Valentine's Day

I have a friend whose birthday is Valentine's Day, and as a present to her, her husband basically got in touch with a bunch of people and asked them to do acts of service for other people, and then share their experience in a book for Anna. (Which I thought was pretty much the best birthday present idea ever.) So my friend Lacey and I, made pillow cases and gave them to an agency that works with children in foster care. Then I also made a bunch of sugar cookies, and took them to people. (That way there was at least one project my kids could help with.)

 

I love making sugar cookies, but Josh has always said that they were "good, but probably not good enough to give to other people." I tried a new recipe this time, and Josh gave me the approval. We took them to my friend Alisha's family (with the button on the plate that you'll see,) then she was supposed to do service for someone else and pass the button on, and hopefully everyone would continue passing it forward. We also took them to the people I visit teach, and Meili's primary teachers.

 Definitely service that I can get on board with! (Not that there's a lot that I don't.)

 Here we are making our first attempt. Truth be told, most of this batch was eaten by our family. But that's okay! Win, win for everyone!

 As for Valentine's Day, which was on a Sunday this year, we had our obligatory heart shaped breakfast.

 

And our fun Sweetheart's dinner. We had a really hard time coming up with a menu this year, so it basically consisted of brisket, that my kids didn't eat, jello that they don't like, but was fun for me to make, rolls and vegetables. But once they got all their juice and presents, the didn't even notice!

 

 These pictures are titled, "Why we need siblings..."

 Because I never would have thought of putting socks on my hands and skating around on all fours on the kitchen floor.

  But apparently it is amazing, and kept them occupied far longer than any toy in our house.

FYI- Still to this day, when Grant sees those blue socks, he believes whole heartedly that they belong on his hands, and is very upset when I don't agree.

P.S. I advised Meili against this particular outfit, because I said that it looked like she was in mourning. She made sure to tell me when she got home from preschool, that none of her friends thought she was mourning.

I stand corrected.

I'm Ba-Ack!

Yes, I realize that it is now May, and I will be posting pictures beginning in January. The truth is, we have had (are currently having) major computer issues, and the main reason that I continue blogging (other than all of you faithful-one reader-who can't sleep at night without hearing about my ever-so-exciting life) is because it helps me remember everything at the end of the year when I do our family scrapbook. So, here it is, May, and I have yet to finish my scrapbook for last year, which is absolutely stressing me to no end. And, with all of our computer issues, I'm nervous that I'm going to start losing pictures. In the past, I've always thought, "Worst case scenario, they are floating in cyberspace on the blog somewhere." And so I need, NEED to get these pictures up just so I can sleep at night.

 

In January, we had a combined January birthdays party, and did a little sledding in the front yard of my parents house.

 Grant isn't much for the sledding, but at least he's cute in pink!

 They love it clearly!

 And my kids did some mini-sledding in our front yard a couple weeks later.

Playing in the snow with daddy is so much better than with mommy! Yes, you better believe that the next time I was in the snow with them, they required a snow mountain, and mine paled in comparison!

GQ'ing It

One of my goals this year is to learn how to use my camera and Photoshop better, so I really wanted to take Grant's 2-year pictures myself, but I'm just not quite there yet. I asked my friend Lacey if she would help me, since I bought my camera from her.

 

When she saw the pictures, she said, "You should be so proud of yourself. 1. For making him, and 2. For taking these pictures.

 

Yes, both turned out well if I say so myself.

 This is what happens when you ask Grant how old he is. He proudly puts up whatever fingers he can and says, "Free." I tried correcting him for a long time. But I may give up, because it's just so cute!

 He's so big! So GQ. I didn't know he had it in him.

Our boy at 2:
-I mentioned the car/truck obsession. Between Paw Patrol, and anything with wheels, you pretty much have Grant summed up.
-I used to say that Meili "operated in extremes." She was either super happy, or the most upset toddler in the world. That is just that much more true with Grant. He is definitely a happy, crazy, energetic little boy. But don't try to tell him, or you see a tantrum that is no joke.
-He has started singing along to songs, and I can't get enough! I think his favorite song might be "Shut Up and Dance with Me." But he also knows, "Let It Go," "Tonight, Tonight," "Wheels on the Bus," the Paw Patrol theme song, and (we just discovered) "I Am A Child of God."
-His dancing consists of spinning around in circles till he drops to the floor, then he smiles and says, "I'm Tay!" (I'm Okay)
-I don't know if he will ever be a great sleeper, but we're at a point that I can finally handle it. Right now, he usually wakes up once in the middle of the night to let us know that his blankets are not covering him, or that he's uncomfortable. So we go in, reposition, and he's good to go. (What a spoiled little boy!)
-He eats like a toddler; meaning that his diet consists of chocolate milk, juice, fruit, treats, crackers, fruit snacks, and when he eventually gets hungry, he'll eat whatever we're having for dinner. But he usually doesn't stop long enough to figure out that he's hungry.
-I think that he talks a lot for his age and he's starting to like books more. But he's becoming a TV junkie. A habit, I am currently trying to break him of.
-He weighs about 33 lbs. (96th percentile) and is almost exactly 3 feet (85th percentile) but the doctor believes he's probably a little bit bigger and the measurement was just a little off.

Oh, how that little boy has my heart!

Birthday (Squared)

When we had Grant so close to Josh's birthday, Josh was really hoping that it would take some of the spotlight off his birthday. Boy, was he mistaken. Now the build up is even greater, because we have this marathon of events with Christmas, then New Years, then Josh's birthday, and then Grant's. And Meili was super excited this year. She kept talking about "Daddy's birthday party" even though it was just going to be the four of us, and it was on a Sunday. Little did I know, she had plans.

...Beginning with decorating her own room.

 

It's really easier to just not ask questions.

Then she decorated the front room. You've really got to look or you may miss the random pieces of crepe paper. She also drew pictures of presents, party hats, Paw Patrol characters, and our family and hung them around the room.

 

Then she told me that we needed 5 party games. She said that it would be fun to play the game like that do at Aggie football games. She said, "We'll put a cheerio under a cup, and then we'll mix the three cups up, and they have to guess where the cheerio is." When she got out three different colored cups, I tried to explain why that wouldn't work, and said that all the cups would need to be the same color. So then she got these out...

...And I didn't have the heart to tell her.

 

Then we made party hats. Totally her decision, and she got out all the supplies, and knew exactly how she wanted to make them.

 Both Josh and I agreed that the party hats was one of the best parts of the day. I am totally willing to take the credit for her party planning ability.

 And Josh prefers cheesecake to cake, but we're having cheesecake with my family for his birthday, so he settled for the next best thing: brownies.

For Grant's birthday, I tried to make it a big deal, but we had too much "regular life" going on. Meili went to preschool, I went to the gym, Grant went to Kids Club, and Josh went to work. That night, Josh had to ref some church ball games, so we made the most of his birthday for 2 hours between work and the games.

 I made this cake during Grant's nap, and Josh was almost insultingly impressed that I was able to do it.

 But I agree. It's cute. And Grant loved it.

 We really went low-scale on Grant's birthday presents, because he just really doesn't need a ton. And he couldn't have cared less. He loved everything he got. And everything he got was cars from Meili, characters from the movie "Cars," from me, and a Bull-dozer from Josh. (Are we sensing a theme here?) Josh's parents stopped by, and gave him a cars track as well. We've got a bit of an obsession on our hands.

  And he blew out the candles on his first try! I've totally loved the last year with this little boy, so I'm excited to see what this year has in store for us!