More new photos

I wanted to post some additional recent pictures of the boys. I realized tonight while making cookies that this is the first time I had both boys on the counter baking with me. This is foreshadowing of things to come.

Cole loves this stuffed lion and has a great time playing with it. Plus, you can see how chunky Cole's face is getting.

Grant is growing so fast. He loves to play Play-Doh these days. He stands on the kitchen chair amd works his way through the rollers, cookie cutters and other Play-Doh toys. His Play-Dohs have all gotten moushed together now so that all of the canisters contain grayish colored play-doh.

Tonight when Cole was on the counter in the Bumbo I realized that he was wearing the same outfit he was wearing mid-December. I wanted to take a picture tonight to compare how he's grown. He's grown and changed a lot in the last month.

(Taken on December 14, 008)

(Taken tonight)

Cole is growing up so fast

So, Cole's growing and growing up so quickly. He now roles over from back to tummy. Miraculously, I managed to get his first role over on video.

January continued...

On Saturday, January 10, we were able to do a little service. Our ward is in charge of cleaning the church for the next 3 months. We volunteered to help last weekend. We had to be there at 8 AM which was difficult but we did it. I volunteered to vacuum the chapel since I had Cole in the Bjorn and that was the easiest thing for me to do. Grant helped another boy gather up and stack all of the hymn books in the chapel. We have a spanish ward in the building too so we have spanish and english hymn books that have to be switched in and out. Chad got put on bathroom cleaning duty. After we were done with our jobs we headed to Le Cave's bakery for some delicious donuts. Grant loved his and got so close to the donuts he bonked his head on the donut case.

Later that same day, we took Grant fishing for the first time at one of the urban lakes around here. We stopped at Sports Authority to buy a pole for Grant. The only small pole they had for him was a pink Barbie fishing pole. Chad did not want to buy it but I didn't want to go to another store so I talked him into it. Chad had plans to spray paint it but I don't think it will ever happen. I think it's funny. Grant had a good time trying out the fishing. Of course, we didn't catch anything but it was fun trying.

(Chad and Grant fishing)

(Grant eating his donut)

(Grant showing me his donut)

(Cole fishing)

On Saturday,

January thus far

The most important event of January to date was the visit from the Binky Fairy on New Years Eve. Grant put his binky in a little box and put it on his toy closet. In the morning, the binky was gone and Grant received Guido, Luigi and the tractor from the movie Cars as a present from her. Since then, things have been fairly smooth sailing. He doesn't ask for his binky in fits of rage as we expected but he does talk about the Binky Fairy during the day and generally he's not sleeping as well as he used to. However, I no longer get woken up 2-3 times each night to search for the binky. It was time and a good thing it is gone. I think it's good we waited until now rather than doing it when he turned 2 like we originally planned. I'm just glad it's gone.

I got to have a girls night out for the first time in months. It was nice to get out for a few hours without kids. Me and some friends went out to dinner for a couple of hours. Some of the girls did a Mary Kay makeover beforehand and then went to a movie afterwards. I don't have energy for all of that so dinner was good enough for me.

Grant, Cole and I spent January 5-9, 2009 in Flagstaff with Amy, Nicholas and Zachary. I needed to get out of town for awhile and Amy and her boys were up staying with her parents while Lars is in Asia. We had a great time. They had just had a huge snow storm so there was a ton of snow for me and Grant to play in. On the way up to Flagstaff, we stopped in Phoenix and had lunch with David. David made us lunch. We had delicious rotisserie chicken with Salsa Lizano. Grant loved being outside and learned how to sled. There was a giant pile of snow in their backyard. We used garbage bags to sled down the hill. Other than snow playing we didn't do much but hang out in the house and let the boys play. The boys had a great time playing with their Cars and Grant's train set. I learned that both of my boys are in the phase where they don't sleep well away from their beds. I did not get great sleep but we had a good time. I was also able to go to Prescott for a few hours. I had my teeth cleaned. I was supposed to stay over night but that didn't work out. It's ok though because we went to Phoenix and I spent time with Shelli and David. David cooked us dinner and then we slept at Shelli's. It was a nice little vacation but I was glad to get back and get at least a little more sleep.

(Cole watching sledding)

(Lindsay and Cole in the snow)

(Nicholas and Grant playing in the snow)

(Grant with his shovel)

(Grant eating snow)

Happy New Year

Most importantly, here are some adorable pictures of our boys. They really do love each other. Grant loves to help with Cole and give Cole hugs. Every time Cole looks at Grant, his face gets a huge smile on it and he just lights up. I love that they love each other so much.

My Christmas present finally arrived. I got a double jogging stroller for Christmas and I had to wait for it to get here. I love it. It's just what I wanted and I love using it. It's a great incentive to get out and get walking to lose that baby weight of mine. Grant loves it too. I call it our stroller and he loves sitting next to Cole.

Our New Years was far from exciting but we had some good family time. Chad had to work New Years Eve but the VA had the Tucson Garden Rail Society doing a presentation so I took Grant and Cole to see the trains. We had lunch with Chad and two other residents. Grant loved the giant trains running on the tracks. It was a huge track with amazing city details all around the track. Grant wanted to watch it forever. He had to be pried away from the tracks.

On New Years Eve, we had both boys in bed by 8:30 PM and then Chad and I put in Sex and the City and enjoyed a movie together. We haven't watched a movie together in ages. It was fun. When the movie was over we watched the ball drop and I was in bed by 12:30. I think we are officially old, married parents. Honestly, I hate New Years Eve. It's just a big drinking holiday and I hate staying up that late because I know I won't get able to sleep in.

On New Years Day, we tried to go explore the 17th Street Market for the first time but it was closed. Instead, we had lunch at our favorite local dive, The Grille. The service was as bad as ever and they even gave me the wrong sandwich. Only at this place is it close to acceptable. I also got to take a 2 hour nap, which was heavenly. I really needed it.

Today, I took down Christmas before we headed out for some family fun. Grant had just as much fun taking the ornaments off the tree as he did putting them on. He tried his best to take the hooks off the ornament balls but every time took off the entire top of the ball. He gave it his best effort though.

Once Christmas was down, we were able to go to 17th Street Market. It is this amazing grocery store in this old warehouse. From the outside you would never guess that this market is there. It's in an awful part of town, very industrial and questionalby safe but inside they have so many amazing things. They had two full aisles of aisan food, delicious looking fish and meat and numerous foreign aisles. Chad found some German potatoe dumplings to cook up for us. They even give kids free apples. How cool is that? After wandering the entire store, we headed to the Tucson Botanical Gardens to see the butterfly exhibit. We have wanted to see this exhibit for a couple of years now and finally made it. This was also on my list of things to do so I was particulary insistent about doing this. They bring in live butterflies from various regions of the world and you go into an 85-90 degree room and can watch them up close and personal. Some were zooming so fast around I almost got hit a couple of times in the face. You won't believe the pictures I took. We also finally were able to see the Botanical Gardens themselves. Chad loves looking at plants and I kind of enjoy it. Grant had a great time in the Children's garden, where he got to dig for earthworms and play in a sandbox. They also had pumpkins and water fountains (Grant's two favorite things in the world).

We're hoping to go fishing tomorrow if the weather stays nice but it's forecasted to get cold and wintery again.

On another note, does anyone else find kitchen items in weird places on a daily basis? I always have to go hunting for my mixing bowls and wooden spoons because Grant thinks they are his own personal drum set. This, however, is the weirdest place I've found something yet and therefore warranted a photograph.