Home Sweet Home

I'm back!!!! So Douglas and I came home Thursday afternoon. We are both doing good but are both very tired too. Jackson and Cooper are so excited to have Douglas home and if he's not in the room with us they'll ask were he is. Jackson is a great older brother and LOVES to hold the baby. He even gave up playing WII for 45 min because he "has to hold baby Douglas." He just sat on the big chair and held him while watching Jon play and telling him what a good job he was doing when he'd get a strike on bowling or what not. Cooper loves to tell us that Douglas is a baby and point to his eyes and let us know that "baby sleeping". When he tries to hold him he likes to say "heavy". So far they're both enjoying being big brothers.
I'm still sore and tired and Douglas likes to be awake at night still so it makes sleeping even harder. But other then that things are great. I'm already feeling 10x's better than i did at this point with my other two delieveries. Well I got to run. Baby's crying.
Thanks for all your prayers and love.

Here's some more

Brand newbie +12 hours

The boys were a wee bit apprehensive at first...

Holy Crazy hair, Batman!

A happy Granny!

After realizing the new addition was harmless, here-to-stay, etc. they soon warmed up to the idea and were excited to hold the new little bro.

Peace, love, warm muffins & chocolate chip cookies,

Jon

Happy Birthday Douglas!

Oct 23, 2007







HOLY 10 lbs. 9oz!!!
Heidi was awesome! Once the baby and all were ready to come it took 2 contractions and 6 pushes. No screaming like the lady down the hall...
Douglas Isaac decided he wanted to share a birthday w/ his cousin so he held out to due date +1.
Great Job, Heidi & Douglas.

Early Fall

Well it sure is fun to see the pictures and hear what is going on in the Gray clans around the country! I can't imagine the stress and fatigue that Jon is going through during his residency, and the stress Heidi Mae is fighting as well, juggling two kids and a monster baby (almost) to boot! We miss you guys, and Dave and Mindy! (Dave, maybe you should start packing heat to dental school...)

Rob and Family are doing well. He just rec'd a $10k per year raise, and so is doing better financially to the point where he is dumping his guitar students to spend more time with the wee bairn. (He'll have his house paid for in just over 4 more years!) Caleb is in soccer, and we all know how nothing is funnier than the first year of soccer for kids. Doesn't matter which goal they kick the ball in, your team or the opponent's, it's all good!

Stephen is doing...whatever it is that Stephen does. He's working 2 jobs at DiscoverCard and UPS. He seems happy as can be.

Autumn is my absolute favorite time of year, especially in the NorthEastern states and Canada! My mission covered two counties in upstate NY, and Quebec, and the colors are incredible! We had snow here in Utah last weekend-in the valleys. You know that Fall has arrived in Utah with 2 annual events: 1) General Conference, 2) Valley snow. Dacia, kids, and I drove up Parley's Canyon to Park City a couple weeks ago to see the autumn colors. Amazing how we get fall colors for about 30 minutes before the tree leaves die and drop.


Spencer is fantastic, and growing like crazy--well, for one of my runty kids I mean. He had grown 3 inches and 4 lbs since birth at his 2 month doctor visit. His exzema is almost completely cleared up, and he is starting to coo, and laugh, and has better head control--sortof. He'll follow people as they move (with his eyes/head), and loves to watch TV, or at least, stares at the flashes of light from the screen when the boys watch a movie. I still can't hear him when he cries in the middle of the night, but that isn't really news since none of the boys seemed to disturb my beauty sleep--no matter how long, hard, or loud they cried. Well, that all changed yesterday morning. I woke up from a dead sleep when Spencer pooped his diaper at 4am. Noisy! We're calling him Thunderpants now. Loud, long, and, well, noisy! My favorite is in the Chapel during Sacrament meeting--when the Sacrament is being passed or on Fast Sunday, when it is so quiet you can hear the hum of the overhead lights, then Spencer rips a nice, juicy, Thunderpants moment and you hear the little kids giggling clear at the back. (We sit on the 2nd pew from the front on the left side of the chapel facing the pulpit.) And he smiles, every time! As if he knows...Such simple pleasures.

(Jason and Dacia with President and Sister McKittrick, Oct. 5, 2007. President was diagnosed with and inoperable, malignant brain tumor in July of this year. This was a special mission reunion to say goodbye.)

Jonah loves the first grade, and Jonathan is terribly bored until his big brother comes home from school. Last year was alright for Jon-Jon, when Jonah was only gone for a couple of hours. Now, he drives us up the wall because he is so hyper, waiting for Jonah and wanting to play with someone. Jonah took a sack lunch to school for the first couple weeks, until Dad had to start making his lunches. Jonah eats a "hot lunch" at school now. Boy, is Dad lazy. Especially once he found out he can put money into Jonah's lunch account on the internet with a couple of mouse clicks. For Halloween this year, Jonah finally agreed to be someone other than Harry Potter, although that was a very recent development, and all his own thinking! He is going to be Black Spiderman, and he puts on his costume and just walks around for hours. He doesn't play Spiderman, he just wears the costume. Strange. Jonathan will be a firefighter (not fireman!), and he does play at being one, and Spencer will be a Tootsie Roll.

Dacia is recovering nicely from the birth, and has just started working again for JetBlue. Spencer usually only wakes up once per night for a feeding, usually around 3-4am which gives her 5-6 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Jason still hasn't found a new job since Capital One closed down GreenPoint Mortgage on August 23rd and laid off all the employees. He hasn't looked that hard either, which has been nice on one hand to be able to spend time with the family and help with Dacia and 3 boys, more than he could while working anyway. (Wow, kindof tough to talk about one's self in the third person...) The severance Capital One provided has been nice for that reason, but as that comes to an end the job search takes a much higher priority. It is difficult to want to work in the mortgage industry at the moment, especially with the volatility and radical product changes that are occurring so rapidly.


These pictures were taken when the Jon-Jon and Jonah were "called" on a mission for a Primary activity. They received "calls" in individually sealed envelopes that were sent home. They reported to the church on a Saturday morning for a period of one hour, and learned about 3 ward sisters' mission experiences. Well, this was an important occasion, and so Dad bought them new Sunday clothes, including clip-on ties! (First time ever for ties!) All this was Saturday morning before they were to report to their "mission" at 10am. So Dad rushed all over the place trying to find a store that carried boys' ties Saturday morning, early, in the rain, before 10am when, as I'm sure you all know, most retail stores open. Finally found the ties, and rushed home to get the boys changed, hair combed, pictures taken (Dacia's idea), and to their mission on time. They were the only two people (adults included!) to even dress in Sunday clothes, let alone white shirts and ties. Don't I feel silly.

Go Cougs

This was the BYU-Air Force Game on Sept. 22. We had a fabulous time, and left in the middle of the 4th quarter due to rain. We had ponchos for everyone, but forgot to bring a blanket from the car for Spencer.

End of Summer Pics

These pics are actually from August of this year. I really don't know why the boys are closing their eyes and holding their breath running through sprinklers...I kept thinking they were going to run into something, or each other.

Saturday Drive

We went on a drive up to Massachusetts on Saturday in hopes that the colors would be out in full since we didn't know when we'd get a day off to do this again. There was some pretty color, but you can tell that it's got a little ways to go before the big "show". It was still a nice drive to the 'countryside' as Jackson called it.

Double Trouble

So here's Cooper in his Buzz outfit. Super cute! And just so you all know, that is Jackson's Buzz face. I don't know why it's so mean looking.

Look at this!

So I found a Buzz Lightyear costume at a consignment store and Jackson has been in heaven ever since. Originally Jackson said he wanted to be Woody (from Toy Story) for Halloween, but has since decided that Buzz was cooler. We had planned on Cooper being Buzz since that's all he's talked about for the last 2 weeks, and decided that if I could find a decent priced Buzz outfit for him too, then we'd have two little Buzz Lightyears. I forgot to get a picture yesterday, but I found a buzz outfit for Cooper, so I now have two very energetic Buzz Lightyears running around my house. They both try and shoot they're lazers out of their arms and fly and mimic Buzz in everyway possible from the movie. Well it's cute, and I'm so glad to have that worry off my mind. I knew I had to get them Halloween costumes before the baby came or they might not be trick or treating this year. Now I just hope that Jonathan's not on call Halloween night so he can take them out. :-)

Jonathan goes off Oral Surgery Clinic on Sunday and starts his rotation in Internal Medicine. The other first year resident with Jonathan is just getting off Internal Medicine, and said that it should be a little easier on him as far as time. We sure hope so, that would be great with a baby on the way. Right now Jonathan's still trying to recover from a very long weekend. In three days he slept about 8hrs and 15 min. Two of the nights were about 4 hrs each and one of the nights was just the 15 min. (They had a surgery that went until almost 2 am, car accident, and then he was also on call that night and a kid came in with a busted open forehead) so 15min sitting at the computer in the office was all he got that night. He came home Tuesday night (first we'd seen of him since Sunday night) and was having a hard time staying awake during dinner. He helped me out by giving the kids a bath, but couldn't stay awake to read them a story, so I took over. Then he was off it bed. For the first time I think since we've been here, he got 9 hours of sleep!

I'm still keeping busy with baby preparations and everyday life. Preschool, cleaning, laundry, etc. The list of things to get done is getting smaller, but it's been a chore since I'm the only one able to work on it. To add to it all now, the boys and I are sick. We've all got a nasty cough and headaches. I don't know if Jackson's ever had a headache before because when he first started getting sick I asked him if he was ok, and if there was something wrong. He almost started crying and said 'my head hurts really bad because I ate too much ice cream.' This was at 9 in the morning, but an ice cream headache was the only way he knew how to explain what hurt. It was cute. It's looking like he'll be missing his school field trip to the apple orchard tomorrow. He still sounds really bad.

Other then that life here is good. The trees get prettier and prettier every time I go out to do errands. Poor Jonathan's missing it all going in at 6am coming home at 7pm. This Saturday is his first Saturday off in well over a month. Hopefully we'll be able to get out and drive around to see the colors. Just so you all know, the picture of me was taken last night. Thought you'd all like to see what a sick 37 1/2 wk preganant woman with a 9 lb baby looks like. You should see the looks I get from people when I'm shopping or even at church. It's the whole 'that poor woman' look. I think it's pretty funny. It's getting much harder to sleep lately and I don't have much of an appetite atleast during the day. At night I'm always starving. Maybe it's the heat we've had lately or the fact that there's just not much room in there for food. Oh well the joys of pregnancy.

Love you all

Gray Family Reunion

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Hello Everyone! This montage is from the Gray Family Reunion, hopefully to be held every year around the date of Grandpa Gray's birthday. It was held at the Park next to the Bountiful Bubble and Rec Center. For those who weren't there, we missed you, and hope to see you there in the future!!