Grant's Room

These pictures of Grant's room were taken a while ago but haven't gotten around to being posted.  I've been thinking that a lamp like this one would be adorable on the dresser.  I had a lot of fun putting his room together.

Bed - Craig's List

Sheets - Home Goods

Bed Spread - Burlington Coat Factory

Dresser - Ikea

Pictures - A Vintage Poster

Silver Frames - Ikea

Draperies & Rod - Target (5 years ago)

Grant loves having pictures of him from the past year hanging along the top of his wall.  He often points out different pictures and talks about them when he's going to bed.  The wire runs along the entire length of the wall.  When I showed it to him for the first time he got wide eyed and said, "WOW!"

Bookcase - Ikea

Blue Basket's for toys - Target

Wire for hanging pictures - Ikea

picture clips - Ikea

Calvin & Hobbes picture - Enlargement drawn by Auntie Ann

Had to add this.  This is sooooo such a Brett face.  I love it!  He's one happy dude.

Happy Leap Day!  If today is your birthday I bet you're feeling a little older this year.  :)  Now you know how the rest of us feel every year!

Monday stuff

Grant's last soccer game was on Friday.  He ran really fast.  The pot-luck afterwards was yummy.  We brought meatballs.  We're all about easy around here lately and it was way to easy to heat up frozen meatballs in 4 bottles on BBQ sauce.  Grant had so much fun running around with all the other kids after they ate.  He spent part of the time staring longingly at the big kids as they played their big kid games.  He'd love to be out there with them, but he's still a bit to small.  He fell asleep really fast that night!  Brett had fun watching everyone from the comfort of his stroller.

Who knew potty training could be so exhausting?  I knew it wasn't going to be a walk in the park, but really?  I've been soooooo tired the past 3 days!  Grant is doing well.  Still having accidents, but definitely improving.  He thinks that there's really such a thing as a "potty train."  Of course he would, he's obsessed with trains.
We've enjoyed several meals on the back patio.  We also go outside often to run off the bottled up energy we get from hanging out in the bathroom!  The weather has been perfect!  And the citrus blossoms are just starting to pop.  It's the perfect time of year to be here.  Want to come visit?

It's Friday!

Today is Grant's last soccer game.  A pot-luck with the team will follow.  I'm not quite sure what I'm going to make for that.  Hmmmm...I guess I only have a few hours left to figure that one out.  LOL

Tomorrow morning we start potty training!  I was waiting for his soccer season to be over.  I don't know why I waited this long to do this.  Oh wait, I had a newborn!  Now I remember. Life can handle this now, so I hope it goes over well with Grant.  Wish us luck!

Have a good weekend!

The party

We had a fun baseball party for Grant on Monday morning at the park.  Lots of family and a few friends.  Grant had a ball.  The weather was amazing.  I love Arizona this time of year!  We didn't really get around to playing baseball like we'd planned, but there was still a lot of fun had.  Lots of great presents were opened.  I still can't get used to the thought of other people buying presents for my kid.  It just seems weird.  But at the same time I'd totally want to get a gift for someone else's kid for their party.  I think it's good for kids to get to pick out a gift and give it to a friend. And also for the kids to learn to receive gifts graciously.  Anyway, Grant loved all the gifts and has been playing with them like crazy ever since.  We had to do some reorganizing and packing up of a few toys in his room to make room for the new and to keep some toys fresh for later.  Thanks to everyone who came and helped make this day special for Grant.

This boy is 3 today

"Catch me if you can!"

Cute almost 2 year old

Sweet little almost 1 year old

Actual birth day
(The day my life changed forever!)

Even after 3 years, we are still amazed at what a wonderful, sweet, tender, energetic, awesome, strong, talented, and fun boy Grant is.

Valentine's Day

Making a Valentine's Day mailbox on Monday night.

We put Grant's box in front of his door and told him that in the morning it would have Valentine treats in it.  He was pretty excited when it came true!

I spent most of Valentine's Day making sugar cookies.  We delivered them to a few people that evening.

Grant's Valentine for his brother.

My Valentine for Keith.

Washing all the sticky off of Grant from all the suckers and cookies.  I think he LOVES this holiday.

Our date to LGO

Keith & I had a lovely time going out to visit our niece on Friday night.  She's adorable!

Then we went out for pizza and gelato at one of our favorite places in Phoenix, La Grande Orange (LGO). We were lucky that they were serving their amazing grilled artichoke appetizer.  And then we enjoyed an avocado pizza.  It's amazing!  Afterward we went next door and got our three favorite gelato flavors: strawberry, nutella, and coconut.  The guy there even gave us extra strawberry because I love it so much.  How nice of him!  And how nice of my great husband to take me out for such a fun night.

We also picked up a couple yummy muffins from the grocery at LGO.  I had my strawberry sour cream muffin for breakfast the next day.  So delicious!

And a big THANK YOU to Keith's parents for watching our boys for us while we went out!

The weekend is here!

Hooray for the weekend!  I have a hot date tonight with the Mr.  We're going to go visit our sweet new niece.  I can't wait to meet her.  She looks so darling in the pictures I've seen.  Then we're going out for some yummy pizza and gelato.

But first we get to watch Grant play soccer.  After a few practices/games of tears and not wanting to play, Grant is finally out there playing and having fun at soccer.  He is so adorable!  Whenever we'd talk about soccer in the beginning of the season he'd always tell me about how he cried at soccer.  Yesterday he came home from practice and told me about how he DIDN't cry.  I'm so proud of him, and I can't wait to watch him play this afternoon.

Hope you have a great weekend too!

Feeding Brett : Family Home Evening Activity

READY?

SET

GO!

So we gave Brett a little rice cereal tonight.  I think he liked grabbing his bib most of all.  He got shots yesterday and was sad and not feeling very good today.  He has been breaking down in tears all day long, but he still smiled because he was so excited to try some food.  

I think he looks so cute & handsome in his high chair.  Grant wasn't too happy that someone else was sitting in 'his' chair and using 'his' bowl.  It wasn't as cute to him as it was to us.  :)

And yes, I buzzed Brett's head....again.  This time with a #1 on the clippers.  Now his bald spot in the back completely blends in!  I am so in love with his beautiful big head!

On Monday night we had some friends over for Family Home Evening.  For our activity we created creatures.  We all had a lot of fun, especially the kids.  Everyone started with a blank paper and drew the body of their creature.  Then we passed the paper to the person on our left and added a head.  We kept passing the papers around, adding different things (legs, arms, hair, etc).  Last of all we gave the creature a name, and then we showed off our creations.  It was so fun.

My family did this one year for Thanksgiving (we drew turkeys) and it was hilarious.  We also wrote stories about each turkey creature, writing a line of the story and then passing it around and adding to it.

A new week : I have a problem

Hooray for a new week!  Last week started out kinda rough.  We all got sick.  I think I got it the worst.  But then we all got totally better real fast and were feeling great by Thursday.  It was the quickest illness I think I've ever had.  So now that we're back to whack I'm think'n this week will be a lot better.  We have a well check doctor visit for Brett (4 months baby!), soccer for Grant (he's actually playing now and not crying), a fun family home evening planned with a neighbor, a visit to see our sweet new niece (couldn't see her last week since we were ill), and I think we'll have to through in a hot date on the weekend.  Maybe we'll even go to the zoo.  

I'm loving my new camera.  I'm learning a lot.  But as you can see below, I have a problem.  I take a LOT of pictures.  Like way too many.  But that's because I don't know if they're going to turn out.  I end up deleting MOST of them and keeping a few good ones.  I usually do my practicing on Brett.  I can't resist him.  Sometimes I end up with a whole bunch of pictures that I don't need, but that I can't get rid of.  What if 10 years from now I wish I had the picture of him with the serious look instead of the big smile? So I think that making a collage of all of them together will be the best way to keep them all without keeping them ALL.

A day in the life of Grant

Puzzles.  Cars.  Trucks.  Trains.  Playing with his brother.  Soccer practice.  Making pizza.  Watering plants.  Playing catch with mom.  The list could go on and on.  This boy really knows how to pack his day with lots of fun!

Grant is getting so grown up lately.  I guess it's because he's turning 3 at the end of this month!  He's a fun boy.  He's really good at playing with his brother now.  And Brett can't take his eyes off of him.