Last weekend my husband went on a guys weekend.  It’s a weekend where a bunch of guys head up to Mountain View (Arkansas), roast a whole pig, sleep in tents, and do what guys do.  And all weekend they feast on that poor little piggy.  This weekend is fondly referred to as Porktoberfest.  Bet you can’t guess why.

Mountain View is known for people gathering in the town square and jamming out to some bluegrass in the evenings.  As my husband put it, there are 20-30 pods of musicians all around the square just jamming out.  A few of the guys on the trip are amazing musicians so they formed their own little pod in the square and started jamming.

Derek swears that they drew one of the largest crowds there (30-40 people).  The guys were going strong until they hit the end of their 4th song.  I say this because they had only prepared 4 songs.  They drew all of these listeners in with their magical music only to cut them off like a dead limb.

Derek filmed some of the jam time.  Check these videos out.  It’s no wonder they drew a crowd…they are awesome!

That’s my good friend Brooks singing, Jonathan’s gettin’ it on the guitar, Matt’s whaling on the ukulele, and Jeremy’s slapping the bass.

My friend Melissa posted this video on Facebook, and it cracked me up.  I’m sure many of you have already seen this, but I just had to share a peek into my husband’s life in 10 years.  There is on exception though….he would never own a Vizio.  He’s a Samsung man.

One month ago today, this sweet little squishy guy made his way into our lives and the blogosphere.

Since then, our days have been filled with countless activities and visits from and with friends and families.  Here are just a few of the things Grayson has been up to in his 1st month of life.  (I would like to apologize up front for the massive amount of pictures I’m about to throw at you.)

He lounged around with daddy.

Daddy taught Gray a bit of HTML.  (Gotta start them early…ya know.)

He met and played with his puppies.  BTW…Wrigley L O V E S giving him kisses.  Her new name is, Don’t Lick.

He did a little dancing…

At 4 days old he went on his first trip to Target.  He loved it.  Slept the whole time.

He took some baths.

This 1st one is his 1st towel bath.  (Yes, that is a paw print shaped modesty patch.)

His 1st full bath he did not enjoy too much.

During his second FULL bath he learned to really enjoy them.  It makes bathing him way more enjoyable.

We napped together.  (Stupid daddy snuck a picture of us napping.  This pic was his iPhone background for a while.)

He pretty much gets the hiccups all the time, and hates it.  Hiccups make this baby cry.  But it so gosh darn cute.

He’s had tons of visitors from family and friends…

(Jeremy :: friend)

(JD :: cousin)

(Carolyn :: Aunt)

(Johnny :: Great Grandpa)

(Carolee :: Great Grandma)

(Meredith :: friend)

(Scott :: friend)

There were so many more people who stopped by, but that would be way, way, way too many pictures.

We’ve gone on numerous walks.  He loves walks.  When he’s not racked out he loves staring at all the trees passing him by.  This kid loves being outside.

While on an afternoon walk we even did a little stroller ghost riding.  (This video was take when Gray was like 4 or 5 days old so I am still rockin’ the baby bump….please try not to stare.)

He played with his Uncle Davis…

Helped momma celebrate her 30th birthday…

Gave Doogle a hand beard….

…and finished it all up with a bowl full of cuteness.

Happy 1 month birthday little boy.  You are growing up so quick.  I still remember when I could fit you in my pocket.

Oh, and a happy 1 month b-day to our buddy Gabe too.

I think my heart just melted.  At 4 days old Gray took Derek’s finger and shoved it in his mouth and started faux nursing on it.  Precious Overload.

This past weekend was a fun yet busy weekend for us.  To start the holiday weekend off we picked up our friend Amy’s dog, Ellie.  Amy was headed out of town for Memorial Day weekend and we typically jump at the opportunity to spend some quality time with one of the cutest and most loving dogs on the face of this earth.

On Saturday, Derek started working on painting the exterior of the house.  Painting the exterior of the house has been an on going project since last summer.  We are trying to complete this monumental task ourselves, but started a bit late in the summer last year.  Then Derek was back in school, and I got knocked up.  That kind of made things come to a screeching halt.

Right now Derek has a little time in between semesters so he started back up.  I mainly just sit and watch from the window.  I’m a pretty big help.  I know.

On Sunday, Derek got back to painting.  We took a wonderful trip to Home Depot and decided on tile for the bathroom remodel we are about to take on this weekend.  We are attempting to knock a few partially big projects out before Grayson moves in.

Sunday evening we went to a ball game with Davis, my brother-in-law, and our friends Scott and Allie.  Not being smart and remembering it was Memorial Day weekend and the ballgames are pretty busy on these type of holidays we decided to buy our tickets at the gate.  You would have thought we were at Wrigley Stadium it was so busy out front.  The line wrapped all the way to China.  Not really, but it was massive.  Since we all had a brain fart when we decided NOT to buy our tickets ahead of time we decided to use our brains now and called the ticket office while standing in this never ending line of torture.  Derek got though and bought tickets over the phone.  All he had to do from that point was walk on up to the itsy bitsy teeny tiny Will Call line and pick our tickets up.  That quick thinking saved us about 40 minutes of standing in line.  And 40 minutes of standing to a pregnant woman can see like a life time.  Did I mention the game had already started?

After the game and a HUGE bag of cotton candy (yummy in my tummy) there was a fireworks show.  It was a wonderful show, but the wind began to kick up and we got caught in an ash shower from the blowing winds.  We were lucky none of the ash was still lit.  Grayson didn’t like the fireworks.  I’m pretty sure they were the loudest noise he’s ever heard.  He didn’t move the entire game, but when the popping started he moved to the back of my stomach and started kicking my kidney.  Ouch!  I felt horrible for my little guy so while I enjoyed the fireworks I bent over and hugged my belly, hopping to muffle the loud pops and bangs for my little man.

Since I’m tired of being a pastie  preggo I told Derek to take me to get some sun.  So, Monday we headed to my in-laws pool to catch some rays.  We took the two girls with us.  Wrigley is not at all interested in swimming or any water for that matter, but since Ellie is part lab and in love with tennis balls we thought that we could bribe her into the pool.  She made it down the first two steps, but on the third her face would dunk in the water, and she was out!

After a nice dip in the pool we headed home so Derek could finish up the three windows he has been painting all weekend.  He showered up, and we headed off to a romatical dinner at Steak n’ Shake.  We even split a shake.  Ahhhh, romance.  Actually, that’s just my style of romance.  Relaxed, casual, and quality time with my boy toy.

Last week, I noticed it looked like my stomach had the hiccups.  It was kind of strange at first, because I really didn’t know what I was seeing.  Then after my 10 second brain fart I came to realize that what I was seeing was Grayson kicking.  I have been feeling the little guy kick for weeks now, and was awaiting the day that I could SEE him kick.

Right now he still has a little room in there so what I see are quick little pokes to the skin, and it cracks me up every time I see it.  I don’t know what I find so funny about the natural progression of my unborn child, but something about it makes me giggle every.  single.  time.

This past Saturday it was really rainy.  You know the storm that pretty much swallowed Nashville.  I decided to take a little rest on the bed, and make a little video of the G-man kicking.  The green part is my belly…so keep your eyes on it.

Kicks seen at…
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