Grayson Turns 4!

Happy Birthday Grayson!  Already 4 years old!  Also, his birthday was conveniently on a Monday, so I don't even have to rearrange pictures.  I guess I normally would put a picture of him with his brownies and candles up front, but a confetti pancake is also a pretty good start.

Grayson loves switching out toilet paper rolls, so we usually leave that job for him.  There was one waiting for him when he woke up Monday morning!  What a birthday!

At preschool Grayson got to make and wear a super cool crown, and  got to go hang out at the rainbow bridge after and then play on the playground for a while.

Once everyone was home from school we opened presents.  Grayson was SO excited for his present!  He had an amazing day playing with everything, and I don't even remember having to break up fights.

Winry gave him a new play tent that looks like a rocket.  They loved to play blasting off to space in the old one, so now it really fits the game.

Over in Utah, but still on Monday, my parents left for Australia for their mission.  The trip went well and they got there on Wednesday.

Here's the whole family, patiently waiting for brownies on Grayson's birthday.

And of course we sang happy birthday!  What a kid this Grayson!  He's got a load of energy, and he loves to be funny and silly.  He's almost always ready to go go go, and "never" needs a nap... (or he does, daily, but does everything in his power to not ever take them...).  He's a great snuggler, and I love him to pieces!

And here he is getting ready for bed.  Smiles all day long!  Oh, I guess I missed the pictures, but he got a yoto player for his birthday, and it has cards that you insert and then it reads stories.  Monica and I made one where we read a bunch of his favorite stories, and he loves it so much.

On Tuesday night I played Runescape with Isaac and Connor.  We completed a quest called Dragon Slayer I, which is the final part of the free areas of the game.  Runescape is a game I first played back in jr high I believe.  It's funny to me now, because I was always trying to find some MMO to play back in high school, and for some reason this one never stuck with me.  I've been having a ton of fun playing it this time though.  Anyway, after we finished we climbed to the top of a mountain and chatted for a bit around a fire.  It was a really great night, and I had a lot of fun.  I'm really grateful Connor and Isaac asked me if I wanted to join their group!

Our garden is a bit less ferocious in it's growth these days, probably mostly due to Monica cutting down all of our previously high yielding plants (mostly actually because of the weather change and just getting cooler weather things planted), but for it's second act it's started producing peppers!  And a LOT of peppers at that.  We've got snacking peppery, jalapenos, poblano, and... green beans...

It's getting dark for the walk to school, and Winry loves to ride her bike, but we want to make sure she's visible.  Monica ordered these lights to put on her bike a few weeks ago, and I walked Winry to school this week and had to capture the action.

WHAT IN THE?!?!  I didn't even know I missed out on a donut until writing this post...  I think I deserve an explanation! and a donut.

The girls have been getting to perform dances at the end of their classes.  I don't know if they shoot for four dances a year or what, but I guess right now is a mini-performance time.  I think there's one around Christmas as well, but I guess we'll see.  Anyway, here's Winry doing her dance.

Friday night it was time for final costume preparations for the ward Trunk or Treat on Saturday night.  Monica made our costumes again, and she was not able to find a suitable wig, so she dyed one blue.  I thought it would be a lot worse, but it didn't end up being very stinky or staining anything.  I guess maybe we got lucky and didn't splash, but it was very successful.

And then we played Patchwork together.  I saw a Halloween edition on sale a few months ago and snagged it, knowing it would come in handy this October.  It's a really fun game, and it's been a long time since we last played.  Monica narrowly squeezed out the win.

Winry had a basketball game Saturday morning, and somehow I slept in until she and Monica had already left!  She had a lot of fun, even though her team didn't win, and she's still got one game next week that we're all planning to go to.

Meanwhile back at home we were having a pinball party.  One of Grayson's big birthday asks was a pinball table like Brooke's, and so that's what Brooke gave him.  Winry's starting to feel that pinball itch now too.  Soon we might have to open a mini-arcade!

I spent most of my day Saturday working on decorations for the trunk of our car.  As you can see below we went as the emotions from Inside Out.  I decorated the car to look like the control room.  Saturday was a blur of prepping for the trunk or treat, doing chores, and putting on our sweet costumes!

They had a donut on a string game, and the kids all had a blast.  They also had a chili cook off, and Monica brought white chicken chili, which was terrific, but didn't win.

Here's a mostly covered view of the car decorations, which did not win the trunk decorating contest, however, we DID win the costume contest!!  Monica got a golden pumpkin for her efforts!  Sweet!

On Sunday, our good friend Lois Eller got baptized.  We had tithing settlement right before, and then went on down and even got there early enough to help set up some stuff.  The baptism was great, and I'm proud of Lois.

And that's about it for our week.  I've been trying to think a little if there are things that don't show up in pictures that have been going on.  I have been hanging out with Isaac and Connor quite a bit lately, but that has been showing up here and there.  My vision is doing a lot better.  I typically don't have double vision in my regular day to day, though sometimes it'll happen during my vision therapy exercises if I push myself hard.  I'll instead get headaches when my eyes get really tired.  It's nice to see clearly, but I'm not loving my approximately once a week headaches right now.  Other then that nothing is really coming to mind right now.  Maybe I'll think about it this week and jot things down if I come up with anything.  I'm pretty sure I was thinking of something earlier today and thought "that stuff never makes it to the blog because I don't have pictures of it," but I also think I forgot whatever that was.  Oh well, till next week!