I love these two!

Halloween Time

It ended up being a bit of a hectic weekend but we still managed to squeeze in some fun. Our good friend Kim invited us to a dinner party on Friday. She always throws such amazing parties. Seriously, an amazing hostess. I don't know how she manages to do it all but the house is decorated, the table setting is amazing and the food is delicious! Thanks so much for including us Kim! Then Saturday we went over to my sister-in-law Michelle's family party. It was fun to see everyone dressed up. We really didn't end up doing any Trick or Treating. Sorry Grant! :) But we were definitely grateful to have a couple of excuses to dress up in our costumes. Here are a bunch of pictures as promised, Mom. :)


My boy, the DRAGON!

Notice the sweet halloween shirt underneath his costume.

Practicing his dragon moves! Rarrr!


Kayden, Grant, Cameron


My Knight and Dragon





Sam and Michelle (Gonzo and his Chicken)
Michelle made these. Amazing huh?


Emily, Tom, Chris (Amelia Earhart, Monk, Gorilla)


The whole group


And a video of Grant. Just for fun.

California Adventure Part 1 - Disneyland!

We went to Disneyland with all of Chris's family a couple of weekends ago over UEA break. We have been planning this trip for almost a year now so we were all pretty excited. Chris pulled some all nighters almost every night leading up to the trip to get all of his school stuff done. We flew there and Grant did pretty well. He was about as antsy as he is in Church so we were used to it. We really had so much fun in California. The weather was beautiful. Our group was alot of fun and we were quite the group too; 28 of us. Grant did great with everything. He LOVED the music that is playing everywhere and he was constantly bobbing his head or dancing. I really enjoyed having more than one day at Disneyland too. That helped everything be a little more relaxed. We didn't feel pressured to run from one thing to the next all day long. A big shout out of love to everyone who helped plan it. Thanks so much for the good times!

Travel and Arrival.




Riding the rides!



Grant's favorite way to wait in line. (Everyone else in that picture were strangers.)




Relaxing which eventually led to even more relaxing.



Eating! Mmmmmm!



Meeting Mickey Mouse and Frozone!



Hanging out and having the good times! (waiting with Adam for Playhouse Disney, watching the parade, posing for pictures, and riding rides together.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANT!

Today, my baby turns 1. It's weird to think that I have been doing the mom thing for a year now. I am happy to find that so far it just keeps getting better and that as more time passes the more I feel "at home" with being a mom. It was a little hard at the beginning getting used to being home all the time, having someone that completely relied on me and that I was completely responsible for, and just figuring out what my new identity was. But things have now seemed to have fallen into place and I am feeling content with my new life. I love Grant so much and I am so grateful that he is my son.

I finally figured out how to put a video together but I can't quite get it to just appear here on the blog. I just tried clicking the link and it opened up in another window. Hopefully, it will work for you. It has a ton of pictures of Grant through this past year and I'm warning you, it's long.

And, here is a list I came up with that describes our big One Year Old Boy.

Some of the things that Grant loves:

• trying to walk
• all kinds of cheese, obviously taking after his mother
• anything electronic especially if it is plugged in and working
• turning the TV on and off with the remote or with the button right on it
• seeing where we are headed in his new front facing car seat
• reading books and that means actually reading the words to him and not just turning the pages
• playing with his new birthday toys
• hearing his friends Kayden and Cameron and then wanting to play with them. He especially loves yelling back and forth with Cam.
• playing at Adam's house and with all of his toys
• climbing stairs (so far he just climbs up and then attempts to plummet down them. You really have to watch him close.)
• being outside and going on walks
• pointing at things
• yelling to hear his own voice
• high pitched screaming when he doesn't get his way (this is especially fun in church)
• mimicking sounds I make
• eating
• getting into the garbage
• pulling all of the toilet paper off the roll and then ripping it into little pieces
• his high speed army crawl (he'll crawl the other way sometimes but when he wants to go fast, down on his belly he goes)
• middle of the night bottle......Yeah, we need to work on that one.
• the piano (he's a pro already) :)
• playing peek-a-boo
• splashing as much as he can during his bath
• ripping up magazines and doing it as fast as he can as soon as mom notices and comes after him
• pulling things off shelves; books, movies, toys, games, etc. He was in heaven when we went to the library a couple of weeks ago.
• music: dancing to it or listening to people sing him songs. He loves it.
• crossing his feet whenever he is just sitting relaxed and sleeping with his hands behind his head. Every time I lay him down for bed or a nap immediately he puts his hands behind his head. It's so funny.
• little kids. He wants to be right with them doing whatever they are doing.
• anything he is not supposed to get into

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Playing Catch Up

Here is a quick catch up of things we have been up to:

• Homemade Salsa Making with my neighbor Keri. It was quite the project but it turned out very delicious so it was worth it! It was my first attempt at canning too. I tried Grandpa Bunker's method of quick sealing the bottles which explains the upside down bottles. By the way, we have already gone through half of these bottles.

• Chris surprised me with a "mini personal vacay" up to Aspen Grove. We went up Friday afternoon and came back Saturday afternoon. It was one of those marriage retreat things that they put on a couple of times a year and was really good. They fed us well, had a good speaker to listen to, had so many fun activities available and provided a beautiful setting for it all. It was great! A big thanks to Aunt Chris for watching Grant for us. That's the longest I have been away from him and it was really good for me. A nice break that was long enough to give me the chance to miss him.

• Dressing Grant up in my brothers's old Sunday outfits. Isn't he so handsome?

• Conference weekend up at the cabin which deserves a post of its own. The weather ended up making it quite the adventure. Here is a picture before the bad weather hit. Gorgeous huh? I love Fall.

Momma T's B-day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!

We love you so much!

Good Neighbors

David, we were saving this one for you but it ended up getting left on our neighbors doorstop. Don't worry, we will make sure the next big one gets cut up into some delicious zucchini casserole or spaghetti sauce that we'll share with you.

Grant gets to borrow this new toy from our neighbors. Yep, they still like us even after leaving them that big "surprise".

Hogle Zoo

During Chris's short break from school a couple weeks ago we decided to take advantage of his time off and go to Hogle Zoo. I had been before but it was long enough ago that I couldn't remember it. We just spent the afternoon there which was just enough time for Chris, Grant and I. Grant was interested at looking at all the animals but ended up being even more interested in the snow cones we got right before we went home. Here are some pictures of the fun.

Grant at 10 months

Posing for the Camera

Grant's uncles helped him out with this hairdo.

Grant showing off his silly side.

Hands and Knees

Grant reached a new milestone this week and we thought we'd share it. We thought he might skip crawling all-together seeing as how he liked the army crawl quite a bit and is anxious to get on his feet. He took his first few voluntary crawl steps this weekend. He got just a bit scraped as he decided to do it on concrete but it was great to see. We're always pretty proud of his accomplishments but this was especially fun to see. Interestingly, he took his first couple steps the next day so he might not enjoy the time on his hands and knees too long.

Shout Out to Sam

Happy Birthday Sammy-boy!

Michelle planned an awesome suprise party for Sam in connection with her family's traditional summer "rock'n'roll bbq." We had a great time rockin' to the music and visiting with family. Sam was especially suprised when he saw Mom and Caroline walk through the door with his birthday cake. He had no idea they had come up from Vegas. Thanks to all the family that could come. It was a great way to show Sam how sick he really is. Here's a couple pics from his surprise birthday party.

July Fun

First- we have our hike to Stewart Falls. Thanks much to Chris for coming with us and being such a great photographer.

Jenny and I woke up early one morning to go to the balloon launch. Jenny has been wanting to go since last year or earlier. Even though we didn't go last year, they came to us. One of the balloons had some sort of emergency landing in front of our house on the street.

Here's all of the hardcore participants in the "Garys to Grandmas" trail run this year. The race was quite a bit harder this year with a good run uphill for the first half. Congrats and thanks to everyone who participated.

Here's grant on the 4th of July. He's wearing his special 4th of July shirt which has come to be a pretty good description of his personality these days. He's hanging out in the tent. It was his first campout.

Although Grant was a bit on edge before, he was completely enthralled when the fireworks started. They kept him amazed like this for about half of the show until he fell asleep.
Last night, we had a "Festa Brasileira" (Brazilian party). We had rice, fejoada, and a delicious brazilian barbeque. (not to mention some great music by Sandy & Junior to set the atmosphere.) Thanks to Christian for getting Grant his new jersey. We'll call Grant Ronaldinhozinho as we expect him to be the next Ronaldinho.


And as a final note- Can anyone tell me why you can click on some pictures and they open full size and others you can't? Drives me nuts!