1st School Program

Gray had his 1st ever school Christmas program and yes, by school I mean daycare. But like I've said before I think of it as school because he has learned and is learning so much everyday. I can't believe in a few short years he will be in REAL school. Crazy!

The program consisted of K2 - K4 and each class came out individually. The K-2 program was so precious and not just because Grayson was it. All the kids had little reindeer antlers on, a reindeer tail, hoofs, and a pink little nose.

Here's what it looks like and of course he had to be standing by his girlfriend, Addison.

* I faded out the other little girl because I don't know if her mom would appreciate it being on here without her permission even though some of the kids show in the videos below *

The children were supposed to say a little poem but I think more than half the class either a) didn't know it or b)where wondering why so many people were staring at them on stage and got a little nervous! What surprised me the most though was that not one of the kids cried up there! I figured there would be at least one breakdown but nope.... well, not in this class at least.

Here's a little snippet (and I mean snippet) of them walking in and the start of the poem. I ran out of room on my camera (which I could still kick my butt over) but at least I got a little bit taped.  Watch Gray!

A few weeks before the the Christmas program Gray started singing "Jingle Bells" so I assumed that was the song they were practicing for the program but I was sadly mistakin'......

Instead they sang "Reindeer Pokie" (which was tooo cute) and was the reason why they wore the accessories.

This was cutest program and I can't wait till his spring program at school because I know it will be just as cute! This whole program was well put together and I applaud all the directors, teachers, and parents for making it happen.

Afterwards, they had a reception for everybody to attend and mingle with all the parents. In the following pictures please ignore the orange around Gray's mouth as he was going-to-town on some cheese puffs.

On a side note, I was really happy to see that the older class sang "Happy Birthday to Jesus" It warms my heart to know that there are people/places that are not taking Jesus out of everything. He is the reason for the season. This is the reason why we are looking into Northside Christian Academy for school for Gray.

Family Christmas Pictures

We finally had family pictures taken a month or so ago for Christmas! This is bad to say but I don't remember the last time we had family pictures taken....with the whole family!

Alisha Rudd Photography was running a special; therefore, we made an appointment to have family pictures taken at the State House.....where the Occupy Columbia protesters where. We were keeping our fingers crossed, all the way up to our session date, that the occupiers would go home but to no avail. Luckily, they were not in our way like I thought they would be. They did; however, trash the state house grounds. Tents, garbage, food, blankets, etc. were scattered in front of the State House. In my opinion, it looked horrible and I would hate for visitors to see it like that. But I think everything has settled down a bit since then.

I wasn't sure how the pictures were going to turn out because none of the kids were cooperating. Abby decided she wanted to roll down a hill before the pictures and had a grass stain on her knee, Blain was swinging Grayson around and when she would have us in position to take a picture it seemed like all the kids would have "ants in their pants." I'm still not sure what was going on..........but the pictures turned out GREAT!! We took some serious ones and some funny ones and made some great memories.

See for yourself.....leave a comment if you would like. ;)



and there were many more.......

Like I said Alisha Rudd did an amazing job at capturing these memories and I will be forever grateful.

Giving Thanks

for everything God has given me. I am so blessed beyond my wildest dreams. I have family and friends who are alway there for me, a husband who loves me unconditionally and who would do anything for me....who gets me more than anyone, stepchildren who were brought into my life for me to grow and for me to show them guidance and wisdom, and a son who is the most perfect little boy and the most undeserving gift from God. And let's not forget God himself as none of this would have been possible without him. I'll be honest, there are days where I think to myself "I'm going crazy!" or "I just need a little break from all the chaos" but I wouldn't change anything about my life (well besides some mistakes that were made but everyone makes mistakes and we have to move on from them). I've noticed though some people only give thanks on Thankgiving when we should be giving thanks everyday! You never know when your life will be cut short so we should all live our life like there is no tomorrow.

While this post was started around Thanksgiving and was supposed to be about our Thanksgiving (it is now January 2, 2012), I would like to post this link that breaks my heart and is something that will show people that tomorrow is not a promise. This horrible, unthinkable accident happened yesterday, on New Years Day. This particular family was on their way to church, the church my family attends when their life was forever changed. When you read this please pray for this family as they are mourning the loss of their 6 year old daughter and it is said that 3 of their other children are in ICU. Pray that God will give them the strength and courage to get thru this and for them to remember that God is wrapping his loving arms around them. Think about your family as this could have happened to anyone. Pray that people who decide to drink will remember this before deciding to get behind the wheel and drive. Pray for the guy, who is 26 years old, and is now being charged with felony DUI and will probably spend his life in prison. Your life can change in an instant so we need to be thankful every single day, not just on Thanksgiving.

With that in mind, I'll jump back to our Thanksgiving and say thanks for all the pictures Aunt Renee takes of Brandon and I's children. :)

We had another random photo shoot on Thanksgiving. Brandon's Aunt Renee is a photographer and owns Life is a Journey Photography, and very talented I may add. We know when we go to Elloree we will be taking pictures! You can never have too many pictures of your children! :)

He looks sweet and innocent doesn't he?! 

I will be forever thankful of the gift God gave me of becoming a Mom....no matter how crazy he can drive me sometimes.

The Cowardly Lion

.....well not so cowardly but everyone thought that he looked like the lion off the Wizard of Oz. What do you think?

Gray is the most outgoing, loving, talkative and lets not forget...rambunctious 2 year old; thereforeq... Halloween was rip-ROARing-fun! In my opinion, the perfect age for trick or treating is 2 1/2 (well, at least for now). Gray had so much fun...OK, OK...Mommy and Daddy had fun too! I just loved watching him become so inquisitive about everything. This was the first year in which Gray was really able to notice everything around him. He would point and say "look at dat cowns (clowns) butt!" or "he was scary." He would go right up to the houses and say "trick or treat!" And trust me it was said just like that...plain as day. He is just so smart and can say just about anything (I know I may be a little biased) but every where we go people will comment about how well he talks to be only 2 years old. And, as I've said before, he will probably get in trouble at school for talking so much but until then....talk on. He is definitely a miniture Brandon with not only his loquaciousness but also  with his looks and being a very outgoing child.

We decided that we were going to go trick-or-treating with our friends Lacey and Ronnie and their little girl Mallory along with McKenzie and Jerry and their little ones, Lil Jerry and Bailey in their neighborhood, which was amazing. There was houses giving out cotton candy and snow cones...

Along with corn dogs....yes, you read right...corn dogs! I have never in my life heard of everyone giving out fried corn dogs but this one house did. Gray didn't get a corn dog because I just didn't know how I felt about that but apparently they were individually wrapped and he had the grease ready. Therefore, when a child wanted one he would unwrap it and fry it and ta da.....a child had his/her supper and could now munch on candy for the rest of the night. Very smart if you ask me! :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween and I can't wait till next year .... maybe Gray will be the Tin Man!

Only in South Carolina....

would you be able to take a dip in Lake Murray....in mid October!

Gray had a birthday party to go to at Pine Island ....little Miss Mallory turned 2 (see Mallory Shannon Crapps). It feels like yesterday when Gray and Mallory were wee little ones and now they are both two years old.

Days before the birthday party it must have rained everyday and the weather was a little on the cooler side. The day of the party the weather was perfect....if I remember correctly it was in the 80's. Even though it was in the 80's, I would have never thought 3 little munchkins would go swimming in the lake (and I guess I should say I never would have thought 3 Mamas would let it happen....but we did). Why not right? The weather was right for it and the kids had a blast! Unfortunately because of the spur of the moment swimming I was not prepared. Gray had on a diaper which of course blew up like a balloon and probably weighed 20 lbs, none of us brought towels, bathing suits etc; therefore, they all went swimming in their clothes!

The three amigos, from left to right: Avery, Cooper and Gray

These are the moments that I will look back on and smile and probably think "what was I thinking?"

Earthquake/Tremors 2011

August 23rd: So this may be one of those boring posts but I had to mention it for the sake of documentation for Gray when he gets older. You guys may think that he may never read this blog but I beg to differ. I'm in the process of having this blog printed using Blog2Print. When I found this website I thought it was the coolest thing and it is one way for Gray to read stories about him when he was younger (because I know I won't remember everything in the years to come, even though I would like to think so).

As we all know, there was a earthquake yesterday in Virginia which sent tremors all the way South to South Carolina and all the North to Canada. I was sitting in my office, typing away, when shortly before 2:00 p.m., my chair started rocking back and forth. If anyone else was in my office with me they probably would have thought I was shaking my leg or something but I wasn't. I stopped typing and thought to myself "Am I losing my mind?" but when it kept doing it I thought "This must be a dizzy spell or something?" Finally about 10-15 seconds later it stopped and then I definitely thought I was going crazy especially after talking to one of my co-workers and she said she didn't feel anything. Apparently though, everyone else in my office felt it.... along with many people up and down the East Coast (thanks to my Facebook feed I was able to find this out fairly quickly). Then about 5 minutes later, Fox News published the story about the 5.8 Earthquake that hit Virginia. It is crazy to me that we felt the tremors of the earthquake here in Lexington/Columbia when it happened so many miles away on the outskirts of Richmond, Virginia.

I just wanted to document this event because Gray isn't old enough to remember this day on his own. Now he will know that when he was 2 1/2 years old he experienced his 1st earthquake/tremor.

Cell Phone Picture Dump

Today I decided that I would dump all my pictures from my phone to my computer. Who knew that a phone could hold so many many pictures! 810 to be exact! Only 2 years worth! I couldn't believe it. And then looking thru them brought back so many memories!  

He was 5 days old in this picture and we were heading off to go to the Doctor. We had to check his jaundice...a couple of times to be exact. I can't believe he was ever that small.

My water monkey! This is what happens when you leave him with your mother & sis-in-law.

Gosh, I wish I could remember how old he was in this picture. But I love this picture...it was the first time that he really wanted to wear a hat. And I just think he is so precious! Well, ok, I think he is precious in all his pictures.

This was his 1st really bad allergic reaction....and we never figured out what it was from. However, he never had another one like this. He does have really bad eczema still but we are finally learning how to control the flare-ups.

Yep, you guessed it, this is a Kohl's buggy! Hey, he wanted to ride in the "bag" part and I wasn't going to argue. :) Now Mr. I-can-do-it-myself-lil-man, doesn't like to be in a buggy....unless, he is standing up in a grocery story buggy.

Big 'ole belly after eating Sweatman's BBQ in Elloree, South Carolina. Gray kept eating and eating and eating and this was the end result.

I would like to see him sleeping like this now!

Gray and his girlfriend, Addison Lauren Silver, cruisin' around the classroom at school.

My niece Lexington Ryan Cooper! Now she is a year old with lots of brown curly hair. She is too precious!

Loved his goofy grin! Now he doesn't do it that often. Glad I his school teachers were able to get a picture of it before he grew out of it.

This is how he used to sleep! Now he sleeps on top of his pillow.....yep, his whole body on TOP of the pillow.

Does this chair make my butt look big?

Oh my, there are so many pictures I would love to post on here! Maybe I'll do another post soon with some more random pictures! :)