When it rains it pours

Sheesh just when I thought my life was turning into the movie "Groundhog Day" I up and had a crazy busy week. I loved it! I love play dates, girls nights, baby showers, parties and enrichment or whatever it is now called! I sure loved being home relaxing with Grant today though! LOVED IT!

He has had quite the week himself! It was like he grew up overnight. One day I found him standing in his crib...that pretty much gave me a heart attack. The next day I noticed he has a tooth trying to pop it's way into the world. He slithers around EVERYWHERE but one day he was hungry enough that he actually crawled over to where I was to get some food, with cereal puffs in chub-a-lub cheeks he slithered back over to his toys. One day I walked in and found the dvd's all over the room....and then all the wii stuff about an hour later. Yesterday I noticed another tooth that wants to keep #1 company. Oh and he knocked over my spinach/blueberry smoothie which surprise surprise stained the carpet! What kind of mother leaves a smoothie on the floor you may ask? The kind of mother who is suffering from a heart attack and bent over putting away dvd's that's what kind of mother! There is beauty in renting right???

Anyway he sure is a busy busy boy....well at home anyway. Whenever we are out in public he just lays on the floor and stares at his hands or positions himself on his side to seduce the ladies. He's a goofball but we sure love him!

another treat for the road

If you are anything like me you stress about what to serve for guests. Well rest assured that if Buddy the Elf and his sugar obsession visit you I have the PERFECT recipe. David asked if I would make a cake for a co-workers b-day but since I was too lazy to pull out all the cake stuff and destroy my kitchen with frosting I decided to go for a trifle...which looked silly considering I don't have a trifle dish (maybe when Buddy comes to visit he can put in a word to Santa for me!) I found this recipe ( www.mykitchencafe.blogspot.com ) and figured it met all the peanut butter and chocolate requirements. I have to admit when I was making it I felt like a 6 year old attempting to make an FHE treat by just grabbing everything that was in the pantry. I think it turned out pretty good though;)

1 9X13 pan of your favorite brownie recipe
10 ounce bag of peanut butter chips
5 ounce package vanilla instant pudding mix
3 cups milk
1/2 cup peanut butter, creamy
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup whipping cream, whipped and divided
20 regular sized (about 2 inches in diameter) peanut butter cups, divided

15-20 oreos chopped (it didn't call for it in the recipe but let's be honest can you go wrong with oreo....i didn't think so)

Line a 13 by 9 inch pan with aluminum foil, extend foil by 2 inches over side. Grease lightly with cooking spray. Prepare brownies according to the recipe. Add peanut butter chips. Bake in foil lined pan for length of time required. Cool completely.

Lift foil out of pan. Invert on cutting board. Remove foil. Cut into 3/4 inch pieces, using sharp knife.

Coarsely chop peanut butter cups; 1/4 cup for garnish.

Combine pudding mix and milk in large bowl. Beat at low speed for 2 minutes or until thickened (I had to chill mine for about 5 minutes to thicken it completely). Add peanut butter and vanilla; beat until smooth. Gently fold in half of whipped cream.

Place half of brownies in bottom of trifle bowl; top with 1/2 of chopped candy/oreo and half of pudding. Repeat layers. Top with remaining whipped cream, spooned or piped on. Garnish top with remaining peanut butter cups. This would work with any cookie/candy combo too! 

9 months....and 360 months

Sheesh I've been a little on the lazy side of blogging these days. Tuesday was David's birthday, I hope he had a fun day. To kick off the morning Grant woke up (too excited to sleep I'm sure!) at 3:30 am which meant that David was up at 3:30 as well, hum...what a thoughtful present Grant, thank you! After David left for work Grant and I decorated the house with balloons and streamers. Ok Grant just crawled around with his tongue hanging out while I did all the work. It was quite the psychedelic trip for him but once his eyes adjusted to everything I think he had a lot of fun chasing the balloons and watching me pop my head through the streamers and ribbons like every 5 seconds. We went out to dinner that night and had a fun time as a family. We love you David!!! *No Grant is not wearing capris...just the way he is situated!*

Well today Grant turned 9 months and I can honestly say this was the hardest yet best month by far. I was either giving him kisses and kisses or setting up my ebay account...I was thisclose to putting him up for sale multiple nights. He was sick for a few days and just when I thought he was getting better he ended up having a double ear infection. It was hard to know if he was really sick because he was always happy, well in the day at least (that's where the millions of kisses were given). In fact when I took him into the doctor he was acting totally fine, just like when you take your car in to the shop it just magically works again and the mechanic thinks you're nuts! Anyway he is finally better! Hooray!!! His check up is next week so I will get his stats then. We love you baby G!

-loves music...especially the guitar
-army crawls EVERYWHERE! it's a good thing there are like 3 places in my house he could be, everytime i turn around he is somewhere else.
-he says "dada" a lot but hasn't quite figured out who it is...i like to pretend he says "dada" over "mama" because i always say nice things about "dada" to him;)
-laughs a lot
-will choose my boring clear water bottle over any fun new toy
-likes to feed himself
-gets really happy when elmo is on

a little light reading....making sure to read the home teaching message by the end of the month!

 this pretty much describes the last month....reaching and grabbing anything and everything!

oops...8 months

We were in CO when Grant decided to grow up and turn 8 months old. He is so much fun these days. I took him to the doctor yesterday and he weighs 16 lbs! Hum I guess we'll be starting the "bacon only" diet in 2010.

*He can kind of make out "dada" but mainly just screams and sighs really loud.
*He sits up on his own, rolls around a lot but mainly just army crawls for everything.
*LOVE LOVE LOVES my water bottle and will scoot for that thing over any fun colorful toy.

To be honest I'm a bad mother and can't really remember what he did during 8 months! More to report in a few weeks on his 9 mo. stats!

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!