that is sooo 2009

Sheesh Christmas was forever ago and I'm now getting around to blog about it. Why you may ask? Well one boy (David) has strep and the other has a double ear infection. Boo. Don't let that fool you though, Grant was all smiles at the doctor's office. He's been fairly happy----we just have to make sure we're either jumping in front of mirrors or playing peek-a-boo and he's fine, once those things stop then we're in trouble!

Ok back to Christmas....we had a wonderful time in Colorado visiting both of our families. Some of the Harrison clan drove up to spend Christmas with us too which was a lot of fun! Grant did pretty good on the trip...however he started making these crazy faces and puppy sounds every once in awhile which was weird but I guess he left that habit in CO because he's back to normal now!

We opened our presents from each other a few days before we left for CO, Grant got a piggy bank and some books. He is one smarty pants kid and had a grip on that pig the whole night!

Playing with some of his cousins....











We had a little candlelight/talent night at my parents house, it was a great way to get into the Christmas spirit.

All of the Luke crew got college jammies and I think Grant's are pretty much the cutest thing out there! I'm afraid we'll need these in every size, got to start 'em young right???

It was so fun to listen to Christmas music, watch Luke 2, exchange gifts (we had a white elephant exchange which Grant wound up getting some lottery tickets and won $24....good thing we bought a piggy bank!!!) read Christmas stories and just laugh and be together as a family! Darn it, if only there was a way to move Kohl's closer to our family. ;)

Christmas in Osh Kosh

Yes we went to Osh Kosh. Yes the Osh Kosh where Osh Kosh B'Gosh is located. Yes we actually paid for gas and took the time to go there. Yes it is very industrial and yes we will gladly live in Butler rather than Osh Kosh. But...yes we had a blast being there as a family touring the Paine Mansion Nutcracker.

Way back when there was a successful man (Nathan Paine) that owned several lumber mills in the area. He eventually wanted his house to become an art gallery or museum....which is exactly what happened. During Christmas they decorate it to look like scenes from The Nutcracker. It was SSSOOO pretty and really helped us to get even more excited about Christmas. I'm really sad because we were only allowed to take pictures in the front room. The rooms were decorated really neat-upside down trees, tables and tables of cakes/cookies/sweets, various nutcrackers. I've been trying to find pictures online but no such luck! http://www.thepaine.org/

And of course Grant had to bring his tongue!!!

These books were set up to guide you from room to room as it told the story of The Nutcracker

We are getting so excited for Christmas! Grant has been begging and begging me to take him to see Santa. Since he has been a good little boy I think maybe we'll scoot on over to the mall tomorrow and see the jolly ol' man! Hopefully Grant gets everything on his wish list....diapers, food, computer cord and a large piece of furniture (make that two) to bonk his head on!

A new twist on Thanksgiving

I suppose I should post about our holiday events! We went to the Wisconsin Dells (largest indoor water park) with our friends for Thanksgiving. Yes I know...who goes to a water park on Thanksgiving??? WE DO!!! And my oh my it was fun! As soon as we got to the resort we quickly changed and hit the pool, I was excited to see what Grant thought of it. The kid loves bath time so I thought he'd be in heaven. Well the whole thing was quite a psychedelic trip for him. I mean look at this.....slides, fountains, buckets of water.

The kid didn't know what to think. We took him on the lazy river which he seemed to enjoy but we realized that he was still too little to really care. Thankfully our friends offered to watch him in the hotel room while David and I went from slide to slide to slide to slide. It was so fun to just hang out and know that Grant was being taken care of. We are already planning to go back when he can walk around and really enjoy the water.

On Thursday Grant was having a hard time napping in the hotel so we decided to just drive around town and see all the shops. I was bummed because all the cute little diners, ice-cream and fudge shops were closed for Thanksgiving. I swear when I was working retail we were open like 24/7 but as soon as I want to go anywhere they close up shop! Oh well...more reason for us to come back:) On our drive we saw this crazy hotel (?) and we were definitely intrigued.

We had to leave early Friday morning so David could go shopping for work. I know tough job huh? It was really sad to walk in a store just to see what everyone else was buying! Later that night we did our fair share of purchasing though! Grant didn't seem to get in the whole "black Friday" thing considering he slept most of the day!

I love Thanksgiving and having the chance to really reflect on my blessings. I often feel unworthy for all that I have been given. I try to appreciate the small and simple things in life and everyday Grant makes me realize in some way how to live a full and happy life. I am grateful for eternal families, for friends, for the gospel and the knowledge and happiness it brings to me. Oh and I am grateful for water parks and Wal-Marts that stay open on Thanksgiving!

7 months

Stop growing up Grant! Stop it! Man oh man this was an interesting month for all of us. Grant was committed each and everyday to do the impossible---he decided to set a goal of NOT napping for more than 40 minutes A DAY!!! Yes that's right, he figured there was a record that needed to be set and for those of you who know me well you know I am all about goal setting so it was just natural for him to take on this challenge! Ugh! We finally convinced him that Santa is watching his every move and knows if he's been naughty or nice....well that and we realized he likes it to be in the dark, who knew a dark room would knock him out for 2 hours at a time? This sleeping/routine thing has made a world of difference for all of us! Hum just in time for us to go on vacation and get all out of whack again! Sleeping or not we sure love this little guy!

*still sleeps well at night
*holds his right ear and sucks on his left hand to comfort himself
*likes to watch Mickey Mouse
*has started branching out with foods
*likes looking at books/mirrors
*loves to watch David play guitar and has started laughing at us....we really have to work for it but he'll do it!

open wide

We were planning on giving Grant his first taste of cereal while in CO but he thought sleeping would be more fun. I'm actually really glad we didn't because he was all messed up anyway and to add cereal on top of that would probably be a bad combo. Anyway we gave him some spoonfuls on Sunday and yep it's official the boy is ours-this kid loves food! He kept trying to grab the spoon and had a death grip on it the whole time.

blast off

What can I say I think this is the cutest lil' costume out there! And the lil' astronaut boy is pretty darn cute himself! We had a fun Halloween, made "crater" cookies and spent the day with friends/neighbors. It wouldn't have hurt to have it be a smidgen warmer out but atleast we didn't have snow like there usually was for me growing up!

I'm excited to be a mom now for all the holidays. I keep remembering all the fun things we did growing up and I am getting excited for when Grant is old enough to enjoy trick-or-treating and counting down the days until Christmas. I know I shouldn't get ahead of myself but I can't help it! It's been so much fun watching him grow!

the big hunt

Guess who loves to fly...and blow bubbles???

About a week ago we decided to scoot on over to CO to check somethings off our list.

David and his dad elk huntin'-check
Grant has a 1/2 birthday-check
Grant falls asleep during his "party"-check
spending time with friends-check
spending lots and lots of time with family(and seeing David's grandparents)-check
Grant "napping" through the night-check
G gets a cold-check....and still checking that one off
flying from MKE->ORD->DEN->HDN and back-check
Grant sleeping on EVERY flight and doing very well....uh...he did have one teeny tiny 3 minute freak out from Chicago to Milwaukee but after 6 legs of flying I think we were all about to flip out!

We really did have a great time, Grant is still trying to get back to his routine. I'm sure things will become smooth again about a week before we leave for Christmas;)




What was so scary? I look like a deer in headlights! Yikes!