or so words we recognize, it's mostly his own language. But everything he says, he says very passionately and he knows what he wants when he wants it. It's beginning to sound more like English every day. I'm asking myself if we really want to know what he's saying because when the kid is mad, I'm afraid of what words might go along with all that screaming :) It's funny, I remember looking at parents with kids this age, thinking, oh my gosh, they have no control over their child, have they ever heard of discipline? Now, I understand!

He must take aftef his mom a little bit though because he loves his shoes. We took him shopping last week and got him two new pairs of shoes since he's growing like a weed. Today, he brought them to me to put on him and when I told him he didn't need shoes because we were staying home, he started crying. Maybe someday he'll enjoy shopping too :) if we can find time after all sports his Daddy has planned for him.

Below are a few photos of our recent adventures with Gray to catch up since I haven't blogged in a while!

We took Gray to feed the ducks, but they were getting a little too close, plus Gray kept eating their food. He really only understood the concept of looking at the ducks while feeding his face.

Here is Gray meeting my sister's two HUGE dogs and we were worried THEY might hurt HIM...ha!

Here is Gray in his superman PJs....Super Grayson, Away!

Gray also started pre-school one day a week at the start of this month. He loves it! They call him their little monkey because he climbs on everything (shocking I know. Here he is on his first day, he was ready to go to school!

Speaking of our little monkey, we found the most adorable halloween costume, which we returned the very next day after realizing it just wasn't going to happen.

Happy 18 months Grayson!!!

Happy Birthday Brad!!!

2009-07-22T09:36:00.001-07:00

In honor of my wonderful husband's 26th birthday, I have dedicated this blog post as a tribute to him wishing him a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Because our birthdays are only 2 days apart, Brad likes to give me a hard time that his birthday sometimes gets overshadowed since girls like to have birthday weeks :) So, this year as to not let the day slip by without making a big bang out it, I declare Monday (July 27) NATIONAL CELEBRATION OF BRAD DAY!

For anyone who knows Brad even a little bit, you know that he has a little hobby of taking pictures of himself by himself making the most goofy and sometimes sickening faces. As a public birthday message, I have taken the liberty of putting a few of those photos together to share with anyone who might be reading this! You are welcome, Brad :) For those of you thinking I have entirely too much time on my hands, I assure you as sad as it is, there are SO many of these pictures that I was able to compile them in a matter of minutes! So, please take a few minutes out of your day to wish Brad a Happy Birthday!!!

As goofy as he is, I know I have the most wonderful husband in the world. Happy Birthday my love!!!

P.S. I'm glad you don't look like this all the time :) And I will never understand how someone so skinny can have a double chin in photos

July 4th

2009-07-12T19:22:00.001-07:00

We spent July 4th weekend in Austin with Josh and Courtney Roberts at Courtney's parents lake house. Our philosophy on parenting has always been to mold our kids as much to our lives as possible, instead of molding our lives to theirs. We truly tested our theory over July 4th weekend when we took Grayson out on the lake (keep in mind he's only 15 months). I think the first half hour of the excursion, we were all thinking (including the Roberts and Bakers) what a mistake it was, and Brad and I were pretty much counting on never being invited back :) Luckily, our little man fell asleep and after a little power nap, he woke up a different kid with a new found love for his life jacket. He even tubed behind the boat with Brad like a trooper (don't tell the Grandmas)!

Grayson also encountered about 15 ducks at the pier, but when I asked him what sound the duck made, he replied (Ruff, Ruff), which made me realize that he may have down the sound that the dog makes, but it apparantly is becoming his universal animal sound. Among his first words (besides barking like a dog) are "Ta" for Tag, "Ba" for Ball, "Da Da" for Daddy and "Dis" for "This." Still no Ma Ma :( Where are this kids priorities, really???

And....don't you just LOVE this pic of Josh and Courtney? :)

Grayson hit one more milestone during his July 4th weekend (aside from his duck/dog encounter and boating adventure) and that was his first bloody nose. No, it didn't happen on the boat, but when Brad was chasing him around the house and Gray fell just right on the tile. But, I thought I'd capture it anyway considering it may only be the first of many having a little boy running around the house!

VACATION!

2009-06-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from our cruise with the Hargroves. We had so much fun! We hung out on the boat, and went to Jamaica and Grand Cayman. In Cayman, we swam with the sting rays, visited a turtle farm (yes, we must be five years old because it was one of our favorite things), visited hell (the city, not the eternal place you go if you don't know Jesus) and laid on the beautiful beach! In Jamica, we went jungle river tubing, but Luke, Steph and Brad have to admit that their favorite part of the day was when I made them (along with our entire tour van) go to the beach in the pouring rain!

And yes, while he took his first steps about five weeks ago (14 months), our little man decided to all out walk/run 2 1/2 weeks ago (14 1/2 months), and yes, we were on vacation when it happened :) Things always seem to work out like that, but at least we got to see his first steps! Anyway, I've been trying to post a video of him walking ever since, but can't compress the video to where it will work. So, that will have to be still to come (once Luke has time to teach me :), but in the meantime if anyone knows, I'd love suggestions!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Aunt Abby and Uncle Dew

2009-06-09T14:41:00.000-07:00

I also can't leave out April and Drew's visit just a few weeks ago! Thank you guys for coming to see us, or should I say thank you to the Texas Basketball Coaching Association (yes, I'm totally making that name up because I have no clue what it's really called) for bringing you here! You guys were so cute with Gray, and it was so fun watching y'all interact with him. You guys will be great parents one day (hint hint Drew....JK, I mean whenever you're ready)!

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-06-09T13:38:00.001-07:00

Brad's cousin's wedding brought us to College Station for the weekend where we got to hang out with family and see some old Living Hope faces, a church that will always have a special place in our hearts! We also traveled a little bit further getting to see some old friends, which was so refreshing and really such a blessing!

Grayson meets Cade Mosier! It's kind of scary how much the boys look like their Daddys, especially Cade and Matt. Erin, sorry you and I didn't make the pic, but the babies didn't want to smile for the cam when we were holding them :)

The Smith Kids minus Blake :( (well technically Josh is a Ponder, but is a soon to be Smith through marriage)!!!

AND....we got to stop and spend the night with Johnathan and Carrie in Cypress. Williams family...thanks for setting an awesome example for Brad and me for what a marriage and family is supposed to look like! You guys helped prepare us for marriage in ways most people just have to figure out on their own. Thanks for your honesty and wisdom you always gave us. AND, We love your boys! Thanks for letting us hang out with them so much in college so when our boy came along at least we weren't in complete shock :) And if Grayson could talk he would apologize for secretly stealing their toy hammer and hiding it in our suitcase. His clepto tendencies must come from Brad's side of the fam :)

Last on our trek around the state, we stopped to have lunch with My Favorite Girls in the world! In college station they lived at the "B" but walking into their house it was like I was right back at the B talking about cheesy girls movies and telling awkward boy stories, only now I didn't have any fun stories to contribute, none that Brad would let me tell anyway :) Emily, Pete, Miranda, I love y'all so much and it just wasn't a long enough visit. I hope y'all come to SA sometime this summer so we can see your pretty faces again soon!

LAST BUT DEFINITELY NOT LEAST, returning to SA, we finished up the weekend with a good-bye shin dig for Ryan and Melissa Shearer as they took off to start their new life in Houston. While we're so excited and proud for them, it was so sad to see them leave. They have been the above and beyond kind of friends to us who I feel like have seen us through one crisis after another in our two-year long friendship. We are so jealous of Houston because it's getting some awesome people as residents! Don't worry though Shearers, we'll be there when it comes your turn to figure out this whole baby business :) Love you both! You WILL be missed, but not too much because we'll see each other often, and if we don't we'll be inviting ourselves out to the lake house! :)

Gray's First Year

2009-05-27T20:40:00.000-07:00

As a follow up to the "We're Back" post :) and since I probably should have been blogging since Gray was born, here is a little tribute to his first year of life! He has brought more joy to our lives than we could have possibly imagined. From our oh so rough start, he has turned into a little toddler who is into everything! I never would have imagined seeing him laying in the crib in the NICU!

Psalm 138:8

The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
your love, O LORD, endures forever—
do not abandon the works of your hands.

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And We're BACK!!!

2009-05-26T13:51:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time almost two years ago now, I created a blog, and once upon a time only a couple months later, I deleted it :) I must admit I used to be anti-blogs because let's face it, I don't have time nor do I care to sit around reading people's opinions about which is the best laundry detergent or who they think I should vote for in an upcoming election. But, I'm realizing as time goes on, that I love the blogs that update me on my friends lives, especially the ones that are far away :( So, here goes take two on the Smith Blog!

And I thought it would be appropriate to start with photos from Grayson's first Bday party for those of you who couldn't be here! What a miracle he is from the tiny little peanut he was when he was born with so many tubes you couldn't even see how cute he was underneath. So, I dedicate this blog to our loved friends and family who don't live here in San Antonio! We love and miss you more than you could possibly know!

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