GRAYER TURNS 2: Part I

While planning our trip home to Idaho we had to make sure we made it back to New York before Grayer turned 2, that way we wouldn't have to pay for a plane ticket!! Therefore, we ended up leaving Idaho 2 days before Grayer's 2nd birthday, but since it was so close we decided it would be fun to have an early birthday party for him so that our families could help us celebrate our cute little boy!! We started the party out at Arctic Circle where Grayer and his cousins enjoyed playing on the toys in between bites of their dinner! We then went to my parent's house for presents, cake, and ice cream!! Grayer was thrilled to have so much attention and to get to open up his presents. Thanks everyone for coming and celebrating with us!!

Playing on the Toys at Arctic Circle


Having fun with cousin Audrey


Prescott and Porter eating and watching Tom and Jerry

Grayer enjoying his Root Beer

Everyone eating

Aunt Molli

Pig, Sheep, and Chick Cupcakes

Grayer's Pig Cake (originally I was only going to do cupcakes but I had some left over batter and decided to make Grayer his own little cake)

Surprisingly he waited to blow out the candles while we sang Happy Birthday to him, you can tell he is a bit anxious though!!

Blowing...

Success!!! He wanted us to keep lighting the candles so he could blow them out again!

Opening Presents

Grandpa C. made Grayer this little bike!

CHRISTMAS GALORE

For Christmas this year we had the wonderful opportunity to travel home to Idaho to see family!! We had such an amazing time, it was hard to leave when the time came to come back home. We are lucky to have both my family and Andy's family close together because it allows us to see both families when we come home to visit. Here is the break down of our Christmas Celebrations....

Flying Home... The Rochester airport had a great little kids area to play in while we waited for our flight!


Christmas Eve... That day we went sledding and had a "winter picnic" at the park. I didn't get any pictures of the picnic but I sure did get some fun ones of us sledding.

Andy and Grayer

My brother Jon and his son Prescott

Jon's wife Melinda and their daughter Audrey (I loved their pigtails)

My nieces Emma and Audrey


Grayer with Grandpa Christensen

My nephew Porter

My nephew Daniel

My beautiful Mom

Grayer and Me sledding


That night we had a relaxed Italian dinner of pizza and pasta and then had our usual Christmas Program. I guess I am always too busy stuffing my face to worry about taking pictures during our meals because again there are no pictures of dinner. But, I did get a few of the program!

This is our cute Nativity, Grayer was supposed to be the Donkey but he wouldn't cooperate.

This is the best we got of our little Donkey

Grayer sitting with his Uncle Jon


Christmas Morning (with the Christensen side)...

Walking down the stairs to open presents

Checking out the stocking

Showing Grandma his new toy

Grandpa made Grayer this rocking horse, and Grandma got him a hat to complete the look!! CUTE!!

My sister Amy and my Dad modeling their new coats

New fire truck toy

"What ya got in there for me Grandpa?"

CHRISTMAS JOY!!


Christmas Afternoon (with the Gilchrist side)...

Andy's Mom made us girls these cute hats!
(From the left: Andy's cousins Stefanie and Katie, Andy's sister Molli, then Me)

Opening Toy Story P.J.'s

Opening Cars P.J.'s

Patiently waiting for Dad to get through all the packaging!

The new Tractor

Giant Chocolate Bar!!


A big thanks to both of our families, we had a wonderful Christmas!!

DECEMBER 1ST

We had very fitting weather here in NY yesterday, we welcomed our first "real" snow storm of the year! And it being DECEMBER 1ST I thought it was a marvelous day!!!

We didn't have a chance to get all our snow gear on and go outside and play but I did take Grayer outside to see the snow and to touch it.... and wouldn't ya know? He hated it! He wouldn't touch it, taste it, or even stand in it. We will definitely have to work on this, because I sure love snow and no son of mine is going to hate it :)!!!!

Another fun thing we did on DECEMBER 1ST was start the Christmas Count Down that Grandma and Grandpa Gilchrist sent for Grayer!! Everyday Grayer gets to open one present, and when the presents are all gone it will be time to fly home to Idaho to see our Family and Friends for CHRISTMAS!!! We are so excited!

Mostly for Grandma and Grandpa but for all to enjoy, the video from DECEMBER 1ST, Day one of the Christmas Count Down...

And because I am a day late posting this and it is now DECEMBER 2ND here is Day 2 of the Christmas Count Down....

Christmas Cards!

Ever since Andy and I were married I have been wanting to do a Christmas Card, but thought that since we didn't have kids yet it would be boring to just talk about us. But then Grayer came along and we aren't boring anymore because we have a cute little boy to talk about!!! So this is the year! But oh wait..... I just remembered that we are poor college students and fun luxuries like Christmas Cards aren't really in the budget. Dang it! Just as I was about to give up on doing a Christmas Card this year I found Shutterfly.com. They are giving away 50 FREE cards if you blog about them. A lot has happened this past year and now we can send out an update with cute pictures of Grayer on it!

Free = Perfect solution to our money problem!!!

I've been looking on their website and they have some of the cutest stuff. I am going to have a very hard time choosing a favorite from all of their amazing Holiday Cards. I love them because there are so many to choose from and they are all so different, lots of variety! And because I'm not creative enough to design my own card, this will help take the stress off:) I'm excited!!! Thanks Shutterfly!

p.s. Don't forget to send us "lonely folk"clear out here in NY your Christmas Cards!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Hope you all have a GR-R-REAT Halloween!