GRAY

More pics of Addison

2009-11-22T21:37:00.001-08:00

Addison's hair is very difficult to do anything with. Before taking these photos, Dacia smoothed down her hair, but less than 5 minutes later, well, you can see the results.

Late Autumn Hike

2009-11-12T23:41:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of November, on the last really warm day in the valley, I took the boys on a hike on the Mill D Trail in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was a good thing I threw a bunch of warm clothes in the trunk of the car, because it was COLD in them there hills! There was snow on the lee side of the mountains, so I took the boys up this trail since most of the first leg is on the west and south face of this particular mountain. The trail was dry for the most part, with just a few muddy spots. Jonah was sure nervous about falling off the trail and down the mountain in some spots. Kinda weird when hiking up the trail.

We only hiked up about a half hour due to the position of the sun. We turned around with enough time to make it back down with the last remaining sunlight. Jon-Jon kept asking how high we were going to go. "I'm real tired! I don't have enough oxygen 'cuz we're so high up. When are we going to stop and take a break?" We eventually did stop and the boys fueled up on Capri-Sun flavored water and Wheat Thins. Good thing Dad had so many pockets in his cargo pants and jack-vest!

Gray Halloween

2009-11-01T23:11:00.001-08:00

We had a great time on Halloween night with Grandma, Grandma Gray and Emily! Caleb dressed as robot, Peter a robot cowboy, and Willie as an robot alien. Jonah went as a vampire, Jonathan as dark Spiderman, and Spencer as a hunter who hunted, killed, skinned, and then wore the skin of Tigger. Ok, fine, he actually went as Tigger, but we couldn't get him to keep the hood/hat part on, so Rob commented that he actually looked like he was wearing a Tigger skin. Grandma and Grandpa fed us all pizza before we went out and we had a great time!

Baby Gray

2009-10-17T15:22:00.000-07:00

Addison Rachel Gray

Sunday Afternoons

2009-09-28T09:34:00.000-07:00

Jonathan recently brought home a note from the school saying he needs glasses. So, at church Sunday I decided to test the school's findings. We were sitting in the overflow behind the regular pews in the chapel, and I asked him to tell me the page # for the first hymn on the marquee at the front of the chapel. He squinted, and lifted his hand to his eyes, and was about to walk closer to see it when I stopped him and said, "You need glasses."

"No I don't," he replied. "I'm just too far away to read it."

He then grabbed a hymn book and said, "See? That says 'Hymns' upside-down!"

So that explains why he keeps bumping into walls and things...

Later he told me that he used to want to be a fireman when he grows up, but has changed his mind to be a doctor, "Cuz they make more money!" (If only he followed politics...)

Here is a recent Sunday drive, inspired by Jon and Heidi Mae and family. Ours are nowhere near as picturesque.

Bowling

2009-09-17T23:37:00.000-07:00

Yay! Bowling night for FHE! Spencer's first time. You'll notice how thrilled he is about in the last couple of pictures...

Yeah, that's not his happy face.

Back to School!!

2009-08-30T23:15:00.000-07:00

Jonah is in 3rd grade, Jonathan is in 1st. All I can say is, aaaaauuuugggghhhh, what a relief! I guess I fall in to the category of a parent that relishes the day the kids go back to school. That still leaves Spencer at home, and he is the worst of our 3 so far in needing constant attention. I don't ever remember the other two requiring such vigilance. Anyhow the boys greatly enjoyed their first week back. Of course, Jonah started on Wednesday, and Jonathan on Thursday, so it wasn't really a week.

Yes, they comb their own hair.

The week before, Diedre planned her annual back to school party which was a total blast as usual! The boys all had fun with their different activities.

They wrote introductory letters to each of their teachers...As you can see, the following is Jon's:

Green Beans? Really? What does "Centers" mean? Naughty kids? From what we are told, he is their ringleader! "Wanna play house?" That's our Jon-Jon!

Back to the party...They made their very own t-shirts!

And had a sleepover!

At least they waited until AFTER Diedre left before gambling with glowsticks...

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Joe and Jon received new Superman pjs--complete with cape! (attached with velcro.) Both boys ran around the house the first day the put them on--running with their heads turned back looking over their shoulders--to see if the capes were billowing...Of course Dacia and I were sutably impressed, even if Joe became very frustrated that he couldn't see and billowing from his cape. Jon was just happy his flapped at the edges a bit...

Ummm, superkid on the right, aren't you a little short for a superhero? I don't remember Superman rolling up his tights.

We went to Dacia's concert tonight. Her choir, Deseret Chamber Singers sang at the Springville Art Museum. It was their end of summer concert, and it was very nice. Below are a couple very brief videos of some of their pieces. (Each song clip is less than 30 seconds long--and three clips, taken with my super high-tech, ultra sophisticated film and studio equipment....a $100 point a click camera...No seriously, the choir was great and my recording not.)

Yes, I was sitting in the audience. I felt guilty the whole time, like I was bootlegging a movie or something...I added one more song, several clips. I told you my camera was rinky-dink! It only records sound for video in one minute intervals. It will keep recording video after one minute--without sound, so I have to keep stopping and restarting my recording. I tried to look for pauses, or rests, but wasn't always successful. This clip is 5m30s long--all one song.

Uh, yeah, the video is of the floor. I told you I felt guilty!! Mainly of filming the back of heads...

Wait, is the taller superkid (I couldn't really say bigger) beating up the shorter superkid? Or trying to protect him?

Binky envy

2009-08-23T22:21:00.001-07:00

We took Spencer's binky away-permanently-about two weeks ago. We tried trimming it, by cutting off a small piece off every few days, but it didn't phase him. We ended up having to just throw it out. He was fine until today.

Aaaaahhhhhhh, Spencer! So I'm laying on the living room couch, enjoying a hard-earned Sunday afternoon nap. Then I hear a strangled screech coming from somewhere in the house. "Spen-ceeeeeerrrrrrrrr! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo........!!!" He had opened a drawer halfway up a row of drawers, and used it to boost himself up onto the kitchen counter. Then he got into the spice cabinet, and had a grand old time opening spice bottles and dumping them all over himself, the toaster, counter, stove, open drawer and kitchen floor. In all he emptied about 30 spice bottles-including a bottle of Kitchen Bouquet, Browning and Seasoning sauce. That stuff stains. Bad. You know how spices smell really good? Yeah. Not all mixed together, all at once.

Later we were perusing one our family picture albums when Spencer starting yelling and trying to pluck the binky in one of the pictures-out of the picture. Seriously. He reached out his little hand and tried to pinch the binky to get it out of the picture, which incidentally was his own binky in his own mouth--in the picture. And boy was he upset when he couldn't get it!

Following are pics from our vacation in July. These were taken in Solvang, CA, a Dutch-settled town over 2 hours north of L.A.

Spencer discovers trains on YouTube

2009-08-15T10:29:00.001-07:00

Spencer's 2nd!!

2009-08-08T12:37:00.001-07:00

Grandma Gray and Emily came over and surprised Spencer for his Big Day.

Happy Rainy Birthday Emily!

2009-06-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

Spencer is now tall enough and strong enough to turn doorknobs on interior doors and open them. We bought the childproof stuff recently. You know, the doorknob covers that spin around so toddlers can't open doors. Spencer loved them! He thought they were a new game. He would run from door to door spinning the covers around. We put them on the doors we wanted Spencer to stay out of. Lasted all of 1o minutes. I walked in one of the rooms that I had just put a doorknob cover on, now a mess of course. Spencer had figured out how to take it apart. 10 minutes.

He is a lot like Jonah, in that a lot of his speech is gibberish. He does have a few words in his vocabulary though. He'll yell "MOM" about 4 times as loud as his speaking voice, then deliver to her a sentence of pure garbled Spencerspeak. Goggy for doggy, oo-oo for woof-woof, Non for Jon, oo-er for Pooh Bear, yaysh for yes, WHOOOOOAAAAAA! for NO!, high for light, hey-whoa for hello when speaking on the phone, hai for hi, bye-bye for bye-bye, gay-ku for thank you, peaze for please, awhn for on (but with a gutteral n), aw for off, and so on.

Jonah Baptism

2009-06-06T17:28:00.000-07:00

We missed those of you who couldn't be with us

babies

2009-06-04T20:50:00.000-07:00

May

2009-05-31T19:51:00.001-07:00

We all had a great time at our May BDay party! Funny thing, when we jumped into the car to head out to West Jordan, the weather was beautiful everywhere in the valley--except one spot where there were black clouds and tons of rain. Right where we were driving for our party. Needless to say, the boys ended up sopping wet--about 30 seconds after we arrived. Don't you just love puddle-jumping?

Video about 5 minutes...

Kindergarten Program

2009-05-23T16:42:00.001-07:00

This is for those of us who were not able to attend in person...

Shades of Sundays Past

2009-04-19T15:33:00.000-07:00

"The boys are in trouble!" Dacia said. "They are being punished after church!"

YES!! I get to punish the boys! Ok, so what is the punishment?

"They are going to sit on the couch at home after church, quietly and reverently, for one hour!"

That's right! That'll teach 'em!

Wait a minute, that sounds familiar. Didn't I have the same punishment several times as a young hooligan? Hmmm...I'm trying to remember if it worked. I don't think so. If I remember right, it just ended up frustrating Grandma Gray even more until she finally threw up her hands in despair and retreating from the living room muttering to herself in dismay. No wait, yeah, that's right! I was the good one! The only reason I had to receive the punishment was to show Jon and Rob-the actual perpetrators-how to sit quietly, cuz I was so good at it! Yeah, that's how it all went down...

So what was the behavior that caused Dacia's frustration?

January 7, 1997- Dacia meets a loud-mouthed RM in her Music Theory 101 class...

December 20, 1997- Dacia marries said loud-mouthed RM...

2001-2007- Dacia then decides to have 3 boys (don't forget the one on the way! just guessing as to its gender)...

Fast forward until this morning....

Dacia gets out of bed early to ready herself for church. Showers, shaves, all the rest.

8am-Dacia wakes up the boys and gets them breakfast. Eats a bowl of cereal herself. Jason is asleep.

8:30-Dacia blowdries her hair. She sets Jonah and Jonathan up with instructions to get dressed.

8:45-Dacia finishes her hair, then yells at Jonah and Jonathan to hurry up and get dressed. She hunts around for clothes for Spencer.

8:55-Jonah and Jonathan have turned on the computer to play video games. Dacia finally finds the outfit she wants to dress Spencer in.

9:10-Dacia yells at Jonah and Jonathan, who are playing computer games. In their pjs. They all begin a hunt for their church clothes.

9:20-Dacia finds the last of their clothes; ties and belts. She then starts to apply her makeup.

9:35-Dacia starts to look for Spencer's socks and shoes. She finds Spencer out on the deck. He has learned how to unlock and open the sliding glass door.

9:47-Dacia has finished combing all 3 boys' hair. Jason wakes up and gets out of bed to shower.

9:58-The whole family loads into car to go to church.

10:00-Family piles out of the car. We arrive just in time for choir rehearsal, which Dacia conducts. Jason tries to hide his yawns.

11:05-Sacrament meeting starts.

11:11-Opening Hymn and Prayer are done; Spencer is thrashing about and arching his back, screraming, trying to free himself from Dacia's arms. Books, toys, and crayons have failed to calm him. Dacia's white blouse has been colored blue in places.

11:25-Ward business is finishing and Sacrament Hymn begins.

11:26-Jason takes Spencer out of the chapel.

11:40-Sacrament is over, Dacia leaves Jonah and Jonathan in chapel to switch with Jason taking care of Spencer.

11:45-Dacia returns to chapel grumbling to herself, not having found Jason or Spencer. She sits down to find only Jonathan is remaining, and he is looking around planning his escape. "Jonah had to go to the bathroom. Can I go?"

11:55-Jonah has returned, with Jonathan, from the bathroom. Jonathan starts climbing over and under and around the bench. Jonah starts giggling, and snapping his fingers in the ears of the children of the Morgan family sitting in front of them. Dacia is trying to silence Jonah and Jonathan.

12:05-Jonathan is laying on his back under the bench. Jonah is alternating snapping his fingers in the Morgan's ears, and tickling Jonathan underneath him, giggling all the while. They are ignoring Dacia altogether. She is grumbling to herself wondering if Jason has gone back home with Spencer. Jonah asks Dacia, "How many more minutes 'til the meeting is over?"

12:15-Final speaker finishes her address: Jonah starts clapping, excited that the meeting is almost over. Dacia is mortified about the clapping, informs Jonah they are going to be punished after church. Jonah asks with wide eyes the nature of the impending punishment. Dacia tells him (see first lines of post) and Jonah starts crying, turns and repeats to Jonathan, whose lips start to quiver and says, "Oh no!" in a small voice.

12:18-One verse of closing hymn and prayer are over. Jonah and Jonathan-punishment forgotten-are off like shots to their primary classes.

12:25-Jason wanders back into the chapel after having dropped Spencer off at nursery. He flops onto the bench next to Dacia (who has her head buried in her arms, leaning on the back of the bench in front of her) and he says, "I'm exhausted! I had to chase Spencer in and out and around the chapel during the whole thing! I didn't get a thing out of that meeting."

Easter Pics and Vids...

2009-04-12T23:19:00.000-07:00

Here is the Gray Family Easter Egg Hunt. It has been a tradition for some 30 years, ever since I can remember. So here's the deal. My mom would prepare hundreds of plastic eggs filling them with pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and candy and hide them all over the yard. When we were growing up, the eggs we colored and dyed were hidden along with the plastic eggs, and were part of our breakfast once the hunt was over. The grand finale was one egg that was gold, and was the special egg, that usually had one or two dollar bills in it. Whoever found the egg was hot stuff, and it was usually the hardest one to find. As we grew older, the Golden Egg had more money in it. Now that we all have kids, we still would haul them over to Grandma Gray's for the Hunt. Well, this year Grandma and Grandpa Gray went on vacation over Easter weekend, so Diedre and Dacia got together and planned and prepared the whole thing over at Rob and Diedre's place, filling all the eggs, decorating, and preparing for the breakfast. Then Diedre hid all the eggs, and decided we didn't have enough and bought and hid more. So we had Rob and Diedre with their two boys, Caleb and Peter (Willie was asleep) and Stephen, and Dacia and our boys, Jonah, Jonathan, and Spencer.

Ok, so I uploaded the pictures on the small size, in the hopes that you could see more without taking up more real estate. Oh well...Click on the photos for larger size.

The kids staring out into the backyard with barely contained anticipation. If it were me, I would say we were scoping out routes for optimum egg gathering strategies...Since it wasn't me, I think they were just looking outside thinking about all the pretty colors.

In case you missed it, Spencer is the first one out, and is stepping over the bright, pretty eggs on his way to somewhere else. Eggs are kinda hard to see because of the size of the video player.

This is the way Spencer rolls...At first I thought he was defending his egg loot...Nope. He just found himself a bigger stick to swing.

The reckoning...

Spencer, the Destroyer...

March Middlings

2009-03-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Graygoland!

First things first, our new phone number is: 435-214-0743. This is the number to contact any and all of us!

So, I know there has been silence from our shade on the slope, so I figured now was as good a time as any to break out in song...or whatever.

Jonathan turned 6! Yay. Had fun spending time with family and friends (Thanks everyone for the presents and fun!). His big present was a bicycle, which took him by complete surprise. I guess it would if you didn't ask for one. Oh well. Last year I bought him a bigwheel, but our Jon-Jon is somewhat vertically challenged, and if he sat in the seat of the bigwheel, his midget legs couldn't reach the pedals. If he scooted forward and put his feet on the pedals, then he was sitting on the bar of the bigwheel. Very uncomfortable. So he never rode the thing. He sure does love the bike though!

He also received a huge lego project. It is a big coast guard boat and tower. When he unwrapped the box and gave his first gasp of delight, he turned around and held up the box (almost as big as he is) and said "Oh cool! A shark!!" I have included a picture of the box, so you can see the shark.

Did you find it?

Jonah had a big school project this week. He had to research and write a 5 minute oral presentation with multi-media displays (pictures on posterboard) about an American figure in history. Jonah did his report on Paul Revere, and did a smashing job! "One if by land, Two if by sea..." Afterward, he and the other students presented their subjects in a "wax" museum, example below. It's hard to be "wax" with annoyingly pesky little brothers...

The boys have been inspired by their cousins to take karate. Originally, we signed them up in a kung fu class (Kung Fu Panda), but the instructor had a family emergency and the boys were stuck with karate instead. It scared Dacia's pants right off when she watched our little shrimps spar with much older, larger, heavier, experienced, and more physical students.

Dacia has had a very busy month. In addition to the runnings around and school projects mentioned above, she performed a solo in a stake production called "Woman at the Well," in which she sang some sappy, poppy LDS song as a nephite/lamanite woman who met the Savior during His visit to America. When the bishop asked her to sing the song as a musical number in sacrament meeting, she turned him down flat. "Not appropriate" or something like that. I just chalk that down to pregnancy hormones. Oh yeah, if you hadn't heard, she is pregnant. Again.

Dacia is the choir director for our ward, and we sang two songs on two different Sundays this month. She is also madly preparing our choir for Easter Sunday. She was asked to have the boys sing a prelude for Sacrament Meeting a couple weeks ago. And she greatly enjoyed singing with BYU Singers for a reunion concert last week.

Ordinary, boring routine really. Except for Spencer. He is a bit like Jonah, in that he will have entire conversations, without speaking a lick of English. The doctor thinks his progress is slow, and he should be speaking a lot more. Ha. Here are some examples. We are trying to get him to say "One, Two, Three!"

He really likes to hit things/people, with whatever he has in hand. A wand, a sword, a 5-pound pooh talking/singing Pooh Bear. None of us has escaped his fisticuffs. He likes to wait until you are least expecting it. He'll be sitting and watching some movie, and when Jonah sits down, Spencer turns around, stands up, and proceeds to whack Jonah on the head with a huge grin on his face. Jonathan will be completely absorbed in a Wii game and get clobbered on the head from behind. Dacia and I both get it when taking naps on the couch. Such violence!

Jason in Springfield...

2009-01-16T19:10:00.000-08:00

Happy Anniversary!

2008-12-31T07:20:00.000-08:00

Jason and I recently celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. Can you believe that it has been that long? Neither can I. Jason planned out a wonderful date for us to celebrate-complete with steak and jewelery. It was so nice of him to surprise me! In thanks I would like to do something I don't do enough. I would like to pay tribute to my Wonderful husband and say a few things that I love about Jason. There are probably a few things that you did not know here. Hopefully he won't be too embarrassed.

~ Jason gives random acts of kindness. Every once in awhile I come home to flowers on the table or my favorite treat. I love that he thinks of me when I am not with him. He is there to hug me when work or just life is too hard.

~ He's a great Dad. Jason is so good at making sad kids happy. He can always get them to laugh. Ever since I have been working weekends he has been the main caregiver for the kids while I am gone and he does a wonderful job. In fact, I think he is more "fun" to be with than me. The kids get more pizza and McDonald's with Dad. Maybe he is just as much a "sucker" as I am when it comes to the kids and how they wrap themselves around our little fingers.

~ Jason is a great reader. He always denies this, but he is so fast at reading. He says it is because he spends the time, but we can spend the same amount of time on a book and he will invariably finish ten times faster than me. Not only is he fast, but he loves to read. As a result, Jason always has interesting things to say.

~ Jason is not afraid of hard work. Jason is the one who will shovel the driveway or mow the lawn. I think he actually enjoys it sometimes-when he is not slipping on the ice and breaking his head. Also, when times are rough and Jason is between Jobs, I don't worry too much, because I know that even if it means doing something that he hates-he will take care of us.

~Jason is not that great a cook. This may seem funny to love, but what I love is that he tries. Even though he is not that experienced at cooking he makes a mean scrambled egg, which is all you need if you are nursing a sick wife, as we have found over the years. Also, Jason has always been good at making cakes. He says that he had a lot of experience with cakes from scratch in his scout days. Thank you America.

~Jason is musical. Most of you know this fact, but It is something that draws me to him. I love hearing him play the piano, however rare it may be these days.

~Jason is my personal IMDB. He knows all the actors names and what other shows they have been in. I ask him all the time when I recognize someone in a movie and just can't place them.

~Jason is an accomplished gift wrapper. He says it is all about angles. I think this stems from his days at Deseret Book.

~Jason is logical. This attribute balances me out nicely. If it were up to me we would spend all our free time at Disneyland and we would be homeless in a month. He keeps me in line.

~Jason loves us! Thank you for always being there and working hard for us! We love you too.

~Dacia

Merry Christmas Day

2008-12-26T12:02:00.000-08:00

For Christmas day we were woken early by excited kids. We all got our robes etc. and went down to the Christmas tree to see that Santa had come. Also Mom and Dad had moved all the presents down under the tree. With Spencer around we couldn't leave anything in his reach. Even the tree is only decorated from the 3 foot mark and up. We had a great time opening stockings and gifts-especially the surprises.

Then we drove down to Grandma and Grandpa Spanns house.. It was a lovely snowy drive-complete with crazy people who go way too fast in the snow. We made it in one peice-Halleluia! Once we were there we had our second breakfast and opened a few more gifts. Thank you to everyone who sent presents-We all love them!

AND...here are the cookies that we decorated on the 23rd with Breanne and the kids. I wish you could see them all up close-they came out so cute-and I don't think there are any left to see...
After presents we played a few scrabble and sudoku games and then had a yummy Ham dinner. The night was finished by yet another crazy drive in a white-out snow storm and we were grateful to get home safely!

Merry Christmas Eve

2008-12-26T11:13:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it has been so long that I have neglected our poor blog. I'm sure you are all wondering what happened to us, but we are still here. Of course, as are all of you, we are busy with school, work, and babies. That is no excuse. I hope to do better-maybe that is a New Year's resolution...Anyway, we had a fabulous Christmas! We missed those who were not here, of course, and were glad some could come from far away. The kids got exactly what they wanted from Santa and Mom and Dad, but that is not what is important. We had a wonderful time with family and a delicious Ham dinner, complete with Diedre's empanadas.

Baby Willie is getting so big. Can sit alone and stand with assistance.

Spencer was happy for most of the night-except the hour or two when his arm may have been out of the socket...Hmm...shades of Jonah at that age.

Carole, Ed, and Emily put on a lovely reading about the baker's dozen.

So glad to have David and Mindy, the first time we have seen them since the wedding,

Boys sitting quietly-well- you know.

We wore Grandma Hansen out early!

Stephen performed some beautiful numbers.

Spencer enjoyed Uncle Rob's guitar playing by dancing along.

When not performing, making cakes, or helping kids Deidre and I got to watch.

Once the Show was completed we had a loverly French chocolate cake that Jason has wanted to make for some time. He recruited me to help and I recruited Stephen-so between the 3 of us we got them done quickly. With the custard creme, orange slices, and cinnamon-it was delicious. After that we had the annual white elephant gift exchange. The kids all got things that they liked. The adult exchange was actually pretty uneventful. There was minimal stealing going on. Hope everyone is happy with what they ended up with-except we know that Carole really wanted the DVD...maybe next time!
Thanks for a wonderful evening!

A couple of Treats

2008-10-31T07:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Jonah, Jonathan, Spencer and I attended our bi-annual dental examination. I am grateful to say that there were no cavities in the bunch. Now I don't know if this is the kind of response that Dentists are looking for-and maybe Jonathan doesn't know any better, but as we were leaving the office Jonathan turned to me and said: "Mom, I wish I could live at the Dentist and have a check-up like that every day." I'm sure the Dentist would enjoy that! I was thinking as we arrived there that I probably should have set up the appointment a few days after Halloween instead of the day before, but at least they had a fluoride treatment before they eat all that candy.
This morning I made some Pillsbury Orange Rolls for breakfast-I know, that's not necessarily good for you food, but they were coming up on the expiration date so we needed to make them. Jonathan was enjoying his at the table when Spencer climbed up on Jonathan's chair and took the roll right out of Jonathan's hand and delightfully began to eat it. Jonathan cried, of course, but to his credit did not do any bodily harm to Spencer. Needless to say I procured another roll for Jonathan and he enjoyed eating it unencumbered. Tonight we will be attending the neighborhood Trunk-Or-Treat and then heading over the Grandma and Grandpa Gray's house for a bit of house to house Treating. It is supposed to be the warmest Halloween night in about 18 years. Hallelujah! Hope you all have a Happy Halloween!

Fall Photos

2008-10-22T08:51:00.000-07:00

Last week Denika, Bre, and I took the boys and Emma up Provo Canyon to get some photos of them with the leaves. Unfortunately, by the time we got there it was pretty dark-and so the pictures are a bit pale-colorwise. The kids had a lot of fun playing in the leaves though and I Denika got some cute photos. We were up there during the BYU-TCU game-and we didn't miss much. :)

Cute Things

2008-09-05T09:53:00.000-07:00

Jonah and Jonathan have said a couple of cute things lately that I thought worth mentioning to you all. Oh, and Spencer says stuff too-mostly he walks around all day and says "Go, go, go." Maybe that is his first word. I don't know what he means by it though.
The other day we were driving home from Mickie D's and Jonah had gotten a new Darth Vader toy. I asked him what it does and he said that it makes the "Darth Vader" sound. "You know...Hooper". I laughed so hard. I never thought as that sound as "Hoooper", but I guess it is.
Learning to read has been such a joy for Jonathan. He is doing exceptionally well, but there are still a few occupational hazards. The other day I had bought some drinks for the kids for after school and I gave one to Jonathan. He attempted to read it by sounding out the words. "C..r..a..p..p..y Sun, Crappy Sun!". I instantly corrected him that "No, it reads Capri Sun." I didn't want him going around saying that word all the time. I had to call Jason right away and tell him. It instantly cheered up his day. Pretty cute!

Finally!

2008-09-05T09:52:00.001-07:00

It FINALLY HAPPENED! Jonah lost his first tooth last night. It was a bit of a dramatic experience-since I basically pushed it out, but it was just hanging there anyway and driving me crazy! I only had to push once. It bled a very little and then we put some oragel on the spot where it used to be. Once it was out Jonah was ecstatic. He ran upstairs to look in the mirror. I got some cute pictures of him rinsing out his mouth-and of the offending tooth that has served him so well for the last 7 years. I thought I heard the Tooth Fairy in his room last night so I went to check-and Jonah woke up. He asked me what I was doing and I told him I was checking to see if the Fairy came yet. He said "Mom, I can't sleep. I'm so excited!" (sort of a problem if the Tooth Fairy wants to come.) I told him that the Tooth Fairy can only come if he is really asleep. He seemed to be more willing after that. And amazingly, She/He did come! When he woke up there were 2 gold dollar coins under his pillow! How did the Tooth Fairy know that Jonah liked Gold coins so much? We will never know.

School Days

2008-09-04T12:05:00.000-07:00

2 weeks ago, Deidre planned a awesome 'back 2 school' party for the kids. They had dinner, then made adorable thinking caps, and played games with chalk on the driveway outside. It was fun to get into the school spirit and get the kids excited for school. Here are some cute pictures from that night!

Jonah started 2nd grade last week. He has 2 teachers who team teach his class, Mrs. Dew and Mrs. Reasch. They are both excellent teachers. He is excelling in Math and Reading and has made some new friends (and luckily retained the old ones). Today we all woke up as the first bell was ringing-but amazingly we were only 5 minutes late! Jonah has been great at doing his homework right after school without complaint. As long as I have an after-school snack things are good! Pretty soon Jonah's pictures will be mostly toothless. He has 4 loose teeth-one of which is hanging by a thread. I can't wait till that thing falls out! The other teeth are growing in behind. Poor kid! Braces for sure. We love you Jonah!

Yesterday was Jonathan's first day of Kindergarten. He really seemed to love it. He commented on how much he liked his teacher, Mrs. Waddoups. He gave her 2 goodbye hugs. She seemed to be very impressed at his kindergarten assesment and recommended him for the ALPS program (advanced learning) as he is already reading, writing, etc. We will decide on that later, but we are so proud of our Jonjon already. Such a great kid!

Learning to walk

2008-08-18T17:41:00.001-07:00

Spencer is finally walking! It is really funny, because he is so stiff-legged when he walks. The following videos are post because Mom wanted to see some video of him walking, so here you go!

I love the way Spencer dances. When music is playing he will sit or stand in place, and twist his torso back and forth. He's not the most coordinated yet, especially walking and carrying things...

Not Spencer's Day

2008-08-03T17:38:00.000-07:00

Spencer is learning to walk! He is using a spider-man 4-wheeler that Jonah received for Christmas several years ago, and a new grocery cart walker Grandma Gray gave to him for his birthday. Unfortunately, he is not as graceful yet as he could be. Last Sunday, he was walking around the kitchen table and chairs, while leaning on them, when he made it to his high chair, where he promptly fell and cut his lip. First wounding! Then I had him with me a hometeaching family, and he was walking around the front room with one of those really old plastic child grocery carts, when he tripped and fell, and fell on the lip of the cart and cut open the bridge of his nose right between his eyes, and underneath one of his eyes. Poor kid! More blood! Finally, he was playing with Jonathan before bed, and they bonked heads. No blood this time, but that was it for Spencer! The following pictures are after the 2nd tumble...

Here comes TROUBLE...

2008-07-11T12:14:00.001-07:00

Well it has finally happened. Spencer has learned to stand. Now nothing is safe from his little grasp. He will crawl to a chair or couch and then pull himself to standing and then fall over-and then do it again. I have a feeling this is the beginning of some true mischief. The last couple of days he has been standing up in the middle of the room for short bursts. Soon he will be walking!!? He is such a busy baby-into everything all the time. Way more than I remember Jonah or Jonathan ever being.

Here he is standing at the dishwasher...

At his toy chest...

At the chair...

And here is a little video of him getting up in the middle of the room. He is so proud of himself that he claps and screams.

You get the picture. There are definately more bumps and bruises now that he is figuring this out. He is definately one strong little cookie. A few months ago at the Doctor's office for his 9 month checkup he wouldn't hold still. I had to restrain him for the Doctor to do anything. By the time we left Dr. Allred had given Spencer a new nickname: "wiggleworm". Spencer "Wiggleworm" Gray. Sounds like a wrestlers name. We love our little guy (who is very tall for his age, by the way, 99th %tile).

Happy Day, Emily!

2008-07-06T01:52:00.001-07:00

Ok, so this post is WAY late in going up. But that's alright, since all of us Utah Grays (except Stephen--and both Jon and Dave are no longer Utah Grays) forgot to wish Emily happy birthday ON her birthday. (Enough pandering already?)

Happy Birthday Favorite Sister/Single Aunt in the Whole Wide World!!

Haircuts 'N Pancakes

2008-07-05T18:28:00.000-07:00

So I was sitting at the computer last night, preparing a lesson for church. I had just cut the boys' hair earlier that day, and my own. In fact, I cut my hair with a #2 attachment on the clippers--shorter than ever before.

In the midst of a rare moment of stillness (for him), Jonathan was sitting on the couch that was next to the computer, observing my preparations. All of the sudden he said, "Dad, when I grow up, I'm going to be bald just like you!"

Does anyone remember the ward pancakes/parades we participated in when we were kids? With Willie Hammond, Jack Macdonald, etc. under or overcookin' the food, and the games, and bike decorating, and stuff? I thought they were awesome, and could NOT wait to pull out my bike every year to decorate it and ride in that parade. Then eat pancakes...

Well, our ward did something similar for Flag Day this year, a Parade and pancake breakfast. Being the lazy dad that I am, I forgot to let the kids know in advance for the bike decorating part. It's all good though. The parade route was about 100 feet long, from one side of the church parking lot to the other. And back. Lots of times if you were ambitious.

At least the pancakes were good.

Reminds me of the pancakes Jon, Jackson, Cooper, Grandpa Gray and I enjoyed a couple of years ago in Thousand Oaks for one of their ward breakfasts. They were so good that Cooper and Jackson had to fend off Grandpa the Pancake Thief.

Birch Aquarium

2008-07-04T14:06:00.001-07:00

Old Town San Diego

2008-07-04T13:59:00.001-07:00

Farmer's Market, Oceanside

2008-07-04T13:43:00.001-07:00

Beach!

2008-06-23T19:07:00.000-07:00

Yep, so I am a beach bum! I don't know why, but my ideal vacation is nothing but sittin' on the beach. Maybe playing in the water. A little.

Anyway, this was our first day at the beach. The condo is about a block away, and couldn't be more perfectly situated. This was Spencer's first experience at the beach, and he is an expert at beach-tasting. The doctor says that eating beach is not harmful to his health. I guess that's a relief. Maybe eating sand on a regular basis would help his digestion.

In any case, it was pretty amusing to watch Jonah's progression in depth. On the first day, he would only get his feet wet. Each day he would progress further and further out, until finally on the last day, he made it as far as his knee level in water depth! Needless to say we were quite proud of him.

A quick comment on the pictures of Grandpa Gray: no, he did not sleep the whole day away at the beach in that one spot. It just so happened that for the few minutes I actually had a camera in hand, that was his post--holding up that rock wall. He actually took a lot of these pictures with his own camera.

Oh yeah...a couple of those houses on the beach were for sale. Bargain price of $4.99 Million.

Legoland, Vacation Day 2

2008-06-19T09:07:00.001-07:00

Hooray for Legoland! Grandma wanted to get this out of the way so we went our first full day in CA. It was superfun and we all had a great time. It took about 10 minutes to walk from our condo to the entrance to the park, and about 10 minutes if we drove instead. Much better than the half hour plus shuttle ride at places like Disneyland. Thanks to Grandpa for the fun Legoland memories!!

San Diego Day 1

2008-06-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

Well, we had boatloads of fun on our San Diego trip with Grandma and Grandpa Gray! Everything went off without any problems, but boy it's amazing how much luggage is added for each additional person. It is almost as if it is an exponential increase! Trying to collect it all at the luggage drop can be quite a hassle...

We stayed in a super nice 2 bedroom condo, almost across the street from Legoland. Grandpa and Grandma stayed in the condo the first night, then moved to their "regular" Oceanside condo just off the beach the next night.

Poor Grandpa was sicker than a sick puppy that first night! He slowly improved over the week, and hopefully had a great time. The rest of us sure did!

THE PILGRIMAGE

2008-05-28T18:21:00.001-07:00

For those of you who miss this Gray family tradition every year on Memorial Day:

Grandpa Gray's b-day and Mother's Day fun

2008-05-27T19:16:00.000-07:00

See previous montage

2008-05-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

So I forgot to mention the funniest part of the Stake Field Day-nope, it wasn't when daddy beaned Jon-Jon in the head with a baseball. In the middle of the race-which was hilarious by the way. Pretty much a bunch of fat dads and their hyperactive kids running around the park. You can guess how much huffing and puffing there was...

No, the best part was in the middle of the race when Jon-Jon yells out to me, "Daddy, slow down! I'm running out of speed!"

Stake Field Day

2008-05-25T15:14:00.001-07:00

Not funny!!

2008-05-17T08:11:00.000-07:00

Charlie bit me...

2008-05-17T08:04:00.000-07:00

Ok, so these aren't our kids, but it was so funny I had to post it.

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T10:02:00.000-07:00

Football Fun!

2008-04-13T13:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday BYU was holding their annual scrimmage blue against white at the BYU Lavelle Edwards Stadium. As if that wasn't enough reason to go there, they were also having a free football clinic for kids ages 5-12. I thought it would be fun to take the boys since the weather was supposed to be nice and we haven't been out much lately. I packed up all 3 boys and headed to my Mom's house in Orem-where we dropped off Spencer. Sorry kid, but you're not 5 yet! And then Derek and I went with Jonah and Jonathan to the football clinic. It turned out to be fun and chaotic all at the same time. There were a lot of kids. The football field was set up with 6 different areas. They had banners marking the different positions such as: Running Back, Wide Receiver, Quarterback, Linebacker etc... First the kids ran to the Running Back position and did some drills with the BYU Running Backs. It was so cute to see the tiny boys next to these huge men. Jonah and Jonathan both did great-even though the ball was bigger than their heads and possibly half their body in Jonathan's case. After Running back they tried Wide Receiver and Quarterback. We bypassed Linebacker since that is pretty definitely not in their future as they are both small for their age. Jonah caught the ball great as a Wide Receiver and Jonathan threw it great at the Quarterback position. We had so much fun and got to see Fui Vakapuna up close. I think the kids had a great time and it was so good to get out into the sun. Hopefully the video helps you get the idea of how awesome they were...:)

EAT WOOD!!

2008-04-03T23:12:00.001-07:00

Easter Egg Hunt/Breakfast

2008-04-03T23:09:00.000-07:00

Amphibious

2008-03-22T19:54:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I couldn't help adding this one. I had too much fun with it, and hopefully you will at least be mildly amused.

Short and Sweet

2008-03-18T10:26:00.001-07:00

B-DAY

2008-03-17T21:43:00.000-07:00

Cousin Emma's First B-Day

2008-03-15T11:16:00.000-07:00

Kids say the darndest things...

2008-02-25T00:29:00.000-08:00

Jonathan has been on a roll lately. Not only is he of half a mind (in or out) he has kept us laughing at his adorable conversation. Last Friday night we went to PeiWie chinese for dinner and Jon Jon wanted to save his chopsticks. I had already brought him a spare set so that he could use it on his leftovers, but somehow he made it to the car with his already used set. Jason took them away and told him to get into the car. I was putting Spencer in the back seat at the time that Jon got in and he said with his sad little face, "Mommy, I'm fired." I replied, "Do you know what fired means?" and continued to explain that fired means that you have a job and someone takes it away from you. Then Jason got in the car and Jon Jon-still sad, said "I lost my job.". It was so cute and funny. What a crack up! Saturday we went to the Spiderwick movie with the kids and after the show Jonathan ran out of the room to the arcade. Jason found him there a few minutes later. The next time I saw him he said: "Mommy, I lost my job again". I wonder if this is going to be the thing he says whenever he gets into trouble.
Last night we went to visit my Mom in Orem. As we were leaving I noticed in my rear-view mirror that there were two deer behind me. I was glad that I looked before backing up. I said:
"Jonathan, look at the deer!" By that time the were in the neighbor's yard and were standing very still. Jonathan finally found them and declared: "They're their pets!"
Now that would be interesting to have 2 does as pets!
What a funny bunny!

Half a mind

2008-02-24T17:33:00.000-08:00

What a relief! I've finally finished the series 7 and 63 FINRA exams! Now that is out of the way, I can get down and do some serious blogging...

Things are going well here on the Jason Gray family front. The boys are over their colds, and Spencer is over his bronchitis. Spencer is rolling around like crazy, and now army crawling using his elbows and toes to inch toward whatever it is he wants at the moment. He is also becoming very forceful in his opinions. Jon-Jon is coming up with some crazy stuff recently. A few nights ago, they were getting ready for bed, and Jonah said to Jon-Jon, "You're out of your mind!" To which Jon-Jon's rejoinder was: "I'm not out of my mind! I'm half in my mind, and half out of my mind!!"

It snowed today, again. I absolutely cannot wait until June and Carlsbad/San Diego!!

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-10T19:12:00.000-08:00

Bad Medicine...

2008-02-09T22:09:00.001-08:00

I'm sure Jason will come and make this better. This is officially my first blog on our family site. We had a lot of fun at Peter's party tonight. Hope he had a happy b-day. I am actually working right now, but it is rather slow late at night. I am also listening to Spencer cry his head off in his crib. Poor little guy has had a lot to contend with this week. First I took him to the Doctor for his 6 mo. check up and Dr. Allred alterted me to the fact that this seemingly happy child had a double ear infection and prescribed an antibiotic treatment. Spencer is such a happy child. The nurse came in and gave him 4 shots in his legs and he cried until I picked him up (about 10 seconds). Once picked up he immediately stopped crying and smiled at the nurse. She was very surprised and stated that usually she gets the opposite reaction-in other words the babies are afraid of her after she gives them nasty shots. Well, we went home and started on Spencer's treatment. 3 days later I realized that Spencer had had a fever for the last 2 days-when the medicine should have been getting him better, he seemed worse. He was coughing terribly and not sleeping well-even though he was on the meds. I took him to the Dr. again and he said that the ears looked much better, but that his lungs have Bronchitis. He gave him a breathing treatment at the office and sent us home with a lovely breathing mask (what baby wouldn't love that) and medicine chamber to give another Albuterol treatment every 4 hours. The treatment did seem to help him sleep better. Skip to 2 days later with a baby boy completely covered in hives from head-to-toe. Dr. visit #3. Spencer is allergic to Amoxicillin-just like Jonathan, AND the ear infection is back. So now we have to wait 2 days to start the new round of antibiotics just to make sure he isn't allergic to this new one. During that 48 hours we alternated motrin and tylenol as well as benedryl and albuterol. Poor kid has just about had it! So tonight he gets a yeast infection!!!! Bring on the Monistat! He is amazingly happy for all the medicines he is on. (oh, except when you put him to bed:) I hope we get through this one pronto!

Did someone say Valentine's Day?

2008-02-05T22:23:00.000-08:00

Well, people are sick at our house too...Jonah and Jonathan have been going in circles with colds (Jonah stayed home from school for a week), and Spencer suffered his first, which caused a double ear infection, and now has settled into bronchitis. Fun fun. He remains very cheerful for the most part, despite the bouts of misery and complaining and foul-tasting drugs, the poor thing.

He received 4 shots at the doctor's office the other day. He cried very boisterously for a few seconds, and when Dacia picked him up, he turned on the biggest smile at the nurse, who gave a startled resonse, "Well I've never had THAT reaction before!" Yes, he is our smiling baby, and Dacia has nicknamed him "Smiles". Course, with all the drugs he's on at the moment, I still call him "Thunderpants," though perhaps "Lil Windy" is more appropriate. He just goes on and on. Interesting. He has started clapping, and is also now very mobile. His chosen mode of travel is rolling of course, and he becomes quite frustrated when he rolls himself over to an obstacle that arrests his momentum--like daddy's big, fat foot.

Spencer is also eating solid foods (sometimes), and he pretty much hates anything fruit, or rice. He can handle sweet potatoes at this point. It is really funny, because when he objects to what he is eating, he is quite verbal about it, "Dubl, blb, dbler, bllrlblb," while the food is pushed out of his mouth due to the motions of his little tongue. Pushes the mush right back out, much to Dacia's consternation.

I must admit, that I am a huge fan of the photo montages, because I can put a lot of photos in one space on the blog, and people don't have to scroll way down the page to see them all. And the music. Very cool. Kudos to Heidi Mae for showing us the coolness of it all...

2008-01-27T16:24:00.000-08:00

So in response to Rob's photoless blog, here are a few for your viewing pleasure. We haven't had any of the electronic problems he has, but boy can we sympathize, only in my case, it is usually my own fault and doing something very disagreeable to the poor electronic item, whatever it is...

So these fotos are from 3 or so weeks ago. Pretty self explanatory except the one of Dacia--I caught her working (JetBlue) from home on a Sunday afternoon. Fun family!! Remember you can click on a foto to see a larger version!

Gimme More

2008-01-25T10:19:00.000-08:00

Did I say I'm tired of shoveling snow?

2008-01-25T09:41:00.000-08:00

OneTooth takes to the dance floor...

2008-01-20T01:25:00.000-08:00

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Ok, a brief explanation....This is our bouncer that Spencer just loves. Notice how we can fit a least two of him--or a really fat toddler in there. The thing is huge! We have to roll up towels and put them on either side of him to keep him from leaning way over and getting stuck on one side or the other--which is actually quite funny. As it is, his arms barely come out over the top of the thing, and just sort of stick out there flapping in the wind, because that front bar is just a wee too high for him to have any real range of motion. Jon-Jon loves to run past him from one side to the other, which spins Spencer around. And he loves to yank on Spencer's arms to encourage more bounce. Jon-Jon is being punished quite often, come to think of it. By the way, sorry about the sound quality...This is from our little point-and-click camera, because our video camera is ancient-and not digital.

January Blusterings

2008-01-20T00:23:00.000-08:00

Alright, I am very sick of snow!! At least shoveling it! The Christmas tree and other holiday decorations finally came down this week, and our living room is looking quite barren and cheerless. Opening the blinds on the big front window just seems to let seep in the dreary winter landscape.

So hopefully Spencer is at the tail end of his first cold. He has kept both Dacia and I up the last several nights with his sufferings. We've had an exhausting week. The new job at Fidelity is going fairly well. My shift is from 2-11pm Monday through Friday, so I am becoming a bit of night owl. I will typically work overtime until at least midnight, and when I get home everyone is asleep. Since Jonah is in school, that means the only time I see him is if I wake up early enough in the morning before school, so I've had to make it a point to make him breakfast, and take him to school to spend some time with him every day. The rest of the day I spend studying for the series 7 exam for licensing as a stock broker. I have been studying since early December, and so am pretty much fed up with studying at this point. This is the reason I have such a difficult time wanting to return to school. Kudos to all y'all who are doing that and more (Jonathan).

Jonah is doing quite well in school, but his favorite pastime is Harry Potter games on the Xbox. For the last two weeks, he has been telling me about his 4 day weekend over Martin Luther King Jr Day, and how he wants to rent Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for Xbox. I had to explain to him that we have the old Xbox and the game is only made for the new one. Well that didn't deter him for long...He and Jon-Jon received a Nintendo DS for Christmas, and his rejoinder was: "Well then let's get one for the Nintendo!" Too smart for his own good, that one. Jon-Jon is banned from the DS for this week for playing too rough with Spencer and causing quite a bit of pain for the baby, and consternation for the parents. He is pretty sly as well. Every time I stopped by a Target or a Walmart, I had to go search him out of the electronics section where I would find him playing-yep, you guessed it, the floor model of the Nintendo DS. And at home he kept trying to convince me to let him play the Xbox, since I only grounded him from the Nintendo, and that is not the same as the Xbox!

Dacia is coping with our overlapping shifts. The Fidelity job came as a bit of a surprise, and so she didn't have time to plan her shift around mine (my fault of course). She can't wait for her shift bid in May. She currently is working Friday and Saturday nights until 3:45 am, then has to be at church Sunday mornings at 9:00. It's a wonder how she does it! I would be less-active by this point. I asked her about planning for our next baby, and she kind of grinned weakly, and quickly exited the room so as not to have to respond. I was only joking! A little... :) Here she is at 1:15 this morning while working...on her very expensive chair, which she loves...

Mr. OneTooth

2008-01-13T13:48:00.001-08:00

So Spencer has his first cold. He has hardly any voice, and is just miserable when trying to sleep. All of which means his much quieter than usual. So I figured I would post this short montage of the pictures of him over the last week-before he caught the cold. He has discovered the bouncer, and loves to spend time in it. I tried to get video of him bouncing, but he was more fascinated with the camera than bouncing. Of course, as soon as I plug the camera into the computer to download, he goes to town in the bouncer. Ah, well...He also has his first tooth, which makes him drool even more than usual.