Tornado : Trouble :: Grant : Mischeif

Life with little boys is never dull. But life with Grant is never - - - hmmmmmmmmm - - - life with Grant is to expect the unexpected. It is to expect things to happen that I would never in a million years dream of. It is to say things that I never pictured myself saying or even needing to say, for that matter. (Like, "Get the silverware out of the diaper pail!!!!" - Yip, I said that one today!!!) It is to get out of bed each morning and quickly pray, "Lord, give me wisdom and patience!" And although all moms of little boys are certainly earning their crown in heaven, I am working on earning my five carat diamond that will adorn the crown I have for sure already earned!!

For example:
1. Grant wanted to help me make melon balls for dinner the other night. I left him to it while I finished a load of laundry. I came back and found this = He had turned the cantaloupe into Melon Man. You can see Melon Man's purple bowl hat, his eyes, nose and mouth that were carved with a knife (no one was injured in the making of Melon Man - whew!), his arms (which is the melon baller spoon thingy) and his body (the second half of the cantaloupe).

2. No wonder I couldn't find my other shoe. It had been turned into a "sculpture". Now WHY didn't I think of that???

3. Looks like someone has been practicing their R's - - - on a door...

4. As I ran to answer Grant's distressed call for help two days ago, I found this = Grant hanging half way off the side of the couch wearing only his underwear. Odd? Yes. But the question soon became, "What is that in your underwear??? (You would think that would be a redundant question, but not in my house.) Is that Pete????!!!!!!!! (one of our gerbils)

Below I give you Grant's rear-end with Pete coming out the leg hole. Don't ask...

5. Grant loves to do research on the computer with whatever he is fixated on that week. This week he is into pool filters and pool vacuums. (Because what five-year-old isn't??) He has interviewed friends at church that have pools and lifeguards at the pools near our house about the filters and vacuums they are currently using. We have gone from one pool to the next solely to survey what size the filters are, what shape they are, where their locations are in the pools, and if there is also a vacuum present.

So far we have learned: A) The kiddie pools by our house have two small circular filters in the middle of the pool. B) The adult pools only have one filter which is a large square and it can only found in the center of the deep end. C) Residential pools are the only pools with vacuums. D) These vacuums can be in a circular or square shape. E) Some of these vacuums look like "freaky robots" and "wheelchairs".

And here is Grant continuing his comparison research. I really expect him to go into research when he grows up.

6. And what day wouldn't be complete without an actual model of Grant's current fascination? Well, count today as "complete": Here is a home-made "pool filter" (Duh!!! And you just thought it was a broiling pan!) He took the top of my broiling pan and placed a muffin pan underneath it (I get the broiling pan thing, but the muffin pan?? I assure you though, he chose it for a very specific reason), and viola! You've got yourself a filter for the deep end of a pool!

And for an extra laugh for the fam, I thought you would enjoy watching the scene I stumbled upon at lunch time yesterday as Rhett was eating his weenies. (Maybe I should say "as Rhett was SUPPOSED to be eating his weenies.)

Guess which one is the puppet...

Poor Madalyn.

BTW: He did finally give her the weenie.

Getting Ready For Kindergarten

In order to help Grant stay excited about his first year in "real" school, I had him pick out his lunchbox. Of course it had to have his name on it in some form of fashion (I really need a girl), and it had to be really cute and different. I came across this great website called Just So Posh once you are at the website, type in a search for "lunch boxes", and I loved the lunch box choices they offered because most were tin. This is a big + for Grant since he somehow never screws his thermos lid on quite tight enough after he's completed his meal and the remaining Spaghettios slime leaks out on his "soft"/fabric lunchbox. This means that a Spaghettio smell continually resides in this lunchbox. Not pretty. So really I guess I should say this new tin lunchbox is going to be a big + for me because I'm hoping the Spaghettio slime can be rinsed off and no permanent smell will have to be tolerated.

Grant went through the oh-so-fun selections and chose this one:

Despite the fact that I was not aware of his love for robots?????, I couldn't have done a better job myself! (Except I was pretty sure he'd choose a car, sports or tractor theme.) The only disappointing thing is that they did not have the PERFECT computer/robot font you see in the picture. Thus, another fun font had to be selected. Oh, how I fret and sweat over such decisions. It's quite ridiculous. It has to be just right = not girly, but not boring, not too small, and not too big, different, but not cheesy... Gee, I hope I made the right choice. At least Grant won't care. He's just pumped about getting his new lunchbox in the mail for his new school. And I'm surprisingly excited about purchasing a robot lunchbox. It is not pink, and it does not have bows or flowers or kittens and rainbows on it, but I still find myself LOVING it.

No pressure, Aunt Jess, Uncle Josh, Aunt Kelly & Uncle Kory

The only cousins my kids have are third cousins. And we are soooooooooooo thankful they at least have that. The fun part is that the third cousins on both sides of the family are around and about Grant and Rhett's ages, so it's always fun to get the distant cousins together.

We recently met my cousin Boone and his sweet family (Kate, Jackson and Everett) at one of our favorite Mexican food restaurants in the Houston area: Lupe Tortilla. And what is so perfect about Lupe's? Could it be their amazing fajitas? This is possible. Could it be their awesome tortillas? Perhaps. OR - could it be their CHILDREN'S SAND PLAY AREA?? It certainly does sweeten the pot!! What a rare and perfect place for families with young children to eat! Can I get an "Amen" from the Houston crowd? Boone is currently in med school in Galveston, and sadly enough, despite how "close" we live to one another, we hardly ever see each other. Hurricane Ike did not help that problem either. Boone and Kate were FINALLY able to move back into their home four months ago and are very happy to get their lives back. During dinner I asked them if they were nervous that hurricane season was upon us again, and Boone said with a go-get-'em attitude, "I think it's Florida's turn to take one for the team!" CRACK ME UP!!! So anyway, getting to see them often involves meeting half-way due to Kerry's and Boone's busy schedules. This time was extra special because Boone's sister, Sommer, was with them. I always enjoy getting to see my sweet cousin and her sweet face and share in some sweet girly chats. How precious she is!

On to the night's events:

Rhett spent the entire dinner standing next to Everett's high chair whilst he took EVERY. LITTLE. THING. out of his diaper bag and made sure to hold each item up to Everett and annouced in a stern two-year-old voice, "MINE!" I suppose Everett looked shady - I mean, one must be sure to mark his territory when other children are around. As you can see, Everett really cared...

"Do you see this book, Everett? It's MINE!"

"Do you see this airplane, Everett? It's MINE, too!"

"Do you see this marker, Everett? It is also MINE!"


Kerry holding Everett after dinner.
As you can see, Rhett wants to make sure Everett knows that is HIS sand!

I wonder if poor Everett got tired of Rhett that night...

Jackson and Aunt Sommer

One thing I love about Sommer is that she always has room for something sweet after dinner. That's a Martin for ya!

"Do you see my Popsicle, Rhett? I plan to get sand all over it."

"Yes, but do you see my bucket of sand, Jackson? It is MINE!"

Second cousins: Sommer and Grant

Sommer was the recipient of one of Grant's verrrrrrrry long gerbil stories.

I mean, the gerbil story really is L O N G! (right, Uncle Josh?) Bless Sommer's heart. She was such an attentive listener.

First cousins: Me and Sommer

Third cousins: Jackson and Grant decided to make "fireworks" by throwing sand up in the air. And you can bet your bottom dollar they made loud firework noises to go along with the display.

Who else wants to go for a seesaw ride?

Rhett, Jackson and Grant

Sommer is always up for some fun!

But all good things must come to an end; especially when there is church the next morning and Kate and I had the daunting task of cleaning all the dust off of our boys before the morning came. Perhaps better wording would be "cleaning all the dust OUT of our boys". How is it that their little crevices and rolls and nooks and crannies can fill up with enough dirt to cover the entire country of Egypt?

Boone, Kate, Jackson and Everett, we can't wait to see you guys again. Maybe this next time we can meet at your house and play at the beach! We'll bring our dump trucks!

Try #5

Third time may be a charm, but not this time. Looks like the closest I'm getting to my slide show goal is on try #5.

You can view my slide show of our trip by clicking here. Why it is freaking out every time I try to actually post the slide show in my blog is beyond me. I didn't have any trouble posting my slide show of my trip to Europe.

Anyway, we had a great time on our trip. Kerry and Uncle Josh played golf twice while the girls enjoyed our spa treatments. Ahhhhhh - heaven! So to answer your question, Heather, YES, we plan on going back again!!!! I was sooo sad to leave and come back home. It's been hard to get back in the mood to do dishes and laundry and all that other JUNK!

Computer Trouble

We're back from our trip, so I decided to make a slide-show of our fun. But when I tried to add the slide-show to my blog, the computer flipped out. I get the idea that it thought I was a virus or something just as evil, so it has pretty much blocked me from doing anything on my blog - except for typing(boring). Anyway, not only will it not let me post pictures, it won't even let me post my "AKB" signature at the bottom of each post. :(

So until I can figure out how to fix it, I leave you with a funny conversation Grant and Kerry had the other day=

Kerry: How would you like to ride in an airplane? Maybe you and Daddy could take a short trip on an airplane this summer.
Grant: I'd rather go to the moon in a spaceship.

Sun and Fun, Here We Come!

Vacation time has finally come! We are packed up and ready to go to Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa. We are soooooooo excited. Grant had a hard time falling asleep last night, and I was surprised that I, too, had trouble calming down from the packing excitement. It took a little longer to get to sleep than I would've liked. It was as if I was a five-year-old at Christmas. That's a pretty good summary of what a vacation is in the summer though, wouldn't you agree? I mean, winter has Christmas, and summer has vacations! And man-oh-man, this is the GRANDADDY of all vacation spots for families, and it has made its way into this family's heart. The fun list goes on forever and ever: the many pools, the river and its fishing and boating, the lazy river that connects the pools, the water park, the horses and longhorns that they bring out in the morning and evenings (you can ride the horses), the spa, the golf course, the kid activities (bike rides, nightly movies on the lawn, evening wilderness trek, the playgrounds, the bounce house inside the hotel), the nightly fire-side storytelling and S'mores roasting, the great food and incredible buffets: there's even a kid buffet with short countertops and kiddie food like mac and cheese, nuggets, pancakes in fun shapes chubby individual sized ketchup bottles; the fireworks show on the 4th of July (my second favorite holiday)......... you get the idea.

I can't wait to post all the pictures upon our return. I have a feeling many will be pool shots as it is supposed to be in the triple digits during our stay. I will make every effort to keep any swimsuit shots of me out of the camera's view! I think that's my one complaint about this place. Everyone has such beautiful (sure- many are that way because of surgery) and tan bodies. I mean, there are women walking around who have had at least three children who look GREAT in their bikinis. I think surgery is the only explanation here. I mean, you don't' have three kids and look "good" naturally anymore. You can have one kid and possibly still look okay. But three??? Perhaps some hard bodies were formed with lots of hard working out and dieting. That's sure not an "Amanda" thing as I don't care to sweat (although I don't mind dieting with Weight Watchers). Whatever the reason behind their looking good, I am jealous. And although I am also jealous of their tanness, I could never go back to tanning beds. I can live with my white, cancer-free honkeyness (thank goodness).