To My Valentines

To my first and only Valentine...
I can't imagine life without you Honey Pie! You are such an amazing person. I am so glad that you are in my life and love being there too.

How do I love you...let me count the ways...
1. I love that you would rather be with me and the kids than anywhere else.
2. I love that you love to cook...and that you volunteered (yes, it was voluntary) to make dinner every weekend.
3. I love that you help with laundry and dishes when I'm lost in the chaos of home.
4. I love that you brought me tulips and Redvines for Valentine's day.
5. I love that you have fun (and tolerate at times) teaching our kids new things...snowshoeing, skiing, building dog houses, making dinner, etc.
6. I love that you hated going to Seven Peaks but went anyway because your kids loved it.
7. I love that you make me laugh, laugh, laugh!
8. I love that our kids absolutely adore you.
9. I love that when you went skiing with Vince, he got stuck on the ski lift by himself...it makes for a great memory. ;) I also love that you're still worried you scarred him for life.
10. I love that you love me.

To my other 3 Valentine's...
Vince,
I love that you love to cuddle.
I love that you told your friends that if they didn't let your sister play with you then they had to go home.
I love that you love track.
I love that you love your brother and sister.
I love that you are saving your piggy bank money for a mission and to help us buy a house with horses.
I love that you love to bear your testimony...and that you dare bear it in sacrament meeting.
I love that you still love to come cuddle in our bed.
I love that you love camping, fishing, shooting guns, the beach...I love that you love being active.
I love it when you ask me to tickle you and then I love your laugh.
I love that you love helping me and others.


Aubrey,
I love that you say "pretend I'm" about everything.
I love that you take hour(s) long baths...you are like your mother.
I love that you have such a tender heart and such an ample supply of hormones.
I love that you are feisty...sometimes I'm not so much in love with that.
I love that you brush my hair.
I love that you are such a princess...with mud on her ball gown.
I love that you have now acquired the love of cuddling.
I love that when you ask if we can buy something you always add, "when it goes on sale I mean".
I love that more than anything you can't wait to be a mother.
I love that you love being a sister.


Martin,
I love that you laugh every time I come close to tickling you.
I love that you love to snuggle before bed.
I love that you shake your head and tell me "no, no, no" when I tell you to sit down in your highchair.
I love that when you pick up a phone you say "Hi Dad".
I love that you play peek a boo with me after naps.
I love that you are super chubby.
I love that anytime you hear water running in the bathroom you try to climb into the bath.
I love that you pull everything out of every cupboard in the kitchen while I cook or clean...it means you want to be near me (or so I tell myself as I clean it up 10 times a day).
I love that you are tender hearted.
I love that you fall asleep anytime you're in the baby back pack.

I know this may have been a boring post for most, but I wanted to let my Valentines know how much I loved them and all of the things I love about them. I can't imagine my life without the love I receive from them. Love ya Valentines!

Good times, good deals, and good food!

Good Times...

A few weeks ago most of my family was able to go with us to the Draper temple open house. My sister and her family stayed at our house the night before. The kids were so excited to see each other. We finally put on a movie in Aubrey's room around 11 pm and made a good ole' cousin sleep over scene. They had lots of fun!

Finally asleep!

This is how it looked the next morning...no kids! They all ended up in bed with their parents.

Maybe next time they'll make it all night at the sleepover.

The next morning we had to leave around 8 am to make it to the temple for our reservation.
It was an amazing experience. I am so glad that we were able to share that experience with our family and especially with our kids. It was awesome to see the reverence they had for the temple. It was obvious that they felt the special spirit that is always there. The reverence was broken once - when Vince said (as we entered the Celestial room and he caught sight of the chandelier) -

"Oh cool! A disco ball!

How funny is that! I'm sure that others got a little laugh out of it too. Afterward we went to lunch with everyone and headed our separate ways. Thanks to everyone who drove forever to share the experience with us. We missed the families who couldn't make it!

The whole gang.

Mom, Cas, and Jerz - Cassy, what was so exciting?
Luke and Kels
Our fam. The kids insisted on kneeling in front. Who knows?

Good Deals...

As most of you know, I'm completely obsessed with Pinching your Pennies. It's an addiction that I am fully aware of and am not doing much to curb. Sorry Josh! But, this last weekend I had an especially great shopping trip so I had to share. Here a pic to show my haul. It doesn't do it justice so I will explain.

In my shopping cart I had all of this (I marked the items that were free with coupons):

26 boxes of oatmeal

29 (8 packs) of Juicy Juice (232 total juice boxes)

31 bottles of Juicy Juice

4 Boxes Macaroni Grill dinners (great for Young Womens nights)

4 bags of bagels

20 cans of Chef Boyardee (great for babysitter nights)
1 bottle of Sobe Life water (free)

2 nail clippers (free)

4 nail files (free)

2 eyeshadow make ups (free)

8 pounds grapes

2 pounds chicken (free)

So, by my estimations, this would have cost around...$295.00 at Wally World. (Remember, just a rough estimate. I think it might actually be a really low estimate.) Do you want to know what I paid for all of it? Just over $50.00! Can you believe that? I think that is amazing! Maybe I'm crazy, but I thought it was great. Now I need a break for a week or so to recover. Now onto...

Good Food...

My hubby is a culinary expert! Last summer he made, yes made!, his own smoker bbq. He bought a 50 gal. drum and made a bbg. A-MAZ-ing! With this smoker he has created some masterpieces. Believe me! His latest was on Saturday. He smoked a brisket for about 8 hours (or more...Josh, a little help with the time). It was super delish!

Did I mention he's also a great food photographer? Is your mouth watering? Mine is!

I am lucky to have a hubby that loves to cook. In all reality he is a much better cook than I. Here's to the next round of good times, good deals, and good food!

Snowshoes and Snow cones

Last Saturday Josh and I took the kids snowshoeing. It now comes highly recommended at our house! The kids and I had never been before, but Josh has been going for the last 2 years. The kids had filled their obedience jars (they get pennies for doing what they're asked and for not saying NO) and so for a reward we bought them each snowshoes. Future rewards will not be so elaborate, but this time it was so worth it! I can see us doing this often as a family.

We went up the canyon and found a nice FLAT trail to let the kids try out the new toys. We had so much fun. I'll let the pictures tell the story...they do much better than me.

Our kids have been wanting snow cones for the last few weeks (they must be excited for summer), so when we were done snow shoeing, I gathered some snow in a cooler. Most people drink hot choco after outdoor winter activities but not our family...snow cones! Josh thinks I'm crazy and that I was going to give the kids some sickness, but the snow cones were great (by the way, none of us got sick!). The kids loved choosing their own KoolAid flavor and now we'll have to take a few more trips up the canyon to replenish our "clean" snow supply.

Vince chose grape and Bobsy chose Strawberry

You know it's good when it's dripping off your chin.

We loved our new family activity. Thanks Honey Pie for getting us hooked. One of these weekends Josh & I will be getting a babysitter so that we can go on a longer and more strenuous expedition...wish me luck, I may die of exhaustion!

On a side note...the other day Aubrey told me I was "scrumptious". Nothing could have made me happier than to know I'm scrumptious!

One of Those Days

Do you ever have one of those days? I do! This picture of Marty might explain it all. Here he is eating pee smellers (that's what we call them in our family...they're golden puffs) that he pulled out of the pantry and spilled, and he's wearing half of his pajamas because I was too lazy to put the other half back on after a diaper change. Oh, and did I mention it's after 5 pm? A few days ago was definitely one of those days where I was in my pjs when Josh got home from work and pretty much nothing was accomplished while he was gone. But, at least we had fun!

He knows he won't get into trouble with a cute face like that!

Notice the pieces of cereal glued to his leg? Yummy!

Aubrey was so excited to show me this. Yeah, it's tissue shoved up her nose. She's gross!

The other day, Aubrey was asking me about Jesus. Where He lives...when He will come back to Earth...where heaven is...you get the picture. Then she breaks out into song. Here's the jist of it. It's kinda cute! (can be sung to the melody of your choosing)

Space!
I could go see Jesus
If I was dead
I could come back to life
and come back from space

I could go see Jesus
if I was dead
(then she threw in... )
I can go potty by myself
because I'm big
(random - she's been potty trained for 1.5 years)

I don't know that she'll be a songwriter when she grows up, but we loved it! Here's to a more productive day tomorrow. Well, lets just shoot for being out of my pjs before Josh gets home from work. ;)

Josh's Toy

For Christmas Josh wanted a handgun.

So, a few weeks ago he finally found the one he wanted and we bought it. (Yeah, I know, it was after Christmas.) He got a Sig Sauer P229 .40 caliber. I don't know anything about handguns. Give me a rifle and I'm good, but a handgun is a different story. He was so excited. He brought it home, took it apart, and cleaned it. On Martin's birthday we took it out for the trial run. Josh had shot one at a shooting range, but not his gun. I'm sure this is exactly what Marty wanted to do for his birthday.

We used an old box with a target taped on it. Oh, can't forget the lone pop can on top.

It served the purpose.

He's not excited or anything.

Here's me. Notice the can is falling off of the box...BULLS EYE!

Vince brought along his BB gun that Santa brought him for Christmas. He's pretty good. He almost got the bulls eye. He LOVES his gun!

Notice that he is shooting with his left eye and right hand. He's right handed, but apparently his left eye is dominant. I have a brother like this too. We need to get him changed to shooting left handed. It's a little frustrating for him to try to shoot left handed right now. Maybe when he's older we can get him to switch over. Until then he'll have to keep leaning over the gun so his left eye can see the target.

Josh helping Aubrey with the BB gun. She doesn't really know how to aim yet. She doesn't care if she comes close to the target. It's all about pulling the trigger for her.

I LOVE this man! He is so good to help our kids learn new things. Sometimes it can be frustrating, believe me, but he still tries to let them help him or teach them how to do it. They love doing "stuff" with Dad!

While Josh and I shot the pistol, the kids sat in the car. It looks like they had fun. It was cold outside so it was nice for them to jump in the car for a few minutes to warm up.

All in all it was pretty fun. Josh and I will be doing it for a date night at an indoor range sometime. Then we'll see who's better. Not that I'm competitive or anything. ;)

Marty is 1!

This is a few days late, but on Saturday we celebrated Marty's first birthday. I love watching my kids grow and learn new things, but it also makes me sad because I realize they're one year closer to making me an empty nester. I know, that's a long way away but it's still coming faster than I want.

As I thought back to a year ago, I can't help but laugh about Marty's birth experience. It wasn't quite what we planned, but so memorable that I wouldn't change it for anything. Here's the short and sweet version for those of you who haven't heard the story. Josh and I dropped Vince and Aubs off to a friend and headed to the hospital early that morning for me to be induced. Hours and hours later not much was happening so around 6:00 pm Josh called his brother to meet us at the hospital to take the kids to his house for the night. Josh went to our friends, picked up the kids, and came back to the hospital. By that time, things had actually started rolling and I was within 30 minutes of delivery. We called Josh's brother to tell him he'd have to come up to the Labor & Delivery floor to pick up the kids and he informed us he was just leaving their house (about 45 minutes away). Needless to say, we were speechless, panicked, nervous, scared, etc. We didn't know what to do with our two children who would soon be welcoming a baby (we didn't know boy or girl). So, with help from the nurses and doctors - which were awesome with the whole predicament - our kids were able to be in the room with us when I delivered Marty. It was so fun to hear them saying things like, "I can't see anything yet", "Is it a boy or girl", and so many other cute things. It was fun to share the experience of finding out the gender with them. They were awestruck by having a new baby brother. Wondering when Josh's brother arrived? About 10 minutes later. It turned out great because the kids were able to meet Marty before they left. It was just another eventful birth for our family. We can't do it any other way. Something always has to be crazy with our deliveries. Makes me wonder what the next one will be like...I'm not announcing, don't worry!

So, to celebrate Marty in our life I decided to do a post about Marty's first year of life. Here goes... (this will be long...consider yourself warned!)

Welcome Martin Allen Grant!

Hi Sis!

Happy Family


Being born is hard work!

1 day old

First Bath

At 2 weeks, Marty was in the hospital for a week with RSV and then home with monitors, oxygen, etc. for another week. This is his first day home from his hospital stay.

First sledding outing

One month

Some pics I took at about 1 mo. old

Blessing Outfit

Look at these rolls! Why don't mine look that cute?

Enjoying the back yard

No more pictures Mom!

Hiking. He knows how to do it right!

Just cute!

Having fun in the stroller.

At the beach

So tired!

Camping fun

He loves peaches! During bottling season anytime I left a box of peaches on the floor he would sneak one. When it was quiet in the house I would start looking for him and find him in the corner eating a peach as fast as he could. When I would give them to him in his high chair he would shake because he was so excited.

Halloween puppy dog

Messy, messy, messy

Steering wheel riding

Swinging in pjs...is there anything better?

He loves to scrunch his nose and do the noisy breathing thing. You all know

what I'm talking about, right?

First Christmas

How cute is he? Love this shot, only wish his stroller cover wasn't in it. Bummer!

Happy Birthday! (before the birthday cake)

Give that to me already!

Eating his birthday cake. Yummy!

Putting it on your head always makes it taste better. Didn't you know that?

Using both hands to shove it in.

After a bath he opened presents. He's not so sure about the ride on feature.

We'll have to work on that one.

What a great year with Marty. I can't imagine our lives without him. He is so loved in our house by his brother and sister. I always tell people that Aubrey would literally love him to death if I left her alone with him for too long. But, at least they love him, right? He is so happy and fun. The other day he was laughing at me so I asked him if his mom was funny. He smiled and shook his head NO! I'm sure this was a mistake...he really does think I'm funny! We love you Marty and are so glad to have you as part of our family!