27 candles

Yes I am now 27. My birthday was the 26th. Dave got me a new watch, Phoenix decorated my cake and Sequoia helped me eat it. Honestly I get way more excited for my kids' birthdays than mine. Thank you to my visiting teachers, Jessica and Stephanie, for the goodies. It's nice to be remembered. In all it was a nice birthday.

Just for Kicks

I just thought I would let everyone know I have officially felt the baby's first kicks. I had been feeling some small flutters, which are really hard to decide if they are real kicks or not. The other night I was sitting on the couch watching TV and definitely felt the baby kick. Dave was at an interview in St. Louis but I'm sure he couldn't have felt them anyway. Also, on Feb. 16 I'm scheduled for my ultrasound. I really don't care what I'm having this time. Now that I have a boy and a girl there's not too much drama with this one. Ironically my due date is now July 2nd and when does Dave start his intern year? You guessed it, July 1. Well I guess there is drama with this baby after all.

We're Back!

Here's our little family at Grandma's house.

Big time Daddy's girl.

It was very cold!

Here were are in a little Bavarian town called Levensworth.
They had a great hill for sledding.

We are finally home from Washington! We had a fun time enjoying the snow. We went sledding which was Phoenix's favorite. We had a great Christmas. We got to spend it with Dave's family which is sometimes hard to do since they live so far away. When we got home our computer had apparently crashed, it would't turn on. I'll blame the lack of posting on that; ) Thankfully my parents had an old computer they wanted to give away so we are using it now. We also had Christmas with my parents this past weekend at my sister Andrea's house. Phoenix got a new garbage truch which he absolutely loves and won't let out of his sight. Sequoia got a new baby doll. She likes to play mommy. She makes me change the diaper and wipe its bum with her wipees. It was kinda fun to have two Christmases. I'm sure Phoenix will expect two Christmases next year which probably isn't likely to happen. He'll someday figure it out that there is only one Christmas per year.

In other news, I had a doctor's appointment today and according to my ultrasound I am two weeks farther along than expected. That puts my due date at July 2. I'm super happy about that. Especially since my nausea seems to be letting up. I already changed the little baby on the baby ticker.

Snow day

So we went to my parent's house last week and were pleasantly surprised the next morning when we woke up to snow! Here are a few of the pictures I got. In other Grantham news, Sequoia is finally walking! She started taking steps at 14 months and now she has taken off. She's even doing a speed walk now. Just another example of how different my kids are; Phoenix took his first steps at nine months. Also, we are now in Washington state visitng David's parents and are finding out what real snow and real cold are like. It was four degrees when we got here. It even feels like the air is frozen.

"Look at our car, that's really weird." Phoenix's title for this picture. That's my mom behind the car.

There's still a little snow left when I took these pictures.

This might have been fun to slide down but we decided not to find out.

Phoenix touches Texas snow. It was very wet icy snow but we were glad to have it anyway.


Here's our very humble snow man. This is as much as we could make before our hands froze!

Thanksgiving

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all ya'll who are reading this now. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We join the number of sick people to add to the count, if anyone is counting. But we still had a fun Thanksgiving despite being under the weather. We went to my parent's for Thanksgiving day and went with my family to Hodges Gardens in Louisiana. I will post pics as soon as I get them. I'm getting my dad to make copies from his camera since I seem to have misplaced mine. Anyway, Hodges Gardens is a place my family has been visiting since I was a kid and it is an awesome beautiful place. The trees were beautiful this time of year, all different colors. This is something we are not used to here in Galveston. It was refreshing to see all the trees standing upright with their tops still attached. I had become so used to hurricane trees I forgot what it was like to see normal trees. We stayed in some cabins out by a beautiful lake. We rented canoes and went boating out in the lake. We also hiked the main gardens which are full of waterfalls and flowers. Although this time of year it was mostly the red and yellow leaves that were so beautiful. It was pretty cold and rainy but we were still able to enjoy it. We're back home in Galveston now and as I said earlier, we've all got colds. I've got pregnancy nausea also so I'm feeling pretty yucky but I am glad I was able to have a nice Thanksgiving with my family.

Shoes, shoes, shoes, and more shoes!

So...for a long time 'Quoia wouldn't wear shoes because she didn't see any need to strap leather to her feet to protect them since she didn't even walk on her feet. (If we could find something to strap to her bottom on the other hand...that might be helpful.) However, one day Tam, decided to strap shoes on her and force her to wear them. Whatever happened, you can definitely tell that 'Quoia has taken a liking to her shoes. She now scoots up to us demanding that we put shoes on her feet. Normally she demands we put her own shoes on her feet and they don't match. Today though, she demanded that I put on her feet shoes and shoes and shoes, and then...more shoes. Here is a picture.

First of all she is actually wearing two of her own shoes in this picture. She's also wearing Phoenix's sock on her right hand/arm along with one of his shoes. On her left foot she has one of her shoes on and Phoenix's sandal. And while I don't have a picture of it, she is currently wearing Tam's red and black leather shoes. She's sporting one of them over her sandal on her right foot. For such an anti-leather-wearing-gal, she sure has changed!

The following pictures show just how crazy she's gotten.

This is actually her arm!

Phoenix's sandal over one of her own shoes! It's shoes madness. I just can't wait until she starts explaining to me how she has no shoes to wear with any of her outfits. I'm practicing my eye rolls already for that big day. Many people tell me just how much of a boy Phoenix is, but 'Quoia is definitely all girl. I wish all of you could hear her stomping around in her shoes right now. It's cute.

Oh dear, what's a dad to do...

Surprise

Having weaned Sequoia after nursing her for over a year, I was excited to get my body back to myself again. I started working out again and started eating healthier. Things were actually sort of easy with a one year old and three year old. I might also add that with my new diet I was faithful about taking my vitamins and birth control every morning. Then on Saturday I realized I was a couple days late, not too much to worry about right? By Monday I bought a test. I really didn't think anything would come of it. Dave and I weren't planning on having another critter for a few years, and I had been very diligent in taking my birth control. Test number one results: positive. Well obvioulsy that can't be right. Test number two results: still positive. Now wait a minute. Can I take this back? This can't be right. Well, I am (gulp) happy to say that yes we are expecting Grantham kid number three. Dave was thrilled, and if I didn't have three months of nausea ahead of me I would be ecstatic also. I am pleasantly surprised and I am sure Heavenly Father knew I needed another little blessing in my life. I'm putting my sister Andrea's baby ticker with mine because we're actually only about ten weeks apart. I'm really excited about that. It'll be fun to have kids so close in age. Possible baby names so far: Sur Prise, Acci Dent, and Oops!