Granddad

Sadly, we received a call Christmas eve morning letting us know that Frank's Granddad had passed away.  We will always treasure our last trip, we made earlier this Fall, to see his Grandmother and Granddad and wouldn't trade this photo of our boys with their Great-Grandparents. 

Here Frank is with his namesake (Frank Mallory).  This photo brings such fond memories, he will always remember his Granddad playing dominoes with him.

birthday blessings

My birthday present from Parker, as of Dec 22, he can get himself onto the couch without any assistance...I guess on the bright side, he's only actually JUMPED off by himself once (that I know of!).  UGH!  I'm pretty sure we're in some serious trouble with this one!

Parker looks annoyed in this photo because we haven't eaten the cupcakes yet!

This picture doesn't do them justice but I had to take a quick snapshot of these beautiful and yummy cupcakes I was spoiled with on my birthday, thanks Mom & Dad!

Blue frosting was everywhere!  

The greatest gift was having both my parents and brother here to help us celebrate!  Love you guys!

Arrival!

Much fun and many, many snuggles with Grandpa and Grandma O when they arrived!

We took the Max to go to the zoo, and once inside, rode the zoo train and saw all of the zoo lights, consequently, it was a HUGE hit with the boys!

We also put them to work with us filling food boxes at our church for the annual Christmas food and toy drive, what great sports!

That grin looks like he's up to no good but he was soooo excited to decorate this gingerbread boy given to us by our neighbor.  Too bad they never taste as good as they look ;)

teeth

About a week and a half ago Parker finally popped through 4 new teeth, 2 top molars and 2 lower teeth.  He's still working on his bottom 2 molars but they are almost through...I think!  Amidst all the teething the poor guy had his first round of antibiotics, after we got home from Thanksgiving, for his double ear infection, then five days after they ran out we headed back to the pediatrician for another round of antibiotics because the ear infections had hung on.  He's had a rough few weeks/months!

On another note, Parker has taken a liking to Grant's Lightening McQueen light-up Disneyland hat.  He points, grunts and squeals like crazy when it's out of his reach and then insists on us putting it on for him.  He absolutely loves it and will keep it on for considerable lengths of time, I find it to be quite adorable and funny!

Love you Bear!

family photos

We had family photos taken back in October and having not been able to decide which ones were going to be gifted to our families and used for the Christmas card I decided to wait before posting them. 

We found our photographer through a friend of mine, and Koren turned out to be wonderful!  We had a grand time despite Frank's yearly reluctancy to have family photos taken...thanks honey, you're a good sport!  He knows how much I treasure them and that I have a rather high appreciation for photography and will cherish these photos, particularly of our boys, for years and years to come. 

My yearly argument: they're only little once so let's not miss it!  PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE honey!  Pretty persuasive, ha, he must have a soft spot in his heart for his wife! 

Here are just a few of my favorites.

guitar...I mean soccer star

Grant's last Pee Wee Soccer class was today and there were only three kiddos so he got a lot of ball time and seemed to be quite happy about it!

Here he is giving me the "look" saying do I really have to keep running after the ball some more?!

During this session of soccer Grant stopped during a few of the classes, in the middle of the court, and would let his ball roll off to wherever it so pleased and would proceed to begin strumming his chest like he's playing a guitar (frequently he would actually have a guitar of some sort on his shirt).  All the while he would be tapping his toe, keeping the beat to the music playing on the court next to his.  We are seriously considering starting a "music lesson" fund for this child.

~Mercy~

31 BIBLICAL VIRTUES to pray for your kids
8. Mercy. "May my children always be merciful, just as their Father is merciful" (Lk. 6:36).

CBS Christmas program

Grant had his little Christmas program at our weekly bible study on Thursday morning.  He was looking quite dapper in his Christmas outfit, thank you Grandma R, and particularly loves his hat!  Dog-dog had to accompany him on stage too but he did finally put him down and kick him behind him so he had adequate space to ring his jingle bells when the time came, haha!

He was quite proud of his jingle bell ringing skills and I was proud of him for actually participating this year and only picking his nose a few times :) sorry buddy, I have video proof of that!

2 bears or 1?

Which one is our little bud and which one is our bear?  Frank was shocked when I showed him these two pictures side by side.  Grant was two months older in his photo than Parker Bear but otherwise, wow, do they look alike or what?  For the record, Parker is the top photo and Grant is the second!

Our great Christmas tree hunt this year!  Grant has been asking for weeks if we could go cut our Christmas tree and if Daddy was going to take his own handsaw or Grandpa's with us and he wanted to be sure he didn't forget his saw either!  He was ecstatic to finally be tromping through the forest, saws in-hand!

The picture above says it all, going at it from both sides, that poor tree doesn't stand a chance with these two around. Not an hour goes by, when they're awake, that an ornament doesn't get stripped, the lights and tinsel get pulled and shook around, the lights get switched on and then switched off, on then off, you get the picture.

This little tree is about a foot in height and Grant got to decorate it all by himself.  He sat at the kitchen table for close to an hour and tediously decorated the entire bottom branches of the tree and then announced that he was done.  I love it!

Each day Grant asks to get more ornaments out, from where I do not know, he tells me everyday that the walls need ornaments, the table, our doors, the list is never-ending and I'm pretty sure we've long since exhausted all possible ornaments in our house!  He also likes to put his toys in various places telling me he's decorating some more, I often find matchbox cars or instruments in random places throughout the house...more decorations I presume!

Lastly, this Christmas tree is by far the most prayed for Christmas tree we've ever owned.  Each night at bedtime Grant prays for our Christmas tree....and Halloween still too ;) Ha!
Christmas has definitely arrived at our house and I hope yours too!

to love justice

31 BIBLICAL VIRTUES to pray for your kids

7. Justice.  "God, help my children to love justice as You do and act justly in all they do" (Ps. 11:7, Mic. 6:8).

All I want for Christmas

All Grant would like for Christmas is a pair of gloves like his Daddy.  He tells everyone that asks him while holding his hands in the air as if showing them.

Have I mentioned how much I love that little boy?!!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was terrific, lots of delicious turkey, a night at the Great Wolf Lodge with family and friends, and so much to be thankful for this year! 

Unfortunately, in the midst of trying not to let one of our children or the cousins drown I didn't get a single picture while we were gone except for this.  Sunday morning in our hotel room Grant would not wake up, Frank, Parker and I all tried, we opened the curtains, turned on all of the lights and even got ready and began packing our things up.  Finally Parker and Frank left for breakfast and I managed to get him to wake up while beginning to get him out of his pajamas, he was absolutely pooped from the activities of Thanksgiving and the first day in the water park!

He and Parker both love the water so it was no surprise we all had a blast again this year!  Grant continues to talk about the "dinger bell" that dings, dings, dings and then the huge big bucket at the top dumps all over us!!   He will tell you that his favorite was going down the "bigger boy slides," except when he would get water up his nose and also the hot tub, a huge fan of the hot tub just like his Daddy! 

Grandpa R and Frank were troopers and put together some garland, from boughs at Grandma Billie's (thank you Billie for the suggestion!), that now dons our front porch.  After it seeming to take awhile for Frank and Grandpa R to return Grandma R assured me that it was only because it was for his daughter-in-law and she never would have talked him into doing the same for her (I do doubt that!). :)  Thank you Grandpa R, looks like you did such a great job this year you may be on the hook for next year too!

Since returning home Parker's 5 week cough got the best of him and we finally relented and saw the pediatrician last week, double ear infections and bronchitis were diagnosed.  Poor little bear, no wonder you were feeling so crummy!  Thankfully, the antibiotics seemed to have done the trick and you've finally let me put you down instead of riding my hip each and every day!

I hope all of you had a blessed and memorable Thanksgiving with family and friends!