Turning Two and Chick Fluff

Grant turned two last month. Please note in the picture above Grant's hair. That is how his hair almost always looks. Its like chick fluff, soft and fine and allll over. Consequently we call him Fuzzy.  

Little Grant is so much fun. He loves his dad, airplanes, cars, boats, and motorcycles. He also really likes...old guys. Not sure how else to put it but he likes men. He makes himself right at home with any grandpa types. He likes to cuddle, although its kind of like cuddling with a meat tenderizer. He adores his brother and sisters.

 Jeremy made the above airplane for him. The propeller has already gotten broken, fixed, and replaced.

Grant and Grandpa Richard, whose birthday is two days after Grant, sharing their airplane birthday cake.

The Hills Are Alive

...with the Sound of Music.


Ok, I officially had two people get after me for not posting. Obviously my public demands that I post. (Mom and Dana) :)


Its been a busy three months here.


This post is about January.


January was consumed by music at our house. First of all I was participating in NATS for the second year. NATS is a vocal competition but really I think the vocal teachers compete with each other to see how many of their students place:)


I did both the classical and musical theater categories this year, preparing three songs in each.


I had a bit of a glitch wherein I ended up with an accompanist that I never rehearsed with for the classical category. I mean I literally met the man two minutes before I walked in with the judges. I told him what changes I was doing and he told me he'd follow me for tempo. Little stressful.


However, it went beautifully as did musical theater with my original pianist. I took first in the classical category and second in musical theater. More importantly, I felt good about how I sang for the judges. I had been working on one of the songs for a year and it was important to me that I sing it for the judges as I'd practiced.


(I had to sing at the awards concert thinger later the same night too. It didn't go as well but frankly by that time I'd been up since 4 am. I'm just glad noise was still coming out of my mouth.)


Now in the same week as NATS were auditions for a multi-stake production of The Sound of Music. Uh, so S of M is my favorite movie - EVER. Granted the stage production is a bit different but still its my fav. Both Madilyn and Emma wanted to audition and worked on their songs for a couple of months. I'm not sure who I was more nervous for them or me. Ok I know the answer - them.


They were both very nervous but I was so proud of them. They did wonderful. It was a joy to ride home from our auditions with both of them singing their songs and feeling pleased with themselves for having done their best.


Three or four very looooong weeks later we heard back. Madilyn was cast as Brigitta, Emma as Marta, and I as Baroness Elsa Shraeder (For the record, the Baroness sings two songs in the stage production.). There was some jumping up and down and screaming at our house.


That was January. Exciting, stressful January.

Christmas - The best of intentions

 Christmas time again. Why is Christmas so stressful?

Jeremy and I had decided that we would make many of the gifts for our kids this year. While I think it was a good idea in theory, in practicality it...caused a few problems.

 Homemade Christmas pajamas.

 Jeremy made this semi truck. It has a second tanker trailer that is amazing...somehow I didn't get a picture of it though.

 He also made this train, which is just, you know...wow. It did, however, cause a lot of our Christmas stress. Jer started making it right after Thanksgiving but the time it took was far more than either of us anticipated. In the end we didn't get to do a lot of our usual Christmas activities because Jeremy was working on it every spare moment he had. And it almost ended in disaster. The day before Christmas Eve he put a finished on it that, for whatever reason, ruined it. Thankfully, Jer's family took the train to their house and rubbed it down with steel wool. It took 3-4 people 3 hours to get it back to what it was before. Yikes!

 

 I think he wore this face the whole day.

 Emma's dress, it looks a bit Eastery buuuut...who cares really. I've been saving this fabric forever and knew she would like it.

And Grant of course who really was most pleased with the boxes and wrapping paper.

 

Maybe we need to rethink this handmade thing. :)

A Tale of Teeth

Emma lost her two front teeth roughly 6 weeks ago. She gave a good sneeze and I heard a little plink, plink, plink. Yup, she sneezed her tooth right out onto the kitchen floor. When she came home from school that same afternoon, the other had fallen out at lunchtime.

 

Two front teeth in one day. Pretty awesome. Pretty lisp too.

Maris Farms Revisit

Grant driving the ground tractor.

 I love Maris Farms. This year I took Grant, Emma, and Madilyn. Garrett and Jeremy were gone hunting so they missed out.

Duck Races

Still driving the tractor. Look at that adorable face.

Swimming through the corn room.

Ground Pillow

 My personal favorite is the ground pillow, also known as a giant balloon buried in the ground. It's so much fun.

Ground Pillow

 While the girls were going through the underground slide, which I do not have a picture of, I turned around Grant was halfway across a field. I called out to him and told him to come back. He yelled, "Monster truck!", and kept going. He got stuck behind the fence and started to cry. He was determined to see the truck. What could we do but trudge across a muddy field to stare at a monster truck.

My little boy's dream come true.

 We also did a corn maze, pumpkin patch, animals, pedal cars, and last but not least the cow train, which the kids rode three times.

 

Goodbye Fall.

 The last few glorious days of fall.

Annnd what we actually were for Halloween...

 If you'll remember, Garrett was going to be a pirate (the girls wanted him to be Tigger) and Grant was going to be Elmo. But come Halloween, Grant wanted to be a pirate and Garrett wanted to be Tigger. Before we could leave the house however, Grant decided he DID want to be Elmo.

 Emma went as Merida from Brave. I wanted to have to her dress done for her birthday but it took me a awhile to finish it.

 Madilyn went as Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt and maidens. She made her costume with her Aunt Amanda. It's a neat costume but she wasn't in the mood for me to take her picture.

 Tigger.

 Fireman Elmo.

 What our Halloween actually looked like. Artemis wasn't too happy. She wasn't feeling very well that night.

Shenanigans and Goings On.