Nice Babies, Aunt Mary, and Grant turns 2

These two pester each other a lot, but on occasion I will notice them sharing or being nice to each other.    They were taking turns pushing each other around the backyard.  Nice to know they actually do know how to be nice.  I forgot to link you over to the preschool blog to see our Halloween party, click {here}, and also my other preschool day, click {here}. 

I almost have a few lemons ready to pick.  I love that we can grow citrus, now we just need to get our orange tree planted. 

Mary and the kids took the bus to come visit us for Grant's birthday.  We took the kids to the creek and Mary saw this bench that someone had chucked over the bridge.  She decided to wade through the freezing water to retrieve it for us, and then hauled it home on her stroller with a few extra kids on top!! Now we have a slightly dinged up, but very functional bench in our backyard.  She's crazy, but that's why we love her.  Mary is one amazing person and mother.  I am constantly in awe at how creative, compassionate and patient she is.  She actually reminds me of my mom in some ways.  She's always doing something fun or adventurous with her kids.  After I'm around her for any amount of time, I come home with a renewed desire to be a better mom. I'm so glad they live near enough to see them on occasion - I guess I should say we live near them, since they were here first. :)

My baby turned 2 on Thursday.   We've been teaching him to say, "I'm 2" for a week or so now, and also telling him that he is going to have a birthday.  When he woke up I said, "Granty, it's your birthday", and he gave me a big grin and said, "I'm 2".   We got him a Costco truck toy, which came with this little block truck too.  I gave it to him in the morning, and when I walked in with it he was so excited.  

Usually I start the kids' cakes at least a week in advance, but I've been busy and didn't get around to it until the morning of his birthday.  I was a little nervous that I wouldn't be able to pull of anything fun for his cake, but I decided to try anyway.  I made some bread bowls for dinner while my fondant for the cake was chilling, and when I was working on the other counter, this little stink found his way on top of the counter to drink the flour.  All of my kiddos love dough, flour, batter, etc. - yuck!  My sister, April, was the one in our family that loved those things, so it's funny that my kids ended up with that 'trait'.  

Grant LOVES trucks, especially this one.  I think this was a yard sale find in SLC, and boy has it been loved.  I decided to use this truck as my inspiration for Grant's truck cake.  I should tell you that Grant has a hard time saying truck, let's just say he swears A LOT these days.  Funny thing is Noah tries to correct him by saying, "Grant it's not fu@&, it's TRuck".  Both Noah and Grant don't know that they're swearing, so we just try to ignore it and smile. 

 I think it turned out pretty good, especially for only starting it that morning.   Grant thought it was awesome, so that's all that matters anyway. 

I think he thought it was a toy truck because he didn't want me to take it away. 

The bystanders.  Noah and Ava were really cute with Grant on his birthday.  Whenever I would finish a section on the cake, Noah would go get Grant and make him come look at it.  Noah loves my cake creations. 

I let Adam give him the big truck, so he could see Grant's face when he came in the room with it (I didn't wrap any of the presents, dud I know).  He had the same reaction as he did when I gave him the little truck.    Sorry, I didn't get a picture of it - just know it was priceless. 

My baby [Grant] is so fun.  Still very cuddly and still very much a momma's boy. He loves to be outside, and as you now know, he loves trucks - especially dump trucks.  He talks a lot and enunciates really well (minus the word truck :) ).  He loves to sing and count.  The other day I overheard him counting to 10!  I knew he could count to 3, but had no idea he could make it to 10.  He LOVES the {water} and can be found playing in the sink, hose, or puddles whenever possible.  He has an ear piercing scream and uses it frequently.  He loves, loves, loves to eat - anytime, anything and anywhere! I can get hugs and kisses from him whenever I want.  His laugh is very contagious and really cute.  Our little Grant is so much fun to have around and we love him very much.  Happy Birthday, little Granty.