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

Two!

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

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?