Grant man growing up!

Grant is 14 months old today!! Wow! I can't believe how fast he is growing up! I guess technically in some ways he is growing up slowly. . .just yesterday he took his first steps!! 7 in a row and a couple more here and there throughout the afternoon/evening. He definitely wants to walk now. This morning he was walking down the hall steadying himself on the wall. I am going to list bullet style some of the other things this little man is learning or doing at the moment:

• Grant has started to almost insist on spoon feeding himself things like yogurt and applesauce. It is, of course, a messy prospect, but one which leads to greater independence, which I am looking forward to!
• He seems too young to already know how to do this, but he knows how to throw a tantrum with the best of them. Funny little guy.
• Going along with that last one, he is also learning to try to get what he wants from his sisters. He will pull their hair and swat at them when they are doing something he doesn't like or when he wants something they have.
• This little guy has an early-morning gene in him because he is awake 9 days out of in the 5 o' clock hour. Fortunately, I suppose, I am mostly used to this now and am learning to accept it.
  
• Kenneth is embarrassed to admit this one, but Grant is going through a phase where he always wants to be wearing his sisters' necklaces. He kind of looks like a white, baby Mr. T (minus the mo-hawk!)! I think it's adorable.
• Grant loves anything with wheels, anything electronic or anything that resembles a ball. He even goes after ladies' walkers in Relief Society. He even calls muffins "balls".
• He gives hugs and kisses on demand. This is what makes all those those dirty diapers worth it!!!
• He folds his arms for the prayer- he can even read the cues and knows when to do it by himself!
• He is saying so many words: diaper, car, truck, tickle, hot, go, door, park, ball, "all done" and he will 'roar' when we talk about lions. He is talking so much more than his sisters were at this age.
  
• One of his favorite activities right now is climbing up and down my step stool that I keep in the kitchen. The first few times it scared me to death, but he hasn't fallen yet.
• A few things to notice in the video:our lovely 'vintage' kitchen, again Grant is wearing the necklace, and listen to him say, "ball". The girls are painting at the table behind me in case you are wondering what they are doing. Isn't he adaorable!
  
• Like any real male he loves digging in the dirt!

Enjoy the sibling love at the end!

• His facial expressions are hilarious. He has the funniest smirks and smiles.
  
• Finally, he is always so excited to see his Daddy when he comes home.
  

Dress up Pizza Party

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that my post last year for Halloween was "Halloween Grinch". Yup- that's me. I just don't like the holiday. I never have. We didn't really celebrate it when I was young; I never went Trick or Treating. I hate all the spiders, witches, ghosts. Yuck. Last year we did take the kids trick of treating and The girls were afraid of all the decorations at peoples' doors. Then, last month, Arianna really was scared of the Halloween decorations that she saw in Lowe's. She was terrified. So, we decided not to subject her to all of that this year. My kids also don't need all that candy. (Truthfully, I don't need all that candy. If it comes in the house, I can control their intake, but Kenneth and I generally eat WAY TOO MUCH.)

But, I do want my kids to have fun. So, a friend and I decided to have a Dress Up Pizza Party. Earlier this week a family in our ward gave us a whole bag of costumes, so my kids were so excited to wear them to the party! We let them make their own mini- pizzas, had a little parade around the backyard, had dessert and let them run around. It was such fun.

I am realized blogging in real time is so much more fun! So, even though I am still way behind in all my other blogging, I wanted to get this up here tonight for you all to enjoy before the "H day" itself! (And yes, this is our rental home in case you are wondering. For those family members who have asked to see pictures of our place)
Here are our kids and their friend and their pizza creations. Notice my baby boy looking so grown up!

Yum! Enjoying dinner

The cutest puppy you ever have seen! (Little Grant)

Our little ones (Notice Emma and Arianna sucking down the juice- can you tell they don't get it very often!) Emma is Ariel (The Little Mermaid) and Arianna is Minnie Mouse

Sweet little Minnie




Here is a video of our little Costume parade in the backyard. Well, I tried for over a half hour to upload the blasted video and it wasn't working so, for now. . .th th th th th. . that's all folks!

A clue. . .

It's definitely a clue that you need to change the way you communicate with your children when your 4 year old talks to her 2 year old sister in the third person. . .

Family Pictures

Hey all! I have been so delinquent in posting. It seems any time I think about posting, something else takes presidence (or I have technical difficulties). But, we did have family pictures and Grant's one year old pictures taken. When you go to the link, most of the family pictures are toward the end of the slideshow, so don't cop out before you see some of the cute ones! (There aren't that many pictures, don't worry!) So, here is the link for your viewing pleasure:

http://click.preferred.jcpportraits.com/?ju=fe211677726205787c1075&ls=fded11757c64047476137673&m=fef71778776c07&l=fe871c777065037b73&s=fe2e16767367077f711370&jb=fef615787d6701&t=

Happy Birthday, Grant!!!!

My little Grant turned one year old at the end of August! I can hardly believe it's possible! We weren't planning on having any sort of real celebration, but I did think I should make a cake. So, the day before his Birthday I asked the girls what kind of cake I should make for Grant for his Birthday. They agreed (which is amazing in and of itself!) that he should have a Crocodile Cake. Next I called my sister, Katrina, to ask her if her super cool cupcake book, Hello, Cupcake, had any crocodile cakes in it. I was in luck!! So, she gave me the directions over the phone and I googled an image so I could see it and created, if I do say so myself, a pretty darn cool Crocodile Cupcake Cake!

Since I was amazingly able to get it all made fairly early in the afternoon, I decided to invite a couple of families from our new ward over to enjoy it with us. We all had such a wonderful time and I am glad Grant was able to have a celbration for his very special first Birthday.

So, to update you all on Grant himself: He is such a wonderful little boy!! He is still not walking, which is par for our kids, but is pulling up on everything and cruising quite proficiently. He says mama, dada, ball and even said car today (Is he a man or what!?). He loves to bark like a dog when we see or talk about them and moos the cutest little moo you ever have heard (must be the dairyman in his genes!) He is FINALLY napping pretty well. It was a long road on that front, but he finally learned what a real nap is. All around he is healthy and happy and surviving his 2 big sisters. Since we just moved here and I havent gotten around to finding a doctor yet, we haven't been to his one year check up yet to give exact stats.


Here are some pictures of his Birthday celebration and for fun a picture review of the first year of his life! We love you, Little Guy! Happy Birthday!

He was actually quite dainty with his cupcake

When he decided he was finished, it was over the edge, just like everything else, nowadays!


Grant's life in review:

On the day he was born (August)

Blessing Day (September)

Monkeying around (October)

November

With Emma in December 2009

January with Mom

Loving playing with those toes in February

Playing the drums in March

Watching tv with the girls in April

Hanging out with Dad in May

Getting Clean in June

Swinging in July and growing up so fast!

Playing like a big boy on your Birthday last week.

Picker, Sucker and Stander

AKA Emma, Arianna and Grant. These little ones keep us hopping and laughing! I just wanted to do a little post on what these guys are up to. (One of these days I really will do a few posts about our trip across the country.)

Picker and Sucker: Emma and Arianna were watching Sid the Science Kid one morning in the hotel and I looked over and one has her finger up her nose and the other had her thumb in her mouth. Nice. Actually, Arianna has always been a thumb sucker, but ever since we left Maryland it has gotten WAY worse. She is sucking all the time now. Our rule is that she is not allowed to suck unless she is in her bed. But, with traveling across the country, there has been an awful lot of sleeping going on in the car, so she is of course sucking her thumb there, too. Now, she is sucking almost non-stop. Help?!?! We aren't sure what to do to help her stop.

As for the Stander: Little Grant has made tremendous progress since we left D.C. When we left, he had barely learned to wave. Now, he waves whenever he hears Goodbye or Hello or See you Later or when he sees someone else doing something that even remotely looks like waving. He also loves to clap. So cute. He actually learned to crawl while we were at Aunt Karen's house in Utah and now a couple weeks later, he is all over the place and even pulling himself up to stand by the couch. Today he even started cruising a little- went from the couch to the chair in the hotel room.

Our number one comment we get when we go anywhere with the kids is, "Boy, you sure have your hands full!" NO kiddin'! (Interestingly, what we hear almost as often is, "Are they twins?" (Referring to Emma and Arianna) We aren't really sure where that comes from, they really look nothing alike. They are 2 little girls that generally move too fast to get a really good look at them, so I'll give the people that.

Some funny things the girls have said lately:

Emma walked into the bathroom when Kenneth was shaving and said: "Dad, you have mustard all over your face!" (Arianna repeated it, too, of course.)

The girls, all on their own, call the Palm trees we see here "Lamanite Trees". (Lamanites are one of the main groups of people spoken about in the Book of Mormon (Ancestors of the American Indians) We have a picture book of Book of Mormon Stories and I guess they think the palm trees look like some of the headdresses they have seen in there. Funny girls.

Emma was pretending to have Family Home Evening with her animals the other day and I heard her say, "Jesus is in heaven. We will go see him one day when we get dead." She cracks me up.

In the last couple of months the girls have both learned to swim all on their own with water wings on. It is an absolute miracle to me that Emma has taken so well to the water. I have mentioned before, but Emma not even 3 months ago, would SCREAM if even a trickle of water dripped down her face during bath time. This week at the pool, she jumps in all on her own and is completely submerged under the water before she pops back up. Amazing. Arianna is also doing pretty well swimming all around. I think she likes the freedom that comes along with being able to do it on her own. It certainly does make going to the pool for us a lot more fun. Grant also loves to be in the water. (I especially enjoy the heated pool here in Northern California!)
Emma swimming on her back
Arianna and Daddy

We are very happy here. Hotel living definitely has it's perks. But, it will be nice to be in our own home again as well. I have started the painting projects in the house we will be renting and the girls are having the time of their lives playing in the backyard while I work. Grant, on the other hand, is not having as much fun. He crawls around after me whining most of the time. Sometimes I can distract him with a toy or a cracker, but today we just had to go back to the hotel. Luckily, we have 9 more days to finish before we move in for real.

Maracas all around. One of the ladies who works at the hotel gave the big ones to the girls and we already had a little one for Grant. Good times.

A couple of days ago this bad mommy set him down in the wrong place while I was fiddling around with an uncooperative lock and he nose dove into the cement. He's pretty banged up. I feel horrible. Here is a picture a few hours after it happened:

Poor sad baby. He was actually happy right before this shot was taken, just didn't want to sit still for the camera.

Hello, California!!!

We made it!! We actually arrived in California over a week ago now, but have been househunting almost non-stop. . .until tonight that is. We found a house to rent- finally! Boy, oh boy- is this place expensive!! At least we got used to the higher rent and home prices in D.C., so the sticker shock wasn't quite as. . .shocking. . . as it would have been.

Just as an example: we were driving around Sunnyvale looking at homes for rent and saw signs for an open house for a home for sale. Just out of curiousity we decided to stop. (We are not buying at this point because we don't know how long we will be here.) My guess as to the price of the home as we pulled up was 250 K. It was neat and tidy. Neat and tidy neighborhood for the most part. It was older, but well kept. Only 1100 square feet or so with 3 bedrooms and 1 1/2 baths, I think. It was listed for $532,888!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it!!! How anyone affords to live here is beyond me!

So, after driving all over creation for the past week, we finally settled on a home in Milpitas, CA. (pronounced "mill" "pitas" just like pita pockets that you would eat.) We definitely wanted a home this time around. Our last apartment was great, but we are ready for our own walls and a yard and garage again and more space! It is about 9 miles away from work for Kenneth. 4 bedrooms, living room and family room and a 2 car garage. Wonderful fenced backyard with fruit trees and a large shaded patio. Downside: it is old. There is wallpaper all over the place. The bathrooms and kitchen are OLD. But, Kenneth and I both felt really good about it- amazingly enough. It will work out really well for us I think. There is a cool park within walking distance, which the kids loved playing at. We are planning on doing a little bit of work on the house (with permission from the Landlord and owner) before we move in to try and spruce it up a little bit.

So, here we are. We are still in the hotel another couple of weeks before we move in. So, I get to enjoy someone else cleaning for me for a while.

The trip across the country was actually quite fabulous. The kids did much better than I had expected. We really enjoyed stopping at a number of Church History Sites along the way: Carthage Jail, Nauvoo, Winter Quarters, and This is the Place Heritage Park. We also LOVED seeing some of our family members and friends out west whom we rarely get to see.

We miss our friends in D.C. and New York. This certainly is a great adventure. It will definitely be interesting to see where we end up next. . .and how long we will be there. . . For now, we are loving the California weather and are excited to see some of the beautiful sites in the area.