Grant's 1st Birthday

My baby boy turned 1 yesterday. I can't believe how quickly this year has gone by. He has brought a lot of joy to our family. He has such a cute smile and funny laugh. He loves to make messes....it seems like he enjoys emptying out laundry and toy baskets. He also loves his bottle and always has to mooch off of anyone with a plate of food. I love that he isn't a picky eater, (at least not yet) he'll eat almost anything. We went to a buffet place the other night because I was craving soup, and he was eating vegetables of all sorts, chicken, rolls, mac & cheese, etc. He started walking recently, and still gets excited when he can walk across a room. I love his wobbly little walk. He digs his toes down into the carpet to try to keep his balance. He loves to be tossed in the air, and he loves to play in his play tent. He scratches the sides of the tent just like Lauren used to. He gets so excited that he knocks it over and laughs. Even though Lauren doesn't pay much attention to him, he loves to follow her around and smile at her. Just like Auburn, he adores her. :) His nicknames are: bubba & tootie. I call him tootie bootie a lot.....poor kid is going to grow up thinking his name is tootie. He says dada, mama, hi, and hot. We love him so much. Happy Birthday little Grant!!

(Since I only have a film camera right now, I'll have to post his birthday pictures after we get them developed.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

May those who love us, love us

And those who don't love us,

May God turn their hearts

And if he can't turn their hearts,

May he turn their ankles

So we will know them by their limping!

I saw this Irish Blessing ages ago and loved it. I was looking for it so I could post it on Facebook on St. Patrick's Day. Luckily I found it today on my first search. :)

We had a pretty nice day today. I thought about making green eggs and ham for breakfast, but the girls won't eat eggs anymore. Plus I didn't have any ham at home anyway. :) Tonight I thought it would have been fun if I would have thought ahead and bought Lucky Charms cereal. Oh well.

One year I made a green dinner with green mashed potatoes and green gravy. The kids wouldn't eat it so I decided to try a different approach this year. I had a nice green salad, green grapes, celery and dip (Grant loved the grapes & celery), green kool-aid with lemon lime soda, green jello (which we haven't touched yet), green rolls (that I bought at the grocery store), mashed potatoes, and ham. I told the kids that we had potatoes because of the potato famine that brought millions of Irish immigrants to the US. I never got around to telling them about the ham (you know....the whole breakfast idea). If was fun to be around the table with my family eating on green plates and drinking from green cups. I want to do more things like that for them. I like St. Patrick's Day because it's a holiday that doesn't hold huge expectations, but you can make it a lot of fun with little effort or money.

I always love to see people dressed up in green. Everyone becomes Irish on St. Patrick's Day. I'm proud to have a little Irish blood in me.....even if St. Patrick was English. :)

Auburn's 9th

Auburn turned 9 back in December. Since her birthday was on Sunday, we took her to Build-A-Bear on Friday, which was actually Brooks birthday. She got a Polar Bear with Eskimo clothes. She wanted to go to Golden Corral for her birthday dinner on Saturday....I guess because then everyone can choose what they want to eat. There was a really bad snow storm that day. On the way to the restaurant, we saw a ton of accidents and slide offs on the freeway. We even watched an SUV spin around on the freeway and then roll off on the side of the road.....scary. She loves chocolate, so she picked out this chocolate on chocolate cake with chocolate icecream. Auburn is such a joy to have around! She loves Grant so much, always keeps her room clean, and homework done.

Since Auburn's favorite color is constantly changing,

she got a big pack of beads to make a plethora of bracelets.

She's been wanting one of these for a while. :)

A polly pocket set, of course. This one had umbrellas and rain coats....cute.

Catching Up on 2009

I have been absent from the blog world for a while. Facebook is just so quick and easy! I wish it was easier to load pictures and label them on blogger. Anyway, I'll be posting a bunch of stories and pictures from last year that I didn't want to miss.

Halloween 2009

The girls had a lot of fun dressing up for Halloween this year. You'll see the different costumes and changes they went through.

Lauren wanted to dress like a sailor because of her Donald Duck fascination. In August when we went to Nauvoo she tried on a female Navy uniform and loved it. I was able to find this one at Smith & Edwards (a military surplus store) for a good price, plus the hat & shirt are the real deal. I had to alter the pants to fit, and make the neckerchief out of a sheet. I'm glad that our school still does a Halloween parade. They go through each classroom and the gym so that the parents can see. The teachers even dress up.

Auburn wanted to be a ghost. She was disappointed when I told her she couldn't just wear a sheet over her head with 2 holes cut in it for the eyes. (They won't let you wear anything over your face at school....not to mention that trick-or-treating would be hard) We borrowed this ghost costume from Mel. Auburn wouldn't let me put makeup on her face so I got her this wig. She looked so good with her light skin....she actually kind of looked like an angel. :)

This is in Auburn's classroom during their Halloween party

The 6th graders learned the dance to Thriller.

Lauren obviously didn't want to participate.

Nice Donald Duck pose though. :)

Auburn decided on Halloween day to be a detective

She even had a magnifying glass

The yearly picture on Grandma Glade's porch

The top row looks really happy :)

I love how this picture turned out

My 3 kiddies - Lauren added a Miley/Gabriella wig

(she asked us if it looked like real hair....I of course said, "yes")

I found Grant's costume at WalMart for $8. It was a great costume for a baby!

After doing a bit of trick-or-treating around Grandma's,

Jared's kids came over so we snapped another photo

Lauren wool Navy shirt was bugging her so she changed into her "detective" costume too.

Still wearing that wig. :)

Grant's hoping he will turn into a prince if the princess will kiss him

Sorry Grant, your still a frog and now you're stuck with a witch :)

Christmas at the Williams' house

This is the only picture we could get.

The batteries died on the camera after one shot,

and the kids were itching to get out of their church clothes.

Grant & Auburn

Grant was fascinated with the girls while they decorated the Christmas tree.

Mmmmmm, fake gingerbread!

Looks like Santa's laundry ended up on Grant's plate too. :)

Our happy Elf

The girls can't wait to get the Christmas tree up every year. We always decorate it the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Auburn was so ambitious that she almost did the whole tree and the rest of the room by herself. She did a pretty good job, and I was thankful for the help! We have a tall front room and a tall Christmas tree. We have to decorate it with a big ladder while we listen to Christmas music. I love to go through the ornaments...each one has a story.

New Year's Sledding

My parents went up to Jason's house in Washington this year for New Year's, so we hadn't made any plans. We got to go tubing with Mel and her friends on New Year's Eve. We tubed, drank hot chocolate, and warmed up by the outdoor heater. The girls had so much fun! Even Grant seemed to be enjoying himself. Afterward we went and played games at Mel's friend's house. The kids got to bang pots and pans at midnight, Lauren played Disney Sing-It, and Grant stayed up until 3 in the morning. What a party animal! I think the girls will be asking us to do the same thing next year.

Grant was so content I had to keep checking him to see if he was awake.

Cheese

Brook & Grant

me & my buddy