Christmas 2010

So Christmas was also spent at home this year.  Pretty laid back and spend most of the time with family.  Grant had a Christmas program with his preschool class and there aren't very many pictures because he refused to get up in front of everyone and sing with his classmates (he was the only kid out of 20 that flat out refused...what do you do? nothing:)  Anyway, we did get a picture with Santa though as he came to visit and brought each kid a gift from him.  Here is also proof that Madelyn didn't freak out this time around sitting on Santa's lap.  In fact, I couldn't keep her away from him or the other kids.  I think she figured she was also in preschool.  I think she would have taken Grants place on stage proudly without even thinking about it.  Its so funny how different kids personalities can be.  Here are some pictures of our Christmas...LAST year:)

 Making a gingerbread house.  Grant really got into it...and so did I!

 The final product.... I was pretty proud!

 Christmas Eve at our house with Geoffery's family.  We decided to do appetizers and it was delicious if I do say so myself!

 Table set!

 Grant and his uncle Will, Geoffery's brother.  He also moved into our house with us in February.  Geoffery's parents moved back to Indiana:( and Will wanted to finish out high school here, so he stayed with us!  We're excited to have him in our home and the kids adore him as you can tell!

 Me and Ashley, Geoffery's sister!

 Sweet Madelyn, its impossible to get a picture of her so I have to take what I can get:)

 Santa came!

 The aftermath!

Grant and Madelyn, and the ONLY picture I could get with the two of them!  And this is the best one out of like 100!  I wanted to get them in their matching PJ's!

I know, I know Thanksgiving in April...

Quick recap of Thanksgiving for my records, and memory, which isn't so good lately.  We had Thanksgiving at my house this year and it was a LOT of fun because all I had to do was set the table and my mom did all the cooking!  Thanks mom!  She always so good to feed us even when she's the one visiting.  Its awesome!  Anyway, it was really laid back and we spent the night counting contractions as we were hoping that Abby would go into labor that night, but it was just that silly false labor playing tricks on us.  Then the next morning we all went to the mall to see none the less... SANTA!  Grant was so excited and we had been working on our list for quiet some time.  He was so careful to keep it safe from Madelyn and to add to it every time we saw a new commercial (thanks Nickelodeon).  He really got the whole Christmas thing this year and it was a ton of fun to see it all through his eyes!  He loved seeing Santa and actually ran up to sit on his lap.  No fear, at all!  What a champ!  Madelyn was a different story, which was surprising, because she's not really afraid of strangers, but it must have been an off day.  We actually saw another Santa like a week or two later and she was all over him and I couldn't keep her away from him.  Kids are funny that way!  They keep surprising us!  Anyway, here are some pics of the weekend... and don't judge because I look a little tired in these pictures.

 The table was all set!

 In the playroom!  I was feeling very festive that day.

 Either watching football or the parade... I can't remember!

 Dinner was served, eaten, and then we just sat around and enjoyed the company!

 Meeting the big man!

 He was telling Santa in detail about his list and made sure to include everything!

 I can't believe he's this big!

And then there was little Madelyn!  She didn't like it too much...obviously.

Fall Family Pics

We took some pictures the day of Halloween, that Sunday, with the whole family...Parents, cousins, etc.  We also got some pictures of just us and the kids.  I'm really happy with the way they turned out.  Grant had a difficult time participating, but all in all the result was okay.  I'll post pictures of the whole fam-damily later.  Those take a while to edit and choose one where everyone is smiling, all eyes open, etc. etc.  And knowing my family my name is mud if its a "bad" picture of them.  So I'll work on that when I have the patience, but for now here some shots of my sweet little family.  I also LOOOOVE the stage Madelyn is in and I LOOVE the stage Grant is starting to get in.  He's almost out of the terrible two's and three's... although he still has his moments.  I have to find myself explaining everything we're about to do so that nothing is sprung on him and he's not taken off guard.  For example, these pictures.  I forgot to tell him what we were doing and then he just threw a fit.  Lesson learned!

Halloween........WHAT???

I know how sad that I'm updating you about Halloween and its in the middle of January?!!  What the???  Anyway, we are VERY behind on this blog and I've decided I'm going to update you slowly on all our happenings.  I'm going to update with something new EVERYDAY until I'm finally updated.  (How many times can you say the word "update"?)  So I decided to start with Halloween. 

This year my sister and her sweet family flew all the way from Georgia, or how we pronounce it JAR-JIA, to come and see us.  Tickets were much cheaper for Halloween than Thanksgiving, so I can't blame her.  It was a lot of fun to hang out and just to be around them.  I talk to her everyday on the phone, but we only get to see each other like once, maybe twice a year.  We all decided to do a Toy Story theme Halloween for the kids so that they could pretty much choose whatever they want to be.  Grant, of course, wanted to be Buzz Light Year and Madelyn was Evil Doctor Pork chop (not so much evil as cute though:).  We had a lot of fun and probably spent more time taking pictures of the kids than we did trick or treating, but that's okay.  Here are some pictures to prove we are still alive...

 Oh yeah, Geoffery and I have this one issue that we don't completely agree on since we first got married and that's Halloween.  I love Halloween almost as much as Christmas and Geoffery HATES Halloween.  It's always been one of those things that I'm trying to get him to like and he's always trying to get me to do away with.  However, this year he surprised me with dressing up as one of the 3 amigos!  I was completely shocked and taken back!!  I guess I finally won after 7 years of spending Halloweens together!  And yes those pants are as tight as you can get.  He couldn't even bend over!!  What husbands will do to please their wife!!  Thanks hun, I got a good laugh- and that's AT you, not WITH you:) JK...

 He truely thought he was the REAL buzzlight year!!

 Ohh scary T-REX...

 This is Barbie, not that you couldn't tell by that hair!

 Little Bo Peep and her sheep!

 Aren't these two babes the sweetest!

The whole gang together at last!

Miss Madelyn

So I've been waiting on the day that I could put little pigtails in Madelyn's hair.  I was sooooooo EXCITED when I discovered her hair was long enough for pigtails.  How cute!!!!  I've done it like this almost everyday since I found out that I can do it.  For one it makes her hair look even, which it is VERY uneven all the way around.  Second, it stays pretty good all day, minus nap time.  And third its just plain cute.  I love her soo much and she has brought so much joy to our house.  She is walking everywhere and into everything, but she is so fun to just watch and see what she is doing.  I always wonder what their thinking up there at this age.  Seriously can you get any cuter?  I don't think soo. 

By the way, my new challenge to myself is to blog once a week.  I just feel like this time is getting away from me and this is our journal, so this is my only way to remember this time.  So wish me luck!

Sunday Best

So I was noticing that I didn't have that many pictures of the kids as I would like on our blog.  So my new goal is to update regularly on the kids and recent pictures of them.  Problem is 90% of the pictures we take are on our phone, so I just need to start uploading those to the computer.  Anyway, before we went to church the other week I told Geoffery I wanted to take pictures of the kids dressed up looking cute.  Because again, 90% of my pictures are of them at home in comfy clothes and they are never dressed cute or their hair fixed.  So we took the time to take pictures, but Madelyn is terrible.  She NEVER sits still for a second so all the pictures are blurry of her.  So I had to sit in and hold her while Geoffery took the picture.  At least we got ONE good one of both kids looking at the camera.  I guess that's all you can ask for:)

Yellowstone Trip

 Earlier this summer, we decided that we were going to try to go to cool places right around where we live. People drive thousands of miles to come here and experience the outdoors and we’ve lived here for eight years and haven’t done most of the touristy stuff. Sooo we decided one weekend to pack up the kids and head for Yellowstone. It’s only and hour and a half, so not too far and we wanted to drive around the park, see the hot springs, see Old Faithful, and have a picnic right in the park. I was REALLY excited about going because the last time I went I was about 12 and don’t remember much. (As side note, Geoffery has begged me to go since I can remember and have never been up to, just didn’t seem that cool, but I guess I’ve changed my mind since I had kids).

We got up early that morning and went to a local breakfast place in town and it was delicious!! It never fails and seriously has the best pancakes and homemade syrup I’ve ever eaten! I try to talk Geoffery into going every Saturday morning. THEN, we went to Wal-Mart and bought a cooler because we don’t have one and some drinks and stuff for our picnic. FINALLY at 11:30 we left Rexburg and were on our way. Madelyn took a nap the whole way up and Grant watched his (um no, OURS) ipod. Once we were there we drove into the park and immediately saw a huge elk. Yellowstone seems to never disappoint with the animals. We were all hungry again by this point and pulled off at the closest picnic table and ate lunch. There was a stream nearby that Grant actually got into trying to catch fish with his cup. He was pretty disappointed that he wasn’t successful and we tried to explain that only cavemen can catch fish this way. So after this point his flip-flops were SOAKING wet. After lunch we stopped at a hot spring and walked around. Hence, if you notice in the picture Grant barefoot, that’s because he flat out refused to wear his shoes, so he had to ride in the stroller. So don’t think I’m the kind of mom that lets her children walk around Yellowstone with no shoes because I’m not… promise!

After that we decided to head to Old Faithful having no idea when it would erupt again. Luckily we got there 3 minutes AFTER it erupted. Yeah, so we got to wait another hour and a half to see it go off. So we got ice cream and walked around the big hotel they have there. It’s super cool inside if you’ve never seen it. And don’t think you can get a room there because it’s a year and a half out for a reservation- and you have to share a bathroom- not my kind of place. I like my privacy please! But it would be an experience I’m sure. ANYWAY, we got some pretty good seats to see it explode. Grant decided that it would be loud and he doesn’t like loud noises so he decided he had to wrap my baby wrap around him to shield his ears from the exploding water. (He didn’t care for the hot springs too much- hot water and loud noises are his two biggest fears). Everyone was looking at him and laughing because he looked pretty ridiculous. Which this only added to his fuel of angriness. He kept yelling at people not to look at him and laugh. Yeah, that’s my boy…yelling at complete strangers. Gotta love 3 year olds! When it finally went off he realized that it wasn’t loud and he was pretty safe sitting that far away, and he was okay with it and thought it was pretty cool. Then after that we headed home. Unlucky for us we ONLY saw elk and not even ONE buffalo. I was pretty sad about that, but it was a lot of fun and we had ourselves some memories. AND that was our summer goal—TO BUILD MEMORIES. So all and all it was a success. Here are some pictures of our trip…

 Grant has an obession with school buses so we had to take our picture in front of one.

 He was soooo afraid of the noise that it would be too loud.

 Here is Grant looking very religious so that he wouldn't hear the water "blow" up in the air.