YEAR IN REVIEW: 2018

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2018

GRANT: TWO YEARS OLD

Hey, Howdy, Hey! Grant is TWO! WOW! Our sweet little boy celebrated his special day with a Toy Story family party with all of his favorites! He was in heaven all day; from seeing Santa, to getting ice cream at lunch from the Chick-Fil-A cow, to eating pepperoni pizza for dinner. We ended the night with chocolate cake with fluffy blue frosting, perfect for Buzz and Woody to join in the fun. We love this sweet boy of ours. A few things about Grant at age two:

- He loves to snuggle and give love. He is a very grateful little boy and knows when to give appreciation and love.

- He enjoys playing with little sister and showing her the ropes.

- He climbs on everything! He is well beyond his age in terms of physical ability. He is strong, fast and quick witted in physicality and mental problem solving.

- He is quiet when it comes to words, but still loves books and his comprehension is very high.

- Mickey, Donald, Buzz, Woody, and Lightning McQueen are his favorites.

- He loves going to church to be in nursery with all of his friends.

Happy Birthday, Grant! We Love You!

SANTA 2018

DEL OSSO FAMILY FARMS 2018

We visited our local pumpkin farm over the weekend as the sun was setting into a pink cotton candy color. Grant was in heaven climbing on the pumpkins, but was even more thrilled when he saw the darling play structures to play on. He climbed and slid and had the best time! We also saw some fun animals and played in the corn pit (imagine a ball pit filled with corn kernels) and found that in all our shoes and pockets when we returned home.We made sure to grab some apple cider and donuts before we left, and enjoyed the cooler weather at the farm. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2017

YEAR IN REVIEW: 2017

GRANT'S FIRST BIRTHDAY: ONE HAPPY CAMPER

We celebrated Grant's birthday early in December with family and friends. The theme of the party was "One Happy Camper", since Grant is one of the happiest babies in the world! We had yummy food you would normally eat while camping; chili and fixin's, corn dogs, and trail mix. It was a casual day playing in the backyard and Grant digging into his smash cake. He loved the frosting and the chocolate flavor. We invited guests to gift books for Grant's library, and he was thrilled! Grant loves books and brings his new ones to us each night to read before bed. This little boy is so loved, and we feel grateful to have so many family members travel for his special day! Stay happy, camper!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Happy Halloween from this Jurassic Bunch!

[Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Ellie Sattler & their baby Dinosaur]

RED, WHITE & BLUE | 4TH OF JULY

We had a great day celebrating Independence Day! We kicked off the festivities a week before with all our friends for a BBQ and community firework show on the golf course! We all loaded up on bug spray, glow sticks and went out onto the course for the show. It was so fun, even though Grant fell asleep minutes before the first firework went off. On the day of, we went to the neighborhood pool with friends to cool off and swim. Grant loves the water and is a natural born swimmer. He kicks, moves his arms, puts his face in the water - he LOVES it. That evening, we went to a BBQ at a friends home, who backs up onto the levy. We basically had a private firework show with a 360 degree view of fireworks going off all around us! Again, Grant fell asleep as soon as the sun went down, but still had the best time being passed around and snuggled by everyone. We love this holiday and all the blessings we have by living in the USA! 

MY FIRST MOTHER'S DAY

Although Derek was on-call for my first Mother's Day, he pulled out all the stops in order to celebrate me and made me feel so loved and special. He claimed that he & Grant figured out the plan, and he executed. HA! I was served a yummy breakfast in bed of cake donuts (per my request!), yogurt, granola & berries for a parfait, and a yummy Sunrise punch, hand mixed by Grant! It was all so yummy and fun to eat with my boys in bed before church. I also received a beautiful necklace with Grant's name stamped into it. I will cherish it forever! After church, we ate dinner and then hung around for the night. Of course we each called our Mother's, and wished them well. After many years of hoping and praying to become a Mother, I now know it was worth the wait. Grant was and will always be the perfect gift after the years.