BYU Football Game

Howdy!  Well, it's somehow been 3 weeks since I wrote a post.  I know we were just getting past Grayson's birthday, but honestly, I don't remember 3 weeks ago that well.  That's why I try to be more on top of writing this.  One thing I DO remember, is that Grayson had a birthday present show up on Monday.  His very own Christmas tree!  It's pre-lit and everything.  I think it was on Tuesday that a little tree skirt, the star, and a set of ornaments arrived.  He loves it, and it's essentially now his night light.

At this point Halloween is just the source of my daily candy snatch, but 3 weeks ago it was something to decorate for!  Monica found floating candles for our entry way, and I thought they looked pretty good.

The girls got to show us a dance at hip hop on Friday, and they got to wear Halloween costumes.  The girls are loving dance, and I think they like that they're in the same class too.

Here's everyone in their class in their Halloween costumes.

Saturday morning we got to help clean the church, which meant donuts after.  Pop was also in town to go to the BYU football game at Texas, so Brooke, he and I left right after picking up our donuts for pre-game festivities.  Monica, Winry and Grayson ate at the donut shop, and it looked like a good time.

The football crew headed down to a barbeque place for lunch.  It's probably the best barbeque I've ever had.  We had a good time, and a bunch of other members of the Blood family met us there too.

And here we all are in the stadium.  The game was... not so great, but everyone had a good time.  Brooke really liked watching the BYU cheerleaders and was really impressed by them as they did flips and tosses.

I think that's everything I've got for this week.  There may have been a few more funny stories or something, but they're currently not coming to mind.  It was probably this week that I first found out, but I've been called as the Elders Quorum president, and I've had a LOT happen the last few weeks with that, so things are kind of a blur...  On to writing the next post!
 

Happy Birthday Grayson

Happy Birthday Grayson!  Oh my goodness, he's 3!  We were up at Michael and Oriah's house over the weekend with additional members of my family as it was also Cameron's birthday, and we had a wonderful time all together.  We didn't quite get a picture with everyone looking... but I do think we got a picture of everyone!  Well, Biskit's face didn't quite make it in this one, but I'll take what I can get.

Grayson likes to have a toy in his room during his naps.  He'll play for a bit and then lay down and go to bed.  He really likes these flower building things, and he built this really tall one that I liked. 

Grayson got a dino to build for his birthday from one of his friends.  It had a little screwdriver and you screwed it all together.  He made a bed for the dino next to him and put it to bed each time he went to sleep.  He also sleeps with the screw driver right there with him in case a leg falls off or something for prompt repair.  It's super cute.

Grayson needed his hair cut, and there's only so much you can do to keep him still.  This time it was Daniel Tiger.  

As Halloween has approached and costumes have come out, so did the face paint.  Grayson became a very scary tiger, courtesy of his sisters.

The girls' school has been doing their booster the last few weeks, and they had an obstacle course to celebrate.  Monica and Grayson got to go watch both Brooke and Winry go through it, and there was even a lap where Grayson got to go through with them.

On Friday we drove up to Dallas to go to Cameron's baptism.  We actually skipped school and drove up in the morning, and I worked in the car while we drove up.  It was actually a very productive drive, and we had a lot of fun with everyone too.  Here are all the kids with some of my sisters.

Grayson slept in the closet of the room we were in.  There was an extension cord running into it, which was nice because we can get the monitor in to the outlet just outside the door, but now Grayson also got to have a night light... which he played with and drove around like a car.  Perfect!

Grayson sure loves Biskit, but is still pretty nervous around him.  To be fair, Biskit is larger than Grayson, so I'm sure it's an intense experience.  He still loved playing with him though.

We had Grayson's birthday party on Saturday morning, and Grayson wanted a Biskit birthday party.  We played pin the tail on Biskit, and Winry completely aced it!  She aced it at Cameron's party in the afternoon too.

Everyone took a turn with varying results, but everyone had fun.

We listened to all the best freeze dance and floor is lava songs, and everyone participated, which made for an extra good time.

We had some pizza for lunch, and then Grayson opened presents.  He was really happy with what he got and has had a lot of fun playing with all of it over the last few days.

We sang happy birthday and Grayson wanted mint brownies for his cake.  Also, he didn't try to grab the flame on the candle!  Big strides!

Again, everything was Biskit for this party!  Also, we had a cake walk to get a brownie at the end.  It was pretty funny, my sisters Oriah and Niki were playing the whole time from the very first round, but were also the last two to actually win and get a brownie!  Good sports to keep playing.

Once the party was over, Grayson headed upstairs to try out his new train Duplos.  I found the idea by looking for a Duplo bridge, and there was a train one, and so he ended up with the train as well.  He's been loving his train though.  He loves building tracks and watching the train drive around, it's been great so far.

What would a birthday be without a trip to Buc-ee's?  Well... it would be a birthday, but we got to go!  And, better then that, Buc-ee himself was there!  Grayson was very happy and gave him a big hug.

Monica got a real cute picture with Grayson while we were hanging out in the afternoon.

Jonathan got a VR headset for his birthday, and we gave it a spin.  I had quite a lot of fun playing it.  There was a game called the plank, or something like that, and you take an elevator up high and then walk out on a plank on a building.  It was pretty cool.  Brooke tried it out, and took a step out of the elevator for a second, but then was ready to be done.

Winry didn't want to step out of the elevator, but she found a way to ride in Santa's sleigh and had a really great time.

We headed out for dinner, and it was Grayson's choice.  He wanted "orange rice" so Mexican food it was.  I really liked the restaurant we went to, it was called Blue Goose Cantina.  Pretty fun place to have dinner.

Grayson enjoyed their chips, and ate many of them before... cutting them...?  He also did eat his rice, and also got some sopapillas because it was his birthday.

After dinner we made the drive back home.  Monica's allergies were acting up a bit, so we decided to come home instead of spend the night and come back in the morning.  We got back a little before 11, but the kids were good in the car and slept, and more importantly slept in this morning.
 

Grayson's Birthday Party

Well look at this little boy, about to turn 3!  Grayson had his birthday party yesterday, and we invited all the kids from nursery.  The turn out was pretty great, and from my observations everyone had a good time.  Especially when the cupcakes came out!

Monica's put together a 1 Second every day for September, so there's a quick month in review!

Rewinding back two weeks (yes, I'm doing a two for one post.  I've typically been going back and writing separate posts when I miss a week lately, but the two weeks together yielded about as many pictures as some weeks have, so I'm merging), Winry read everyone a story at bedtime.  She's been loving reading her learning to read books, and is picking it up great.  She's enjoying reading more and more, and I think she just needs a little more practice before she'll be reading all day long.

At General conference, they announced a temple in Mongolia!!  Wahoo!  We had to celebrate, so we made buuz for dinner.  Monica even bought sheep for them.  I think these are the most authentic ones we've made, though I should have rolled the dough thinner.  Also, they don't reheat the best... but I've gotten to enjoy them many times.

Brooke and Grayson got strep way back last week.  Brooke was home from school for three days.  Two days she wasn't doing too bad, but one day she was basically asleep all day.  We were still in the necklace kick from conference, and you can see Brooke's rocking what Grayson made her.  She's also giving Pokemon a go for the first time on my old Gameboy!

We found a lizard in the backyard on a fence post by the stairs.  It was pretty big, but I also found a smaller one under the playground in the yard when I moved it.  Winry and I hunted him down and picked him up!  He was pretty hard to hold and if we weren't careful jumped straight off our hands, but we were able to keep him calm after a few tries.

Jelly was taking a sweet little nap on the middle of the floor, and making little squeaky/purring sounds.  You'll have to listen really closely to hear it.

The library had a rock painting day, so Monica took the kids, and when they got there they were out of rocks, but said they'd have more in a few minutes.  A bit later, it was still a few more minutes, and since our yard happens to contain several rocks, they just came home and painted some of our rocks.

We've been playing in the backyard more recently with the nice weather, and the kids enjoy playing tee-ball.  Grayson has developed... an approach... to the game.  No swing required I guess, as he gingerly pool cues the ball off the tee.

Grayson still loves his orange slices!

Winry was playing with playdoh, and came to get me to show me the Pikachu she made.  Pretty impressive stuff.

Saturday was a pretty crazy day.  We had Grayson's birthday party mid day during the eclipse!  Fortunately, someone who came brought some eclipse glasses so we were all able to see it.  I think I was a few minutes after the peak, but I don't think anyone saw a full ring of fire, so I think we just missed it.  Still cool though, and it was weirdly dark out.

Here are a bunch of the kids enjoying some lunch together at the gift table.

And here's the cupcake tower and food table.

We of course sang happy birthday to Grayson, though it was windy and a bit hard to keep the candles burning.  Also, he tried to grab the candles when I told him to blow them out, but I was able to get it away this birthday.

For the most part the kids just roamed wild, as the dinosaurs would have.  We had a few games set up, some craft activities to do, and we did a dinosaur egg hunt too.  It seemed like all of the kids had a lot of fun, and I don't even remember any fighting or anything.

After Grayson's birthday party, I took Brooke to Target to get a present for the birthday party she was attending that evening.  While we were there we checked out the switch demos and got to play Super Mario Wonder which is coming out later this year.  It was a pretty great trip.

I took Brooke to the party, and while we were there we got some updates from home.  Winry worked on some face painting and made herself be a cat.

And Grayson got to try on his full Halloween costume!  He is going to be ha-Luigi, and is SO excited!

Meanwhile, the party was Halloween themed, and Brooke had a great time with Vivian.  There were a lot of kids there, but Vivian came and found Brooke to have her come do one thing or another, and I thought it was awesome that she was always making sure everyone was included.

There was even a photo booth there, and it was very popular with the kids.  At one point they all got in there for a group picture... and the photo booth computer crashed like 3 times in a row...  I don't know if they ever actually got a full group picture...

And that's everything I've got for the last two weeks.  Some sickness, but a really great weekend!

That Grass

It's finally rained some out here, and the lawns are all looking great!  Basically all the grass around here used to be brown and dried out, but with just a little rain everything came shooting back.  The air is much more humid now too, and so there's a lot of dew on the grounds in the morning which likely helps as well.  Anyway, I was out in Chicago last Saturday, so I missed the mow.  It's only been like 2 or 3 weeks, but a LOT of the lawn was a solid foot tall.  I spent a LONG time mowing yesterday and still didn't finish.  The lawn mower would push over the grass so I'd have to go forward, then pull the mower backwards, and back and forth, and with how long it was it used up the battery FAST!  We'll see how it goes next week with more normal growth, but we might need a new lawn mower to keep up with this lawn!  At the end of the day yesterday there were still large swaths of foot tall grass, and so we searched for pokemon!  Look close and you'll see a Bulbasaur in there.

This past week I've found a new friend out in the mornings when I leave for my runs.  I think I'd say this frog is cookie size, and if that's not clear because cookies can be many sizes, it's the size you WANT your cookie to be!  I've seen it at least twice, and avoided stepping on him when he was on the sidewalk.

I "reconnected" with my old Gameboy from when I was a kid.  It used to be Tyson's, but he let me have it when I was a kid and I sure loved to play with it.  The screen eventually started to break on it, which I've since learned was pretty common.  It also sat in my parents toy closet for years, and when I found it again a year or two back the screen lens had fallen off.  Anyway, not in a great state.

I ordered a new screen kit and shell, and now it looks much better, and the screen is backlit!  I fixed it up so I could let my kids play with it.  Hopefully they'll enjoy some of the games I loved as a kid.

Winry's class has been being super good, so they got to have a pizza party on Friday, which meant making these pizza crafts and dressing up like chefs.

And now this weekend we've been watching general conference.  The kids have been being pretty good, and it's either they're having a good time with an activity, or I haven't heard a thing!

Oh, when Monica put Grayson down for his nap yesterday he... designed an obstacle course.  Guess what, he didn't take a nap.

And that's a wrap on this week.  I'd say things, in general, have been going a bit slow since we've moved out here.  The weather is finally cooling a little, and we played tag in the back last night.  The tall grass made good hiding spots.  The weather is supposed to cool off a little more, so I think we'll be able to go play in the backyard in the evenings which will be great, and I need to go mow until the battery dies each day this week to try to get through all that tall grass!  Oh, when I was putting the lawn mower away yesterday I guess there was a lizard on the shed door, and when I opened it it fell down onto my back, and then jumped inside the shed.  It was quite the surprise.