This boy

I can't believe our boy is less than a month away from finishing another school year. He's grown up so much this year and is still like a little sponge, soaking up everything he can.

He continues to really enjoy music and is currently learning two musicals, one at church and one for his school program. I often catch him singing to himself and you can tell there's always music going in that head of his!

Gray also loves being outside! Whether it's casting his pretend Cars fishing rod into our pool, driving his tractor around the yard or exploring trails and parks, this kid absolutely loves the outdoors.

We did some impromptu exploring at Lake Thunderbird State Park with Nana and Popper recently and he could have spent hours in the Nature Center, visiting the turtle enclosure and tromping around the lake.

Saying hello to one of the box turtles

Can you spot one of the turtles near the rocks?

Gray is also getting more opinionated about what he wears and how his hair looks. One morning he put in hair gel all by himself before school and was very particular about styling it to look cool. Daddy took a picture so I could see what a good job he did. So big!

Growing like a weed!

Our azaleas have been blooming for a few weeks, so it's time once again to take Grayson's picture next to them as has become our annual tradition. It's always fun to look back on how he's grown over the years. We started in 2011 and it's now become something I look forward to capturing every year. Here are the photos from 2012, 2013 and 2014.

I remember thinking he looked "so big" in the photo from 2013 and now that I see it, he's so short and little compared to the tall string bean boy of today. Hopefully he continues to humor me as I snap his pic for many more years to come!

Grayson at 6.5 years-old

April Birthday Extravaganza

April is a busy month for birthdays, with our neighbor Cooper turning 3 and my niece Nora turning 2. Both of their mamas are Pinterest/crafty overachievers and I always enjoy seeing the party themes they come up with every year.

Cooper had a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom party based on the children's alphabet book. The weather was perfect for some outdoor dining which turned out well since her dad and a handful of friends and family had built her a new fort and swing set by hand. It was finished in the wee hours before the party, but was ready nonetheless.

Here's the birthday girl Cooper with "her" Grayson. She finally graduated from calling him Grace to Grayson, but I have to admit I kinda miss it. 

Either way, these two are gonna be trouble as they get older! 

The following weekend we celebrated Nora turning 2! She had a circus-themed party and Grayson and Michael helped by painting an elephant on a box so the kids could feed peanuts down its nose. Gray was really proud of it.

I should have taken a pic at the beginning of the party when Miss Nora was still tolerating her hair bow, but these two are still pretty cute. 

Easter 2015

Easter seems like it was a long time ago, but I've been fighting off a sinus infection for the past two weeks and am just now catching up on the blog.

We enjoyed an Easter breakfast, egg hunt and service at church before heading up to Grandmama and Grandaddy's house for lunch. Unfortunately, it was rainy so Nora and Gray had to hide eggs inside (luckily I remembered to grab the plastic eggs).

As always, I had planned to get photos of Gray with his grandparents and great grandmothers, but got caught up in the festivities and didn't capture everyone. Perhaps I'll get better about that someday.

My handsome fellas

Family selfie

My boy

Loading up...the egg per kid ratio was totally off and each child came away with overflowing baskets of eggs/candy. 

Action shot

Gray with his buddy Liam doing some Easter crafts before the egg hunt

Gray with Great Grandmama Solomon

I could not get a smile out of Nora to save my life!

Too. Soon.

Grayson came home from school on Thursday with a little girl's phone number on a paper plate. He was so excited and wanted to call her to come over and play. We hear about this little girl daily, but didn't realize they were "boyfriend" and "girlfriend." 

When Michael asked Gray if she gave her number to him or if he asked for it, Gray replied, "I'll tell you but I don't want you to get jealous." How funny is that? Apparently he asked her for it as they were lining up for music class. 

Gray then asked daddy if he had a girlfriend. I was curious to know the answer to that too, but daddy told him that mommy was his girlfriend. Nice save, dad!

I'm not convinced Gray knows what all these words mean (jealous, girlfriend, etc.), but it's funny at any rate. We haven't let him call her yet and I tried to explain that her parents don't know us so they may not let her come play at our house, but I'm not sure he understands. Perhaps we can arrange a playdate at the park or something. 

Goodness, I'm really not ready for girlfriend/boyfriend drama and exchanging phone numbers. Next he'll be asking for his own cell phone. Can't we rewind back to the days when he wanted to marry me and never move out of the house? Even though there's a whole other set of issues with that idea, I'd at least have my sweet baby boy a bit longer. ::sigh::

Pre-Easter with Luke & Jack

Last weekend we enjoyed a visit from our cousins Luke, Jack and Suzanne. They were in town from Denver for spring break and we loved every minute our time together. 

It's only been a few months since we saw them at Christmas, but the boys both seemed to grow so much in that short time. We enjoyed dying and hunting Easter eggs, then they played soccer, light sabers and nurf guns for hours. 

After grilling hamburgers, the boys helped make a sleeping pallet and then cuddled up with popcorn to watch Star Wars. 

It's so great to see the three of them look forward to time together just like I do with my cousins. They're a rowdy bunch, but I love every last smelly one of them!

Big cousin Luke!

Everyone got in on the fun

I couldn't love these three any more

Jack patiently waiting for his egg to finish

Shirts off! Time to go hunting! Jack found the special Spiderman egg with a $1 inside. He was so excited you would have thought he'd won $1 million. So cute!

Morning snuggles watching Wild Kratts

Uncle Mikey picked up chocolate donuts so the boys were in heaven!