Valentine's Day

 

I love this story, and want to remember it for always...
Josh was making chocolate covered strawberries a couple days before Valentine's Day, and had some chocolate bars open on the counter. I came over and said something about "Mama wanting some chocolate," only to find Josh had already melted all the open bars. Defeated, I got distracted with something else. A few minutes later, I look over and Grant has been meticulously tearing open one more candy bar to get me a teeny tiny piece that is now squished between his chubby little fingers. He says, "Mama, I got this for you!"   
Someday, sooner than I want to think about, he will steal the heart of some other girl, and I will remind her that he loved me first.

 For our Valentine's Day dinner, the day before Valentine's Day, because I had a Young Women activity the day of, we gave Cam a ginormous sucker, let him got to town, and tried so hard to capture a picture that showed how much he enjoyed it.

 Meili's heart-hair for her Valentine's party at school.

 Our traditional Valentine meal consists of a 2 liter for each person (a tradition from my parents), red/heart shaped foods, and a small present and treat for each person.

I wish a saved the name cards that Meili drew for each person. I can't remember what she drew on her's and Grant's (probably cars for him, horses for her), but on Josh's she drew a picture of him watching TV, which, I thought was hilarious, but she had done that before. However, when I looked at mine, I said, "Is that a picture of a mop and a broom?!?" She answered so sweetly, "Yeah, because you like cleaning!" "Meili, I don't LIKE cleaning, it just has to get done." Then she said, "I also drew you by yourself, because she like to be alone."

HA HA HA! I guess she does listen to what I say.

 Grant got a transformer-another obsession.

 He was trying not to smile.

 Then we played a couple of simple Valentine's games that I thought were fun, and so easy.

 See who can make the tallest tower out of conversation hearts. Josh won.

 And Cupid, which consists of blowing q-tips at each other through a straw.

 Grant liked that one better.

 I may regret teaching them this in the future, but for one night, it was good memories.

January

These are just the random pictures from my phone for the month of January.

 Josh and I finally got the chance to go snowboarding together for the first time in a couple years. I felt like we were in college again!

 We also went to a couple Aggie basketball games, and I tried and tried and tried to get pictures of how cute these two were, but for the most part, they decided to be goobers.

 

 So these three were the best I got. I was so not made to take selfies!

 Awe... So cute!

 I told Meili and Grant to get some toys for Cam to keep him occupied, and came back to this. I would say they did their job!

 Oh, the struggles of being the youngest child!

 Such a cutie!

 Meili made herself a dog costume!

 I just loved the student section at one of the Aggie games. They all wore shirts that match the really ugly colors of the seats! I wish we had thought of that when I was a student!

 Look at those smiles!

 Josh's mom asked a bunch of the family to go to a dance that celebrated Brigham City. Andrea loved dancing with Cam, and he loved it too!

The biggest news of all for the month of January....

Grant is potty trained as of just a couple weeks before his third birthday.

When we were potty training Meili, we started before I thought she was technically "ready," but I figured she was capable, so we'd just give it a go. I started potty training her in February when she was just over 2, and over the course of the next several months, we tried so hard for her to be potty trained. And SHE tried so hard. It was frustrating and time consuming, and we tried different methods, and FINALLY a few weeks before her third birthday, (9 months later) she was potty trained. So after that experience, I said that my kids would have to potty train themselves, and I was sure that sometime before they moved out of the house, they would get it figured out.

So in the spring of this past year, before Cam was born, I decided to just try potty training for a couple days and see how Grant responded. The answer was: Not Well. So I totally put it on the backburner, because it was absolutely not worth the time and effort. But as he got closer and closer to being three, Josh started bringing it up more and more. I told him that when he had 3 days at his disposal that he had absolutely nothing else to do besides devote every waking minute to potty training Grant, he could be my guest, but otherwise, I was going to continue raising 3 kids and not worrying about it. We compromised when I said, "I am willing to print out a chart, and help him put a sticker on the chart every time he decides to try going potty and I will get prizes for him when he is successful." After seeing the prizes I got, Josh took matters into his own hands, and came home with his own set of cars and monster trucks that Grant was way more excited about. That kind of got the ball rolling, but Grant still struggled for a couple months. Finally, after months of praying (literally, every time Grant prayed, and still to this day prays, he says, "bless that I can go potty and get a prize), it just clicked, and he basically potty trained himself, and it was ten thousand times easier than Meili, and he was potty trained by almost the exact same age as Meili. So the whole experience reaffirmed my thinking again- "I will wait to potty train my kids until they do it themselves."

And Grant got a remote control truck when he was able to keep his underwear dry for three days. (Next time you see him, ask him about it. He'll talk your ear off!)

And... Meili also made herself a reindeer costume, set up two rows of chairs as a sleigh, got a back full of toys and hitched herself up to Grant-a-Claus' sleigh!

January Birthdays

Josh's birthday celebration was pretty simple this year. In fact, I had Young Women the day of, so I asked if we could celebrate the following day. I made him dinner, and a new cheesecake recipe.

 Grant's birthday was also fairly simple since we just had Christmas and he was spoiled. In the morning, Josh just couldn't wait to give him the toy that he picked out.

 Every once in awhile, when we have guests, Grant gets so excited to bring his "Fixing Hing" downstairs to show them.

 Then he chose to go to Old McDonald's for lunch.

 I spent the time during his nap making this cake and then Meili set all the cars up for the display. I loved how it turned out!

 The cake kind of evolved as I made it. I made Grant a cars cake last year too, so I tried to figure out how I could change things up so it wouldn't be the exact same. He's also more in to monster trucks and construction machines than cars, so I wanted to try to incorporate that.

 He loved it! This may be hard to believe for those that know Grant, but he was obsessed, and just couldn't leave it alone the whole time we were trying to eat dinner.

 Blowing out the candles

 The sad reality in my world is that no one in my family really likes cake all that much. There are many treats we would all choose over cake. But I love making them. So I make the cake, and then a few days later, we throw the majority of it away. Totally worth it!

 However, Grant would have driven his cars in the frosting for days if I had let him. He was pretty upset when I told him we had to throw it away, and I'm still pretty sure that he honestly didn't know that the purpose of the cake was to eat it, and not just look at it or play in it.

 My parents got this tent for Grant, and they just couldn't wait to use it. We slept over at my parents' house shortly thereafter, and Meili and Grant took it with them so they could sleep in the tent.

 And, of course, they had to get Cam in on the action!

 These are the pictures from the rest of Grant's presents. Pay no attention to his pants being on backwards :)

 

He got an expansion to his Paw Patrol track, and...

Paw Patrol suckers!

I've heard people say for years, "Everyone says "terrible twos," but three-year-olds are way worse!"

I didn't really feel that way with Meili, but so far, it is definitely true for Grant. He has developed a defiant, independent streak that is no joke. But he is also very cute and so sweet. He loves cars and trucks, still loves Paw Patrol. He has obsessions with a few songs: Shut Up and Dance with Me, Jesus Take the Wheel, True Colors from Trolls, and How Far I'll Go from Moana. When he sings his ABC's he sings, "ABCDQFG..." and then, "Now I know you ABC's..." He knows that it's wrong, but because we've tried to correct him, he will never change, because he's like that. He loves being silly and crazy. He likes dancing and I think he got his moves from his dad ;). He frequently says, "I love my new baby brother!" And tells me that he loves me. I think he and Meili are really pretty good together. They fight as all siblings will, but more often than they fight, they share, and if Grant gets a treat, he makes sure to get one for Meili and vice versa. I wish I could just record his every move all day long because I think he is so cute and funny, and I know this age will pass in the blink of an eye.