Happy Fathers Day!

So, we are taking a little break on the updates for today. We are so close to being caught up! Yippie!
Because Ryan is in Boston for the summer and we are in NC, I thought I would put together a little video for him. Webcam is wonderful, but it is really hard to get a 12 month old to sit in front of the camera. (Oh, the video is 6 minutes long. I don't know if everyone will want to watch the whole thing.) I hope you enjoy this babe!

Happy Father's Day! We can't wait to see you next week. Love you! a&g

Cowboys

Some fun pics as we get ready to watch the Cowboys play Oregon in the Holiday Bowl!!!

Christmas part deux

Later that day, we went over to Stillwater to celebrate with Ryan's side of the family. Elliot was her typical joyful and cheesy self and was a very good assistant with opening presents. The gift dejour was ski caps. Grayson also got a 3/4 sleeve baseball shirt with the Stillwater logo on the front (Go Pioneers!) and Ryan's baseball number 17 on the back. Yeah, there's no pressure on the kid about sports...

Ryan also discovered Grayson's affinity for being put on Ryan's shoulders. Regardless of his mood, when he gets put up on dad's shoulders, boom, instant happiness. He especially likes to pull dad's hair and dance to hot beats while he's up there.

Christmas

Okay, so the pictures of Grayson in just the white onesie have a funny story. It was late in the evening after we returned from the Christmas Eve service at church and after the week he'd already had, Grayson was pretty pooped. When he gets this tired, he gets very slap-happy, but only in short bursts. Well, we were all taking pictures with him, but he started to get a little grumpy. So, Uncle Tim starts doing this crazy dance behind whoever is taking the picture and Grayson would crack up. Tim would stop dancing, and Grayson would get distracted. Tim would dance, and he'd laugh and smile again. By the end, we think Tim was dancing more for his own enjoyment, though.

On Christmas morning, Grayson got an OSU baseball cap that he would mainly only wear if we put in on him backwards without his knowledge. Otherwise, he grabs the bill and starts waving it around until he loses his grip and drops it. Like a lot of other kids, he had more fun with the tissue paper then the presents. When we all went into the kitchen to prep for breakfast, Grayson got to take a nice snooze with Grandpa.

Christmas road trip - Texas

Given Ryan's newfound return to receiving a Christmas break, we all hopped in the car and road tripped back to the Midwest to see family for the holidays. Ryan drove all night and made it almost to Louisiana before Andra took over in the morning to get us to the hotel. We stopped in Baton Rouge for a little while and got to see some of LSU's campus. We really enjoy getting to tour around and visit the different college campuses whenever we can. Grayson did really well in the car.

The next day, we pushed on to Bastrop, TX to see Andra's father's family. Grayson got to see his great-grandparents Nanny and Papa and Uncle Gregory and Aunt Melanie. He's the first great-grandchild, and it's hard to describe the feelings present when four generations are together. It was truly a special time. We also got to attend a graduation party for one of Andra's cousins where Grayson got to meet all kinds of extended family that we don't get to see very often. After a few days, we all drove up to Oklahoma, and Grayson was a little less enthusiastic about more car time, but we finally made it up to Tulsa.

Xmas Photo Shoot

Here are some more shots from our Christmas card photo shoot. 5 1/2 months old.

Baby's got gas...

Grayson's a little constipated, so Andra fed him some prunes. Oh, how we love prunes! We can probably say that because we weren't the ones eating them. Andra's really having fun exploring the joys of making homeade baby food.

Bedlam!

Bedlam in Stillwater. After visiting with Ryan's family we pregamed at Uncle Ben's house on campus. What a great atmosphere! Not only was it our first home OSU game to go to since we've moved away, but to have the Pokes playing so well and against OU! Certainly beats "Nathan Simmons up the middle for a gain of 2." ESPN gameday was on campus, and Uncle Tylan and Uncle Evan went up to Library Lawn for a little while but it was a madhouse!

At Uncle Ben's house, all of Andra's extended family came over, as well as some old friends of the family. It was great to see Kelly and Amy and their family, long time friends who were in town for the game. Amy babysat Andra when she was little and they were all living in Stillwater. They brought Grayson a fun OSU cap. He had been through a pretty eventful few days and went from cranky to passed out in about two seconds.

Brittany, Marissa, Andra, and Ryan went and watched the band warm up and walk to the stadium; Uncle Tim played in his last band performance at a football game, having decided to leave band and its huge time commitments. We hooked up with Uncle Evan at some tailgates before heading into the game. We'd each seen the new stadium from the outside and on TV, but being inside with such a great fan turnout was awesome. Having it be so different then when we were in school and that not feeling that long ago did make the experience a little bittersweet. Granted, we feel the same way about GIA, but I guess that's progress.

Thanksgiving

Grayson's first Thanksgiving was spent in Tulsa with Grandma and Grandpa Friske and the whole clan (Uncle Russell and Aunt Brittany, Uncle Ben, and Uncle Tim, and Brittany's sister Marissa) in Tulsa. It was great fall weather and we enjoyed some great Scategories action. As usual, Ryan was forced to play on his own team, while everyone else paired up. Grayson enjoyed bouncing along while we all played. Later, Grandpa took him on a walk and he was asleep before they left the driveway.

First Flight

Grayson got to take his first flight!. For Thanksgiving, Andra and Grayson flew to Oklahoma a few days earlier than Ryan who had some school commitments. He slept the whole way which was a blessing considering Andra was by herself. He does love Bear (remember, uncreative stuffed animal names...)

Happy Halloween

Grayson had two great costumes for Halloween - one from each set of grandparents. The pumpkin came from Ryan's parents and the Frankenstein came from Andra's. There was a big Halloween parade at nursery school where everyone got to take class pictures and see all of the other kids' costumes. Grayson's class had a Superman, a turtle, a giraffe, and several other fun characters. In a few classes older than his, there were some identical twins as Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss! There was lots of creativity, which like most things I guess was more for the benefit of the parents. Ryan had a really great idea for all of us to dress up as a theme, but Grayson needed to be a little older to help pull it off. So, stay tuned for Halloween '09!

Grayson also loves to sit in his Bumbo and got to eat his first bits of rice cereal!

School picture day

Grayon has picture day at his nursery school. He's almost 4 months old. We're not sure how it happened in that bottom pic, but it sure looks like he's playing some serious air guitar, doesn't it?

New Stroller..

The weather was still really nice and so we decided to bust out Grayson's stroller for the first time and go for a stroll around the neighborhood. We would chase each other, with one of us pushing while the other would "run away". Grayson would then just laugh and laugh when he would catch up to whoever was running away. Andra made sure to keep him very snuggly and he took his stuffed lamb "Chops" along for the ride.

On a side note, we're not very creative when it comes to naming his animals. Besides "Chops"the lamb and the elephant that Ryan got him from his trip to Vegas appropriately named Leonard Ebenezer Funt (L.E. Funt) pretty much the rest of his animals are non-creative. Specifically, his bear is named "Bear", his turtle is named "Turtle", etc.

Moo

We've been using cloth diapers almost exclusively with Grayson, and we're big fans. Not only are there fun colors and even some prints (these photos include Andra's favorite cow print), but it's nice to have less garbage. Yes, there are more loads of laundry and the dirty ones can get pretty disgusting. Andra has to take care of the really poopy ones. Ryan tries and does his best but too often ends up dry heaving. We've used both gDiapers and Happy Heinys and they both have their pros and cons. The best thing is the use of a flushable paper liner to dispose of the poops and make for easier clean up.

Go Pack!

Sept. 6th - Grayson's first live football game

Since Ryan is a student, he gets into all of the State football games for free, so we decided to splurge on a ticket for Andra and attend Grayson's first football game! We sat in the student section, which at NCSU is pretty much the entire endzone. It was very strange to wear red to a game. In fact, Andra wore black. Needless to say, Grayson was the only baby in the section. Ryan laughed that it seemed like after a few minutes we were surrounded by girls, which probably had more to do with the exodus of inebriated foul-mouthed college guys feeling a little self-concious about cursing at the refs in front of a 4-month old and moving away from us. Grayson did really well, except we probably could have done without the fireworks display right in our endzone and fighter jet flyover before the game that was just a wee bit too loud for him.

Some of our friends have asked us what will happen, specifically to Ryan, if Grayson or any of our children don't like sports. It's an interesting thought...

Bubbles...

Grayson enjoys his first bubble bath. These pics will definitely be broken out when Grayson starts dating!

Ryan was curious if they made an adult-sized version of Grayson's little lounger.

Uncle Tim's Visit

A few pics with Dad and Uncle Tim over Labor Day weekend. When Uncle Tim asked if he could "work out with Grayson", I don't think using him as a curlbar was what we had in mind...

Go Pokes!

Labor Day weekend and Uncle Tim is in town to visit. Ryan started school at NC State a few weeks ago. He was working the night shift and then going in to school during the day. One morning, he was sitting in the classroom with a bottle of root beer (side note: the little cafe/kiosk in the college of management had our favorite kind of root beer that we found once, randomly, in a Wegman's in NJ, so he was very excited). Anyways, you can imagine what his classmates thought when they entered and saw a very tired person, which can be confused with inebriation, (or so I'm told) drinking what appeared to be a bottle of beer at 8:30am in the classroom. Explaining that it was root beer only led to others to wonder who would want to drink root beer so early in the morning. Only after learning that he had been up since the night before did their looks of curiousity go away. He didn't bother retelling his circumstances to everyone, so there were people who were very confused throughout classes that day.

Fortunately, Friday was his last day of work, so he was looking forward to a very long and restful weekend. We all celebrated on Saturday morning when he came home from his last night shift (Woohoo!) by stocking the fridge with all kinds of soda and making lots of great gameday foods - wings, chips, queso, salsa, burgers, etc - and watching Grayson's first Cowboys football game on TV! We were really pumped that the Pokes were televised. Once the caffeine and adrenaline from a new football season wore off, Ryan crashed pretty hard. Grayson is really taking a liking to "Ride 'em Cowboys", though, and enjoyed Uncle Tim singing and bouncing him on his knee

First Durham Bulls Game

August -

Grandma and Uncle Ben come to visit! Grayson was much more interactive since Grandma's last visit. She was only able to stay for a little while, but Ben was able to hang out for a few extra days. We all went to Grayson's first baseball game! The USA Olympic team headquarters is in nearby Cary, NC and the team was playing some exhibition games in Durham against Canada before they both left for China. It was a beautiful day and a great experience! The park is really nice, although it doesn't look like the park from the movie Bull Durham anymore due to the upgrading of urban ballparks as a centerpiece to revitalizing downtown areas. Actually, they probably didn't even film the movie here in Durham. Grayson still doesn't quite have the head control to make a collared shirt look right, but it's adorable.

Later the 4 of us went to play golf. Uncle Ben and Dad played while Mom and Grayson walked the course. She made sure to talk strategy, pin placements, and work on Grayson's mental approach as we all enjoyed the sunshine. At least a few times she was overheard telling Grayson, "Okay, did you see what Dad just did there? That's a great example of what NOT to do." Apparently, Andra really wasn't supposed to be allowed to walk the course with Grayson due to insurance reasons - which makes sense. It was still a great time and we can't wait until we can take Grayson back to actually play.

Two Month Collage

Two months old and Mommy has some fun with her new camera...

4th of July Parade & Fireworks

There was a fun parade on July 4 and walking up and down Main St. was nice. Grayson's new baseball cap helped shield the sun from his little face. We ate some delicious seafood at a popular place on the water. Evan ordered some house specialty drink that came in a little plastic skull. Gigi didn't realize until about halfway through the meal and was very startled to see Evan innocently sipping red liquid from a straw coming out of a skull. Sitting on the beach to watch the fireworks was a really nice way to end the holiday. It was a very relaxing week and it was so good to see all of the family.

4th of July Week

July 4 at the beach

All of the Schwenk's and Dyer's made the trek to Duck, NC for some fun family time in the sun! It was hard to tell if Elliot liked the pool or the ocean more, but she sure looked cute in her bikini. She made an adorable turtle when Uncle Evan and Uncle Ryan buried her in the sand. Gigi made sure to keep Grayson out of the sun, not that it took much cajoling to get her to hold him. Tylan, Evan, and Ryan enjoyed some competition out on the tennis courts, although listening to the large family arguing and in turn apologizing to them on the court next to them was much more entertaining. We rented some bikes, which made everyone feel like they were little kids again. Even Gigi got in on the action! We were also lucky enough to take everyone to our favorite burger place - Five Guys. It's kind of the East coast In&Out burger. Even Andra likes it!

As with most Schwenk family gatherings, the evenings were full of games and laughs. Jodi was especially pleased when she recalled a song by Neil Diamond about a steamboat called the Robert E. Lee that she danced to back during her Encore days...after which Evan proceeded to make fun of for the rest of the week (with jazz hands!). We tried to play Axis and Allies, a new strategy game Ryan got for Christmas, but when it took almost two hours just to set up, everyone agreed that spending time on the beach or playing simpler games like Guesstures, Catch Phrase, and cards were better ideas. Of course, Ryan made sure to keep all of the pieces organized in their own ziploc baggies. If only he would be as neat around the house as he is with board games.

Where we're going, we don't need roads...

Okay, so we've decided to try and double team this blog-thing and do a little "Marty McFly"-action. We're going to go through the last year and recap what's gone on, including the pictures that went along with the events. Andra will supply the pictures and some of the memories she wants to include, while I put my crazy memory to work to pull out some tidbits and anecdotes. It will be much like the new Cherry Dr. Pepper. Just like the original you know and love (Andra), but now with an extra smooth flavor (courtesy of yours truly). So, please enjoy as we recap all of our lives with a little more hindsight than usual.

Also, not to skip too far ahead, but I am in Boston this summer for an internship while Andra and Grayson are holding down the fort in Durham. We pray that the summer goes fast and that we can each enjoy the weather and lean on friendships for the next several weeks.

Ryan

G&G

Grandpa and Grandma come to visit!!! It's mid-June, and although Grandma was there for Grayson's birth, she returned with Grandpa a month later to see his first grandchild. We were much happier to have him there in person - he sent along a balloon when Grayson arrived that would play a very annoying in a stuck-in-your-head kind of way whenever anyone brushed up against it. Well, with cousin Elliot there, you can be sure that the song played often.

Anyways, he was very snuggly with both Grandma and Grandpa, probably because every time he opened his eyes, the flash from a camera was going off! There was a lot of discussion about how much he resembled Andra's younger brothers. I still think he gets his good looks from me because his mom's still got her good looks! (Yes she'll read this, and yes, she's shaking her head right now. Love ya babe!)