Saturday, September 26, 2009

As usual...

I am way behind on just about everything including blogging. So let's see if I can catch up a little.

We had a great visit with Dad and Cheryl when they were here last weekend for Grandparent's Day at Bryn's school. One of the highlights was Bryn riding the mechanical bull at a restaurant where we ate. It was nice and slow and Bryn thought it was great. We also all got hooked up on Skype when they are here so we are able to video chat. Kind of strange to talk via video, but pretty cool. And it will be tons of fun for the kids to be able to see Grandpa and Nana and vice versa.

We are working on painting Bryn's room a nice bright shade of yellow. Unfortunately one coat isn't going to do it and I didn't buy enough paint. So off to Lowe's to get some more ASAP. In the meantime Bryn is sleeping in our room while hers is torn apart.

Speaking of torn apart, much of the house is currently a disaster as I have begun to "organize" and can't seem to find the time to finish. Too much to do, too little time. The mountain of laundry is not getting any smaller, either.

Grant is 18 months old today. He is talking more each day. Actually he is making more animal sounds each day and babbling a lot. We did get "Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrr!" added to his repertoire for "what does a pirate say" in honor of talk like a pirate day last week. And he now also makes a fish face for "what does a fish say". Yet while he vocalizes lot, he is obviously going to crawl while he does it as he still shows little to no interest in walking.

Next weekend is race weekend and Mom and John will be here. We are looking forward to their visit and will no doubt have a crazy weekend filled with all kinds of activities. We may skip the apple picking this year, though - I don't know if Mom and I can handle a million hours (OK, maybe it was only 5 or 6 hours) of apple peeling and slicing. I still have apple pies in the freezer from last year.

I looked at the calendar today and realized we don't have a single free Saturday until December. Lots of those activities will be lots of fun (like finally getting to see "Wicked" and Bryn and I heading to Chicago, for instance) but it still means there will be many busy weekends ahead. Hopefully we will be able to find some downtime in there somewhere.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

All kinds of stuff

We have had a lot going on since I posted last. I have actually taken some pictures, too!

First, some pictures of goofy Grant...

In the dog bed...



Helping with the laundry...


Helping to "clean" the bathroom...


and of Bryn and Grant


Before...


After...


Bryn and Dad creating fish stories...


Bryn is back at school and loving second grade and her teacher, Mrs. Link. Here is a first day of school picture...


Aunt Nicole and cousin Bonnie came for a visit. We had a lot of fun just hanging out and relaxing a bit.


Over Labor Day weekend we met grammy and Pops in Branson. The guys did some golfing while the girls and Grant packed in lots of activities. A trip to the Kirby Van Burch with some backstage passes to see the tigers and other cats was definitely the highlight of the trip for Bryn. She has been watching "Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed" for a couple of months now so a trip to a magic show was perfect for her! She didn't know how most of the tricks we saw worked, but she loved it anyway! We also took a trip on Ride the Ducks (Bryn got to drive the boat for a little while) and went to the waterpark. And then all of us checked out the dinosaur mini-golf course:


As far as other news goes, we are still trying to figure out what to do about Grant's tongue tie. I think we have decided to just wait and see since Aaron and I are just not comfortable with the general anesthesia idea. We will be sorry later if it affects his speech or causes other problems, but since it will likely never cause any problems at all we just can't get comfortable with doing it right now.

We have been having some big keyboard problems with our new computer. After sending it back for repair and spending hours on the phone with technical support, we seem to have solved the problem ourselves by switching from Internet Explorer to another browser. Such an easy fix after such major headaches. Gotta love it.

We are back into the routine of the school year. Between Friends of the Library, Library Board and mission committee meetings I am making sure Aaron gets to spend lots of quality time with the kids while I am at meetings. Bryn is going to do Girl Scouts and a couple of short drama classes this fall. It doesn't seem like much, but with the Wednesday night programs at church, it all keeps us running.

Aaron is still teaching and trapping. His most current happiness comes from college football, a big TV and surround sound, though!

Grant is still not walking but is really starting to vocalize a lot. A lot of his words seem to be in "Grant language" although he will say "daddy" and "sissy" and "duck" and "hi" pretty clearly. He won't say "mommy", though, he just looks at me and smiles and says "baba" when I try to get him to say it...the life of a mother is so thankless! He will make lots of animal sounds - I have a feeling he is going to be an animal lover like his sister.

Bryn has decided she is part dog since she likes to pant and walk on all fours and she feels like she has a tail that should wag when she is happy. As grouchy and pouty and contrary as she has been for the past few months, I would love to see a wagging tail! It seems she is coming out of this phase a little (knock on wood) - I am sure we have something just as lovely to look forward to!

Our cable isn't working today so I haven't been able to watch any of the 9/11 anniversary coverage. It is hard to believe it has been 8 years since that awful day - I always think of the families and friends of all of the victims and of the military families and hope they have been able to find some peace and happiness.