Holiday Highlights

Nick, Grant, and I had a wonderful holiday week. It started with our own little Christmas here in KC, then onto Omaha for a 30th birthday celebration and Christmas Eve festivities, then ended with Christmas day and a couple more relaxing days in Kearney. Grant was not really into Santa or really even the presents...and Nick and I took full advantage of this knowing it will probably be the last year. We knew regardless he would be coming back to KC with more toys than he would know what to do with. I think he had more fun playing with his cousins, seeing aunts and uncles, and getting some quality time with his Grandparents...as did Nick and I.

So a few highlights from our fun filled days...celebrating Nick and his siblings 30th birthday with lots of family and friends, Grant's first sledding adventure (he absolutely loved this and even after a pretty good crash continued to say "no bye-bye"), waking up to a blanket of snow Christmas Eve and Grant stating "What happened?" (this was his first time he has been old enough to understand snow, he also loved eating it), a bowling outing with my family, meeting Jess's love, Riley, and of course all the quality time with family.


And our latest update on baby #2...12 weeks along, the belly is popping (this is long before I ever remember Grant popping, guess that's how it works with #2), and the heartbeat sounded strong and healthy at our last appointment.

Hope you all had a blessed holiday and looking forward to an exciting 2011!

A Little Catch-up

It's been awhile since we've last posted and so I feel the need to highlight a few things that have happened in the last month and a half. And going back to the end of October brings us the fun of an am at the Red Barn Pumpkin Patch and a great Halloween night with friends.

Grant was ambitious and set out to help the workers get the pumpkins out of the boxes. We also saw some farm animals and went for a hay rack ride. Halloween night was spent at the Pelton's with yummy food, a warm fire pit, and a neighborhood where we have never seen more trick or treaters. We borrowed a Tigger costume from Grant's cousins, but he was having nothing to do with it...until he saw his friend Noah in his Buzz Lightyear costume. From that point on he was a Halloween champ, going from door to door, saying trick or treat and thank you, and of course getting lots of candy.

November brought Nick's annual deer hunt with his dad and brother and a weekend with family and friends in Omaha for Grant and I. To Nick's dismay he did not bring home the big one...but his brother did and I think Nick was just as excited about that. We did hit up the zoo that weekend and I had to laugh because Grant was most exited about the butterfly area. As soon as he saw the butterfly statues he started yelling "fly" and running towards that area. I believe he may of been influenced by the ride to Omaha watching Elmo and bugs (which included lots of talk about butterflies). We were also able to spend Thanksgiving in Omaha. It was a quick trip, including a little barf fest by Grant (not fun), but nice to spend some time with family.

A couple other highlights from the end of October and November. First, Nick completed his PE Exam (Professional Engineering Exam). I am told this is the real deal of Nick's career. It requires multiple years of work and if (when :) he passes he will finally get to put his stamp on his projects. After months of studying, this was a huge relief for our whole family to have behind us. Now if only those results did not take so long to come back.

And lastly, we recently found out Grant is going to be a BIG BROTHER! We are due the end of July and could not feel more blessed as this holiday season approaches us. It's crazy and exciting to think we will soon have 2 little ones! This morning we asked Grant if he wanted a baby brother or sister and he immediately responded sister. I am not sure if he even knows what a "sister" is but it was pretty cute all the same. :)

The Things They Say and Do...

Grant has so many different words, comments, and actions that he is doing right now and I've been meaning to get a few of them posted. They make us laugh every time we hear them now, I can't imagine the smile they will produce to read them at a later time.

What he's saying:
-"upper"-what he tells us as his crawling and jumping all over us at 6:30 every morning and is his version of "get up".
-"two"-for a long time we only heard the number one (or his version of the number one) when counting...now all we hear is two...I guess he is gearing up to tell people how old he will be in January.
-"tee-dah"-somehow we started saying ta-dah to Grant but he can't quite seem to get that ta part of it so he always mimics back tee-dah!
-"no way"-we don't just get a simple no from Grant when we ask or want him to do things, we get a demanding no way!
-"amen"-when we say our prayers he loves to chime in with the amen...it's adorable.

What he's doing:
-Grant loves to give pounds...and following every pound is a high five. Sometimes we won't even be paying attention and we'll look down and he is standing there with his fist ready. Nick got a pound in the communion line the other Sunday...he said that he couldn't leave him hanging.
-Not only does Grant love to say amen at the end of prayers but he loves to initiate them. We started holding hands at mealtime to pray and now he wants to do this 2 or 3 times a meal. It doesn't seem right to tell him we don't need to pray again, so we go ahead and pray another prayer.
-I love winking at Grant because he will give his best effort to to do it back, which consists of multiple attempts at squeezing his eyes shut tight in hopes that he has winked back.
-If Grant is out the door prior to us getting the garage door open you can guarantee he will be jumping on for a ride. He will grab hold of the bottom of the door as it's opening and ride it up as far as he can.

And Then There Was Fall

It's that time of year and our family's favorite time of year! We've brought out the fall decorations, the fall candle's, and already made a few batches of soup. October started out pretty warm but the mornings and evenings are starting to get that cooler. We've begun raking our crazy amounts of leaves. I say we but really I mean Nick...but this year he has found a willing helper.

We've been taking walks to the park about every night. Grant loves this and we know soon it will be too dark to do so. These walks started out as us pushing Grant in the stroller, then him riding his tricycle (which has a handle for us to push him), then him pushing the tricycle, to now him just walking along side us. This kind of sums up Grant right now...getting big, doing a lot more on his own, and definitely expressing his want for independence. Gotta love it!

September

We had a very relaxing Labor Day Weekend hanging out at home and getting some things done around here. We spent most of the weekend outside especially since Grant was having so much fun on his little outdoor toy we found for him.

We spent a fun weekend back in Kearney for my 10 year class reunion. We saw a lot of friends and I think had even more fun seeing all their kiddos. We also had a fun morning at the band day parade with my Mom, Dad, and Michaela. Grant was mesmerized by all the bands, firetrucks, and motorcycles. Then the next weekend we did the whole parade thing again at the Overland Park Fall Festival. However, this parade Grant was all about getting all the candy. I don't know that he has ever had that much candy in his life.

Grant's also been doing a lot of reading...or at least loving looking through all his books. At least once a day we'll find him going through all his books in his room or the basket of books in the family room. Going off of Grant's current interests, Nick believes he is either going to be a Librarian or a Nascar driver.

I had to get this last picture because it just makes me smile...I have so many pictures over Grant's life on this changing table and it's always funny to see how much he has grown with each one. Our little guy is getting quite big!

Where did August and September Go?

Well here we are in October and I'm wondering what the world happened to August and September. The end of our summer blew by and obviously we have kept busy. So here's a little recap of our August...next update we'll tackle September.

The start of August took Nick and I on a little trip to Chicago. This was intended to celebrate our 5 year anniversary and we could not of asked for a better way to do it. We met some good friends there, visited Navy Pier, had an afternoon on Miracle Mile, hit up a great comedy club, and spent a day in Wrigleyville. It went fast but was a great weekend in the Windy City. Here's a pic of the crew outside Wrigley Field.

Another thing we did a lot over the past two months was hit up the Overland Park Farmer's Market. I could go on and on about how much we love this experience, whether it's the Wednesday or Saturday market, we always enjoy our morning there. The fountains and music are Grant's favorite part.


Grant's craze over trucks, tractors, and cars continues and this is quite evident every Thursday when the trash trucks roar up and down our street. We usually see about 3 to 4 trucks and every time Grant hears them he dashes for the couch and watches intently as they take our trash.

We spent a great am with friends at the KC Zoo. Grant loved seeing all the animals but I think the Polar Bear was his favorite. He loved watching him swim, flip around in the water, and most importantly yell "whoa" with all the other kids as the bear came up to the glass.

Catching up with Friends and Fam

Over the summer, Grant's been having a lot of fun seeing family and friends. Back in June Grant was fortunate to get a few days at his Grandma Diane's and Grandpa Mark's, then a few more days with his Mimi and Papa. We were also fortunate to get to meet up with Hayden Howard for a little picnic and park playdate.




At the start of July Grant had a fun day with the Hellbusch boys and Will and Caroline Gutz (I also had fun with their Mama's :). We all went to the Deanna Rose Farm and then had lunch and some backyard pool time at our home. The boys were a hoot to see all together!




One of Grant's (and our) biggest adventures this summer was when his cousins (the Nachtigal girls) came to stay with us. My sister and her husband needed to be down in Rogers, AK for a few days and asked if we could watch the girls. So of course we said yes and our small family of three, quickly became a family of six. We kept busy and did lots while the girls were here. Grant had a blast having "friends" to play with everyday and Nick and I really enjoyed getting some quality time with our nieces.