Grayson's Great Adventures

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

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"

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

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

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

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

"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