The Lovinger's

New Car and Our 18 Month Old!

2012-02-12T13:12:00.000-08:00

We decided it was finally time to be a two-car family. It has been hard only having one car, but since Cameron works so many nights, that allowed me to have the car most days. It just took a lot of extra scheduling and getting lots of rides from people. Cameron even took the bus to work a few times which was not fun for him. It took him TWO HOURS to get to work, which normally would take him 25-30 minutes. ANYWAY, with us moving to a new house soon( I will talk about that in a minute), we thought it was a good idea for me to always have a car in case of an emergency-(I have felt ok about the emergency thing since right now we live in a duplex with our friends and they pretty much always have a car around that we could use if we needed to.) Also, since Cameron will be starting school in August and will need the car every weekday, it was just time. We had been looking around casually for a few months, but after Christmas we got to work. We got a great deal on a 2004 Chevy Aveo (yeah, I had never heard of it either), but it gets great gas mileage and came from an owner that took good care of it. It is a pretty small car, but we didn't need it to be big since it is just going to be Cameron's car to get to and from school/the hospital for clinicals etc. It definitely gets the job done and so far we really like it and are very happy with the purchase.

Here are a couple pictures of the car. **These are from my phone, so they aren't the best.

Well, here he is folks! Our 18 Month Old!

This is him on February 7th-the day he turned 18 Months.

I am trying to remember his exact stats from his dr appt right now, so here are what I remember and when I get the actual numbers, I will put them up here.

Height: 32inches-45th percentile

Weight: 28lbs 4oz -74th percentile (again these might not be exactly right, but they are very close).

the dr said that Grant had stayed on a very consistent growth curve since birth(apparently it's good that he has been growing at a regular pace.)

I'm trying to think of all the words that he says... I took a little video the other day, but Cameron said I need to do another one because I couldn't remember half of the words he can say. So I will do another and get that up soon. But for now, here is just a list:

"pate"-plate

"Miii"-milk

"peeese"-please

chair

door

"III KK"-I'm ok

Ball

"caka"-cracker

car

"fooobaall"-football

bed

"Pabo:-Pablo, his favorite cartoon character

doggie

"tichen"-kitchen

"Caddie"-Callie, his friend and downstairs neighbor

"Nenna"-Jenna, his friend and downstairs neighbor

choo choo-train

"baanky"-Blankie

cheese

"wadddder"-water

"hep"-help

"showdo"-shower

"cuddor"-color

He can repeat almost anything you say to him, but these are things he says on his own. I know there are several more, but I can't think right now. Maybe i'll add some when Cameron wakes up to go to work- Everyone asks us if it is weird having such an opposite schedule with Cameron working nights fulltime. We are pretty used to it since he has been doing pretty much only nights for a good year and a half now. But yes, it is still somewhat weird thinking about how "normal" people go to work 9-5, Mon-Fri. We will never have that schedule, but we like the perks that come with the schedule we have right now too. We will be good with whatever schedule he has. If anything this schedule has just taught us early on how to be adaptive and go with the flow! (:

I need to add some videos of this CRAZY bath-taker. You can kind of see in this picture how much the water is moving. He is a maniac in the tub.

"What? I didn't do anything. Look at my innocent little face..."

The next several pictures are all from my phone. I need to get a phone that takes better quality pictures since I snap so many quick pictures on it. These are all from the past several weeks or so.

Grant snuggling with me in bed after church. He refused to take even a short nap(church is right during his nap time), but he laid there for a bit and that was nice.

This was Grant after his 18 month checkup. This picture basically sums up his feeling about the dr's office. The whole office(including all the receptionists, nurses, and our dr) have an ongoing joke about Grant that he never smiles and that he just takes his health very seriously. He didn't even have to get any shots or anything this time and he still is just so serious. We have brought them pictures and videos because they wanted proof that he laughed and smiled. We really love our dr and the whole office. They totally know us when we call or come in and they always make you feel like they have all the time in the world for your visit. I have never felt rushed or blown off at all, which is so nice since the dr we took Grant to until he was 3 months old NEVER knew who we were and ALWAYS acted in a super hurry and blew off any concerns I had. (Sorry that was not supposed to turn into a rant, but there you go).

haha! I love this picture. Just him being goofy in the tub again.

We had a few really nice days in January and one was even nice enough that we headed to the park to make the most of it.

Grant got two of his very own plates which he loves. He always insist that he needs his "pate" every time he eats, even just "cakas" -crackers.

We have been doing a lot of this lately... Child labor. Just kidding(mostly). We had also started looking for a new place to live after we found out that Cameron had been accepted at Case Western, but had not planned on moving until late April or maybe even May. We had looked around for a bit, but again, through connections of some friends of ours, we found a perfect house fast. It was going to be ready ASAP. So after going and looking at it a few times and meeting with the landlord, we decided that it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

This has all happened in the past two weeks and we will be moved in on February 27th! I was asking Cameron "why is it that we can never move at a normal pace. It seems like every time we move we are in a rush. This is nothing compared to our last move into this house(where we had to be out in TWO days), but it stills seems somewhat rushed.

I will post pictures of the move itself and then of the house once we are all moved in. I think I will like this move much better than the last one since we won't have a 6-week old to take care of and then leave on vacation two days after moving in. We should be able to just take our time and get everything set up just how we want it. The whole idea of moving was to find a house big enough for us to grow into over the next 5 1/2 years that we will be in Cleveland. This house should have plenty of space and we love it! I love the idea of knowing that we will be there for a good chunk of time. So for the next two weeks, we will be doing LOTS of packing and hopefully I will have pictures to show you not too much after that.

Here is Grant with his best friend, Marin. They were born on the same day, which is fun. They both light up when they see each other and have lots of fun playing and getting into trouble together. We will be sad to see them move to Montana in a few months, but are excited they get to be close to family again.

I just thought this picture was cute. Grant was waiting so patiently as I changed our laundry in the basement. As you can see, he was very ready to go outside and play, but he just sat and rocked in the rocking chair until I was finished.

A couple of pictures from an impromptu fun day as a family.

First off, Cameron and Grant both had to get some routine blood work done= NOT fun for anyone! So after that I took them to a fun little diner in Cleveland. It is actually one of the places that Cameron and I stopped at when we first flew out to Cleveland to look for a place to live over two years ago, so it had some sentimental value (really the only memory I have from it is walking out the door after eating there, getting about ten feet from the car and losing my entire meal on the snow in the parking lot... good ol' morning sickness. Anyway, here are the boys drinking the BEST fresh squeezed OJ.

After breakfast, we all went home and took naps. Then we decided that since Grant had been so good the past few days(looking at millions of cars and then waiting at the DMV to get our new car all registered) that we wanted to go do something fun. Cameron had the day off, so it was perfect. We went to the Bay Village Nature park. The last time we were there Grant was too little to really enjoy it, but this time he loved seeing all the animals and all the other cool kid stuff they have.

Here he is in a spacesuit

After the nature park, we went on a walk and then went to Chik Fil-A for dinner. Grant loved the food(he has become quite the picky eater lately) and loved the cow mascot who would come over and talk to him. It was the first time we had been there, but if they can get Grant to eat WHILE being entertained, we might become frequent visitors. (:

Christmas 2011

2012-01-03T20:22:00.001-08:00

This post is late getting up here because my camera died a day into the trip and I didn't have the charger so I have been busy collecting pictures from everyone else. I think I finally have all of them now, so here it is!

We had an awesome Christmas this year. It was fun to see Grant actually enjoy opening his toys and playing with them after. Cameron had to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas day so Grant and I went ahead to Spokane without him. We left on the 16th and Cameron was able to fly in on the 28th(our 4th wedding anniversary).

Grant and I stayed with my parents for the first week and a half, had Christmas with them on the realt Christmas day, and then moved over and stayed the rest of the time at the Lovinger's. We had tons of fun getting to hang out with Cole and Erin and Paige and Brooke(all of my siblings). Also, we were excited that this year ALL of my cousins that I grew up close with were able to be home with their spouses/families. We had one day dedicated to just hanging out with them and we all loved it!

Over at Lovinger's, everyone was super nice to postpone Christmas until after Cameron got there. You would have never known it wasn't really Christmas day. We opened stockings and presents, had a delicious, festive dinner and everything. we got to spend a lot of time with the newlyweds, Sean and Melissa. Grant LOVED both of them and we all had tons of fun together. Nicole and Tyler couldn't come up this year, but we still exchanged presents and got to skype several times. We loved getting to see Katelyn and baby Jackson. They had us for Christmas and got Grant the coolest little kid video game thing. He is loving it!

We saw several movies while we were home including War Horse and Mission Impossible. We also saw lots of friends and family, had lots of good food, and just had a ton of fun relaxing and letting everyone get to know Grant more.

Present "wrap-up":

Cameron:

New shoes

Roku(it's like Apple Tv, if you know what that is)

a sweet pocket knife thing

movies

books

Hillary:

Cycling shoes(watch out spin classes!)

a willow tree person that will look way cute in our new house

a cookboook

movies

books

boots

BLOG BOOKS!!!- I have to write a little about this gift because it was SO great. I have been telling Cameron a lot this past year or so that I would like to print our blog into books by each year. So eventually I would have however many volumes of "journals" to look back on. I just wasn't sure how to go about it and even though I had checked in to several different sites that do it, I just could not commit and was nervous that I would spend the money and not like them. Well, Cameron TOTALLY surprised me and did them for me! They are done by year so we have 3 volumes right now (he was going to do 2011, but then decided he would wait so we could add in Christmas and all the end of the year stuff first). They are perfect and the picture quality is great. I was really impressed!

Grant:

LOTS of toy trains and cars(he loves them!)

toddler video games

two different sets of blocks

a quilt

clothes

a toy workbench

Also, the biggest part of all of our presents was that both of our parents helped out with our plane tickets to actually get us home! That was by far the best gift.

Paige holding her favorite nephew

Dad on Christmas morning. Lining up their present from us kids. It was a picture of each of us(and our family if applicable) and we were each holding a letter of the word "LOVE". It was cute and they loved it. I believe in this picture Dad was saying he thought it spelt "EVOL"- yeah....

Watching Grant open his presents

The Skelton kids ready for church on Christmas morning

Grant was getting FIVE molars in while we were home and he was NOT happy some days... That is a big tear drop on his cheek

the Skelton family-Cameron

Grandma with all the Thompson Grandkids

playing with Grandpa Clint

this pictures is cute and funny to me. I didn't even know Paige was taking pictures of us, but that is me holding my cousin's little boy Spencer. Right after Paige took this she said "it is clear you want another kid..." haha, we'll have to see about that.

grant watching the deer in the backyard

scaring uncle Cole with the drumstick

trying on Grandpa's shoes

still obsessed with anything sticky

smiley boy

playing with his Christmas presents

sleepy boy with Grandpa

bath time crazziness

wrestling with Grandpa

Grant LOVED his Grandpa and Papa. He would follow them both around and say their name ALL day, and when they would leave for work or whatever he would constantly ask where they were.

playing with daddy

While we were home we met up with Jon and Michelle and their kids. We decided to go to Chuck E. Cheese so the kids could play, but obviously we joined in on the fun too.

Michelle

Jon

Cameron

playing peek-a-boo with daddy

Uncle Sean and Grant

Brothers

Watching the BYU bowl game

"Touchdown!!!"

Christmas at Lovinger's.

This picture is HILARIOUS!!! Grant was quite the crack-up while opening presents.

hahaha....so excited

Playing with Papa

I was so happy that Grant really enjoyed playing with his great- grandparents the night before they left to go to Africa on their mission.

Grant got to play with some older boy cousins on the Lovinger side and he loved it. He acted all cool and you could tell he thought he was 10 years old too.

While we were in Spokane, Cameron and I were able to celebrate four years of wedded bliss(sounds cheesy, but what can I say, it's true!) the best part of the night was that we were able to do everything with gift cards that we either had still from our birthdays or Christmas. We saw Sherlock Holmes and both enjoyed that(except for the 10 minutes in the middle where Cameron may or may not have found me taking a little nap (; ). After the movie we went out to dinner at Red Lobster. Neither of us had been there before and we both really liked it.

us at Red Lobster

by the big Christmas tree at River Park Square

I had to put this picture in here. My sister Paige is a very talented photographer and took some "Spokane" pictures while we were home. I love this one.

We obviously all had a great time being home and loved spending time with so much family! Can't wait till we can see everyone again.

Thanksgiving and Birthday Fun!

2011-12-01T09:45:00.000-08:00

We have had a great November, between Thanksgiving, my 24th birthday, and Cameron getting accepted to Nurse Anesthesia school!

I put the pictures in the reverse order and don't want to fix them, so start at the bottom and work your way up...

The last day of November we got a letter in the mail saying that Cameron had been accepted to Nurse Anesthesia school at Case Western University here in Cleveland. It is really a great school(ranked #6 in the nation for Nurse Anesthesia) and was our top choice. He will begin the program in August and it's 28months long. It will be a long 28 months, but So worth it. After he graduates from school, he has agreed to work for the Cleveland Clinic as a Nurse Anesthetist for the time that he was in the program, so we will be here for another 28 months after school. So about 5 more years in all. It will be a really good opportunity for him to get a couple years of work experience under his belt before we hopefully move back to Washington.
We are so excited that we didn't have to move to some random new place and that we can stay with our ward and all our friends here in Cleveland. It is such a blessing to get in here and we are so grateful for this opportunity. Thanks for everyone's thoughts, prayers, and support through the application process!

they have a little viewing deck on top of the restaurant, so we tried to take a picture of us and the view. This was the best we got.

the view right out the window!! So pretty

We told the waitress to take a picture with the view in the background, but she obviously didn't understand (:

At our table. We were in a raised booth that gave us the perfect view.

Shrimp stuffed crab cakes for our appetizer

Cameron's food...Blackened Hawaiian Mahi Mahi

Purple Peruvian Mashed Potatoes, Avocado Salsa

This was my food. Hearth Oven Roasted Cedar Planked Organic Salmon

With Braised Organic Spinach and Rosemary Roasted New Potatoes(copied and pasted from the menu(: )

We got our virgin drinks and we ready to go!

Cameron's last big present of the day was making arrangements for our neighbors to take the monitor after Grant was in bed and taking me to dinner. It wasn't just Applebees either. Apparently he had read about this restaurant in a magazine while he was waiting for me to do a urine sample at a dr appt before Grant was born. He said he wanted to take me last year, but it was still just too crazy with Grant being so little. So he made reservations a while ago and wouldn't tell me where we were going. It is called Pier W and is literally on Lake Erie. i guess in the magazine it was rated the best view in Cleveland, and that was well deserved. You looked out the windows and there is just water and then the downtown skyline. It was all lit up and SO pretty. I LOVED it!!

Here we are just before leaving our house

Shay took me out to lunch at an awesome place I had never been before. It was really good food and even better company!

After we ate, we walked over to the running store to look for some winter running gear. We always have fun trying everything on...

This was another awesome present that Cameron surprised me with. He got us tickets to a Cirque Du Soleil show that is coming to Cleveland in the spring. We have seen a couple of them in Las Vegas and I always love them, and i'm sure this one will be great too.

Cameron got me these beautiful flowers. He listened when I had casually said that I like Costco flowers, so he got them from there. I loved them.

Tessa took the camera and decided to go on a little photo shoot!

a sample of her work

the delicious food!

Some of the group relaxing after dinner

trapped!

After our morning run Jill and the girls and Grant and I went to watch the husbands play some turkey bowl football.

It was freezing, so we didn't stay for the whole thing, but it was fun getting to watch for a bit.

Grant playing

starting the game

So cute of Callie and Grant

Shay, Mamie and I started out Thanksgiving with our very own 5 mile turkey trot. It was a great way to start out the day.

Halloween Festivities

2011-11-07T03:58:00.000-08:00

We actually carved pumpkins this year. It was fun, especially when we realized that we had not done it once in the past 5 years that Cameron and I have been together. We thought Grant would love the gooey insides of the pumpkins, but he really didn't want much to do with any of it. He ended up running around the house like a wild man until Cameron and I had finished ours. On Halloween, we went Trick-or-Treating in Bay Village with the Coils. It was lots of fun, especially seeing how much fun their kids were having since they actually knew what was going on. Grant was Dumbo this year and had an ADORABLE costume. Everyone LOVED him and one couple even stopped us and asked if they could take a picture with him. They said they were from Germany and they don't have Halloween there and wanted to show all their friends how cute Grant was. It was funny. I can just imagine a picture of Grant being passed around in Germany to people who don't even know him and laughing and saying how cute he is. We only actually took Grant up to a few doors since he didn't know any better and we didn't want the candy around our house. It was a fun night and I can't wait until Grant knows what is going on and is really excited about the night.

Grant likes standing on our step stool to help us cook.

The before pictures

Grant not wanting to help scoop out the insides

scooping out Grant's pumpkin

I love this picture. This was after Grant made it clear that he did not want to touch the gooey stuff, but he definitely wanted to stay in charge of the whole process. Here he was directing Cameron on exactly how to make his pumpkin.

scooping out my pumpkin

haha, this one catches me off guard every time. Cameron and I were hard at work on our pumpkins and Grant was running around the house moving random toys around(you can see a measuring cup and a caterpillar next to him). Anyway, I heard a rip of velcro and when I turned around Grant had his diaper(we had just put it on him a few minutes before, so it was very clean), in his hands and was running at full speed doing some sort of Indian chant. It was hilarious, so Cameron grabbed the camera and got these pictures of the episode.

Sorry, some full frontal nudity... He must have been getting a little shy and was trying to cover his face.

Grant helping me carve

The whole family with our finished pumpkins

An owl on a tree branch(mine), a frowny face(Grant's) and a spider in a spider web(Cameron's)

This was Halloween night. We borrowed the wagon from the Coils and as soon as we put Grant in it, he laid back and was totally relaxed and kicked back the rest of the night.

It was SOO cute and we had a billion people stop and say how adorable and funny it was. He would just stick his hand up in the air when people would pass, kinda saying "what's up?"

cute close up

just chillin and checking everything out

cutest Dumbo ever!

Love this shot...

Grant looking not-so-happy to be in his costume

Cincinnati Half Marathon

2011-10-31T08:53:00.000-07:00

On October 22nd I did my FIRST half marathon. I say first with such emphasis because I think I am hooked and want to do more! Four of my friends and I had been training since mid-July and after many EARLY Saturday morning runs, the big day finally came. We drove down to Cincinnati on Friday the 21st and checked into the hotel(we actually stayed in Tennessee, just on the other side of the river from Ohio). Then we drove downtown to pick up packets with shirts, bibs, and timing chips. After that we headed back to the hotel. We got a little side tracked on our way back when our GPS took us to a random small road that led to the river and said "board ferry". Cameron was very excited for this little adventure and we ended up riding for free because we had no idea what we were doing and got on before we knew you had to have cash, which we didn't, so the people were nice and felt bad for the dumb out-of-towners and let us stay on. We had ordered pizza with the Coils, but they ended up LOSING our order and after making some heated phone calls and talking to the manager, we got the pizza for free(yay). We at the pizza when it FINALLY got there and went to bed shortly after that. Sara, Shay and I planned to meet in the lobby of the hotel at 6:45am to head downtown for the race together. We met up and headed to the race start. It was FREEZING... like literally. I didn't bring a jacket with me or wear long pants or long sleeves because I knew I wouldn't want them once I was a few miles into the race, but that made waiting for the start very cold and seem longer than it actually was. We really didn't do much waiting around. Just went to the bathroom in a line about 60 people long, and then got lined up a few minutes after that. It took me 4 or 5 miles just to get to the point that I could feel my fingers and toes again. After that I was able to get into a pretty good groove and felt totally fine... UNTIL miles 12 and 13. Those were killer and I was just tired. I definitely owe making it to the end and running the whole way to my friend Mamie who ran the whole way with me and we definitely pushed each other when we needed it. I also owe ALOT to Shay and Sara for being my moral support through it all. We have seen each other through a lot of rough days(running and not) and I could not have done it without them. I think overall the race went really well for being my first one. I was happy with my time (2:21:19.2), and it was just so fun to do with friends and see all our husbands and kids cheering us on at the finish line.

Grant on the drive down to Cincinnati. I made the mistake of giving him the whole can of baby cheeto things... but it kept him happy for a while, so whatever.

Cameron took this picture on his phone while I was getting my race packet. I liked it and Cameron said Grant loved the leaves and was running around like a wild man in the huge field of grass by the packet pickup.

After picking up my packet we walked around the cool park by the river. This is the guy Cincinnati is named after.

watching the ferry come to pick us up

on the ferry crossing the river

Mamie and I running the last 50 yards to the finish line.

Grant and I RIGHT after crossing the finish line. I could barely hold him (:

oh, and look at his shirt! It says "Run Mommy Run" We actually got it in some hand-me-down clothes by chance and it was PERFECT. I loved it!

Thanks Mamie!

Me, Shay and Sara

YAY! WE DID IT!!!

The whole group that did it

After the race...Even though it was pretty chilly, it was VERY sunny. That's why Grant isn't

looking at the camera and I am squinting pretty bad.

The next half marathon has already been scoped out. I am going to train for it, but am going to register as soon as I know if Cameron and I will even be living here in May so I can do it. Getting pumped already!

Sleeping video

2011-10-31T04:35:00.000-07:00

Grant had Croup about a month ago. We took this video on the first day that we knew he was definitely sick, but thought it was just a cold. We could tell he was feeling horrible and even called the dr to see if we should bring him in right then, but it was 6pm so she said unless we wanted to bring him to the ER we would just need to wait till the morning and she could get us in first thing. So we decided to just wait and get him something to eat really quick and put him to bed early. Well, this is what happened when we were trying to feed him before putting him to bed...

He falls asleep and then keeps eating WHILE he's sleeping! SO funny! We knew we had a talented kid, but this is just above and beyond (:

Road Trip to Rhode Island

2011-10-18T04:22:00.000-07:00

Last week we made an impromptu trip to Rhode Island. Cameron had applied to a Nurse Anesthesia school there and they called to see if we could be there within a few days for an interview so we told them yes, then madly figured out Cameron's work schedule and got people to cover our church stuff for us. So Tuesday morning we all loaded up in the car and got ready for the 11 hour drive there. It wasn't as bad as I was imagining and Grant did great. We drove all day Tuesday, played in the pool and helped Cameron study up for his interview Wednesday morning, he went to the interview in the afternoon and then we got something to eat, walked home in the cold and rain in downtown Providence(fun times), and went to bed. Then we got up bright and early Thursday and got back in the car for the drive home. SUPER fast trip, but it will be worth it if he gets into school!- we won't know anything until December.

Here is a sample of the things he did to keep himself busy. I had also gone to the dollar section at Target the night before and bought just about every toy that looked like it might keep him entertained for a while, and i'm glad I did because all those things together really helped.

Coloring... not quite sure he knew what the point of it all was, but it was one more thing to take up a few minutes.

Watching Backyardigans. He really only likes the beginning and ending of the show for some reason. He would dance and move around for those parts, but lose interest during the actual show. It kept him occupied for maybe 30 minutes.

Eating a fruit leather thing. He loved them

I brought a small cookie sheet and a bunch of colorful magnets... He enjoyed playing around with those until he decided the magnets were more fun to throw on the floor.

ahhhhh... nap time

Grant played with this aluminum foil for a bit-look at his crazy hair! funny

And finally pulling out the big guns... I had hoped that we wouldn't have to resort to this, but the last hour we were in desperate need of something else, so we gave him a dum dum. He quite enjoyed it and it kept him happy for quite a while.

...you can tell he is a little loopy and sick of the car. He started putting the sucker in his nose and eyes and laughing... he LOVES anything and everything sticky!

I realized on our way home that I really only took like three pictures not in the car... but since most of our trip was in the car, I guess that's fitting.

pool time at the hotel

He liked to climb out of the pool(by himself using the ladder on the side I might add-how does he know how to do that!?!?), and walk over to the chairs and try each one out and then run (which was dangerous and slippery) and jump back in to Cameron.

Wasting time during Cameron's interview...Looking out the window in our hotel room. He would wave and yell at the people on the street below.

Watching dad gas up the car before heading home

Grant was doing so well the whole way home that we hardly had to stop at all and then the last 1.5 hours he was just not happy so when we saw this huge field of grass at a vineyard visitor center, we pulled over and played for about 20 minutes. We just all ran around and had fun. There were lots of older couples who were pointing at us and laughing. I'm sure they were just thinking " I wish we had been that fun of parents when we were younger" (: OR they might have been thinking "those people are crazy and need to compose themselves"... either one is fine.

"FREEDOM!"

playing with mom

There was a big hill of Grass and Cameron rolled down it several times with Grant. You can see how dirty he is from it, but they both LOVED every minute as you can tell by their faces. oh, Grant didn't have pants on because we didn't see that his water had tipped upside down in the car and his pants were soaking wet. So we took them off for the last hour of the drive.

This was about 30 minutes from home. I was desperately trying to keep him awake so he would go to bed as soon as we got home, so I handed him a glow stick that Cameron had bought for the trip thinking it would keep him occupied-- didn't work (:

And here are some random pictures from the past month or so...

We were at the park one afternoon and there was limitless grass to play in, but Grant grabbed a stick and went to the 3ft by 3ft space of dirt and started playing in the dirt.

We used to have our tv on this trunk, but we have made some changes and moved things around and now Grant loves to play on and in it. This day he thought it was fun to get in the trunk and then pile all his toys in around him.

Grant LOVES to wrestle Cameron

At the park for some of the last warmer days

just a cute toothy smile

I was folding clothes one day and Grant pulled Cameron's BYU jersey out of the pile and was playing with it, so I decided to try it on him. It was super cute, but he was running around so crazy that all the pictures are blurry.

Helping mom clean... in a super cute/funny outfit

He likes to push Callie on her bike

At the park

trying on mom's swimcap

Grant had another bad fall a couple weeks ago. Cameron was reading stories to him just before bed, on our bed. When they started to gather the books to put them away Grant crawled to the edge of the bed a few times to grab books so when he started going over to the edge again Cameron assumed that's what he was going to do again, but then he just dove off the end, hitting his head hard on the hardwood floors! It instantly looked SOOO bad. Cameron felt SO bad. I was remarkably fine, but now we have each been responsible for a bad fall of Grant's so there shouldn't be anymore right??? I doubt it, he is all boy!

side view

This was his face when I told him he had to get out of the bath. Oh boy, this kid is going to give us a run for our money!

just a sad, cute face

How he is almost every Sunday on the way home from church. He immediately grabs his "sticky" and falls asleep before we are even out of the parking lot.

Grant Walking

2011-10-16T16:59:00.000-07:00

Well, I am finally getting around to posting about this big event. Grant is officially a walker... actually, now that I have waited so long to do this update he is a runner. Seriously, running all over. Once he got the first couple steps he caught on SO quickly. He works up a sweat EVERY day now, no matter how little clothes I put him in or how cool it is. He started out on Sunday September 4th (just a few days short of being 13months old) with just four or five steps and by the next Sunday he looked like he had been walking for years. He kept taking laps around the church building and by his 10th or so lap we were getting comments on how funny he was that he just wanted to keep going and going. People kept asking how long he has been walking and when I would say "he learned this week", they were shocked. Here is a video of the first few steps and then a video of him today. I couldn't even get him to go at a full run, but it's pretty close. Enjoy!

Sprint Triathlon

2011-09-22T17:24:00.000-07:00

This event has been in the works for quite some time now. At the beginning of January my friend Jill asked if I wanted to do a triathlon with her. She promised it would be short and it wouldn't be until September so we had plenty of time to train. We both wanted to do something different and to have some bigger goal to work towards, so this was perfect. At the time I could not run for five minutes let alone the 2 miles we would need to do for the tri. I was not even going to think about how the two miles of running would be AFTER I just swam 250 yards and biked 7 miles. And I couldn't even think about the swimming. I am NOT a swimmer and don't really enjoy swimming, so even thinking of training for this part did not sound fun. But after months and months of training and getting into shape(and remembering how much I love running), I pulled it off last Saturday. And I have to say... It was SO fun! I definitely want to do more of these. The one we did was a Race for The Cure, so it was all women and it wasn't super competitive, which was perfect! I did way better than I thought I would time-wise and I definitely kicked butt in the running. I caught up with and/or passed tons of people that had been ahead of me since the swimming at the very beginning. I had a blast and will definitely be doing this again.

Waiting in line to start the swim/race

The 1st transition-putting on clothes over swimming stuff, putting on socks and shoes and helmet and getting on the bike!

coming in after the biking

starting the run

finished!!!

Someone asked me the other day how the triathlon went and my friends mom,( who was at the tri) jumped in and said "well she was smiling pretty big as she crossed the finish line". That totally describes how it was for me. It was a blast and even though it was challenging in some spots, it was super fun and I'm glad I had awesome friends to do it with me.

Just after crossing the finish line

Shay, me and Jill. Thanks for making me do it girls!

My favorite cheerleaders! It was seriously SO nice seeing Grant and Cameron on the side of whatever part I was at, and hearing them cheer me on. It gave me boosts of motivation just when I needed them.

A Day In The Life...

2011-08-31T17:11:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to do this post for a while, but kept forgetting to take pictures, so a couple of days ago I finally did it. It is a day in the life of Grant... I know, probably no one cares to see the boring day to day things we do, but I will be glad I have it in a few years im sure. No pictures were staged, this is real life (:

7:43am-Grant usually talks/cries for a few minutes till I go pick him up. Here he is ready for me to come get him.

7:45am-play time

so happy!

8:00am-diaper changed(obviously not too happy about it)

8:02am-hear dad coming through the door from work

8:03am-TRY to go to dad(Cameron has extremely sick and sometimes contagious patients, so he always showers and scrubs down really good before he can hold Grant)

8:05am- As soon as Cameron walks in the door Grant will not leave his side(including standing at the side of the shower waiting for him to get out).

8:15am-playing with a disease free dad!

8:25am- eating eggs and toast with mom and dad before dad goes to bed for the day. (Also, take note of the big boy booster seat he is in at the table, so nice).

8:40am-changed out of pj's and all loaded up for the walk to the YMCA.

8:50am-At the Y ready to play while mom works out

11am- down for a nap

1pm-up from nap

1:15pm-eating lunch with mom "mmm string cheese"

1:45pm-playtime with his new bouncy ball

1:55pm hide and seek in the tent

2:05pm- reading time

2:40pm-All strapped in and ready to run errands(we have found Grant's new FAVORITE thing... these sticky lint removers. Somehow we have like 4 that we never use and he found one and loves it. Now we have one that stays in the car and he just plays with it for however long the car ride is. He has never been so content in the car!)

2:55pm-Doing some grocery shopping with mom(we also went to Target and the jewelry store to get a ring cleaned)

4:15pm- snack time

4:25pm-helping mom pack a lunch for dad

4:35pm- running around out on the deck

"hi mom!"

5:20pm- wake dad up! Grant loves doing this everyday. He will crawl up to cameron and roll around on him until Cameron grabs him and tickles him and wrestles with him, all while Grant is laughing hysterically.

5:45pm- eating dinner(Cameron did Grant's hair in a little crazy half mohawk thing)

6:15pm- walk dad out to the car to say goodbye for the night

6:40pm- play with Jenna and Callie for a bit

7:00pm- In the tub!

7:15pm-check out his clean self in the mirror. This is my favorite part about bath time. When we get Grant out and in his towel, he always wants to stop on the way out and look in the mirror. He always smiles and laughs and makes faces at himself. So cute.

7:30pm-pj's on, clean diaper, and ready to read some books. This is Grant's absolute favorite book right now. He got it for his birthday and we have to read it every night. It is a zoo book(I think I talked about it in the last post a little) and there is this page with pigs and a spot with "mud" that is sticky. He will flip to that page as fast as he can and then never let us turn the page. He just sits with the pigs....

and most nights he lays down with them too

7:40pm-didn't get a picture of actually going to bed, but you get the idea.

I know the day seems kinda boring, but I love it. We have a good routine and get to spend lots of time just hanging out together(of course we like the days that Cameron has off even better).

Wedding and Grant's 1st Birthday!

2011-08-24T05:36:00.000-07:00

We were able to head back to Spokane one last time for the summer. Cameron's brother Sean got married and his other brother Scott will leave soon on his mission and we wanted to be sure and see him one last time before he left. As always it was a really fun trip and went by too fast. We are already looking forward to Christmas to see everyone again. Another big milestone happened while we were home. Grant turned ONE! We had a great party. He is so lucky to have so many people love him. The wedding was great and we are so happy for Sean and Melissa.

Taking a nap after the long night of flying from Cleveland to Spokane

Grant being shy while we were out to lunch with my grandma one day

having fun with Grandpa

The deer kept eating the flowers in the backyard(where the reception was), so for the week leading up to the wedding Sean and Scott got to be guardsman and sleep outside with their guns to keep the deer away. You can see one of them camped out on a cot at the end of the yard.

Grant's actual birthday was on a Sunday so we had a little family dinner with the Lovinger's, Green's, Siddoway's and Skelton's.

Grant and Papa on his birthday(Grant sucking his tongue, which he does a lot now when he is nervous or tired.)

Dinner out on the patio

Grant got a birthday cupcake, but was not super interested in it. He ate a few chunks and then decided he was done.

Taste test...

Starting to think about throwing it on the ground.

He started squeezing it in his hands in frustration and squishing it all over-meaning he had had enough.

Playing with Great Grandpa's watch(I don't think I got any better pictures of it, but his shirt says "Birthday Boy!")

The next day we had a bigger party for him at a local pizza place. We reserved the party room and Paige and I went early to decorate. The theme was monkeys and I think it turned out pretty cute.

This is how Grant arrived to his own birthday party...He slept for about a half hour, but was still pretty tired the rest of the time.

Sleeping away on Great Grandma Green

Trying to get him to dig into his cake. It was pretty much a repeat of the night before, but this time he was just way too tired to even get mad about it, he just didn't do anything.

Nicole, Tyler and Katelyn flew in just before the party... Katelyn was much more interested in the whole cake thing than Grant was. Grant wouldn't even touch it. I tried to just feed him a piece and he didn't want that either... SO we gave it to Katelyn (:

just before Grant's near-death experience

After being traumatized by nearly choking to death on a peach. Uncle Scott was being awesome and feeding him peaches, but somehow he just choked on one really bad. It was a little scary.

sitting with Grammy

opening presents- he was totally spoiled by everyone and he LOVES everything that he got.

he seriously LOVES this book he got from great grandma and grandpa Green

The SUPER cute monkey cake that Cameron made. HE made a big one for everyone and then a little baby monkey one just for Grant.

Big one

baby monkey cake

Melissa and Sean at the party

Sean turned the smiley face upside down once we cut into his head (:

I think Grant had a great 1st birthday. Thanks SO much for everyone that came!

Grant loved having so much nice backyard to crawl around in. He especially loved the big dirt pile that was in the back one day while the boys were putting in new sod. Here is what he looked like after 5 minutes outside. He is ALL boy! Look how happy he is to be so dirty!

Needless to say, I carried him right down to the bathtub and gave him a good scrubbin'.

Aunt Paige and Grant

While we were there, Paige took a few 1 year pictures of Grant. He wasn't being super cooperative, but we got a couple good ones.

this one just makes me laugh... he is like "seriously mom, I am way too old for this now".

I think this one looks like a baby senior picture. He wasn't posed at all, but it totally looks like he was.

not sure what this is...just another example of him getting into things

Just playing around in aunt Paige's room

Grant was VERY comfortable on Paige's bed

with great Grandpa Green

hanging out with uncle Scottie

love both of their expressions in this picture

cousins

one day before the wedding we all took a break from the preparations and headed to Silverwood. It was fun to ride a couple roller coasters and there were even a few little rides that Grant and Katelyn could go on.

here are Grant and Papa on the dumbo ride

Grant and Daddy on the kiddie roller coaster. Grant didn't love it(I don't think he would have liked it either way, but he was still recovering from some weird allergic reaction to something in his eyes earlier in the day. I wish I would have taken a picture. His poor little eyes were super watery and he couldn't even open them for a long time... SO we are just going to say that he didn't like it because he was still in pain).

Sean "accidentally" squirted a whole ketchup packet onto Cameron's shirt/arms/neck etc. It was pretty funny.

Grammy and Grant in front of the ferris wheel

The had a really nice water park too. It was fun and Grant loved crawling around in the kids area. He loves water.

One of the days we were home my Grandma took us out to my favorite mexican restaurant. Grant loved the tortillas and would take HUGE bite. My grandma thought it was hilarious(and it was)

playing in the grass with aunt Brooke

some pictures from the wedding

Saying goodbye to everyone the day we flew out

We had to fly in and out of Colombus,Ohio for the trip and we didn't get into Columbus until well about 1am, so we had made reservations at a hotel near the airport. We were glad we did, so we could get a good night's sleep and drive the 2 hours the next morning instead of in the middle of the night. We thought they had made a mistake with our reservation because when we got in our room we saw it was really nice and had this big jacuzzi tub. We never ended up getting to enjoy it since we were all so tired, but Grant enjoyed crawling around in it for a minute.

After we got back, on August 23rd, Grant had his 1 year check up. Here are his stats from that:

Height: 29 3/4 inches tall 33rd percentile

Weight: 24 lbs 14 oz 90th percentile

I can't believe how fast this past year has gone. It is crazy how much he looks like a little boy now and not so much like a baby. He is the fastest crawler I have ever seen(with his crazy one-legged crawl he does). He is pretty shy around big groups of people, but if he knows you or is just with a couple people he will talk your ear off. He says mama and dada and hi, but not on command at all, and again mostly only with a few people around. He loves to be read to and loves any interactive books. We have to hold his hands back sometimes so he won't go straight to the next page of a book to lift the next flap. Oh, I thought this was typical Grant- for his birthday he got a touch and feel petting zoo book. There are different animals and each page has something you can touch having to do with that animal. On the page with pigs it has a little pile of mud that is sticky to touch. He will flip through the whole book as fast as he can to get to the page with the mud. Then he will just sit and feel the sticky mud for a long time before he decides he can move on. He loves to play hide and seek and still loves to be held as much as ever. When he gets really excited he will crawl super fast in a little circle and laugh. It's pretty funny. He is good at throwing things(anything and everything really), but he does like to throw the football to his dad. I am going to go back and add more details to all of my other posts from this past year because I want to remember every detail from him as a baby(and I am already forgetting a lot!). We are so blessed to have Grant in our lives. He makes me laugh (hard) EVERYday and we love him(obviously) (:

Little Bit of Everything

2011-07-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

I thought I would do a quick little update with mostly just random pictures. I have had some requests from the grandparents for more updated pictures, so here they are!

We haven't really done anything too exciting lately since Cameron has picked up a bajillion overtime hours at work, plus he is studying to take his CCRN test that will significantly help him get into an anesthesia school. Grant and I just try to hide from the heat as much as possible, which has resulted in many unnecessary trips to Costco and Target(Grant seriously LOVES Costco-I think it's all the samples (: ) The past week has been especially hot with severe heat advisories almost everyday. The worst part was the first REALLY hot day the power went out for almost 12 hours!!! We were dying. Poor Grant was up all night just sweating like crazy and couldn't fall asleep and we slept just as bad. We have gone to the pool a couple times, but even that seems really too warm. We are mostly just hanging out and preparing for our next trip home for Sean's wedding and Scott's farewell. We are so excited to get to go home again and will be sad for the long break until Christmas.

Alright, so that is our uneventful life right now. Here are a few pictures since last time I posted.

Just a random and kinda blurry one from Cameron's phone. I was telling him how I don't take as many pictures of Grant on my phone anymore because he is constantly moving and I only get blurry ones or he isn't looking, so Cameron tried to see what kind of a picture he could get on his phone and this is the result... blurry.

In other news... Grant had his first official haircut yesterday! I have to admit that I shed a tear... or several. Here is the lock of hair for his baby book. Cameron cut it with the razor on the longest setting and it turned out perfect. Not too short, but it got rid of his but it got rid of his longer hair around his ears and the rat tail he was developing in the back. His hair looks dark in this picture, but it really is blonde.

Here are the best "after" pics I could get of his hair.

The flash made his face a little washed out, but he loves crawling under the table. Most of the time he gets to the middle where I can't really reach him and then gets upset that he can't stand up without hitting his head and wants out asap.

This was this past Tuesday when the power went out for most of the day and night. It was SO hot. Grant had a really hard time sleeping, so this picture was after we let him come out and be with us at about 10pm because really non of us were sleeping anyway. We just went out to our porch and hung out for a little while until we decided we just had to lay down and try to sleep.

Cameron has taught Grant to throw his hands in the air when he hears the word "TOUCHDOWN!!!" It is so funny and Grant thinks he is funny too. Here he is doing his touchdown arms while we were out to dinner the other night.

This is that same night. It was a fun little family date. We had a giftcard to Texas Roadhouse from Christmas(thanks Cole and Erin!). It was delicious and we all enjoyed getting out and doing something different. Grant and Cameron both devoured the rolls. (:

I just thought these were funny pictures. I had the vacuum out from when I had been vacuuming during Grant's nap and he couldn't take his eyes off it. He would move to a new place in the room, but had to keep an eye on it wherever he went. He used to cry when I vacuumed, but now I mostly do it after he is in bed. I think he was just afraid it was going to turn on and get hime or something.

4th of July!

2011-07-05T07:38:00.000-07:00

We had a good fourth of July this year. I felt like it was our first 4th in Cleveland because last year Cameron worked all day and I just hung out at home trying to hideout from the heat.

We started out the day doing separate activities... Shay and I started the day with a 5 mile race in Bay Village... and we totally rocked I might add (:

This is us after the race. We didn't take a before picture, but I think you can tell by our faces how happy we are to be on the other side of the finish line! It was a fun race and we are definitely looking forward to our next (and longer) one!

After the race was over we booked it over to Lakewood to meet up with our families who were already enjoying breakfast and a parade. We got there in time for most of the parade so that was nice.

Here we are in front of the parade. Grant was a little zoned out because it was already past his naptime... little did he know we were going to make him stay up till midnight to watch fireworks, poor guy...

Grant on dad's shoulders

After the parade we went home to get Grant down for a nap. While we were there, I realized that I forgot my phone at Shay's house after the race. We told them that we would just drop by and pick it up as soon as Grant woke up from his nap.

Well we stopped to just grab the phone and go, but we made a big mistake and let Grant down to play in the grass and "watch" the Coil kids play on their slip n' slide. In about two seconds flat Grant had sprint-crawled to the slip n' slide and jumped right into the water with the older kids. He was immediately soaked from head to toe. We tried to get him out, but he just screamed and we figured that he was already wet so we might as well let him play for a while longer. We stripped him down to his diaper and threw his clothes in the dryer while he kept splashing and playing. He loved it and was not happy to leave when it was really time to go.

Here he is crawling up and down the slide with the kids.

He loved getting sprayed with the water.

Drying off a not-so-happy boy. He did not want to leave...

After we left the Coils, we decided to head to target and see if we could find a cheap little kiddie pool since Grant had so much fun in the water. We were surprised to find this little gem on sale and had to get it. It is perfect. It is specifically for babies and just fills up with water about 5 inches deep. It has lots of squirty things and animals to play with. I am excited to have something to do outside besides going on endlessly long walks this summer. By the time we got some lunch, and headed home it was pretty shady in our yard, so we didn't play in it for very long, but Grant still loved it.

Sitting on the whale.

He loved playing with all the water that was squirting up

We hadn't planned on going to fireworks or doing anything at night because Cameron was supposed to work an overtime shift, but around 7pm he got a call saying that they already had too many people for the night and they wouldn't need him to come in at all. Yay! So we decided to meet back up with everyone that was at the breakfast/parade that morning and go to the potluck/fireworks. It was a total zoo trying to get there and back(even though we only live about 3 miles from where the fireworks were at).

I forgot to get any good pictures from the evening, but here are a couple of the adults lighting and handing out tons of sparklers to the kids at the party. They loved it and it and Grant was enjoying watching all the cool lights.

Technically this is Grant's second fireworks show in his short 10 months of life. When he was just about a week old, our old neighborhood had a little community celebration and had a big fireworks show. We lived literally across the street from the park that they were lit off from and watched them from our big front room window. Cameron's mom was in town still and we both could not believe how long they went on, but also how loud and close they were. They literally shook the house and knocked off one of our wedding pictures off the wall and shattered the frame. It was crazy. Anyway, Grant has done well at both shows that he has been to. He slept right through the first one(although i'm still not sure how since they were SO loud). This show he wasn't scared, but wasn't really interested very much either. He would look up at them every now and then when there was a really bright or loud once, but mostly just crawled around on the grass. He did pay attention to the finale though. And I don't blame him. It was hands down the best finale I have ever seen. Good job Lakewood! It was a fun 4th and we were all glad that we were able to spend the whole day as a family!

More Spokane fun and Outdoor Adventures

2011-07-01T14:54:00.000-07:00

We have been so lucky since Grant was born to be able to go home to Spokane several times. Cameron's cousin Stephanie was getting married in June and we were able to go home for that as well. We feel so blessed that we have been able to go back and visit so often, and I know the grandparents love it too!

Here is Grant on the first flight and the start to a long day of traveling. We totally lucked out on ALL the flights and were able to have Grant in his own seat. We didn't pay for a seat for him, but I have a theory and it has worked every time since Grant was born... (thats about 16 flights total. Yes he is a seasoned traveler at the age of 10 months). My theory is to board with the family boarding no matter what number/letter you have for boarding. Oh, side note: I guess this would only work for Southwest since you can choose your seats. We have taken mostly Southwest flights, but im not sure how we have lucked out on the other airlines. Anyway, go with the family boarding which is after the A's and before the B's. Go straight to the back of the plane... like the back back row, sit down and buckle yourself and your baby(if he's old enough). Then make best friends with the flight attendants in the back(this will be easy if you have an exceptionally cute baby for them to gush over, lucky for me, I have one!). After you have done all of this, then just wait and keep talking to the flight attendants as people board the plane. This works for three reasons: a. most people wont want to sit by a baby(which is fine by me!) b. if the baby looks a little older they might think he isn't a lap child and that you bought that seat for him. and c. the flight attendants will help direct people away from you because they know you would like to have that extra seat. Let me know if this works for anyone else!

As I mentioned before though, the most important piece to the equation is the adorable child to lure in the flight attendants(and apparently a chubby one helps since people can't resist squishing his "little" legs). Good luck!

On the way to Spokane we had a 5 hour layover in Las Vegas so we decided to get out of the airport for a bit. we got a cab and headed to the strip. Grant was amazed by all the happenings and all the shiny lights! We mostly stayed at the Mandalay Bay since it was the closest to the airport(cheapest to get to) and it was SO hot out. We walked around the hotel, ate some dinner at a restaurant there and then just walked a tiny bit outside till I was sure that I had been cooked from the inside out!

Cameron and Grant outside the hotel on our short walk

Grant looks like he is saying "YES!!!", like he just hit the jackpot!

cousins chillin at Grammy and Papa's house

Grant got to meet Great Grandma Carole!

Not sure what uncle Scott is doing here, but Grant likes it.

Grammy playing with Grant outside

Grandpa met us for lunch on his lunch break from work

Cameron and Grant enjoying the nice Sunday afternoon.

My sister Paige surprised us and came home for the weekend from school. She is an art major and loves photography. In her spare time she took some GREAT pictures of Grant and our little family. We LOVE them, thanks Paige!

By far our favorite family picture to date!

While we were home, these two got ENGAGED!!! We are SO excited for Melissa to join the family. Nicole and I are excited to have someone so great to join the sister-in-law club (:

At the reception... love this picture

Grant and Great Grandma Margaret

a little out of order, but here are Stephanie and Brent just after they were married

We bought this suit at a children's resale thing before Grant was even born(the lady said she paid 90 bucks for her son to wear it to a wedding once... we paid 15!) and I just remembered it right before we left and decided to try it on. Good thing I did too, because it fit perfectly! So cute!

Had to get a cute little yellow tie to match the wedding colors

Grammy and Katelyn out to dinner to celebrate uncle Scott's birthday

Papa and Grant at the Brazilian restaurant, it was SO good!

Although it was a quick trip, we were able to pack a ton of fun into the week. We are so excited to be able to come back AGAIN in August for Sean and Melissa's wedding.

Here are just a few other random happenings around here...

We have been spending a lot of time outside since our house is HOT and it's summer so why not enjoy it while you can?

Here is Grant on one of our many trips to the park(this day was a little cooler, thus the pants. But believe me, it has been shorts weather everyday since then.)

Grant and I on one of our frequent walks around the neighborhood. In this picture we had just stopped at Walgreens to cool off before heading on the rest of our walk.

Grant must be decently comfortable in the backpack carrier because he falls asleep in it almost daily. This was on a Sunday afternoon walk on dad's back.

I just took this picture yesterday when we had gotten home from the gym. Cameron was feeding Grant a bottle before we put him down for his nap. I look over to see both Cameron and Grant sound asleep.

One of our friends gave us a kid tent and Grant loves it, but yesterday he was playing in it and we heard him crying. We came in to find that it had tipped over, door side down. He was resourceful however, and squeezed his way through the tiny hole in the top!

Cameron and I have been on the search for a bike trailer of our own, but have super nice friends who have let us use theirs in the meantime(thanks Jake and Jill!). We have taken Grant on several fun bike rides lately and this is what we spent the afternoon doing yesterday as well. We have huge and awesome parks called the metro parks here in Cleveland... I think I mentioned them last summer too, but we live so close to many of them and they are so nice! They have a million different trails and things to do and are so pretty. You don't even feel like you are in the middle of a city! Here is Cameron pulling Grant along in the trailer.

checking out the leaves

we stopped half way through the ride to drink some water and just hang out in the shade for a bit. Grant was excited to get out and crawl around in the grass too.

back in the trailer with his toys and snacks and ready to go

Crawling and 5k

2011-05-28T11:14:00.000-07:00

I'll start out with the more exciting news.... my 5k! Ok, just kidding I definitely have to start out with a big milestone for Grant. This past week he officially became a crawler!!! He had been showing signs of WANTING to crawl for a while, but just kept flopping over onto his stomach and just couldn't seem to keep up on his knees. Well, something clicked this past week and he put it all together. (He's 9 months old-just for my own info). There is a video at the bottom of literally the first time he crawled. Let me know if it doesn't work because it was having problems. I have to put these pictures in too because this is how he has been crawling the past few days. He got to frustrated with our hardwood floors making him slip if he was wearing pants, so he found a pretty creative solution(I think). All of his socks have some kid of grip on the bottom so he sticks one of his legs out to the side to put his foot down as a grip so he wont slide and then he pushes himself with that leg. He gets around quite quickly with that technique too.

Here are a couple pictures of him doing the leg-out crawl.

He still crawls the normal hands and knees way sometimes, but seems to like this way just as much and is probably faster this way.

In other news... This past weekend I ran my first official 5k race. It was a Relay for Life race and I did it with three of my friends. I had been planning on doing it for a few months, but then had a hip injury where the dr. told me that I could not run AT ALL for at least 6 weeks(and of course this was the six weeks right before the race!) I had to go to physical therapy for those six weeks, but it started feeling better after about 4 or 5 weeks, so I ditched the physical therapy(even though I think that is what helped it get better) and decided I was ready to run again. The physical therapist said that was ok, but to not run more than about 4 or 5 minutes at a time and then stop and walk for a minute and do intervals like that for no longer than 20 minutes at a time. I was getting super frustrated and bored doing that for a few days so I self diagnosed my injury as HEALED! (: This was just the week before the race so I really didn't have much prep time and wasn't planning on doing it anymore, but my friends talked me into it and said if we needed to walk a little that was fine. Well, I am happy to say that not only did I not walk at all, but I actually finished in a decent time.

Shay and I getting lined up before the race. It was so nice to run with her. We just both zoned out with our music, but it helped to keep a good pace and push each other.

Coming up to the finish

And crossing the finish line

Jill,me,Shay and Amy

I look ridiculous, but this was Shay and I celebrating after the race

I had an awesome cheer section that I totally forgot to get a picture of (Cameron and Grant). Grant cheered so hard that he totally zonked out on the ride home. I guess cheering is tough on a little guy.

I had to throw these pictures in here too. Mostly just to freak out my mom who would have had a heart attack if she had been here. Grant has been eating A TON and just loves trying new foods, especially anything that we are eating. We want him to try lots of different foods, so here is one of those new foods for him. Cameron gave him some blackberries and this is how it turned out...

He LOVED them

But managed to make a HUGE mess in the process

His skin was stained purple for a few hours even though we took him straight to take a bath after this.

Here is Grant enjoying chicken nuggets for the first time... I can't believe how well he eats. His dr said he can have anything(besides raw fish and stuff like that) because he is doing so well. He is already eating us out of house and home!!!

Here he is on the way to the 5k chowing down on a string cheese

And I just thew this last one in cuz it's cute

Summer Days and Our Sick Boy

2011-05-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

I am officially calling this past Friday/Saturday the first real days of summer. It was SOOO nice outside. Cameron had Friday off so we went on a walk (with our new LL Bean baby backpack-30 bucks off Craigslist, used twice, nice!) We walked down to a park near our house and pushed Grant in the swings for a while. This was his first experience with swings and he seems kinda underwhelmed... maybe next time. We cut the walk somewhat short because I was melting( I am a wuss when it comes to heat...I am NOT going to survive this summer!)

Cameron had Saturday off too, so we started the day off by going on a bike ride. We borrowed Jake and Jill's bike trailer to make sure Grant would stay in it and be content if we bought our own. We were planning to ride to the grocery store and get just a couple things and head back(just about 3 miles total), but we got about three BLOCKS away and realized that Grant had fallen asleep in the trailer. Once we saw that, we decided we should just head back and get him in his own bed for his nap. It was still a fun ride and I think we can consider falling asleep a sign that he likes it. Here are a couple pictures from that...

Later that day we set out to build a garden with the Barnes. We had been talking about it for a while and finally got around to going and getting all the materials and building the raised garden bed. After buying all the wood, dirt, veggies etc, we came home to get to work(and again, when I say "we" I mean Cameron-and Jake in this case). The boys built a very nice raised bed and filled it with dirt and fertilizer and then the final touch was to add the actual vegetables and herbs that we wanted to grow. I think it turned out great and we are all so excited to have very fresh salsa this summer. It was a fun and REALLY nice day outside. After the garden was done, we fired up the grill and had a very summery dinner together.

The boys after building the box, and getting ready to add the dirt

Callie loves Grant and was being his little mom here and wiping his nose

Jenna and Cameron were buddies. Jenna was the official water-er and was right there whenever Cameron needed the plants watered.

Grant enjoyed being outside and playing in the dirt and grass

"look mom, grass!"

love this little series of pictures...

planting

finished product

Grant has been sick with a cold for a couple weeks now, but just as we thought he was getting better he developed a horrible cough. Cameron had the same cough so we weren't too worried since Cameron's was gone in a few days. We took Grant in for his nine month well check up last week and we mentioned his cough. He only coughed one little cough while we were there(isn't that always how it is...), but we told her it gets worse at night. She listened to his lung and said everything sounds fine, but to let her know if it got worse. We weren't worried at that point and still thought it would go away soon. Over the next several days, Cameron worked a bunch of nights in a row, so I was the only one who heard how bad his cough was getting at night. One night I was holding him while he just coughed and coughed until he would choke and gasp for air. It was really scary and I debated taking him to the ER. It stayed pretty bad, but then it was the weekend so I couldn't just take him to the normal Dr. office. I knew he could still breath so I was holding off till Monday to take him in. I called the second they opened today and asked if they could get him in and they said "can you be here in 15 minutes?" I jumped in the car and got there before 9. The dr(who I LOVE) saw him right away and I explained everything that had changed since last time she saw him(including a wheezing noise and high pitch whistle noise when he tried to breath. She said she was really glad I brought him in and said he sounded much worse than the week before. She sent us immediately to the hospital to get chest X-rays to make sure it wasn't pneumonia. She also wanted to start him right away on a nebulizer machine to open his longs more. She called in an antibiotic as well to try to kill whatever virus was doing this to him. She said her official diagnosis is bronchialitis. It is basically like RSV she said and hopefully with the breathing treatments and the antibiotics it will be gone soon. We have an appointment to follow up on Friday and I hope things are looking much better then. She said to listen carefully while he sleeps because that's when it's the worst(which I already knew since the last several nights have been so bad). She said that it can take a turn for the worse in a matter of hours and that she might still have to admit him to the hospital for a night or two if this stuff doesn't help. Anyway, hopefully I will be posting soon saying he is totally back to normal and we don't have to do anymore breathing treatments.... BECAUSE this is how much he LOVES them (;

Starts off ok

wants it OFF

not happy that dad is holding it on

REALLY not liking this

The SADDEST picture ever! Poor guy finally gave up and just whimpered the rest of the time ):

Surprise Trip Home and Other Random Updates

2011-05-17T08:06:00.001-07:00

I don't know when I became such a bad blogger, but I am going to be more on top of it from now on so when we print this out to keep as a family record I actually have something to look at! (: The background for this trip goes all the way back to sometime in February when I got a text from my brother Cole, saying that he wants to be sure and see Grant before he gets too big. Since I knew that the next time that we would be seeing them wasn't until Christmas I immediately began planning and scheming to see what we could pull off to see them before then... And just because we could, I thought "why not make it a surprise for everyone?" SO I thought that the best way to go about it in order to see everyone that we wanted to, would be to fly directly into Utah, spend a few days there and go to Spokane for the rest of the time. Then fly from there back to Cleveland. We would fly into Utah to be there for my brother's graduation from BYU and then the plan was to ride back with my parents (who were driving from Spokane and back). So I was moving plans forward and bought plane tickets and secretly talked to my mom about how long they were staying, what hotel they were staying at and to make sure they would have enough room for us in the car for the ride home. Nobody knew except my cousin Stephanie who was picking us up from the airport and my sister Paige who was helping secretly coordinate things with my parents. We kept everything a secret the whole two months leading up to the trip(even telling my parents that we might go to Chicago for Cameron's week off- I wanted to go the extra mile to make sure they didn't suspect anything (: ) Everything was looking good until 4 days before we were to fly to Salt Lake. My mom called me earlier in the week and said that she felt horrible and really nauseous. She kept feeling like that everyday and I kept telling her that she really needed to go to the doctor so she could be sure and go to Cole's graduation-little did she know that I had my own reasons for wanting to make sure she went. Finally on Friday she decided to go into the doctor and it ended up that she had three kidney stones and would need to do surgery immediately. When she called and told me that she would be getting that done Saturday morning and that she would really try to make it to the graduation, but would just have to see how it went, I got a little nervous, but I knew there was no way that she was going to miss Cole's graduation. So we kept getting things ready to go and flew out Tuesday morning. When we got there we got to go to Cole and Erin's house and surprise them first. That was fun and it was good to see them and get to hang out. That night we got to surprise a bunch of our cousins who were meeting for a cousin dinner at In N' Out. It was so good to see everyone and even though Grant was really shy it was good to introduce him to everyone too.

While we were in Utah we went out to eat with Cole and Erin, my parents, Erin's parents,Jordan and Amy, and Stephanie. It was a lot of fun. Here are Grant and Erin. Again, he was very shy and unsure of all the new people so he looks pretty stoic and even sad in some pictures...

Grant and Cole

Cousins and spouses and soon-to-be baby McCoy!

Jordan loved Grant and Grant must have liked him (even thought you can't tell in this pic) because he was the only one he would let hold him without freaking out.

Celebrating his graduation with everyone at Texas Roadhouse

Steph and I

Erin and Cole on graduation day

Cole and Jordan and their friends from Spokane who all graduated

Cole and Erin at In N' Out

Cousins and spouses(and Grant)

At In N' Out

We got to see Scott and Sean while we were in Utah too

Even though the surprise didn't go quite as we had planned, it was still great and my parents were TOTALLY shocked to see us. We had planned on being in their hotel room and recording the whole surprise, but our timing was off and they walked in the front door of the hotel while I was getting their room key at the front desk. Still a good surprise.

Hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa the night of the surprise. Grandma was on the phone calling all her friends to tell them about us coming.

We got to go swimming at the hotel which was fun. Here are Cole and Erin at the pool

Cute picture of Cole and Grant in the pool

We also had a chance to meet up with Cameron's best "bud" Kory while we were there. It was good to see Melanie, Jayden and Jeric too!

After being in Utah for four days, we loaded up in the car on Saturday to head for Spokane with my parents. Grant was SUCH a trooper on the 12 hour drive. It was probably even longer than that since we stopped in Rexburg for a bit to see my sister Paige.

Grant in the car on the way to Spokane

Grant and Aunt Paige in Rexburg

Standing in front of the same sign where we took our graduation announcement pictures -only this time we have added Grant to the picture (:

When we were deciding where to go to lunch in Rexburg I immediately knew I HAD to go to the taco bus(not the actual name, but that's what we call it). I got addicted to their AMAZING chicken tacos during our last two semesters there(thanks Kristen!) and had been wanting them SO bad(I think that was my only legitimate craving while pregnant)

Me and my tacos (:

When we got to Spokane, we were able to meet up with Cameron's other best "bud" and hang out for a little while with our families. Here is Jon holding Grant and Cameron holding Sadie. Sadie and Grant are just 2 1/2 months apart

Aunt Brooke played a lot with Grant... and in this picture i'm not sure who is having more fun with the baby toys!

Uncle Scott and Grant

Grant really liked his uncles. Here is Grant and Sean. I love this picture of them!

Playing the piano with Grammy

Getting read to by Grandpa Clint at Great Grandma Margaret's house

And saying goodbye to Grandma Kim the night before we had to fly back to Cleveland.

He was so tuckered out from all the festivities of the day, that he fell asleep right on Cameron's shoulders!

Grandpa reading to Grant

Grammy and Grant- he loved the book they bought for him!

Great Grandma Dagnon drove up to see us in Spokane. It was really good to see her.

Great Grandma Margaret. I took a cute video of them together and Grant snuggles right up to her.

Cameron and his brothers

The tradition continues... Great Grandpa Green is known for balancing kids on their feet. He tried with Grant at Christmas, but it didn't quite work. It was a little better this time, but I love how Grant is looking at us a little nervously.

Easter Sunday

Easter dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Green's.

Grant did great on the way home and slept most of the time on both flights.

These are from a while before the trip, but I just had to document how he is already getting into everything and he isn't even crawling yet! oh boy...

He's also started to pull himself up on his crib

Just a cute one from after church this past Sunday.

This was my mother's day loot. Cameron had to work the night before so he felt bad he couldn't do breakfast in bed or anything on my first official Mother's day, but he definitely made up for it by getting me a bouquet of flowers AND some delicious fruit! It was awesome. This is what was waiting for me on the table after Grant and I got back from church.

This is a bad, blurry picture, but if you really look you can see that Grant now has two teeth on the bottom. It was a rough couple of days(and nights), but he is feeling much better now. I will take a better picture soon since you really can't even tell in this picture and they weren't even all the way in yet in this one either.

I love this picture. Even though it's dark and blurry. Cameron took this picture when he came home one morning after he had been at work all night and Grant had had an especially rough night with his teeth. He has NEVER slept in our bed, and I don't think he would ever do it under normal circumstances(he would never lay down, he would just think it was a big party and be more awake, plus I could never sleep with him by me anyway), but this night he really didn't feel good and would sleep as long as I would stand by his crib so he could see me at ALL time. It was kinda cute. He would fall asleep finally, and then wake up every so often to look for me and make sure I was still there, and when he saw I was there he would fall back asleep. BUT since I was getting NO sleep standing next to his crib, I decided to TRY bringing into bed with me. At first he had no idea what was going on, but then he just laid down on me and slept for a good two hours till the morning. It was nice to at least get those couple hours in with no luck the rest of the night.

Grant had his 9 month doctors visit yesterday and everything was great. No shots this time, which was nice. Here are his stats:

weight- 23 lbs 7 oz (84th percentile)

height- 28.75 in (51st percentile)

All the ladies at the front desk know Grant by name and the second we walk in the door until we leave they are trying to get him to smile and laugh. I don't know what it is about the dr. office, but he can be in the best mood and laughing and smiling all day and as soon as we walk through those doors he is Mr. Serious. His dr. was so excited because she said she got 3 smiles out of him during this visit. We told them we would bring in pictures to prove that he really is happy and smiley MOST of the time.

What We've Been Up To...

2011-03-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

I Just thought I would do a little update with what we have been up to in the past month. We have had a semi-boring month except for the fun and exciting visit from family.

First off was Valentine's Day. Grant had the most fun out of all three of us since he got TWO packages in the mail from Grandparents and Great Grandparents. He enjoyed opening them and finding the fun surprises inside. Cameron and I are still waiting to go on our Valentine's date since Cameron had to work every night that week... We decided we needed to do a makeup date from our anniversary as well, since I was sick and pretty much ruined that date night too.

Here he is waiting to open the packages.

After "reading" the card for a second, he decided it was better to just eat it (:

SO excited playing with the new teddy bear!

There were a few nicER days this month, so Grant and I decided to go for a run outside on one of those days. We got to the turn around point and Grant decided he didn't want to be in the stroller anymore, so here we are walking for a bit.

ummm... just a cute pic of Grant, why not?

We have spent many days hanging out with these girls (and their mom). It has been a LIFESAVER having them to hang out with on these LONG days of being trapped inside(although I am sure we will hang out just as much when it gets nicer). Here are the kids playing in the princess tent (:

Hanging out watching a movie. Grant LOVES Jenna. You can see the excitement on his face that we let him be a big boy and sit on the couch next to her. (:

All three of us came down with colds at one point this month. Cameron's was done and over with before Grant and I got sick. Here we are hanging out reading books in our pj's and in bed on one of the worse days.

Grant loves my hospital water bottle. He found it one morning when I was making his breakfast and started trying to drink out of it. Now his favorite toy is the straw from it.

Here are a few random pictures from several weeks ago. I had several requests from grandmas to take some new pictures, so here is our impromptu photo shoot.

this one is hilarious... he just can't contain his excitement/happiness sometimes

He took this one himself...obviously

Another random cute picture

The highlight of the month was definitely having Tyler, Nicole and Katelyn come and visit us from Boston for a week. We spent lots of time just hanging out and hiding out from the cold, but we did manage to brave the weather a few times to do some fun things.

Katelyn enjoyed putting Cameron's hat on Grant

Grant dodging Katelyn's kisses

Another one of Grant in Cameron's hat

lunch break between sights in Kirtland

We went to a little nature park/science center that was free(best part) and some cool animals for the kids(and us) to look at. Here are Tyler and Katelyn crawling through a tree trunk

Katelyn checking out the turtles

Cameron showing Grant the snakes

Outside there was some deer,bald eagles, skunks, foxes, geese etc.

not sure what was going on here, but this was just one morning right after we all woke up.

We went to the pool one day as well and that was fun. It was Grant's first time in a pool and I think he really liked it.

Here is Cameron showing him how to float

Big smile

Tyler, Katelyn and Nicole

on dad's back

Bath time- haha, just had to throw this picture in there. I'm sure later in life they will both be so happy that this picture was up on here for everyone to see.

Grant thought Katelyn's splashing was hilarious

I love this picture... He has recently learned how to say "DADADA!" and "MAMAMA!", he has no idea what they mean, but he says them all the time. This was him right before church last Sunday. He is right in the middle of saying DADA! So cute-if I do say so myself (:

Katelyn enjoyed climbing in the toy box and reading a good book

Just a few cousin pictures...

I know they both look like they are in a trance in this one, but I think they look alike here. Their eyes or something... mouths... not sure

awww...

We miss you guys and will take you back ANYTIME!

So there you have it, our month-ish at a glance. Don't worry, many more enthralling posts just like this one will be coming soon.

Super Bowl and SIX Months Old!

2011-02-11T08:56:00.000-08:00

Grant turned six months old on February 7th. I CANNOT believe how fast these first 6 months have gone. Although I know he definitely still qualifies as a baby(and who am I kidding, I will still introduce him as my baby when he is getting married (: ) he is seeming more and more like a little boy and less like a newborn everyday. Grant is a smiler and a laugher, just like his dad(refer to previous post). When he wakes up in the morning he just talks and sings to himself for a long time until we come get him and as soon as he sees us he starts squealing and kicking his arms and legs like crazy. He really likes his jumperoo and can get bouncing pretty good. He is a VERY sensitive baby and does a huge pouty lip if people talk too loud or if he knows people are talking about him in a joking manner- like saying how chubby and cute his legs are- I know it seems like he is too young to know this, but it has happened several times. It is pretty funny, but we are working on toughening him up. (: He loves to be naked and will let you know how angry he is to have to put clothes on...hope he grows out of that before high school (; He is very clingy to mom and dad, and although he will go to other people, he is constantly scanning the room to make sure we haven't left him. We do leave him with our friends fairly often though and he enjoys that. I think he gets distracted with the girls constantly doting over him. Here are some pics from the past few weeks and some of the things Grant does at six months.

First, here are the pictures that we had taken at Christmas. We did one set with the Lovinger side and then the next week Grandma Kim took him to get some of just him.

Here are the ones of Grant, so cute and looking so grown up.

Here are the Lovinger family pics...

the adorable grandkids, Katelyn and Grant

the whole fam

Love this suit

This was a couple Sunday ago. Grant was a little sleepy and waiting patiently for his Sunday nap.

"come ON"

Grant eats a variety of food now, but some of his favorites are bananas, carrots, and peach/pear granola. He has also started taking bites of bread or rolls if we are having them for with our meal.

He loves to be read to

or to read to himself

He sits up completely on his own for LONG periods of time. We will just lay a bunch of toys out on a blanket and he will play while we get things done. It is VERY nice.

last week we had a super bowl party with Jake and Jill and their girls. It was lots of fun and we had tons of good food.

Here is Cameron trying to get Grant into the excitement...not really working, it was past his bedtime.

the food

Callie LOVES Grant and is always giving him lots of hugs and kisses

I love his expression in this picture

We decided since both Grant and Callie needed a bath before bed, we would just save time and do it together. They both had a lot of fun splashing around. Callie enjoyed putting bubbles on Grant's face and he would laugh every time she did.

Love these pics too.
HAHA! "get me outta here"

Grant's six month stats:

26 inches tall- 33rd percentile

20lbs 15oz- 88 percentile

Grant Laughing HYSTERICALLY

2011-02-04T10:53:00.000-08:00

Cameron and I were folding some laundry the other night when Cameron threw some folded socks up in the air and they hit the ceiling fan and flew across the room. Grant was a little tired and delirious anyway, but he thought it was HILARIOUS, so Cameron kept doing it and I grabbed the camera. I just LOVE how he is laughing SO hard that he falls over. Enjoy!

Christmas Summary

2011-01-13T07:07:00.000-08:00

Normally I would take the time to put all of these pictures in chronological order, write some descriptive comment by each one, tell the whole long and detailed story of whatever I am updating about and, in the end, have a very nice post to add to our blog to be printed and added to our "blog journals", but I just don't want to take the time to do that this time. Updating the blog has been on my "to do" list for a LONG time and I just want to have it done so I can look back and remember Grant's first Christmas, (I know, bad mom who chooses to not do her son's first Christmas the justice it deserves in the memory books). So here is a QUICK summary of our Christmas and lots of pictures:

We flew out on December 22nd to go home to Spokane for Christmas. Grant was really good on both flights, even though he was super tired once we finally got to Spokane. He LOVED all the family and ALL the attention he got while we were there. He got some great new toys and books from his grandparents and got to meet some family that he had never met before. Cameron stayed for a week and then had to go back to work. Grant and I stayed an extra two weeks and had fun just hanging out. Grant made 2 trips to Pennys for pictures and we got some really cute ones of him and our family. I think it's illegal, but I am going to scan them in here and put them up when I get all of them. Both the Lovingers and the Skeltons had the flu going around and even though we tried REALLY hard not to get it, Grant and I both still ended up getting it too, but really not that bad. Our 3rd wedding anniversary was on December 28th and we didn't do too much because that was the day that I got sick. We did go see Harry Potter and went to my favorite restaurant in Spokane, but I couldn't eat anything since my stomach was not doing so well. We will try to plan a "re-do" anniversary date sometime soon. Grant and I flew back on January 8th. I was really nervous to so the long flight by myself, especially with Grant and I still not feeling good, but Grant did AWESOME. I seriously couldn't have asked for anything better. The flight attendants loved him as usual and we were both very happy to get back to our house and see daddy again! Overall, it was a great Christmas and it was so fun to be home and with family.

So in no particular order, here are the pictures from the trip.

ok,I lied. I just have to put how much I LOVE this picture. Grant LOVED his Great Grandma Margaret and she LOVED him just as much.

Lied again... this was me trying to recreate the Tom Cruise "Risky Business" dance scene.

lie #3... This picture was taken just before we left for Christmas. I had to document some of the fun "man dates" that Cameron and our friend/downstairs neighbor Jake have been doing. This particular night they were enjoying some root beer and watching a movie. We LOVE having friends literally 10 feet away(if that).

These are some funny videos. One of Grant's new talents is blowing raspberries. If you do it to him, he will do it back, and sometimes we just hear him doing it for fun. The other video is Cameron and Grant playing with a stocking stuffer that Grant got. I think he was a little tired because he usually doesn't laugh quite this hard at things.

Random Update

2010-12-01T14:29:00.000-08:00

Well we have not been up to anything too exciting lately. Cameron has been working a lot and we have just been having fun hanging out together on his days off. My friend Jessica came to visit at the beginning of November. She flew in from San Diego and it was tons of fun seeing her and showing her around Cleveland. I turned 23 on Monday and we did a few fun things for that as well. Here are a few pictures from these events and just hanging out.

Our awesome downstairs neighbors/friends made me this sign for my birthday.

They also decorated the stairway, it was a great surprise as I took the laundry downstairs in the morning.

In our house we have whiteboard as the backsplash in our kitchen. It is fun to keep lists on and just to write notes on. This is what Cameron did the morning of my birthday. He also had put TONs of notes around the house for me to find and cleaned up! It was the best!

Later in the day Cameron took me to get some new jeans and then out to Red Robin. Here are the boys enjoying their meal.

After Red Robin, we came home and Cameron took Grant while I took a birthday nap. Here are Grant and I just before my nap and right after Grant had fallen asleep on Cameron's lap. He was sitting with Cameron while he was doing something on the computer, then we looked down and he was just slouched over asleep, so I took him and put him in his crib for a good nap.

We hung out for a while and then bathed Grant and put him to bed. We took the monitor downstairs to Jake and Jill to listen in case he woke up and we headed out for the night. Well, the plan was to head out for the night, but it ended up only being like an hour and a half. We were going to go bowling, but the place we were going to go was CLOSED, at NINE... kinda ridiculous for a bowling alley, but whatever. So we decided to use one of the gift cards my parents got me and get half price appetizers at Applebees. Here we are in front of Applebees, although you really can't tell where we are since we didn't quite get the sign in the picture.

Here are Jessica and I at the Lake. It was freezing cold and raining so we only stayed long enough to look for a minute and take a picture.

Taken by Jessica when she was here

One day while she was here we headed down to Amish country. Cameron and I had never been and we heard it was fun, so we decided to check it out. Here we are in front of some of the pretty fields and fall trees.

On another day, Jessica and Grant and I went down to see the Cleveland botanical gardens. They were featuring two different exhibits at the time, Costa Rica and Madagascar. It was really cool and I think Cameron would love it, so we will for sure be going again in the spring. Here we are at the gardens.

Grant and I at the outside portion of the gardens

Jessica took a few pictures of Grant while she was here and I think a lot of them turned out way cute. Here are some of my favorites.

I LOVE this one... he looks like he is looking right at someone and sticking his tongue out at them. Cameron said he looks like he should be one of the members of KISS! haha...

Here are a few random pictures from the past month or so. Back in October our heat went out for the night, luckily it wasn't too cold outside yet, but we still wanted to bundle Grant up for the night, so here he is with his layers and hat just before bed.

Headed off to take a bath!

Holding onto his teddy bear and watching his mobile

His shirt got a little stuck as we were taking it off. I thought he looked cute and chubby, so I took a picture.

Dad and Grant on my birthday

Grant LOVES his nightly baths and gets SOOO relaxed in them. He just lays there floating and hanging out. He just lays his arms straight out to the side and yawns EVERY time, just a few minutes after we put him in the water... he knows taking a bath means it's bedtime! Here are a few pictures of his bath time and a video of the yawing part(at the end of the post)

Cameron was playing with Grant and started making different noises. We soon noticed that Grant was trying to imitate the noises, so here is a video of that.

Cameron's Birthday, Trunk or Treat, House, Grant and the best night of my life!

2010-11-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

Well I started this post about two weeks ago. I spent three of Grant's nap times(believe me these are precious times) working on it and getting everything written out just perfectly. I had it TOTALLY ready to go, hit publish, and every single thing was deleted. I guess I had forgotten to sign back in each time I worked on it so nothing was being saved automatically like it usually is. So after two weeks of being mad at my blog I decided to suck it up and start over with the same post. But because I am still a little bitter, I am not going to write the detailed amazing post that I had before. So here is the short and sweet version of what we have been up to.

Cameron's birthday was on October 23rd. The night before when Cameron was putting Grant to bed he said "ok buddy if you really love me you will sleep in on my birthday". Well Grant gave Cameron his first official birthday present by sleeping TEN straight hours that night. He had been sleeping long stretches before this, but had always woken up just once in the middle to eat during the night. That was his first time sleeping straight through and it was AMAZING. Since that night he has started sleeping 9-11 hours straight through much more often than he gets up to eat. Here is a picture of him sleeping in his crib to commemorate this glorious event in history. (sorry it's blurry, the light was off and I didn't want to use the flash) oh and mostly just for me to remember, he was 10 weeks old at the time and slept in his crib and not wrapped.(oh, this is what I referred to in the title as the best night of my life...it truly was the best night EVER(I know, a little pathetic, but i'm sure all you moms out there know how this feels).

The next morning Grant helped daddy make banana pancakes for breakfast. They were yummy.

Here is Grant squishing the bananas

"look mom, I'm making breakfast!"

After breakfast Grant took a nap while Cameron opened some presents. Grant still likes to prop his chin up on hi hands... has done this since birth

Then we all watched the BYU football game. Grant was especially excited about this part of the day.

The next week was our ward's trunk or treat. We could only find ONE costume that was anywhere near Grant's size. Luckily it was this adorable little football. Cameron and I both approved. At the last minute we decided we would dress up as well, so Cameron put on his BYU jersey and went as the football player and I threw on my BYU sweatshirt and wrote BYU! on my face with blue maker and we ran out the door. We ended up winning the award for the best family theme costume (:

The player and his football

the swarm of kids getting their candy

Our cute little football

The football and his number one fan(haha, cheesy, I know)

Here are some pictures of our new place. We have since put up more pictures and finished off our bedroom(which there is no pic of here), but I haven't had time to take update pictures yet so here is basically the gist of what it looks like, just with a few more things on the walls.

The bathroom(obviously)

the living room

living room

dining room(looking from the living room)

dining room(looking from the kitchen)

kitchen

Grant's room

I will add pictures of our bedroom and maybe a video of the whole house sometime in the near-ish future

I went to the store and came home to this

It actually happens quite often since Grant still loves to be held and will fall asleep in our arms and Cameron likes to take that opportunity to get in a nap himself (:

For the longest time we were not able to get Grant to take naps at all unless someone was holding him the whole time(at first he wouldn't even sleep at night unless we were holding him), but we have finally found somewhere he will take decent naps without us holding him. He has the coziest little swing and for about the past month or so we we have been able to lay him down in there for a nap and he will stay asleep long enough for him to be rested and for me to get some things done(YAY for the swing!)

Just had to throw in some random pictures of Grant.

Here he is praying peacefully at church a few Sundays ago

Several weeks ago we started putting him in his bumbo. He likes it ok, but gets bored unless someone is sitting with him and talking to him. He loves to be talked to all the time. Most of the time any problem can be magically fixed if we just start talking to him. And lately he has really started talking back(not in a bad way, but like he wants to contribute to the conversation) (:

Now that he is sleeping so well at night he is much more rested and wakes up very happy in the mornings. He has a good ten minutes of smiling and laughing before he realizes he hasn't eaten in ten or so hours and he's starving

Here is a video of me getting him up. I had been in earlier and turned on his mobile so I could get an extra few minutes to get ready before he woke up. He will normally chill for a while once he is awake and just talk to himself, but I think I was taking an unusually long time getting ready so I turned on the mobile.