Birthday Party

Although it was a small little party, Grayson had fun yesterday. :)  We had our friends Dan and Anna over with their daughter Julia.  Then one of Will's friends from Ft. Lewis that is here in the same class as him, Mike, came over as well.  We grilled burgers, had some cake, and hung out.  Grayson enjoyed eating the Oreo cookie wheel off his cake, but wasn't too sure about eating much else of it.  He tried it, but either wasn't hungry or getting sick from his cupcake a couple days earlier deterred him from eating much of this cake.  Maybe that a good sign that he won't have a big sweet tooth like his mommy and will stick to fruits and veggies for snacks! :)

 He opened up some of his presents with the help from Julia and then they made their way out to his new sandbox to play.  It was a warm sunny day which is why he was in shorts, but started to get a little breezy in the shade outside when they played.  

 Grayson is a funny little guy that seems to be bothered by texture these days.  He won't crawl around in the grass most of the time since the grass here is like straw and wasn't so sure about getting in the sandbox either.  He'd stay right on the edge so he didn't have to stand in the grass or be in the sand.  I did manage to get one photo of him sitting in the sandbox but that didn't last long! Julia however had a blast!  I'm sure once we go out to play in it a few more times he'll get used to the feel!  Over course later he saw his swing and wanted to swing for a bit while Julia continued to play.  

 We got him a little push toy for his birthday.  The legs can slide together and he can ride on it too.  He thought it was pretty neat when Daddy showed him how to ride it and got pushed up and down the hallway.  Now that's all he wants to do!  It was a good little party, but his grandparents were missed along with his aunts and uncles!  Thanks again for the birthday gifts!!  

The Cake

Well I managed to get Grayson's birthday cake made without too much hassle!  I did end up making two batches of cakes since the first batch all the bottoms came off in chunks.  The next morning I made a new batch from scratch rather than trying to used boxed mix again.  Those turned out much better!  I let them freeze for a couple days and decorated them this morning for his little party.  I debated on which train part to give him and planned to do the engine, but I used Ding Dongs for the engine front and figured he didn't need all that chocolate so I gave him the back train car with his "1" candle.    The green "blobs" were leftover cupcakes and frosting that I made into bushes.  

 The smokestack is mini cupcake tops layered on top of each other and then marshmallows for the smoke.  

The middle car is topped with Jelly Bellies... mommy's favorite candy :)

Then there's Grayson's "coal" car with crumbled up oreos. 

More pictures to come later!!! :)

Laundry Basket

*If you tried viewing this video clip earlier and it didn't work it's because I forgot to take it off the "private" setting on YouTube.  It should work now!*


Grayson has figured out how to climb in and out of the laundry basket the the other day.  Now I'm not sure which is harder to do laundry.  Him taking all the clothes out and off the couch as I'm trying to fold them, or him IN the laundry basket rubbing him runny nose all over the clean clothes.  :)

First Birthday

I can't believe my baby has now turned one!  The year has gone by so fast!  We celebrated his birthday after dinner by giving him a little cupcake.  He was sang "Happy Birthday" many times yesterday by cousins and mommy and daddy, but when we blew out the candle for him he was a tad bit upset :)

Even though he tried some of Mommy's cake during her birthday a couple weeks ago, he wasn't too sure what to do with this cupcake.

Daddy helped him out though and broke it up for him to grab pieces of.

Grayson then figured out what to do with his cupcake and started digging in!

Poor little guy though has been fighting a cold and coughing a lot lately.  Between coughing while eating his cupcake and eating too much food for dinner and then the cupcake he ended up getting sick and it all came back up.  So after a quick bath and getting cleaned up and in his PJ's he then opened some presents.  All of them happened to be books! :)

Despite being sick and a little out of sorts for his birthday, he seemed to have a good birthday!  We saved a couple presents for his little party on Saturday that we're having with a few people we know here.  Grayson says thank you for the presents! More pictures to come this weekend from his party!

"Follower" reminder

Just wanted to remind you all to become a "follower" of the blog! :)  The link to become a follower is a white box with the word "follower" in it.  It is a link so if you click on it it should add you below that to the "Family and Friends" section.  If you keep getting an email inviting you to join the blog, it's because you're showing up on my list of those who have not joined.  Some are still listed twice as members AND non members of the blog so if you keep getting that invite then maybe it'll take you off the other list and I won't keep sending invitations to the blog every other week. :) Keep checking back often!  We'll be posting a lot of pictures today and this weekend of Grayson's first birthday!  He's had a fun birthday so far!!

Swim Time

We went to the pool today for Grayson's birthday.  Here in Sierra Vista they have a really nice Aquatic Center and on Mon-Sat mornings they have a "Splash Time" just for kids under 5.  It's basically an open swim time in the shallow pool for the little kids so they aren't getting bombarded by big kids and splashed.  During the regular open swim the pool creates a tidal wave so its like the beach, but they turn that off for "Splash Time"  The pool had a fun slide... at least mommy thought so!  It was a tree slide, but when we went down the water got in his face and he didn't like that so much!  I thought he would enjoy the pool since this summer he loved swimming with us, but when I first put his feet in he didn't think it was so much fun!  

I'm not sure if it was the water or if he was still ticked off that he had to wear that orange wrist band!  His little friend Julia (JuJu) and her mom, Anna, came with us. JuJu wasn't quite sure what to make of it either... but no tears came out of her.  Just hesitation for a long time!

Eventually they both started to like the water once we showed they they could splash like in the bathtub.

Once Grayson stopped crying and was comfortable with the water, we made our way down into the deeper area.  He wasn't so sure of me holding him out in front of me to swim on his belly, but was fine if I held him on my side.  

JuJu got comfortable enough to even try a little kicking and swimming with her arms!

After about 30 minutes Julia was shivering so we headed back home.  While most of these pictures show Grayson not so sure about the whole swim thing... he really did start to have fun!  Especially when we found a little ball for him and Julia to throw back and forth.  I'm sure once we go back a few more times  the kids will get used to it and they'll have a blast!

Little Climber

Grayson finally figured out how to climb onto the dishwasher the other day! He thought he was pretty cool stuff up there and will pitch a fit when we take him down. At first he just stayed on the lid and then realized there was stuff on top of the counter he could get to if he stood up. One of the treasures he found up there was a binkie that we hadn't stashed away yet. He was pretty happy to find that! After surgery we were told to not give him binkies till he healed. Well, he did so well without a binkie and actually started sleeping pretty consistently throughout the night without it now without it. So when the doctor gave the "all clear" after surgery we decided not to bring the binkies back out.

Chasing after Bailey

Grayson loves to chase Bailey around the house these days.  On this day we chased her under the guest bed.  When I went to go find him all I saw were his little legs going under the bed and then when I got back with the camera Bailey was running out and he was following after her. :)  

Tucson Zoo

Today we went to the Tucson Zoo. We quickly found out that the zoo is very small! We managed to see the entire zoo in less than 2 hours! That was even including playing for a little bit and waiting to decide if we'd wait in line to feed the giraffes. It was a gorgeous day though and we had fun getting out of the house and out of Sierra Vista for the day. We stopped for lunch at "Lindy's on 4th", a burger place that was featured on "Man Vs. Food". The hamburgers were delicious!! Too bad it's an hour away... then again maybe that's good so we don't go too often! The zoo was almost the perfect size for Grayson though since we got there after lunch, and left in time when he was ready for a nap on the way home! Here are a few pictures from our day!

Anteaters

He figured out how to use a sippy cup!
The only one he has figured out so far after trying many different kinds!

The jaguars had some bones with meat they were chomping on

Play time!

There were a couple little things the kids could climb on/in.
Grayson enjoyed the log.

Notice the squirrel running away in the bottom left?  The ostrich kept trying to catch the squirrel when it would run up on top of the logs.  Funny thing is, the squirrel kept going there!