Halloween Roundup

We had a great Halloweek this year. We started off with the ward party a week before Halloween. The boys were flying monkeys and I was the Wicked Witch of the West. I even won "Most Unique" chili for a new chicken chili recipe I tried. It was delicious!

Collin had to dress up as a character from a book he read, and the natural choice for him was Percy Jackson. It was an easy costume, and of course we had to include the lightning bolt.

Here is Collin before he went to a Halloween party. He is a dragon from How to Train Your Dragon. He didn't wear the wings because they were too complicated. Everyone thought he was a dinosaur and he kept getting mad. Haha!

Here is my awesome house! It was such a fun, cheap idea, and it looked great!

Rarh!!

Optimus Prime or as Brody says "Octopus Prime". Hehe.

The cutest boys I have ever seen.

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

30 is the New 20

I did not take very many pictures of Darrell's big party! I know, I know, I am terrible. I was just a little overwhelmed and I totally forgot about it. I should have asked somebody else to do it for me. Oh well. We had a great turn out, and we had lots of fun. We had a delicious barbecue with Darrell's fancy meat (tri-tip) that will be the butt of jokes for a while. The theme was based on the wonderful cake that Amber made, sort of a Darrell/USA theme.

We played a Darrell trivia game which Warren won the fabulous prize: a Rubiks cube. Amber wrote down all 50 states the fastest to win a handheld poker game. She actually wrote down 51, but I was not going to double check that list. Haha! Then we had a puzzle-off. There were 6 teams competing to put together their own 60 piece puzzle of the United States to win a paddle ball set. My friends Mary and May won that one.

We also did a pinata, and I am completely surprised that none of the kids got whacked in the head. All in all it was a fun, silly party. I think everyone had a good time! There was good friends and good food. That's all you can ask for in party. We were especially lucky that Darrell's high school friend, Brad, could fly in, as well as Darrell's mom, Barbara. It was fun to catch up. Brad is welcome at my house anytime. The guy cut up the fruit for the party, did dishes, mopped, swept my front porch, and got Darrell to finally hang up some mirrors for me!

Happy Birthday, Darrell!! Our 30's are going to be great!

Stuttering

As many of you know, Collin had a problem with stuttering. He actually was stuttering for a few months when we were in Hawaii, but it went away. Then he started it again when he went into Kindergarten this year. It was a pretty noticeable problem, but we really didn't know what to do. We tried to ignore it for a while, hoping it would go away like it had before. That wasn't working. Sometimes stuttering can be related to stress so we were trying to find out if something was bothering him at home or at school. That is kind of a funny conversation to have with a 5 year old, and we really got nowhere. He seemed to be a happy, smart kid. Darrell decided to take kind of an aggressive approach and make Collin stop what he was saying and start over if he started to stutter. Let's just say that wasn't effective. Even the teacher at school had him see the speech therapist. They said, although he does stutter frequently, it really wasn't considered stuttering, because he didn't have any of the ticks that go with it. As the year went on, and so did the stuttering, I just really was at a loss as to how I could help my child get over this. Was he going to have this his whole life? Finally through all my reading, I found an article that said something that was pretty profound to me. It suggested letting your child finish their sentence no matter how long it took them. Just listen. I had been interrupting him and finishing his sentences, because it took so long to spit out what he was going to say. I tend to rush people, and I had to stop. Let's just say after days and weeks of me being more patient and just letting him finish what he had to say, we are stutter-free!
It's funny how all this time I was thinking that he had a problem that he needed to fix, but really it was me who needed to change. Isn't it funny how we do that a lot in our lives? We think something or someone is doing something wrong and it irritates us, but really, if we just change and improve one small thing then the problem disappears. The answer is to just be more patient and the problems will take care of themselves.
I had an argument this week with a friend that could have been solved by being more patient on my end. I could have listened more and talked less. When things like that happen in my life I like to look at myself and find out how I can improve. What did I do wrong? What can I do differently? I am setting some New School Year's Resolutions (who says you only can do this in January?) to try to improve myself and my family. I can't wait to get back onto a regular schedule when school starts. I think that always helps us to keep on track.
Here are a few of my resolutions:
1. First of all, the obvious one: patience. For some reason lately I have been irritable, and I just need to let things go.
2. Make more of an effort with family. I don't keep in touch with my family or Darrell's family as much as I should. Marsha, you are my hero for knowing how to talk to family and keep people connected.
3. Family Home Evening every week. This sometimes get skipped, because Darrell leaves on Monday nights. We need to plan this for a different day of the week to make sure it always gets done.
4. Scripture reading daily. This is something I do really, really well at for a while and then it falls off again. I need to schedule this into my day and make it a priority.
5. House cleaning. I hate it! But my new plan that has worked so far is to put the kids to bed at 7:30pm and then clean until 8pm. That way the kids are out of the way and it is way easier to get things done.
6. Eat more healthy. I have been having a rough battle with food lately. I am just making easy food, but I need to make sure my diet is more balanced.

There are a few more as well that I want to keep private, but I challenge everyone to make some New School Years Resolutions of your own. I think this is a better time of year to make changes than in January. What are your goals?

A Taste of Wisconsin

We had a great 12 day trip to the booming metropolis of Cumberland, Wisconsin, home of the Rutabaga Festival. I am still trying to things back into a routine here, but I wanted to post a few pics. We had a fun time!
Woody at the Lego Store at the Mall of America -

Our friendly deer friends -

The whole goofy crew -

10k Pictures

A few pics from the race today. Here I am with the boys before the race.

Erica the trooper.


Here I am almost at the finish.

Collin ran the last .2 miles of the race. That was my favorite part.

Here is my posed finish. Darrell was at the 6 mile marker so he didn't get my finish line picture.

And the beautiful lavender. It smelled amazing.

Summer Schedule

Summer is upon us, and there are 101 things we want to do. I have been planning things out and trying to make sure we have time to do everything we want. Collin, who is exactly like his mother, made his own schedule for his summer events. I think that it is the sweetest thing I have ever seen!

The picture isn't very clear, because I took it with my phone, but you get the idea. I will decipher his code for you.
S = Science, I have a homeschool curriculum that we are going to follow
M = Math
GAS = Get A Slurpee (my personal favorite)
DO = Day Off, this is supposed to consist of renting movies and staying home, but that did not happen today.
C = Craft
PWM = Play With Mom
Vote = Collin will make a banner with two things on it and we will vote which one we like best. That is what the diagram is at the bottom of the schedule with the arrow pointing to it.

Don't you just love it? He did this all on his own without my knowledge. When he presented it to me, I just couldn't resist it. We will have to make time to do everything on his schedule as well as a few of the things on mine.

The thing that we are most excited about is getting to go visit Darrell out in Wisconsin for two weeks! We are hoping for much cooler weather up there.

What are your plans for the summer??

Houston Space Center

Over Spring Break we went to Houston to visit Darrell at his jobsite. The boys had tons of fun "camping" with Dad. We were able to go to the Houston Space Center. Collin was so excited for it! He is our little nerd through and through. We ran into some storm troopers while we were there. It was like a dream come true for two little boys.

"Houston, we have a problem." (It had to be said.)

A boy's paradise!

The boys got to have a little fun at dad's work too. All boys love a good dirt pile.

Breakfast in Bed

Darrell wasn't able to be home for Mother's Day this year. He will be home next weekend for my birthday, and I figured that would be better anyway. We always celebrate my birthday multiple times, because I like to milk it and get a little spoiled. :) So him being here for "Birthday Week" (as we call it around here) is more important than Mother's Day. I didn't think much about getting any breakfast or gifts today other that what Collin had made at school.

Then last night, about 10:15 pm, I hear a knock on my door. I opened it to find my sister in law, Amber, and my sweet friend, Mary, just giggling away. They had brought me a picnic basket full of breakfast goodies! Pineapple, blueberry muffins, strawberries, orange juice, and to fulfill my late night sugar craving they brought me chocolate covered almonds! Oh yes, and those beautiful flowers too! They knew Darrell wouldn't be there so they stepped in and took care of me. I am so lucky to have such great friends.

Maybe I will save a few almonds for Darrell. Then again......maybe not. :)

Rite of Passage

Darrell has been begging me to put up a blog. I went through the pictures from the last month or so to see what I could post. The only thing that I felt like posting was this picture.

This is Mr. Nerdpants. It is a character that Collin created, and now he has passed along the tradition to Brody. It's hilarious every time. We have even gotten Darrell to do it a time or two, even though I am sure he would never admit it. It's kind of a fun bedtime ritual since that is when the boys usually wear elastic waist shorts. Collin is a natural born comedian, and he keeps us laughing all the time. I think Brody makes a really good Mr. Nerdpants.

Seen Better Days

My poor little Brody-o. He really had a tough day yesterday. He had thrown up overnight and had been running a fever all day. He was coloring at the window in the kitchen yesterday evening when WHAM! He hit his face on the ledge of the window.

His top two teeth cut a pretty big gash in his bottom lip, and his top gums were swelling immediately. I didn't want to check to see how loose his teeth were, because we had been here before with Collin, and he had lost his first tooth at age 4 1/2 due to a similar accident. Finally I checked and both teeth were loose, one worse than the other. I was having a panic attack, and Brody was bleeding pretty good. Bad combination.

Finally I made it to the ER (I thought Bro's lip would need stitches) and Brody was acting like his normal self again. The bleeding was stopped and he was fine until the nurse asked him to stand on the scale. Then he started screaming from there on out. (Same thing happens to me when I stand on a scale.) Finally we talked to the doctor and he said that his lip will just heal and his teeth may or may not fall out, but the dentist won't do anything to it, because they are his baby teeth. I really think the one tooth will fall out relatively soon, but the other will hold on for a while. My poor baby. He is refusing to put the ice on his lips so they are huge! Hopefully we will have some better luck around this house in the near future. It seems like one thing after another.

5k Victory!

I ran my first 5k today! My wonderful friends Mary and Rachel ran with me. It was amazing! I feel really great, and I want to do another one. Next race will have to be when Darrell is home, because it was a bummer to not have him there. My goal was to run the whole thing without having to walk, and I did it!! I do not know my time though, because I didn't even see the clock. Ha ha! Mary and Rachel came it at 36 minutes and I was there a few minutes before them. I am guessing my time is 32-33 minutes. I ditched them at mile 2 when they had to walk. :) What a feeling of accomplishment. It was so fun!

Old Blogs Posts Remembered

Here are a few of my favorite old posts for all you new readers out there. You can get to know a little more about me. Enjoy!

100 Things About Me

Places I Have Lived

Grandma Ward

Coolest Parents Ever

Food Storage - You gotta start somewhere

That's just a few fun ones! It's really fun to go back and see all the pictures. Brody is growing up so fast. I miss his floppy long hair he had when we were in Hawaii. And Collin, well, he is a crack up. So fun! Many more blogs to come.

Thank You!

Collin was bored the other day and looking for something to do. I told him he could write some thank you notes for his birthday presents and money. He was very excited about that idea and ran up to his craft room as fast as he could. I had forgotten all about it and today I found these three letters in the kitchen. He put them out so I could mail them. Isn't that the sweetest thing! He wrote them all by himself. I have such good kids!

Egg Drop Party

We had our First Annual Grannis Family Egg Drop Party this weekend. It was lots of fun, and the best part was we got to throw stuff off the roof. Everyone had to construct their own vessel for their egg using misc things found around the house. We dropped the eggs from about 3 ft, 6 ft, 10 ft, and about 20 ft. Everyone had a chance to drop from all four heights, and that's when things started to get messy. In between each drop everyone had a chance to reconstruct, double pad, and extra duct tape their containers to ensure a safe flight for their eggs.

Here is Collin deciding how to build his.

Darrell, getting a little too serious.

All the fans and cheerleaders.

Ready...set....drop.....

Splat!

Brody won second place, but he stole the grand prize and no one had the heart to make him trade back.

And here is Tom, the grand champion, with his Dr. Pepper vessel that gave a nice safe ride to his egg all four drops.