GrAntics

Grant is 20 months old now. When he was only 16 months he had to stop being our baby and get used to having an even littler guy around.  He has taken it well, all things considered.  I sometimes have guilt that I can't pick him up and snuggle him or play with him all the time 'cause I have to feed the baby or run kids to school.  That's just how life is these days, but Grant, with his rambunctious and gregarious nature has a special place in our family for sure.  Here he is sitting at the table...with no high chair or booster.  Just like a big boy.  Tonight he asked me during dinner, "Baby go?" wondering where Johnny was (napping in the other room).  He likes to keep tabs on little brother.

 

He's never been a good sleeper and napping has been an issue for a while.  He often fights the nap and I don't usually have a free 45 minutes to try and get him to sleep in his crib, so he usually naps in a toddler chair in the front room.  Sometimes he even fights that.  This day he fought til he just fell asleep upright on the couch.

He doesn't like wearing clothes and if you let him, he will run around in just his diaper (or less) shrieking and squealing, waving his arms, just from the joy of being in his skin.  When we make him wear clothes he sometimes likes to pull one arm out through the neck hole. 

  "That's why they call me Tarzan of the Apes."

 I didn't get a good picture of this, but here he is trying to ride Anna's stuffed animal horse.

I liked that he wore the cowboy hat too.

 Apparently the horse wasn't up to the task.

We love you Grant!!

Like Father, Like Daughter

Anna and Matthew like to play a card game called "Top It."  It's pretty much just War and helps them learn about which number is bigger and which is smaller.  Here's Anna winning a hand.  I like Matthew's expression as he gets beat.

 She won a lot of hands, but Matthew did too.  They had fun.

 After each hand she had to record the score, or the different numbers that came up.

She kept a good record of the game.  Maybe she has some accounting genes, like her Daddy.

Here is her record.  This kind of looks like a mirror image.  She likes to write numbers backwards a lot.  She will write the numbers forward too, but she seems to think it doesn't matter which way they go.  I think she's ok for a preschooler though.  I liked her record keeping too.  :)

A Snowy Day

We have only had a few light dustings of snow so far this season, but last week we got our first snow of substantial size.  I'm not sure how many inches it was, but more than a dusting.  We got out the snow gear.   This was on Dec. 9th and as I write this (10 days later) we are having another big snow, so this is just the beginning.  :)  Here are Matthew and Anna all bundled up.  This was on a Sunday so no canceled school, and we still had church.

 Here's the yard, all snowy!

Here's Matthew thinking about throwing a snowball.  You can see I didn't get the bikes put away before the snow.  :)

I better go run for cover.

More snow to come.

The Amazing Mr. John

John turned 4 months old last week and had his 4 month check up.  He weighed in at 16 pounds 7 ounces so he's dropped a little in percentile...from 90th down to 80th, but still growing pretty well.  The doctor said his collarbone feels like it has healed completely so that's good (it was broken at birth) and he's doing well.  He had to have some shots at this check up and then came down with a fever the next day, but he felt better after some Tylenol and a good night's sleep.  Here he is relaxing on the floor.

 

John is at the age now where he likes the toy bar on his bouncy seat and the lights and dangly things on the baby gym.  So much to see!

He also really loves all his siblings.  Matthew loves talking to him and says things like, "I wish Johnny would never grow up 'cause he's so cute" or "I wish I could stay home all the time and look at John."  So they are good buddies right now.  Hope it lasts.

 Here's John about to have a sad moment.  Such a furrowed brow.

 I think it must have gotten warm the afternoon this was taken.  We were letting his legs air out.

 And what legs they are!

 John sleeping in Grandma's arms.

And here he is asleep on the floor.  Grant brought him some toys to play with and lined them up next to him.  I thought it was sweet...even though John wasn't into playing at the time.  I think Grant fully expected him to wake up and play with him.

He's growing bigger!  John is such an easy baby.  I used to hate it when people told me what an easy baby they had, 'cause none of mine seemed to be, but relatively speaking John is pretty easy going.  He sleeps well and he FALLS asleep well.  Both good things.  He likes being held but will also sit in his chair patiently for a while too.  And yes, he does all the normal baby things like waking up in the night, requiring several clothing changes a day sometimes or just needing to be held, but I really have no complaints.  He's a good kid.  Happy 4 month birthday John!!

One Wise Man

and one angel

At our church Christmas party this year the primary kids put on a nativity program.  Matthew was asked to be one of the three wise men.  He was excited!  For his costume he wore an authentic Indian outfit given to him by Aunt Alycia and Uncle Cody (it still fits!) and he looked very cool!  My mom made him a turban out of muslin and some gold trim.  He looked great.  Here he is practicing giving his gift.  He didn't have any lines but he and the other two wise men got to sing We Three Kings on their own, so he was excited about that too.  All the girls without regular parts were angels, so Anna got to be an angel and my mom made her an angel dress out of a pillow case.  Their costumes definitely benefited from having a grandma around.  Left to my own devices I would have made Matthew a crown out of paper and a much less stylish pillowcase dress for Anna.  :)

Anna kept telling us she was a "herald angel"

And here's Matthew looking a little more jolly...and still practicing his gift giving.

at our church Christmas party.  The party was very nice...and well decorated.

Four different wards meet in our building so we all just kind of combined decorating efforts I think.  The snowflakes hanging from the ceiling were our from ward.

Matthew was listed by name on the program (at the bottom)...I had to take a picture!

When the big moment came for the kids to do the program, Anna fell asleep.  Worried that she might be sad that she missed being in the program, we tried to rouse her, but she was down for the count.  There's always next year.  ;)

Here is Matthew (back to the audience) as one of the three wise men.  I should have reminded him to look OUT at the audience, but it was still a great showing by the wise men.  I know these pictures aren't the greatest.  Sorry!

And singing We Three Kings, still back to the audience.  The had a mic, so we could hear him just fine.

And giving their gifts. He was the myrrh giving wise man.  ;)  Later he told me his myrrh was actually a sewing basket with sewing things in it.  I think he was a bit disillusioned with his gift...or confused about what myrrh is.

And here he is departing into his own country another way (Matthew 2:12).  This was an exciting moment in the program for me 'cause it was the first time I caught a glimpse of his face.  :)  Good job my little myrrh bearing wise man!  And my sleeping angel!  Anna was not sorry she missed the program when she woke up by the way.  She was sorry that it was so cold outside while we took her to the car.  Poor Anna!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Scott is the master of Christmas trees in our house.  And I had some anxiety about getting a tree this year without him.  I kept thinking how much easier it would be if I just had an artificial tree I could put up, especially since there is a pretty good chance that he'll be gone another Christmas.  I thought it would be nice and convenient to have an artificial tree to go to.  Then I don't have to worry about going to get one, bringing it home on the roof of the car, cutting the trunk, getting it up straight, watering it, vacuuming pine needles and arranging for it to be taken away after Christmas.  I know I sound a little humbuggy, but I'm just being realistic here.  We sometimes had an artificial tree growing up and I'm not opposed to them.  Ultimately I decided to honor my husband (who does have strong feelings about artificial trees) by getting a real tree.  It's what he would have wanted if he were here.  So here is our tree on the roof of the car.  We got a Noble Fir (I love you, Scott!), about 6 1/2 feet tall.  We got some help wrapping it up and getting it tied up on the car, so that was nice.  And luckily my mom is here, so I didn't have to manhandle the tree into the house and the stand by myself.

 Here's Matthew getting our tree spot ready.  I had to rearrange some furniture.

 We got the tree off the car

And out of the net.

My mom gave it a good shake.

 And I did my best to get the tree straight in the stand.

My mom helped steady it while holding baby John.  Impressive!

The kids were excited to water it with our little funnel and hose.  Scott did a good job indoctrinating Matthew about the importance of watering the tree...'cause he is "reminding" me to water it semi-constantly.

 Anna was good at vacuuming away some of the pine needles.

And we decorated.  I didn't take many pictures during 'cause I was just too caught up in keeping things from breaking.  :)  We all had fun.

 Grant found many ornaments that he liked.  This Snoopy in a car was a favorite.

 And here's our tree all decorated

And lit up.

Phew!  Mission "Put Up Tree" Accomplished.

See our trees from years gone by HERE.

Picture Time!

I tried to take some pictures of all the kids together.  I thought about taking them to some professional place to get a picture, but the more I thought about it the less I wanted to do that.  It's kind of stressful.  Sooo, I decided I would just pop them all on the couch and snap a few pictures.  But since I am not a great photographer, the pictures turned out...not great.  But I'm willing to live with that.  We'll go get professional photos some other time.  Here they are...and all facing the same direction!  This was pre-haircuts for Matthew and Grant. 

That night I tried to take more pictures of them in their Christmas jammies.  John's don't quite match.  That's ok, his eyes don't match the other kid's either.  You may have noticed from this blog and/or the state of my house that I am not a perfectionist.  ;)  So semi-matching jammies.  And I think Grant has chocolate on his face.  Did I mention I'm not a perfectionist?  Also possibly lazy.

 But they looked so cute anyway...chocolate faces and all!

I tried to take some individual pictures of the kids too.  It didn't work out that well.  But afterward we watched a slideshow of all the pictures on my computer and laughed and laughed.  Here is a small sampling:

 Big eyed John!

Always blowing bubbles, this one.

 We managed to get a picture of Grant mid-sneeze.  Awesome!!

 Anna being silly!
You may also notice she's wearing different pajamas now.  That's an Anna thing.

 And Matthew temporarily sad about something.

Don't worry.  He was ok and probably laughed the hardest at this picture.

Love you Matthew!

Their jammies all had Santa faces on the feet.  Anna called them "peekaboo Santa pajamas."  I tried to get a picture of all their feet together...but I didn't really try very hard.  John's feet just wanted to go every which way.  So did Grant's.  Sooo, maybe I should leave the photography to the professionals after all, but we did all get a good laugh from the pictures.  See another photo shoot gone wrong HERE.