Stanton's Baptism

Our nephew Stanton was baptized today! (March 28, 2009) Trent adores Stanton! He tells me that Stanton always teaches him how to do new things - - and always says "Good job!" Trent says that even if you try and can't do it Stanton always has something nice to say!

A women from the Johnson's stake was also baptized! This reminded Trent of Dominique's baptism and the fact that some people are older than 8 when they are baptized!

There were lots of people in the Relief Society room so Josh and Blake stood! (Picture by John McAtee) We tried to give Blake a mohawk today, but the lotion did not hold! (Of course not, because it is lotion!)

Curtis, Danylle and Stanton

All of the men who confirmed Stanton!

Afterward we went to the Johnson's house for a "Hot Dog" lunch! (Stanton's choice) It looked like pretty much everyone had had cake, Grant wanted the orange balloon, so I slapped that baby on a plate! (Sorry Danylle we took such a BIG piece!)

The boys were very excited to give Stanton the tie they had chosen for him! (I sincerely let them choose without my help - - which is very hard for me to do!)

When I was a little girl, Linda Johnson (our family friend) use to say that I had a voice like a truck driver! I guess it was true, but it didn't make me feel great to have her say that! I was very loud!! Well - - our darling little Grant takes the cake! I do love when he tries to whisper because it is so intense!! At the Johnsons Grandma Stanton told me I did not need to worry about how big Grant would get because he would make up for it with voice!

Allowance

Trent has been saving for months and months to buy this imaginext thing! At Disneyland he was tempted to spend his money but overcame the urge and remembered the gorilla mountain! It has been so long since we saw it, I was grateful we found it so easily!

Grant chose a bubble gun and lacrosse sticks! (He calls them his "Catchers.") He had seen ski poles in a book and told me for days, "Mom, on my birthday list put a Pablo Gun that shoots bubbles and ice skates." Then they were skate poles, then ice sticks, then snow sticks! After looking around he decided he wanted a battery operated blue motorcycle! I told him he did not have $224! (This was yesterday.) So today we had to return something to Wal-Mart and Grant wanted to check out the snow boards, he called them! It was the underwater skateboard! He decided he wanted that! I told him he had already spent his $ and did not have any! The only way I could get the foam skateboard out of his hands was to give it to the sales clerk and ask her to save it for us! (Trent has instilled a fear in him that things will be gone! That is because Trent really wanted a stuffed zebra from Kohl's and when we went to get it for his birthday, they were gone! We ended up getting him one from Robert's Craft!)

Crazy Dudes!!

Grant loves the mini-4 wheeler and the mini-z!! He begs me all day long to ride!! Anything with a motor and gasoline is Dad's territory!! He is learning control! During the day he will go out to the trailer and sit on the mini-z! He pretends to be snowmobiling and it is soooo funny!! I let him in the trailer, then went to grab the garbage can! When I came back he was trying as hard as he could to pull start the thing!! YIKES!! We are in trouble!!

Trent does a great job with control and speed and steering!

These two want to go in the street on their bikes! The neighbor has a jump! The kids love it! He goes off and straight into the street! I told the boys they cannot do that!! Little Grant goes into the street then looks both ways!!

Monday night for FHE we read "If I Obey I'll Be Happy All Day!" It is a book from my childhood! The little boy wants to cross the street to play with his friends, but remembers FHE and his Primary lessons! He waits on the curb and his mom comes out with 3 bright pink popsicles. She crosses him and they are all happy!! We followed that with Nephi's "I must obey." For the finale some strong talk! If they go in the street once, bike is in time-out for a half hour! The second time it is hung up in the garage all day! After that no more half hours, gone all day! We explained the whole cars can't see you and driver's are not always paying attention!! We talked about parking lots too! I also threw in the story of Charles in my 3rd grade class who was killed on a skateboard! He was laying on it and went down the driveway out into the street and was hit by a car! The day of the funeral we had a half day Sub. b/c Mrs. Dreher went to the funeral!

Last Saturday when we had a babysitter and the boys were going down the driveway into the street on Josh's long board! The neighbor told me! (Thank you Joslyn!) We drilled it as hard as we could!!

So today walking into WalMart Grant stood right next to me while I was getting Blake out and said, "If you obey the whole day you'll feel great!" Close enough!!

A weekend with Rowdy!

Trent was counting down the days 'till he got to bring home the Kindergarten Class Gerbil, Rowdy!! Friday, March 20th I picked up Trent and Rowdy from school!

At 5:30pm we took Trent to Grandma Evelyn's house! He got to have a sleepover with Johnny B! Mikaylee and Hadley stayed while Ben and Beckee went to a play! Grant came home with me to see dad, who arrived around 7pm! (Once Josh got home we ran back to Evelyn's so Josh could say hello to Trent!)

Trent peeking at Rowdy but still smiling! The kids were all excited about the Gerbil! Trent was using the washcloth (which I threw away) to hold him because he was nervous! Saturday morning I called over there and he got on the phone and was super excited because he had held Rowdy many times without the washcloth!! He wanted me to tell Grant and Dad!! I guess Grandma Evelyn was calling him Rudy until Trent corrected her!

Saturday morning Grant said, "I miss Rowdy! Mom, let's go get Trent and Rowdy in the Maxima, I'll drive and you sit in back!" We picked them up and headed home to say bye to Grandma and Grandpa!

Here is some of the conversation on the way home:

Trent said, "Rowdy always has a smiley face on!"

Trent also said, "Grant you hurt his feelings, he's crying. I can tell, he's looking for his mom to tell on you!"

Grant asked how Rowdy gets a drink. Trent told him, "Grant, his house is like our house he gets a drink whenever he wants."

Trent asked Grant, "Do you love when I'm in charge of Rowdy?"

The sense of ownership Trent felt this weekend was both cute and funny!! Grant was so excited for Trent to bring Rowdy home yet very nervous!!

Grandma and Grandpa came by to say goodbye and see Rowdy! Saturday night we had a babysitter and we told Trent we did not want anyone playing with Rowdy! We did not want to lose the class pet!!

Dad and Ben Child drove Rowdy back to school for us on Monday!

Small Talk

I felt a bottom tooth yesterday! I don't know why that is so exciting to me (other than the fact I get to record it!) I yelled to Josh, "Blake cut a tooth!" I wanted the boys to come feel! Maybe part of it is that the tooth was there and it was not a horrible experience!!

Trent asked Blake to guard his cabinet last night!

It snowed last night and is still snowing today!

We had Brysen and Branson over this morning. As they left to go home across the street, Grant yelled, "Look both ways before you cross and when the school bus comes don't ride the wrong one or you will have happen to you what happened to Brado alfredo!" (Braedon got on the wrong school bus and rode far away from home and then tried to walk! Luckily Jen found him before dark!) Just for the record, no one takes the school bus in our neighborhood!

After Trent and Brysen left for school, Branson (2yrs old) came back and made snow cones with Grant! They used Strawberry Lemonade. Grant needed more "no, for his no cone" so he went to open the door with his right hand and dumped snow cone all over with his left hand because it threw him off balance!! This is very Grant!!

He loves Branson, but Branson is smaller than him! He told Branson the other day, "I am the King of you, so I get to be in front of you when we walk!" He lifts him places. Branson wanted to get up onto a diaper box, so Grant said, "Bransy let me lift you up." Then lifted him down and they fell! Branson hit his head on the diaper box and looked like he was going to cry! I said, "Oh buddy are you ok, Grant did not mean to!" Grant said, "Thank you Brans, if it's on purpose I go to time-out!" We are working on this bully feeling he seems to get!

Sunday at church Trent looked at me and asked me who we voted for! I laughed and said I voted for McCain! He said, "What mom, I voted for Barack Obama!"

One hot hubby!!

This is just a shout out to the big man in my life. If our boys turn out anything like him, I will by a lucky lady!! We love and appreciate all he does for our family. We Love Our Joshua D!!!!

Trent got a hold of the camera!!

Trent loves taking silly pictures of himself!! Last night my parents slept over! It was very fun!! We wanted to go for a walk, but Trent’s bike was broken! My mom fixed it (because she is Grandpa G’s daughter!!) When we got home my mom ran to put her PJ’s on and Trent said, “Can I see the blog!” I was thrilled!! He was feeling silly with Grandma and Grandpa and wanted me to put these pictures on the blog!

This morning after Grandma and Grandpa left, Trent and I were talking about a couple kids that are mean! He told me, “Maybe their parents were mean when they were young and so they just came out that way!” Then a little bit later he told me, “They will be terrible parents someday and I think they will smoke!”

Grant tried riding Trent’s bike and did awesome! Of course I had to catch him because it is too big for him!!

Trent and Grant were outback with a bunch of kids! Grant came running into my bedroom and I could tell he was scared! He said, “Mom, Mckinnon heard a noise and said the leprechauns are coming!” I had to run outside to make sure Cort got home safely! As I watched Cort from the sidewalk I could see Grant hiding by the garage door! He was truly scared! I felt bad!!

Grant had the little neighbor Branson come play! Branson is younger than Grant! Grant calls him Brans and Bransy! Grant came up to me and said, "I am ready for him to go home!" Then he was walking down the stairs and I asked what he was doing. He said, "Being mean!" I said, "No, where are you going?" He said, "I am going to look out the front door to see if Branson's mom is out there!"

I need to go to bed!

I forgot these pictures that I wanted to post of Blake!!

St. Patrick's Day

Trent and Grant woke up and followed the trail of Gold Coins the leprechaun left! (Sorry he doesn't have shorts on! We are not ready for undies at night yet!)

The leprechaun left green pads of paper, Andes Mints, Silly String, water balloons and ring pops!!

That silly leprechaun tinkled in our toilet!

Blake got a ball that he chewed on all morning!

The leprechaun went for it and sprung for a $5 shirt from Target (because she cannot stand to see Trent rotate his 2 favorite shirts all week long anymore!!) Luckily, he really liked it!!

Picture by Trent!

All showered and ready to head outside! The boys did not want me to make green German Pancakes because they wanted to eat cereal quick and ride their bikes! Once they went out, they rode for a while and we ended up doing water balloons all morning with lots of neighbors!! Grant was soaked!! The others stayed pretty dry (they had school later!) It was a beautiful day! The sun felt fantastic!! I remember most St. Pati's Day having snow or rain! This day was a gift!! Grant did a little weeding while Trent was at school!! He brought all the weeds into the house to show me!! Then later he drew all over the doors to the deck with black indelible ink because he couldn't find his pad of paper! The leprechauns messed up Trent's classroom and left gold coins! They flipped tables and chairs over!! Glad they don't do that at my house!! At school Trent and Brysen got a glimpse of a leprechaun!! (Oh, anything to make the end of winter fun!!)

Blake's first St. Patrick's Day!

With Dad in Ohio, we want to show him a picture of Grant riding his bike!!! Tomorrow I need to teach him how to take off on his own!!

Awesome rider!! He wants a ramp for his birthday!

Jen invited us to dinner!! Trent and Grant both fell asleep driving to her house! Blake screamed the whole way - which broke my heart!!

Dinner was yummy!! Sweet and Sour Chicken!! I really enjoyed Jill's jello and everyone said my teeth were green! The kids played "House Tag" outside! Matt's idea to make Trent and Lizzy happy! Tag for Trent and playing house for Lizzy!! Grant just really wanted to be the dad!! Jen made really good butter cream frosting!!

Just wanted to show off my socks!! Jen was laughing tonight at how OCD I am!! She thinks it is funny that I am sooo into this blog! I thought it was cute she noticed because I have felt a little OCD over this blog since I started it!! I do enjoy keeping track of thoughts, comments and pictures!! Josh, I hope you read this on your laptop! The kids talked the whole way home about how much they miss you! I wouldn't let them call because I was hoping you were asleep!! (Josh is a long distance driving STUD who was VERY VERY VERY tired Monday morning!!!)