24 days of Christmas: A Countdown!

Welcome, December! You make the snow outside a little more bearable. Christmas season is really underway now, and I am L O V I N G it! I said it at Halloween, and I'll say it again-- holidays just come alive again when you have kids. All last month I was looking forward with an eye single to Grant's first Christmas (Hopefully this didn't detract too much from being thankful which is customary during this time.)--"What should I do for our first family Christmas card? What should Grant wear in his first picture with Santa?" (Thankfulness definitely should have replaced that frivolity.) "What kind of fun and silly traditions do we want to start? What kind of meaningful/service-oriented traditions do we want to start?" etc. etc. I have been racking my brain and scouring the internet for ways to make this first Christmas extra special. In light of the season, I have decided to share my holiday spirit with everyone in the form of a holiday countdown! I will share at least one holiday idea, project, or experience that I'm using to make Christmas special every day from now until Christmas. Brace yourselves (all three of you who are reading this).

Day 24

What better way to start a countdown than with an ADVENT CALENDAR! Seriously, one of my very favorite things as a kid at Christmastime was my own advent calendar that I could count down the days with. I loved opening the little doors on the paper calendars and seeing a new picture each day. Anticipation is half the fun of anything, after all. I found this little gem on the Queen of Craft herself, Martha Stewart's website:

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/baby-sock-advent-calendar

It was love at first sight for me. You put a treat or small toy inside each sock to pull out each day till Christmas! The socks are hung with little clothespins on a ribbon, and the ribbon hangs from your mantel or staircase. What a cute, crafty, and classy spin on an old favorite! I bought most of my baby socks from Kid-to-Kid (and Grant sacrificed a couple plain white ones), I bought the small clothespins at the craft store, and I cut the little numbers out on my Cricut. Here is my final product:

Since Grant is still too little to enjoy treats or toys small enough to fit inside baby socks, most of the loot will be for Jared this year. I've come up with various cheesy puns to go with the treats.

24 more days!

This is Halloween

Halloween is fun again! This past weekend proved to me that holidays really are more fun with kids. I had such a great Halloween. The real anticipation began about three weeks ago when I made Grant's costume. I was feeling in the spirit enough that I decided to plan a Halloween dinner party. About a week before the big day I had nothing festive left to do to show my enthusiasm so, I made Grant his own baby-sized trick-or-treat bag. I honestly haven't looked forward to Halloween this much in a LONG time. You might even say I was a little OVER-zealous, considering that we also planned to move apartments that same weekend. ugh. Well, with me there is a very fine line between fun and stress. I like to take it to the limits. Good thing there is enough time in between holidays for me to forget the stress part, so I can plan more crazy fun (poor Jared I don't think ever forgets, but he supports me anyway).

Anyway, here are a few pictures commemorating my baby dalmation's first Halloween.

Jared was Pinnochio for his work party--his department's theme was Shrek. I made him take off his nose so he wouldn't scare Grant. He still looked kinda scary, though.

Grant's eyes crossing due to his mother driving him crazy with all this Halloween exuberance.

Grant got to meet his Aunt Rachel, Uncle Paul, and sweet cousins this weekend. Him and baby Brooklyn were so cute in their costumes.

I LOVE this picture of Grant with all his cousins. Jared and I had the best Halloween. Special thanks to Grant for providing us with renewed enthusiasm, cute pics, and a little bag full of trick-or-treat candy.

Mean Mom

I once saw a bib at Target that read, "That's it! I'm going to Grandma's." Clever little saying. Profound underlying truth. Grandma's are the nice ones and moms have to do all the mean mom stuff. It is just one of life's realities. My mom came this weekend to visit, and her mission to cuddle and spoil her grandbaby was thoroughly accomplished. Don't worry, I also made great strides toward my goal of becoming the mean mom.

Grant's bib on Saturday night would have said, "I hate Girl's Night." Don't repeat this to Grant when he's older, but, the mean mom took him to Gardner Village (aka- shopping center explosion of crafty, home decor, girly-boutique goodness) with Grandma and Aunt Leslie, while his dad and uncle went to the BYU football game. A witch theme pervades the place during the Halloween season, and it is just so charming and cute and enjoyable, we couldn't resist taking a few pictures.

Grant in his new Cougar apparel, wishing he were with the boys and not being forced to take pictures in a pile of hay.

And as if Girls' Night at a crafty-witch-boutique-explosion isn't bad enough for a boy, the mean mom tried to get him to sit on the lap of the live witch who appears with the caramel apple in the above picture. Mean! I really thought he was too young to know that ladies dressed in all black with red eyes and vampire teeth are scary. Mean and dumb mom. As I held him out to her and he caught a glimpse of his first ever villain, he screamed a shriek of true terror. You might not be able to tell, but he actually had calmed down quite a bit by the time we took the picture.

Anyway, if you see that bib anywhere, let me know. It's not at Target anymore, and I think Grant would really like it.

Friends

On September 18th Chile celebrated the bicentennial of their country's independence. I celebrated here at home with Jared and some good friends from our mission eating us some good ol' completos (amazing how much tomato and avocado can improve a hot dog). I topped that off with some Facebook stalking the next day, looking at all the pictures my Chilean friends posted of the festivities down there. I always get a little trunky when I look at their pictures, but these ones in particular really got me feeling emotional. Besides the typical cueca dancing, empanadas, and extreme quantities of soda, I saw in these pictures a family I taught, now more than three years after their baptism, celebrating with their ward family. The bishop is hugging the mother, the father is assisting with the cooking at the grill, and they are having a wonderful time. They were fellowshipped, nurtured, embraced, and now they are clearly at home in their ward and in the gospel. I've never worried about these people because of this exemplary ward. There is no doubt in my mind that if every ward was like this one, there would be no new member lost. I wept over Facebook for a good 10 minutes (don't underestimate its influence), feeling so grateful for this ward that is taking care of some of my special people, and realizing just how important friends are.

Here's a little photo tribute to the importance of friends.

It has been a week full of mission memories. Here some of us are welcoming a mission friend from Chile to Utah. He's moving his family here in a couple months which is HUGE. Pretty awesome to already have friends waiting for you on the other side of the world. Grant is in the picture. He is the baby in the back--too busy socializing to be sitting with his own parents.

And if that picture doesn't say friendship, check out these little guys.

Last Friday my friend Lyndsey and her little Jack came to visit. Grant let Jack borrow his toy, and Jack let Grant borrow his hand to suck on. Quite the budding friendship. I laugh every time I look at this picture. How did they know to hold hands and look at the camera? I promise it was not posed.

The Mystery of the White Scrunchy Blanket

I have decided to officially become a blogger tonight. I thought that in order to make a debut on this blog scene I would need a fancy introduction--a prologue, a pivotal moment of some sort to start from, but I just can't deal with the pressure or work of backtracking. That being said, my little blog begins today.

It starts with a white scrunchy blanket that made the foot of our bed its home about a month ago. I thought it was a lovely blanket from the first time I saw it in that blessed store, Ikea. I saw the potential of its unique, gauzy texture and thought it would be a great prop for baby pictures. I purchased it without hesitation. Indeed, it has been used in many a picture of my sweet boy. However, I am starting to wonder a little bit about this scrunchy blanket. It has had influence in this family that I wasn't expecting, and frankly that I'm not so sure I like.

Reason #1. Jared has not slept under the sheets of our bed since the blanket arrived. Summer nights are hot. We all know this. Before the blanket however, Jared would just sleep under the sheets and keep the comforter down--you know, like most people do when they get hot at night. I would keep my side up because I don't find the heat uncomfortable and find the fluffiness of the duvet cozy. In those days we had a good thing going on--he was sheets only, and I was sheets plus duvet. There was no restriction of bed space. I could toss and turn and kick my legs about as I pleased. I could even play a little footsie with my husband if I wanted to. Now, he sleeps ON TOP of everything with--you guessed it--the scrunchy blanket stretched from under his toes all the way tucked up under his chin. When I question this behavior, he says that the blanket feels better than the sheet. It's cooler, and it's a better texture. I have tried the white blanket, and I don't get it. In the meantime, I am trapped under the covers on my half (third, really) of the bed. Cuddling is not what it used to be. We might as well be in two separate beds!

Reason #2. A few days ago, Grant was "helping me" make the bed. "Making the bed" with Grant starts with Grant watching me from the rocking chair until I get the sheets and comforter situated. Then he moves onto the bed while I arrange the pillows and throw blanket. When I rustled the scrunchy blanket around his face and fanned it up and down above him he seemed entertained. Still, I didn't think much of that. Well, today he woke up super cranky from his nap. I could not get him to relax. There wasn't a position I held him in that could keep him from screaming at full decibel strength. This is not typical. I attempted all that I could to console him, and just as he was starting to calm down, a picture fell from the wall, knocking down a bunch of stuff from a shelf, sending Grant over the edge. I thought of a great idea! "I will give him a little massage with lotion to try to soothe him!" Well, the lotion just happened to be on the floor in my room, so I had to put him down on the bed for a moment to bend down to get it. Well, before I could even stand back up, he had calmed down. I had, inadvertently, placed him on top of . . ..the white scrunchy blanket. It was almost instantaneous. He was clinging to the fabric, bringing it to his little face, and almost cooing! That fast! I had been trying to calm him for at least fifteen minutes! I have to admit, I was appreciative at the time and proceeded to play with Grant under a little "scrunchy blanket tent" for another ten minutes or so.

Well, there you have it. The evidence speaks for itself. It's a good thing the scrunchy white blanket can't cook dinner or nurse babies, or else I might start to feel a little unneeded around here.