December has been whirlwind of holiday festivities, Kyle's officer basic course graduation, and traveling to Chicago for Christmas. At the beginning of the month we introduced celebrating Hanukkah to Greyson. He loved lighting the menorah every night, even though he tried to blow out the candles with all his might. He had so much fun receiving a small gift and getting to eat tasty Jewish treats like latkes and brisket. Then on December 18th, Kyle's 28th birthday, he graduated from field artillery officer basic course. I'm so proud to share that Kyle graduated #1 in his class out of a 120, earning him the title of Distinguished Honor Grad. He was honored individually at the ceremony and here is a brief clip of him receiving a framed print in recognition of his accomplishment. Check out the December pictures to see more of him looking spiffy in his fancy uniform on his big day.
Then a few days later we packed up our stuff and headed to the airport to fly to Chicago for Christmas in the Windy City. We had a fabulous time seeing both my family in Glenview and Elmhurst and Kyle's family in Kenosha. We enjoyed a visit to the Kohl's Children's Museum, eating all sorts of tasty Chicago treats (Portillo's and Lou Malnati's), and lots of time with family and friends. Greyson was spoiled by Santa with TONS of gifts - a few of his favorites are his Elmo Live, Rocky the Raccoon the giant pillow, some super cute clothes, and a mini-shopping cart and play food. Greyson also got his first taste of real snow - he had a blast walking around it, going for a ride in his sled, and knocking the snow off the tree branches. Kyle and I enjoyed some time to ourselves while Grandma Joannie and Grandpa Mike babysat. We got to finally see "The Blind Side" and have a lunch out and enjoyed a special night in the city as a belated birthday gift for Kyle. We checked out the Map Room, home to many fine Belgian beers on tap for Kyle's delight and then headed to dinner at Topolobompa, Chef Rick Bayless' (winner of Top Chef Masters) fine dining restaurant. There we had one of the greatest meals of a our lives and even got to the meet the chef. As I've told people, most men dream of meeting their favorite NFL player, but for Kyle meeting Rick Bayless was a dream come true. Now he's inspired to use the many Rick Bayless cookbooks he got to make some tasty Mexican delicacies for us at home.
We returned home to Oklahoma a few days ago and plan on laying low over the New Year's weekend. We're also now in the home stretch of gearing up for our move to Colorado Springs. Kyle has two weeks left of training for J.F.O. (joint fires observer), where he will learn to communicate with the Air Force to drop precision guided munitions. Then we will be getting packed and loaded up and hitting the road to Colorado. We're excited for a fresh start, but dreading the stress and headaches that come along with moving. Doesn't it seem like we just did this? Oh yeah, that's right we did - 6 months ago. Crazy!
Hope you all had a fabulous time over the holidays with all the ones you love and wishing you all that you hope and dream for in 2010!
Love, K, L, and G
P.S. Enjoy the many fun pictures from December on the left and check out the videos below. G shows off his dance moves, sleds in the snow, and feeds Nonny and Poppy's dog Kali.
Here's a little video of Greyson's first Hanukkah - as expected he REALLY wanted to blow out the candles, but we did keep him from doing so. Good news is he's going to do a great job blowing out the candles at his next birthday.
Doesn't it seem like December just creeped up on all of us? November was a busy month full of visitors and a trip away for Kyle and I. Kyle's parents came to Oklahoma to watch G while Kyle and I headed off to Colorado Springs to look for a rental house and get to know the lay of the land. We enjoyed checking out the gorgeous views of Pikes Peak and the Rockies. We also got a taste of Colorado living with some snowfall during our visit. Unfortunately we didn't find a rental house that trip, but shortly there after we came across a great listing and have secured a 4 bedroom, 4 bath, 2700 sq. foot house with a finished basement in the town of Fountain (just south of Colorado Springs right near Ft. Carson). Here's a picture:
Greyson had a fabulous time with Pop Pop and Jo Jo while we were away and we enjoyed a few "date nights" and a bit of time to ourselves while getting to know our future city. We're so excited to get to Colorado come late January.
Thanksgiving brought more visitors with my Dad and stepmom, Robyne, coming in town for the holiday. We enjoyed a tasty feast with them and our friends Amy and Tom and their daughter Emma. We had GREAT weather that weekend with 70's and sunshine so we made the most of it and spent a lot of time outdoors playing G. We also went to the cultural hot spot around here, Meers, for a tasty meal. It was a fun filled visit and we look forward to seeing them again when we travel to Chicago for Christmas.
Kyle is wrapping up his BOLC 3 training and he's really looking forward to being done with all the studying and tests. I'm proud of how well he's done and he's in the running to be the distinguished honor grad for his class. I'm also happy to be wrapping up this semester of grad school. This past week has been very busy completely two large final papers, but I'm just about done and so looking forward to a month off and only taking one class next semester.
Greyson continues to be a little boy full of energy. He's running around and now even dancing a bit. He's talking and spitting out new words left and right. We're all looking forward to Greyson's second holiday season to see how he reacts to all the festivities now as a going on 2 year old.
Happy Holidays to all of you! K, L, and G
P.S. New November pics posted on the left.
P.P.S. Here's a video of our monkey man playing at the mall and using all his energy to have a good ole time.
October has been full of fun events for our family. We started out our month heading to Oktoberfest on Fort Sill. We went with our fabulous friends Amy and Tom and their lovely daughter, Emma (G's buddy). We had a blast checking out the petting zoo, listening to some polka, and eating some tasty German cuisine. It was mighty cold and windy that day, but fun was had by all. Then mid-month my mom (aka Grandma Joannie) came for a short, but fun visit! We had a blast taking Greyson to the animal refuge on post, to the pumpkin patch and out to eat at Meers. Definitely check out the video below of Greyson doing his dramatic acting job of signing "cold" after he sipped his water. He was quite a hit with all the restaurant customers. He loved having quality time with Grandma Joannie and seems to have a special bond with her. He wanted to hold her hand and even offered his help with her morning crossword puzzles. We were so happy to have her come stay and visit with us for a bit. Last week Kyle and I attended the Assistant Commandant's Reception. In Army lingo the Assistant Commandant is a Colonel in charge of the field artillery training side of Fort Sill. Basically it was a formal cocktail party that provided a nice time for Kyle and I to get all dressed up and mingle with his classmates. It's always nice to put faces with the names he mentions and we did have an interesting chat the high up Colonel here at Ft. Sill about Kyle's thoughts of the training he is going through. Then last night was Halloween and I think of this year as Greyson's first REAL Halloween since he actually trick or treated. He was the gosh darn cutest Elmo any one has ever seen. His costume was a HUGE hit! Everyone kept saying, "Awwwww..Elmo!" everywhere we went. He had lots of fun trick or treating and got some tasty loot. He had his first taste of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and some Skittles and he was one happy kiddo. Plus, having Halloween be the night of Daylight Savings was genius! We kept him up an hour or so later last night with all the fun and he slept in until his normal 8:30-9am wake up time today so Mom and Dad got to enjoy the extra hour of sleep, too.
Kyle is keeping busy with BOLC III training. He's just started gunnery and it's the toughest portion of the class, but so far he's doing very well. He's super competitive academically and he's currently at the top of his class. I'm so proud of how focused he is and the great job he is doing. He's going to make one fine field artillery officer. I'm swamped with my 2 grad school classes and just signed up for my ONE class next semester. Realized 2 is a bit much especially since we'll be moving right when my next class starts. Speaking of moving, Kyle and I are headed out to Colorado Springs in a couple of weeks to find a house to rent and Kyle's parents will be coming to visit and watch Greyson for us while we're gone. We'll enjoying a few days away together to check out our future home city and Greyson will get plenty spoiled with lots of love and attention from PopPop and JoJo.
Greyson is great! He did have a little bug this past week - fever, some lovely middle of the night vomiting, but he's all better now. Thankful that we do have a great pediatrician here in town who did see him quickly to make sure it was just a virus and not the dreaded H1N1 that everyone is freaking out about. He's a tough cookie. Even when he was a running a fever he was a happy little boy wanting to play and watch Elmo. His vocabulary is expanding more and more everyday. New words just seem to come out of his mouth at random. He's also starting to want to play and rough-house with others. He likes to play chase and try to tickle people and run. He's our little goofball. Well, I better run and do a bit of grad work while he naps. Hope you all had a fun filled Halloween and can you believe it's November???
Lots of Love, Kyle, Lindsey and Greyson
P.S. Don't forget to check out the October picture link
P.P.S. Enjoy this rather funny video of Greyson sharing his water and doing his dramatic signing of "cold" and then laughing at himself - he's quite a funny little boy.
Ahh...finally relief from 90-100 degree temperatures and the pure joy of many days in the mid-70's, sunny, with a breeze...perfect! September has been relatively uneventful in our lives - Kyle's busy with more field artillery officer training and I'm back taking two grad school classes so many nights are spent with both of us doing homework. Aren't we exciting? Greyson is now attending pre-preschool, as I call it, at a local church two days a week. It's a mom's day out program on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30-3pm. He's in a class with 4 other 1 and half year old boys and they play outside, do art projects, play musical instruments, eat lunch, nap, and play some more. He's loving it and is really thriving off the additional socializing and experience of being in the care of someone other than Mom or Dad. He still gets a bit upset when I drop him off, but I wait around the corner and he seems to shake it off in a minute or two. I'm utilizing the time he's at school to devote to grad school. Two classes means A LOT of reading and lots of paper writing. It's a challenge and keeps me on my toes.
We were lucky enough to have Aunt Lisa, my sister, come visit earlier this month. We enjoyed some sister time of going out to eat and cooking up a tasty meal at home, and she had lots of fun running around with Greyson. He can't quite say Lisa, but managed to start calling her "Lala"....so Aunt Lala it is. It was wonderful to have her come all the way to our neck of the woods in Oklahoma and we hope to see her again soon when she's not jet setting around the world for work.
The biggest developmental change for Greyson is his language development. He's much better at repeating words we say to him and he's now using words regularly to communicate his basic needs. Due to the new addition of language in his life I added a new part to the blog on the right hand side to keep a list of the words he's using. You can catch him using some of the those words (hello, cheese, chair, no) in the video clips below.
Well, I'll keep it short this month and let the videos do the talking. Don't forget to also check out the September pictures linked on the left. You can get a sneak peek of Greyson trying on his Halloween costume - hint hint he's red and furry and totally cute!
Lots of Love, Kyle, Lindsey, and Greyson
P.S. Tomorrow Kyle and I celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary - for many of you who were at our wedding can you believe it was 4 years ago? Time flies!
P.P.S. Have a few videos for you this week - all so good they just had to be shared.
I cannot believe summer is coming to an end. School buses are everywhere now, and the even stranger part is I'm not working at a school....truthfully back to school time came and I was so happy not to have to go through the stress of the few months of school. Not that dealing with a year and half year old is piece of cake, but I'm thoroughly enjoying my career change to the titles of: graduate student, diaper changer, meal preparer, house cleaner, bill payer, laundry lady, driver for playdates, song and dance entertainer, bath giver.....ahhh...the list goes on. For anyone who thinks stay at home mom is a sham of a job, I dare you to walk a day in my shoes. It is exhausting, but the reward of getting to see my gorgeous boy smile and run up to hug me makes it all worth it.
This month started off with a visit from Kyle's parents, Daryl and Joyce. They were kind enough to come and visit to keep Grey and I company during part of the time Kyle was gone in the field for the final weeks of his BOLC II officer training. It was great having someone else around to help with Greyson and to ease my nerves of being home alone. We really enjoyed showing them the sights of Lawton (ha ha!) and Daryl is always a wonder at taking care of any and all yard work that needs to be done during their visit. Thanks again for coming to see us and for all your help. Greyson says, "You're the best Pop Pop and Jo Jo!"
Kyle finished BOLC II training last week (yeah!!!) and got to have a 4 day weekend before starting his new training.....you guessed it...BOLC III this past Wednesday. What makes BOLC (Basic Officer Leadership Course) III different is that these next 4 and half months is all training focused on Kyle's branch of the Army, field artillery. During this training he will become an expert in gunnery, fire direction, and fire support....in English that means anything and everything having to do with the "big guns" of the Army (essentially the modern day cannons). This training is supposed to have better hours, which makes me happy, and it's very academic which is Kyle's niche. I'm sure he's going to do very well.
During his 4 days off, we took a family mini-trip down to Dallas for a few nights. We enjoyed time away from Lawton and took advantage of being back in a "real" city. We did some serious shopping and stocked up Greyson's fall/winter wardrobe. He was in desperate need of some 24 month size stuff and though it still looks giant to us I know he'll be fitting right into those clothes in the next month or two. We also spent a great morning at the Dallas Zoo. We got up close and personal in the viewing area of the gorillas (see video below), and they also had a great separate children's zoo with lots of things for Greyson to climb on and even a fun shallow stream to wade in and cool off from the hot summer sun. All in all, a great little family getaway that we all needed to spend time together and just to get out of town for a bit.
Greyson is continuing to develop and change every day. He's officially running - in any which direction he so chooses at any and all time....makes for a tired Mom and Dad. He's also blossoming in his verbal development. He now regularly says: Momma (still for Kyle and I), Nona (for both cats), nana (banana), hi there (he loves to wave and say this to everyone), bye, potty, cheese, shoes, and his favorite word right now is woah.....and truthfully I'm sure most things at this stage in his life are "Woah!" so it's appropriate and adorable. Also, to my sister the pilot's joy, he is obsessed with airplanes. Every time he hears one or sees one he points to the sky, stops dead in his tracks, and is set on seeing it. He had a blast at our hotel in Dallas as it was near the airport so there were LOTS of airplanes to spot. Next week is also a big moment for Greyson as he begins his Tuesday "preschool". I found a great Mom's Day Out program at the local Baptist Church that does a preschool/daycare setting for 1 year olds from 9:30-3:00 that allows him to socialize with kids his own age, learn to share a bit more, and get used to being around other adult authority figures other than myself. Plus, this will give me the set aside time to focus on grad work when I start back up in the next week or two with 2 classes this semester. For September he'll only be going on Tuesdays, but if he's doing well and seems to like it I may have him start going on Tuesday and Thursday starting in October. I'm very impressed with the program and the facility and I think it will be great for him, and nice for me to have a bit of set aside time to focus on school work so I don't feel like I have to cut school work time into time I'd rather be with the family.
Enjoy the August pictures and video clips below. Hope you are all enjoying these last few weeks of summer, but I can tell you living in the HOT great plains I am ready and waiting for fall to arrive as soon as possible.
Lots of Love, K, L, and G
Hotel Fun
Our Close Encounter with Gorilla Gorilla Gorilla (seriously the Gorilla's name)
Well, clearly you can tell I've had the last month off grad school because I've been a bit more active with my blogging. Here are a few edited photos of Greyson courtesy of a great free site called picnik.com. Definitely check it out, but fair warning you'll end up spending way too much time on it...enjoy.
Today marks Greyson being 1 and half. The more I got to thinking about that the more I realized what a milestone half birthdays are for children. So many things happen and change in 6 months for a little person. When I think of him from birth, to 6 months old, to 1 year, to now 1 and half it's incredible how much growing, learning and changing he has done. Every day now he becomes more and more of a little boy - running, climbing, talking, playing. He truly is incredible and I'm so lucky to have the pleasure of watching him grow every single day. Here's a little photo trip down memory lane to see how much our little man has accomplished in his first year and half of life.
Birth (February 2008)
6 Months Old (August 2008)
1 Year Old (February 2009)
1 and Half Years Old (August 2009)
Happy 1 and half years, Monkey! Mommy and Daddy love you LOTS!
Cannot believe the end of July is upon us. Summer sure does seem to be flying by. Well, I titled this months blog update "Ups and Downs" because this month sure has seemed to be full of them. The month began with a pretty major low. I preface this story with we're all fine and to let you know the story ended well, but it was a rather scary experience. So, on June 28th (Sunday) around 10am we went out for a family walk around our neighborhood. We walked for about 30 minutes and as we approached our rental house we saw an unfamiliar truck in the driveway. Then as we got closer we saw a strange young man walk out our front door. We yelled, "Hey what are you doing?" and "This is our house". We then saw our flat screen TV amongst other personal items in the back of the truck and realized we walked up on them robbing our house. They realized they were caught and hopped in the truck to leave. We pushed Grey in his stroller off the side to safe spot and Kyle and I attempted to stop them from backing up. They backed up into the yard and Kyle tried to open the driver's door and actually ripped the handle off. Then as they speed away down the street the passenger leaned out and fired 3-4 shots in Kyle's directions, Greyson and I were further up the driveway. As, I said we we're all fine - incredibly scared and shaken up, but fine. Our neighbor came out when he heard the commotion and shots and called 911. Police were here in minutes and put out a radio call for the truck based on the info we saw and a few neighbors who witnessed the event. They were able to track them down within 20 blocks of here and after a bit of a high speed chase they crashed into a corner of a house/telephone pole and attempted to run on foot, but we're caught by the authorities. Both are sitting in the county detention center currently and are awaiting trial. We were able to get our things back since they were caught, but granted many things were ruined in the process. Thankfully we had renter's insurance. So, as I said this was a big "down" in our lives and we're still recovering from that trauma day by day. We did get a new metal door and frame installed (since they kicked in the door to enter) and got a pretty detailed security system installed. It's definitely helping us sleep better at night. We're so thankful for not getting hurt in that moment and that they were caught, but still can't get over that this happened to us in broad daylight on a Sunday morning. A big thanks to all of you who heard about this event and were so supportive during this rough time with us.
On to happier news, a big "up" for this month was my week long trip home to Chicago with Greyson. He had so much fun spending lots of time with his grandparents. He enjoyed a trip to Woodfield Mall and Build-a-Bear, had his first taste of Portillo's, and played with Mommy's friends who came to visit. Grandpa Mike and Grandma Joannie were brave enough to babysit Grey for a night while I went I enjoyed a night out in Indy for my friend Jeff's wedding. Lisa and I actually met there and a had a blast at the wedding reception with friends. While I was away Greyson had so much fun going to the Kohl's Children's Museum with his grandparents and a trip to the park. We then spent a few days at my Dad's lake house and enjoyed relaxing in nature, going boating, and feeding Kali the dog lots of snacks before it was time for us to head home. I also give myself a lot of credit, as this was my first trip with just Greyson and I. Dealing with airports and flying with a toddler is exhausting, but overall he did great and I got through it, too.
Kyle is 3 weeks into his first set of officer training here at Ft. Sill. The hours have been long and the training is quite repetitive for someone who has been in the Army for the past 5 years, but he's getting through it. We're looking forward to him finish this training and moving on to his field artillery officer basic course in mid-August. It will be a bit more academic and the hours should be better. Greyson and I are much happier when Daddy is home at a decent time at night to squeeze in some family time before G's bedtime. While Kyle is busy at work I'm keeping busy with Grey. I'm lucky to have a friend from Clarksville who is also here for her hubby's training so we get together often with our kiddos for play dates. We enjoy going to the library play time, running errands, visiting the water park and splash park. I'm also just about done with my first grad class and am proud of how well I've done. I'm looking forward to the month of August off before I start 2 more courses in September. I will actually have some time to read for pleasure not for grad school - yeah!
Greyson is growing and changing more and more everyday. He's such a toddler now, running around, climbing on things, curious about everything, and a very defined and strong personality. We're still so blessed to have a very happy young man most of the time. He his moods, but we're starting time out with him to work on those toddler tantrums. We'll see how that goes. He's also become very verbal. He talks all the time, granted it's mostly not in English, but he sure gabs away. He does say quite a few words now: Mama (for both Kyle and I - he's not so happy about that), Nona (for Corona and Portillo - both of our cats), Nana (banana), Baba (milk or water), he's even attempting to say Cheese (mostly comes out Ch...), and shoes (he makes the Sh sound). He's also regularly using sign language he's learned from the great Signing Time DVDs we have. He regularly signs milk, apple, cookie, eat, puppy, potty, more, all done. Sign language has been a great outlet for him to communicate while he still can't quite verbalize his thoughts. He's growing taller and taller everyday and has to be close to weighing 30 lbs...trust me my exhausted arms feel it. He's very independent at times and likes to walk on his own and check things out, but other times he's very attached to Mom. Overall, he's amazing and he definitely keeps me on my toes while we spend our days together during the week and during our family time on the weekends.
We're looking forward to Kyle's parents coming to visit next week - they are kind enough to come keep me company and play with Grey while Kyle is out in the field for training. It should be fun to show them some more places we've discovered here in Oklahoma. Weather continues to be oppressively hot most of the time, but this week it's been in the 80's....that's pretty much like winter here in the plains. Ha ha!
All our best to you and your families!
Lots of Love, K, L, and G
P.S. There are new pics linked to the side - I cleared out some links to older pictures because it was getting a bit crowded. Sorry there are a few less than normal because my camera was one of the damaged items in the burglary and it took some time to replace it. Thankfully my Mom took lots of pics during our time in Chicago.
P.P.S. Also enjoy the video - G shows off his climbing, talking and love of waving all in one.
June has brought A LOT of changes for our family. The biggest of those changes being our move from Tennessee to Lawton, Oklahoma (home of Ft. Sill) earlier this month. Thankfully it went relatively smoothly. We spent a week or so prepping our house in TN to move and get it ready for the renters we have coming in. Then the good ole military movers (who were great!) came and spent a whole day packing us up and another day loading our stuff on the truck and then off our stuff went. We spent a week or so more taking care of last minute things at the house and preparing to head to Oklahoma. Kyle's parents kindly flew to TN to help us make the road trip to Oklahoma. They stayed with us for a week and were a HUGE help - doing lawn care, unpacking boxes, and taking care of Grey so Kyle and I could do a marathon unpacking job. I'm proud to say that within 48 hours of the movers dropping off our things everything was unpacked with pictures on the wall - phew, it was exhausting, but sure feels nice to be "home". Now that we're settled were enjoying a few weeks of family time and getting to know the Lawton area while Kyle is on leave before he starts his training on July 6th. We've joined the YMCA and we're enjoying working out and Greyson has fun in the nursery. We also got season passes for the nice local waterpark and head there a few times a week - you gotta find ways to beat the Oklahoma heat and trust me it's HOT!
Greyson did so well with the move. It was a little rough with our day and half road trip, but once we got to Oklahoma it's been smooth sailing. He's loving our house here and loves to wander around and explore our new place. We also have a nice little backyard setup with his sand/water table and a big blow up "kiddie" pool that all 3 of us can sit in on a hot afternoon. The other change with him is we are transitioning from 2 naps to 1. It was a bit rough the first day, but it's getting better every day now. He's now sleeping from 6pm to 7:30am and then staying up all morning until he takes his afternoon nap at 12pm and sleeps until 3pm. It's working out nicely and it's great to have the morning to get out and go play or run errands and then it's nice to have that long nap so I can work on grad school, clean, or just relax for a bit. In other Greyson news he now has a mouth full of teeth. His 1 year molars are all just about cut through now and I'm honestly not even sure how many teeth total he has now - 13-14ish? Honestly it's a bit scary to stick your hand in his mouth to check because he can sure bite if he feels like it - ouch!
Also, want to extend an extra Happy Father's Day wish to all our great Dads/Grandpas! Daryl, Mike L., Mike K. - you are fabulous and we're so appreciative of having you all in our lives. Greyson and I got Kyle his dream grill (the Char-Griller - one half is gas and the other is charcoal) and a few books for Father's Day. We also took a fun family outing to the world famous Meers Restaurant which is in a tiny town (it's literally ONLY the restaurant and few houses) about 30 minutes from us. They are well known for their gigantic Meer burger that is something like 9 inches in diameter and fills the entire pie tin that it's served in. It was DELICIOUS! Burgers and beers was the perfect way to celebrate what an amazing Dad Kyle is and how much we love him!
Well, nap time is just about ending and we're off the waterpark to cool off. Hope you are all enjoying these summer days and good luck trying to keep cool. Enjoy the updated June pictures and a video, too!
Lots of Love, Kyle, Lindsey, and Greyson
P.S. Here's a bit of fun G had when we were getting ready to move - who knew empty bathroom cabinets could be so entertaining!
Well, Greyson recently had his 15 month appointment and his new stats are in. He now weighs in at 25 lbs 6 ounces (yes, are arms are getting buff carrying him), and he is 32 and half inches tall - putting him the 90% for height. Definitely think I'll be looking up to yell at my little boy one day. He's been playing around some 2 year olds lately and is about the same height....better get him practicing some basketball skills soon! He's a walking/running monster who loves to get into everything. Gone are our mellow babies days and we've officially entered little boy land. Full energy all the time!
The month of May have been a busy and exciting one for our family. It's a winding down time in our lives as we prepare to leave Clarksville now that Kyle has completed his masters degree and been commissioned as an Army Field Artillery Officer. His commissioning and graduation were at the beginning of the month and both were wonderful events where we and our parents were thrilled to share in Kyle's accomplishments. Kyle former "boss" 1st Sergeant Money and his family came to be his first salute - so awesome of them! I proudly got to "pin" on his new rank of 2nd lieutenant. It marks a major accomplishment in his Army career and he's now preparing to begin his training in Fort Sill in early July. Speaking of Fort Sill - we will be moving to good ole Ooooookalahoma on June 10th. I can't believe moving time is here. Clarksville has been great to us and we've made some lifelong friends here that I know we will continue to keep in touch with no matter where the Army sends us. Our packers and movers are scheduled to come next week and then Kyle's parents will be flying in shortly after that to help us make the lovely drive to Oklahoma. We're so thankful for their help in driving our other car and helping us to get settled in our new home. Sadly we didn't end up selling our house here, but we did find a wonderful family to rent it and a great property manager to take care of the details in our absence. It's a rough time to try to sell in this market, so we're hoping to rent it for a few years and then try selling again once the market improves.
The other change in our household is that I'm now officially done teaching for the foreseeable future. I finished the school year last week and I'm now changing my job title to full time stay at home mom/online grad student. Basically I now have a new boss and he's a high energy 15 month old little boy who is quite demanding, but darn cute! I recently started my first grad school class (online through Penn State) and I'm really enjoying it. Kyle has been great at showing me the ropes with online classes, and I'm enjoying the thought provoking discussions with many other fellow teachers in the program. I plan to take a class or two over the next few years to piece meal my degree slowly, but surely. I'm thrilled to now be able to be home with Grey all day, though I know Kyle is soon going to be missing his special time with him when he's back to full day training. Though I know he'll find a way to make extra time for our little man - they have such a great bond together.
Well, I'm off to go organize a bit more to prepare for the move. Thankfully the Army takes care of most of it, but we do need to set aside what we're moving ourselves as the moving truck may not arrive in Oklahoma for a few weeks....oh what fun it will be to live out of boxes and suitcases. Wish us luck on our new adventure in life and be on the lookout for an email in the next few weeks with our updated address so you can update your address books. We'll be in Oklahoma from June through January and then we're headed to Colorado...yahoo!!!
Lots of Love, Kyle, Lindsey, and Greyson
P.S. Enjoy the May pictures of Kyle's commissioning, our adventure strawberry picking, and playing around our house.
Here is Greyson being his usual goofy self at home.
Below is our big boy eating - he's come along way and even likes to switch it up and feed Mommy sometimes.
Well, it's official he's walking. It was truly amazing - one day he took a few steps, then the next day a few more, and so on to now he rarely sits down! Soon enough he'll be up and running and we'll be exhausted running right behind him. Posted a few videos to show off more of his skills and another amusing one of the "toilet discovery" Greyson made - sooo funny!
In other news we took a trip to fabulous Lawton, Oklahoma (home of Ft. Sill) in early April and found a great rental house that will be a nice fit for us for our months there during Kyle's training. Kyle and I enjoyed our first few nights away without Grey and Daryl and Joyce had a fun filled weekend babysitting their grandson. Now that our housing is situated in Oklahoma we're trying to get things figured out for our house here in TN. Unfortunately it doesn't look like it's going to sell - the market is just too saturated and with it being such a buyers market we've had many "the house is great, but we went with something else" showings. Oh well, our plan B is to rent out our house here for a couple of years and then try selling again when the market bounces back. We already have quite few interested renters, so it looks like that shouldn't be a problem. Looks like we'll be moving around June 15th, crazy to think we'll be out of here in a month or so...time flies.
Speaking of time flying, Kyle's graduation and commissioning is coming up this weekend. I'm so excited for him in this momentous occasion in his career and sharing in the accomplishment of him getting his masters degree. He's worked really hard the past few years and it's great to celebrate all his success. We're looking forward to my mom and step dad, Kyle's parents, and his brother and his girlfriend all coming in to town to share in his moment. Should be a busy and fun filled weekend. I'm excited about it, but still coming down from my exciting weekend in NYC with my sister and mom in honor of Lisa's 30th birthday. We had a FABULOUS time enjoying the city life, taking the "Sex and the City" Tour (we're all big fans), seeing "Billy Elliot" (GREAT show!), and enjoying shopping and lots of tasty food. Kyle played "Mr. Mom" and had a great boys weekend with Greyson while Mommy was off in the Big Apple. Overall, we've had a busy and fun filled April and we're sure this next month will keep us quite busy tying up loose ends here in Clarksville and get ready to move to our next stop in Oklahoma.
Well folks, it's pretty much official - Greyson is FINALLY walking. We've seen signs of it for months now, but now at 14 months and a couple of days he's now growing the confidence to explore the world on 2 feet. He's still not exactly consistent or graceful in his walking ability, in fact, at times he stumbles around like a drunk man. But we're proud of his accomplishment and wanted to share a quick glimpse of his skills. Sorry it's not the best footage - just captured a quick moment of it on my Blackberry, but you get the point. Watch out world....here comes our little monster.
Springtime has arrived and we're enjoying the warmer days and not so enjoying the icky rainy cold days, but soon enough HOT summer will arrive in Tennessee and we'll be wishing for cooler weather. March has kept us busy as usual - we enjoyed a visit from Kyle's parents, Daryl and Joyce, earlier this month. Great to have them come and hang out and spend time with Greyson. Kyle has been busy with ROTC - spring tends to keep him out in the woods for the weekend "playing war". He's winding down on grad school and will graduate in about a month. Can't believe it's been 2 years with him at Austin Peay. I enjoyed having a week off for spring break this past week and we managed to keep busy with lots of fun activities. Kyle and I took Greyson to the Nashville Zoo and had a blast seeing many animals. Then Greyson and I drove down to Atlanta to visit my sister, Lisa, and enjoyed time with her and visit the Atlanta Aquarium. We had a blast!
Greyson is doing really well! He's becoming such a little boy - always getting into things and making a mess with a big ole smile on his face. He's not walking yet, but I predict it's coming SOON! He's pulling up and standing unassisted on pretty much everything. Just waiting for him to get the courage to take those steps...hopefully I'll be ready with the camera nearby. He's developing more and more of a vocabulary everyday. He says MaMa, DaDa, BaBa (ball), Nona, Tillo, and a few more. He's also an expert waver. He LOVES to wave at people. Pretty much everywhere he goes he waves at anyone passing by - how polite! He even waves when there is a no one there. I took him for a walk around the neighborhood and he was just waving to the left and waving to the right - I think he's convinced he's royalty in a parade. Too funny! He's also developing his sign language skills. He's been watching a great DVD from the "Signing Time" series and he's picked up the signs for milk, ball, more, eat. Great to have another way for him to communicate his needs and wants to us.
We're gearing up to move in a few months and dealing with the "fun" of having our house on the market. We've had a few showings, but nothing has come of them so far. We're keeping our fingers crossed and hoping to sell soon. Next weekend Kyle and I are off to Oklahoma to get things figured out for our move coming up in June while Daryl and Joyce (Kyle's parents) are kind enough to come and stay with Greyson at our house while we're away. This is the first time we've left him overnight, but we know he'll be in good hands. Kyle and I are looking forward to a few nights to ourselves - granted Lawton, Oklahoma isn't exactly the most romantic of destinations, but we'll take what we can get. We're also REALLY excited about the news of Kyle's orders to Fort Carson when he's done with his training in Oklahoma. We're excited to be living in such a beautiful place come January and we know that Colorado Springs will be a great place for our family to be for the next few years.
Well, that's all for now. Hope you're enjoying the spring and here's to hoping the April showers bring lots of pretty May flowers.
Love, Kyle, Lindsey, and Greyson
P.S. Don't forget to check out the March 2009 photos as well as the two videos below - Greyson shows off his skills with Mom's Blackberry and flying airplanes with Auntie Lisa.
Sorry I'm a bit late on the February Greyson update, but this past month has been a busy and exciting one for our family! I think I have to start with the celebration of Greyson turning one! We still can't believe a whole year has gone by. We've spent a lot of time looking back at pictures and video of him throughout his first year. It's truly amazing how much a baby changes, grows, learns, and develops in just 12 months. He's come quite a long way and the days of considering him a "baby" are getting numbered as he enters into the world of being more of a "little boy". We celebrated Greyson's birthday in many ways. On his actual birthday, February 19th, we did a fun birthday breakfast because unfortunately Kyle was stuck with ROTC obligations for the evening. We had a great morning full of opening some presents and we did a birthday candle in a blueberry muffin for the occasion. He gobbled it right up and loved all his new toys and special keepsakes. Then the weekend after his birthday we were lucky to have some family coming in town - my mom, step dad Mike, and sister Lisa. We spent time together, watched as Greyson had his 1st birthday smash the cake photo shoot (you'll see some of the proofs in the pictures - he literally put his face directly into the cake), and celebrated in style with a joint 1st birthday party with Greyson's best baby buddy, Leo, my friend Ashley's son who happened to turn 1 a few days after Grey. The boys ate some more cupcakes and opened even more presents and simply had a great time! We're so thankful for the all the cards, gifts, and kind words about our little man's birthday. It was a special day/weekend for our family and your thoughtfulness made it mean even more.
Along with celebrating his 1st birthday, this month has brought about some more "firsts" in Greyson's world. He's now taking his first set of swim lessons and loving it! He's such a fish and loves to be in the water. It's a great parent/child class that Kyle and I take him to on Saturday mornings at the YMCA that is teaching him some basic skills and really getting him more comfortable in the water. He's having fun and so are we - it's a weekend activity we all look forward to. Check him out screaming with glee in the pool in the video below. Another skill Greyson has acquired is climbing up the stairs. Granted our house is primarily a ranch, but we have a small set of about 6 stairs going up to our bonus room that is above our garage. He had been expressing interest in the stairs by crawling over to them, but one day it all "clicked" and he climbed all the way up like a pro. Check him out in action in the video below. He's also started saying his first "real word" - he has said MaMa and DaDa for a while, but he doesn't quite grasp that those titles belong to us, but he does have one word mastered. It's a tasty yellow fruit that he LOVES - that's right folks, "NaNa" (as in Ba-nana) is his first official word. Anytime he even glimpses one he says it over and over again. If we say the word he repeats it. He simply loves bananas! It's the cutest thing, so of course we captured it on film. See his excitement over his favorite tasty treat - now we're hoping the Chiquita company gets wind of his new development and signs him up as their new spokesperson. He's got a lot of potential!
Greyson recently had his 12 month well baby visit with our fabulous pediatrician, Dr. Seawell (we love her!), and she reports that he is doing fantastic! He now weighs in at 24 lbs (putting him in the 72% percentile - and quite a heavy weight to carry around), and he's now 31.5 inches long (in the 89% percentile - I predict I'll be looking up to yell at him in the future). He's still only has his one tooth, which he proudly shows off, but it's looking like 3 more will joining soon. He hasn't walked on his own yet, but it's coming soon. He's pulling up on everything and starting to let go and standing up on his own unassisted for a few seconds. He's a big guy so I can imagine that makes it bit more challenging to figure out the balance you need to walk. Soon enough he'll take those steps and our world will never be the same.
Kyle and I are keeping busy with grad school/ROTC for him and teaching for me. Our other main focus right now is preparing for our move. We got the "official" word from Uncle Sam that we'll be heading to Ft. Sill in Lawton, OK for Kyle's 6 months of training beginning in early July. So, were working on getting our house ready to go on the market next week and looking into finding a rental house in Oklahoma for the time we are there. It's nice that the Army will pack and move us, but all the preparation to get our house sold and research and arrangements for moving is no fun and quite stressful. Still no word on where we'll be heading to after our 6 months in OK, and we're thinking we may not know anything until more towards the summer. That's the Army for you - they'll tell us when THEY want to tell us, not when we want to know.
Hope you all are doing well and hallelujah March is here and that means that Spring is on it's way, and Winter is heading out the door - hopefully! Don't forget to check out all the February pictures. Sending you our best!
Lots of Love, K, L, and G
P.S. Pardon all the videos this month - but we just couldn't decide so we decided to post them all for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy Greyson being a fish in the pool during swim lessons, saying his favorite word, showing off his climbing skills, and laughing like a monkey in the tub. Such a personality!
We honestly can't believe that TODAY Greyson turns one! We are so in awe of how much he's grown and developed during the past 12 months, and know that he will continue to amaze us every day! Happy Birthday to our baby boy - yes, we know he's one, but he'll always be "our baby". Enjoy this little video montage I whipped up in honor of his special day.
Be shocked and awed that I'm actually getting around to the January website update BEFORE the end of the month - go me! The truth is I've had the past two days off work due to ice and snow and had more free time than usual which is much appreciated. This month has been more laid back, with the exception of our trip to Gatlinburg (east Tennessee) to have a reunion weekend with the girls I've taught with and their husbands/kids. We had 10 adults and 4 little boys which made for a rowdy good time. Greyson is really starting to love interacting with other kids and he had a blast hanging with the big boys (Connor - soon to be 3 and Patrick - 1 and half). He even got to play around in a jumpy jump house and he had a ball! We also had a great weekend spending time relaxing in a luxury cabin nestled in the mountains with great friends. Makes us realize how much we miss having them in town now that they've moved on to other places, but these reunion trips are a blast and a tradition we plan to continue.
Greyson is growing and developing at rapid speed. He has become quite the speedy crawler and he's pulling up on anything and everything. He's even getting gutsy and reaching from one object to the next while he's standing up. I think walking isn't too far in our future - oh how our world will never be the same. Another exciting event was the arrival of Greyson's FIRST tooth. Yes, he's been a bit behind in that department, but there is no really rhyme or reason when it comes to baby getting teeth. Last week his bottom left middle tooth made it's appearance. Bringing with it a few days of a not so happy baby who was in a bit of pain, but he's doing much better now and we're expecting to see some more teeth come along soon. We'll keep you all posted.
I've been keeping busy being back at work and working on the preparation for Greyson's first birthday party. I cannot believe it's already been a year - people always say time flies, but this is truly unbelievable. He's grown so much and become this little man and I can't believe I'll soon be telling people my sons age in years instead of months. We're looking forward to his birthday celebration. I'm doing a joint party with a great friend of mine who's little boy is 3 days younger than Greyson. We're in the same playgroup so we'd be inviting the same people so planning it together makes it a lot easier. My mom and stepdad, Mike, and sister, Lisa, will be joining us for the celebration. Should be a blast to watch him get cake everywhere and to celebrate his amazing first year of life.
Kyle is back in grad school and surprisingly not too busy seeing that he only has 2 grad classes this semester which is a nice change for him. Hopefully it will be a more laid back semester of just finishing up and getting ready to graduate and commission in May. We're anxiously awaiting to get Kyle's "official orders" sometimes toward the end of February/early March that will tell us where he is going for training and where we will be stationed after that. We have our fingers crossed for a few places, but it's up to the Army at this point so hopefully all will work out well.
Hope you all are doing well and we send our love! Enjoy the January pictures - I'm now using Picassa (yes, I know I was a bit behind) but it's a great program and this way you can save and print the ones you want and not have to order them like through Kodak Gallery. Enjoy!
Love, Kyle, Lindsey, and Greyson
P.S. Two videos for your enjoyment - one of him being Greyson the pilot....of course enjoying his Pooh plane x-mas gift from Aunt Lisa and the second is Greyson "the cat hunter"....pardon my bad Austrailian accent but just had to capture him stalking his prey....too bad the hunt didn't end very successfully.
We've had many requests (especially from those loving grandparents) to see Mr. G now playing around in the "big boy" tub. It's quite the sight so we wanted to give you a little glimpse before the regular end of the month update. Enjoy Mr. Splashy having lots of fun free and clear to make a mess now that he's free of the baby bath tub :)
Happy New Year to all of our fabulous friends and family who read our monthly blog updates! Hope you had a fantastic holiday season and are settling back into the daily grind in the new year. We had a VERY busy, but fantastic month of December. We enjoyed a few down weeks at home in TN at the beginning of the month. Had some great friends come and visit from Louisville and celebrated Kyle's 27th birthday (I keep teasing that 30 is just around the corner now). Then the weekend before Christmas we headed up to Chicago for the holidays. I love getting the chance to go home and Christmas is and always will be cold and snow to me, but the major downside of going home is the 8 hour road trip. Especially now that Grey doesn't exactly fall asleep in the car all the time like he did when we he was younger. We left at about 5am so he would at least sleep for more of the trip and made both legs of the trip with only having to stop once. So, overall not to bad, but God bless portable DVD players because when Grey was hitting the wall with exhaustation and tired of being in his car seat good ole "Baby Einstein" was just the trick to calm him down. We spent a week in Chicago - seeing my family, going to Kenosha to visit Kyle's grandma and aunt, and celebrating the holidays. Greyson throughly enjoyed his first Christmas and now our house is starting to look like a playground with the many toys he recieved, which he is throughly enjoying. Gone are the days of stylish home decor and now we function with toy baskets in each room and many a colorful plastic sound making gadget laying around.
After our Christmas trip to Chicago we came home for about 2 and half days, and then left again to fly down to Florida to visit Kyle's parents for the new year. The warm 70-80 degree temps were a welcome change after the bitter Chicago cold and we had a really fun visit. Took Greyson to his first mini petting zoo which was a big hit with him. He loved seeing all the animals and we had to laugh when the only animal he got vocally excited about was a farm cat running around after seeing all these big cows, llamas, and crazy looking turkeys. Guess that cat reminded him of his buddies at home. Check out the pictures to see what a good time was had by all.
We're now happily back in TN for awhile and only have one little trip in the forseeable future - which we're rather happy about it. We have been all over the place the past 6 months so some down time at home is just what we need. We realized that our trip to FL was Grey's 4th round trip flight in his 10 months of life - he's quite the jetsetter. Speaking of Grey moving all around he is now a crazy crawling monster. When he is up he literally never stops moving! He is a speed crawler and pulling up on anything and everything he can get his hands on (see video below to check him out in action). He's starting to walk moving along a table or furniture and getting pretty gutsy with letting go with one hand. Walking is definitely coming in our near future - I'm already exhausted thinking about how much chasing around we'll be doing. Overall, he's doing fantastic....continuing to grow like a weed and weighing in around 22-23 pounds. We just can't get over what a "little boy" he's becoming, especially now that his first birthday is approaching quickly. Check out the pictures to see what a little man we have now.
Hope this New Year finds you healthy and happy and we wish you all the best that 2009 has to offer!
