Dress Up

Right now I am holding a sleeping baby, but she didn't go down with out a fight! I finally gave up trying to put Erin to sleep this afternoon. I finished sewing up some pants I made for her and realized she was being very quiet. This is what I found:


She had gotten into the clothes that I am trying to store away because she has outgrown them! She had 6 shirts on! She was very proud of herself and I had to get a picture!She fell asleep shortly after this without any hesitation!

Our Trip to "The Cousins"

The cousins...that's what Grant collectively calls any and all of his cousins. This time he is referring to James, Anna and Luke. We took a quick trip to Montgomery last weekend to visit Brian and Liz. While I was there, Liz and I shopped at one of the local consignment sales. We had a great time visiting and I came home with a good start to the kids' fall/winter clothing. (You have got to love consignment!)

Saturday morning we went to James' and Anna's soccer games. (Luke was unable to play last week due to a large cut he had on his chin. : ( ) James takes after his daddy and is such a natural athlete! His team won, and he scored one of the two goals for his team! Brian is one of the coaches for his team.

I didn't get any good pictures of Anna's team playing. It was their first game and the coach showed up 45 minutes late and told the parents that she wasn't going to be the coach. Luckily, some of the dad's decided that they would step and coach this year.

Erin watching the game.

Stephen and Grant

After the soccer games, we spent the rest of the day watching football and grilling out. We had some delicious food and our teams won!!!

I love this picture! James, Anna and Luke are such good cousins!

This is my attempt to get Grant in the family picture. He wouldn't stop playing with the Razor scooter!

Grant's 3rd Birthday Party

I can't believe my little boy will be three years old tomorrow. This time three years ago I was anxiously awaiting his arrival while watching college football from my hospital bed. I had no idea how much my life was going to change! I love being a mommy, and while it's the hardest job I will ever have, it's also the most rewarding.

Grant is becoming such a big boy! He loves his sister and hugs and kisses all over her. (He also chases her down and smacks her when she takes his toys...don't worry we have our fair share of fighting!) His imagination is very active! I love to watch him play. He's becoming very independent and doesn't want our help. I think we will see many changes this year!

Saturday, we had Grant's party. He wanted it to be Cars themed so I made him a Lightning McQueen cake. He loved it!

Grant and Erin eating dinner with their cousin Lindsay.

Make a wish!

He has been singing the Happy Birthday song all week. At the end of the song Grant would say, "..and many more" and I would say, "on channel four." He would always look at me and say, "Not four!!! I'm three!!!"

Sissy likes cake too! Saturday morning I had left the cake on the kitchen counter to come to room temperature before I decorated it. I heard Erin in the kitchen saying, "Yum...yum...yum..." I knew immediately what she was up to. I found her standing on a stool. She had pulled the cake board to the edge of the counter and she had taken several bites out of Lightning McQueen. I had to laugh! I ended baking a second cake. At least she didn't massacre the finished cake!

In Our House Right Now

I know---two posts in one day! I am really on a roll here. Just thought this was too cute not to share.

We bought these pj's for Grant at BJ's. Aren't they cute? They came with a Buzz Light Year pair as well. (I am sure he will wear those tomorrow night.)

Can you guess what he's watching on TV?

Sissy---prefers no clothes right now.....a problem that we are working on : ( I can't seem to keep her dressed half the time. This might account for the lack of photos lately. I haven't taken many this month.

Just a Quick Post

Sorry for the limited blogging I have been doing lately. I really have a good excuse. I have been busy----sewing mostly in my "spare" time. Hopefully, I will do better here in the future.

I just wanted to share something written by a blogger whose site I frequent. It struck home with me the instant I read it. While I do work outside the home on a part time basis, my "real job," the one I treasure the most, is the job of wife and mommy. It is the most rewarding, while also the most difficult job I have had by far. My days at the office are a breeze compared to the job I have at home. I have been fortunate to have a job where I can work just a few hours a week and I am thankful that my boss was so willing to work with me when I told him I was cutting back my hours.

For all the stay at home moms out there please take a moment to read this post, "On Luck."

From the Potty Training Trenches

We are making progress with potty training Grant. I was trying not to push it too much, but he woke me up in the middle of the night twice this week to go potty. At first, I thought he was trying to trick me into letting him stay up, but when I sat him on the potty he went. Then he went right back to sleep! So, I have decided to really try to make this happen. Erin has been using the potty too, so we went and bought her a pink potty yesterday. (They were fighting over the potty) My original plan was to fore go the potty chair all together, but Grant is still terrified of the big potty, so we are taking baby steps. This chart has been on the fridge for the past two months. Grant now has 16 stars! Most of which he has earned the past 3 days. He has been allowed to put the star in the box that's why they are scattered all over his chart. We told him we'd buy him a big boy bicycle when he learns to use the potty.

I went ahead and made Erin a chart of her own yesterday since she is using the potty too! I thought it might spark some healthy competition between the two of them. She ended up with 5 stars yesterday.

It's been a long weekend already. Constantly using the potty (x2) but it will be worth it when we don't have to buy anymore diapers!

A Conversation With Grant

Tonight, as Grant was getting ready for bed:

Me: (while hugging Grant goodnight) "Grant, you are growing up so fast! You are so cute right now, will you stay like this forever?"

Grant: "Noooo! I not cute! I grow big to the sky like Daddy!"

Well, I guess I can't stop the inevitable, but it would be nice to make time slow down for a change. They grow up too fast!

Finally....the Rest of the Vacation!

I have been a very bad blogger!!! I apologize for neglecting the blog for so long, but I just haven't been in the mood to blog. I will give a quick recap of our family vacation. We swam. We ate (a lot!). We swam some more! No really, we had a wonderful, relaxing week at the beach. Stephen and I enjoyed spending time with the entire family creating memories. Here are just a few pictures from the rest of the week.

This is usually what I am up to. (Brian took this picture of me.)

Erin is absolutely fearless. The little girl LOVES the water and was actually trying her best to jump out of our arms into the ocean every chance she could get. She'd ride on the boogie board too (with some assistance). She had a blast at the beach this year!

Grant is the opposite of his little sister. He is terrified of the ocean. Always overly cautious with all that he does. I bought the truck at Publix for $15!!! It was a hefty price tag for a plastic dump truck, but it ended up being worth every penny. He wouldn't even come down to the beach before I bought it. After I gave him the truck, he'd spend the whole day playing in the sand.

We are in TROUBLE in a few years!

Sand....

Sand...

and more sand!

This year everybody went home on Friday instead of Saturday morning. Brian and Liz had a wedding and a speaking engagment in Jacksonville, and mom and dad went on home with them. Stephen and I decided to stay one more night because we were on vacation. We took the kids and went to dinner that evening and stopped by the outlet mall one more time where the kids had fun playing on the playground.

A gentleman passing by noticed that we were trying to take a picture of ourselves and graciously offered to take one for us.

The kids playing on the playground at the outlet mall.

It was a great week. Can't wait to do it again next year!

Vacation Day 3

Vacation Days 1 and 2

We've been enjoying our time here at Blue Mountain Beach. The Internet connection isn't the greatest so this is the first time I have been able to upload pictures to the blog.

Mimi's been catching some waves on the boogie board. After Mimi had a few rides on the boogie board Anna told Mimi, "Grandparents don't boogie board!" Mom replied, "This Mimi does!"

James

The cousins watching Harry Potter

James, Anna, Luke

The family (minus Chris...we missed you this year!)

We're So Excited!

We are leaving for our week at the beach this morning! Erin's been up since 5 am. This was the scene at our breakfast table this morning! Poor baby all tuckered out already!

Erin's New Bed and More

This picture is out of order, but blogger is not cooperating so it must stay here. This is Erin's new bedding for her big girl bed. See below for more details.

These first few photos have nothing to do with the title of today's post, but I just wanted to share them with you. Grant has really begun to use his imagination lately. I can here him in his room "reading" his books and talking to his toys. Yesterday, he was pretending to be a race car, but then he "broke" a wheel so he ran around with a limp! He cracks me up sometimes.

Here the kids are brushing there teeth. Nothing too exciting here, I just love how they stand up there together and do it. These two have to do everything the other is doing.

Erin is really into her baby dolls now. She's so sweet and rocks and kisses them. She's going to be such a good mommy one day!

She also is into accessorizing these days. This is something that I rarely do. It's usually just my wedding rings and a pair of earrings for me. Maybe she can teach me a thing or two about fashion. I did her hair like this for the first time today. The smile on her face was priceless when she saw herself in the mirror. I think she approved of the new do!

Erin also has a new big girl bed! She sleeps much better in this than her crib. It has a trundle too! I found the bedding at Marshall's and it looks great with the lime green walls! I still need to make new curtains, but that will need to wait until after vacation.

Trains have taken over our house! My boss was kind enough to give us his son's train table and all of his trains. Grant is in heaven! He can play for hours in there. I am not sure that we are going to keep both train tables out, but for now I am going to let him have his fun.

Last but not leas,t here is what I quickly came up with this weekend for Erin to wear in our family pictures at the beach. I kind of forgot about it, so this was last minute. I used what I had in my stash, except for lace which was a purchase from Joann's. It's not Strasburg, but I like what I came up with. I still need to make her a matching bow! Now, I just need to find outfits for the rest of us. A shopping trip is in order!