Things We Will Never Do...

Do you ever look back and laugh at all the things you said you would never do because you realize that you broke that vow long ago. Things like: I will never let my kid sleep in my bed, I will never have an artificial tree at Christmas (promise broken for the McArthurs Christmas 2007, and it has been a glorious fake tree time since), or I will never pay someone to put up Christmas lights. This last certainty is yet to be done away, but after our lighting of the house this year, we may consider it in 2010. Here's our neighbor's house:
We envisioned something like this for our home, but it ended up like this:
It's fine, I know, but mini-lights are not my thing for outdoors, I requested the large ones, but this is what we got. Now, that isn't the reason for the possibility of paying someone to do this for us next year. Dave, in all his handy glory offered to help our neighbor hang his lights on his tall house because they could do it faster if they worked together and our neighbor is slightly squeamish with heights. (different neighbor than the one who occupies the picture above). So, as Dave was on the ladder at our friends' house, the ladder slips and Dave is hanging on to their house by the rain gutter. After the ladder punched a hole in the stucco and dropped to the ground, Dave knew it was also his time to release to the concrete below. Our neighbor caught Dave and they landed with their faces inches from each other and eyes as wide as could be. Grant, witnessed the whole thing and came inside to tell me. He said, "Mom, Dad needs you. He fell off the ladder on Mr. Taylor.....it was AWESOME!" Everyone is fine and honestly, it is pretty funny. He wasn't too high off the ground, but we may be considering other options for next year!

The other day Grant handed me a french fry (anyone out there say their kids would never eat fast food:)?) . I told him thanks and he said " I want to give you this fry mom because that's what Christmas is all about-GIVING." Excellent reflection time for me at the local Wendy's. I was glad to be reminded of all I have been given and want to give. Thanks Grant!

Queenie and The Brain

I am not sure how many kids have imaginary friends. I never had one, and aside from my neice's imaginary Grandmother Ella, I had never encountered one. Grant doesn't have an imaginary friend, exactly...but at times I catch him whispering under his breath and looking like this:

When I ask him what he is doing he replies with a hand up shushing me, or a remark like "Hold on, I am talking to THE BRAIN." Occasionally he will even burst out in the middle of the day, "What a great idea BRAIN!" Or after I ask him a question, he will say, "Let me ask the Brain." very interesting.


Katelee likes to think she is Grant's second mother. She frequently gives him loving instructions throughout the day "Make sure you watch for cars, Grant" "That is NOT good manners, Grant." etc. Well, the other day, Grant had had enough. He said, "Are you my boss, Katelee?" Katelee calmly turned to her subject and responded..."NO, I am the Queen." Glad we all know our places in the world!

October

We have just been enjoying all the fall festivities lately! October seems to be full of fun things to do and spooky sights...such as: Mr. Miagi in my bathtub when I wake up in the morning.

WITCHES!Creepy face paintings (dragons and spiders and butterflies...yikes!) Speaking of crazy faces, Grant has some classic expressions in nearly all these photos.

Pumpkins, eyeball cookies, and crazy costumes. We started out with this one for Grantbut he refused to wear it after saying the helmet would suck all his hair out. He then became Captain Grant, the deadliest pirate of the seven seas:Where does he come from!? And of course, we also had the delightfully adorable Little Red Riding Hood.
We are now trying to recover from sugar overload but enjoyed our neighborhood dinner, trunk or treating at Grandma and Grandpas and scoring serious loot around our block.

It's A.....

GIRL! Our ultrasound tech said she is 99% certain our little fetus is female. HOORAY! Grant and Katelee had requested a baby sister, so I am thrilled I could fulfill their wishes. Everybody needs a sister right?! We are really excited and I am happy to be half way through. Maybe this will be a little red head girl, who knows? YEA!! When I told Grant it is a little girl after all, he said, "Oh YES!." It was really cute. Katelee responded with, "Oh, that'll be fun." Silly girl.



Other news on the homefront: Grant has successfully completed his first year of T-ball. Is Grant a natural? Well...maybe not so much. Considering his first game he stood in the field as the balls came to him and would yell to me everytime, "I'll try for the next one, mom." or "Maybe I will run for the next ball." But, he had a great time and enjoyed being on TEAM SHARKS!



Grant enjoyed using the bat like a hammer and slicing down the T toward the ball. But, hey, he had fun (most of the time...see above photo!) . There's always next year...or a different sport :).

Back in the Swing of Things...

Dave and I had a great time in New York a couple of weeks ago. Wicked was amazing! Loved every minute of it. Here we are on the Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls. It was so fun and wet, I will hold the after photo of me looking like a drowned rat for another day...
Here we are in Palmyra with the Palmyra temple in the background, right on the property of the Joseph Smith family farm. We really enjoyed our time there as well. We went to the Sacred Grove and a lot of our church history sites. It was a hot and peaceful day!
Grandpa and Grandma McArthur kindly took care of the children for us while we were away. They were also able to see Grant at his last swimming lessons of the summer. He made great strides this year-going from not wanting to put his face in the water to jumping off the diving board! Grant is now on year two of preschool and started up T-ball, that will be a whole other post another day. He manages to get in a lot of trouble mostly everyday. A few days ago, the kid had been in time out and priveleges lost and all sorts of altercations occurred. Towards dinner time, he said to me, "Mom, you hurt my feelings so much today...I don't think I have any left!"

So now that I am over 16 weeks along, I am having a few days here and there without tossing my cookies! I am hoping we are turning the corner. My poor kids play house something like this: Grant: Katelee, you be the mommy, you have to do this BLEHHHH" (insert dry heaving and vomit noises here). Or, when Katelee was sick, after throwing up she says, "Mommy, I think I have a baby stuck in my tummy!" But, with a few good mornings instead of feeling sick all day, I have even started cleaning my house again:
Does bleach bubble? Who knew...maybe it was left over bubble bath in the jets. We find out what we are having in a few weeks. So far we have these suggestions for names from Grant: Dingis, Dingay, Josie or Numberspell. I guess they sound like unisex names, so maybe they would work no matter what we discover it is!