Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Spring Break Road trip!

We've enjoyed a wonderful spring break visiting Pappa, Susu and the rest of our extended family in Mississippi. It's always so relaxing and fun here. The only downside is the nine-hour drive! Here are a few pics from the first half of our trip. More to come...

Between trips to Houston and Mississippi, Gray is a pro at driving long distances in the car. Here he is ready to watch Toy Story 2. 

Not sure why his riding gloves were required, but sometimes after so long in a car you get a little silly. Luckily, strawberry twizzlers make everything better. Don't mind that goatee scab on his chin. It's nearly healed after a bad bike accident before we left last week. 

Photo op at one of the Arkansas information centers. 

Upon arrival, we found Susu busy preparing dinner and dessert. Gray jumped right in to assist with the strawberry shortcake.


Daddy and Gray have also enjoyed some time on the four wheeler. 

Here's Daddy and Gray fishing at the lake behind my grandparent's house. As usual, Gray only lasted a few minutes before he wanted to get back on the four wheeler with Pappa. Meanwhile, Michael has spent days fishing and caught some of the biggest bass I've ever seen out of the ponds around the property. 

Pappa and Gray ready for some off-roading! We picked up those awesome green sunglasses at the local dollar store and they are Gray's favorites. He had a pair of the same kind a few years back but he wore them so much they got all scratched up. 

Checking out the farm tractor

Gray has also been helping his great grandfather Papa John feed cattle each afternoon and nurse one cow with a wounded leg back to health. That led to adding farmer to his list of what he wants to be when he grows up. Perhaps some day he'll trade his helmet for a cowboy hat on that tractor (if mama says it's okay). 

Monday, March 10, 2014

Lego Jackpot

Over the past week our living room has turned into a Lego workshop. One of our neighbors cleaned out their son's room and Gray became the beneficiary of a box of Legos her son had outgrown. We're not talking about a couple of sets here, it was a box of at least 4,000 pieces!


We tried to sort them as much as possible so we could break them into sets to share with grandparents and Aunt Emily. Now everyone will have a stash when kiddos come to play. This has also been a great way to show Gray how important it is to share. While his first instinct was to hoard them all, he realized that he's lucky to receive all these Legos and he has shared some with a different neighbor boy who comes over to play and doesn't own a lot of his own Legos. 

On Friday, Gray and the boy were playing after school and both built small airplanes from their imagination. Gray's friend asked if he could take his plane home and while I saw a brief moment of hesitation, Gray told him he could keep it. I was happy that Gray did the right thing, but it was even more fun watching him see how happy he had made his friend. 

I know it's hard to give away something that you really love and enjoy, but I'm hoping that Gray will remember the feeling he had seeing the joy on his friend's face and it will probably stick with him more than any lecture I give about the importance of sharing. 



Sunday, March 9, 2014

Memorable Moments

This past week we had several life milestones. Gray went on his first school field trip to a children's museum about 40 minutes away. He got to ride on a big yellow school bus for the first time and loved every minute of it.

His top two front teeth are getting really loose. One has been wiggly for a while, but is now really starting to move. I think it's still a few weeks off from coming out, but the tooth fairy is in our future.

My Grandmama Solomon also turned 90 this past week! We celebrated with a special family lunch and it was fun to see relatives from all over the country. We all wore pink (her favorite color) and I snapped a few pictures of my handsome fellas before we left the house. We also had a photographer at the event who will post more pictures on her blog soon. In the meantime, you can see some adorable pics she recently took of Nora. So sweet!

I mean come on...how cute is this boy in a bow tie? 


Can't forget daddy...he's a handsome cutie too!

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Spike it!

Gray is sportin' a new hairdo complete with gel! He thinks he's big time. Here's the mini-model striking a pose...