White Christmas

Well Christmas came and went and it was a good one(for the most part). We did have a white Christmas which was nice but it did kinda mess up our plans. All of my cousins were in from out of town but we couldn't all get to the same house because of the snow. Which here in Oklahoma when we get snow it always follows ice so that makes the roads worse. But we were able to see everybody at some point during the weekend. Grayson was a blast this year telling everybody Merry Christmas and about all the presents that Santa brought him (which he told us Daddy left - not sure he still totally gets the Santa concept). Santa brought a John Deere Gator and a huge rocky/bouncy horse, named Ole Paint(which happens to be the name of a horse on a Backyardigans episode). He hasn't got to ride his new truck yet b/c of the snow but he has certainly had fun on the horse. He actually had so many presents to open that Christmas morning he got down to the last two and told me I could finish his - HA! Casey went out Saturday morn to look for us a sled - with no luck. So Poppa just built us one - and a really good one at that! He pulled us behind the 4-wheeler, I'm pretty sure Grayson even went to sleep once riding it. Then today all of our hineys were sore so Poppa put an old boat seat on it - you could ride on that thing all day!!LOL! So all in all it was a fabulous Christmas and Grayson and I are off until Jan 4th so we are pretty excited about that. No New Year's plans - prob just be at home or at Mom and Dad's, we kinda have a hard time staying up that late!!!!
Pa Bill with his Great Grandsons(Cooper and Grayson) tried to get a pic the night before with Maddy but she wasn't having it!!

3 Years Old

Grayson is officially 3 years old!!! Wow, time really flies after you have kids!! He was having a hard time going to sleep one night last week and Casey had been in his room and told him that he was a big boy b/c he was 3 years old and 3 year olds sleep in their own beds, etc. etc. - I'm sure you can imagine the conversation! So after a while he hollered for Momma - I guess he thought he would have better luck with me instead - so when I got to his bedroom he just looked at me with those pitiful eyes and told me he didn't want to be 3 anymore!!! LOL!! He is just full of funnies these days. His birthday party was great. Backyardigans was the theme as that is our favorite these days. But luckily there is a lot of birthday party stuff out there with them on it so it was pretty easy. We had it at Perfect Swing here in Norman where they have arcade games and a huge climb in/on thingy with tunnels and ball pits and slides. And outside they have batting cages, go-carts, putt-putt, all the good stuff. I think everyone had a good time - all the kids seemed to really enjoy it. Grayson got tons of presents. Of course his fishing pole, boat & truck set, & an airplane that you put together with a drill are his favorites. His cowboy hat and boots have basically not come off since the party!! And he ropes everything in sight!! So now comes Christmas! Grayson is definitely more fun this year - he kinda gets the concept now. He loves the Christmas tree lights and is quickly becoming a fan of Santa as we explain exactly what his job is!!! We are going to the Christmas parade in the stockyards this weekend and to do some other fun things in Bricktown. Mom and Dad are coming for my birthday - and yes the cold, cold yucky weather again made it just in time for my birthday this year too!!!

New Family Pictures

We had some new family pics taken today by a friend of mine. She does this as a hobby but is very, very good. We had fun doing them too - Grayson was pretty cooperative as long as we kept reminding him of the prizes that awaited him along the way. We haven't done much - trick-or-treated in Duncan last weekend and the next big thing is Grayson's birthday in just 2 1/2 short weeks. I can't believe he is almost 3 - he is just getting so big. He is so smart and caring(most of the time - LOL!) and we are so proud of who he is becoming!! I posted a link to my facebook album instead of posting all the pics here - I hope it works!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020933&id=1465050463&l=d4a62fb0a8

Pumpkin Patch

We took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch near our house last sunday. Grayson has a blast, mostly on the slide that comes off the stack of hay bales, but he also likes the hay maze and the of course the tractor that pulls the hay ride! We had two birthday parties yesterday and one next weekend so we are in full swing of constant sugar highs!! Not to mention Halloween the next weekend and Pa Bill's birthday!!!! My cousin, Jenny, had her baby boy last week - Cooper Wayne! He is adorable and we can't wait to meet him!

Climbing up to the slide This is by far his favorite part of the pumpkin patch!

Again this year, chewin' on straw on the hayride
He picked out his own pumpkin

And then we painted it!!!

This would be Grayson's favorite outfit - undies and bootcows

It was literally 63 degrees outside but he said he wasn't cold!

This is just one of those memories that mommy and daddy don't want to forget! May not be interesting to anyone else but I wanted to write it down somewhere. So Grayson pretty much says anything and everything these days - and I do mean everything, yes we have had our first curse word and he used it in the right context, I'm ashamed and proud at the same time!! LOL Anyways, when he says a sentence and is referring to himself he always puts "me" at the end. "Come lay down me"= come lay down with me, "jacket me" = my jacket, "play me" = come play with me, you get the idea. I couldn't possibly think of them all right now but it just the way he says it that's so endearing. My other story is about our newest game that he is obsessed with. Not sure it has a name but here's how it's played: Grayson runs the circle(made up of our living area, kitchen, and breakfast area) as fast as he can and multiple times while we do the announcing on the play microphone. Funny stuff! He also says "I love you" back now - but mostly he goes thru his list - "I love Momma, I love Daddy, I love Mimi, I love Pappa" and sometimes at the end is "and I love Pappa's house"! It is hilarious! Well that's about it for now - we will soon be taking a trip to the pumpkin patch that's near our house and Grayson's birthday is coming up next month.

End of Summer

We haven't been too busy lately - just doing fun stuff. Spent Labor Day weekend camping at Arbuckle. My friend Mindy and her family came one day and Grayson and Maveric are good pals so they had a fun and exhausting day of swimming, tubing, and eating!! And of course there's nothing Grayson likes better than being with Mimi and Pappa than being with them camping and fishing so he enjoyed it. Grayson had his first fair experience a few weeks ago and it looks like we'll be spending a lot of time at Six Flags in the future b/c he LOVED the rides. Finally Mimi will have someone to ride roller coasters with!! LOL! Going to Duncan this weekend for a family reunion on Saturday and then to state fair on Sunday for Disney On Ice. G is super excited - he keeps seeing the commercials on tv and says"Momma, I want to go to that!" Oh, I almost forgot the biggie - G is potty trained - yes you read correctly - no more diapers(except at night) WOW! this is nice. He only had a couple of accidents and luckily those have been at home - WOOHOO!


Grayson and Maveric - very tired boys after a long day of tubing!!

His first real fishing pole(you know the one for "pooping in the hole")

Grayson and Mimi on the ferris wheel @ the fair - he LOVED the rides!!!

POTTY TRAINED!!!! Is there anything cuter than this?!!!? (the answer is no! HaHa!)

Potty Time

So Grayson has been pretty interested in the potty for a while but we never could find the time to stay home and work with it. Well I was off work for a few days at the first of August so we stayed home and wore big boy underwear for a couple of days. He has had a few accidents here and there(all of them at home thank goodness) but I am proud to say that we are almost totally potty trained. OK -not at night - but don't we have a while still to work on that one? Last night he even pooped in the potty. WOW - that was an interesting evening. He kept asking for a pull-up b/c he didn't want to poo in the potty and I wouldn't let him have one so he eventually just gave in to it I guess. Well Casey took him for ice cream and Pappa had promised him a new fishing pole so we'll be collecting on that this weekend!!!
Other than that we don't have much going on. We are going camping at Arbuckle Lake this weekend. A family reunion, Disney On Ice, and a Rangers baseball game round out September. I will post some pics of our adventures.

New Adventure

Well I'm sure everyone knows about Grayson's obsession with boats, fishing, the lake, etc. (not sure what we will do all winter when we can't go to the lake!) but it reached a new level this weekend! Before I get into that let me just tell you our new game at home. The ottoman is now a boat and the hallway is the lake. So Grayson pushes the "boat" into the "lake" and he wants someone to sit on the boat with him (but you can't let your feet get in the water) - he puts his boat key(fish key ring) under the ottoman cushion and starts his boat and he fishes - then he takes his fish which happens to be a tire (Lightning McQueen pole) and cooks it in the microwave at his kitchen and brings it to you on a plate to eat. It is usually served with some french fries and milk!! He is getting quite the imagination!
So onto our new adventure this weekend - tubing! Let me tell you that my child is fearless!! He rode a tube behind the boat for the first time this weekend and we had to drag him off of it. He rode for probably 2 hours Saturday - Daddy, Mimi, and Pappa rode with him. Then he wanted to ride with the big boys - we were at Lake Foss with some of my cousins and they have kids ranging in age from 5 - 13, so he was very excited to be doing what the big kids were doing! He has not stopped talking about riding his tube since we got home. So I guess that is what our weekends will consist of until the end of the summer!


pappa and Grayson tubing

Grayson, Garrett, and Carson(he wanted to ride with the big boys!)

Daddy and Grayson

Surgery

Grayson had his surgery yesterday. He had another set of tubes and his adenoids removed. Hopefully this will solve the problem and mom also read that enlarged adenoids can cause sleep problems so maybe this will solve a whole bunch of problems. Everything went fine and the Dr said that his adenoids were swollen and blocking about 75% of the opening to his ear. Grayson keeps telling everybody that the Dr's fixed his ears and that he had to blow up the balloon(which was the gas they put him to sleep with) and he puts his hand over his mouth and nose where the mask was. It's funny to watch him tell the story. He had a pretty cranky day yesterday but he is back to his normal wild self today!!

FLORIDA!

We had a blast in Destin, Florida! We went with Mimi and Pappa last week and had lots of fun. We tried to do a little of everything. Stopped and ate cajun food in Louisiana where they had a stuffed alligator that Grayson was pretty impressed with!! Got to Florida late Sunday afternoon, did beach on Mon and Grayson was OK with the water but would much rather just play in the sand. He loved to bury his feet in the sand and then ask "where'd my feet go?" It was very cute. We went and ate the Hog's Breath Saloon - very good BBQ! Highly recommend it. We took Grayson to the Gulfarium in Ft Walton Beach on Wed. We also did a dolphin tour, pretty much did the beach every day, go to see some of the fish people had caught and Grayson learned a new word - redfish. Shocking I know - given his obsession with boats and fishing!! The only bad part was that Grayson got sick on Mon night and ran fever off and on until Wed when we took him to the urgent med clinic and sure enough he had ear infections in both ears!! CRAPOLA! He really did pretty good - but you could tell Tue and Wed that he just didn't feel good. But overall the trip was a success!!

Today's news from the ENT is that Grayson will be having another set of tubes put in and his adenoids removed. Not sure the exact date but sometime before the end of the month. So lets hope this works for good and we can be done with ear stuff. That's it for now. I have posted a lot of pics.

Waaay Behind!

Grayson & Hayden jumping!

Riding with Ana in the Escalade!!

Grandma with the great-grandkids Sara, Ana, & Grayson

Pete & RePete!!!!

Grayson with Mimi & Pappa.

OMG! I am way behind on this thing. We have been so busy lately - nothing of any importance just mostly outside. It's that time of year when Grayson is outside 24/7! We do not come inside in the evenings until dark! We did a lot of yard work last weekend. Stained our fence(thanks Dad) and created a new flower bed in the front(thanks Mom). I did not enjoy it:( Grayson is busy with yard work too. He still loves to mow with Daddy and Pappa and of course he ahs his own push(bubble) mower that he uses, although sometimes he just hauls his mower in his trailer behing his tractor. Speaking of tractor, he fell asleep driving his tractor Friday afternoon! It was possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen. He was driving around the yard - eyes closed - & then you'd see him jerk like he woke up for a second. He was running into stuff and then backing up and running into it again!! Eyes closed the whole time - it was great! I'll try to put the video on here. We had a surprise 80th birthday party for my Grandma yesterday and it went great. Lots of people came and she was happily surprised so it was a success. Grayson had a great time playing with his cousins that we don't see much(Hayden, Gage, Sara, and Ana). They played hard all evening!! We are fixing to head to the lake today - Grayson wants to ride in Pappa's boat so bad he can taste it!! He was trying to hook it up to his little 4-wheeler yesterday.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! Ours was fantastic. We celebrated a day early since family was in and the weather was better today than it will be tomorrow. My cousin Russell and his wife Lacey came in with Maddy. She is getting so big and Grayson (mostly)enjoyed sharing his toys with her. We are glad we got to share her first Easter with them. And of course Pa Bill(Grayson has shortened his name) really enjoyed having all of us together. Next year we will have another baby since Jenny and Micheal will be having a baby in October. YEAH! So just a few pics of today - Grayson really enjoyed the thrill of the hunt this year. He also hunted eggs at Nanny's and I think he had fun! On a sadder note, some of Casey's family have lost their business and homes in Velma so please keep them(and all those involved) in your prayers. Luckily everyone is OK! Grayson is really talking up a storm - long, recognizable sentences! He is getting big fast. His favorites right now are "I'll be right back" and "I don't like it". LOL! He is still very much into fishing and now he loves to go check on the cows with his Pappa in the golf cart! We are pretty much back to being outside ALL the time now that it's warming up.

Great Grandpa Bill with Maddy & Grayson

"I know there is candy in here!"

Grayson & Maddy hunting eggs

Sidewalk Trained?

So we have reached a couple of new milestones today. First one is that Grayson can dribble a basketball. Sure, it's not great yet, but he can do for it 15-20 seconds - pretty good for a 2 year old! He is very coordinated! He loves to kick balls too and ALWAYS kicks with his left foot. Casey and I think we should continue to encourage this - I mean is there a better position on the football team than kicker?! Not for me, that's right, you tackle my baby and you will get penalized!!! So the next milestone is comical. He is still pretty interested in peeing in the potty, sometimes he does and sometimes he just says he does. But tonight, as usual, he refused to put a diaper/pull-up on after our potty time, so "whatever" I said. So Casey hollers at me from the garage, and yes, you guessed it, Grayson was peeing out the side garage door and onto the sidewalk! I asked Casey if he told him to do it and he said No. I'm like, "what, is peeing outside like instictive to you people" Whatever - at least it is getting warmer outside so if peeing outside does it then I guess that's what we'll do!

No more boppy!

So our big exciting news is NO MORE BOPPY! (that's what grayson called his pacifier) He mainly only used it when he was sleepy anyways, and hasn't used it at Nanny's in about 6 months. He was getting to where he would throw it at night when we were trying to make him go to sleep so Sunday night he threw it behind his headboard and I just told him I guess he didn't want it anymore so no more boppy! I just jumped in both feet at once! LOL! Well then after I said it I couldn't go back or it sure enough wouldn't mean anything the next time! So Sunday night was rather unpleasant with a lot of what can only be described as violent fits of anger! He was mad! Then he asked for it a few times Monday night but never cried for it at bedtime and has pretty much since forgotten about it! YIPPEE! I was really getting tired of that thing! Other than that nothing exciting to report here. Grayson and I stayed home a couple of days last week during the ice so that was kinda nice and Casey has been sick but is on the mend now. I think we all have spring fever.