Jazz vs. Spurs

Our employer owns one of the suites at the Energy Solutions Center. For Utah Jazz games they rotate which groups get the tickets and the managers of those groups decide which of their employees get to use the tickets. They use it for recognition - and lucky for us Jen was the lucky one to get the "recognition tickets" for this game! There were about 24 people total from IM Flash in the suite. There was catered food - we even had our own "waiter" that would basically go out and get ANYTHING we wanted from the Arena.

Here is the view we had...

Hamming it up for the camera....
We had a great time - free parking, free game, free dinner, great socializing with some co-workers OUTSIDE of work....the only thing that could have made the evening even better is if the final scores for the teams were switched!

Puddin'

Today Dustin decided to make some use of the gummy worms and Oreo's we had on hand.....we made some pudding cups. We didn't tell the kids what was inside the pudding cups. It was quite interesting to see their reaction!

Worm #1...
Worm #2....

We think Logan just enjoyed eating out of a bowl with a spoon by himself. He wasn't as interested in the worms...just the CHOCOLATE!

Yeah - he enjoyed himself....
Logan would even share!

Pudding cups were promptly followed by bath time!

Zach's 3 year check up

We scheduled Zach's three year old check up today. Here were his stats:

• Weight = 32lbs, 4oz = 50th percentile
• Height = 38 inches = 50th percentile

He also received two shots. That is the hard part about these visits at this age because they don't easily "forget" about the shots. He cried and whined for a bit afterwards, but he was in even more pain for two days after the shot. He must have tensed up pretty good with the second shot because he had a nice large golf ball sized bump on his leg. The doctor said no more shots until kindergarten.....besides the yearly flu shot!

Zach was such a ham with the pediatrician. They had their very own conversation and the doctor even came back into the room later (right before shots) with little cars for both Zach and Logan to have. Now every time we drive past the pediatrician's office Zach says, "that is where we go to look in our ears!"...and every time he wants a sucker he says, "I don't feel good, I need to go to the doctors".

Three year old in the HOUSE!

Yup! Today is the big day for our Mr. Zachary...he turned THREE YEARS OLD! Grandma and Grandpa Twogood were in town and were able to help celebrate with us. We started the day off with some yummy breakfast and toy playing. Then Logan decided to take his morning nap, so Grandma and Grandpa stayed home with Logan and Zach hit the town with mom and dad. We at the last minute decided to see if they still had tickets to the movie "Tangled" at the theater near our house...but seeing how all kids had the day off school for MLK day - it was sold out. But the next best thing was right next to the theater - the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum. It was Zach's day so he got to tell us what we were and weren't' going to do at the museum...here is some proof:

After an hour or so it was time to stop back home and see if Logan was awake from his nap so we could go eat lunch! Zach has recently enjoyed heading to a place here called "Pirate Island Pizza". It is basically a Chuck E. Cheese but pirate themed...with a much better food selection. By the time we got everyone packed up and drove down to Orem - it was 2pm. We walk to the doors of Pirate Island Pizza and they say they aren't' open until 3pm.....we are obviously confused because their website clearly says they are open at 11am.

So we had an hour to kill.....what better way to do it that at Toys'R'Us! The boys each had received Toys'R'Us gift certificates from some family members for their Birthday and Christmas. So we let both Zach and Logan roam around Toys'R'Us and pick out what they wanted. I think the boys could have stayed in that store all day long. In the end Zach decided on a police/fire truck/EMT Lego set. Logan picked up some new bath toys. Together they decided on some personable mugs that each had their names on it and the DVD movie "Tinkerbell". Now it is 3pm...time to head back to Pirate Island Pizza!

We show up and get seated and apparently never saw our waiter again. Flagged someone down to get our order and then went off to play on the rides/games. Here is Zach testing his three year old skills at shooting a gun.

About 30 minutes later...still no food. Jen walks to the kitchen to inquire about our order and it magically appears. We enjoy our pizza and decide it was time to leave. Zach was ready to fall asleep from all the excitement so far in the day! On the drive home we get stuck in some freak traffic and the 20 minute drive turns into 90 minutes. We get home JUST IN TIME for our friends to arrive to do cake and presents.

For the past several weeks when Jen would ask Zach what he wanted for his birthday, he would say - "chocolate chip fire truck cake". Yes - a fire truck cake. Here is what Jen was able to come up with (yes she made this!).

Here is a family shot after we sang to Zach and he blew out his candles.

When we started cutting the cake - Logan took off and was trying to get to the cake! He had his first birthday three weeks ago and remembered how YUMMY cake tasted!

Here is what is left of the fire truck cake...it was a hit! Logan even enjoyed it....

Happy 3rd Birthday Zach! You bring a smile to our faces every day. Zach is our big helper - he loves to be involved and make a contribution to everything. He is a daddy's boy and is glued to Dustin all the time. He is learning everything he can fast....WE LOVE YOU!

Welcome Home

Jen has been complaining to Dustin about the washer and dryer performance for a while now. Our Maytag Neptune 9 year old set just wasn't meeting Jen's expectations. She even took the dryer apart a few weeks ago to see if there was any part obviously not working (remember the burnt dryer control board about two years ago?) - but no success. So over the weekend Jen proudly announced it was "her" day and she was buying a new washer and dryer. She showed Dustin the options she was looking at and gave him the opportunity to hit up RC Willey with her to look at what was coming home. And today they came home......

Goodbye my Maytag's...

You will make new friends elsewhere...

Oh, hello LG beauties! This is your new HOME!
Ah - Jen's stainless steel LG steam washer and steam dryer....I can hear the heavenly music playing in the background now.....

They work GREAT too!

Undie Hats

We decided to switch things up a bit tonight in the Gray house. Zach has been potty training, but we had all these clean pairs of toddler underwear that had never been used. So what can you do with it??? I have to warn you...this was spur of the moment - no planning involved...and only a phone camera handy...so the images are not the best quality...but I think you get the idea!

Bronco Twins

Dustin likes to wear baseball hats on the weekends when he is bumming around. When Zach sees daddy wearing a hat, he feels the need to also wear a hat. We somehow lost Zach's only baseball hat on our last trip to California in November...and toddler baseball hats are not exactly the easiest thing to find in the winter time in Utah...but today we SCORED! Zach and Jen were shopping at Babies'R'us and found a toddler Denver Broncos hat on the clearance rack. A $15 NFL hat that we got for $4! The best part is it MATCHES DUSTIN'S EXISTING HAT EXACTLY! So now Zach and Dustin can be Bronco Twins!

Rest in Peace

This evening Jen's grandfather passed away. She got a phone call from her dad about 7pm letting her know that her 81 year old Grandpa Twogood had been taken to the Anaheim Hospital a few hours earlier and was currently being life flighted to USC Medical Center.

We have known for about 20 years that Grandpa Twogood had a lodged aneurysm in the blood vessels in his heart, and some day that aneurysm would burst and he would bleed to death internally (he refused surgery to ever remove it....stubborn man in some ways, but he had already done major bypass surgery a few weeks before Jen was born back in 1977). This is what happened....the aneurysm ruptured and a small tear formed in his aorta. He wasn't in much pain, but was just complaining of chest tightness. Once he arrived by ambulance to the Anaheim hospital the entire surgical staff assessed the situation. Normally they could do open heart surgery and give my grandpa another chance at life...but Grandpa was too weak and they feared he wouldn't live from an attempted surgery. They sedated him, and prepared to life flight him to a more advanced hospital that could put a stint in to try and stop the rupture from continuing to bleed out internally. He made it to the next hospital but passed on before they procedure could be performed.

Three hours after we learned what was going on - we received the news he passed on, he didn't survive. My grandfather had bleed to death internally from the heart. When a close family member dies - the first feeling that overwhelms Jen is regret. At this point she regretted not making a trip to Southern California in the past year so her grandfather could meet his forth great grandchild (Logan). She regretted not talking to him on the phone more during this past Christmas time. She regretted not writing more letters to her grandfather. After a few days - the regret fades and the peace returns. Peace of knowing that he is no longer in pain. Peace of knowing he is now in the same place with his wife who passed away from a ruptured aneurysm in the brain immediately following open heart surgery just 8.5 years earlier. Peace of knowing he is now with his daughter who passed away four months ago from liver failure. Remembering the great times she had with her grandfather - the week long summer visit trips, the Disneyland visits, the Birthday and Christmas cards and hand written letters, the visit to her at BYU while she was in college, the continued support and love and gratitude shown for the many accomplishments I have made in my life.

Grandpa Twogood - you will be missed.

Logan's 1 year checkup

Today Logan saw the doctor for his 1 year check up. We saw a different pediatrician this time from the same office just because the appointment day/time fit better into our schedules. Here are Logan's stats:

• Length = 30 inches; 50th percentile
• Weight = 22lbs, 9oz; just below the 50th percentile
• Head = 47.5cm; 75th percentile

So Logan keeps the Gray family tradition alive with having a LARGE head! He is finally starting to fit lengthwise into his 18 month clothes! Poor Logan - the bad part about scheduled check ups with the pediatrician....SHOTS! He took them like a man and they were forgotten shortly afterwards! No reactions from them :)

New Years Eve 2011

Time to ring in a new year! This year we headed out to Tempenaki for dinner with Jen's parents and the Krotosky's. We always enjoy the show - it seems to keep the kid entertained, and the food is pretty good.

Afterwards we all headed back to our house. We decided to do chocolate fondue. Zach found the Oreo's pretty fast.....we turned around and found this.

I guess it is the night to be on a sugar high....something has to keep us awake until midnight.

Now that we were loaded with sugar - time to do some Karaoke! Jeff took the cake....but we all had a bit of fun.




One advantage to having snow on the ground outside is it acts as the perfect 'refrigeration' for our midnight celebratory drinks!

At midnight we had some toasts and headed outside in the FREEZING COLD (it might not have even been 0 degrees Fahrenheit) to shoot off some fireworks. We had some nice mortar shells and lots of roman candles. Another advantage to having snow on the ground on New Years Eve when having fireworks? No fires! We just put our leftovers here to ensure they don't catch anything on fire once used....

Happy New Year!

Can you believe it is already 2011?