Tuesday, September 20, 2016

The weekend

Our weekend included:
A trip to Costco with just me and the older boys.  Brett hopes to get this truck for his birthday so I took a picture so I can remember.

Keith's brother was in town.  We had a yummy dinner together at our house with Keith's parents, grandpa, and sister's family.

Cousins!

The kids love walking home from church with Grandma!

We had one of the biggest German Pancakes ever!

Keith and I had a fun date to Fountain Hills.

Friday, September 16, 2016

A good problem :: Happy Weekend!


At about the same time of the afternoon each day, I snuggle up this baby boy with a bottle and then I can't get back up for a while.  He totally baby-traps me with his chubby legs, smiley face, giggles, and drooly mouth!  Even when I have dirty dishes and unfolded laundry waiting for me, I just can't do it.  I have to sit there as long as possible and let this boy chew on my hand.  And then we start taking pictures of us and text them to Keith at work.  This is a good problem to have!  :)

Happy Weekend!  We're having family over tomorrow night which always gives us a good reason to spruce things up around here.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Snapshot: Grant

We're so grateful for our Grant.  He is a great kid to have around.  He's helpful and is so good at doing things by himself. 
We just started taking our kids to a new dentist that an old neighbor friend works for.  She hasn't seen Grant in a few years, but she was so excited to see how he's grown and we had fun reminiscing about how Grant used to line up golf balls in our shared backyard, then move down the line hitting each one straight down the yard.  He's been doing this since he could walk!  She was asking if he still golfs.  Yep, he does!  
 I admire his great natural ability for sports: basketball, baseball, soccer, golf, pretty much anything he tries.
Grant was into making paper crafts this summer.  These are some frogs he made.

He's so sweet with his siblings.  He loves having a baby brother at home.

We stayed home a lot this summer and played, played, played.  I love seeing how creative my kids can get.

So handsome!

Dressing up like a gorilla in his gorilla robe, gray coat and gorilla slippers.  This was one of many outfits he came up with over the summer.

He's a happy kid.

Dressed up for Pioneer Day.  He was very focused on his little Pioneer song book.

He's becoming a super Lego builder!

Grant can be really goofy too.  We were at Target and he found these dinosaurs on a display and he grabbed one up and was being silly.  And then Brett followed suit of course.  :)

Fresh haircuts.

These two were inseparable this summer.

The sun was really bright on the first day of school!  He was having a hard time looking up at the camera.

Cheese!  He's doing really well in school this year.  His teacher is proving to be a perfect fit for him.  I'm so glad!

He's so fast on his bike!


He's good and trying to cheer people up.

I found this picture on my phone that he took while waiting in the car to go to school.

I got this golf outfit for him one day and wasn't sure he was going to like the pink stripes, but when I showed it to him he said, "I love it!!" right away and then posed really funny for the camera.  Ha!

He's a fearless super hero!

We love our Grant!


Thursday, September 8, 2016

Under the boys beds

I just spent the past couple of hours deep cleaning the boys room.  Camille and Tyler were napping and I put in the Planes movie for Brett.  He definitely needed to be kept busy elsewhere or I would hear his cries as I threw a TON of stuff away in his room.  If they don't see me do it, it's like it didn't happen.  :)
I made a list of all of the things I found under their beds (mostly under Bretts - he's a bit of a hoarder).  Here we go:
2 Lego guy heads
Clean socks
Overdue library book
Pile of books from home
Box of pinecones and rocks
Handouts from church
School work
Bucket with dirt
2 Whistles
Toy cars galore
Baby food mesh thing
Dinosaur
Dirty socks
2 more buckets (without dirt)
7 balls
Drawings
Deflated green balloon
Popper thing
Dog golf club head cover
Something that looks like a nest, but isn't... maybe
3 missing socks
2 stuffed animals
Piece of Scotch tape
String cheese wrapper
2 guys that go to the toy garbage truck

Whew!

Each boy has a bin under their bed that they are allowed to put anything they want in.  As long as it stays under control and out of sight I leave it alone.  Usually special things like treasures found at the park and junky toys from birthday parties end up in there.  And I'm good with that, as long as I don't have to see it and the lid still fits.  But this was OUT OF CONTROL and definitely NOT in the bins!!!  
Now I'm happy to say that their bins have been tamed, everything on the list above has been removed or thrown away and the only other thing under Grant's bed is a bin for current Lego creations, and his huge art kit that doesn't fit anywhere else.  
Everything else in the room got a thorough go-through/vacuum/wipe down.  Some toys disappeared back to the attic for a while.  All the broken stuff got tossed and things that belong elsewhere in the house were thrown into a bin.  I'm hoping Keith will take interest in my endeavor and put the extra stuff away with me tonight! :)
Here's hoping this nice clean room will last a while!

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Snapshot: Brett

Brett is quite the kid.  He has a great mind and a sensitive disposition.  One of my favorite things to do with this boy is to cuddle up and read with him when the little kids are napping.  And then I usually fall asleep too and he plays quietly around me!  He doesn't read yet, but he has a couple books memorized and it is so fun to hear him recite them.  He gets super excited about anything that only he gets to do, like going to a party or going on a date with Dad.  He also gets excited about new clothes. He's a warm kid, always has been.  Even in the middle of winter he sprawls out on top of his blankets at night.  He rides his bike super good and is getting a lot more coordinated with sports.

He has an incredible mind.  He asks the most profound and deep questions.  He amazes us every day with the things he comes up with.  Usually he asks us about what's going to happen when he grows up, or what different natural disasters there are and if they happen where we live.  He's very concerned about volcanoes and tornadoes.  Also, he wants to know how EVERYTHING works.  He's good at figuring things out and gets frustrated if it doesn't.  He's really good at making things with paper.

"Oh, no!  Where'd my body go?!"

Charging up his glow-in-the-dark "bone jammies" with Grant.

Sitting next to his best bud during primary on Pioneer Day.

His hat was so big on him and every time he'd look down it looked like his head was gone.  :)

Fresh haircuts.

Brett sure is a hard worker.  If he's bored, it can easily be solved by giving him a bottle of cleaner and some paper towels.  He's cleaned the sliding glass doors a million times now I'm sure (and they can always use a good wipe down)!  He's a kid that needs a task to keep him busy and help him feel fulfilled.  He's a lot like me that way.  Except when it comes time to clean up a mess he made or tidy up his room.  All of the sudden he falls apart and the task seems impossible to him.  It's a daily challenge that we're working on with him.

He's so good with Tyler.  He likes to call him "Tire."

He has a great imagination!

We were watching the Olympics one night and I look over and Brett was trying to build the tallest tower.  Let's look at that tower.  There's blocks, candles, toilet paper, a wood box, more blocks, and coins.  Ha!  :)  He cracks me up!

He just started his last year of preschool.  I think he really likes being in the older class now.

Here he is with his buddy on their first day.

He put his water bottle in the freezer one day and couldn't get over the fact that the water really did freeze.  He played with that thing for quite a while.  

He's really been into coloring lately.  He usually has a stack of pictures laying around in the kitchen or shoved under his bed.
These boys made so many pictures this day!


Brett LOVES to help in the kitchen.  He's fascinated with mixing everything together and knowing how things work.  Every time I put baking powder in something he says, "Baking powder helps it rise!"  Yep, it does.  :)

Pumpkin seeds ready for planting.

Brett makes a lot of awesome faces for pictures, like here.

He got pushed off the kitchen bench by Grant and busted his chin open.  I ended up taking him to the ER where I found out that he was just shy of needing stitches.  They put on some glue and sent us on our way.  He was super brave, even when he thought he was going to be getting stitches, because I told him if he was brave I would get him a toy.  I've never seen a kid more excited about the prospect of getting stitches than this kid was.  He still got the toy.

Cruise'n around on his bike.

Brett with his "treasures."

Brett likes to do things like this with his toys.  :)

He's so great at hopping in the crib with Tyler to cheer him up!

Brett has a killer smile, but he can also pout with the best of them.  And when he's in one of his moods it is nearly impossible to crack a smile out of him.

Almost got a smile!

Grant tried to cheer him up.

Nope!  Not going to do it!

Here we go!  Isn't that a great smile?!  We sure love to see it!

We're happy that Brett is in our family!  He adds a spice that we would sure miss without him!