Handy Manny

Ethan I started our morning with exciting conversation about Handy Manny and a little bit of Spanish teaching from the little plastic man. Can you tell Ethan loves him?

School Christmas Program

This year at Ethan's school they had the 2-4 year olds do a music program for Christmas. We had no idea what to expect considering Ethan doesn't talk a whole lot, much less sing songs. So we invited all the grandparents and got there early to get seats. Behind a closed curtain we can hear kids screaming and crying and it sounds like they're herding a bunch of cats. Curtain opens...take a second but I find Ethan, he's crying...AWESOME! Then the pictures capture how he looks for the remainder of the show. He refuses to stand up, his hair is spiky and fussed up, he doesn't sing a single line, he just sits there moving his pouty lip back and forth. I LOVE IT!!!! Can't wait til next year!

Decorating the Tree

I was a little bit nervous about the tree this year, but surprisingly enough Ethan was a big help and had a great time helping to decorate! I couldn't ever get him to pose and say cheese b/c he was too worried about getting more ornaments. We had a few casualties, but they were all filler ornaments, so no tears shed by mommy or Ethan. Great memories for me and Ethan with what he calls "MY tree!"

Girls Trip to NYC

Today Show Set

floor at Dylan's Candy Bar

me at FAO Schwarz

us outside the show

mom in front of the best window displays at Macy's

tree in the snow/rain storm

mom's crazy umbrella KEPT malfunctioning, too funny!

The week after Thanksgiving, mom and I made a girls trip to NY. Brandon had been on several trips this year, and I decided it was my turn to get out of town. We flew in Thursday afternoon, stayed at a hotel on Times Square and began the adventures immediately! We met crazies on the square that night and did some shopping, shopped all day Friday, went to the famous Magnolia Bakery, the Today Show set, Rockefeller Center, then a fabulous Italian dinner and show at Bye Bye Birdie with John Stamos! Saturday we shopped again, fabulous dinner at Del Friscos watching the snow outside, Rockefeller Center, show at "A Little Night Music" with Catherine Zeta Jones and Angela Lansbury, then ended the night at a favorite spot from previous trips, the Hudson Bar. It used to be more of a lounge and is now a club, but we had most fun b/c we had to wait to get in with all the other club hoppers and they turned lots of people away, but somehow we got in!!!Then 10 feet away was Tracy Morgan and we entertained ourselves watching him hit on the young girls. too funny! Then we made the long trek back to the hotel and got ready to head home on Sunday. I had so much fun and made many good memories...thanks mom for such a fun trip!

Thanksgiving 2009

This year at Thanksgiving, we christened the new house by hosting lunch. With Erika due any day with a baby and Chris saving up vacation time for his trip to Brazil, it was just my parents and us. We let Fresh Market do the hard work and we just enjoyed a relaxing afternoon of football and Ethan! We didn't get any family pics, but look at what a big boy Ethan looks like!!!

Ethan's 1st job

Over Thanksgiving break, Ethan got a part time job at Clayborne's. He learned to answer the phone, print out invoices AND swipe credit cards! He'll be making his way around here in no time. After so much hard work, he had to belly up to the bar at home for some cheez-its and juice...those slave drivers didn't give him anything at work!

Halloween Revisited

Brandon just got all of the pictures off of our real camera and I couldn't NOT post this pic from Halloween. How cute are Ethan and Catie with that goofy pirate guy???

Wiggle Worms

cheeeeeeeese

" 'ello...'ello.....HI looooo HI looooo"

driving the car (but he can't reach the pedals)

Ethan and I went to Wiggle Worms at the Museum of Discovery last week. They read Brown Bear what do you see and then got to see an owl!!! Ethan was scared at first, but got very interested in him when it was time to go. We also made silly glasses which Ethan is still carrying around with him. Hopefully we'll get to go back soon, he had a lot of fun playing with the other kids and running around the museum.

Happy Fall

This is my favorite time of year and it's finally starting to FEEL like fall! I took Ethan to the neighborhood park the other day to check it out. He really liked the slide there, and it's got 2 slides side by side so we had fun sliding down together. Then Brandon and I had a mini date weekend. Ethan went to Plumerville for a few days and we went to Fayetteville for the South Carolina game. The weather was PERFECT for football....and we won which makes it even more fantastic!

Ethan in October

loved his hat so much he wanted to wear it to church the next morning!

Our Little Pirate Ethan

Argh!!!!

Getting ready for some Razorback football....too bad we lost that day, but Mr. Ethan looked so cute!

At Children's all dressed and ready for his procedure. He did really well and we just found out that all the tests were negative!!! We are so excited to have gotten good news and happy he won't have to be scoped again in the foreseeable future.

Going to the big D

watching his choo choos with headphones for mommy and daddy's sanity!

the view from our seats. 40 yard line, 5th row...THANKS DAD!!!!!

Somehow I didn't get more pictures from this weekend, but we had a blast! We stopped in Sachse on the way in to see Kara and Will which was so fun. Will has gotten so big and it was great to see him and Ethan playing together. Then we loaded up and went to dinner with Brandon's cousin Jonathan before we headed to our hotel in SouthLake. My sweet parents got the whole family tickets to the AR game at Dallas stadium and put us up at the Hilton in Southlake for the weekend. Ethan slept in the middle of a big old bed surrounded by pillows and he slept like a champ! We did some shopping and eating and lots of good family time and a great game against A&M in that incredible stadium!!!!

My birthday weekend

I am the baby of my friends, but I am now in my last year of my 20's. My sweet husband sent me the MOST DELICIOUS chocolate covered strawberries to work and my parents sent me BEAUTIFUL flowers! I took Ethan to Harvestfest in Hillcrest and he had a big time with the sidewalk chalk. Brandon bought me a GORGEOUS dining room set for our new house and then our sweet friends watched Ethan on my birthday night so we could have a dinner date. Very fun weekend with my family celebration to come in Dallas for the AR v. A&M game!!

Ethan in September

Picking out his new lawnmower at Home Depot. Of course he's a John Deere man!

This was the night of his 2 year pictures. He wasn't in the best mood, but we took the pictures at PVCC and he just wanted to ride on the carts. So after pictures were over, the nice guys in the pro shop let us borrow a cart to go for a ride around the course...BIG FUN!

Long time no post

Sorry we've been gone so long! It's been a crazy few months for the Gray family. We sold our house in July in 3 weeks!!!! So we moved into an apartment with plans to build a house....then while we were meeting with the builder about our house plans, I got a new house listing emailed to me and it was a good match. It went on the market on Tuesday, we saw it Wednesday, made an offer and it was ours by Thursday. Then we went to the builder and asked him to do some remodeling for us. We stayed in the apartment while the house got ready, then finally moved into our new home in October. All of our recent pictures are from my phone b/c I haven't found the cameras yet, so bear with us as we get settled and then we'll get better about blogging again.

Get Comfortable

Ethan's 2 year appt and first time in a gown!

measured in at 36 inches and 37 lbs. He is off the chart on both height and weight and looks like he will be at least 6'2" when he's grown. Yikes!!!

at miss calleigh's birthday party. The only kid who wanted to be in his swimsuit, only to stand on the pool steps. I think he just wanted to flaunt his body for the ladies. (he has a thing for Lauren I'm afraid)

checking out the view from the Big Dam Bridge...this is where we had our lesson on how the lock and dam work

Ethan and daddy on the bridge

Ethan and mommy say "cheese"

Ethan at night 1 of 3 for Travs baseball.....it's his first time to play on the inflatables!

notice this sweet girl Hannah is in every picture from this night. She was Ethan's babysitter b/c she "loves babies...boys and girls" She was awesome!

Ethan at night 2 of Travs games. Brandon and Ethan went while I had a meeting. Night 2 of cracker jacks for dinner as well I bet!

he's so challenged by sunglasses, but he's cute even if they're crooked!

yep, he even lines up the trucks and trains on the wall of the bull pen. he dropped one over and the pitchers were kind enough to return it, but they gave Brandon the stink eye for not keeping better control of his son and his toys!

Night 3 of travs game in 1 week. This was the razorback pep rally night and we were kid free....big fun with our friends!

I'm pretty sure I'm holding someone else's beverage and that smile is REALLY because I don't have to chase Ethan around tonight....it's my night off :) Normally I wouldn't post such a pic, but I can't recall a time when I've seen such a big cheesy smile on my face!

Since my last post, we have done a zillion things...but gotten photos of very few! We have done a week of Travelers games, 1st birthday parties for 2 sweet little girls, changed housing situations (more on that later), celebrated papa's 60th birthday, had overnight stay at the farm with Grammy and Papaw, had Ethan's 2 year appointment, had more tests run at Children's for Ethan's swallowing function, started Razorback football season, and various other activities. This weekend we will celebrate my last birthday of my twenties and get ready to head to Dallas for the big game next weekend against A&M and the WHOLE family is making the trip. I'm so ready to see my brother Chris and the whole family is eager to see the new Cowboys stadium, so it promises to be a fun trip. Stay tuned afterwards when I can finally update about our living situation and hopefully do better with pictures!