Late

Who still writes checks at the store? I went to Costco today. I had timed my errands perfectly to make it back in time to pick Maisey up from school. Well, the man in front of me in the check out line was writing a check, but was having some trouble. TEN minutes later he got it figured out and it was my turn. Then I got stuck behind him at the receipt check at the exit! UGH!!! I was very late picking Maisey up from school. I ran into her classroom to get her and she was sitting on the carpet reading books. As I profusely apologized to her teacher, Maisey cleaned up the books and we were out the door.

As we were walking to the car I apologized to Maisey for being so late and she said to me, "Mom you just moved to 4th place on my favorite people list." I asked her who #1 was and she said, "The old Mom who was never late."

OUCH.

Dear Gage,

Dear Gage,

While Daddy and I were watching the Bones series finale last night, you snuck into our room. You emptied Dad's wallet and hid all of his cards. You also hid his watch and lost his wedding ring. We thought we heard something during our show so I sent Dad to check on you. He found you tucked snuggly into our bed with the electric blanket on to the "H", which is your favorite! He took you back into your room, shutting the door to our room on his way out. When Daddy and I went to bed a few hours later, our bedroom door was locked!!! You must have been playing with the door knob and locked it. Dad got really frustrated, but I quickly reminded him that we had a key and it really wasn't a big deal. After we unlocked our door we came into your room and laid on both sides of you. We gave you snuggs for a while because you are so darn sweet when you are sleeping. We talked about how during our family home evening on gardening you said you wanted to plant mountain goats this year. We talked about how your mind works differently. It helps us remember how much we love you, even when you do drive us bananas sometimes! I love watching you sleep. I love you!

Love,
Your Mommy

Lunch Date

This is just what I needed today...

Some Panera Bread and Baskin Robbins!

Our Crazy April

The last several weeks have been crazy busy for us! 20 out of 24 days in a row we had extra people staying at our house. Which means no matter how hard I try to keep my kids on their normal schedules they haven't been, which means more grumpiness and attitude, which means a worn out mommy! The last of our visitors left six days ago and I'm finally feeling like things are back to normal again! 

Here are all of the fun things we have done lately:

* Daddy went to Idaho for his brother, Ryan's college graduation.

* The kids had a sleep over with their cousins

The Lady Camp-Out

Blueberry pancakes for breakfast!

* Papa and Grandma Grimmett, Hannah, Ryan, and Baby Norah all came to visit us!

All 4 cousins with Papa and Grandma Grimmett

  * Miley learned how to push the button on the power wheel!

 * The first night that all of our guests left, Shaun and I got to go on a much needed date! 

Dinner + Blazer Game = Fun!!!

 * These two crazies have had some fun getting back into our normal routine!

 * Made these delicious strawberries 

 * Celebrated six birthdays with some friends!!

* Had Maisey's school conference. This is a picture of her reading words per minute! She is doing incredible in school and we are so proud of her!

* Other things not pictured: School meetings, swim lessons, temple night, and stake conference. (We used a brand new babysitter, like never babysat before, and she was awesome! House was clean and 3 kids asleep when we got home!)

Although we have had a fun couple of weeks, we are definitely ready for a break from the craziness!

~ Gage is 4 ~

Today this stud turned 4! 

Here is his 4 year old Birthday Interview:

(A lot of his answers are "Come Sing Along" which is what he calls a particular Thomas movie that he's had his eye on for months!)

What are your favorite toys to play with?

Trains, cars, legos, helicopter

What are your favorite foods to eat?

Chips, hotdogs, ice cream

What is your favorite color?

All the blues, like my bike

Where is your favorite place to go?

 The store to look at trains

What makes you happy?

Come Sing Along

What makes you sad?

When I do grumpy things

Who are your friends?

Maisey, Gage, Dad, Mom, and Mi, Thomas, Luke, Rheneas, Gordon

What are your favorite shows to watch?

Come Sing Along

What books do you like to read?

Come Sing Along book

What songs do you like to sing?

Come Sing Along song

What is your favorite thing about having a birthday?

Birthday cupcakes

What are you looking forward to most about being 4?

 To go to my new school

Some things mom wants to record:

 * He never gets sick of Christmas movies. His favorites: Polar Express, Dora Christmas Carol Adventure, Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas.

* He needs more sleep than he actually gets. He is usually the last kid asleep at night and the first kid awake in the morning, but then he's grumpy all day!

* He learned the word "stupid" from Charlie Brown. I think we finally got him to stop saying it!

* He is very sneaky and can often be found eating food while sitting in the fridge, under the table, in the bathtub, or in his bedroom. He also has been known to draw on every single sticky note in a note pad them hide them all behind the computer tower!

* He is very sensitive. He doesn't like to make other people sad. When he gets in serious trouble you can tell he feels remorseful as he breaks down crying.

*He rocks out to Taylor Swift like no one's business! His current favorite song is Trouble but he knows them all!

This lucky guy gets to celebrate all week long. 

We started with the family birthday celebration on Sunday.

 We made the poor kid wait until after quite times on Sunday to open his gifts. 

The very first gift he picked up and starred at it for a second. He said, "It's this long, and this wide... it MUST be Toby!!!" And he was right! 

 Gage is obsessed with the Thomas movie, "Blue Mountain Mystery." If we would have saved the $1.20 every time we rented it at redbox, we would have enough to buy two movies! He calls the movie "Come Sing Along" because it has a song in it with those lyrics. For months leading up to his birthday this is all he has said that he wanted. So Maisey picked it out for him and made a train card to go with it! 

 Grammy gave him a big-boy skate board! He thinks he is pretty hot stuff!

His big gift from Mom and Dad this year was 4 giant boxes of legos!!!  He was so excited to find road pieces in the boxes too.

 After gifts we had his birthday dinner. Maisey made this beautiful centerpiece for the table.

Birthday dinner consisted of hotdogs (chicken for the adults), chips, watermelon, cantaloupe, and lemonade! All of his favorites!

And his birthday celebration wouldn't be complete without cupcakes with train whistles on top!

Today he had a special morning with just me!

 It started with donuts for breakfast!

Then we played whatever he wanted while Miley slept. We played outside, we read books inside, he ate another donut! Then we got to play at the park when Miley woke up. He gets to finish off the day with swim lessons! What a lucky guy!

On Saturday is his Thomas birthday party which he is so excited for! He can't wait to spend the afternoon with his preschool and primary friends playing what he loves: TRAINS!!!

(Look for the party post to come!)

Happy Birthday to the coolest 4 year old I know!

Update:

Our Red Robin Celebration!!!

 

Gage's New School

Gage's new preschool that he will be going to next year had an open house last night! It was a Carnival theme and just what Gage needed to get excited about next year. I made sure to take some fun pictures so I can show him in August and build it back up again. 

He had a blast playing all of the fun carnival games, eating hotdogs and popcorn, and playing on the play ground!

 Mi Mi had fun on the playground too.

 Then we headed inside to show Dad around his new school. 

And of course, the train room is his favorite!

A Heavenly Birthday

Today is my dad's birthday! He would have been 58!

If he were here I would be teasing him about how old that is! :) 

If he were here my kids would have showered him with snuggs, loves, and kisses.

If he were here I would have written him a nice note telling him about all of the wonderful things he has done for my family and I.

If he were here I would have sent him and Shaun golfing for the day together. It sure was a beautiful day today.

 

If he were here we wouldn't have had to go to the cemetery on Sunday.

 

If he were here, we wouldn't have had to talk about cemetery etiquette with a wild man who just sees things that are soooo tempting to climb on.

But if he were here, he would be in so much pain.

So the unselfish side of me is going to be thankful today. 

Thankful that he is serving the Lord on the other side.

Thankful that he has taught me so much.

Thankful that he provides peace and comfort at times when no one else can.

And thankful that my wild man (who is his Papa to the "T") settled down and realized the reverence that the cemetery holds. 

This is my favorite picture of my dad!

Maisey and her Papa - August 2007

 

I wish I had one like it for each of my kids.

We all missed you today, and everyday!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Love you!

Miley: 11 Months

It makes me sad to think that this is likely my last month ever having a baby! Not that she is much of a baby anymore, but I'm clinging on to the title until she is an official toddler! She really is growing up so much! 

 She is still a Mama's girl and that was her first official word: Mama! She calls for me all day and it is funny to try to hear Daddy get her to say Dada. She just blabs Mama Mama in his face like it is a game!

She definitely has a thing for her brother and sister too. She loves when Gage makes silly faces at her, especially in the car. And she loves that Maisey will stand her up and hold her hands so she can walk around the house.

Walking every where is her new thing. She walks around holding somebody's fingers and if you sit her down she will throw a big fit.

She is good at throwing fits. It's funny how quickly they learn methods on how to get what they want.

She is not officially crawling, but she can scoot pretty much anywhere on her bum. When she is on her tummy, she only scoots backward which is frustrating for her.

She got two more teeth this month, making that five total. Two more are so close!

A few other things:

 She also had her first pony tail this month!

She went down the slide at the pool for her first time! She is seriously a water baby. She doesn't care if she goes under water or gets splashed. She just cares that she gets to swim!

She loves:

Chicken Nuggets

Swimming

Apples

Reading Books

Cheese

Wagon Rides

Yogurt

Standing Up

And we love her!

Not According to Plan

Our morning didn't go exactly how it was planned, and I hate when that happens.

Shaun flies out of town today so I had to take him to work this morning. We left really early so that I could get back in enough time to drop Maisey off at school at 7:45. We made it about 15 miles up the freeway before we were in completely stopped traffic. It took us about another 45 minutes to make it 2 miles. At this rate, both Shaun and Maisey were going to be very late. So we turned around and took Maisey to school. She got there too early and had to wait in the cafeteria until she could go in her class at 7:45. She cried. I think it was a mix of that and her daddy leaving that sent her over the edge. I felt bad for the poor girl.

Then we took a back highway to try to reconnect with the freeway after the accident. It was sooo backed up that it actually took us more time to get to the freeway than it would have to just deal with the traffic on the freeway. UGH! Shaun was very late today!

The reason for the mess (courtesy of KPTV)

After HOURS in traffic I made it home and put Miley down for her nap and got things ready for Gage's birthday photo shoot that I was going to do that morning. Well, after an hour of talking in her crib, I decided Miley was never going to fall asleep, so I got her up. While I was getting her ready to go, Gage found a cherry tomato and decided it would be fun to smash it in his hand, therefore getting tomato juice all over his shirt for pictures. Good thing for Shout wipes!

You want to know the best medicine for frustration?

Cute pics of your kids!

And some apple cider and donuts after pictures doesn't hurt either!

Update: My totally awesome friend brought over dinner for the kids and I tonight since she knew Shaun was gone. Didn't go as planned, but this change I welcomed!

Spring Break (Pre-Sunriver) + Aunt Janel's Visit

Our spring break started out a little crappy to say the least!

 See here's proof. . . sorry for the disgusting picture!

We spent the morning writing "I will not hurt others" after the big kids were kicking each other.

Luckily it got better quickly when Aunt Janel came that night.

Then things got silly!

Here's what we did with Aunt Janel:

 Played lots of games

 Played on the swings

 Ate at Panera Bread. . . twice!

 Went on wagon rides

 Watched lots of basketball 

(this was the BYU game and Gage snuck out of his room to watch!)

 Played bubbles

 And sidewalk chalk

 Played on the horse swing at Bauman's

 Tractor at Bauman's

 More swinging!

 Janel was such a good sport running around and playing with the kids at the farm!

 Dropped dead from playing so hard!

 Went swimming during the big kids' swim lessons.

 Visited with cousins

(another cousin came over the day before but I didn't get any pics!)

 Took cousin and family to dinner and ice cream

(We may have eaten frozen yogurt 3 times in 5 days. . . don't judge!)

 Had a fashion show complete with invitations, posters, tickets, popcorn, and drinks!

 Built Legos while watching conference

 Ate cinnamon rolls, also while watching conference

 Played with Janel's friend Joe who stayed with us for the weekend.

We had so much fun with Aunt Janel and we are sad that we won't see her again until September!