Halloween 2016

 On October 30 we carved our pumpkins. The kids really had a good time doing this. Brooke designed and carved her own pumpkin this year. Porter got right in and liked scooping out all the goopy pumpkin guts and Grant wandered around and inspected our work.

 Mom's Pumpkins, Porter's spider, Grant's name, Brooke face

 The kids each had a Halloween party at school

 I've loved that the last few years have been warm and light enough that it's still light out when we go trick or treating and we don't need coats for the first hour or so.

 Porter and Brooke doing their "scary" faces

 I made the kids' costumes (except Porters) and it was so fun to see them running around the backyard playing superheroes together.

 Grant really got into Halloween this year. It was so cute to see him run up to the houses and get so excited to show us the candy in his bucket. We let the kids tell us when they're done and this year we only did a couple streets before they were cold and tired, which was fine with us. We didn't end up with a ton of extra candy and Porter and Brooke actually really liked helping me hand out candy at home.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Grant!

 On October 29, Grant turned two years old! We seriously can't believe our youngest is already two! He wants to do everything his older siblings do and doesn't like mom or dad to help him. It's a fight to get him to sit in his high chair anymore because he wants to sit at the table with the rest of us. He fights me on naps too, but so far Mom has been victorious and he still takes them. He loves to talk to us and if he doesn't know the words he has sounds or grunts that I've learned to interpret, or he'll just pull on my arm until he can show me what he wants. He loves to watch movies on the TV (which is a good and a bad thing) and his favorites are baby einstein videos, signing time, and thomas the train.

He weighs 27 lbs (30th percentile) and is 34 inches tall (75th percentile)

He can say mommy (instead of just ma or mama), help (say and sign), mine, thank you (say and sign), banana (says "nana" and sign), puppy, baby, no, I love you (my favorite), and Jesus (he'll recognize a picture, point to it, and say Jesus), bye-bye, hi, hello, hot; and can sign: more, water, milk, please, all done, bird, and fish

He knows most animal sounds and can point to all his body parts. He likes to help me empty the dishwasher, even when I don't want his help.

Grant has also embraced all things terrible about being two. He runs away when it's bedtime or nap time or when it's time to leave the house. He doesn't like to hold my hand in the parking lot and will turn into a limp noodle so I have to pick him up. He screams NO at his brother and sister if they do something he doesn't like. He tells Blake and I NO about a million times a day.

But he's also incredibly sweet and loves to give hugs and kisses. He's starting to kneel with out family as we say a family prayer each night before bed. We hold hands in a circle and bow our heads and it's so cute to see Grant doing this with us on his own. He loves animals and squeals in delight when he sees one and wants to pet it. He also loves to make our family laugh with his silly games and teasing. He loves wrestling with daddy and when Brooke reads books to him. He LOVES books and would sit and bring me books to read to him all day if I'd let him.

We had a small birthday party for him this year with just our family and both our moms came too.

 He wasn't quite sure how the whole present thing worked. He was more interested in looking at the pictures on the bags.

 Brooke gave him a stuffed dinosaur

Happy Birthday Grant,  we sure love you!