Bias

I know I am bias, but I think I have the cutest kids! Here are some pictures and videos as proof!

State Fair/BYU game

In mid October our good friends the Williams came up from San Antonio for a weekend. We went to the State Fair and the BYU vs TCU football game. We love the Williams. Matt and Dani got married only a few months before us, and have 2 kids about the same age as Lucy and Grant. We knew them back in college, and Dani and I are related some type of cousin or something. Anyway, it is always fun to spend time with them. The kiddos are getting old enough that they can play with each other instead of fighting over who gets to watch Dora. We also managed to get a babysitter so that just the adults could go to the football game. It was so fun to go out to eat and get some space from all the kids. The football game was fun, we lost, (boo!) but it was still fun.

The state fair was full of food! I don't even know all that we ate, but here is what I remember:

fried cookie dough
corny dog
pretzel
homemade root beer
brisket tacos
fried s'mores
fried frito pie

Needless to say it was good, but I felt sick by the time we got home!

I think the highlight for the adults was the food, but the kids loved the petting zoo. The feed the animals and all of them kept reaching for the baby pigs, but couldn't get them. I guess pigs are a big hit with kids!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was awesome! It was so fun having family come to town. Marilyn drove in from Rexburg. Steve drove the semi from Denver, to Lewisville (the next town over) and we picked him up. Evan and Lauren flew in from Ogden. I love family. I love it when they visit. I don't care that I go insane before and after the visit cleaning, its worth it every time. Lucy loved the attention and cried every time someone left. Everyone stayed a couple of days. Thanksgiving day was fun. Marilyn and I did the cooking. The food was great. I officially like sweet potatoes. I used to hated them, but the sweet potato souffle won me over. Marilyn made her amazing caramels. Sad to say, but we have already eaten them all. They are so good! Marilyn stayed longer than everyone else, which gave her a chance to play with the kids, and gave me a chance to escape from the kids for a hour or two at a time. That was heaven! Talk about an early Christmas gift! Thanks everyone for making the trip!

Silly us, we forgot to take pictures, we have only the one of the dinner table all setup from Thanksgiving day and one of Lucy when she stole one of the carrots I was cutting up to cook.

Pumpkin Patch

Back in October, yes these are old videos and pictures, we went to a pumpkin patch. They had games setup for the kids, lots and lots of pumpkins, and a maze of hay. It was basically across the street to so we just walked over. Grant slept through everything in the stroller, but Lucy had a blast playing the games and running through the maze. She wanted to eat all of the pumpkins. I don't know why but she just loves them to pieces.

David Crest, CPA

Dave is a CPA and we have the certificate to prove it! The ceremony was down in Austin, which we have never been, so we decided to make a little trip out of it. Austin is a cool place! Dave's mom was still in town from Thanksgiving so we left the kids with her. We stayed at a hotel, a night without the kids was wonderful. We went to the ceremony, which started at 10:00 am, (there goes sleeping in) and listened to the speakers. It was a great experience. The number one CPA, meaning the person who passed with the highest scores the first time around was a BYU grad! He was someone Dave knew. James Palmer. It turns out he used to work for Deliotte where Dave now works. Now James works at Highland Capital, where Dave used to work. They basically took each other's positions. Funny huh? His speech was great it was all about finding balance with your family and your work. Family comes first. At the ceremony they also paid tribute to the 50 year CPAs. Really cool! Dave noticed, that most of them were in the military at one point, interesting little tidbit. After the ceremony we went to BJ's Restuarant for lunch (best root beer ever!) Then drove home. It was a quick trip but it was fantastic. Thanks Marilyn for watching the kiddo's and making it possible!

Life is Crazy!

So life with two kids is crazy! I feel like I don't have time for anything anymore, thus no blog entries for a month and even then that one barely counts. So while Grant is napping and Lucy is for the moment occupied with Clifford, I will make as many entries as possible. So stay tuned the entries will automatically post every couple of days. Happy Holidays! We love you all, especially those wiling to still look at the blog!

Here is our Christmas Picture if you did not get a card this year. I tried to cover everyone that doesn't see us on a regular basis.

Recent Videos

These are just some recent videos we have taken of the kids. I will post a real entry, some time soon! I promise! Maybe a Thanksgiving one or something.

Halloween

Here are some pictures from the ward halloween party and the kids in their costumes. If you can't tell Lucy is a peacock and Grant was a shark!

Duh-na!

Sugar Coma (What goes up must come down!)

I like Grant's face in this picture like, "Are you talkin to me!?!"

The closest thing to a family portrait we could get

Lucy loved the pumpkins, she kept trying to kiss and eat them.

Here is a video of Lucy playing one of the games at the party. She didn't quite understand that you're suppose to step on the numbers while the music is playing, and then stop on a number when it stops. She just kept running in circles. At least she was having fun! Eventually they just gave her a cupcake.

Videos from Florida

Here are the videos I promised to post.


This was a place we stopped to eat in New Orleans. It was yummy! Lucy couldn't et enough and would let go of the hat! New Orleans was a cool place, but we didn't have to to really explore. We will have to do another trip just to there.


This is when Grant got in a fight with a plant. We just got into the condo and put him down to be able to make dinner and get things settled in. Boy did he have fun! I think the plant won though.


Here are 30 seconds of complete bliss. This what the entire week looked like.

Lucy and Dave played a little one on one. She loved being out there and just playing around with her dad.

Lucy wanted to beat on the table. It took several attempts but we finally got some of her drumming skills on video.

Destin, Florida

Two weeks ago Dave and I packed up the kids and headed to Destin, Florida. It is a really cool place. We rented a condo an entire week spent all day on the beach or by the pool. We tried to be good about sunscreen and it paid off. No one got sunburned! Lucy developed some great tan lines and all of my freckles came out. It looks like my shoulders are rusting. Lucy loved playing in the sand and building castles. Both kids were terrified of the water. I was okay with that, that meant Dave and I didn't have to run in after them! Here are some pictures from the trip. I will post again with some videos a little later.

This is where we stayed

Grant discovered how much he loves napkins

Lucy couldn't get enough of the sugar packets

Grant chillin' on the beach

Dianna and Lucy building sand castles

Dave and Lucy building sand castles

Lucy being Lucy

Lucy is now in love with Clifford the Big Red Dog and Maisy Mouse. She can't get enough of their shows. It's nice that their episodes or 5-15 minutes long so I can put a few on and not feel like she is watching tv all day. She really likes to read. Her favorite books are again Clifford and Maisy, but she also loves the Little Critter books by Mercer Mayer. She can't get enough of them. She always says books, books, and read, read while holding a stack of them.

Here are some recent videos and a picture of Lucy. I don't seem to use the camera very often. We are going on a trip soon and will hopefully use it more than!

Grant Update

Grant is growing in leaps and bounds. Literally! He is growing 2 inches a month. He jumped from the 20% to the 60% in length. Because he s growing so much he is eating so much. We have started him on solids to help with that. He doesn't seem to fully love the rice cereal but he does seem to tolerate it. Hopefully he will start to enjoy it and eat more than a tablespoon at a time. He is still our happy baby. He seems to giggle over everything. Just changing his clothes and he laughs. (The babysitter has witnessed this so I am not making it up!) He has started to sleep through the night which is fantastic but he doesn't seem to want to nap well. During the day he seems to yo-yo back and forth awake an hour asleep an hour. It sure makes getting things done rather difficult! But that is the life to 2 kids right?

Tornado!

This was the view from my house.

Talk about ominous!


This was the view from Dave's work.


He was considerably closer to the action. Luckily there was no damage by our house and in the path of the tornado there wasn't too much damage. As far as I have heard there were barely, if any, injuries.

Lucy is TWO!!

Lucy turned two on Saturday. We tried to make it a day for her. We went to the mall and let her play on the slides there as long as she wanted. We took her home for a much needed nap and then started celebrating. Lucy got lots of wonderful presents and ate some yummy cake. (Which I made from scratch including the fondant!) We then went back to the mall to let her ride the carousel for the first time. She loved to watch it, but as soon as Dave got on with her she freaked out. It was not a good experience. Oh well, maybe next year! Her good buddy, Zack came over later that night and she had a ball playing with him.

Lucy is now 34 inches tall (55%), weighs 26 lbs (33%), and still wearing a 18 months clothes. She has moved into some 24 month clothes, but that little waist and big thighs sure make it tough to find pants that fit properly. I have a feeling it will be something to deal with all her life, oh well!

Thanks everyone for the cards and gifts. Lucy loves it all and plays with all of her new toys like they are the only ones we own! She had a great day!

Here are pictures and videos from her birthday.