A Day at the Zoo

This past week, we headed down to the Houston zoo on a cool, breezy afternoon. The weather was PERFECT, and apparently the animals thought so too. It was the best zoo trip I have been on in awhile. The animals were all out roaming around and SUPER close to the glass or fences. It was fun to see Brayden get excited about seeing the animals and mimic their noises.

One particular stop was the at the lions. Jonathan 'the Great'...the lion, not my husband, though he IS GREAT...anyway. Jonathan, the lion, was walking back and forth in front of the glass (literally 2 feet from us!), and I was snapping away with our camera. It was SO cool. All of a sudden, he stopped and turned around, rear end to the glass, and started peeing ALL over it! (as if to say, 'Please stop taking my picture, lady!') HA! It was hilarious...and somewhat gross! I was just glad that it was glass and not a fence where we would have gotten a 'lovely' afternoon shower.

'Jonathan, the Great'

Calista & Jonathan - Houston Zoo's 2 lions

'Hey, look at that...'

'...TONGUE!' Ew!

The cheetahs kept pacing right in front of us.

It was so awesome!

At the meerkats 'manor'...Note: see the sign on the glass saying 'Animals may bite'? Yeah, we noticed that *AFTER* we put Brayden as close as we could for good viewing. Oops!

Watching the orangoutang perform. (See her behind us!)

She was hilarious...every time she would flip or start swinging, she would look over at us to get applause or some kind of acknowledgment that we were seeing her cool tricks.

Silly orangoutang

Tired after a long day...

...We were tired after a day at the zoo too!

BEAUTIFUL sunset on our way home.

Tunnel Time!

We have a fun tunnel that Brayden loves to play in and crawl through. He and Kelsey got to play in it together and were cracking up going back and forth in it.

Kelsey

Standing up in the tunnel... "Get us out!"

Jonathan being goofy!

A New Experience in Popsicles

Brayden had his first experience of popsicles this week. He wasn't sure what to do at first, but then I showed him how to lick the popsicle, and he caught on pretty quick! He did get distracted and thought it was a phone at one point (When he says "Hi-ya" which equals HELLO in Brayden's vocabulary).

Here's a short video of his experience...

Picture of the Day

Brayden went into his room and climbed up in his chair with his "Night Before Christmas" recorded storybook with Grayma's voice (and stethescope around his neck) and was sitting there so content reading & listening to his book.

A Day in the Life

Well, I think he might just be coming around! If you'll remember with me, in the past, Brayden did NOT like hats! Lately, I've been trying to 'condition' him to like them. I put a hat on him now and then at home, in hopes that when we go out, he'll leave it on for awhile. He is just too cute in hats!

One of his Christmas presents was a fireman's hat, and surprisingly, that may have done it! He seems to be liking hats a lot now. He puts that fireman hat on and wears it around the house with a big grin on his face. He even found one of my hats (see picture below) and wore it around for a LONG time. Even though it's a girl's hat, I still adore our little guy in hats!

Look, Mommy!

Brayden has begun to figure out little things that I wish he would never figure out. Things like climbing on the couch and then onto the side table. Things like throwing his pacifier from his bed all the way to the hallway...say, what?! And then things like opening up Shiloh's kennel and climbing in to play with the bone inside. YUCK! Our little guy is full of surprises lately!

It's hard to believe he is 18 months old. Today, we went to the doctor and our brave little guy got 2 shots and didn't even flinch! He was 29 lbs. and 36 inches tall - officially 3 feet tall!

Although there are many funny things he is picking up that I wish he wouldn't, there is so much that just blows me away that is amazing that he is learning. He now says "Mama" and "Dada" constantly and babbles new noises all the time. He points to his nose, ears, mouth and bellybutton. He signs "Please" whenever he wants something. He loves to make animal noises and is loving reading books about animals. Our little guy is growing so fast, and he has so much personality! We are so thankful and can't wait to see God's plan for our little guy as he grows each day.

Happy New Year!

This year, we had some of our friends over to bring in the New Year. We had a blast playing games, watching the ball drop in Times Square, and remembering to begin the year right by committing it all to the Lord. "Yes, Lord, walking in the way of Your truth, we wait eagerly for You; for Your name and Your renown are the desire of our souls." Isaiah 26:8

My centerpiece for the evening.

I found this great bowl (at a garage sale!)

and filled it with bright colored Christmas ornaments.

The girls...with our stylin' New Year hats!

The boys...hanging out in the kitchen.

(L-R) Jason, Scott, Jonathan, Doran, & Andrew

(L-R) Brittany, Me, Megan,

Whitney, Kayla, & Emily

Gina, Tom, Lyndsay, Joey, & Michael

Christmas 2009

Christmastime was a great time for us this year. We were able to go up to Oklahoma and spend time with family...and experience a HUGE snow storm. Christmas Eve it snowed over a foot, which kept us inside for 2 days straight. This year was really fun in a new way, because Brayden understood more and actually had fun opening his presents. (Last year, he was only 5 months old.) Mimi & Papa had fun chasing Brayden around everywhere, and we were also so glad we got to spend some good time with Nanny & Papa.

Christmas morning

Brayden was a GREAT help cleaning up.

He loved putting the wrapping paper in the big trash bag.

Time to 'open' our stockings

Brayden & Papa

Brayden loved his new lawnmower!

Opening presents with Aunt Amy

Big smiles

These were my old Strawberry Shortcake glasses

Me, Leah, & Courtney

I was so excited to see some of my

good friends from high school

He found a reindeer to push around on his lawnmower

Papa, Brayden, & Nanny

Kisses to Nanny

Brayden found a Santa Claus and kept dragging him

around the house by his hat. Poor Santa!

So sweet! I just love this picture!

My *brave* husband running in the snow

with only his shorts on. Here's the video.

Uncle Paul showing Brayden stuff on his computer

Mom & Dad

aka Mimi & Papa

Nanny & Papa

Brayden checking out the snow...

not sure if he wants to dive in

Amy & Brayden

by the 'T-Rex eating a snowman' that Paul built

In his new Sooners jersey - TOUCHDOWN!

We're back...to the Blogosphere anyway

So, I realize that I have been HORRIBLE at updating my blog recently. After Christmas, the days and weeks have flown, and I've found myself caught up in lots of (fun) stuff. We had a great Christmas visiting family in Oklahoma... enjoyed a rockin' New Year's Eve party with friends... I've been painting lots of custom pieces for friends and more...lots more. I have SO much to update. I'm working on the *big* Christmas picture post...it will be up very soon. But here's a couple of random pictures of recent Gray happenings...

Our little guy

Smiles all around

Me & Brayden

This past week, we have gotten slammed with very unusual wintery weather. (Yes, I know it is in fact winter, but we rarely see it here in Houston!) We've been stuck inside, but here Brayden was layered up and ready to brave the cold.

Brayden: "I know it's cold outside, but I'm going to try to

sneak out this window to play ball outside..."

Busted!