Grayson's First Birthday: Part 1

We celebrated Grayson's birthday before we went back home.  It was so much fun to be able to celebrate with family, Grayson really loves playing with his cousins.  We opened presents which Grayson is getting very good at.  He would pull out the tissue paper and hand it to my niece sitting next to us.  It was really cute.  He loved all of his lovely presents, we are lucky to have such kind family.

I just loved this face he made, it was hilarious!

We did a Winter 'One'derland theme for the party.  I made him a birthday cake in the shape of a one with penguins and snowmen on top.  I made a separate little igloo cake just for him to eat.  It was fun to make!  I will admit, when we were singing 'Happy Birthday' I got a little emotional.  I am so happy to have this little man in our lives.  He is a true joy!

Grayson really didn't care about his cake.  It was funny to watch though.  

He did poke it a couple times, but when I put his hand in the icing, he gave me a funny look and held his hand out so I would clean it.

After birthday cake, the kids all went outside to play.  

Grayson really likes pine cones and sticks when ever he can find them.

All the kids made pictures and we hung them up on display.  The best part, my two awesome nephews drew scenes from Hoth from "The Empire Strikes Back."  

The next day, I guess the birthday boy was pretty worn out and ended up falling asleep in my lap.

In Which My Father Becomes a Sage

It has been years since all of us have been together to celebrate my father's birthday.  My oldest sister Dawn, had a great idea that all of the sisters should take my dad out for dinner for his birthday.  It was a lot of fun.  The diner we went to has really delicious desserts, so we got some to go and ate them when we got home.  

The next day, we had a dinner with just us and my parents.  My dad requested my mom's homemade spaghetti and pumpkin pie for dessert.  We had a good time and a delicious meal.

Grayson helped the birthday boy open his presents.

Singing happy birthday to the birthday boy.

He had just a little bit of whipped cream with his pie.

New Year's Eve

We had a lot of fun on New Year's Eve  My parents were so incredibly nice and babysat for us so we could have a fun evening.  We started things out by going to a really good Mexican restaurant.  Then we went to see The Hobbit, which was absolutely amazing!  

After getting out of the movie, we went downtown.  There were over 200 Christmas trees decorated by various local businesses.  It was really pretty.

It is hard to see, but we took a picture of Huntsville's own ball waiting for the countdown.  

The Museum of Art set up an outdoor ice skating rink, so we had to go ice skating for a bit.  It was incredibly busy and not a very large rink, so we only skated for about half an hour.  After Trevor got kicked in the ankle by a girl falling over and a guy used me to balance as he was falling (almost knocked me over too) we decided to call it a night.

We watched the ball drop from the steps of the Museum of Art and we had a really great time.  There was a fireworks show at midnight and it was awesome.  

For New Year's Day, my sisters and their kids came over for lunch.  We hung out and had a good time. 

The Explorations of Master Grayson

Grayson is a very curious fellow, always has been.  He is getting more adventurous and wants to know about everything!  One of his favorite things is to have someone walk around with him and tell him what the things are he is pointing at.  He is very good at pointing!  It makes me laugh, but whenever I get him up from a nap or even first thing in the morning, he immediately starts pointing at things and either 'telling' me where he wants to go or 'asking' what things are.  Trevor and I joke sometimes that he sounds like a little alien.  It really does sound like he is legitimately talking, but it's just a foreign language and we can't understand it.  

My parents have a beautiful backyard and Grayson especially loved every chance he could get to play outside.  We had quite a few really warm days while we were there, so he was able to play outside.  It never fails, he'll play on the patio for a while and then he always has to head straight for the water feature.

I can't wait to take him to the pool this summer because he absolutely loves the water.  

Grayson got a 'big boy' car seat while we were in Alabama.  It was his birthday present from my very generous parents.  He has really liked it!  My parents were babysitting for us one evening and it was the day they had picked up the car seat.  My mom got some great pictures of Grayson exploring his new car seat and of course, the rather large box it came in.

Grandpa had to show him what to do, he was a pretty quick learner.

The coolest thing was he would climb in and out of the car seat by himself.  He would sit in it for a while and survey his realm.  He really loved it!

For dinner, my parents shared their rolls and he apparently chowed down on it!

I put him in a bag my mom had and I was carrying him around the house with me.  I don't know how he felt about it.

He escaped that bag as soon as possible.

When he was exploring my parents' bedroom, he found a picture of himself and he was rather excited to see himself.  It was pretty cute.

My parents have these cute stuffed animals in their bedroom too and he loved playing with them.  Whenever he gets a hold of a stuffed animal, he usually gets a big smile and then he buries his face in them.

Grayson tried coloring for the first time and he really liked it.

He is very good now at letting us know what he wants.

This is how he asks to be picked up.  He climbs up your paint legs and then starts patting your legs until you pick him up.  It is pretty irresistible.

My mom gave him a ride on one of her chairs and this is the face he had on pretty much the whole time.  Once again, the Moore genes are coming out.

He absolutely loved the Christmas tree!  My parents were smart and got all non breakable ornaments so he wouldn't do too much damage.  We even got him to take a few steps toward the tree when the ornaments were out of his reach.  He is getting close to walking!

I went to find him one day and this is what I found.  He had climbed in the closet and had started pulling toys out to get what he wanted.  He has really been getting into playing with blocks.

Wheeler Wildlife Refuge

On one of the days my dad was off, we drove to Decatur, about thirty minutes away where there is a wildlife refuge.  Thousands of cranes migrate to the Wheeler Wildlife Refuge every winter.  It was pretty amazing to see. They were not as close as they normally are because some eagles had spooked them, but there was still a lot of birds to see.  It was a cold day, so we got Grayson all bundled up and had a good time.

Grayson and daddy posing in front of some of the bird pictures in the observation room.

There were some beautiful views and we enjoyed looking at all of the birds. 

Here is our cute boy looking at all of the birds and walking around the observation room.

Here we are at the visitors' center.

Five Year Anniversary

We were so excited to celebrate our fifth anniversary this year.  It's hard to believe that it has been five years!  They have been five wonderful years.  We spent the night at my parent's cabin.  It was a lot of fun.  We drove up Friday afternoon and stopped at an Amish bakery on the way.  They have such good food there.  It was a rainy weekend, but we still had a good time.  We hung out at the cabin for a while, Grayson had a good time exploring the cabin.  We went to a local diner that has a buffet with good ol' southern cooking.  It was delicious and Grayson enjoyed it too.  He ate fried chicken, collard greens, corn bread, mac and cheese and sweet potatoes.  He is a really good eater.   My mom had a 'Happy Anniversary' package when we arrived at the cabin.  

Grayson having a snack and enjoying the cabin.

 When we went back to the cabin, we put Grayson to bed and then put together a puzzle.  Neither of us had done a puzzle in years and it was a lot of fun.  We worked a long time in the evening and the next morning...I confess we gave up about 75% of the way through.  we sure had a lot of fun working on it together so that's all that matters.

It was raining a little less the next morning, so we went for a short walk around the lake.  It was pretty cold, but it was still fun.

Here we are in front of the cabin.  

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay.  We joked that my parents should rename their cabin the Ladybug Haven because we kept finding them everywhere.  I guess they were hibernating inside where it was warm.  Grayson only tried to eat two, but we caught him in time.  We headed back that afternoon after a very enjoyable weekend.