Margaret Gray- 18(ish) Months

Some things I want to remember about our little girl:

Nicknames- MoMo, Mo, Mosey, Goose, Goo, Sister, Sissy, Sissy Gray

When she wants a turn or a bite, she points to herself and says "MoMo". (I need to mention that this is my least favorite nickname and the one she goes by the most. booo.)

Loves taking a bath and sporting bad prom hair

Likes to point out our families' "seats" in the car and at the dinner table. For example, will crawl up in Tom's dinner table chair and say "DaDa".

Sometimes gets upset in the car when I'm strapping her in, and points to the drivers' seat and cries "MaMa"... already wanting to drive.

Says "Hot" even if something is cold. When she says "hot", she lifts her hand up... a result of when she burned her hand on my hair straightener and she learned what "hot" meant.

TALL!! We haven't gone to her 18 month appt, but at 16 months, she was 34 inches.... off the charts.

Tries to carry as much (of whatever) as possible. This is particularly interesting when in a toy store and she picks up as many stuffed animals as can fit in her arms and walks around... ooo, wee- you should hear her when I try to put them back.

Goes to bed around 7:30 and wakes around 7ish. Naps are between 2-3 hours. Sometimes I think she'd prefer having 2 naps, but I selfishly want the kids sleeping at the same time. Poor thing- sometimes I'll be making lunch, and she'll get her blanket and piggie and come lay on the kitchen floor (yucky)

Likes puzzles

Loves shoes, purses, and jewelry... doesn't matter who they belong to.

Doesn't have any dress up clothes (yet), so MG asks to put on her brother's clothes as well as her dad's. Came home one day and she was wearing a pair of Tom's boxers as a skirt.

Likes to pick out what books are to be read to her (its funny how I realize how many choices I didn't give Henry). Her favorites right now: Good Night Moon, any animal book, Brown Bear Brown Bear,
BaaBaa Black Sheep & other Nursery Rhymes, Big Red Barn

Funny about food- will love something one day... the next-not interested.
Loves Quakers Oatmeal Squares and asks to eat them all day long.

Does well with a spoon and fork.... most of the time

Its been so fun to watch her language grow. When asked to say a word, she usually whispers it. Some of my favorite words she says are: dinosaur, purse, Henry,milk, night night. When putting her to bed she'll say "Dada mmm-wah" or "Eh-eh mmm-wah" telling me she wants to kiss Tom or Henry goodnight.

Random- given the choice- would rather walk in the grass than on the sidewalk

LOVES her piggie. Also has much affection for her blankets and now is more interested in her baby doll.

Favorite toy-her shopping cart (thanks, Whitesides!)

She'll do anything she sees Henry do. Yikes.

Favorite movie- The Ballad of Little Joe (a Veggie Tales). She gets really excited- clapping her hands and says "Joe! Joe!" Its how she says "Joe" that's really cute.

Likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Elmo, but they don't always keep her attention.

Isn't much into singing. :( Even though I swear she tries to sing a song from the nursery at church. Does like nursery rhymes, though... so I sing those to her.

Has joined Henry's and my air band. She plays the drums. Girl can rock out to some Coldplay.

Has gotten better about participating at Storytime at the Library. She loves getting the stamp on her arm at the end and if you ask her who gave it to her she'll say "Bob" as clear as day. (The guy is kinda strange, but he keeps her attention)

If you ask her how old she is she'll hold up 1 finger and say "Du". Half credit.

LOVES animals... in particular- cats, dogs, lizards, horses.


Super snuggly when she is tired. I love this.

Ok- enough of the random facts. We love you, Margaret Gray!

This was her "hat".

Felt like I needed to include a video, too

Back to Baseball

We haven't been to a Rangers game as a family since Opening Day back in April. But thanks to the numerous tickets we just purchased so that we can have rights to buy postseason tickets, looks like we'll be going a lot now.

We were lucky to go to a historic game Sunday night- tied for the hottest game at the Ballpark. 105 degrees. Nice.

Somehow we have coupons for the kids' area, so we took the kids to hit a couple of balls before the game started.

And checked out the gift shop.





During the game, we enjoyed some kettle corn...



.... and dollar ice cream night.

18 week belly shot

Here's to the Rangers making it to the postseason!

Random Birthday Party Pics

I've taken my camera to the shop (sniff, sniff)... I have no clue when it will be fixed, but I was tired of taking rotten pictures. Hopefully I will have it back before September- when Henry starts school. (sniff, sniff)

I need to do a beach post, but haven't uploaded all the pics.

In the meantime, here are some pics of the kids at some birthday parties.

1st off-

Raney's 2nd Birthday Party (back in May)

The sweet Hogan Family (who now has one more girl added to their crew)

Minnie Mouse was quite the entertainment and the kids had a lot of fun playing at the park in Dallas.

Margaret, who was a little leery of Minnie, preferred chasing ducks.


Henry partook in Minnie's activities- singing, dancing, and a parachute.


Margaret got her first taste of Cheeto puffs... which came in handy after she wacked her eye on the corner of a park bench. Dr. Sara was there to prescribe more Cheetos... worked like a charm.

Her eye the next day.

Charlie's 1st Birthday Party

(back in June)

My camera went on hiatus that day, but I did get a few pics.

Here is the link to Liz' blog
Go check out his Peter Rabbit Party!

My dear godson. SO glad I was able to celebrate with him!



Henry gets very excited about Liz's cookies



(Peter Rabbit's jacket- could she be any more talented?!?)

The kids decorated pots and planted seeds.

Margaret liked playing in the dirt.

See next picture:

Somehow flung dirt all over her face. Sweet, sweet picture Liz captured though.

MG couldn't keep her hands off the stuffed bunnies.

Brinley's 2nd Birthday Party
It was the same day as Charlie's, but luckily at different times.
Here is the link to Amy's Blog
Brinley's Popsicle Party was just as sweet as the birthday girl herself!

Henry coloring his popsicle

And MG eating her chocolate covered pretzel... too bad the heat was melting the chocolate faster than she could eat it.

It's good to have a big brother

Looks like he's got his sister in a head lock....

... Nope. Just trying to style her hair.

Father's Day

Father's Day started out early.

The kids and I snuck out of the house while daddy dearest was still asleep to pick up some donuts and kolaches.

Tom didn't want his picture taken :) so here are the kids enjoying their delicious breakfast.

After church, we enjoyed burgers at a local place, then kids took naps and Tom went to work from home.

PatPat and PawPaw with the Wood cousins came over for dinner.

PawPaw cooked steaks on the grill and we enjoyed a nice meal- even Tom, who didn't get any calls during dinner... I was afraid he was going to have to eat his meal in our dark bedroom by himself while looking at MRIs.

Even though it was their special day, they didn't stray from their husband duty of cleaning dishes.

I'm very thankful that PawPaw is such a great example of a dad/husband to Tom.

A random game of "PawPaw Says" to end the evening.

Henry made a "My Daddy Book" at church:

My Daddy's favorite color is.... Red. (Henry's fav)

My Daddy's favorite food is... Hot Dogs (???)

I like it when my Daddy.... hugs me (ahh)

My Daddy is so strong he can.... (no answer-ha)

My Daddy laughs when.... he sees a Gorilla (???)

My Daddy likes me to... vacuum (no clue)

Thank you God for my Daddy!

Lake Trippin'

A couple of weeks ago, we joined our med school friends at the McAdams family lakehouse in Brownwood. We were the first family to arrive, so after the kids' nap, we headed out to the boat with Rocky, Amy, and Brinley.

As long as Henry was shielded from the wind, he was good to go.

The next morning, we had some backyard fun while Tom and Rocky played golf.

Before lunch, the Warminskis joined us and we headed out to the crappie house.

Kids really enjoyed floating in their life vests.... which was surprising. Margaret did have trouble balancing in hers, which kind of annoyed her- she wanted to be independent. Finally figured it out the last day.

Saying prayers before lunch- love how Brinley's head is bowed.

She could have done this all day.

Sweet girls

Burkharts arrived on Thursday and

the next couple of days were filled with more swimming, lots of eating, and playing around.

Playing with Play Doh... Margaret tried to "dip" her cracker in it.

Finger Painting

S'mores!

Attempt at a patriotic kids' pic

Luke and Henry playing baseball

Birthday crew

Really wish you could see the group pic of us when we first came 5 years ago- things have changed! (I was wearing gaucho pants- would those things please come back in style!)

We missed the Hartzlers!!

We are so blessed by this group of friends!!!

Thanks, Amy and Rocky for hosting! (blog title is a shout out to your email about our 1st trip to Brownwood)