Fun with Sassy and Uncle Jared

After we went to the UP house with the kids we wanted to go see some more of the Parade of Homes. So we asked Aunt Sassy and Uncle Jared if they could keep the kids for us for a couple hours. Grant always has such a great time at their house and I think Gray had a great time too! I happen to have my camera with me and we DO NOT see Cassie and Jared near enough, so I asked Cassie if she could take some pictures for me while they were there! I really love some of the awesome and super cute pictures she took! Thanks so much for watching them and for capturing these moments for us Cassie! We love you!

 Playing Dinos!

 YAY GRAY BLAY!!! LOL

 Playing soccer with Jared

 Cute boy!

 He does this face all the time lately and I love it!

 I love this picture! You can see his cute little teeth perfectly!

He is such an animal!

UP

I know a lot of people have already seen this and it is old news, but we hadnt seen it yet so we headed out to Herriman to check it out. On the way out there I pulled up a picture on my phone of the house in the movie. We wanted to see how close it was and we were amazed by the likeness, right down to the hose in the front yard and the doorbell. Grant really wanted to go inside and frankly so did Jared and I, so we bought tickets and it was so neat inside! I took WAY too many photos to post them all here, but it is definitely worth going to. It was really neat inside. I loved all the fun little personal touches they put in it!

 Here is the house balloons and all!

 Grant in front of the house!

 Carl and Ellie's mailbox

 Carl and Russel were even sitting in the front yard. Grayson was not impressed!

 The mural Ellie painted in the nursery

And the awesome car in the garage!
I would recomend going out to Herriman and checking it out!

So this last long weekend we went on vacation with my mom and dad and BJ and CJ! We left early Thursday morning and came home on Sunday because Jared had to work Monday. The drive down was an absolute nightmare.

Our drive to Mesquite included:

Grant puking 8 times

in 8 hours

5 stops

3 outfit changes

absolutely no sleep or food

purchase of 3 new outfits

NO FUN

Once we got there we got Grant something to eat and he perked right up. We had such a great time together. There is no one in the world I would rather spend my time with! We are so so grateful to my mom and dad for this amazing trip and the oppurtunity to go. These are just a few highlights of our awesome weekend. I tried to take my camera with me as much as possible but smetimes I forgot it in the room. Oh well! 

 How cute is this? This was the first day we got there and we were all pretty tired from the drive but ready to swim anyway!

 The arcade at our hotel deffinitely left a lot to be desired. I felt bad because we told Grant there would be an awesome arcade (which there used to be) so we were a bit disappointed with it.

 The pool was sooo cold. It took awhile to get used to it. I swear it was about 50 degrees.

 Grant being a stinker. We did a lot of relaxing! It was so nice!

 BJ and Grayson just chillin in the pool. Grayson did so well in the pool even though it was so cold. He is such a good boy!

 There is this perfect slide for Grant. He was deathly affraid of it the first day, but we bribed him to go down it "just once" and after that we couldnt get him off of it. He loved it!!

 Sweet baby boy sleeping!

 Love this fun pool

 The food was good and cheap. Grayson enjoyed it! Well we all did!

 Grant really wanted Jared to teach him how to play poker, so one night we had a Grant-friendly poker night. It was funny because half of us didnt know how to play but we had a lot of laughs and had fun trying to learn. We were gambling for starburst and airheads.

 Gray all ready to go scoba diving

 BJ ready to go scuba diving

 3 of my 5 favorite men!

 Because the arcade at our hotel sucked we set out to find a better one. JACKPOT!! We found one and we had so much fun with BJ and CJ blowing through a bunch of quarters!

 Grant "trying" to dance

 And Jared did even worse than Grant did! So funny!

 Before we left Sunday morning gave Grant some dramamine and it seemed to have worked. He didnt puke once on the drive home. It was so nice. We thought it would knock him out but it actually kept him awake and this is what we heard every 5-10 minutes "How many more hours dad?" At one point I looked in the backseat to find my sweet boys holding hands. Grayson was asleep and Grant just loves his little brother so much, he actually holds hands with him all the time.

 Cute boy just wanting to be home.

Grayson was so ready to be home too. They were both so happy when we finally did get home.

This picture got lost at the end of this post, but here is Grayson taking a tubby after swimming. He loves the water and loves tubbies. He was glad to be in the warm water after being in the freezing pool. I swear he is so cute he could be a little girl! LOL

Ever heard of MTM??

OK so I dont even remember how I stumbled across this, but the other day I came upon this blog Muffin Tin Mom. I love this idea! If you want to know more about who came up with this idea and how to get started you can visit the FAQ page.

On the FAQ page I found this question being asked..

 What is the purpose for Muffin Tin Meals?

And here is Muffin Tin Mom's answer ...

Serving a meal in a muffin tin to kids has many benefits including: breaking up the lunchtime routine, serving foods in smaller more manageable portions for little mouths and introducing them to new foods in a fun and interesting way! It's a win for you: They eat. It's a win for them: It's fun.

It seemes that this was an idea created to get your young child (toddler) to try new things, eat, and have fun doing it. But who is to say that only YOUNG children can have fun with this? To be honest I wasnt sure how much FUN my 7 year old would have with it, but it seems that at any age eating your lunch out of a muffin tin can be fun! As displayed below, you can see that he was pretty excited when mom served his lunch to him in this NEW & FUN way.

 His exact words, "This is awesome!"

On todays menu: tuna fish sandwich, chips, and watermelon. Pretty much all we have in the house right now, and they are all foods he loves. It wasnt a matter of if he would eat them or not. I was more curious to see how much FUN he would actually have with this concept.
Well in the time it took me to write this blog , he has eaten all of his lunch and asked for more! He also asked if he could have his lunch in a muffin tin tomorrow! I would say it was a success! I cant wait to start trying other FUN NEW muffin tin meals!

Recent happenings

Gray sure loves his daddy!

 Always so happy!

Waiting for fireworks to start!

 Grant and his friends across the street always want to have a lemonade sale, but we ran out of lemonade so we had to do Kool aid!

 Trying to beat the heat! Little guy sure does love watermelon!

 Man he is awesome!

 Grant is becoming a pretty great rollerblader!! He goes out to rollerblade every night after dinner!

 Playing in the water with friends!

 I love these amazing little water babies!

 Grant made a new friend and had so much fun playing with Allister!

 Gray made a new friend too! They had a chicken picnic together! LOL

 Grayson and Gabby

 Oh my gosh! I am so lucky to get to spend everyday with this little guy! He is so awesome and makes me laugh constantly!

 He has a fascination with lotion bottles! LOL

 Funny little guy!

 Love these toes!

"Help me mommy, I can't get out"

 This is his new favorite corner to play in. I have a basket of his "stuff" (diapers, wipes, lotion, butt cream) between the couch and the wall and he has just discovered that it is back there. So he will crawl in the corner head first and then he cant get himself out. He will play there for a little while, with these little lotion bottles and then I have to go rescue him and get him out. It is too funny!

 We have discovered that Gray loves corn on the cob just like daddy and big brother. But right now Grant has to have his corn cut off the cob. His teeth are getting loser and loser and it hurts to eat it on the cob! Maybe by Christmas he will lose them!

 Silly silly boy!! I told you he is always making me laugh!

And he is the cutest sleeper! This airplane blankie was Grant's favorite when he was little and now Gray loves it too! I just love the way he cuddles it and when I hand it to him he will bury his face in it. SOOOO CUTE!!!!