Category: Grayson

The boys and I had a great time this Valentine’s Day. First and foremost, John got home from a three night trip late last night, so first thing this morning the kids woke up to seeing daddy! Then it was pancakes and sausage, getting dressed, and off to school.

Jack had a great big day at school. At 9:30 the kids had a very special Valentine’s Day snack. I am the room mom so I took the class pink and chocolate cupcakes with heart shaped rings on them. Yummm. They also had a special valentine’s day gift exchange and arts and crafts. Jack’s teachers are awesome and come up with the cutest activities. Then for lunch the pizza man came and delivered pizza to the classroom. This is huge for Jack. He LOVED it. It was also the class’ first day to go to Chapel. What a big day at school! Jack told me this evening that he had “the most fun at school today.”

While Jack was having so much fun, I decided Grayson deserved something special too, so we headed to Schlotzsky’s to pick up a sandwich, chips and cookie. Then we headed for the Capitol, which is right across the street from our Church and Jack’s preschool, for a picnic. We sat and ate together on our blanket. Grayson was very hungry, as usual. Then I sat and watched him run around. It was so wonderful, the weather was perfect. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. See more pics here.

After picking up Jack we headed home and all had naps. I even took a nap which is pretty rare these days. When the kids woke up we went through all of Jack’ valentines from school and everyone had a lollipop.

When John got home (with a rose, champagne and cheesecake in tow) we cooked a delicious steak dinner and enjoyed spending time with the boys. Then it was more presents from mommy and daddy, nana and papa, aunt peggy, and one more lollipop to get thru bath time.

We couldn’t have dreamed up a better valentine’s day!

It’s Sunday night, around 10:30 p.m. as I write this. I’m sitting on our love seat in the “family room” in the back of the new house, watching HGTV on our HD TV. Christine is eating a chocolate mousse pie and drinking a glass of milk, and I think Frank is asleep in the guest room (Frank drove down on Thursday, and has been staying at the new house and working throughout the day each day, to help us get moved in faster). Jack and Grayson are both sleeping in their rooms, and Jack is in his new big boy bed.

We started moving into this house on Thursday of last week (we packed on Wednesday). Once we got everything over here on Thursday afternoon, we realized the house just wasn’t far enough along for us to actually move in… walls still needed paint, tile work needed to be done in the bathrooms, and the floors (and pretty much every other surface) were all still covered with a lot of sheetrock dust (like 2 or 3 millimeters deep in some places).

So, we ended up staying with Josh, Elise and Maly for the past few days. (THANK YOU GUYS!!!)

But, we were bound and determined to move in today, and have the boys sleep in their own beds, so, we did it. We moved in.

And we’re all exhausted. But, we’re glad to be in the house…

Now I’m going upstairs to see if I can figure out what boxes all of my clothes are in, so I have something to wear to work tomorrow.

I’m sure every dad has a story like this, but this one is mine:

This past Sunday morning, Christine asked me to get up with the boys, so that she could sleep in. So, around 6:30 in the morning, I rolled out of bed.

I watched a Baby Einstein movie with Grayson as I drank my first cup of coffee, and as Grayson drank his first bottle of the day. When he was done with his bottle, he just stared at the boob tube for a while, while I sipped the coffee… and around 6:45 or 6:50, I heard Jack’s door creak open, and then he poked his head around the corner in the hallway and said “Hi guys” in his sweet little morning voice.

As I said “Good Morning JACK!” he sprinted across the living room, and crawled up into my lap to finish Baby Einstein with Grayson and I. He snuggled into me, and said “Good morning Daddy. Good morning my baby.”

At that point, I knew it was going to be a good morning.

We all sat there, just holding on to each other, until the movie ended…

Then I got up and made eggs, and cinnamon toast, and grapefruit.

The boys ate while I drank my second cup of coffee.

After breakfast, Jack was ready to play, but I wanted to make sure Christine could sleep, so, I asked Jack if he wanted to go outside. To which he replied “YEEEAAAAHHHH! AGGIE FOOTBALLLLLLL!”

So, we grabbed his football and Grayson and went into the backyard.

We played with the football in the grass for a few minutes, and then Jack wanted to play on the patio, so we headed over there. I sat Grayson down and Jack climbed onto his Bobby Car (that’s two years old now, I think). Grayson then got up, and started “pushing” Jack around (or at least he tried… he’s not quite strong enough yet) and I joined him, and together we pushed Jack around on the Bobby Car while Jack used the phone to call Momo and Nana and Papa and Uncle Michael and Uncle Evan and Aunt Shadel and Ella (and everyone else he knows).

After we (Grayson) got tired of pushing Jack, we headed out to the hammock.

All three of us jumped on, and started swinging.

Grayson and Jack were crawling all over me &emdash; both of them having a blast.

When Grayson is really excited, he kicks… kind of like a bucking bull would kick… and he does it with both legs at the same time. And you know he’s really excited.

When we were just about done on the hammock (around 8:00) Jack and Grayson both climbed on top of me, and Jack said “Let’s go really really really high Daddy!”.

So, I basically stood up with my back on the hammock and then sat down in the hammock as it started to swing forward… and we went “really really really high” as Jack would say.

At the top of the first swing, Grayson started kicking wildly, and yelling “eha! eha! eha! eha! eha!” over and over… so I kicked and yelled along with him, and then Jack started doing the same.

We all kicked and yelled for a good five or ten minutes, stopping periodically for me to start the hammock swinging wildly again when it started petering out…

After we got off the hammock, we headed to the back door to find that Christine was up.

We’d accidentally woken her up.

I asked her in my best apologetic voice “I’m sorry, did we wake you up?”

She replied: “Me and all of our neighbors, I bet.”

I said “were we that loud?”

She just smiled and said “Let’s just put it this way, I could tell you all were having a lot of fun out there.”

And we were.

I kissed the boys, and sat them down on the kitchen floor, and Jack took off to his room to play, with Grayson close behind…

It was definitely the best Sunday morning I’ve ever had.

Back on May 8th, Christine and Jack were really silly.

I was sitting on the couch with Grayson, when all of a sudden, Christine and Jack came running into the living room, making siren noises and stopping and “spraying” … so I grabbed the camera and started video taping… then I realized they were “playing fire engine.” It was good fun: