Cousins

Garrett loves his cousins!  He had so much fun playing this weekend.  We don't get to see them enough since they live in Idaho.  Carl's sister Kristin just moved recently, and it was fun seeing her new place. We found out that she and Garrett's birth mom, Korinne, live super close to each other.  We're just going to have to spend more time in Idaho so that we can see everybody!

The Big 100

Carl's Great-Grandpa turned 100 years old this past Friday.  We went to his birthday party on Saturday in Idaho.  There were a lot of people there, and it was nice to catch up with everybody.  We can't believe Garrett's Great-Great Grandpa is 100!  He's lived an awesome life and has quite the posterity.  Here is an excerpt from a local newspaper article about him:

Gordon was born at Victor Idaho on February 19, 1910 and lived there until his early teens when the family moved to Blackfoot. He graduated from High School there and married Maxine Hodson and began working at the First Security Bank where he stayed for 15 years. In 1942 they moved the family to a small acreage out of town that had a partially finished home on it. They worked to install indoor plumbing, central heating, and finish the exterior. A few years later Gordon and his brother Thomas built two large chicken coops to commence raising chickens and selling eggs. Thomas soon left for a professorship at Brigham Young University and Gordon continued the chicken business while doing bookkeeping chores for several businesses and also operating two school buses (Maxine was a driver for one bus).

Gordon and Maxine had seven children. She passed away in 1978. Shortly after, Gordon married Leda McCurdy who was a childhood acquaintance. She had been widowed some years prior. Between them their family became 13 children, 64 grandchildren and numerous great grandchildren. Leda passed away in 2001.

Gordon still lives in a house he built on that original small acreage purchased in 1942. He finished the house originally on the property, built another that he lived in for several years and then built the one he lives in. Over the years he has enjoyed building for himself as well as helping both friends and family with their projects. He has spent many hours in his wood shop building gifts for birthdays, Christmas, and other special occasions.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Gordon!

This is Carl's "Why are you sticking a camera right in my face while I'm trying to eat a cookie?" face.

This is Carl and his sister Kristin.  Aren't they cute!

Cutie Patooties

I love Garrett's birth mom, Korinne.  She is such a sweetheart.  We drove up to Idaho Friday night, and we were able to spend Friday evening with Korinne, her daughter London, and her husband Brandon.  We went to dinner, and spent the rest of the evening hanging out at Korinne and Brandon's house, talking and looking at photos.  We took some cute photos of Garrett and London together.  London is 7 months old and absolutely adorable.  She is such a smiley baby, and Garrett was making her laugh really hard playing peek-a-boo.  They look so cute together!

      Garrett was so done with pictures by this last shot!

Happy Heart Day!

Mmmmm....Valentine's Day.  Love, chocolate, my family, flowers, presents for Garrett, dinner at my parents', and sugar cookies. (Garrett even rolled, cut out, frosted, and decorated 3 little cookies all by himself.)  Happy Valentine's Day!

XOXO

 

 

 

 

 

Bowling!

Garrett's first time bowling, and he scored better than his mom. (But Garrett had bumpers... Carl scored 100, Garrett scored 58, and I scored 55.  Yes.  I suck at bowling.)  We went to Fat Cats and it was a lot of fun.  We bowled, had pizza, and played in the arcade.  Garrett loved it.  And look at his awesome bowling pose!

 

Garrett says...

Little kids really say some of the funniest things.  Here are a few of the funny things that Garrett has said in the past few weeks:

"Don't you wish you had skills like me? But you don't. That's just sad."

"Ahh. That water is as warm as a breadstick."

"I don't want to sleep in Maddie's room. It'll smell like a girl in there." (Staying at our friends' house overnight for New Year's Eve)

"Dad, you should take a do nothing day.  You could relax and do nothing."

"Why is Olivia a show about pigs instead of people?  That's just weird.  It doesn't make any sense." (Kid show based on books about pig family)

"I'm stumped.  That means I don't know.  I learned that at stump class."

"Do you know what spare means? It means extra. I learned that at spare lessons."

"A banana sleeps in a banana peel.  That's not funny.  That's for reals.  A banana really sleeps in a banana peel."

Sweet Girl

Awww, isn't Gabby such a cute kitty!

Poor Fish

We went to the Clark Planetarium Thursday.  We pretended to walk on the moon and on Mars, and played in the gift shop.  Then we decided to go see "Under the Sea" in 3D since Garrett loves sea creatures so much.  We asked the planetarium staff if they thought it would be appropriate for a 4 year old, and the staff thought it would be completely fine.  Garrett was excited for the movie to start.

It started out great.  The 3D was awesome, the colors beautiful and vivid, and the sea creatures were really interesting.  Then some fish started to get eaten.

I didn't really like seeing it, since I am so ultra-sensitive to animals or any living things getting hurt or killed.  But it wasn't graphic or anything.  A larger fish would jump out and then the little fish that had just been swimming nearby was gone.  That's it.  But after one particularly bad part where three fish in a row were eaten, I suddenly heard Garrett starting to cry.  I picked him up and tried to soothe him, but by then he was crying too loud and I didn't want to bother the other patrons, so I took him out of the theatre.

Once we reached the hallway, I rocked him and tried to calm him down but he was so upset.  Finally he said "All those beautiful fish are gone.  They're never coming back."  Poor baby!  I felt so bad for him!  He finally calmed down, but it took a while, and he kept talking about the bad fish.  He already knew that sharks and fish eat other fish, but I guess knowing that and actually seeing it are two different things.  He's definitely my son.  I just hope he doesn't grow up being quite as sensitive as I am!