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Happy Thanksgiving in December

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:18:00 +0000

First off if you didn't get a Christmas card I am sorry, I did not order enough and I am too lazy to order more. Here are the 3 pictures I used, so here's your Merry Christmas card...

I just love this vest on him! No other reason for this pic!

The week before we left for Thanksgiving, Grant got the stomache flu! He was pitiful! It broke my heart!

I was sitting next to him on the couch talking with a friend on the phone rubbing his head, and when I looked down he was out!

This is on our 13 hour Thanksgiving trip to Beau's house! Grant LOVES to listen to my ipod and watch "Boots"! He did awesome! I was so proud of how he traveled!

Once we arrived on the ranch I didn't see Grant until it was time to come back home, 5 days later!! He loved being there to say the least! The weather was perfect, and he played outside from the time the sun came up until it went down! Everyday he went out and fed Pretty Girl (horse) and the cows with Pops!

Here he is chasing cows. Dangerous? Probably!

Playing football with his cousins...

MIA (Kristy) and Beau

Colt and Grant

Jace

Doodoo (Doodaa) and Pops

After the fabulous Thanksgiving meal, we all headed to the park to play

More pictures of Grant outside, climbing a fence to check on the horse.

Eating his 15th peanutbutter ball ...

Pops reading the kids "The Polar Express". Grant NOT listening!

Pops and Doodaa with the grandkids

Rusty, Heather, Colt, and Cassie

Kristy, Joel, Jace, and Kennedi

The Polar Express train ride!!!

Sweet Thatcher! We love you!!

Beau, Grant and I left 70 degree weather, right after the train ride and drove to Amarillo to spend the night. When we woke up the next morning this is what it looked like outside!!

Halloween, Fun with Friends, and Anniversary!

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:40:00 +0000

I know I have fallen behind AGAIN, so here I am trying to catch back up on all that has been happening!

First up Halloween...
This was Grant's second Halloween, and this year he went as the Jedi Master, Yoda! We of course went with our friends Chris, Tammy, and Addi who was a precious monkey!

He was not afraid to go door to door reminding people where to put his candy! In between houses Grant would of course repeatedly ask for Addi. Beau asked him, "Grant what are you going to say when you see Addi?" and to that he replied, "Kiss!" Then he would get out of the car yelling her name and she would say, "I'm coming Gant!" Too sweet!

At one of the houses we visited they gave him a balloon, which he loved more then the candy...
If you look closely at his face you will see where he skinned his it up running down the street in one of the neighborhoods while trick or treating!

Secondly, Fun with Friends...

I know I write a lot about Grant's love for Addison, but the words I write do not even come close to the reality of it all! Last Friday she came over for a couple hours to play! Grant was thrilled to say the least!

Here he is picking her flowers, smelling them first of course before giving them to her...

Here is our sweet friend Addi!! How could you not love that face!Snack time! We caught him climbing on top of the table to eat part of her snack a couple of times!

More expressions of love...

Here he is coming to her rescue after she wrecked into the curb!!

Last, but not least...HAPPY 9 YEAR ANNIVERSARY BEAU!!

You may be saying to yourself right now, "Why is Joni's mom and Grant with Beau and Joni on there anniversary, and more importantly why are they dining at Chuck E. Cheese" and my response to you is "Deal with it, because I have!!"

Alright it is a REALLY long story that I really do not want to relive so I will give the condensed version. It was supposed to be us and two other couples enjoying PF Changs for supper, a movie, followed by a nice hotel! It ended up being us, my mom and son at Chuck E. Cheese followed be a nice hotel! I have the BEST husband in the world! Let me just say there will be a REDO for this anniversary!!

Grant would come by the table for a quick bite and then run off to play again! He loved our anniversary!

Here he is telling mimi to hurry up so they could go play with the balls!
Beau and I making the best of the situation...

Mother of the Year

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:24:00 +0000

For those of you out there who thought you were receiving this award, you are sadly mistaken!!! Here are the top 5 reasons I think that award belongs to me...

#1~ I allow my child to pursue his dreams! He is trying out to be the next Twilight baby! I believe he has a great chance...
(that is marker, not blood!! look also at his hands)
#2~ I think that it is a great idea to NOT check on your children during nap time! This gives them the opportunity to explore without adult supervision! I wish you could see the beautiful art work on the carpet with markers. Truely remarkable!

#3~ I allow Grant to climb, climb, climb! He can climb into his highchair, onto bar stools then onto the counters, on top of his dresser! It is great for his physical growth!

***Here are just a couple pictures of him saying "CHEESE" again that I wanted to throw in***

#4~ I always lock him out of the bathroom while I am taking a shower! It is good to teach children modesty, and that they can make it on there own if need be!

(Beau took these pics)

#5~ And last but not least, once your child is able to say the word "bath", they also are able to decide their own bath times....

So there you have it! I hope I can count on your votes for this awesome award, that is unless you think you can beat my top 5!

For the Love!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:09:00 +0000

Ok I know most of you right now are thinking "For the Love, it has taken her FOREVER to post!" and you would be correct! It is soooo hard to keep up with my job at school, at home, facebook, and blogging! I am pulled in so many directions!:) Anyway here are a few pics from this morning at church that I thought would be fun to share! Let's face it, you probably won't hear from me again until Halloween so take your time looking at this post, just let it all soak in!!!

Uncle Trent and Aunt Mindy sent Grant this blazer a couple weeks ago and he wore it this morning to church! This is his face for EVERY picture now. If you can't tell he is saying the word cheese while pretending to smile. So we show up at church at the exact time as Addi. Grant has a little bit of an obsession with her. He walks around the house all day saying her name and carrying a picture around. Sometimes at night he calls her on the phone. He loves her to say the least, and she is precious enough to put up with him.

In this picture you will notice him looking down at their hands. He had just made her change the way they were holding them to the 5 finger lock! I am not kidding, you can not make stuff like that up!

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!! Addi looks like a supermodel!

Grants poor eyes look a little sad in this pic but I still love it! Last week he had fever for 6 days and this week he had a double eye and double ear infection!

Todd, Julie, Sarah, Michael, and Steven came and stayed the weekend!! They are so good with Grant and he loves them!!!!

This is not a new trick but one I have been wanting to post for a while. When it is time to eat we simply tell Grant to go get in his chair, and this is what he does....

The Whole Month of August:)

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 21:40:00 +0000

Ok so summer flew by WAY to fast!! I started back to school August 10th, but enjoyed myself up to the very last minute!
Grant and I spent quite a few days at the Club Campbell pool! Here is Addi and Kennedi ready to go jump in. Grant was supposed to be in the picture, but was standing at the door yelling "outside, outside" instead.
Here is a quick video of my amazing child who can already swim, that is with the help of about 20 different floatation devices...

Monica, a.k.a Auntie Mo/my sister, invited Grant and I to come spend our last few days of our summer vacation with her and her fam! It was fabulous! I got to go to one of their neighborhood pools everyday with Emma to become some bronze beauties!!

My brother Todd and his boys, Michael and Steven, were there two of the nights that we were! Which was fun, UNTIL....

Every adult decides they have somewhere they have to be and you get stuck with a 11, 10, 7, 3, and 18 month old to get up, dressed, fed, bags for the day packed, shoes on, and buckled in the car to take swimming. Then when you get to your mom's friends house with the amazing backyard and pool, the 3 year old is running around the edge to scared to get in while I am terrified he will fall in, and the 18 month old thinks he is actually 18 years old and can jump in and swim without assistance while the 11, 10, and 7 year olds are doing back flips and cannonballs off the diving board! Don't worry though, some more adults showed up about 40 minutes later when the 10 year broke out in hives and needed to go in for a shower, while the rest of the children chased geese in the backyard! No I'm not bitter!:)

I will say the drive to the pool made it better! We cranked the radio to some Fergie and danced the whole way there!

THE CHILDREN, a.k.a my son and wonderful nieces and nephews..

Chasing geese...

CHUCK E. CHEESE

Precious Hope was sweet enough to take Grant through the climbing tunnel slide thingy...

Monica and I after doing the dance machine game thing 3x's in a row...

Nieces, nephews, and cousins...

Kado, Hope, Brooke, Thumper, Michael, Steven, Lexi, Emma, and Grant

Road trip to Uncle T and Aunt Mindy's house, just me Emma and Grant. We made a quick stop at Target to buy some sunglasses and then decided we couldn't go empty handed to see sweet Gracelyn...

Grant talking to either Mimi or daddy, anyone to keep him from screaming....

Yes we were driving down the interstate, Monica don't freak out!

Ok for those of you who don't know I totally grew up on a farm, and am a complete farm girl! Not really, I did grow up on a farm though, but don't know much about what happened on it:) Anyway, while we were at Trent's Grant and I spent Saturday morning at my dad' s house. Grant had the BEST time! Here is dad getting Grant his little bucket of feed...

Here is Grant helping to feed the calves....

I really do LOVE horses!! I tell Beau all the time to buy me enough land so I can have a couple of horses to play with!!

You can tell in this pic that Grant is focused on something...

it would be on this tractor. Dad thought that he would enjoy riding in it, but Grant crawled up in this wagon, sat down, and kept saying "no, no, bye bye, bye bye"

He loves to climb

The outfit Emma and I got Gracelyn...She is so darn cute!!!

COUSIN THATCHER CAME TO STAY WITH US!!! I am yelling this because it was that much fun!!!!! It makes me sad to see all these pics of him because we miss him so much!

Every night he would lay with beau to watch his "shows" before he went sweetly to bed!

Mitzy sent these adorable personalized t-shirts with their names!!! Love it!!
We played A LOT outside, and always had to take a break for a capri sun and Popsicle...

On a walk at our park around the lake....Playing at the park...Chasing ducks... Last night Beau and I had a date night with our good friends Chris and Tammy! We had soooo much fun. We didn't even eat dinner until 7:30, and then went to a movie at 9:50, and got home at 1:20 in the am:)!!! To some of you that might not sound unusual, but for us it was crazy! A usual night for us is dinner around 5 (sometimes 4:30), and bed by 9! Embarrassing, yes! I love you beau and had a Great time on our date!!

This was actually just taken about an hour ago!! I got some of him smiling sweetly, but this expression seemed to match the outfit! He was dressed and ready to go look at some cows and goats with daddy at one of our friends farms! He LOVES to go out there!!

Well there you have it August wrapped up in a day!! I need to get better at this again, but at least I am doing it some!! Love you all

The WHOLE month of July!!

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 01:49:00 +0000

I hope you have time on your hands, because this could take a while! Since I haven't posted at all this month, I thought I would catch up by putting everything into this one post! Good luck keeping up! Here we go...

First of all I have now been doing this blog for one year! I found out through friends that you can publish your blog, so that is what I did! Here is the finished product, and I love it!

Next is the Fourth of July! The Presley's along with some of our college kids from church came over and shot off fireworks.

Like mother like son...

Ok, since June I have been taking a cake decorating class with my friend Tammy for fun. To pass course 1 you have to make a "Test Cake", which you copy from a picture! Beau's parents, a.k.a Doodaa and Pops, came to visit the second week in July so I made my test cake to say Happy Birthday Pops. And yes I made those roses, and yes it is so hard!

Every morning Pops wanted to go work out, and I went with him 4 mornings, and Beau went with him once. Here is a pic of Beau soooo excited to go workout with Pops!

Beau and his mom Doodaa, or as Grant likes to call her, Doodoo...

Grant loves his Pops! I have tons of pictures of these two together throughout the week!

Now moving onto the third week in July, Ft. Worth! Beau was supposed to be in Honduras for this week, but because of scary things happening there they had to cancel his trip. I planned on going to spend the week with Meredith during the same week, and did NOT cancel my trip!

So here is a glance of our week with our friends Mere and Blake...

Here we are at the mall play place where it was hot and gross, but the kids had a great time!

I love this picture because it shows the difference in skin tone! B is so tan and Grant just isn't! Right after I took this picture they kissed and Blake did her sign and said the words "more, more"! Too precious!

I LOVE Mere's backyard, and so did the kids! I love this pic of Grant standing on the fence. This is the same fence he flipped over the top of into the mud on his head! The joy of having a boy!:)

Our sweet babies playing sweetly outside. Notice Blake with a tan line, Grant the same color all over...

We decided to take a little road trip to Abilene for the day. Mere was filling the car up with gas and getting me coffee, while I was sitting with the kids in the car...

My precious friend Kim was sweet enough to let us come and eat lunch and play at her house. This pic is just a glimpse of the future with these two! Hopefully Grant will have j-o-b and be able to pick up the tab!!:)

I absolutely love this picture of the boys squishing sweet Blake, and her loving it!!

This is Jake, Jack, Blake, and Grant...

Here is Kim, myself, and Mere. Kim is now pregnant with their 3rd child, and this time it is going to be a GIRL!!! I am soooo excited for you Kim!!

After lunch and play time, Mere and Blake went to take naps at her parents house, and I went and spent the afternoon with Beau's sister Kristy and her family! She has a beautiful pool, so obviously we skipped nap time and spent some time in the water...

After swim time, Kristy and Doodaa were sweet enough to watch Grant while Mere, Kim, and I went out for supper at Abuelo's!! It was so great to have a little bit of quiet girl time!!

Because Grant had NO nap, he had a little bit of a hard time settling down on our way back to Ft. Worth. Being the fab mom that I am I decided to get back there and try to comfort him. I was driving so I pulled over to let Mere take over, who was cracking up at the thought of me trying to fit in between the two car seats, but I did it! While I was back there, Grant was screaming and Blake was dancing and singing to her songs!! I couldn't help but laugh!

Here is Mere posing for a pic while driving down the interstate...

Here is a little game B and G liked to play
More pics of the kids playing sweetly outside...

Taking time to cool off...

A little T.V. time....

Right before we left on Thursday morning Grant decided to dump a WHOLE box of cheerios for Mere to clean up...

Mere and I are kind of known to take 50 too many pics of ourselves, but this time we only had this one! I wish we would have chosen one of the days that we chose to shower and get ready, but that would have been too fake:) This is truly what we look like when we are together..

I love you Mere and B!! We miss you like crazy, and wish we were neighbors!! Thanks Ryan for being so awesome and letting me take over your house!

Ok so if you know me very well you know that I am a little bit of a brat. I can own it, I am not ashamed!!:) Well I was not ready for my vacation to be over, so I called Beau and told him to meet me about an hour from home, and get a hotel so we can play in the pool, and then go shopping!! This is what my AWESOME husband did...

He found this cool hotel! Grant thought that all of the concrete balls out front could bounce, but soon found out he was wrong...

We were next to great shopping, and a Chuck E. Cheese. This was our first experience there, and we loved it!!! Grant had a great time!!!

On Saturday we went to Grant's best friend Addison's birthday party. She LOVES cows, so her mom Tammy threw an awesome barnyard party. I told her she reminded me a little bit of Kate Gosslin! Here is the cake...

She had games for the kids with prizes! Here is find a prize in the haystack...

Here is the duck pond...

She also had pony rides..She also had cowboy hats for all the kids to wear...

It was the most precious party!! We can't believe you are already two Addi!! We love you so much and are so thankful for you and your family!!

Grant's Big Boy Room

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:30:00 +0000

Yes I know that he is only 17 months, but he is a climber! It will not be long until he is able to get out of his crib. He can already climb in and out of his port-a-crib! Anyway we have had fun starting to put his new room together, and he LOVES it! He goes in there everyday and reads books on his beanbag!

My big boy...

On father's day some friends inviting Grant and I over for lunch and swimming since Beau is in the mountains somewhere! We had so much fun! These two pics don't show him in the water, but trust me he loves to swim!!!

I have never had problems with this child wanting to sleep, EXCEPT for yesterday! For some reason he did not want to take a nap! I ended up just letting him play, and finally at 2:20 this is what happened...

I have some friends that are from Missouri like myself, and got Grant this precious Mizzou shirt...

Side note to Monica: I will post about the GREAT time we had at your house when Tammy hurries up and gives me the pictures!! It is soooo her fault! WHAT?? I know!!!

I'll Post More Later...

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:07:00 +0000

We just got back from a week in Kansas City, but my camera wasn't working so I am waiting on a cd of pics from our friends that went with us. So for now I will just share a couple of sweet pictures.

Here is my handsome boy before going to VBS...
This is what happens EVERY night. We watch either the Backyardigans, or Wonder Pets (both awesome shows) and then go lay him in bed. Grant will lay with either Beau or I but he always wants his momma to lay him down!!:)
Ok, here is something that Grant has been doing for a while now, and everyone has told me to get it on video. He walks with his hands behind his back! It is the cutest thing...

No Title...Sorry

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:41:00 +0000

Hanging out on the deck, our favorite place in the spring time:)

Ok back in 1999 I began babysitting for a precious family, the Blairs. They had two little girls, Chandler (which Beau refers to as 2nd grader or Chanandler) who was then in Kindergarten, and Caitlin who was in the 3rd grade. I quit babysitting for them in 2003.

Now fast forward to 2009 and these are the same girls, Chandler 16 and Caitlin 19!!! I know that not everyone will be blown away like I am, but time really does fly by!!! Obviously they are both beautiful, but they seriously are just as beautiful on the inside!! I love them so much and am so proud of who they have become!!

They, along with their parents Greg and Jan, came to our house on Saturday and stayed through Monday. After they left, Beau and I talked about how they are not just friends to us, but family. We love you Blair family so much and are so thankful God placed you in our lives!!!!!!

Now some random videos that I thought were cute...

Pure Talent: Whistling, running, and a little break dancing!

It's never too early to train your children to help out with things around the house, including walking the dog...

Who needs a playhouse??

Singing in the Rain

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Sun, 24 May 2009 01:41:00 +0000

My mom is leaving in a week for the summer, since her J-O-B:) will be done, so she has graciously offered to help me spring clean. So today we cleaned out our garage downstairs, and the one upstairs!! While cleaning, Grant enjoyed running around and playing outside (and no he is not wearing shoes!). All of a sudden it started pouring down rain, which only lasted for maybe 5 minutes, but we decided to let him play in it. He had the BEST time!!!

You can tell in each picture how the rain keeps coming down harder and harder...

I love this pic!!!

This sums up the whole 5 minutes!! It was sooo worth getting drenched:)

Thank you God for little boys!!

This video cracks me up b/c he tries to sip up water out of a puddle like Jessie (our dog)!!

**I do a lot of unnecessary talking in this video. Please feel free to turn down the volume!!

A Day at the Park

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Thu, 21 May 2009 03:15:00 +0000

This post is for my lovely and HONEST sister Monica. She has informed me that I need to post some more pictures that are not related to the delivery room.

On that note, Monica, Emma, and Kado came and stayed with us Sunday through Wednesday. We had the BEST time with them, as we always do!! We decided to take the boys to the park because it was beautiful outside. I tried to get pics of the boys together, but they were much too active to be still.
Here is Kado...

Monica & Emma... Grant going down the slide by himself...

Love the static in his hair:)...

After getting home, eating, and giving baths, we were hungry for some ice cream.

I love this picture of Emma and Grant!! And yes he is in his PJS!!

Tonight it was so nice outside so Grant and I hung out on the deck for a while.

Please do not comment about "Ralph". For those of you who have never been formally introduced, that is the name of my cold sore. Long story, but a lady from my church named it, and said we should put it on the prayer list!! She was joking, at least I think she was:)!!

Here are a some recent pics of sweet Gracelyn Mae!! She is soooo beautiful!!!

Anyway for those of you that were needing some new pictures, there they are. I hope your happy now:)

Gracelyn Mae

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Sat, 02 May 2009 21:13:00 +0000

If you know me and my family at all, you know that we are a little on the, let's just say different side! And my sister-in-law Mindy fits in like a champ!!:) Trent had taken a picture right before this one of Mindy by herself, and cracked up laughing because he thought she looked dead in it. So needless to say Mindy wanted a redo, which I can't say that I blame her, and this is the sweet retake of the two of them, probably about 3 hours before precious Gracelyn was born! Now here is the rest of the story of her birth....About two months ago I get a phone call from Trent and Mindy saying they needed to ask me something, and both wanted to be on the phone when they did. I freaked out a little, because I really was preparing myself for them to say "We want mom!!" and I would have to tell them "NO!" :) Anyway, that wasn't it at all! They told me that they could have one other person in the delivery room with them, and said they really wanted me to be that other person!!! I immediately starting crying, I think harder then I have ever cried before. Beau ran in the room thinking something really bad had happened! This came way out of left field for me. I never thought I would ever get to experience the birth of a child, and for them to ask me to be in the room and share in that moment with them, was a true honor!

So...this past Wednesday at 2:30 am, mom comes and tells us it is time to go because there is a baby on the way! We arrived at the hospital around 8 am, and Mindy was so sweet to let us all come back to the room. When we were about to walk into the room Mindy started having a contraction, and if you know Beau at all you know how precious and sweet he CAN be:), and he teared knowing she was in pain. He and Grant only stayed for a little while, and then went to my sister's house so Grant could sleep. So that left me, mom, Monica, and Trent with Mindy.

Here is Monica giving Mindy a foot massage to try to ease the pain...

Ok now fast forward to around noon. The nurse said that she was at a 9 and that she was going to have her lay on her side and flip her every 15 minutes for the next hour. So the first set of 15 minutes Monica and I decide to go grab a bite to eat in the cafeteria. Right after we bought our food, mom calls us saying she is ready to push. Monica and I begin to run through the hospital, eating our food, shoving it in the trash can, and making it just in time!! Then mom and Monica had to go to the waiting room while I got to stay:) hee hee hee!!

So Jessica, their awesome nurse, is telling me what to do to help Mindy and preparing me for what they are about to do, and I am ready...NOT!!! Mindy begins her first set of 3 pushes, counting to 10, and of course does not breath while pushing, and me not knowing it stopped breathing with her! After about 30 seconds of not breathing, I begin to feel light headed. I felt so bad, and didn't want anyone to know, but at the same time didn't want to fall on top of Mindy, so I try to tell Trent quietly that I need to step to the side to get some air. Long story even longer, I end up against the wall sitting for a while. Once I thought I was feeling better, I realized I wasn't and had to sit on the couch. I ended up being WORTHLESS in the delivery room and felt horrible about it. Later when we were able to talk about it, Trent and Mindy were so precious and said that they asked me there to be a part of the experience, not for me to do anything. That made me feel better, but please, who passes out from NOTHING while someone else is in extreme pain, I DO, I DO:)

Anyway here is Mindy and I reenacting the day before...

Here is Monica, Mom, Trent, Gracelyn, and me...

Precious Gracelyn Mae...

Here is the group that sweet Gracelyn is now a part of (minus Kado, he was sleeping)! She makes number 8!!!!

We love you Gracelyn so much, and are so thankful and blessed to have you in our family!!!

Welcome Ozzie

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:33:00 +0000

Here is the new addition to our family...Ozzie the Octopus!! He makes bath time so much fun, and colorful all at the same time!! No that is not pee...

Thank you Doodaa for the awesome Texas jersey!!! We love it, and we love you!!

Sidenote: I love all the cute shorts they have for boys this summer!!

The warm weather is getting us so pumped for the lake!!! Here is Grant's first life jacket. He loves to put it on and wear it around the house.

Well Tammy's husband, Chris, and Beau were both gone again this weekend, so Grant and I went and stayed with Tammy and Addison. We had such a good time! Grant loves to go over there because they have a ton of space to run and play!

Here Addison is collecting rocks in her cute pink basket, and Grant is trying to get Thunder's (horse) attention!

This is the view from the front of their house! Beautiful!!!

There really isn't anything exciting going on here, just super busy! We miss and love you all!!

I decided blogging is more fun then facebooking!!

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:52:00 +0000

I like facebook ok, but it is overwhelming!! I much rather spend time on a post of little one:)

First of all Happy Easter to everyone!! I hope you had a great weekend, as we did!!

Ok I don't know about you, but in these next two pictures Grant looks like he is 3 years old, instead of just 14 months!!! Either way he looks good:)Alright I have never had so many people tell me how bad of a mother I am until yesterday. Doodaa, Kristy, and Heather hold your ears. I did not do an Easter basket for Grant. I had the best intentions, but never got around to doing it.So last night at Wal-Mart Beau and I got him a carrot bat and a ball that cost $1 to make ourselves feel better:) And by the way the ball is already lost!On Saturday our best friend Addi came and spent the day with us while her grandparents moved into a house in our neighborhood!! Here is Grant showing off how cool he looks in his new shades. And I'm not going to lie, I totally think Addi loved them:)Now here is Addison sitting so sweetly in the corner eating her cookie. I was flipping through the channels as any good babysitter and mother would do, and when I turned around she was gone. I really did freak out a little bit. But thankfully she was ok and this is what happened (plus a some more fun videos from the day)...
Video #1 Highchair thief

Video #2 Your feet make me happy

Video #3 Something we like to call...Happy Feet

Video #4 Story Time Watch how many times she hits him in the face with the pages:)

Facebook is taking over my life

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:35:00 +0000

Ok I have been having people BOTHER me all the time b/c I don't have a facebook. And we all know how I am with peer pressure...not good!! Anyway, long story to say I finally signed up for it, and am addicted! I don't really understand why I am so addicted because I really don't understand it all. I think I just love being nosey!
Anyway just in case anyone was missing me that's where I've been. Hopefully I will come back soon, but you never know:)

Spring Break 2008...2009

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:03:00 +0000

I love spring breaks!! Last year during our spring break Rusty, Heather, Colt, and Cassie were spending the week with us. I remember they had gone out as a family to do something on Tuesday and I just "happened" to be home to receive the phone call!!! I love the way God works:) Here is the rest of that story...

On the previous Friday, before the Rusty clan had arrived, I spent the afternoon over at my friend Wendi's house crying, longing for a child! That was the first time that I had really let myself be that upset. I remember coming home yelling at God and telling him how unfair I thought it was. It was like He let me have it out with him and then gently held me and gave me a peace that only He could give. I felt it in my gut, I know that sounds weird:), that He was going to give us the child we were supposed to have! I just didn't know it was going to turn out this great:)

The following Sunday at church I was praying and I felt like God led me to read Philippians 4:6 which says..."Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the God of peace, whichs transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." What was cool was about 3 min. later the preacher had everyone turn to this passage during his message:)

Anyway, the key part of this verse that I focused on was, with thanksgiving! My prayer changed from that moment on. I gave my request to God, I want a child, but now added, but thank you for doing whatever you are doing that I don't even know, and can't even see. I know that you are in control and that you have a plan for our family. Thank you for who You are! It was amazing the peace and joy that I would have after saying that prayer! I repeated it all day Sunday, all day Monday, and then on Tuesday I was home alone and went to my room to read and pray. I had just began to say my prayer when the phone rang. It was our agency telling me that this was THE phone call. They wanted me to go to Beau's work so that they could do a conference call with us about a precious 6 week old little boy! Now when people find out that you are wanting to adopt you start hearing about babies all over the place. So up to this point we had already had 3 babies fall through our fingers, which is very difficult, so we went into this phone call guarded yet excited!! (This was the first baby that we had heard about through our agency)

After learning all about this precious baby boy on this Tuesday afternoon, we asked "Is there ANY way that this could fall apart and not go through??" and their reply was, "Only if you decide you don't want him. There is No other way!!" Then our next question was "When can we get him?" and to that they said, "He is on spring break vacation right now with his foster family, (who we love!!) and will be back Sunday evening, so you can come get him on Monday!" You should have seen Beau searching for his calendar! He began stumbling over his words, "You mean this Monday the 24th?" and to that they said "YES!" We couldn't believe it! We went from no baby to having a baby within 6 days!

That night Heather and I primed the nursery, and I painted it the next day. We went and got our crib from Wendi's on Thursday, our friend Jim came and picked up some furniture we wanted painted on Friday, and we left Saturday morning for Texas. I think we averaged about 4 hours of sleep each night. We would just lay there and talk and laugh, so full of excitement and joy! Everyone kept telling us to get our rest now, but we didn't care! And looking back we still don't! I loved having that time with Beau in the quiet hours of the night and early morning sharing in our joy and fears!

Anyway fast forward now to Spring Break 2009! Here is our awesome boy Grant and his cousin Kado, at my brother Todd's house.

Here is Sarah, Emma, and Steven in the perfect climbing tree!! I love this tree!!

Is their anything better then family?? Here is everyone outside playing a somewhat friendly game of football:)

While we were all lounging around, Grant decided to play a little something he put together for us:) I love watching his little fingers push one key at a time...brilliant child!!

Here we are finally back home. During the week Grant had busted both his top and bottom lip, then fell on the concrete scrapping his forehead and nose, and fell down about 6 steps, but all in all it was a great week:)

Grant would like to say..."Happy Birthday Doodaa and Kennedy"...& "Happy St. Patrick's Day"

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:40:00 +0000

First off
I would like to say
This is the first poem
I have ever written...ok!!

Today many of you
Will take the time to celebrate
St. Patrick's Day by wearing green
And other fun things that are great

But I'm here to tell you
This day is very special to me
Because its my Doodaa's birthday
That she shares with my cousin Kennedy

I always know I will have lots of fun
When Doodaa is around
And if I squeal or squeak at all
Kennedy will be right there to quiet me down

I do not get to see my Doodaa
As often as I would like
She sends me boxes of goodies
And when I get older maybe she will send me a bike

Anyway to Doodaa and Kennedy
Happy Birthday
And to everyone else
Have a Happy and safe St. Patrick's Day:)

Love,
Grant

First Date and First Sleep Over...???

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:07:00 +0000

I know that the title sounds a little misleading, but it is the truth. For Valentine's Day Grant asked his best friend Addison out for dinner and she and her parents agreed:) He thought it was only appropriate to buy her a chocolate rose and buy her supper since he is a gentleman!! Here is Addison, Grant, and Elmo outside of the restaurant...ps she loved the rose!!

First sleep over...
Beau and Chris were out of town last Friday so Tammy and Addison came and spent the night at our house. We ALL had the best time!! Addi and Grant played together so sweetly and then relaxed in front of the TV before bed:) Precious!!!

Thursday we gave my friend Rachel a baby shower at school. I called the same awesome lady that made Grant's birthday cake to make one for the party. I think she did another amazing job. I loved this cake...it made me wish for a girl in the future:) Oh and she teaches cake decorating classes, so I am signing up for the summer. Go ahead and place orders with me now ladies!!! I will soon be making awesome cakes as well!!:)

Grant loves to play outside! He gets just a little frustrated when we make him come inside! In this first pic you can see him leaning against the deck. Usually what he does it sits on that little ledge by his knees. He looks so sweet!!

My friend Wendi got this shirt for Grant for his birthday and we LOVE it!!

Doodaa and Kennedy, this new background is for you!!

Happy Birthday Steven

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 22:29:00 +0000

Today is Steven's Birthday

He is now 7 years old

He is my oldest brother's youngest

Now here is his story retold

He was born, I don't know

I'd say around a normal 7 pounds

He reminded me of my older brother Trent

Which meant he would grow with leaps and bounds

He was the cutest baby

When he'd smile his eyes automatically closed

But growing to 26 pounds at 6 months

I guess that's just how it goes

As you can see he is a very handsome boy

And is now of a normal size

The bad thing about my stupid camera

Is that it gave him red eyes:)

Anyway we are so thankful for Steven

Our family wouldn't be complete without him

He truly makes a room light up

When it was originally very dim

He has such a fun loving spirit

And always something funny to say

But today I just wanted to take the time

To wish Steven a Happy Birthday!!:)

We love you Steven

I can't wait to see your new bike that you took for a test drive in Target today:)

Happy Valentine's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:28:00 +0000

Grammy was gone all last week, and will be gone all this week, and we miss her so much. Thankfully this wonderful, AWESOME, lady from our church who has a daycare in the basement of her house was willing to take Grant in. Because of that he got to experience his first Valentine's party:)

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!!

Happy Birthday Beau

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:02:00 +0000

I know, I know, I know Monica! I am two days late on getting Beau's birthday poem posted, but I have it now so here it goes!!

It's amazing how time flies

It seems like forever ago when we met

You were 21, I was 19

Together we made a set

You would throw rocks at my dorm window

Sweet poems you would disperse

You even sent me a dozen roses

With a card that read "Congrats you are the first"

You love to tell everyone where we met

You tell them it was in a bar

You will do anything to get a reaction

Even if from the truth it is far

You make me laugh harder then anyone

I know that doesn't shock you

When you read this you will say

"Oh that is definitely true!"

I love your sense of humor,

Your sweet spirit and your smarts

I love that you are my best friend,

Grant's daddy, and a man after God's own heart

So Happy Birthday Beau Baby

You are officially thirty-one

I love you I love you I love you

And now my poem is done!!

Happy Birthday

Happy 1st Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 23:14:00 +0000

I took a picture of Grant as we walked into his room this morning. He is looking at Beau while he is singing Happy Birthday to him:)His cake...

We had Grant's party at our church activity building. Here are my precious friends that helped me so much. Kim, Lisa, Mom, and Tori

Ok this is a sad looking pic of the three of us but there were about 15 cameras on us and we didn't know where to look and when to smile, but I had to put a family photo...

Grant was not to interested in his cake. This is about as messy as he got. He did love playing with the cookie topper.

He did however love the balloons...

These are a few of our youth boys that Grant adores, and we don't know why:)jk We love these guys!!

Ignore my facial expression and look at Grant. For the first part of opening gifts he walked around with his balloons. For the second half he sat in one of his gift bags. Thankfully sweet Addison was there to help open!

My precious mother!!!!! She helped, helps, and is helping us all the time. She does so much and we are sooooo very thankful for her:)

Ok as you all know I write poems for birthdays now, so here is Grant's...

I got the call at 2:30

One Tuesday afternoon.

I immediately called your daddy

Telling him a baby we may have soon!

By 4 o'clock on that same day

We learned from Kelly and Bob all about you.

You were 6 weeks old, 13 pounds

And already slept the whole night through!!(Yippee)

We were told we could come get you

That following Monday

We could and would have come sooner

But you were on a vaca!

That Monday took forever

But did finally come

We can't even express in words

How our hearts with joy and love were overcome

We loved hearing your every breath

And noises you would make

Every night we would listen

And lay there wide awake

All these memories

Feel like just yesterday

But today is February 1st

So Happy FIRST Birthday!!!

We love you so much Grant and enjoy you more and more everyday!! We hope you had a great day, as we had a great time planning and spending it with you:)

Ice Ice Baby

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 02:40:00 +0000

My Week...

Monday- Got out of school at 1:30 due to inclement weather

Tuesday- No school and this is what it looks like outside... Tuesday night- Lost power at 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday- No school, no power, played all day with Grant:)

Wednesday late morning- Took everything out of refrigerator and freezer. Grant was gracious enough to help out since his daddy was at work and he was the man left in charge!

This is where we stored the refrigerated food...

Wednesday night- Beau cooking us supper over the fire. I know you can't really tell in this picture, but those of you that know him know how proud and excited he was to do this:)

This is what it looked like in our house Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night...Thursday- No school, no power, no fun!! It is beginning to get really boring!

Friday- No school, and power came on at 10:30 a.m.!!! Hooray!!!

Here is Grant helping us bring the food back into the refrigerator...

This is what one of our trees looks like in our backyard. Driving through our town it looks like a war zone. Huge trees and limbs are covering the streets. Power lines and poles were knocked down. Tuesday night during the storm we kept seeing flashes of light that later we found out were transformers blowing up.

We are so thankful that it is over and the sun is shining again. I hope everyone else had a great week and stayed warm:)

First Haircut & Birthday Invitation

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:10:00 +0000

Ok I ordered Grant's birthday invitations off of my new favorite website (thanks to Amber), http://www.etsy.com/ . I shop on it ALL the time for personalized stuff. Anyway I thought these turned out cute and wanted to share.

Usually people do before and after pictures, but since I am still not a pro at blogging you are going to have to settle for the after then before then during pictures:)

Grant got his first haircut yesterday and was awesome! He sat up so big in his chair and stuffed his mouth full of teddy grahams.

Here is what Grant looks like now...a 3 year old:)

Now the before...all I have to say is party in the back!

Sitting so sweetly while Ms. Tori cut his hair...

I hope all is well with everyone.

Sidenote to Mitzy: Your blog will not let me make a comment, but please know I am so proud of how much you have been posting lately:) Thatch looks awesome with his new haircut! Love it!!

Just Because...

noreply@blogger.com (Joni) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:24:00 +0000

I have nothing to say, just thought this was a sweet pic. P.S. he is not one yet. I had to take a picture of him in this shirt for his birthday invitation.