Christmas Morning










Making Ice Cream with Uncle Ben

I forgot part of the update :)

POTTY HUMOR WARNING: Grant has been learning when he’s pooping, and when he’s merely passing gas. We’ve been trying to not let it all turn into a big joke, and it’s been working. He’ll make a noise at the dinner table, and simply say, “No poop, just gas,” and then go on eating. Today, though, Brian gave Grant a bath. Standing naked in the hallway, Grant made a puddle of pee on the floor. When Brian noticed it, he asked Grant about it. Grant said, “No pee, just gas,” and ran into his room.

Santa!!

In Which Grant Does Not Pee in the Hallway

A couple of weeks ago, Grant colored on the wall. When I asked him if he did it, he said he did. I then said that he needed to go in time out because we don’t color on the wall, and he immediately said, “Brookie did it!” Brooke is a little girl we were watching at the time. Jackson pipes in from the other room, “Grant did it.” Grant never went back on his story even after time out.

Tuesday night Brian and I went on a date for my birthday. We went to dinner and then finished our Christmas shopping. Wednesday was my birthday, but we had a busy day and Brian had to go to mutual. So I made my own cake and the boys and I put a candle in each of our slices of cake, and we each blew one out.

Thursday afternoon we rang bells for the Salvation Army. We stood outside of Shopko in the frigid weather for 30 minutes. The boys had a pretty good time. They kept running in and out of the store, which got to be pretty annoying, but since they were so cute with their little bells, there were a lot of people that gave money.

Saturday night we had our Ward Christmas Party. Jackson was supposed to be a sheep in the nativity but he refused. So he just sat and watched them all. He did sit on Santa’s lap, which was an improvement over last year. Grant was hesitant, but he was brave so he could get the present.

ROAR!!

I'm really behind on editing my own photos. Here's one from Thanksgiving. Grant is playing tigers with my mom. Hopefully I'll get some more posted over Christmas or early in the new year.


In Which We Watch Christmas Conference

Thursday night I attended a mini enrichment volleyball game for the sisters at the church. There were 10 of us but only one or two of those present could actually play volleyball. Unfortunately, I was not one of them. We had a good time and I think we actually volleyed once or twice. It was nice to get a little exercise and we did have a lot of laughs.

Friday morning our MOMS Club decorated a Christmas tree at the library. The kids had made ornaments and they all helped decorate it. It was a little crazy because I had my friend’s two kids as well as my own, but I managed to not lose any of them and only one ornament was broken. Unfortunately it was from someone else’s tree.

Friday night I went to my scrapbook Crop Club. I recently purchased a new cartridge for my Cricut cutting machine and spent the whole time making birthday cards. Hopefully I will get them in the mail soon, so those of you who have December birthdays they will most likely be late, but homemade.

Jackson can read pretty well, but it’s a rare occasion when he will actually do it. So tonight we resorted to bribery. If he reads five books, then we will let him play the Wii. He thought that was a pretty good deal and read, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss to us tonight and only needed help with 2 or 3 words.

We watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional tonight, and the boys watched part of it before we sent them to bed. In Jackson’s prayer, he prayed that we could watch the rest of “Christmas Conference” tomorrow.

Hut, Hut, Hike!

Grandma Merritt Sent Halloween Lollipops

The boys

Ward Halloween Party

Unfortunatly, the helmets didn't last long enough
for the pictures.

In Which Brian is a Murderer

Brian spent a lot of time early this week with the Young Men making a haunted house for our Ward Halloween party, which was Wednesday night. The boys had a great time at the party, but we didn’t brave the haunted house. They had fun playing the games and getting treats. Jackson frosted a sugar cookie with really nasty green frosting. I think he had about an inch of frosting on the cookie and everyone was commenting on it. I do believe he ate the entire thing though.

Our Halloween celebration did not end there though. On Friday we went to NMU where the student center has trick-or-treating and the dorms have it too. Jackson was a hit in his Green Bay Packer costume and everyone thought Grant was a Chicago Bears player, but he really was from the Denver Broncos. Grant had a little case of the gimmies. After getting candy from the people giving it out, he kept going up to other trick-or-treaters and trying to get their candy, too.

My Grandma Lael (my dad’s mom) was in the hospital this week. It shook me up pretty good. I haven’t had someone close to me in the ICU in a long time. She seems to be doing much better today and appears to be recovering. The power of the priesthood, prayer and fasting really does work.

Last night Brian and I went to a Murder Mystery party for our friend’s 50th birthday. I was a wealthy daughter of the murder victim and Brian was my boyfriend and the chauffeur for the deceased. In the end we learned that Brian was actually my half-brother and the murderer. It was a really fun evening although at church today everyone was commenting on how he needed to repent and be in shackles.

The other day Jackson came in with his shirt tucked into his pants. He said, “It helps me walk better.”

Halloween Party

In Which Grant Paints a Gourd

I helped out at preschool one day this week. When I asked Jackson what he thought of me helping he said, “You can come for a little while, but then you have to leave.” I stayed for about half the time, and he seemed to enjoy having me there. I think I will go again this week; they said they could use some extra help with Halloween crafts on Thursday. I really enjoyed watching him in this type of atmosphere, but it was weird being somewhere where he knew the teachers and kids and I really didn’t.

Friday night the boys got dressed up in their football player costumes and we went to a MOMS Club Halloween party. Jackson especially loved the fishing pond and we came home with way too many stickers that he “caught.” Grant had a good time painting a gourd and got a kick out of trying to eat a doughnut off a string.

Yesterday in a moment of desperation I called my friend to watch the boys because I needed to go out on a date. Brian and I went shopping and to dinner. We wandered around the toy section at Target brainstorming about what to get the boys for Christmas. I really loved Christmas shopping. But to Brian’s surprise I didn’t buy anything!

The past few nights/mornings Grant has had a “yucky cough” as he says and today it was pretty bad. So he and I stayed home from church, while Brian took Jackson. Grant was sad, but we read stories and played.

Blowing Leaves

In Which We Tire of Raking

We finished our week helping with the homeless shelter! Everything went pretty smoothly and was an overall success.

Tuesday through Friday Grant had the stomach flu. He seemed to be feeling okay, but his diapers told otherwise. He was a little whiny, but not too bad. I was the only other one who caught it, and I was only sick for a day though.

The leaves have begun to fall from our trees and cover our yard. I asked a friend of ours if he knew where we could rent a leaf blower. We are tired of the raking-for-2-weeks-straight routine. He said that he had one we could borrow. It looks like a lawn mower. Brian was able to get the back yard leaves cleaned up in a couple of hours. The boys had a good time playing in the leaves too. Luckily for them the trees are only about half empty so there will be plenty more leaves to play with.

Jackson gave a talk in primary today. He helped Brian write it last night, practiced it one time and then read it to the primary today with only one or two mistakes. He read a scripture last week after about the same amount of practice and wowed the primary with his reading skills. It’s really a wonderful feeling to see him succeed at something he loves to do.

Jackson and Grant love watching the baseball playoffs whenever they get the chance. They also end up acting out what’s on TV. Jackson (with Brian’s help of course) has started to recognize a few players by their batting stances. He even pretends to adjust his batting gloves. And Grant waves an imaginary bat, then runs full speed down the hall, turns around, and falls down on the rug shouting, “Safe!”

First Day of Preschool

In Which Jackson Goes to School

Jackson had his first week of preschool. When we were on our way for his first day he was very disappointed to find out that I had to walk him to his classroom—he just wanted me to drop him at the curb. Apparently, he’s ready to be away from me. He seems to be doing very well. I can’t get him to tell me very much about it, but he comes home exhausted and his teachers have had nothing but good things to say. Grant takes a nap at the same time Jackson’s gone, so I have loved my afternoons to myself.

Grant keeps asking to use the potty, so we decided that since we would be home most of the weekend due to conference (which was wonderful), we would try to potty train him. This afternoon Grant came running into the living room wearing only a shirt excitedly telling me that he peed on his bedroom floor. Unfortunately for me, he was telling the truth. I was glad that he recognized he shouldn’t go in his underwear but it wasn’t that much fun cleaning it up. Luckily the next time he went was on the potty. Baby steps.

Brian and Jackson have graduated from UNO, and now they play a baseball game with the cards. Any number card is an out, the Skips and Reverses are singles, the Wilds are homeruns, etc. Brian says he used to play games like this all time when he was younger, and it’s tough to say who’s had more fun with it—him or Jackson.

Trick-or-treating

Alpaca Farm Tour

Wednesday, the boys and I went to an alpaca farm with MOMS Club. I hadn’t seen an alpaca up close before, but they are incredibly friendly. When we walked up to the fence all the alpacas walked over by us to see the kids. They are easily spooked and don’t like to be petted, so when we went into the fenced area we had to walk with our hands behind our backs. I assumed that the kids wouldn’t really do this and we’d have to watch them very closely, but they were great. Even Grant remembered to keep his hands back.

Thursday night we attended Jackson’s preschool orientation. He got to meet his teachers and classmates. He starts tomorrow and he’s pretty excited. One teacher came over earlier in the week to meet him. I don’t think Monday can come soon enough.

Brian’s face gets really dry when he shaves, so every once in a while he grows a goatee for a few days to give his face a break. When Jackson saw Brian’s goatee this morning he said, “I used to have a beard, when I was three.” Brian asked him what happened to it, and Jackson said, “It went away when I was resurrected, when I was three.” Jackson repeated that story to a few different people today.

Saturday afternoon we drove to a nearby campground where some friends were staying for the weekend. The campground had trick-or-treating and a couple other Halloween things. We don’t have the boys’ costumes yet, so Jackson was a farmer again (he was last year), but he insisted on wearing a baseball hat under his farmer’s hat. Grant was a football player, but I didn’t bring makeup to put lines under his eyes, and we don’t have his helmet or football pants. So they weren’t super dressed up, but it worked. There were tons of people there. One person counted 260 trick-or-treaters. Once Grant realized what was being put in his bag, he was excited. He would open the bag 15 feet ahead of time, so he’d be ready. But he said, “Thanks” (which sounds like “Aches” when he says it) every time without needing to be prompted. We came home with tired, cold kids (I left the sweatshirts on the counter at home) and a ton of candy.