Walking on his own free will....

The more we learn every week...

Being a first time parent is getting more and more interesting by the DAY! Looking back at the past week - we have learned a lot! Here are a few to keep you laughing:

Forget lap seat on a plane - this kid will ride in the luggage!

Ever since we showed him what "stairs" were....he finds them and plays on them WHERE EVER WE GO!

One of these days he is going to figure how how to remove that baby gate

He goes for the knives in the dishwasher - and in this shot decided to "play" with left over water on the door. He climbed on that all by himself.

One of these days he is gonna get a lick of that lemon concentrate he keeps grabbing in the fridge and be hating life!

We think Aussie finally gave up running away from Zach - in this shot he got a thorough ear examination.

Just plain scary - caught on camera! Side note about the shirt - this is the THIRD time he has worn this EXACT shirt and thrown up...not little spit up...THROWN UP big time (required the carpet cleaner to be used all three times!). I think the shirt is going to get retired.

Wonder what next week will bring!?!

Skills I don't have...

Check these out:

Aren't they the cutest ever? Makes you want to eat them, right?! Jen's visiting teachers stopped by tonight to drop these off. They are cherry cupcakes with cherry frosting decorated to look like ladybugs! There are even THREE of them! One for Jen, Dustin AND Zachary! One of Jen's visiting teachers has got some serious baking skills - every month we get to partake of another yummy creation.

Two thumbs up from Zach!

Mistaken Identity

Anybody had a case of mistaken identity? Apparently "Jennifer Gray" is a common one! Jen didn't know what she was getting into when she changed her last name. In the seven years she has been a "Gray" she has had two separate credit card collectors call - one for Zales Diamonds and one for Wells Fargo - both demanding payments on an account she doesn't have. After they "realize" that googling any random Jennifer Gray isn't gonna get you the one you want they cross my name off their list and move on. There was also the two attorneys that also have called Jen - one looking for a different relative that doesn't exist in this family, another looking for payment on a settlement. Well - what arrived in the mail today is the icing on the CAKE! Check it out:



So I have no idea why blogger is rotating this image - because the image isn't rotated on my camera or my computer. But anyways - apparently there is a WARRANT OUT FOR JEN'S ARREST. Jen actually started laughing when she read this. First off - anyone know where Hondo, Texas is? Google maps shows us it is just east of San Antonio. Second off - the postcard was addressed to a person with a different middle/maiden name than Jen.

Urgh...here we go again. I guess a phone call to the Hondo Constable are in order tomorrow. I am kinda pissed I have to use my dime to make the long distance phone call...this is hardly worth the 10 minutes of cell phone time! Wonder how many other people with the name "Jennifer Gray" got this same postcard?!

80th Birthday

Grandpa Twogood turned 80 years old during our trip down to Southern California. The Twogood family got together for a day of visiting and eating in honor of grandpa. It was great to see all Jen's Aunts, Uncles and Cousins again and of course GRANDPA TWOGOOD! We were sad we only only had one day to visit with everyone - the men lounge around and talk sports and politics and the women look at Cookie Lee jewelry :)


Janice, Aunt Terri, Aunt Berta and Cousin Katie

Cousin Chris hanging out with Zach

Mike and Uncle Tom assume the position on the recliners

Grandpa with his cake - doesn't it look AWESOME?! It tasted pretty good too!

Zach eyeing the cake...he knows what those taste like!

Zach had to have his own piece of cake - what kind of monster have we created?

Look who finally decided to walk!

Yup - a Valentine's day gift from Zachary to us while down in Southern California!

Disneyland

Today was our day to spend at DISNEYLAND!!

We had a blast. The park opened at 8am, but we didn't arrive until about 10am - we all slept in and enjoyed the morning a bit. Disneyland was a bit more crowded than California Adventure was the day before...most "popular" rides had about a 45 minute wait. The first ride we headed towards was the yellow submarine for Zach - they changed it so it was all "finding Nemo" style. Zach loves fish - so we figured he would like this ride.




He was just about to fall asleep before we waited our 45 minutes to get on - we managed to keep him awake and he loved the ride. He completely crashed and fell asleep as soon as we put him back in the stroller - for a good hour and a half. During that time Jen's parents watched Zach sleep while we headed on Space Mountain.


Next stop - Its a small world - just recently re-opened. This was the first ride we could physically see Zach getting excited for. He loved all the trees out front, and the clock and moving parts. He was intently watching all the characters and trying to figure out how they were moving!

At this point it started to get a bit colder and start to rain. So we got out our rain jackets and headed for Mr. Toads wild ride....and then it was time for for another merry-go-round ride!!!


What kid doesn't want to try and be king? Zach used all his might and was unable to pull the sword out but will keep trying with future trips to Disneyland.

It rained for a couple hours - we still treked on! We saw the birds in the Tikki room, experienced the Pirates of the Caribbean....Indiana Jones....and much much more! Good thing we packed Zach an extra pair of clothes by the time the rain stopped his poor pants were wet (his rain jacket kept the rest of him dry!).

Jen's parents used to work at Disneyland before they met.....that is actually where they met - Mike as a hamburger cooker and Janice was a candy maker - at this exactly location on Main Street over 35 years ago!

Right before we were leaving we finally found Mickey and Minnie Mouse! Zach accidentally took off Mickey's bow tie - but that was easily fixed :)

Mouse ears! Zach's first pair...with his name embroidered and everything!

We had a great time with Jen's parents - even with the few hours of rain. I am sure we will have several more Disney vacations in the future!

California Adventure

Today we hit up California Adventure at Disneyland in Anaheim California. We had never been to this particular theme park and were anxious to see what it had to offer us! The weather was perfect - clear blue sky and in the mid 60's (much better than the snow in UTAH!) and the park was no where near being crowded. Most of the "popular" rides only had a 25 minute wait. If you have been to Disneyworld (MGM and Epcot) then you have pretty much seen all of California Adventure. All the main rides are exactly the same as the ones in Orlando. We hit up everything from 10am until about 5:30pm.

Ready to hang out with Jen's parents at California Adventure

My boys with Mator and Lightning McQueen

A Bug's Life Movie in 3D - yeah Zach didn't like this one....

Roller coaster for Zach!

Boys being boys?

First merry-go-round ride!

Littler surfer boy

First chocolate milk

California Coast

Today we flew into Southern California. Zach's third plane ride - this time into LAX. We met up with Jen's parents and drove down the PCH (pacific coast highway). We stopped in Long Beach for a bit, then headed down to Oceanside - Jen's cousin opened a pizza place right by the beach. Two thumbs up on the pizza - Santino's crust is AWESOME! We loved the BBQ chicken pizza. We also had to take advantage of the beach - literally a few hundred feet from the pizza place. Zach had never been to the beach - so another great experience for him (and US!). It was sunset and the wind was blowing so it was a bit chilly...that didn't stop Zach! He LOVED every minute he got on the beach!

Letter to Mr. Federal Tax Man

Mr. Federal Tax Man –

We are pleased to report our taxes are finished and submitted - please send our sizable refund ASAP. I know when we first started filing “jointly” you always expected us to send you more money. That didn’t last long - we got smart and bought a house and have continued to own a house for the past seven years – which changed the situation so you would start paying us back yearly. With Mr. California Tax Man deciding not to pay out refunds this year because he claims his pockets have holes in them and there is no more money, we don’t want you to get any ideas (or cut holes in your pockets). We will take measures in regards to our withholdings to insure next year you don’t owe us as large of a refund. Oh – and when are we getting a stimulus check? Our savings account is eagerly waiting.

Respectfully,

The Grays
$$$$$$$$

Oh MY!

I guess there are still a few things we are learning as 1st time parents....

Lately we have been trying to come up with more ideas of foods that Zachary can eat. Today for lunch we decided to give him some Dinty Moore beef stew. He loved it. He also LOVED to make a mess with it AND push the food onto the floor. Every time Jen would tell him "No" or "don't do that"......Zach just LAUGHED and did it FASTER!

Hmmmmmmm.....is this the result of Zach refusing to take his morning nap....or his ever growing personality starting to shine even brighter!?!

See how his hand is blurry? That is because it was moving FAST to push his food off the tray!

This was my 1st picture of the food on the floor...by the time he was done eating there was three times this much. On a positive note - our cats like beef stew!

Look at that smile....ironically this is after Jen is telling Zach, "No"....he smiles and laughs.

Zachary Potter

Look what we woke up to this morning......it happened sometime during the night. We still aren't exactly sure how it happened - it looks like he scratched it himself, but his nails aren't "that" long.

Children's Place

Jen LOVES shopping at Children's Place for Zach. Two weekends ago she logged on and found some killer deals on clearance and made a purchase.....all in all, 8 nice shirts and sweaters for $30! Well - a week goes by and no email with confirmation of shipment. Check again online and they say they are "backed up" and all orders have a 5-7 day delay. Today - a week and a half later I FINALLY get a shipment confirmation......and guess what:

We are pleased to inform you that your childrensplace.com order has shipped as detailed below. Unfortunately, however, one or more of the items you ordered were not available in the quantity you ordered. The missing items were cancelled off your order since we do not back order items. You will not be charged for them.

So I look at what of my eight items actually shipped.....THREE! No joke. Even more ironic is those three items that did ship are actually for Peyton and baby LOVATO!!!!

Two thumbs down for online shopping with Children's Place. Oh - a visit to the store at a local mall this weekend as another disappointment as well. We bought a pair of sunglasses for Zach; the price one for $3.50 or two for $5. We search and search and search and only find ONE pair of sunglasses in his size. I go to pay for the one pair and the sales lady says, "you know, it is buy 2 for $5, sure you don't want to pick up another pair". I respond with - "I would if you actually had another pair in your store - you don't have any more sunglasses in this size". She smiles and says "oh, sorry". Make that four thumbs down for shopping with Children's Place.