Happy Birthday Grant!

I can't believe it's been a YEAR since our Grant came into our family. He is such a fun, sweet, funny, feisty, teasing, curious, determined, laid back, and handsome little guy.

Some highlights of his first year that we will always remember are: his contagious smile and hilarious laugh many times. I hope I can always remember what it sounds like. It always makes me smile! I don't know that anyone could not smile when they hear it. It's not a regular giggle that most babies have, Grant's laugh is a full blown belly laugh! We love it. He rolled over at 4 months, and started crawling at 7. He is a little speedster with his crawl and loves to turn around to see if we are following him and then once we are, he takes off as fast as he can! He's not quite walking by himself, but bear crawls or will stands up and walk with help. He has found a few sounds and signs for his communication and words, and generally now (since about 9 months) sleeps through the night!

He loves to eat noodles, crackers, fruit, and meatballs - and he loves to drink water. He loves to play outside, in the water and with stuffed animals or balls. He is also quite the little dancer and loves to shake it whenever he hears music. He also has developed a love for "Emo" (Elmo) and "Da" (dogs)! And don't try taking anything away from him, he will growl at you!

He has endured 2 moves, as well as camping when he was 10 days old! He has enjoyed family getaways to the Sawtooth Mountains, Las Vegas, and Utah. He loves his big brother Lincoln and thinks most anything Lincoln does is funny. He loves to give kisses to Mommy and his teddy, and he loves for Daddy to play with him. We are so lucky to have our little Googie (Googs) and love him so much!

Hooray...I'm 1 today! :)

We had a fun day celebrating Grant including breakfast at McD's, a picnic in the park, swimming, and of course cake!

He was excited to see the candle...but really wasn't sure about the cake...I don't even think he ate it, I think he just laughed and played with it!

This was the day before while celebrating with Gramma and Pop Watts...he really wasn't sure what to do with the cake this time either, and was sleepy from a big day! Poor guy but..."it's my party and I'll cry if I want to..." :)

Happy birthday Grant...WE LOVE YOU!

Happy Birthday America!

We decided to introduce Lincoln to a good home town carnival for part of our 4th of July celebrations. It was probably the fastest way we've ever spent a good amount of money and probably won't be headed to another carnival for a long time...if ever! Regardless, Lincoln did have a good time riding the ferris wheel with Mommy, being a "pilot" in a green airplane (green is his favorite color right now) and a driving a quad (the kiddie rides)! He did NOT like cotton candy! He was actually quite repulsed by it!

Pilot Lincoln...

Little Grant was happy to be in his own "ride" just people watching!

Being introduced to cotton candy...not all it's cracked up to be!

On the 4th of July, we continued our tradition of a red, white and blue breakfast then headed south to spend the day with Jason, Wendi, their kids and Pop and Gramma Wilde. We had a fun time at the Perry parade, eating a yummy BBQ (including Gramma's delicious potato salad), and watching Lincoln play his little heart out. Grant thought it was hilarious to crawl around with their dog Cassie! We ended our fun holiday back home watching the fireworks with our friends, the Hales, and Pop and Gramma Wilde. YAY - Happy Birthday America! :)

Just a little whip cream to go with his "pankies"

Our little cuties watching the parade. Lincoln said his favorite thing about the parade was all the candy and the drums! He seemed to loved it all! Grant loved waving the flag, he loved it too!

Getting our treat ready to go to the firework party! (They are regular size and mini size cupcakes with candies and sprinkles on top)

Lincoln had so much fun his little friend Landon and the sparklers. They weren't so sure about the big fireworks...it was pretty cute though to see them both stand there plugging their ears.

Our little family waiting for the fireworks! Surprisingly, we were FREEZING!

Little Grant didn't quite make it to see the fireworks...he found a cozy place to call it good.

Happy Father's Day!

Okay, so I'm completely behind on posting our little family happenings...o-well. We had a fun Father's Day celebrating Lincoln and Grant's wonderful Daddy! We were able to spend the whole weekend together (which is a rarity) and had a yummy steak and veggie dinner made on the grill! I also made Brandon a fun dessert (I can't take any credit for thinking of it, I saw it on the bakerella blog, but it did turn out SO cute). It's the perfect Father's Day or any summer day dessert! SO CUTE! I am so thankful my boys have such a fun Daddy. There is a song that I remember listening to way back when called Greatest Dad. I've sung what I remember of it to Lincoln and he loves to walk around the house singing, "Greatest Dad, greatest Dad" over and over again! It is so fun to watch Brandon with his boys, he is a great example for them and gives them a good mix of love, fun, stability, and structure in their lives. Lincoln and Grant love him SO much.

Lincoln helping put together the treat! He was so excited all weekend for it. I had to start to make it on Saturday, and honestly, I was surprised he didn't totally sneak all the treats before we put it together on Sunday! He's a little treat man! :)

YUM! It's yellow cupcakes/brownie "hamburgers" and sugar cookie "fries"! So yummy, cute and really easier to make than expected. However, if I do it again, I think I would prefer chocolate cupcakes in place of the brownies.

Happy Father's Day! Daddy and his boys...

This Little Piggy Ate Noodles...

We found out that Grant LOVES noodles of any kind! Brandon gave him some lunch of lasagna and let Grant help himself. When I came to get Grant...this is what I found! He was one happy piggy...so glad Brandon thought to take Grant's shirt off! :) Hard to believe that this little guy had a hard time starting to eat, it seems that now he will eat ANYTHING! Oh how we love this little piggy.

Cute Cousins

Lincoln LOVES his cousins so much and loves playing with them any chance he gets. He is lucky to have cousins his age or close to his age on both sides of our family. These little boys are probably going to be up to no good any time they get together through out their lives. I can only imagine the things these 3 will come up with...but for now, they are just cute cousins playing games, digging in the dirt, and trying to sneak outside and blaming it on each other!

Happy Birthday to Brandon!

I feel like there are so many things that could be written to catch up and keep this little family blog of ours complete. We really haven't posted anything for almost a month so the next few posts will be catch ups! This year for Brandon's birthday he wanted to go the the Oquirrh Temple open house, go swimming, and go shopping. So we headed to Utah so we could get them all in during his birthday weekend! It was a fun few days celebrating Brandon. He is such a great man...I often step back and am reminded of how incredibly lucky I am that he is MINE! He is so funny, compassionate, loving, supportive, smart...the list could go on and on and you all would be jealous! :) He is a wonderful Daddy to our little boys and they love him so much. We are SO glad you were born...we love you Brandon/Daddy!

We had Brandon's Birthday BBQ! Yummy chicken pesto pizza (cooked on the grill) and grilled veg...with ice cream and GIANT chocolate cupcakes for desert...YUM!

Lincoln and Grant just LOVE their Daddy! (This picture of Grant is him showing us his latest "trick"...folding his arms!)

Going "schimmin'"

The Oquirrh Temple...so pretty! It was wonderful to be able to go.

Shoshone Falls

I've been meaning to post these pictures for a couple of weeks now...A few Saturdays ago, we decided to go check out Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls, we hadn't gone to see it yet and we've heard it is a must see! Well, we must have gone a couple of weeks too late, after the impressive time of the falls, because while it was still pretty to see, I don't think we could say it was impressive. Regardless, we had a fun time on our little day trip. We walked around the area, had a picnic, and then went did a little shopping!

Here we are...

Here's the Falls! 

I wish I could write how Lincoln says water falls, it's adorable! He loved seeing it. He thought it would be fun to jump in...we had to explain it wasn't water for "schimmin"!

Our little cuties!

...and us...

Just a little side note - the day before I went to get my hair done and when I came home, Lincoln was waiting by the door. As soon as I came in he said, "Mommy haircut! Like it!" Little one's honesty is so fun...especially when it turns out to be a nice compliment!