Easter

Easter was a great time. We dyed easter eggs at our house (Grant ended up with yellow legs from spilling a cup of dye on himself), went to a breakfast and egg hunt at the church (Emma found a Golden Egg--with daddy's help), met the Easter Bunny, and left a note for him at our house.**

**Emma was terrified of the thought of the Easter Bunny coming INTO our house, so she wrote him a nice little note asking him to leave the eggs and presents outside, which we taped on the door.**

It worked like a charm!!

Tender Hearts

Today I realized what great kids I have. I know that they aren't always sugar and spice and everything nice, but tonight was one of those "makes you glad for what you've got" moments.

While playing together this evening, Emma & Grant decided to ride their scooter in the house (yeah, don't ask). And while they were doing this Emma ACCIDENTLY ran over Grant's toe. Which obviously made Grant cry. Jamie, very lovingly, comforted Grant and asked Emma to come tell her brother she was sorry and to give him a hug, which she did with no protest.

Then dinner was done and I called her down to eat. She comes down the stairs with tears in her eyes wiping away at her face, but trying to pretend she was okay. She took one look at me and burst into tears again. Through the sobs I concluded that she was heart broken that she had run over her brothers toes and made him cry.

At this point he was already chowing down on dinner, the toe incident far behind him. It then took me another 5 minutes to console her and get her to eat dinner too.

I hope this kind of innocence and compassion sticks around in the teenage years to come!! Wish me luck

COOKIES!!

Grant has officially reached the cookie making age. Last weekend he climbed the 2 step on the kitchen stool and assumed the position. He stirred, mixed, cracked, and poured his way to a successful batch of cookies. With only one flour incident! And Emma stayed close enough to give a few pointers to her brother. Gotta' love it!

When you are tired.......

you'll sleep ANYWHERE!! A couple of weeks ago I went to Nursery to pick up Grant and they told me that Jamie had picked him up early, because he was kind of having a hard time. So Emma and I made our way down to the clerks office where he is usually counting tithing. This is what we found when we walked in. About 4 adults, with Grant asleep on Jamie's suit jacket. I guess the change to 11am church has really cut into nap time.

January At A Glance

Well, I'm glad I didn't make a new years resolution to keep up with our Blog--because that one would have been long broken. So instead, I'll recap a little bit on January and keep going with February. We started the year by taking the kids to the snow. Jamie has found an old ski hill which has been turned into a SnoPark, up HWY 88. We were able to take the snowmobile and the quad up to ride. Emma LOVES everything about the snowmobile, and Grant tolerated the quad with me. We hope its just the snow, and that he'll grow out of it. Or maybe it was the fact that he had grown out of his ski bibs, and we had to borrow our neighbors pink ones. OPPS!!

Then, California got hit with a few major storms in January. Okay, major for California. But we enjoyed every minute of it. The kids were thrilled when I let them get their rain gear on and umbrellas out to go play. I had to watch them close, because the wind almost took them halfway down the street!!

And finally, we (me and the kids) took a trip to Arizona to see their cousins. We spent a week, playing at the park, going to the zoo, and just hanging out.

Cheerleading

Emma has been taking a cheerleading class through the local parks and recreation. She enjoyed it--but decided its really not her thing. They ended the season with a performance that she did a great job at!!

Christmas Recap

Merry Christmas to everyone. We have been very blessed this year, and have really got to enjoy this season together. We have done the usual holiday stuff, decorate the tree, christmas cookies, see neighborhood lights, and visit Santa. Chriatmas day with highlighted by a new quad for Emma and Grant. They have enjoyed riding with Daddy the last couple of months, so Santa thought they would enjoy one of their own--HE WAS RIGHT!! We have been riding at Grandma and Papa Redfearns, and we can't get them off!! Emma is a daredevil, and Grant is coming up right behind her when is thumb gets a little bit bigger to reach the throttle--WATCH OUT!! Here are a few pictures that show just a little of what's been going on:

Faces

I love it when Emma gets in a silly mood. She is a master of faces....take a look:

The Thinker

Silly Tounge

Surprised

Sad

Cross Eyed??

Firsts

Here are a few of Grant's Firsts within the last month:

Going to the beach. We realized that Grant is almost 2, and hadn't been to the beach yet. So one Sunday we hoped in the car and drove to

Half Moon Bay-(gotta love living in California--sometimes)





Riding a horse. While up at Apple Hill, Grant spoted the horse rides from far away and was beside himself. He showed no fear, walking up all by himself, getting on, and riding without so much as a glance back at mom and dad. We think he had the biggest horse at the place!!

Preschool Skating Party

Today was the last day of preschool before the Christmas holiday, and they had a party at the local skating rink (Yes, Kings Skate still exists for those of you old timers). Emma was quite the pro on "real" skates. Only about a dozen kids (out of 48) had them on.

And Grant got in on the action too. He was manly enough to wear his sisters princess skates. The only problem was, he was more interested in falling down--on purpose--than actually skating.

Santa even showed up!! Don't ask about Emma's hair, she insists on having bangs--its killing me!!

The Christmas Train

This year we went on the Christmas train in Woodland. Grant is crazy about trains right now, so we knew it would be a great splurge. The whole trip he basically sat at the window looking out saying "Choo, Choo!" And when the whistle would blow--we thought his face might break from his smile being soooooo big. We saw an elf named Snickerdoodle, who read us a book, and man who sang songs, and of course Santa. Merry Christmas to everyone!!

By the way--Emma has informed me today that we only have 6 days until Christmas, so we better start "fluffing our branches" (on the tree) and wrapping presents! =-)


The cookies were as big as there heads, but didn't stop them from digging in.




Grants position-at the window-almost the entire ride.

One More Room......

Opps, I forgot the most important room--to Jamie anyway. He calls it "THE MAN ROOM", or the game room for the kids. Now the air hockey table does not double as my dining room table! Grant loves to "shoot hoops" with his little basketball here.

The New House

Well, if you haven't already heard, we have moved!! Okay, so we moved the end of September to be exact. But it has just been too crazy to get the word out--officially. Here are some pics of the new digs. We love it!! I'll send out an email with our new address. Come see us anytime--we've got the room now!