Brenley May - 22 months

I'm a few days behind in getting my monthly Brenley update logged on and I'm not sure where to begin. This chick is so darn funny (not sure what is on her face. Her Dad snapped this cute pic while Mommy was away). But I am so smitten with this one.  She is onery and smart and dramatic and stubborn - all wrapped up into one precious blond haired little ball!

She is talking so much now - mostly still in her native Mandarin language. She can say Christmas Tree pretty well and is very good at saying basketball or football, which is on our TV most all weekend.  Let's just say, Dad is quite proud of his girl on this one.

She still isn't an eater, unless cheese counts as the most nutritious food group there is.  She just moved up to a new room at school (about 2 months early, but they had a spot and some of her older friends were moving up), and the first note the teacher wrote was that she hardly ate any lunch. I had to write her back and tell her not to worry, but that was typical.  Mom of the year - right here.

She still basically has the same loves in her life.........puppies, babies, her blanket, and cheetos. We are anxious to see what she thinks of Christmas this year - if she will be overwhelmed by it all or just love every minute of it.

She still imitates about everything we do. It's awesome watching yourself through someone else.

We just continue to enjoy every minute of her and every month.  Speaking of, tell me my baby won't be two in two short months?  Ugh........time slow down!!

Beau's face

Okay, I better do a little catch up here before Christmas! 




This post is about Beau Grant, our big boy.  First of all, I just love this pic of him and and his Daddy.  How cute are my boys?

But Beau also hit a milestone and got his first pair of prescription glasses.  We knew this day would come considering his Mom got glasses when she was 10. His Dad got his glasses in late junior high/early high school.......and both of our distance vision is BBBBAAADDD. So now Beau inherited our vision genes and has a slight vision problem and wears his glasses only at school when reading something at a distance.


And can you stand how cute he is?!?!?  Wal-Mart Optical (and I NEVER sing the praise of Wal-Mart) got us hooked up for $39! Just the write price for a 6 year old boy that loses gloves on a daily basis and would forget his backpack each morning if it wasn't for his 2 year old sister handing it to him!

He is adjusting to them well and still looks like a little stud.

Basketball is going well for him. His team is not outstanding, but Beau is getting pretty darn good. He has been so much fun to watch. He is progressing so well and figuring out where to go, what to do. It's just been amazing as parents watching him develop like this. We are certainly very proud, and have had a few talks about sportsmanship and teamwork and he seems to really get it.  Only one more game before the Fall session is over and then he will start Winter ball in January. Where does the time go?

Thanksgiving 2009

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!  What a blessed and thankful family we are. We have a healthy, happy family that bring us so much love and joy.  We have friends that will be in our lives forever. And we are thankful for a job to go to each day, a roof over our head, and food for the nourishment of our bodies. We thank our Savior for all our blessings.

Here is what Beau is thankful for:
"Mommy, Daddy, Brenley, and myself"

Brenley is thankful for:
"Blankies, puppies, and her babies"

Daddy is thankful for:
"His healthy family, a great job, and his loving wife"

Mommy is thankful for:
"Kids that bring a smile to my face each day, a daughter that loves to put on make-up, a son that is aggressive under the basketball boards, and a husband that does laundry better than I do."

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Here are some pictures from a great Sunday spent at the Grant house in McPherson celebrating Thanksgiving together. Awesome meal, good company, sweet kids.

The Imiatator

Brenley loves to hang out with Mom, and one her favorite things is to put on make-up just like Mommy. Her favorite (and only) shade that draws her in is a purple shimmer - of course!  Here she is getting beautiful in the morning.

Here is another cute pic of our little beauty "talking" on the phone. Her other favorite imitating past time!

Beau - the Defender

Our guy is so awesome. He continues to amaze us.  Basketball started two weeks ago.  On Saturday at his second game, he did a really good job. He'll tell you he scored 8 or 10 points - depending on what mood he is in!  ha ha We hope he continues to improve each game and has fun!  He is quite the big boy!

And here he is going on a jog with Dad (his idea).  Are you kidding me?  How cute is that?

My Girl, Talking 'Bout My Girl - Brenley - 21 months

Here we are again. A month later. Our cheeseball is one year and three quarters.  And if ketchup counts as a fruit - then we can officially mark down that Brenley is finally eating FRUITS as she enjoys spoonfuls of the condiment at each meal. Breakfast, lunch, dinner......she doesn't discriminate.

New words: Baseball, Eyebrow, Milk, "Ah de do" which we intrepret as, "I go with you" and a new one today, Sponge Bob. Sure she did.  Shouldn't all 1 3/4 kids know who he is?  Good grief we are terrible parents. Thankfully, she does at least know who Elmo is, a more appropriate role model!!

Had her first parent teacher conference this week. She is doing well.  To recap, she isn't really fond of eating. She LOVES books.  She plays well with others or by herself. And the first time she sees something she just sits and stares. Then if she thinks she will like it, or doesn't think you are being completely crazy, she may decide to join in. She is independent and a thinker.  Mama likes both those traits.

Her favorite game to play with us is "night night."  She gets a dish towel, makes us lay down on our stomach (and I say "make" because she screams at us and pushes our head toward the ground - not kidding), then she puts the dish towel on our back, hits our back repeatedly and says "night night."  She could play that game for hours.  Fun, huh?

She is such an imitator too. I think I might have mentioned that she puts make-up on like her mother (she puckers her lips together when she sees me put on my blush -sure she does).  But she licks her finger when she is turning the page of a magazine. And she flips through magzines a lot - because her mom does that.  Ugh. I cannot even tell you how much I love my shadow.

See you  at 22 months......until then............here is our rockstar that just partied too hard.

Halloween 2009

What a great day we had celebrating Halloween on a Saturday.  We started with Beau's first basketball game. Much improved over last year, but a little more work to do. He had fun, and did a great job listening to coach, and that is all we asked of him.  Pictures to come in later posts.

Then we anxiously awaited dark so we could start running around the neighborhood. Beau took off with the neighbors ahead of us.  Then Kyle, Kate, Luke, Brian, Brenley and I left shortly afterwards.  Kyle's family hit a few houses with us, and then it was time for them to go home and get Lucas some supper!

We caught up with Beau and the neighbors a few houses down.  It was so much fun.

We were the perfect little OSU family. Football player, Beau. Cheerleader, Brenley. Super Fan, Mom, and Coach Dad.  If only I had thought to decorate the wagon up like Bullet the horse.......NEXT YEAR!

The weather was awesome. There were a lot of people out, and everyone was having a great time. We saw some scary houses, and fun houses. Some refused to give Beau candy because of the school uniform he was wearing (we went back and egged their house later that night  - just kidding). But everyone gave Brenley candy, followed by...........oh, she is so cute.  She did so great. Walked right up to the door. She didn't say anything, and several times tried to put candy in their bowl from her bucket (and a few times she tried to just walk into their house), but each time she left with a sweet little "good-bye!"  There were a few times I was reminded of that FRIENDS episode where Rachel was pregnant and she ended up dumping the bowl of candy in a cute little girl's bag because she was so cute.  I thought that might happen a few times last night.

And I cannot forget to tell the story of running into one of Beau's classmates. I guess we were at her house and Beau went up got candy, and we noticed he was visiting with them, but there were tons of kids, and tons of parents around, and we didn't think anything about it. We started down the sidewalk, kids in tow, and this cute little girl came running up to him, and said, "My Mom told me to tell you that she thinks you are cute!"  And we were like, "Beau, who was that?!"  And he shrugged his shoulders and very flatly replied, "Oh, that was Hannah from my class at school."  End of story for him. He could have cared less. Brian and I thought it was a kill.

It was such a great night!  We got some great pictures out of the deal. Too bad the game couldn't have ended on a better note. Ah well. Not all was lost. We came home to chow down on some pizza and candy!  We know how to end the night on a good note!