Fall Festivities

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

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!!!

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

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!

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

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

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! :)