Sunday, September 25, 2016

Goobers

These are more random pictures that I'm dumping from my phone. First off, I haven't done an update about Grant for awhile. (The Ugly Truth about being the middle child.) So let's just talk about how silly this little boy is.
 
I don't think I've ever had anyone in my life that I has simultaneously made me laugh and made my blood boil at the same time. It's probably because he is so much like me. He is so full of life. There is no other way to describe it. When he wakes up in the morning, he lights up the room, and from that moment on he is on a mission. A mission to live life, to destroy our house, to get his way, to laugh, to whine, to hit, to tackle, to cuddle, and to play. You know when he is excited and doesn't know what to do with himself because he just sticks his tongue out and spits. I don't love the behavior but it just endears us more to him (which I could probably say about most of the things he does.) He talks like crazy in a high-pitched, glass shattering tone, and at this point his c's and k's sound like t's, g's sound like d's, and r's sound like w's. Most of the time, pretty much anyone can understand him, but I have had several people ask me if our baby is "Baby Tom."
 
And he is All-Boy. I don't know how else to describe it. He finger nails are always dirty, as is his face. He loves potty humor, and he is not delicate or graceful in any of his movements. He LOVES cars and trucks, and his favorite color is blue.
 A couple funny stories about Grant:
When we can, we ride bikes to Meili's school. Usually she rides her bike, I pack Cam in the backpack, and Grants rides his tricycle. He finally figured out how to actually use the pedals about a month ago, but still refuses, because he has learned that if he just scoots along by pushing his legs, he goes faster. I think a lot of days, we are quite the sight on our way to school. One day, I decided that it would be faster, when we picked Meili up from school, if Grant rode in the wagon and I just pulled it. Every kid's dream right? Well, Grant had other plans. (Grant ALWAYS has other plans.) He put his truck in the wagon. I thought he just wanted a toy to play with on the way. Nope. He pulled his truck all the way to and from the school in the wagon.

There is never a dull moment with Grant in sacrament meeting. One week, we didn't bring our church bag with all of the toys, so I had to think of other ways to entertain Grant. I drew a picture of a garbage truck with a black pen. He said loudly, (because Grant has no inside voice,) "Now draw a green garbage truck." I said, "I can't draw a green one. I only have a black pen." To which he replied, "Just try." He sure showed me. I drew 4 garbage trucks that were the exact same, and he assured me which one was black, and which one was green, and which one was pink, and which one was blue.

I don't think it would be possible for a mom to love a little boy more.
 Lacey borrowed this Olaf costume from Kami last year. So before we gave it back, all the kids just had to take a turn trying it on.


 I'm not so sure Cam wanted in on the action, but someday he will be stronger for having to endure older siblings. (Trust me, I know.)

Utah State Aggies All the Way

Over the last few weeks, I've had to face the facts that we are officially in fall and the fun of summer is behind us :(
However, it's hard to pick my favorite season of the year, because just as I'm missing summer, I remember that with fall comes Aggie football, and just around the corner are pumpkins, sugar cookies, costumes, and corn mazes.
 
The ugly truth about being the third, is that most of Cam's life is just being along for the ride. I remember wanting to go to a basketball game when Meili was 4 months old, and being totally overcome with guilt that I was going to be exposing her to so many people and such loud noise all at the same time...

 ...Apparently I'm over that now, because here Cam is at 1 1/2 months at his first football game in the bitter cold.
 So cute! They sure make football games more challenging, and I miss half the action, but I just can't bring myself to leaving them home most of the time.




The chaos is worth the memories!

Saturday, September 3, 2016

THE.... LONG....AWAITED.... DAY....

Meili has been waiting for the first day of kindergarten since, oh, forever. So when the first week finally came, to make matters even worse, she didn't start till Friday. On Tuesday, (back to school night), she woke up that morning, got dressed, and was so excited to go meet her teacher. She was so disappointed when I told her she had to wait till that night. Then she had an assessment on Thursday, and it wasn't nearly long enough to be at the school. So then, as of a week ago Friday, she's a KINDERGARTENER!!!
 Maybe with my last child, I'll cry and reminisce about how fast the last 5 years went. As far as Meili goes... we were both so ready, and I'm excited for her to have new adventures and to make new friends. Of course, the first thing she told me when I asked her how school was that day, "We didn't have recess today, because it was Friday."


And if I thought Meili was impatient waiting to start school, now she has a little brother who has seen that his sister's classroom has blocks in it. Aye yi yi... It's going to be a long 3 years!

Museum of Natural Curiosity

For our last hoorah of the summer, I took the kids to the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point with my sister-in-law Kami. For how crazy my kids have been lately, I really thought this might put us all of the edge. But I thought it went pretty smoothly and we were all able to enjoy ourselves. Cam was, as always, a total trooper.









 Of course we had to stop by the farm afterward for a quick pony ride.



From the Phone

This post is just some random pictures from mine and Josh's phones.
First off, in a bit a bad news, Meili took it upon herself to cut her bangs in primary last week. Interestingly enough, she cut her hair for the first time when Grant was a baby. Apparently when we have a new baby, and Meili feels she is not getting the attention she deserves, she cuts her bangs. Or it could be total coincidence. Needless to say, this time is way worse than the first, because of course, they are her bangs, they are super short, and there is no way to cover it. (Trust me, I've tried.) And yes, of course, this time it is one week before school pictures.
 On a side note, if you happened to stop by Meili's school this week, and saw a cute little girl, in a very warm jacket, with her hood on, and pants, in 90 degree weather, and you questioned the judgment of said girl's mother, just know, there were probably more important battles being fought that morning. I finally convinced her that she didn't need a jacket on Thursday, and that was the day the temperature plummeted.
 We needed a picture to document Grant and his Yankee blanket, because this it totally typical for Grant. Some days we can tell that Grant is starting to get tired, because he randomly starts walking around searching for his blanket.
 This little gem is from clear back on St. Patrick's Day. We decided to do a rainbow themed dinner, which ended up taking quite a bit of time to make, and we still didn't get a Pinterest worthy picture. Oh well! We still have the memory.
 
 If you look closely, his badge from primary says, "I can obey." I couldn't resist the irony :)

 I just love baby stretches, so I couldn't pick a favorite.



 My parents stopped by and we took the kids to the park for lunch. These were Meili's kid's meal toy. A total hit!





County Fairs

We finished off the summer by going to the Box Elder and Cache County fairs. The Cache County fair didn't go at all according to plan. It was at the end of a week that we had stayed a couple days with my parents. So by Saturday, Meili and Grant were so used to being spoiled, not having a routine, and not having attention from mom, that they were crazy. It was a day that I had looked forward to since last year, since Grant couldn't ride on any of the rides and he'd be able to this year, and it ended up being not a great night. My parents came up for the fair, and we met up with my brother's family, and I ended up leaving pretty frazzled. We didn't even end up doing rides, because of lack of time, and I didn't think the kids had behaved well enough to go on rides.
 
We did, however, do pony rides.
 
 
 
 
Luckily, we had a chance for a do-over at the Box Elder Fair, and I am happy to say that things went much better.
 



 Grant got his chance at rides, and I think on some of them, he couldn't decide how he really felt. This one, he went on once, and then chose to sit out when Meili and Brayden wanted to go.
 For some reason, I totally love this picture. Oh, to be 5 again!

 This was Grant's favorite ride. He took driving the truck very serious.