We had a really great time visiting with Neil's brother and his family while we were in Florida. Cliff and Chloe met us at Magic Kingdom one day. It was really neat to spend time with them in the "happiest place on Earth!". After we finished our week at Disney, we headed to Cliff and Kathy's house in Pinellas Park. We were thrilled to play with our nephew, Cooper. He was only 3 months old last time we saw him so he has REALLY changed! Claire is really growing up too. She is such a smart girl and so sweet.  Chloe is a hoot. She is very dramatic and girly. One of the highlights of the trip for me was watching her sing the songs from High School Musical. She was so into it! Cliff and Kathy has a great pool and we spent A LOT time hanging out in it. We only left once in 3 days and that was for us to take the kids to Chuck-E-Cheese. We had a great time and we miss them already.

 

We got home from Florida last night.  We had such a great time and are very worn out. We are taking the day to chill out and do laundry!  I am working on getting all the pictures to load. At last check... we had over 500 pictures! I promise I will not post them all. But here is my favorite one!

We went to South Padre Island last week with my parents. My dad had meeting down there so we all decided to join him. We have really been wanting to take the boys to the beach. We ended up having a great time. We went to Schitterbahn one day. It was really fun. The boys are both such dare devils. They both rode everything! We also went on a dolphin watching boat tour. It was Greyson's favorite part of the trip because they let him drive the boat. The REALLY let him drive the boat. We could not believe it. We knew that it would make his Grandad really proud! :) We spent the rest of the time eating and swimming. We had a lot of great meals and one bad one. My mom got food poisoning one day so she missed out on some of the fun. Greyson also did his first bungee jump! They had a kid jump. I had never seen one before! By far the coolest thing that Grey got to try was boogie boarding. He was the youngest one by about 5 years at least that even tried it. He did so great. I was so thrilled to see the smile on his face. You could almost see his confidence building. As a mom, there is nothing better than seeing your child feel success. I was so, so proud of him! Grant's favorite thing seemed to be playing in the sand and feeding the seagulls his snacks! It was a great week!

 

We are getting ready to leave for Disney World this weekend. I just washed everything and put it back into the suitcase! I had to add a lot for the Disney trip though. I have learned to pack our own glow necklaces, spinning light toys, snacks, etc. Those are the things that end up costing a lot of money at Disney! We are also looking forward to seeing Neil's brother and his family while we are in Florida.

 

Here are some of my favorite pictures from Padre!

We had a great birthday party for Grant last weekend. He had 19 friends join him at Jungle Gym. It is a kids dream place to play! He is really into Curious George so we had a monkey theme. Grant had a great time and I think all his friends did too. We were thrilled to be joined by our four new cousins! Adam and Shannon adopted the most precious little angels and we got to meet them last weekend. The kids all played really well and it felt like the Miranda, Isabelle, Dominick and Damien had always been part of the family. They are really great kids and Shannon and Adam are pros. We all went to Hawaiian Falls on Sunday. It was a beautiful day. We have been rained on almost every day this summer so I was so glad to spend some time in the sun. I will post some pictures soon!

Last week was my birthday. Neil really went all out this year! He took me to the BEACH! We went to Miami for a few days and had the best time. My mom kept the boys so that Neil and I could just relax and hangout. We had some great meals and just hung out at the pool and beach all day. South Beach was neat to see. It was a great place to people watch! We did not stay in South Beach because we wanted our hotel to actually be on the beach. I was very glad when we got there that we werein Bal Harbour. It was really pretty and a great area to stay. We did take one tour to see Millionaire Island where a bunch of celebrities have houses. It was crazy to see how huge and beautiful they were. It was a great little vacation.

 

We had a Microsoft event in Houston on my actual birthday. We had dinner at the Houston aquarium and it was such a neat place! After dinner, we went to see Spam-A-Lot. I had pretty low expectations since I am not a big Monty Python fan. BUT it was really fun and I really enjoyed it.

 

Last night, the boys (all 3) had  a little party here at the house. It was so cute. The boys were so excited to celebrate. They got me a little cake and we all just had a great night.

 

This week is our Vacation Bible School week. It will be crazy busy. It is always a lot of fun but extremely tiring. We have been working on it for several months. We will have 1000 kids and 375 volunteers. I am in charge of getting them all fed. Needless to say, I am a favorite customer of our local Sam's Club!

 

I hope that everyone is having a good Summer so far!

Hello All,

Sorry for the lapse in posting. For some reason, I just kept putting this off! Maybe because we are CRAZY busy! It has been a fun few months! I guess that I shoud just start by saying that Greyson is now officially a preschool graduate! My baby is going to kindergarten. It is already killing me and we still have the summer to enjoy. I am so glad that we did not send him last year. The time that we had together has been priceless.  Here it goes...

 

April-

Aprl was great because we had some nice weather and a lot of fun events. I helped organize and pull-off the egg hunt at our church this year. It was great but it had to be inside because it was really cold!  My neighbor and I also were in charge of the neighborhood Easter egg hunt! It went really well. We had about 75 kids come and they had a lot of fun. It was a lot of work but I am glad that we did it. Our neighborhood is still growing really fast so it was a good way to get to know more people. It was also beautiful weather. Our last hunt for eggs was at my parents house in Pecan Plantation. Again, it was cold. It is funny how the whole month can be pretty and warm except for on Easter weekend... Grey also got to sing with his choir on Palm Sunday. He loved it.

 

Grant is still in My Gym and has made friends with several little kids from his class. He gets to play every couple of weeks with them. He is a really social little guy. He thinks he is just as big as his brother. It is too funny. He knows everyone up at the church and thinks he runs the place. He loves the days that I work because he gets to go play in the childcare. He calls it "my class".  He is saying "Bye, Mommy. I love you!" before we even get to the room. NO seperation anxiety at all. It is so nice!

 

Grey lost his first tooth in April. It was very exciting! Neil was out of town that week so we were really trying to wait for him to be here when he lost it. But, Grey woke up early one morning and started playing upstairs. He said that it just fell out of his mouth onto the carpet! Being the clean freak that he is.... he washed it off and brought it downstairs to show me. He was so thrilled and he looks pretty cute. He is about to lose the one next to it right now. It is in that stage of "about to fall out".

 

April closed out the Spring Monstar Soccer Season too. Grey ended the season with 9 goals. His team was undefeated! Speaking of soccer... Grant is still obsessed with balls. Any kind! He loves to play basketball and soccer. He is really good at it. He is looking like a lefty. I know it is early but I think he is going to really enjoy sports.

 

Thus- the new big boy room! Grant moved upstairs and into a big boy bed. His new room is done in a sports theme. We had the walls painted with a stripe around the room and his name surrounded by balls. HE LOVES IT. He is doing pretty good in his bed. He loves being upstairs with "Bubby". We also rearranged Greyson's room and added a few new things.

 

We ended the month with Greyson's Church Choir Spring Musical. It was a huge production. We were really impressed. Greyson is a total ham and loves the spotlight. It is fun to watch him perform and be in a place he really shines. I am still thinking that performing is what he likes best.

 

May:

 

May has been a lot of fun but seriously full of activities. Grey started the month off with his end of year musical for his preschool. He had the only speaking part. He loved it.

 

I got to host a scrapbook weekend for some of my friends at my parents house in Pecan the first weekend in May. It was awesome! There were 8 of us and we really had a great time. I got a ton of scrapbooking done and had a lot of good laughs too. 

 

Grant is really talking now. He can even sing a few songs. He went from saying very little to talking ALL THE TIME! He is so ready to go to preschool. He tries to go to school with Greyson when we drop him off. He is going to go to a little summer Mother's Day Out this summer. We will go about 12 times in June and July. He was so excited when we went to visit the school. They have a big gym and they were playing with BALLS! I had to carry him out kicking and screaming.

 

My parents came up for Mother's day weekend. Saturday morning Neil and I were working in the flower beds and getting ready to host his Microsoft team for a party the next weekend. I ran to the plant nursery to get some more flowers. I was heading back home on Preston and sitting at the light at Eldorado. (Exactly where Neil's wreck was 18 months ago.) It was about 10:30 bright and clear outside. Suddenly, my car literally flies out of control into the ditch on the side of the road. A "drowsy, sleepy" man hit me going about 55 miles an hour. It totaled his car and the verdict is still out on my car. It is only 6 months old so it will be hard to get totaled out. We'll see. They took me by ambulance to the ER. Thankfully, I have no broken bones or major head injuries. I had a good concussion and some serious whiplash. The last 2 weeks have been tough. I was in bed for 4-5 days but I am getting better. I start physical therapy tomorrow on my back and neck. The thing that was so scary was that it was literally within 10 feet of Neil's wreck. Everything just came flooding back from Neil's wreck. I just lost it. I seriously think that I went into shock. The coolest thing happened though. A car of witnesses pulled over and the man come over to see if I was okay. He told me to breathe! Then he starting praying out loud for me. It was SO amazing. He was a pastor in a town about an hour away and just happened to be up this way. It was so comforting and a special little gift from above. But it was a horrible day and really put a damper on the whole Mother's Day thing.

 

Grey graduated from preschool last week. It was sad. He has had the most fantastic teachers for the past two years. Our whole family is very attached to them. Greyson has learned so much and truly loves school. Ms. Jenn and Ms. Betty will be missed! I hope they are still there when Grant is four! We had his end of school party yesterday so we are officially out for summer. Grey passed his swimming test to become an "Angel Fish" so now we just have to work on Grant's swimming!

 

We are looking forward to a visit from Neil's cousin Allison and her family tomorrow. We have not seen her husband since he go back from Iraq. We are excited to hear about his service over there. They have 2 precious little girls too. Zoe is the oldest and she just got a new baby sister, Olivia. We can not wait to meet her.  We are then heading to Granbury for Memorial weekend. I am really looking forward to it!

 

Next week, Neil and I are heading to Miami to celebrate my birthday!! I am so excited.

 

 

 

 

 

This has been such a great week. The weather has been warm and we are taking advantage of it! Last weekend, Grey scored 2 more goals. He is up to 6 now for the two games. What a difference from last season! He is still enjoying his acting classes. This Saturday is his last one for awhile. After church on Sunday we spent the day with our friends the Peays! We went to eat at Snuffers and then to the Heard Museum. They are featuring these huge Dinosaurs that move and roar. It is cool becasue they are outside along a long path. The boys loved running up and down the path as much as seeing the dinosaurs. The museum had real reptiles, etc. They boys were very into the snakes. The big hit was the huge fossil dip sand box! We had a great day. We also finally bought media room chairs! We are excited to get them next weekend. We also got Grant's big boy room painted this week. I am so excited about it. We are not moving him to a big boy bed yet but we are going to order it this weekend! It will be interesting to see if he actually stays in it! Greyson tested for his Camo belt in tae-kwan-do this week. We are very proud of him.

We are off and running again. 2007 has started off great! We had a really good time at the Peay's home for New Years Eve.  Babysitters are hard to come by on New Years Eve so we all brought our kids this year and they had a ball. Both of our boys stayed up past midnight! We were hoping that they would sleep in the next morning but no such luck. We should have known better than to get our hopes up.  Greyson was so ready to go back to school and all of his activities. I have to admit I was ready too. Things were rolling along well until Daddy left for a business trip and we got iced in... It always seem to happen when I am alone with the boys for a few days! But is was not too bad this time. Thank Goodness! I met Neil up in NYC after his business was complete. We had a fabulous time! We saw 2 musicals and got to be in the audience of the Rachel Ray show. I just love her so it was really neat to see her show live. We should be on sometime this week. If you watch the show, then we are on 2 shows. One has Colby Donaldson and one has a lady who is a medium on. I think we will be on because we were smack dab in the middle of the set. I have on a chocolate courdoroy blazer with flowers on it.... Anyway- it was fun and Rachel is exactly whatt I pictured. She is very down to earth. We also shopped and ate a lot. My favorite meals were at Sara Beth's across from Central Park and Tao. Tao is the awesome Asian place that is very over the top in every way. It was a great place to people watch. It was REALLY cold there so we were always ducking in an out of places to warm up! We did take a carriage ride through Central Park and it was very neat but FREEZING! It did snow a little but not enough to stick on the streets. One of our favorite parts of the trip was seeing "Wicked" the musical. It was amazing. We agreed that it is the best show we have seen. We also saw "Phantom of the Opera" and it was great too. Neil had never seen Phantom so it was fun to experience it with him for the first time. The guy who played Phantom was really good and we had good seats. We got to spend a lot of time with Paige. We saw her office at the NFL. It was a crazy place because they are so close to the Superbowl and Pro-Bowl. She also chose a lot of neat places for us to meet her for dinner. We saw just about every area of New York which is neat. We did not eat in any touristy places so that was fun. We really enjoyed hanging out with her and seeing more about her NYC life. Neil and I decided that we have to bring Greyson next time we go up. There were so many things that he would really enjoy. Thankfully, my mom came and kept the boys for us this time. They would have been miserable in the cold.

 

Greyson has started acting classes throught the Frisco Children's Theater. He really likes them and seems to be very comfortable on the stage. We are also swimming again. Grant is still going to My Gym and is on the waitlist to get into the Mother's Day Out at our church. I do not think he will get in this year but he is very ready. He cries and wants to stay with Greyson's class when we drop Grey off in the mornings. Grant is really talking now. He is so funny. 18 months is a great age but he is really busy. We have to watch him at all times or he will be standing on top of the cabinets or climbing something, etc. He is still into playing with any kind of ball and has mastered his basketball goal that he got for Christmas. He loves Curious George and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He is so much fun!

 

Well, there is a run down of the highlights from the first few weeks of the year. The photos below are from New Years Eve and New York. Enjoy!

Well, we are recovering from a fantastic month of festivities. It is always a mix of emotions to take down the trees and decorations. I am always glad to have the house back in order but I miss the fun of the season. We had such a wonderful Christmas this year. We went to see the "ICE" exhibit at the Gaylord Texan this year. It was truly amazing! The hotel was a holiday wonderland in itself. We also really enjoyed our time in Granbury. We got to see our WHOLE family! My cousins were both in town and we really miss seeing them. Blake is out in LA and Paige is in NYC. Needless to say, we do not get to visit with them enough. We also spent time with my aunt, uncle, and all 4 of my grandparents. On Christmas eve, we headed back home for Christmas with Neil's side of the family. We had to make one stop at the ER because we thought that Grant had injured his foot. He would not walk on it and he cried when we tried to put his shoe on. Luckily, it was just a sprain and he bounced back by the time we left after our 3 hour wait! We have never been in Frisco for Christmas Eve so we had the opportunity to attend our first Christmas Eve service at our church. It was really neat and the boys loved being in "big church" with us. Greyson sang every word and he even did the sign language to most of the songs. I am continually amazed at what he is learning at his preschool. Santa worked hard until about midnight and then we all headed to bed. Neil's sister, brother-in-law, dad, step-mother-in-law and mom were all here to share the fun this year. The boys loved all their gifts and are still playing with all their new stuff. I am still unpacking bags and nibbling on the left-over sweets! We are looking forward to the New Year!

I LOVE this time of year! We are having so much fun going to all the holiday events. Saturday morning we got up early and went to the Neiman Marcus Adolphus Children's Parade in downtown Dallas. It was AMAZING! It will be a tradition from now on! The kids loved every minute of it and were sad to see it end. I was shocked at how well it was done and how many characters they were able to get to participate. We saw Curious George, Spiderman, Barney, Clifford, everyone! It was fabulous. We also had Neil's company party last weekend. It is always a lot of fun. It is the one time a year that we get dressed up and have a date night. Neil is always glad to see me in something besides a sweatsuit or jeans! We had a special treat on Sunday in that we got to have lunch with my cousin Paige. She lives in New York so we do not get to see her enough. It was fun to see her and hear about her exciting life in the bug city.  I have had a lot of "Ladies" Christmas parties so Neil has been on Daddy duty a lot. He has been really cool about it. Greyson has his Christmas choir concert at church this weekend. I can not wait. He loves choir and is so excited about performing in the "big church". Next week, he has his Christmas musical at school too. He is going to be a "boy angel". This weekend we have our neighborhood holiday party. It should be fun and hopefully we will meet some more neighbors. The neatest thing so far has been our visit from Santa on Sundat night. We told the boys that we were getting dressed up to take a photo for our Christmas card. (Which was TRUE!) But then the doorbell rang and Grey opened it up to find SANTA! You should have seen the look on his face. It was priceless. Santa came in and let Grey read his list and then he read the boys some books. It was precious. We did try to get some photos but Grant was really into the candy cane that Santa gave him so we did not have much success! Greyson was just in shock the whole time. Santa was great and he really made the time specail for all of us. It was neat to have him here in front of our tree and fireplace instead of surrounded by 100 kids at the mall. :) I hope that you are all enjoying your holiday season as much as we are!

Well, this Thanksgiving was an interesting one. We had big plans but you know how that goes... First, Grant got sick. The bad kind of sick that means washing every towel, blanket, etc. in  the house. Then the day before we were planning to leave for Thanksgiving Greyson got sick. It was bad. I felt so sorry for him. He was so upset about not going to Granbury. We waited for him to recover and for 24 hours to pass so we would not get anyone else sick. We then headed to Bluffdale to have Thanksgiving with Neil's family. Well, you know that feeling you get when your tummy is just not right? Well, I had it but I was convinced it was all in my head. We had a nice meal and some good time on the farm. Grant had his first tractor ride. He loved it! That evening we headed to my parents house for dinner. (Mexican Food) An hour later it hit me. Three hours later it hit Neil. My dad ended up taking me to the ER in the middle of the night! It was so bad. So Neil recovered pretty quickly but I slept all day the next day and into the next morning. I am told that everyone had a great day and that we had a lot of visitors. I do not remember that day even occuring! The next day, Preston was sick and then it got Olivia. So they missed the big Thanksgiving meal. It was a crazy time. We all eventually recovered in time to come home. Last night we worked on the outdoor lights and the indoor decorations. We got a lot accomplished. Grey raked the leaves and then he and Grant had a ball playing in the pile.

It's that time of year around our house. It seems like from October to December just flies by. It is so busy but so much fun. I love the fall weather. We are outside as much as possible and the boys are loving it! Greyson finished up his fall soccer season and we celebrated with a party at Gattitown. Grey is a master at the bumper cars. I am telling you... has has that done. It was so great to watch him laugh and smile as he crashed into the other players on his team. Grant just loves to walk around and push any button he can reach. He is also into watching people play ball. This kids is obsessed with balls. He is showing signs of being a lefty which is interesting since Neil and I both are rightys. We'll see. Yesterday, Greyson competed in his first Tae-Kwan-Do tournament. He was pretty unsure in the beginning but he ended up liking it. He really like getting his medal. Neil and I were amazed at what a huge deal this whole American Tae-Kwan-Do Association thing is. There were people ages 3-60ish competing from all over. It was so cool to watch. It is serious stuff. It will be interesting to see if Grey will stick with it or not. I hope he does. We also got to meet Mom and Dad at Northpark on Friday. It is always a treat for the boys to see Gramma and Poppa. We let the boys "Build A Bear" for the first time. They really got into it. I had fun too. Grey is now sleeping with 3 things. Good old Bear, Lamby, and now "Super Bear". Grant chose a doggy and picked the soccer outfit. We were not surprised since it came with a ball. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving and some family time. I am halfway through with my Christmas shopping already. But noone ever said that I was an inefficient shopper! Hee, hee.

Happy Fall Everyone! We have been enjoying this great fall weather and getting into the fall spirit! Neil was in Nashville most of last week but he flew in just in time to join us for Greyson's fall party at his preschool. Grey was thrilled to see his Daddy. I am constantly amazed at how involved dads are around here. There were as many dads as moms at the party. We live in such a kid-friendly place. On Friday, we went to the Fall Festival at our church. It was a blast. It gets better every year. We had to move it inside because it was really windy but it all worked out. Grant tired out early so Grey and I got to hang out the last hour. It was so much fun. Saturday we met my parents and sister's family at the Pumpkin Express Patch in Argyle. We have never been there and I was impressed. These people have several real trains on their property along with a ton of other activities for the kids. We had a fabulous time and the boys loved hanging out with their cousins. Grey had a soccer game Saturday late afternoon and my Dad got to come watch him play. We were pretty exhausted by Saturday night so we grabbed some dinner and came home. Sunday we worked around the house and just hung out with the kids. Last night we hit the streets! We dressed up as the "Incredibles" family. Our neighborhood is full of kids and everyone was really into Halloween. We gave away a lot of candy but it seems like we have more than we started with now! Neil and I have a hard time passing by the little chocolate bars in the bowl so I am planning to donate to the children's choirs at church. I have to get it out of here! I have posted a lot of pictures so be forewarned that it might take awhile to see them all! Have a good week!

 

Well, another great fall weekend. We had a busy but really fun weekend. We kicked off the weekend by going to see Preston's Jog-A-Thon at his school in Highland Village. He did a great job and was so happy to see us. It was really special because my grandparents were able to come to watch with my mom. So the kids got to see Gramma, LaLa and GaGa! My kids are really close to their great-grandparents and I am so thankful for their relationships. Friday night I took Greyson to the Frisco Storytelling Festival. Those of you that know Greyson really well know that he is very dramatic. He can tell a great story! We enjoyed the time spent together. I can not remember the last time I was able to spend one on one time with Greyson. It was a special time. On Saturday morning, Greyson had an 8:00 soccer game. It was cold! He had a great assist to his new friend Kason. It was Kason's first goal ever so it was very exciting. The Monstars continue to win and are really coming along. It is really fun to watch! Saturday afternoon we went to our neighbor's birthday party. Merritt (neighbor) had her party at a new bouncing place that also had a dance floor. Grant really got into to the dance floor. On Saturday evening, Greyson carved pumpkins with Ashlyn, Bailey and Merritt. He had a great time but he was not thrilled about getting the pumpkin insides on his hands! He does not get to spend time with the Martins very often so it was a really good evening for him! Saturday night, Neil and I got a babysitter and went to dinner (dressed as Luke and Daisy Duke). Let me explain... it was my sister and Chris's annual adult Halloween party. They had a great turn-out and we had a good time. On Sunday, Neil and I took the boys to the new Wiggly Play Center. It was so much fun. The boys loved it. It was a nice family day. I even cooked a real dinner. (Shocking, I know.)

 

Greyson had his 5 year check-up this morning. He is still 90% on weight and height. He has grown an inch since August! Crazy! You can see some photos of our weekend below.

 

Greyson had a soccer game yesterday. He has not made a goal yet this year and it was really starting to get to him. He was having a rough game yesterday too. Then in the last quarter something clicked! He starting hustling, getting in position, just truly going for it. We were so excited to see him getting into the game. Then the best thing happened. Greyson scored the most awesome goal!! He kicked it from about 10-15 feet away and it was awesome. He was so thrilled and I was jumping up and down and clapping. (Seriously) It was just the best thing to see our son so happy. I will never forget the smile on his face.

 

Then another great thing happened... Neil's mom took the kids to her house in Temple for the rest of the weekend! Neil and I went and had a nice dinner at Chamberlain's and had a fabulous time. Today we worked in the yard (in the rain) and worked around the house without having to worry about the boys. It has been so nice and I am sure they are having a great time too. But now we are ready for them to be home! It is awfully quiet around here without them.

 

 

 

 

Hi Friends and Family,

Neil has been encouraging me to create a "space" for awhile. He is excited about Microsoft's Windows Live Spaces and really wanted us to have a family space. SO... Here is my attempt to create a place for you to keep up with our family through blogs and photos. I think it will be fun and I hope you will enjoy it too. Please sign in as a friend and check back every now and then. I hope to keep it updated every few days.

 

I guess I will start with today. Neil took Grey to school today since it is raining. Yes, you read that right. IT IS RAINING! I am not sure who is more excited the people or the plants. Grant and I are hanging out inside and watching Barney. I am really watching Barney. Grant is pushing the kitchen chairs around.

 

Grey had a soccer game last night. He is really improving. We are so proud of him. His little friend Kaitlyn came to watch him play last night. He told his coach that he had to play his best because his girlfriend was there to watch him!

 

Grant and I are getting ready and then heading to his My Gym class. He takes gym every Tuesday with the little boy that lives behind us, Beckett. It is super cute to watch.

 

Well, here it is... My First Blog.

Ashley