Happy New Year One and All!

Cleaning up around here and enjoying the time to re-organize as I go. We aren't doing much this evening. I figured that we would break out the sparkling apple cider and toast the New Year with dinner - Chelsie will like that!

Wherever you are or whatever you are doing, here's to a wonderful year full of everything God has in store for each of us!!

From us to you! Cheers! Happy 2009!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

From our home to yours, God's richest blessings for today and always!!

Love, the Gray's

Disney Recap - Days 3 through 5

Epcot was Day 3 of our trip. I quite liked this park. Lots of cool things to see and do.




Getting ready to see Nemo, Dory and Crush.




We ended up the day back at the Magic Kingdom.


We wanted to watch the 'SpectroMagic' Parade - everything in lights!


Pretty, huh?


Waiting patiently for...these!



Day 4 was started with us girls being summoned to the Royal Table at Cinderella's Castle!



The Royal Highnesses Chelsie and Cinderella.


We decided to meet some of the other town folk - since we were there. :)


Daisy Duck was especially kind with Mr. Alex. He was quite interested in her costume, checking out her mouth, hands and eyes. I think he might have a new girlfriend. You have some new competition Donald! :)


Then Goofy was whispering secrets to Chelsie! and writing notes in her autograph book! I don't know about that!!! :)


Another wonderful day coming to an end at the Magic Kingdom.

Day 5 we spent going back to all the things that we wanted to see or do again. And of course, meeting these two!


We had a great time and made some wonderful memories!!




Merry Christmas Eve to all! We love you and miss you!!

Disney Recap Days 1 & 2

So, to follow up, here are a few pictures of our trip to Disney World.

Disney Downtown outside of Legoland - it was POURING rain!! We made a special poncho for Alex so we could see him amongst the crowds. :)


Grandpa Gray 'tempting' the witch from Snow White. He enjoyed his candy apple, with no ill effects.


One of Alex's favorite things. The castle was a daily stop on our days at the Magic Kingdom.


One of the performances that occured everyday. (Magic Kingdom)


Getting ready for our FIRST ride on Splash Mountain! :)


Should have worn the rain ponchos!! We did the second and third times through!


All the boys with one of the crazy characters at Hollywood Studios.



Alex and Chelsie playing air hockey at the 'Pizza Planet' Arcade. (You know, the one from Toy Story) :)


'Block Party' Parade - Monsters, Inc.,Toy Story, The Incredibles and more friends!


Mommy and Chelsie - once she got her 'ears'!


Daddy and Alex after one of our 'fries' break.


Grandma and Grandpa Gray waiting for Fantasmic to begin. And trying to stay warm!


Hard to get pictures of this show but worth the wait.

Well, those are the first couple days. I'll post Days 3 through 5 tomorrow.

Have a great day.

Good Morning Winter!!!

This is what we got yesterday!! Lots of snow fun to be had here!! 18 to 24 inches!

We know that it is snowing everywhere, it seems. Drive carefully but have some fun too!!

P.S. - Kevin's Green Card came in the mail on Friday! We are all official!!!

Greetings from the 3 Newest Psuedo - Yankees!!!

Well, we had a chilly week here in the North East. An ice storm that came through left us without power for 38 hours and a whole lot of food in the trash (not happy about that!)

BUT...in the end it was worth the wait...Janine, Chelsie and Alex are now 'Permanent Residences of the USA'!!!!! AHHHH!!!

Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts for us as a family!!! We are still waiting for Kevin's card to show up as there was more paperwork for him than for us but we are trusting God that that too is on it's way. :)

Wow! What a sense of relief! And a little jig danced once the envelopes were opened!! :)

It's a HAPPY day!!!!

**More Disney pics coming soon.**

It's not Cool, IT'S COLD!!!!

The snow is beautiful BUT it is chilly! Last night, Kevin and I went for a walk and it was 13 degrees F (-10 degrees C for the Canadians out there!). Needless to say, our walk was rather short and then we decided to take the CAR for a walk! :)

The kids love it though. The snow that arrived Sunday was not much but this is what we ended up with today.



Enough to make snowballs and the start of a fort. The only problem is that it gets dark so earlier here. So we make the best of every minute.

Have a good evening! I've got apple cider simmering on the stove - YUM! (Thanks for the mulling spices Camille.) :)

We're Back and Just in Time!!!

For the snow!!!!!! We got back yesterday afternoon and then this morning we woke up to SNOW!!! The first of this season. And we know it won't be the last!

Florida was great. We had a wonderful time and walked and walked and walked some more. Magic Kingdom was our favorite, with Epcot in second place. We got autographs and pictures galore! I'll post some later this week.

Marg and Wayne are here until Wednesday - Wayne's first visit here so we are hitting all the 'hot spots'. L.L.Bean, of course!

We will try and stay warm. Greetings to all from Mickey!

The Happiest Place on Earth!!!

We are having a BLAST here!!!

Actually, we are just headed back to the Magic Kingdom right now but I thought I'd show you a couple things...

Our first day - just outside of Splash Mountain (where Janine and Alex got SOAKED!!)


The SpectroMagic Parade


The Fireworks from last night AND...

Alex's response to them!! He LOVED it! We all loved it but it was neat hearing and seeing his reactions.

Chelsie, Grandma and Janine went to the Royal Palace this morning for breakfast with all the princesses. I'll show pictures later of that.

Have a great day!! We will!!

And Away We Go!

We are off today to 'the HAPPIEST place in the World!' Yep! Disney World - here we come!

We'll send pictures!

Happy Thanksgiving - American Style!

Well, our 2nd American Thanksgiving is upon us. (Even though one of the people in the picture isn't too happy!)

We are headed over to our friends' house for dinner and celebration of this day.

And YES we are getting excited about Disney World this coming week. It will be a fabulous break for us as a family and to create some new memories.

Hope you all have a wonderful day and weekend!

Gettin' Crafty!

I love getting things ready for the holidays. I thought I'd show you one of the things that I just finished.

It's an advent calendar/box that I got last year after Christmas. It's fun to be 'creating' things again. (So busy moving things!)

Have a great weekend!!

Gray + Brown = Geniuses

We decided to go out on one of our adventures this past weekend. We drove down to Providence, Rhode Island. This is also the home of Brown University - one of the Ivy League schools here in the North East.

We have a similar picture of the kids at the doors of Harvard too. :) Who knows? Maybe we need to start saving our pennies now(haha)for tuition!

We enjoyed time at Dave and Buster's - a glorified Chuckie Cheese - where we ate dinner and played LOTS of games. And the pool is always a hit with our two and since they both have been taking swimming lessons, it's good practice and for showing us what they know.

The following day, we drove down to Newport, RI. A gorgeous day, in a beautiful place right on the water. There were so many sailboats out - chilly but sunny. Newport reminds us of Deep Cove, N. Vancouver or Gig Harbor, WA.

It was also a great time for me to practice more of my photography. Here's a couple shots of what I got ---


Cute, huh? :)

Well, Kevin is down in Massachusetts yesterday and today for work meetings. He should be home tonight. It's always great to get him back. :)

A New Mr. President

Yes, I'm sure the entire world was watching as Barack Obama accepted the President-Elect position yesterday.

We have been in a unique position of living in a country where we do not have any 'say' (vote) in the ultimate outcome. We have observed much and tried to take it all in.

But the one thing that I have been overwhelmed with throughout this entire process is the fact that we, as Christians, are called to pray for all authority figures. God knew Barack Obama would be elected and this is all going to play out for His will.

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15

Yesterday a new President was elected but I know who the KING is!!!

Praise God that HE is in control of all of this. I know that I will be praying for President-Elect Barack Obama.

Happy Halloween!!

Here they are! The 'Kimono Princess' and our Jedi Knight.

We had a great time getting ready and going around 'treat or treating'.

Hope you all had fun too!

Sweet Success!!

THIS is what we picked yesterday!! Yum!

Well, after a late start, we went on one of our adventures. We love it here in the fall with all the leaves changing. My favorite is when you find a tree that has green, yellow, orange and red leaves! It's so interesting to watch the transformations daily!

We found a new orchard to pick apples and we got what we wanted. I even learned something new! Macintosh apples (the skin) have freckles and Cortland apples have stripes! Who knew? Probably alot of you but that was a first for me! Each of the baskets that are pictured are called 'a pec'. So, we picked 3 pecs. We had a couple of them at dinner and then to day we made Apple Bread. The recipe was given to us by the owner of the orchard. We thought we would give it a try.


Super moist and goooooood!

We went to church this morning - we've been attending the South Portland Church of the Nazarene for the last month or so. We love the music and the people are friendly. Close to home too! And this afternoon has been relaxing and hanging out together. And LEAVES!!!



Those are our two rascals!! Hope this brings you a smile!