Childhood Memories

When I was young I had a Strawberry Shortcake house. I loved to take the time to set everything up in it when I would play. But I did have one problem. And it's name was Katie. Katie was my younger sister, and she always knew when I had my Strawberry Shortcake all set up. The minute everything was in it's proper place she would come over like King Kong and destroy it. I would cry. Yell at her. And do all the things kids do when they've felt wronged. But ultimately nothing could be done, seeing how she was still only a baby and just being curious.

Now that I'm a mother I can't help but laugh when my boys go through the same thing. I always think back to this picture, of Katie and me, when they're yelling at little brothers to "go away" and "stop breaking that!". So I decided I needed a picture for my boys to look at when they become parents. You know, to see things come full circle.


Some kind people from our ward were getting rid of old toys their now teenage kids don't play with any longer. We were lucky enough to get their Lincoln Logs and army men. The boys were excited to try them out but we waited until Douglas was down for a nap (trying to avoid meltdowns associated with destruction). The boys built and built and had everything all set up....

just in time for Douglas to wake up. Now Douglas still has absolutely no respect for other people's things. Nor does he have good enough hand eye coordination to not destroy pretty much everything he touches. I guess his walking coordination isn't all that great either. Oops...
poor horses! Their corral is no more...run free horsey!
Moving on. This looks interesting.

Oops. One of the army men got knocked down the center hole of the look out point.
Look a big fort!
I wonder what this does?
I don't think that was supposed to happen.
We're back to the now rebuilt corral. They don't stand a chance!
I swear it wasn't me!
Hah hah hah I run this town!!!
I have to admit though, Jackson and Cooper were pretty good sports about the whole thing.

So this is me in Springfield...

Happy Birthday, Heidi Mae!

The Ohio Grays just wanted to say a quick HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Heidi! Hope you had a great day and we love all the posts and pics you put up of the family! Happy Birthday!

Snow days are fun

We had another storm here the other day. Jon talked to our neighbor across the street, who's lived here for 50+ years, and he said this is one of the worst winters he could remember. I don't know if that's the old age talking, or if it's truth, but this winter has been much worse than last winter. We got snow maybe twice last year. This is the 4th or 5th time this winter, and it's only the beginning of January!! Jon's glad that we now have our own place for the worst winter in years. You know, so he has to shovel his own driveway, sidewalks, and walkway. He LOVES it. :) The boys love it when he has to shovel because it gives them an excuse to go out and play. Although their shovels got buried somewhere in the snow this last storm, so they weren't much help. They had fun none the less. True to Connecticut winterstorm form, it sleeted right after it snowed making a nice layer of solid ice on top of the snow. The boys loved running around crunching their little footprints all over the lawn. Douglas hadn't had a chance to get dressed yet before we headed out to play, so he's in his PJ's still. I couldn't get over how cute he looked playing in the snow in his PJ's boots and jacket that seems to eat his head everytime he tries to sit down.

Christmas Day

My apologize for the onslaught of pictures. Since we were on our own for Christmas, I wanted to make sure to put in pictures of the boys opening presents from Grandparents and such. You know, so they could feel apart of it. :)
Christmas morning the boys woke up...early of course. I don't remember what time it was, but early enough that I told them to go watch cartoons in their room until it got light outside. We set a specific time, and Jackson kept coming into our room to check our clocks. Finally the blessed time arrived, and we got to go down stairs. Now my family always had to wait for mom and dad to get dressed and they would go out first with cameras and take pictures of us as we came out. So I was a little thrown when Jackson ran down the stairs the min Jonathan and I rolled out of bed. I know I know, it was mean of me to make him wait as long as I had already. But come on I thought 7am was a reasonable time to be getting up.
We had to call Jackson back upstairs while we got the baby up, and the cameras ready. He was itching to get back down because he had already seen that....Santa had come!!!
Finally all our duck were in a row, and we let the boys come down stairs.

Santa presents are a free for all. Everyone opening everything up, so I was glad that I got to catch both of their faces when they opened their big present from Santa.

For Jackson it was a Star Wars lightsaber that pops up by itself and also glows.

Cooper's was also a Star Wars lightsaber.

Only, his doesn't pop up on it's own. Instead it can change from green (goodguy) to red (badguy). They were both pretty happy about how smart Santa was. I mean, how did he know they wanted those?!!!

Santa must have been really tired by the time he got to our house, because the only toy that Douglas got from him, never made it to his stocking. The book he got made it there, but for some reason the Little People carwash playset was still sitting in the dining room in a clear plastic bag. Jackson saw it after he opened up his lightsaber and got all excited and said, "Look mom, I think Santa left this one for Douglas over here!" He must have noticed the absence of presents in Douglas' stocking. Opps!!

I'm glad Douglas didn't mind. :)

Thanks Grandma/pa Regas for the cards!
(See that different color square of paint behind the picture on the wall? That's the color we ended up painting the whole lvrm 2 days after Christmas)





Thanks Grandma/pa Orme for all the loot. The helicopter was a big hit. So much so that after 3 days of being dragged around everywhere picked up and dropped repeatedly (on a hardwood floor mind you) the noise on it will no longer work. :(
Another note on this picture. We (for our own family) decided to make our Christmas gifts to each other. The necklaces I have on where both made by my wonderful little boys. The brown one by Cooper, the white and blue one by Jackson. They picked out the beads and strung them, Jon did everything else. Thanks for being such a good sport about the homemade gifts honey!!!





Thanks Grandma Lila for the game!!!

It was a simple Christmas, but that only made it all the more wonderful. We really wished we could have been with relatives, but we can't complain too much. We have a lovely warm home of our own and got to spend a lot of time with each other since Jon's rotation for the month was finished before Christmas. All in all it was a great Christmas!!!

PJ time

My family always got to open one present on Christmas Eve. And it was always pjs. I decided that it was one of the traditions we'd carry on in our family. The boys were super excited to get to open a present. Jackson had been spending a little time each day rearranging, fixing, and making the presents look just right under the tree. So to actually get to open one was almost too much.

Look mom!!


We had each of the boys give us their best impression of The Hulk.




Douglas wasn't quite that into it.

Birthdays

I was getting our new calendar up on our fridge and writing everyone's birthday's on it when I realized that I must have thrown out the old calendar that I usually keep around to remember exact dates of birthdays. So I know most of the months of the following people's birthdays, but don't have the exact date. Opps! So if you could please email me your birth dates, I'd appreciate it. I figured this would be easier then sending an email to each family. I know, I know, I'm lazy.
People I don't have dates for:
Caleb
Peter
Will
Dacia
Jonah
Jonathan
Spencer
Thanks a bunch!

Thank you!!!

Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to Dacia and Stephen for our wonderful Christmas presents!!! We wish we could have been there with you all. We love and miss you all!!!
Love
The Jon Gray clan