Happy Thanksgiving

We had a great time with Blake's family at Thanksgiving, but missed the Barker's. It was strange having the only kids there! But of course Grant loved all his one-on-one time with Grandma in the kitchen. He helped her make the best pizza dough! Now if only he could do that at home...

The weather was beautiful so we were able to play outside which is always a good thing!

Looking for her belly button.

Having a tea party with Grandma - all the grandkids love the tea parties!

The kids

Here are some pictures from the past few days. Julia had some raspberries last week and thought it was so cool to put them on her fingers. I gotta agree - it's a fun fruit to eat! Mom and Dad came to visit this weekend and Grant was Mom's shadow and Julia was crazy about my dad. She didn't want me - she only wanted my dad! That was great for me since Julia has decided that 5-5:30 is a great time to start our day. So I have more than enough quality time with her by the time she goes to bed at night.
Blake asked why Julia needed this coat. Don't you think it speaks for itself? This is Grant's reaction to tasting Grandma's tea. And yes, he insisted I take a picture of him.
Our little climber. Wow, did she think she was big stuff! Ok, so maybe Dad helped her up there, and had to pry her fingers loose to get her down.

My dad got LOTS of snuggles this weekend! Also notice how long Julia's hair is getting in back :)

Zoo day

Grant is finally healthy!! He had a virus last week, then a double ear infection. Anyway, he's back to normal (which means full of energy) so we headed to the zoo this morning. It was a beautiful morning! We even had a picnic lunch outside - probably the last time we'll get to do that this year.

Grant ended up falling off the elephant and requested that I take this picture, which he had to see immediately. Julia thought it was soooo funny to kiss this turtle. And I agree, as long as it doesn't have H1N1 :)

Grant laid back on this and announced, "Mommy - I'm an angel!"

Grant and Ellee - separated!

Grant's girlfriend, Ellee, and her family moved to Texas last week. We are going to miss them! They stopped by on their way out of town to say goodbye. I don't think the kids really understand that they won't get to see each other all the time, so they weren't too upset, but Amanda and I were :( Anyway, I'm glad they braved our sick, germ-filled house to say goodbye! Here are Grant and Ellee
Julia and Cole - we couldn't get these two to sit still

Joke time

Grant makes up jokes all the time, but most of them don't make sense. But the other night he had a good one while getting ready for bed:
Knock knock
Who's there?
Naughty
Naughty who?
Hi Naughty, I'm nice.

The kids are actually both napping right now - Grant is still sick (day 3), and Julia is just tired since she got up at 5:15 this morning. Why am I blogging? Think I'll go lay down.

Happy Halloween!

The kids had so much fun trick-or-treating last night - and the weather was beautiful. Julia only went to a few houses - she liked playing with the candy people had, then saying "tank ooo" (thank you). Then she and I came home to pass out candy while Grant ran the neighborhood with Blake in hot pursuit!

This is what Grant drew while Blake and I were watching the Hawkeye game (what a game, eh?). We were quite impressed!

Trick-or-treat

We took the kids to the outdoor shopping area for a little candy today. They had so much fun! Grant loves his scarecrow costume, and Julia kept her headband on the whole time! They also had face painting and some games. Thank goodness for the break in the crappy weather - 50 degrees and windy didn't seem so bad, and the place was packed. A nice little afternoon.

Baby Holland

We went to the lake this weekend to see Grandma and Grandpa and to see the Barkers before their big move to Hawaii. We also got to meet new baby Holland - she is such a sweetie! The older kids had a great time playing together, despite the record cold weather. brrrr Julia doing the sign for "more". I have a similar picture of Grant at this age.

Mom and Dad's visit

Last weekend Mom and Dad came to visit. Grant is all about tradition, and since we carved a pumpkin with Dad last year, we had to do it again this year :) Grant drew what he wanted on the pumpkin, then Dad and I cut it. And Grant wanted nothing to do with pulling out the insides. Silly boy - we'll carve another pumpkin this month and I'll MAKE him do it!! We also went out to Vala's - the best pumpkin patch around.

Julia Julia

So people keep asking me, "What's new with Julia?" The girl changes every day and I guess I'm not doing a good job of letting everyone know what new things she can do. She has recently learned a lot - some good, some bad :) She is talking more - she can say mama, dada, brabra (for brother), uh-oh, hi, baby. The other day she said "hi baby" which amazed me - she put two words together! She can also hum the Elmo song which cracks me up. She has an Elmo toy on the shopping cart cover and plays it ALL THE TIME. She also hums ABCs/Twinkle Twinkle. She is half-Noelting (which means tone deaf) but does a pretty good job - it is easy to tell what she is humming. The "bad" things she has learned lately - she can open the kitchen garbage. Gross!!! And what is even worse is that she throws things away. Luckily every time she does that, it is followed by a whole string of "uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-ohhhhhh". Stinker. She continues to climb on the kitchen table, but has not thought of climbing the baby gates yet. She still loves to give kisses - Grant and I get kisses all day long and Blake gets lots when he gets home. We have a buffalo mask we bought in the Black Hills - Julia brings it too me, says "roarrrr!", puts in on my face, then kisses me. I love that game :)

Here are some pics from Vala's Pumpkin Patch - we went last weekend. Grant was so excited - he loves that place! - and Julia really enjoyed it too. It was a beautiful day!

Grant had crazy sweaty hair by the time we left. He thought it was pretty funny.

Dancing Queen

Julia loves to dance, and it is the funniest thing to watch! She definitely leads with her head and then her body follows. Here she is this morning - don't mind her bed-head. I had not done her crazy hair yet (you can see why I have to fix it every day!).

Agent Pears and Apples

Last weekend we took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed to Arbor Day Farms and an apple orchard. Arbor Day Farms was really cool - they had a great nature walk with all sorts of things to explore, including a tree house, wooden xylaphone, and tunnel. The kids had a blast. When we got to the apple orchard, we were pleasantly surprised to find out they also had Asian pears - and they were DELICIOUS! While we were picking them, we held one to Julia to taste. She went crazy sucking and eating it and juice was running down her chin. It was so cute! Grant keeps calling them "Agent Pears" even though we have tried again and again to explain that they are "Asian". We even got out the globe and pointed out Asia, but alas, we are still eating Agent Pears. And they are sure good :)