3 of the cutest skeletons I have ever seen!

Our Newest Cousin!

 On my side of the family, my mom has had one grand baby born a year for the last 6 years, but in year 7 she got lucky and got 2! 

Jett Rick Rhodehouse was born this morning to my sister, Kate and her family. He is so cute, I've been bugging my sister all day to send me more and more pictures!

I love his name (that's what we were going to use if we ever had another boy!), I love that Miley has someone to share her year with, and I love that Brock will be such a good big brother to baby Jett.

Congrats to the Rhodehouse family!

Sunday to Sunday

  We kind of had a busy week. It seemed like there were a few big things going on and lots of little things. Here is a recap:

Sunday: We picked Grammy up from the airport. The kids were so excited to leave church a little early to play on the playground at the airport while we waited for her. They were also excited to hear all about Disneyland and Aunt Sally's wedding.

Monday: We had friends over for a fun Halloween FHE! I made homemade Halloween Oreo's, we had a lesson about repentance called "The Three Naughty Ghosts", and we played Halloween Bingo. We decided to do two fun Halloween FHE's this year instead of going to the Halloween Fantasy Trail that we have done the last few years. I thought the kids would be sad, but they haven't seemed to miss a beat!

Tuesday: Tuesday is usually Gage's morning to do whatever he wants with me. Well, I was having a party at my house that night and had some things to get done so he had to play by himself for a while.

 Unfortunately he decided to play with the tape and wasted a whole roll!

 I threw this little dinosaur train together for him and that kept him pretty occupied after his tape was all gone.

We ran to the store to grab a few things for the party and I was reading some ingredients on a package when I turned around to see Gage holding a bagel from the bulk containers and chewing a big bite! We paid for the bagel and he ate it for an early lunch.

 He has been having "quiet time" in his room in the afternoons. Every once in a while he will fall asleep. I guess his dinosaurs were too much for him this day!

I made this delicious Red Velvet Cheese Ball for my party that night. 

Wednesday: This was my most hectic day of the week! I was determined to find Maisey's old dress and I had to go through several baby girl bins to find it! It was also Maisey's back to school presentation at school, her dance class, then back to her school for a presentation from the director, then home to feed my family dinner, then off to mutual. Like I said, hectic!

 Lots of baby girl clothes! But my dress hunt was SUCCESSFUL!!! :)

 I was eating some of the red velvet cheese ball after lunch and Miley grabbed a cracker off the plate and started sucking on it! She would cry when I took it away so I just let her have it!

 Maisey won the courage trophy at school that day for being brave. She was proud to show it to me at her open house. Her name was also on the Wall of Fame for having no fix-ups on her class work and she was honored for finishing all of her work two weeks in a row! She's one smart cookie! While we were waiting for the director to do his presentation I was able to chat with her teacher for a while. It was nice getting to know her a little bit better.

Gage and Miley both sporting jammies from Grandma Grimmett

Thursday: This was my day to breath! Whew! No preschool, Maisey stayed at school all day, nothing scheduled that night. I may have stayed in my sweat pants until 2 pm.When Maisey got home from school we took some neighbor kids on a bike ride to the park around the corner from us! Gage's chain came off his bike, I didn't push him high enough on the swings, and he stepped in dog poop so he was pretty bummed about the outing, but I put Miley in the swing for the first time and she seemed to love it!

Friday: I had decided earlier in the week that I wanted to do some family pictures and that we would do them on the next nice day. Well, when I got home from taking Maisey to school I turned the news on and they said it wasn't supposed to rain! So I scrambled all afternoon throwing outfits together and getting kids fed and bathed, but we did it!

Here's a little sneak peek!

Saturday: This day started out super relaxing and fun, but it sure didn't end that way! We all slept in until 8:30! That was very needed. Once we got going we headed down to my Aunt's new house that they just built and moved in to. It was incredible. It has been fun to see it in each of the different building stages. The kids loved the theater room and doing plays up on the stage. After that Shaun took the kids home and I took his car to get the oil changed then to run a few errands. Between the oil change and the errands I got rear-ended, HARD! I was stopped in the middle of the road because a pedestrian was trying to cross the street not at a crosswalk. The car in front of me stopped, so I did too. The driver behind me wasn't paying attention and hit me going 40 mph while I was completely stopped! I got out and saw her car first, EEK, then turned the corner to see ours. Ours didn't look too bad, several big gashes and scrunches on the bumper and what looks like a puncture wound. A police officer showed up, we exchanged info, and then I continued on to meet my mom at Costco. We did our shopping and I went back out to the car and tried to reverse out of my parking spot and it started making crazy noises. I didn't know what to do and called our mechanic (who is SUPER awesome, btw!). He told me to go ahead and drive it to his shop and he would look at it for me. He jacked it up and there is a ton of damage underneath. The noise was coming from a bent pipe between the catalytic converter and muffler. The muffler is damaged and the tail pipe and a portion of the frame itself is crunched in. And, the trunk doesn't shut all the way. All things that can be fixed, just a headache to have to deal with, especially since Shaun will be gone two weeks this month. :(

I'm very grateful, however, that I didn't have any of the kids with me. I was considering keeping Miley with me so I could feed her but Shaun talked me into sending her home with him and he would just feed her a bottle. Now I am very glad he talked me into that. When I called Shaun to tell him I had been hit, he just laughed and told me I am never allowed to drive his car again! Twice in a year, What are the chances of that?

 Her car

Our car

(like I said, most of our damage is underneath.)

When I got home I took some Ibuprofen, warmed up our rice pack and rested on the couch for the rest of the evening. I was surprised when I woke up this morning that I wasn't more sore. 

Sunday: Today was the Primary Program in our ward. Maisey sang all of her songs and knew the sign language for them as well. She said her part: "We can use kind words and help our family clean the house." Gage and some of the other nursery kids went up to sing Nephi's Courage with the other primary kids. He was so proud to be up there and sang all of the words. I was very proud of my kids. Then Maisey had a little potty emergency at the very end, so we made a quick exit! :)

Gage changed out of his church clothes before I could get a picture of my two awesome singers!

So there you have it, a busy week. This one looks to be pretty busy as well, and we are especially looking forward to seeing pictures of our new little cousin Rhodehouse who will make his debut on Tuesday (if not before!)

(and that was my 700th post on this blog! WOW!!!)

Thankful

Today I am thankful for many things:

* A husband who listens to me, who talks things through with me, who turns on my electric blanket an hour before bed so I can climb into warm sheets, and who fluffed my pillow for me this morning because I complained it was getting too flat.

* For my neighbor who at the last second took her girls and Maisey to school this morning and then came back and jumped my dead van battery for me!

* For Miley sleeping so well at night now. 7 pm - 6 am! I'll take it!

* For a fenced backyard to let my kids run around in when they are driving me crazy inside.

* That I found one of Maisey's old dresses that my dad bought for her. I've been looking for it for the past few days and found it this morning! It's going to be Miley's Christmas dress this year!

* That I saved all of Maisey's baby clothes so now Miley has so many fun, cute things to wear and I don't have to buy a ton for her.

* This might sound bad, but I am thankful to be done reading the Old Testament. Shaun and I finished every.single.page of that book on Tuesday night. There were definitely some rough spots, but I am sure glad we persevered! We started The Book of Mormon last night. That is much more to my liking.

Mostly I am thankful for my life. My family, my friends, my neighbors, my house, my van, Shaun's job, my calling at church, and my testimony of my Savior!

Like father, like son! Jerseys, a bag of starbursts, and a football game in overtime! (Not BYU though)

Proud and Not So Proud Moments

MAISEY -

On  Sunday, the primary started practicing for their program, so junior and senior primary met all together. After church one of the senior primary teachers told me that Maisey is a perfect primary child!!! She sits reverently, listens attentively, and participates when she is supposed to. :)

Also, I emailed her teacher the other night because we will be out of town during her school's conferences. This was part of the email I received back:

"Thank you for your e-mail about conferences. Thank you so much for looking ahead to schedule a conference for Maisey. She is doing an incredible job at school. Just today she scored a 100% on her math test. Way to go Maisey! I hope that you saw in her backpack her "Please Is A Good Word To Say" manners book. Maisey completed this as a reward for completing all of her classwork."

Maisey's teacher cc'd the intervention specialist who does reading groups for the kindergarten class and a few minutes later, I received this email from her:

Dear Mrs. Grimmett,
I am equally impressed with Miss Maisey's reading performance.  She reads all her sounds beautifully, blends sounds flawlessly, and has fantastic writing.  Her smiling, eager face is a daily inspiration for me as one of her proud teachers.  I thank you for sharing her with us.
Sincerely,
Mrs.-----

PS I hope her cute vest and boots that she wore today come in adult sizes!!

That day she also came home with the Star Music Award! She got this award for being respectful, listening, participating, and setting the example. 

I went to bed one happy and proud mama that night! :)

GAGE -

The letter "G" is a big deal at our house right now! Whenever Gage sees a "G" he will yell, "that's my name, that's my name!" He loves to find them in books, on TV and on our games. He also writes a "G" any chance he gets, including on my dinner menu and on Maisey's school papers that need to be returned, and on a whole pad of sticky notes. . . every single sheet! I don't mind too much, I'm glad he is developing the love of learning!!!

MILEY -

We started Ferberizing (pretty much crying it out) on Monday night! The first night was a little rough. She fell asleep after 20 minutes then was up for 2 hours in the night crying. I prepped myself for night 2, that night has been the worst with my other kids. She went right to sleep and slept 11 hours!!!! I thought maybe it was a fluke, but she did the same thing last night. . . 11 straight hours! Hallelujah!! Let's hope it continues because a tired mama can get used to 11 hours of sleep a night!

 So happy with lots of sleep!

And for the NOT SO PROUD MOMENT -

Miley was sleeping this morning (a 3 hour nap, YAY!) and Gage wanted to play games on the computer. The computer is in our room and I don't like him being in there by himself because he gets into things. So, I  decided to lay on my bed and read a magazine while he played. Well, apparently I fell asleep and apparently Gage noticed and took advantage of it! He got up on the counter and into all of the cupboards in the kitchen. His damaging finds: the salt and pepper shakers, a bag of marshmallows, and our PEZ stash!

I had just filled the salt and pepper shakers last week because we had the missionaries over for dinner. He COMPLETELY emptied them. He told me he was making his birthday cake and used the pez dispensers as his candles! 

It was quite the mess to clean up! I think next time I will make more of an effort to stay awake!

Preschool Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

This was the first year that we didn't all go as a family! Maisey had picture day at school today and couldn't miss it, but I don't feel too bad because she is having a field trip here in a week and a half. But Gage was loving all of the attention he got from his daddy! This was the nicest weather we have had on a field trip. The sky was blue, the sun was out, and there was NO rain! yay!

 He loved watching the tractor!!!

Bauman Farms has a new Pumpkin Hill this year that you slide down on sleds! This was a highlight of the field trip! 

A Long, Busy Weekend

Our weekend started Thursday afternoon when Maisey got home from school and it sure was a BUSY one!

 We played outside all afternoon because it started raining on Friday. This is what a typical afternoon looks like at our house. That's eight kids on our front porch, and that doesn't include the four on the driveway! 

On Friday, Shaun and Maisey went on a date to NW Kid's Club while my mom and I turned 200 lbs of apples into 60 quarts applesauce!

 

When I could see the bottom of the last two boxes I got sooooo excited. It was a long day of canning!

Some of the finished jars!

I'm excited to enjoy this all natural, no-additives applesauce all year long!

On Saturday, I spent the day getting things prepared for the Elder's Quorum Halloween Party that Shaun (read: I) was in charge of. Shaun spent the day watching football and playing football.

 He had some helpers!

Saturday night was the party. We went as a pencil and a honey-do list

(I saw the idea in a magazine at the dentist office over a month ago and went off my memory. It definitely looked better in the magazine!)

Sunday was spent getting things ready for Young Women in Excellence. The mutual theme for the year is Arise and Shine Forth. We used that theme for our night.

Invites

 

A few others leaders and I saw a lamp idea on a different blog and adapted it to fit our needs. I found 10 lamps (one for each of our girls) and put their names on them. We started with all of the lamps off and our Laurel President shared something about how she's noticed each of the girls "shining" this year. As she talked about each girl she would turn their lamp on. It turned out exactly how I imagined. It was amazing!

Then I made fruit platters in the shape of shining suns for the refreshments!

It was a perfect night.

When I got home at 8:30 pm, I changed into sweatpants and vegged on the couch and relaxed for what was left of my weekend. It was sure a busy one, but I was pleased with how everything turned out.

Miley: 5 Months

 Miley is 5 months old today! Some days I feel like she should be older, like she's been part of our family forever. Then there are days where I feel like she should still be a little newborn and there is no way 5 months could have passed by already! 

 I catch myself several times a day just staring at her and wondering how a baby can be so cute? Seriously, I love everything about this little girl.

I love the little petite body that she has. She is definitely my skinniest baby, by far!

I love that she finally has leg rolls - one on each thigh!

I love watching her discover new things, like rolling over and the taste of toes.

I love this sweet innocent face and that looking at it brings me peace and joy.

I love that she is a big time mama's girl! She knows when other people are holding her, and if I'm in sight she will put up a fight! She also knows when I walk out of the room and she's not in my arms! 

I love that she needs me.

I love that big gummy smile she gives me when she sees me.

I love hearing her little laugh.

I love pretending to eat her toes and blowing raspberries on her tummy and playing peek-a-boo to get her to giggle.

I love how attached she is to her dollie.

And to her silky blankie.

I love how easy going and easy to entertain she is.

Seriously, there is not a single thing about her that I don't love!

Here are a few other things about her this month:

Gage and Miley have become little buddies during the day when Maisey is at school. She loves to watch everything he does and he is sure to get her attention when he is doing something silly.

He even shares his silky blankies when hers are in the wash. Now that is love!

She rode in the stroller like a big girl for the first time this month. She has done it several times now and LOVES it. I think she mostly loves being outside!

Look at the difference between these two pictures. She is sure getting big! She does pretty well in her seat which is good with all of the running around we do between preschool and kindergarten!

We tried rice cereal for the first time last night. I couldn't get it in her mouth fast enough. She was seriously scarfing it down and would scream if I didn't have the spoon ready the mili-second she was done swallowing the previous bite.

I'd say she liked it, wouldn't you?

About a month ago, I was ready to be done nursing. I have never nursed a baby this long before and she wouldn't take a bottle at all so I had no break. I was really ready to quit. We kept trying the bottle over the last several weeks and ended up buying a different kind and figured out how to get her to drink it. Then I got really sad. She obviously still wants to nurse and it is selfish of me to take that away from her. So we are still going strong. But it is nice that she is able to have an occasional bottle now, although she will really only drink it for her daddy.

Her hair is finally starting to grow. When I blow on it, it will stand up on her head. She has started pulling at her headbands and can pull them off her head to down around her neck. Also, if she moves her head back and forth in her car seat, her headband will scoot down over her eyes. She doesn't like that very much!

She rolled over for the first time this month, and I missed it! Shaun was playing with her on the floor when I was at the store. I was really sad. But then a few days later she was laying on the ottoman and I was blowing raspberries on her tummy and she rolled right over and off the ottoman. Luckily I was right there playing with her and was able to catch her. We don't leave her on there anymore!

She is still waking up about once a night. But we stopped swaddling her this week and have been putting her in her bed wide awake and letting her put herself to sleep. She fusses for a few minutes, but as long as she has her doll and her blankie she usually settles right down.

She rarely has a rough day, which is way nice for me. And since it hardly happens, I am able to set everything aside and just focus on her when she is having a hard time.

I am sure enjoying my little girl!