Friday, May 25, 2012

Watering the Flowers

Kristoffer and the boys have added some beautiful flowers to our back deck.  Karter has taken it upon himself to be the official dirt checker, and to make sure the dirt is wet.  When he discovers that it is the tiniest bit dry, he declares that when daddy he gets home they should water the plants.

Both boys race for the hose when daddy says it is time to water.

Of course, they spend a little bit of time watering the deck....and themselves first!

Didn't you know it is always best to water the flowers with two extra sets of hands to help hold the hose!?

Have I ever mentioned that Kristoffer is the best, most patient daddy in the world....because he is!!!  I melt into a pile of hormonal messiness when I see him doing things with the boys!

I think this little boy had a good time!!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Almost 19 Weeks

This coming Saturday we will reach the 19 week mark for this pregnancy!  Besides a little morning sickness at the beginning, everything has gone very smoothly so far...and we couldn't be happier about that!  Last week the boys and I went to my monthly appointment.  One of the babies was being rather stubborn and wouldn't hold still long enough to hear its heartbeat, so we got to sneak into the ultrasound room for a little peak!!  After they found both heartbeats (right away!), I was really happy the boys were able to see their growing siblings.  It was a rather uneventful appointment, with normal BP and a weight gain of 4 lbs...a total of 9lbs so far.   An exciting thing happened this week, and I started to feel the babies move around...what a blessing to be able to feel them!!

Next week Kristoffer and I are going to the BIG ultrasound and will find out what the twins are.  I am so excited for Kristoffer to be able to see our little miracles...and also to be able to start planning/decorating the nursery!  I have added a little poll on the right side, so let us know what you think we are having.  Here is what the boys think....

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Bowling with the Boys

A few weeks ago we took the boys bowling on a Saturday afternoon.  Karter had been once before, but this was Kaden's first experience and he loved watching all the other people throw their balls down their lanes.

Karter helped Daddy type in our names.

First up was Karterman!!  He was a little hesitant to throw his ball down the lane (the ramp was for Kado), but thankfully there was a 6 year old birthday party next to us and he wanted to copy them!

You know Kaden is excited when he moves his hands all around...and there was a lot of that!


Mama and her boys!!

Aren't little boy bowling shoes just the cutest?!

Daddy wasn't having the best bowling day, so he decided to palm Karter's ball and throw it down.  Of course, he got a strike then!

Unfortunately, the little balls are very lopsided when they roll down the lane.  Karter was very good at throwing them down the middle, but it always ended up hitting the bumper.

It was a fun family outing...and as you can see, this Mama ended up winning!!  At the beginning, I was very worried Kaden might do better than me (he is the second K)!!

Here are a couple videos I took during our excursion.  Please excuse the quality, they were taken with my point and shoot and bowling alleys have terrible lighting...




Friday, May 4, 2012

Weekend Away Part 2

 Kristoffer has always wanted to go to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby, and since we aren't likely to do that anytime soon...the next best thing is to go to the Downs for opening night!

We were both amazed by how massive the facility is...and how beautiful it is!


 
Usually it is only $3 to get in the gate (for the general seats...over $60 for the fancy seats), but since it was opening night it was $10/person.  Still not that expensive for our evening activity. 
The first area is the Paddock...this is where they bring the horses before each race so those betting on the horses can get a closer look at them.

 All around the outside of the grandstand they have the winners of all 137 Kentucky Derbies, with the triple crown winners in gold.
It was really cool how close we could get to the track.

For the first couple of races we sat right by the finish line and had a great view of the horses.

The gates opened at 4, with the first race not starting until 6, so in true Gray fashion we got there right at 4!


After taking it all in, we sat down to look through the program and pick our winners!

Then we headed down to the Paddock to act like we knew what we were doing.

All of the horses were beautiful and so muscular!

Being in the Paddock is a big deal for the handlers, owners and their families.  All of the families are dressed up in fancy clothes and hats watching their horses. 

Speaking of fancy hats, we saw a lot of them!  Most people in our area were wearing regular, everyday clothes, but those in the expensive seats were dressed like they were at the Derby.  I don't care where are seats are, next time I am wearing a fancy hat!!

For the first two races we placed $2 beats on different horses, and unfortunately we lost!  Of course we just picked our horses on random things, but for the third race we bet on a horse, because we actually knew something!!

The jockey of our next pick was Calvin Borrel, the jockey of the winning horse ofthe 2007, 2009 & 2010 Kentucky Derbies!  For this race he was riding a Philly that was making its racing debut, so we bet on the newbie! 

The bad part about getting up to bet is that we lost our seats every time, but we didn't mind moving farther down the track....and away from on the smoke!!  People (including workers) smoked all over the place..we were definitely in Kentucky!

I only added this picture, because I look so tired!!  It looks like my husband made me walk all day...oh wait, my husband did make me walk all day!!

I added this picture, because my husband is a hunk!!

The odds for Calvin's horse were really good before the race, because everyone was betting on him and not the horse.  Unfortunately, he came in last!!

Between each race the pretty tractors came out to grate the track.

After 3 races we had lost $8.

The sky was starting to look bad and the wind was picking up, so we put our last $2 together and bet on Phat Day for race 4.

And we WON!!!  Waahoo...we won $5.80!!

Our winner, Phat Day!!

You can see how dark the sky was getting, so we quickly cashed in our winning ticket and got out of there!

It was a great evening out, enjoying something new and fun with my love!!

We had a little adventure getting back to our B&B that night.  As soon as we got in the car it started to rain, and as we started to make our way to the interstate it started to hail a little bit.  When we got on the interstate it was raining incredibly hard and the hail had gotten much larger.  With fear that our windows might break, we pulled off at the closest exit and tried to find an overpass.  Unable to find one we just parked at the closest place we could find and huddled together in the car, praying that our windows didn't break.  It was the loudest/scariest storm we have ever been through.  Thankfully the boys were not with us!!  We sat for probably 10-15 minutes before the hail stopped.  The hail above is what Kristoffer had picked up out of a puddle, so they had melted a lot.  The news was reporting golf ball sized!

Our GPS was a little mad at us and kept recalculating once we started driving.  We hadn't been going more than 5 minutes again when we came upon a Jeep stopped in the middle of a one way street.  We quickly realized it stopped, because the road was flooded.  We stopped and put our flashers on, and declared (to ourselves) that we WERE NOT driving through the water.  Of course people behind us got a little upset that we were not going, but thankfully a few other cars made that decision also!  We sat there as other cars drove around us, and the water came halfway up there vehicles...our little Sonic would have been sunk for sure!!  Once they were all gone we turned around and quickly made our way to the closest alley we could find.  It is always an adventure!!

The next day we just enjoyed another relaxing breakfast and leisurely made our way back home!  It was the perfect trip to recharge and enjoy time together.  That weekend marked 9 years for our relationship and in 10 days we will be celebrating our 7 year wedding anniversary.  I couldn't take God enough for blessing me with Kristoffer and the life we have built together!!  God is Good!!!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Weekend Away Part 1

Blogger is not allowing me to upload all of the pictures I want to make this one gigantic post, so I will divide it into a two part post.

Pre-Kids Kristoffer and I used to take trips for our anniversary to explore a new small town.  It is something that we had to do away with and settle for a nice dinner out just the two of us.  However, with two new little babies on the way, we decided to begged ask Gramaw and Papaw to watch the boys for the weekend so we could enjoy some time away....ok there was no begging, if any it was the other way around, them begging us! 
We booked two nights in a little B&B in Jeffersonville, IN, just across the river from Louisville.

 It was a super cute little place with a delicious breakfast and spacious rooms.

 We spent Saturday morning exploring historic downtown Jeffersonville.

 While Kristoffer spent time reading every single sign looking at the town square...

 I spent time taking pictures of the beautiful roses.

There were roses everywhere and it smelled amazing!!

 One stop we couldn't wait to to make was Schimpff's Candies.  The oldest candy store in Indiana, and has been in the same family since the 1880's.

 Half of the shop (which is still at its original location) is a museum.  


 The other half is full of CANDY!!!  We were a little early for the demonstrations, so we just bought the boys some stuff and headed out....but not before Kristoffer read all of the articles on the wall.

One interesting picture was off Pres. G.W. Bush with the owner of our inn while he was visiting Jeffersonville a few years back.

After leaving the candy shop we made our way back to the car.  I had to take a picture of the hand I was holding all day!!  Most of the time the hands I hold are much smaller...so it was nice to be able to hold my love's hand for awhile!!
 Before crossing into Kentucky we hiked leisurely walked around the Falls of the Ohio State Park.  It was a beautiful place to explore on such a gorgeous day!


 Gotta love the self-portraits!!


 We crossed the bridge and drove around until we finally found a place to park in Louisville.  Turns out there was a marathon and a mini-marathon being ran that morning and there were runners EVERYWHERE!!  Traffic (both car and pedestrian) was terrible, so it took us a bit to get our barrings.

 Our goal was to explore downtown until we were hungry and then find a place to eat.  Unfortunately, by the time we were hungry, we weren't close to any restaurants.  But we enjoyed exploring and walking around downtown.

Of course, we had to walk past the Louisville Slugger Museum!

 After walking and walking (for hours!) we finally found a place to eat and rest for a bit.

 Our evening plans included a trip to Churchill Downs, but they didn't open the gates until 4.  Some guests at the inn suggested that we get some ice cream at the Comfy Cow, and not being ones to not take suggestions on ice cream, we drove to the University of Louisville and walked their main street (Kirkwoodish) to get some ice cream.

We walked around campus while eating our ice cream, and there was NO ONE...not one person...on campus!!  Graduation wasn't for 2 more weeks, so we were baffled at where the people could have been.  The campus was beautiful and full of gorgeous lawn areas....we felt like they really needed someone to sit in the grass, so we did!!  I'm sure we fit right in...ya know, two almost 30 year olds fit right in the college scene!!

Hopefully we won't be to delayed, but soon we will be back to post about our exciting evening at Churchill Downs!!