Overdue Update

A much needed update is due for the blog! It's been a crazy spring/summer so far.

Grey is growing up so much! He talks nonstop and makes pretty comprehensive sentences. You can tell his imagination is soaring right now too - he goes on bear/bird hunts, plays pretend with serving us food, giving us stamps, etc. He also LOVES sports - baseball, basketball, football and soccer. When we would watch the Mavrick's playoff games (they won the National Championship!) he would call them the "Get-it Get-its" because that is how he would cheer for them to get the ball. When anyone fell on the floor, he would say, "Clean it up!" because they wiped up the sweat off the floor or tell them to go to time out for pushing. It was really cute!

His new thing at the moment is baseball. Dan got him a new glove and when Dan asked if it was "much better" than the other he had, Grey said it was "perfect!". He can hit the ball with the bat when we throw him the ball too! He does really well. He will run the bases, aka make the loop around our house, and slides on the rug into home plate. I can't wait for him to start playing in the toddler league at the YMCA.

He is still taking swimming lessons and has moved up to the big kid class, which means neither Dan or I have to go in the pool with him. For the first 2 lessons I think he cried most of the time because he wanted us in there but he does good now. He will float on his back with his arms out, jump off the ledge of the pool and has gotten much better about putting his face in the water but still likes to wear goggles (and the pink ones too :) ).

He is about to move downstairs to the big boy bed next week and hopefully start going to bed at a earlier time too (crossing my fingers there). He has gotten into a bad habit of not going to bed until 9:30 which leaves me and Dan no time for anything.

Overall he is excellent and really hasn't gotten the "terrible two" syndrome yet. He is very sweet at heart and always wants to make sure we are happy and will give us a kiss to make it all better if he does something wrong. I love him!!

On another note, we will be adding to the family in early October!! We are not finding out if it will be a boy or girl again. I will be 7 months (28 weeks) on July 20 so only a few more months to go! We are excited...a little nervous, but we are blessed to be growing the family. It has been such a HOT summer with temps over 100 for almost the entire month of July that I'm ready for the baby to come because it also means the fall is around the corner too. I'm due October 12 but am hoping to be induced October 7. Let the countdown begin!!

I'll post pictures and more updates later (hopefully sooner than later) but wanted to jot this down before I forgot and I had a little free time this morning at work.

Snow Day

Grey got to stay home from school a few days in February due to the weather and we got so stir crazy that we decided to bundled up and play outside in the snow for a while. It was FREEZING! Grey love it and would just run in circles in the snow. Below are a few pictures from our day of fun.

My wake up call

Grey has FINALLY been sleeping through the night consistently (knock on wood), which makes a world of a difference for me and Dan. He wakes up usually around 6:30ish, which isn't too bad. The other morning, I woke up to him saying, "Mommy, come in here". He was ready to get out of bed and watch Zaboomafoo! Having a chocolate bottle while laying in our bed and watching Zaboomafoo is our ritual every morning :) Life doesn't get any better than that!

Birthday Bash

On Saturday, January 29th, we celebrated Grey's birthday with a bunch of family and some close friends. The day started out with swim lessons, lunch at Fuzzy Taco, NO nap, and then the P-A-R-T-Y!

He really enjoyed the gift opening part (I think it's b/c Christmas was not long ago) and he wanted to open presents as soon as someone brought one in :). He had a blast playing with all his new toys/gifts. In fact, he did not stop pushing the lawn mower (which he thinks is a vaccum cleaner) all day!

Since he doesn't really like cake, we had cookies, ice cream, cup cakes (for everyone else) and toppings for sundaes. Of course the M&Ms were Grey's favorite part. He loves them so much that that is how he learned his colors while we were in Costa Rica..."Eat the red one" or "Eat the orange one". Hey, whatever works, right?!?

Thank you to everyone that came to the party (especially those that came from out of town) and making it a special day for Grey!

Happy Birthday to Grey!

Birthday wish

Devouring the sweets

Opening presents

Grey pushing the lawn mower from the Songs while wearing his robe from Tim and Shelly

Dad playing with Grey's present

Happy Birthday to Grey

Happy birthday to Grey....happy birthdday to Grey!

Can you believe Grey is already 2?!?! He has been such a blessing to us and has brought so much joy and laughter over the past years. He's our little monkey :) We LOVE you to pieces Grey!

We brought cup cakes to school to celebrate with his class and are heading out to Chick-fil-a after I pick him up so he can play in the play area (he loves it!). I'm hoping I can get him to leave this time without crying to stay. His birthday party will be Saturday and a bunch of family is coming in to help celebrate. It will be so much fun! I'll post pictures hopefully on Sunday.

We love you Grey and happy, happy birthday! You are getting to be such a big boy!

My Present

So Grey's new thing is to get the leftover wraping paper from Christmas, roll out a bunch of it, have Dan or I wrap him up and then jump out and say "Happy Birthday!". I think he went through a whole role the other night. What a goof! :)

COSTA RICA!!!

The day after Christmas, we woke up bright and early to head to the airport to go to Costa Rica with my Mom's side of the family. Grey was so excited to go on an air plane...he had been saying "Grey air plane" for weeks. After arriving there 2 hours early, somehow or another my Mom, Dad, Dan, Grey and I end up missing the deadline to check in luggage and therefore missing our flight. Everyone else was okay to go so we send them off without us. Luckily we were able to get on a different flight to Panama City, Panama (yes, at first when they said Panama City I thought "Florida won't be that bad of a place for a layover" - WRONG!). After getting to Panama around 9 PMish that night, we tried to get a so-called "taxi" to go to our "five-star hotel" according to Robyn and Morgan. This "taxi" ended up being a guy off the street driving us in his personal car so we quickly got out! I would hate for us to end up "missing" in Panama! We finally get to the hotel and needless to say it was not as nice as Robyn and Morgan thought. It was do-able but Dan and I were a little nervous to get under the sheets :). To add to all of this, our luggage didn't follow us so we only had the little that we carried on (just the necessities).

The next morning we head to the airport (and yes, we got there really early to make sure we didn't miss this flight) and land in Costa Rica an hour or so later. In order to make up for lost time, we decided to take the hopper plane to Manuel Antonio. I had never ridden on this small of a plane before...it was basically just us and two other guys and the pilots. It was super windy so that made the plane ride even that much more fun :). I think my Mom was praying the whole time because we did quite a few dips that would make you almost lose your stomach. We landed safely though on a runway that was basically a small clearing in the middle of the rain forest and had planes parked at the cul-de-sac at the end of the runway. All that mattered though was that we were finally there!! Whoo hoo!

So we grabbed a much needed beer and headed to the villa to meet everyone. Luckily it was a short drive and we got there around lunch so we didn't miss too much of the trip. Grey did amazingly well through this whole fiasco - he couldn't have been better! What a trooper he was.

Dan, Bobby, Cricket and I headed off to town to grab some stuff while we waited for our luggage, which thankfully arrived the next day. After that, though, we were all set and ready to enjoy our trip! The villa was amazing and was right next to the National Forest and had a great view of the ocean. Monkeys (or as Grey calls them "munchies") would literally come up on the deck and pool and you could hear the howlers at night. One time two monkeys were climbing all over the villa and Dan and I were afraid one had gotten into our room because we had left the balcony sliding door open. Luckily it didn't or else I would have made Dan get it out (sorry Dan!). Grey was in awe of all of the "munchies" and would say, "Munchie, where are you?". He also loved the iguanas and would go down the street with my dad to find them.

Dan and I got to surf, zip line through the rain forest IN THE RAIN, get a massage on our villa terrace, and go on the sunset sail cruise with everyone. Others went white water rafting and hiked through the rain forest along with other activities. We all had a blast! My dad was so sweet and would watch Grey while we were all gone. Every morning my dad and Grey would walk up to the juice bar and get a fruit smoothie for breakfast. They found a dog that looked like Bailey (Morgan's dog) and Grey thought Bailey had gone on the trip with us :). He would ask to go take Bailey on walks and one time Bailey was on the roof of the restaurant by our villa and Grey couldn't figure out how in the world he was on the roof!

Overall we had the best time and I was so sad to leave the warm weather to come back to Dallas to the cold and work...ugh! Thanks Mom, Dad, Cricket, Ronny and Bobby for making this happen! We can't thank you enough for all the fun we had spending with you! Can we make this an annual trip??? :)

Top REMINDERS for the next trip:

1. Make sure to check in at least an hour ahead of the flight

2. Park the car as a group and as close as possible

3. Make sure to use your legal name on your airline ticket (Judy) and you have a ticket booked (Ronny and Grey)

4. You don't need to pack anything except 2-3 shorts/tops, sunscreen and a bathing suit (EVERYONE)

5. Carry on #4 above along with toiletries in case your additional luggage does not make it on time

6. Don't split up when trying to track down lost luggage while at the same time trying to make your next flight (me and Mom)

7. You DON'T need a car seat in Costa Rica

8. You always get there somehow so don't stress

Grey at IAH waiting to check in. He was so excited and loved carrying around his air plane bag!

Marcus and Grey swimming the first day we arrive at the villa pool

"Munchie"

More "Munchies"

Morgan and Grey

Afternoon naps on the hammock with Grey and my dad. How sweet is this picture!

Grey busting a move at the pool to the music.

Walking down to the beach....the walk up was terrible! It was a workout!

Playing at the beach

Life is good! Grey in the pool, sippy cup and was playing with his Daddy!

The sunset sail, aka. booze cruise. We ran out so they had to go to another boat to restock :)

Snorkeling on the cruise. We brought Grey in the ocean with us for a swim afterwards.

Pops and his girls :)

The Fam

Ronny, Cricket and Ronny Jr.

Getting a smoothie at the juice bar

Playing with Daddy

Stopped for a drink during a walk along the beach New Year's Eve



The sunsets were amazing!




Bobby, Cricket and Judy



A lunch stop at the alligator bridge on the way back to the airport. Ahhh, SNAP!

Grey was pooped when we got back to Houston. He even slept with his "muchie" around his neck.

What a December!

Our Christmas celebrations began in Yoakum, TX for the Knocke Christmas December 10 and didn't stop until January 1 after a trip to Costa Rica  (Costa Rica pics to be posted soon). Grey had a grand ole' time running around Yoakum, riding a tractor, eating chocolate by the handful and hanging out everyone.

Grey hanging

Pops hanging

Granny, PoPo, Sutton and Grey

I thought this picture was funny because it looks like the dog is smiling.

Grey made Elmo get his PJs on and drink a BaBa before bedtime

We went to Austin to celebrate with David, Martha, Tim, Shelly, Maddie and Noah. We had a delicious lunch and Grey didn't push Maddie down too many times (thank goodness!). Sorry Maddie! We had fun all hanging out and Grey had David playing with all of Maddie's toys with him :)

Grey and Maddie

The week before Christmas we took Grey (finally!) to get pictures with Santa. He did better this year but was still a little nervous to sit on a stranger's lap.

Playing in the Disney store before seeing Santa

Grey was not a fan of Santa at first

Does this picture remind you of something???

How about now? This is last year's picture with Santa.

Grandma Ni Ni came to spend some time with us before Christmas and stayed until Christmas day. Grey loved it and would say "Ni Ni, where are you?" knowing that she was in the back bedroom. Tim and Shelly came to join us the night before Christmas so Ni Ni had her hands full with all of her grandkids :). We had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed spending it with all of you!

Being swormed with grandkids

On Christmas afternoon we headed to The Woodlands to have Christmas there. Grey had fun opening more presents and singing in the mic he got. He is such a ham! He made all of us sing in it and would just laugh!

Grey and his "Hello" he got for Christmas

The gifts don't stop coming :)

Thanks everyone for a wonderful Christmas! We love you all and are blessed to have such a great family!