Merry Christmas

Family Christmas pic

Grayson admiring his new Guy Harvey hat in Grammy's new mirror!

Thank you Santa!

Decorating cookies

At the lights in Chickasha

We hope everybody had as wonderful of a christmas as we did! Grayson was so cute this year, ripping into presents and being excited about what was in them. One thing he wasn't too excited about though was Santa! We took him to see Santa at Bass Pro and he was UNimpressed. But we took the crying picture anyways! We also took him to see the lights at Chickasha and he liked those. They had lights set to music and he thought that was funny. Then of course we had to make Christmas cookies. Grayson had a blast with that! He had flour from head to toe and icing everywhere. We had christmas in Velma last night with Casey's family and this morning with my family, my cousin and his family are coming in tomorrow so we will do christmas with them tomorrow night. Hopefully I'll have some cute pics to post of that since they have a baby girl. God Bless and we love you all!

Just Pictures

Thanksgiving Day - isn't he cute?

I guess he already knows how to play with this!

Asleep - first night in big boy bed! He loves his new bed!!

Just a few pictures of birthday & some that were used on our Christmas cards. Thanksgiving was good for us. We had a busy weekend at mom & dad's. Mom and I were crazy and went to WalMart at 3 am!! But we got what we were after and it was fun too. Then we pretty much shopped til we dropped Fri and Sat! Can't beat that!! The next few weeks are busy for us and then Christmas will be here before you know it.

Birthday Boy

Happy 2nd birthday to Grayson!! We had his party on Saturday and it was a success. Lots of friends and family came - we had a house full. Thank you to all who came or sent cards. I didn't get a chance to thank everybody personally because of the mass chaos but it is greatly appreciated. And thank you mostly to Grammy who probably worked harder than any of us, helping clean before and after and keeping an eye on everything going on during the party. I will try to get some pics posted this week.

Catch Up

I know I am so behind, almost Thanksgiving and I'm just now posting Halloween - YIKES! Anyways, we have been busy lately - not sure what we've been doing but it has taken up a lot of time whatever it is! LOL! We took Grayson to the pumpkin patch by our house and it was a load of fun. They had mazes, slides, animals, hay rides - all the good stuff. Grayson had a blast with the slides. It was like a piece of plastic pipe that was propped up on some hay bales (securely though!) We didn't think he would do the really long one but he did and boy was he flying when he got to the end of it! Got some really cute pics of that. Then we took a hay ride, but very carefully since the night before an 18th month old was killed at a hay ride in OKC. So sad. Then came Halloween - which was interesting. Pretty much Grayson wanted nothing to do with dressing up - we got him to wear it to a couple of places though. Then Saturday morning I was picking up the living room at mom and dad's and I picked up his costume and he took off running screaming "No, No, No" Funny stuff! So Grayson's birthday is coming up - I know can you believe he'll be 2! Is he gonna be 3 soon b/c the terrible 2's have hit HARD!! No, I really don't want him to be 3 b/c I don't even want him to be 2!! So if you didn't get an invite to the party well come anyways - I probably just forgot - I did have help with those you know, big time help if you know what I mean. We are having his party sat the 22nd at 2 at our house - we really want you to come help us celebrate!


Mickey Mouse!

Trying to convince him that this is a good idea!

Grammy & Grayson chewing on straw

The BIG slide! Do you think they pushed him?

Proud Moments!

Tuesday night: I was in the office and I heard the water turn on in Grayson's bathroom, I assumed Casey had taken him to brush his teeth. So I turned around and saw Casey coming out of the living room and he peeked around the corner at the bathroom. Casey then hollered at me to come over there and what do ya know! Grayson had gone into the bathroom and was standing on the toilet over the sink brushing his teeth. All by himself and without anybody asking him to. It was one of my prouder mommy moments - raising a child with good oral hygiene - gotta love that!!!
Tonight(Wednesday): As I told in an earlier blog, Grayson has expressed some interest in the potty - still mostly when mentioned to him. So tonight we did our usual take off our diaper and sit on the potty BUT tonight he actually went pee pee in the potty! YEAH!!! He's getting so big!

new pictures

Gone Fishin'

I'm not sure if it's possible to have "natural" fishing talent but if it is then Grayson has it! Let me just tell you - this kid can fish like no other almost 2 year old! Mom even made me take pics of him using his play fishing pole by the camper so when he's a pro and has his own TV show we'll have cute pics - you know like they show of Tiger Woods with his play golf set!!LOL! Anyways, he doesn't quite have the patience to wait for an actual fish to bite, but he will cast his pole and reel it in until someone else catches a fish and then he can play with theirs. Once it's in the boat and he has touched it and poked it's eyeballs he promptly tells you to throw it back in the water! Anyways, we had a good weekend at Arbuckle camping, fishing, making smores, etc. All the usual. We also had some new family pics taken. My friend Tammy took them for us at the park in Sulphur and they turned out great. I will post some this week for your viewing pleasure!

Merry Go-Round

Thank you Great Grandpa Bill for our new toy! My Granny and Grandpa Bill bought this merry go-round probably 15 years ago and I have no idea where it came from. I can remember me and my cousins putting many, many miles on it though. Well Grandpa Bill thought Grayson would enjoy it and he was right. Grayson thinks it is just the neatest thing ever and he also thinks it's funny when he is dizzy after riding it.

Potty Training?

It is possible that we are experiencing the beginnings of potty training. YIKES! He is definitely aware of what is going on. He likes to go sit on the potty - on his time though - never if you ask him of he wants to go! So far they have all been "dry runs" as Casey puts it!LOL! But the funniest thing is when he has to go poop. First of all he has to assume the position, which these days is on his hands and knees in a corner of the living room, usually near the toy box - don't ask I have no idea! Sometimes he comes to us grabbing at his bottom because he wants his diaper off. Other times we ask him if he is poopy and he says "stinky" and turns around and backs up to us so we can check his bottom. It is the funniest thing ever. I have got to get it on video!

First Band-Aid

We had our first official Band-Aid today! We have several high wattage flood lights on the front of our house and Grayson touched one tonight. YIKES! Luckily, he was VERY quick to remove his fingers but it did make a blister on his index and middle finger. Poor baby - burns hurt really bad. What's so funny now is that he won't use his left hand at all. He wouldn't even hold a cookie with it. You would think he had his whole arm in a cast instead of just a band-aid.

Grayson had his first trip to Canton last weekend. We used to go there for the big flea market when I was little with Granny and Grandpa Bill. We have lots of good memories at Canton. It was fun but he has definitely hit the terrible two's. I see ourselves being somewhat homebound for the next year or so!! No, it's not really that bad - he was as good as any almost 2 year old can be.

Dallas World Aquarium

The penguins were funny!


He wanted down there really bad!

Have you ever seen a sloth? Well now you have.

We took a little mini trip last weekend to the Dallas area. We took Grayson to eat at the Rainforest Cafe at Grapevine - not sure he was too impressed! But he liked the balloon animals we got. Then Saturday we went to the Dallas World Aquarium, what a neat place! It's like an inside rain forest. They had the neatest fish, a HUGE manatee, monkeys, and I believe at least one of every type of penguin that exists. It was really fun. Grayson loved it. I think he would have jumped in the water a few times if we would have let him!! It was a great time and highly recommended by us! We ended our day by surprising Grammy and Pappa at the airport who were returning from Alaska. If I learned one thing from their trip it's that Alaska is too much wilderness for me - I'll be fine to view it from the balcony of a cruise ship!

My Little Gardener

Last night we were outside doing our usual nightly outside stuff - watering & more watering - when I noticed Grayson had a poopy diaper. So I took him inside and he had a pretty awful diaper rash so I just let him go outside pantless! YIKES! I never would have imagined ME having a kid outside with no diaper on, never say never!! Anyways, the boy was just like a dog - he peed on everything in sight - he thought it was funny I guess that he could do that. So we just let him be for an hour or so. He loves the water. Most nights he is soaking wet when we go inside because he couldn't stay out of the sprinkler and hoses. But last he actually was watering my plants. I think he comes by it pretty honestly because Pappa could stand outside for hours just watering the grass.

Kid Free!!

So Grayson went to Grammy and Pappa's for the weekend and Casey and I are just wondering around like we have no clue what we are supposed to be doing without Grayson! LOL! My house is nice and clean though! We had an awesome 4th of July. Our friends Dane, Jen, and Maggie came over and we shot some fireworks. Grayson loved them. He even liked the sparklers. We live close enough to the Riverwind casino that we could see their fireworks from our back porch so that was good. Anyways, Grayson got put in real timeout (the one with no cookies) this week at Nanny's (which is what we call daycare). He has discovered the art of kicking! YIKES! So that was probably the biggest milestone this week. We put him in timeout once at home this week too for hitting with his play golf club. He actually sat there (only for one and half minutes) until I told him he could get up. He sure looked sad though:( I'm sure this is just the beginning of many timeouts! We also took a ride on the boats in Brickown. He liked the first half of it and then he was so sleepy that the second half was not that enjoyable.

New Pictures

Here are a few of Grayson's 18 month pictures. They were taken on campus at OU by Sara Biese - Sara's Photo Creations. She does an awesome job! Not much new here. We camped with Grammy and Pappa last weekend at Thunderbird and our friends Jen Price and her daughter Maggie came on saturday to play with us. Grayson loves the sand, he could play in it all day. We had a good time. Jen, Dane, Maggie, and Grammy & Pappa are coming for the fourth so hopefully I can post some cute pics of Grayson's first real experience with the fourth of July business. I just hope he is not scared of them! Hope everybody has a safe and fun holiday!

Update

Grayson at the wedding
Great Grandpa Bill & Grayson - they had to go after the dog.

Just haven't posted anything in a while so I thought I would do an update. Grayson and I were on vacation at the first of month and we loved every minute of it. Kicked Daddy out of bed to go to work in the mornings and we went back to sleep!LOL! We didn't do much but we did go to the zoo. Grayson liked everything that was swimming. Not so much about the big animals - not enough activity for him! Then it was back to work. We went to Brandon & Kourtany Sanner's wedding and had a great time. Grayson is a dancing machine - he danced for 2 solid hours and only sat down to eat cake! Then it was Father's Day. It was a good day, we were at mom & dad's and Grandpa Bill & Grandma came over and spent the afternoon. Grayson swam and did all his funny tricks for them so they had a good time watching him be silly. Then the next day, Grayson woke up with an eye infection. Not sure if it was just allergies(I think so) or Pink Eye but the Dr called in some drops. So far he is really good about taking medicine or drops in the eye or ears! Don't know how long that will last though!?! And I finally finished Grayson's scrapbook. The first year anyways. So maybe when he turns 2 I'll start on the 2nd year. Anyways, we are staying home this weekend and will hopefully get our fence completely finished. Dad built the walk thru gate(thank you daddy) so we just need to hang it and paint it and we'll be done. Hopefully I will have something more exciting to post about next time.

Lake Fun!

We spent the weekend at Texhoma at some friends' house with my mom & dad(aka grammy and pappa). Grayson loved the water and the sand and mostly the getting dirty! He is such a boy! Anyways, we had a good time - went for a ride on pappa's boat and played in the water. Since getting tubes put in his ears he can't get any water in them - especially lake water! So that was kinda tricky - he doesn't like to leave in the ear plugs or leave on the hand band so we just had to be extra careful. Luckily he isn't old enough yet to want to swim and go under and all that good stuff. I'll leave you with some pics of our weekend.

This is hard work!

I have a couple of different things to write about tonight. First off, let's talk about how hard & trying this parenting thing is. So, Grayson only wants his pacifier when he is sleepy. He never thinks about it otherwise. But today was the first day back to Nanny's(daycare) after the long weekend and I'm sure he was a little extra tired today. We walked in the house about 6 or so and he threw a fit b/c his paci fell out in the car and I wouldn't get it for him. We are trying to slowly wean him from this habit - starting with only letting him have it when he is about to go to sleep. He proceeded to throw a 20 minute screaming fit - very few tears might I add - and nothing we did suited him. So let's move on to dinner. We had hamburger helper - not that exciting I know, but a staple in a house with an 18 month old. Grayson would NOT sit in his highchair. He wanted to sit in my lap and eat his dinner and play in mine. So he did! Let's move on to after dinner - wouldn't let him play with my fork that he threw on the ground - another 10 minute crying, screaming fit. And I should tell you that he knows how to throw a fit! If he throws himself down and hits something (let's say the ottoman, for example) he will get up and move to an open area on the floor and do it again, so we get the full effect of the fit! This is pretty much what my evening consisted of - fit after fit. Nothing Casey and I did tonight was the right thing. And let me tell you (mostly you parents who aren't quite to this stage yet) this is absolutely exhausting!!! You want to ignore the fit b/c that is what you're supposed to do but you also just want to give in to make them stop screaming. And then to top it off - at the end of it all, you feel bad b/c you think you have been too hard on them. So in a nutshell - I'm tired and I hope all of this is just b/c he is tired too!!
The other thing I have to say is a small vent and I will keep it short. I try very hard to be a good long distance relative/friend and I do not think it is too much to ask for that simple courtesy in return!

Hello!

Hey everybody! I am new at this so you will have to be patient with me. I decided I needed a way to remember all the cute stories and funny things that are going on in our life right now. They pretty much happen daily and I always say to myself, " I need to write that down somewhere". And for the first year you have a baby book to keep it all in, but what about after that? Anyways, I'm not sure I will be able to keep it up like I think I will but I am going to try. Grayson is almost 18 months now and growing up so fast. His new favorite thing is to tell you to "stop" and he points his finger. I have absolutely no idea where he inheritated this trait of finger pointing and being bossy! He is also big into doing everything himself. The picture with the fudgescicle is a perfect example. I thought we might could share one - but no! He wanted the whole thing himself and he wanted to hold it, but he ate every last bite if it (except what melted and dripped off while he was carrying it around). He is a huge fan of being outside, doesn't matter what he's doing, as long as he's outside doing it. Playing in the sand, swinging, riding the lawnmower with daddy or pappa, planting(stomping plants) with mommy and grammy, playing bubbles - doesn't matter - if it's outside, he LOVES it. And has a meltdown every time you make him come inside. But he loves bath time - so that usually gets him calmed down pretty quickly. Well that pretty much sums it up for now. I hope to be able to post short little stories and any milestones we hit weekly. So keep checking in - he is a very active, smart, loveable little boy who is sure to make this an interesting blog!