Category: Christine & John

Posted on by John

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.

Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 154 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

This past week, Jack learned how to ask that all important question: “Why?”

I was in New York all week, and when I got home on Friday, I woke up with Jack and Grayson. To kill some time that morning before I drove over to the new house to deal with our crappy “cheap” contractors, I took Grayson and Jack for a walk in the two-seat stroller.

At some point on the walk, Jack asked me about the trees in one of the neighbor’s yard. Then he asked me “why do trees grow?”

I said something like “because they grow when the sun hits them?”

Jack said “why does the sun hit them?”

I said “well, it doesn’t hit them, but it’s rays do, and they make the tree grow.”

Jack said “why does the tree grow?”

I replied something like “because that’s how God made it work?”

To which he replied “oh”.

A few seconds later he said “Daddy, why did God do that?”

I then realized that my kid had learned the most important question in the world:

“Why?”

Jack is full of wonder, and he is wonderful.

So, it’s Sunday as I type this and Jack has pretty much asked “why” about a thousand times. I think Christine and I are answering his every why with as good an answer as we can come up with at the time… and all the while I’m thinking “we have to buy a set of encyclopedias for this kid”.

I’ve had the urge to answer “because I said so” about 999 times, but have refrained. I’ve also wanted to say “because we have faith, son” but have stuck with “because that’s how God made it work” because I’m not sure he’ll get “faith” yet…

My mom has always told me that I asked “why” about a million times a month when I was a kid. If these last three days are any indication, I totally understand now.

“Why?”

Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 252 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Christine posted a photo gallery on her brand new .Mac account. Go see the photos here. Needless to say, we had a blast this year at Halloween.

BTW, she’s now gushing about how easy it was to create a web page with iWeb and .Mac. That’s how Apple gets the money out of you… they make it easy.

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 151 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Two more movies for you folks.

The first is a movie of Jack and Grayson, generally playing in Jack’s room… Daddy makes an appearance or two as well:

The second is a few segments of Jack and Grayson playing with cars, and then playing with their push carts (which Jack calls his “cars” too):

Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 205 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

You may be wondering if we’re still taking photos of Jack or Grayson, since we haven’t posted any since July.

The short answer is: yes, we’re taking photos and movies. In fact, here’s a list of galleries I’ve posted, but haven’t linked to yet:

  • Jack and Grayson – Just some random photos from October 8th.
  • Aggies vs. OSU – Christine, Jack and I drove down to watch A&M play Oklahoma State. It was a tough game, and Jack didn’t nap on the way to College Station. In fact, when Christine asked Jack if he would take a nap, he said “No, I can sleep at the Aggie game.” Little did we realize that he would fall asleep not too long after half-time, and remain asleep the entire 3rd and 4th quarters. Christine held him for the 3rd quarter, and I held him through the 4th and carried him all the way to the car.
  • The Morning – just some totally random photos of Jack, Grayson and Wesley the morning before we drove down to the Aggie vs. Oklahoma State game.
  • Popsicles! – This was a fun day. Jack and Grayson and I went outside with two fruit popsicles, and ate them as the sun set… it was pretty messy by the time we were done eating them.
  • Grayson’s Boob Tube – Grayson on his caterpillar chair, watching the TV.
  • Ella and Jack – in Bellville at Ella’s house.
  • BandAids – Jack loves to wear BandAids, and puts them where ever he has a “bo bo”
  • Jack at School – from Jack’s first day of school this year… outside with his backpack.

The long answer is: yes, we’re taking photos and movies, but because of all the stuff going on in our lives, we’re not taking time to look at them like we did three months ago, and finding time to actually post them online has proven difficult. Which is why I’m now posting this at 1:30 in the morning… had to find time to do it, and this is when I found it.

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 229 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Grayson is a talker… boy is that kid a talker. Right now, he doesn’t say many words, but he sure does talk alot.

His first word was “Jack”, his big brother’s name. On September 29th, Jack and I were at an Aggie game in College Station all day… and Grayson and Christine were in Austin, at the house. Grayson kept crawling all over the house, looking for stuff to do, and Christine finally asked him “Are you looking for Jack?” Grayson replied, “Daaaat”.

Christine said “Jack?” and Grayson said “Dat.”

So, Christine started walking around the house calling for Jack: “Ja-aaack!” and Grayson followed around behind her yelling “Da-aaaaat!”

“Ja-aaaack?”

“Da-aaaaat?”

Over and over again…

And when we got home from the game, which was right before Grayson’s bedtime, Grayson freaked out when we walked in the door… “Da-aaaat!”

It was pretty cool to know that Grayson loves his brother, missed him a lot, and knows how to call his name.

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 245 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

On September 11th, Christine took Jack and Grayson for a ride in the little red wagon while I was in California for work:

They are so much fun at this age. Jack loves his little brother, and Grayson is learning and copying everything Jack does.

In the video, you’ll see that Grayson is playing with his little duck toy, but instead of doing what he normally does with it, he’s putting it in the sides of the wagon like he just saw Jack do.

They’re growing up to fast.

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 198 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

On 9/1, Christine and Grayson were home alone while Jack and I were at an Aggie Football game, and Christine had the video camera:

He’s so funny with that camera.

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Posted on by John

I haven’t written about this yet, for which I’m ashamed… I should have written something earlier… but, Christine sent me this photo and that makes me want to write it:

Earlier this year, Christine and a group of her friends decided to run the Danskin Triathlon. At first, I was dubious that they’d actually do it… But, as time wore on, and the event loomed near, Christine and her friends were training more and more…

And then, all of a sudden, it was the day: June 9th.

It was hotter’n’hell™ in Austin that day, and Marc picked me up earlier than early. Jack and I were going out to the park to watch Christine and show our support for her and all of the girls.

We arrived, parked, and then trekked 30 something miles from the parking lot to the swimming area, and arrived just in time to see Christine emerge from the lake. She ran to the bike area and tagged Cyndi (they were on a relay team).

Marc and I went and found some shade, (ok, we brought a tent) near the finish-line, and a few hours later Cyndi and Christine came running (they met up at the end of the bike event and ran together) up the hill towards us.

When Jack and Rowan saw their moms, they took off to join them crossing the finish-line, and I have this photo to show for it:

That’s Christine finishing her first Triathlon, and Jack helping motivate her… which I think it just precious.

Cyndi and Christine’s relay team name was “Dos Mamacitos” and they crossed the finish line, both with their oldest kids running along side them… definitely a day to remember for us, and them.

Congrats on running the race babe. I’m very proud of you for doing it.

Sorry, I’m a month late on writing this.

Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 222 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

The gentleman that owns the house that we made an offer on accepted our counter to his counter tonight. We’re inspecting the house on Monday, and then we have until next Friday (July 6th) to decide if we want to buy it.

Unless there’s a major structural issue with the house (crazy termites or foundation problems), we’re pretty sure we’ll be buying this house.

The closing date at this point will be August 31st, so we’ve still got a long way to go before we own it, and then it needs a total remodel… so it might be October before we move into it (hopefully we can get all of the work done that fast) but it’ll be a lot bigger and more spacious for us once it’s all said and done…

Now we just need to sell our current house 😉

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 201 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Our realtor came by the house tonight at 8:30 p.m. We felt horrible she was coming by so late, because Christine was having second-thoughts about the idea of moving, and leaving our wonderful neighborhood.

After discussing it for about 30 minutes, we signed the offer letter, and sent Elizabeth on her way… then we went to bed and read remodeling magazines…

We’re both exhausted and hope the boys sleep in in the morning…

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 244 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

On May 6th, I stayed home with Grayson one morning while Christine too Jack to school.

We had fun sitting on a blanket, just talking: man to man. No one else around, just us.

I hope we have more talks like this when Grayson is older and can actually talk.

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 166 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Christine shot this movie of Grayson sitting in his crib on May 2nd. He’s such a happy baby:

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 164 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Christine and I missed Maly’s First Birthday Party this year, because Christine and the kids weren’t feeling well.

So, we asked Elise and Josh to meet us at Zilker Park on Saturday May 5th, and we all had a grand time eating lunch together, then eating some cupcakes, and then riding the Zilker Train together:

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 240 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

On May 27th, Jack, Grayson, and Christine and I headed out to Lakeway to spend the day with Debbie, Raymond and Todd.

We went down to Lake Travis, because the water is way up thanks to all the rain lately, and we fed the ducks, and then Christine and Jack waded into the lake at the “beach” and then when we got back to the lakehouse, Grayson sat in Debbie’s boot for a picture 😉

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 256 user reviews.

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