Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Fall Photos






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. :)





Friday, September 5, 2008

Cute Things

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!



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.


Thursday, September 4, 2008

School Days

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!



Monday, August 18, 2008

Learning to walk

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...


Sunday, August 3, 2008

Not Spencer's Day

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...



Friday, July 11, 2008

Here comes TROUBLE...

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).

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Happy Day, Emily!

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!!





Saturday, July 5, 2008

Haircuts 'N Pancakes

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.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Beach!

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.


Thursday, June 19, 2008

Legoland, Vacation Day 2

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!!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

San Diego Day 1

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!