January Favorites

I've REALLY been a slacker about getting my camera out for events lately, but I did manage to get a few pics of some of my favorite moments last month.

Our New Year's Resolution for our family this year is to hold a planned FHE EVERY single Monday, without exception!

At our first FHE, I came up with some lame activity, so Mike suggested we do a puppet show instead to help the kids get a little more excited. 

Good choice, Mike! Check these guys out:

Remi kept coming up to give the "muffet" kisses.

It's not often anyone gets to hold Remi for more than 2 seconds (she's SO BUSY!) let alone fall asleep with her! But she LOVES her daddy!  I took like thirty pictures of this (and it was literally like the SAME picture thirty times because they're asleep and not moving)! I couldn't help it, her sweet little face and fists kill me! Her dad's alright too! ;)

Did I get an iPad for Christmas??
Because I'm pretty sure Grant and Remi think THEY did! It's actually pretty useful to have it to distract them (that is, until I need it and they won't give it back or when they start deleting my apps!). Either way, when I see them playing together and Grant helping Remi figure out "her" apps, it melts my heart!

And again, another picture of Spaz Face giving me a smile! She's too much!!

We Have a Three-Year-Old!!....?!!

Grant turned three last month and in true Mike fashion, he ensured that Grant got a little boy's dream party!

We did a Ninja Turtle theme, since Grant was pretty into them at the time and we think they're cool! :)

We had pizza...(just like Michaelangelo, Grant says)

Then the boys had to eat the "green ooze" (green Jello) to become Ninja Turtles

Then they went to ninja training where they karate chopped and broke "boards"

Then they had to punch through a "green barrier" to find out which Ninja Turtle they were going to be.

Then they got their "weapons"

Some good-lookin' Ninja Turtles!

Mike made this city scape so they could jump over it and take pictures. It didn't work as well as we hoped, and we had a few accidents, but they still had fun!

Getting ready for their big fight scene!

They had to fight off the "foot soldiers"

Then they had the ultimate challenge-defeating "Shredder" and his Goon.

This is a really pathetic picture of the food, but oh well! It's documented!

I can't believe our little man is 3!!  He's so smart, we've been telling him for several months now that when he's three he couldn't go to sleep with milk anymore and we can't believe how on his birthday, he just quit cold turkey and never even asked for it! He told us several times that he couldn't have it, and wouldn't even let his babysitter give him milk with his PB&J.   We LOVE this boy!!

Then Grant got to sit on his Ninja Turtle chair and open all his gifts

It was a great party! Thanks so much to everyone who took time out of their Saturday to come!  We all had a lot of fun!

I told Biz to smile and here's what she gave me.  She's such a ham! She had fun following all the boys around trying to get involved!

Her Name is Remi

Remi has been given lots of nicknames in her short little life. She's known around here by Remi, Remington E., Betty, Betty Boo, Biz, Bizzy, Bizzy Boo, Bitty Betty, REW, Biz Biz, Liz, Lady and Girl Girl, to name a few. 

Grant, per his demands, is known by Grant. If you EVER try to call him anything else, he will immediately (and usually defiantly) correct you. Even if you tell him he's awesome, he'll whip around and retort, "NO! I'm GRANT!"

The day after he turned three, I called Remi "Biz" in front of him and I guess he'd had enough!

"No Mommy, her name is Remi! Can you say 'Re-mi'??"
"Yes Grant I can. 'Remi'"
"Good job Mommy!"

It hit me how old they're getting! Grant's protecting his sister's namesake and Remi's wearing pigtails! It's so fun and so sad at the same time!

SLACKER!

It seems like October through the first two weeks of January are always crazy around here and I just spend the whole time trying to play catch up!

So, here's what I missed during that time that I was shirking my blogging duties!

October
Our little Remi Girl turned 1 and we had our First Annual Fall Festival in her honor! We had lots of friends and family come to celebrate with us, and although I didn't get too many pictures, we had a lot of fun and learned some lessons about what to do in coming years (like, be prepared when your guests arrive for example!)!

We had a fall craft

Games

Food

And Prizes

Like I said, I didn't get very many pictures but you get the idea...

And here's Mike with the Birthday Girl! I had a cute little outfit for her, but when warmth became more of a necessity, she wore Uncle Chase's sweater.

That night, the kiddos dressed up in these costumes and went Trick-or-Treating:

She's actually supposed to be Lady Sybil from Downton Abbey but we thought just calling her a WWI Nurse would be less confusing!

Mike kept telling Grant he was the "old school Captain America", so Grant went around telling everyone he was "the Old Taptin"

Lady Sybil and I

Grant and Chase and a few of the kids in our ward at our ward party

I think it's safe to say Remi (and the boys) liked her gifts!

Then came Thanksgiving, which I don't even think I got one picture of, but I remember it was good...

Then Christmas!

By the time December rolled around, I felt a lot like Remi looks in this picture! Haha! (There's an explanation, but I'll get to it later!)

But, we still got our annual Christmas Calendar off the ground and enjoyed some fun activities!

Grant got his OWN Christmas tree on our Wiltbank Family Christmas Tree outing!

Whitney was awesome and brought some horses and a pony for the kids to ride!

Writing letters to Santa

River Walk

Baking Christmas Cookies

 Every year since we've moved home, we've been lucky enough to receive some of Sister Hall's Swiss braid bread. Words cannot express how GOOD this bread is!! I walked in one night to find that Remi had gotten a hold of the whole loaf and was toting it around the house snacking on it as she pleased! I guess she just did what we all were wishing we could do ourselves!

There were A LOT more activities with a lot more people involved but I wasn't very good about taking pictures and this post is already really long!  So here's Christmas morning:

I got Mike J.J. Abram's new book S. It's supposed to be really good and was sold out most places I tried to get it. J.J. Abrams is one of Mike's favorite movie directors and the creator of shows like LOST and Alias, in case anyone is wondering!

Mike, his brother Ryan and Ryan's girlfriend Bella worked hard on this puppet house and puppets for Remi, she was STOKED (as you can see!)!!

iPad Mini! How do I wrap my brain around that??

We drew Uncle Ry for Christmas this year, and although we failed epically with our gift-giving, Grant was so excited to give Ryan the Captain America shirt he picked out for him!

Biz got this cute little zebra from her cousin Hallie. She carries it around everywhere! (You did great, Hal!)

Grant had SO much fun with all his cousins here! I'm SUCH a slacker and didn't get any pictures of them together, even though we got to have his cousins Rylee and Trace stay with us! Seeing them all together makes us so sad we don't live closer and can't do more together!

Gage and Grant.  This is about the only picture I got of Grant with one of his cousins.

And finally, the reason the Holidays were a little more stressful, but also a little more special this year!  I'm sure everyone already knows but...

Baby #3 is on the way!!

I found out a few days before Remi's birthday in October.  I thought for a few days about how I wanted to tell Mike, then before I knew it a few weeks had gone by and I still hadn't told anyone, so I decided to see how long I could keep it a secret and it lasted until Christmas! (Granted, it took some effort after a while.  I had some well placed negative pregnancy tests in the "trash" and was sure to express my disappointment and jealousy when we found out several friends were pregnant, etc.)

I'm 18 weeks now and we know we're having a boy! Maybe it's just because I had to suck it up and pretend not to feel awful when I really did in order to keep my secret, but so far, this has pregnancy been pretty good to me!  Don't get me wrong, most of the first trimester was spent laying on the couch watching TMNT with Grant after Remi went down for a nap and Mike went to work, but I've been feeling pretty good and counting my blessings I don't have to deal with morning sickness!

We're so excited! Can't wait to meet our new little man on June 12 (or around then)!