Time marches on

As this year comes to an end we have an end of an era of sorts at our house. We have had someone sleeping in a crib for over 6.5 years now- but not anymore! Collin has been able to climb into and out of his crib for a couple of weeks so we decided to convert his crib to a toddler bed. The other 2 boys never did learn to climb out so we kept them in the crib until they were 3 and potty training. Collin will be 3 in March so this is a little earlier, but he is ready. He hasn't climbed out of his crib when he shouldn't yet and I don't think he will with the new bed. He was so excited for his big boy bed! It was a bittersweet moment for me- glad to see my little guy so proud to be a big boy and sad that one of the last remaining baby things in our house is now gone. I handled it pretty well though, so maybe I'm ready to move on too. The only baby thing we have now is diapers. But moving on will mean potty training......ummm.....I don't think I'm ready for that quite yet!

So proud to be growing up!

Excited! When we checked on him a little while ago we found him sleeping on the floor. Looks like he fell out but either didn't wake up or went right back to sleep!

The boys had to jump on it. I think it's a rule.

And I found a good use for the bumpers!

Christmas 2011

We had a really fun Christmas this year. We celebrated on Christmas Eve with the Lawrence's, spent Christmas day at home together and went to church, then we celebrated with the Dunn's on the day after Christmas. Everyone had fun and we have some great memories.

These faces are awesome!!

Gotta love the big mess pictures!

Grant was excited about his big, metal dump truck.

Collin loved his truck with a "skeamroller and a bobcat on it".

And Scotty was ecstatic about his recording night vision goggles. They are really cool!

Grant used his dump truck to clean up garbage.

They have had a lot of fun with this fire truck.

Scotty was super excited about all the gifts he received. He was also excited about everyone else's gifts!

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas too!

Dad taught them to dance

I caught this shot without the flash and it shows Grant's awesome dance move of hitting his own butt.

All the boys do that move. I think it might be a boy thing. No comment on whether or not I have ever done it.

Getting ready for Christmas

We are having lots of fun getting ready for Christmas this year. The boys love counting down the days and eating their candy from the advent calendar every day. They are having fun coming up with ideas for homemade gifts they can make for their cousins. Last Saturday Miles, Scotty, my Dad and I went to a local production of The Nutcracker. And then Miles' parents kindly had the boys sleep over so Miles and I could finish up our Christmas shopping. Monday night we got our Christmas tree and then went to the Transcript Christmas party. That is always a good time. Then tonight we put up and decorated the tree. It's fun that Scotty is now old enough to remember his favorite decorations from years past. Grant and Collin were excited to see things that are new to them. We read the story of Jesus' birth tonight before bed. I love the Christmas season!

We saw Santa at Grant's preschool open house. They were all excited, but nervous when they actually got to the big guy. Grant had said he didn't want to sit on his lap, but he ended up being ok with it. We got to see him again at the Transcript party. Collin walks right up to him and starts telling him what he wants- no waiting until he's asked!

We thought this was so cute that they just sat there watching Santa!

This was while we were picking out our tree. Collin loved sticking his head in there and did it over and over and over.

It was Collin's turn to put the star on the tree this year. We have good boys- the other two were a little sad that they didn't get to do it but they were excited for Collin anyway.

Putting the ornaments on. Mostly on the bottom!

All done!

After we were done decorating the tree we danced to Christmas music. The favorite song was Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree!

Par-tay!

Since Grant's birthday was on a Saturday he had his birthday party the same day, so it was a full day of celebrations.

He started off the day waking up to balloons on the floor. He and Scotty slept downstairs that night so he was really surprised to see the balloons down there in the morning.

Then he opened his presents from us and his brothers. I love his happy face in this picture.

Daddy helped him put together his racetrack and they had fun racing the car that goes with the track and also his new Mario car.

We had pancakes for breakfast, sang and he blew out his candles. Mario participated too!

He had a fun party with all the family. His grandparents were very kind to give him two gifts he really wanted- a big Mater and a blue camera. It had to be a blue one! Here he is taking a picture of Mater with his camera.

Miles made him a Mario cake. It was awesome, as always.

Grant put the candle right on Mario's nose! When we took it off it left two little spots and looked like a pig nose.

Gotta love licking the candle!

Birthday Boy! It's hard to believe he is 4 years old.

You can't see the banner very well, but we were able to use the same file I made last year for his banner and swap out the Yoshi pictures for Mario pictures. Score!

I got a new idea from my carpool partner to hang some crepe paper in the entrance to the hallway. The boys loved it and called it the car wash. One week later it's still hanging up with only 3 of the streamers being torn down. Not bad!

After his party all the Lawrence's went to see The Muppet Movie, which was really fun. Then we went to his favorite place for dinner- McDonald's! It was a really fun day and it was great to watch Grant feeling special and enjoying every minute of being the birthday boy.

Happy Birthday Grant!

Grant is 4 today!! He is so excited for his birthday. He's been talking about it for a long time- it's been so cute! Grant has had an adventurous, fun year. As most 3 year olds experience, he has been figuring out all his emotions. And there have been a lot of emotions! He graduated from speech therapy right when he turned 3 and his speech has really blossomed. He says a lot of funny, sweet things. He was potty trained and did wonderfully with that. He started preschool in the fall and loves it. He went skiing for the first time. He survived swimming lessons- he really struggled with that, but he finished and he was proud. And he had his first black eye! Grant is a very sweet, funny, fun and crazy boy. He loves to run from one end of the house to the other making rocket, car and shooting sounds. He's a great brother and gets along really well with both Scotty and Collin. He loves Mario, playing Mario Kart, trucks, trains, riding his bike, playing in dirt, snuggling and getting tickled. We love Grant so much! He is a very fun part of our family. Happy Birthday Buddy! We love you!!!

Here are some pictures of him from the past year.

Smarties

Miles and I decided we should play Scrabble. Neither one of us has ever been very good at it. I have only played a couple times ever and I remember being very bad. So, for some reason, we (mostly me) got all excited about playing. We went out and bought it and sat down to play after the kids were in bed. We had to read the rules and decided to play the shortened way by ending when someone gets to the appointed points. The first game went way better than we were expecting. Then we played a second game and we ended up using every single tile. We couldn't believe it! We only had one curse word and one spot that was technically cheating, so we were pretty proud! I don't think we'll play with anyone other than each other though. We think we're doing well, but I'm sure we would be crushed by everyone else!

Thanksgiving

I always have a lot to be thankful for. I am very blessed. We will be enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with Miles' family this year. Good food, good company and fun games. Couldn't ask for more!

The thing I am most thankful for is Miles and our boys. They make me so happy. A few Saturdays ago Miles was gone early rock climbing with some Scouts and the boys and I were hanging out on our bed. (I was trying to catch a few more zzz's while they played, but that never works!) We ended up filming them singing songs. It was so fun and now they love to watch themselves singing. Well, Scotty was too shy to sing on camera, but hopefully we'll get him sometime. My favorite one was Grant. He started singing You're A Grand Old Flag but he got mixed up and moved to The Chapel Doors. Then he started again and...you'll see what he does. It makes me laugh every time I watch it. Collin has such a cute little voice and he loves to sing. He's so cute. I threw in Scotty's attempt- I love that he tried! I love these boys!!

Happy Halloween!!

We all had a fun Halloween. They boys were excited to get their costumes and they were worn a lot before the official day.

Every year we get all the Lawrence cousins together to take pictures in their costumes. It's always a wild adventure, although as they get older it's getting easier. This year wasn't bad at all.

Collin as a construction guy or Bob the Builder or Hard Hat Harry. He would decide what he was that particular day and we would address him appropriately.

Grant decided that he wanted to be Mario- same as last year. The bummer part was that the suit from last year was too small so we had to buy a bigger one. Maybe he'll want to be Mario a third time and he can wear this one again!

Scotty went to the Halloween store to get some things to be a vampire....until he saw this General Grievous costume and had a change of heart! It cost more than we budget for a costume so he paid the difference with his own money. He's growing up!

All ready and excited to go trick or treating. Perfect weather last night for trick or treating and then snow this morning!

Checking out the haul: