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2012/Baby Gray/birthday/faith/family/life/love/Mr. Gray

Here’s To Mr. Gray; With Love

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Mrs Gray / 1 Comment

Since this sweet husband of mine shares a birthday with Veteran’s Day (those Grays have a thing for National holidays–birthdays around here fall on Pearl Harbor Day, Veteran’s Day, and Labor Day), I’ve decided we’d honor him today as well. We’re doing a bit of a home birthday celebration this evening since we went out last night to celebrate.

As we prayed last night, I realized that even in my wildest sixteen year old dreams, I could have never imagined the husband he’d be and the man he’d become.

Mr. Gray works so hard to provide for our family. He loves his job, works hard, and then comes home to enjoy time with us. He is truly the spiritual leader of our family, and I am so blessed to be led by someone with a heart such as his. This man is such an incredible role model for our son, and he is invested in Baby Gray’s development–both intellectually and spiritually.

I am so in awe of this husband God has blessed me with and the family we are. I am excited to share many more years together! Happy birthday, my love.

2012/Baby Gray/Fashion Friday/independent/toddler

The Height of Fashion

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Mrs Gray / 0 Comment

We’ve had a fairly boring week on the fashion front. It’s been a week full of teething and napping–those two year molars don’t play around.

Plus, I used my camera (gasp!) this weekend, and I think there are possibly a few on the card that I haven’t uploaded yet. I know, I know.

Without further adieu, the stylings of Baby Gray!

What do you mean we live in Texas and it’s still 90 degrees out?

Infant hat? Check! Two left shoes? Check! Let’s roll.

beauty/health/products/skin/tips

What’s Dove Got to do–Got to do–With It?

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Mrs Gray / 0 Comment

Dry skin? I have it. It’s sensitive, too. Which is sometimes a problem. The dermatologist (and The Pioneer Woman–separately, of course) suggested Cetaphil. It’s expensive, but it was working. No breakouts, no nothing!

After a few months, though, I could tell my skin was drying out. Yuck.

I polled a few friends, a couple mentioned that they used plain ol’ plain Jane Dove bars. YES! I used to use them, and my skin was fabulous. So, the next time I was at the store, I picked a couple up.

Guess what? They are great. My skin isn’t breaking out. It isn’t dry. Not scaly. Nothing. It’s lovely.

This is not a sponsored post; Dove does not have a clue who I am. I only shared an affiliate link because I didn’t have a box to take a photo of.

faith/life/Revolution

Where You Are

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Mrs Gray / 2 Comments

A couple of weekends ago, Brian Head Welch, one of the founders of Korn spoke at our church. He has an amazing and life-changing testimony.

Not only that, but this man was so gracious and loving when doing the meet and greets. I have never seen such a thing. I was at the exit door both services for every person who came through so have their photo taken and get things signed. He listened and spoke to each person with such love and care. He is truly living and loving people for Christ.

The weekend had many neat stories wrapped up in it as well. One lady who attends our church had gotten high with him backstage at a concert many years ago. She was able to meet and talk with him again–this time in prayer. I love it!

Another guy, who didn’t attend our church, was waiting outside the exit door. He looked like he was maybe waiting for Brian to come out that way after he was done meeting with everyone. I struck up a conversation with him as he waited. He used to be a driver for him when he was in Korn. He is now a worship pastor in San Antonio, and he and Brian catch up when their paths cross. He also shared with me many of the other folks they used to hang with who have also come to Christ.

I love that we are part of a church that challenges people. That allows them to grow in their faith–right where they are. I have grown so much through Revolution. Our family has grown, and our lives have been transformed. I love that we’ll go out on a limb for that; that we’ll reach people no one is reaching by doing things others aren’t doing. It’s not about smoke and mirrors; it’s not a dog and pony show. It’s meeting people where they are.

Listen to Head’s message at Revolution, or go see him on November 18th at Uncommon in Austin!

Baby Gray/jammers/sewing

Stitched Up

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Mrs Gray / 0 Comment

Oh, those mornings where everything is going great… until one thing tips the domino and everything starts going askew! Well, a few weeks ago, we had several of those mornings in a row. All would be fine until I’d go in to get Baby Gray out of his bed. Simply going to get him turned into washing sheets, washing jammers, and often needing a quick bath. Houdini here was escaping from his diaper. Not all the way, though. No, not enough that I could see it on the monitor; just enough that it was creating disaster secretly!

I consulted Google and some other boy mamas to see what my next course of action should be. Onesies, they all suggested. No problem. In the meantime, I just put him in some zippered, footie pajamas. I wasn’t out of his room five seconds when I checked the monitor to see that he had completely unzipped it and was quickly on the way to inching out of the diaper again. Off went the feet–of the footie pajamas, that is.

He was then able to wear them backwards, where the zipper is out of reach. We only had a few of those, though, and I hated to buy new ones to cut up. I started a search for extremely large onesies, but to no avail.

As they say, necessity is the mother of invention.

I grabbed a few of his two piece sets and my sewing machine. Nine million spools of bobbin thread later and voila!

HAHA! I was cracking up–who does that?

Add a seam-ripper to the mix and finally get rolling, and then (really this time) voila!

I stitched the top and bottom of the pajamas together at the waist, leaving an opening in the back. It’s easiest to put the top on first and then stick his feet in. He can’t get his hand in, I didn’t spend any money, no jammers go to waste, and I can quit washing sheets on a daily basis. We all win!

Baby Gray/dealing/death/ice cream/loss

Into the Light

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Mrs Gray / 0 Comment

After church yesterday, we headed to the capitol grounds for the Central Texas Out of the Darkness Walk. Based on the videos and photos from the website, I was kind of expecting a somber (for this weeping woman, read: emotional) atmosphere. Instead, there were kids running and playing, music blasting, people laughing and recalling stories of their loved ones.

They had a couple of speakers before the actual walking kicked off. One was a young girl telling her recovery story; the other was a mother who lost her son. Those were the most somber, emotional times–well, that and the dates on shirts that absolutely broke my heart. One of the teams was walking for a thirteen year old. Thirteen. I cannot imagine feeling such pain and isolation at thirteen–at any age, really, but wow. Through the heart break, I find myself feeling immensely grateful that I have never known those kinds of thoughts or feelings.

What I do know is that I can help. I can continue to raise awareness for those suffering from depression and other mental illnesses. I can share the news of the gospel for those who are lost and hurting. I knew from the get-go that I wanted to be involved. I still don’t know exactly what that will look like. I’m still praying through exactly what my involvement will be.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. –Psalm 34:18

After we walked, Baby Gray made crafts in the kids’ area, and then we headed for some Amy’s Ice Cream. Yum!

We rounded off the afternoon with a visit to Aunt Cookie’s new home. She’s close now–I hope we’ll be seeing a lot more of her these days.

2012/Baby Gray/Fashion Friday/independent/toddler

Passion for Fashion

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Mrs Gray / 0 Comment

I realized as I was pulling this week’s photos that I never explained why we’ve got the crazy jammers going on in our house; that’s a story to tell!

We had no shortage of head wear this week!

He even some special “on the road” features on Annie’s runway this week.

Footwear was also a hot commodity!

The more layers, the better, of course.

He loves piling things on!

One last, non-fashion plug. If you haven’t given already, please consider donating as I walk in the AFSP Out of the Darkness walk this Sunday.

2012/Baby Gray/Halloween/jammers/Recipes

All Aboard for Halloween Fun!

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Mrs Gray / 0 Comment

This boy had a fun Halloween–from ~~eating~~ making treats with Mama all day to trick ‘n treatin’ to the It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown before bed. He was livin’ it up.

We had a fun night with friends–no tricks, all treats!

And treats there were!

We took some FrankenBites for his friends’ trick-or-treat buckets and some FrankenPudding, too. Baby Gray loved helping me sort the Froot Loops and M&Ms for the FrankenBites. I think we’ve got the color green down!

The FrankenBites would have been super easy, but my printer decided not to be helpful, so it took me a bit more time to rig up some hand-done closures for the bags. Overall, though, they were a hit and could be modified for anything!

You will need:
Green Froot Loops
Green M&Ms
Brown M&Ms
Semi-sweet chocolate chips
Pretzel sticks
Marshmallows

Put the desired amount of each into a bowl
Mix so the colors are evenly dispersed
Scoop into snack sized bags
Tie, zip, or close
Garnish with a cute tag!

The pudding was so fun and easy! The biggest thing here is not to make the eyes and scar too high, for fear of running out of pudding before there is enough to share.

I also took a cue from my latest chicken-shredding find for crushing the Oreos–no more pieces stuck in the blender or food processor!

I mixed up the pudding, filled the cups, and topped with the Oreos for our super cute snack!

You will need:
2 boxes instant vanilla pudding (large)
6 cups milk
1/2 package Oreos (remove filling)
Green food coloring
6 ounce clear cups
Black Sharpie or permanent marker

Draw faces on the cups (don’t make them too high, or it uses too much pudding too quickly); set aside
Add the cookie pieces of the Oreos (the filling makes the crumbs too sticky to work well) to mixer and crush; set aside
Mix pudding as directed, adding food coloring to tint (I mixed with the whisk attachment in my mixer)
Scoop pudding into cups, covering the “face” with green
Top with Oreo crumbs; sprinkle to the face side first to make the “hair”
Enjoy!

After a long day of gymnastics (did I mention he had gym–and a lollipop–first thing?), making, and snacking, this boy was ready to get his jammers on and head home.

2012/Baby Gray/Halloween

Franken-Theme-Y

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Mrs Gray / 0 Comment

Early in October, a lady gave Baby Gray a wind-up Frankenstein toy. She didn’t ask first, and I wouldn’t have noticed, except that I have friends who wouldn’t have been okay with that. We’re good with cute monsters for Halloween, so no problem here. I told Baby Gray the toy’s name was Frankenstein; he called him Franken-meme, and with the help of Mr. Gray, it transformed to Frankenweenie.

It will come as no surprise that I love themes, so this seemed like a great one to run with–with the exception of his costume, which was already picked out at the time. His shirt for the day is Frankenweenie as are his treats for his friends this evening.

He has been talking for days about trick-treating with Little C, Baby C, Shooby, and Jax! We’re ready for a fun evening!