So Many Blessings

so tonight at dinner we had "a moment", one of those "these are the things in life that make it all worth it" moments
we sat down to eat and grant said something about the blessing. We started with the normal "God is great, God is good" and he got really upset, I mean starting to cry upset. Then he started to sing and I couldn't catch any of it up until the last line which was "amen, amen" so we asked him to calm down and sing it again.
our little boy with a voice of an angel sang...
(to the tune of Frere Jacques)
God our father, God our father
We thank you, We thank you
For our many blessings, For our many blessings
Amen, Amen
and it was beautiful!
(shout out to LaFayette Baptist WeeCare because obviously they are doing things right at his preschool)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Trick-or-treating was last night for Fayetteville and it was a first for Grant. He was SO excited to be Superman and we had been practicing the schpiel for a few days in the car so he knew to ring the doorbell, say Trick-or-treat, get the candy and say thank you.

First funny thing, for the first few houses he'd ring the doorbell and say "trick-or-treat" to the door because I hadn't made it clear that he had to wait for someone to open the door.
Second funny thing was that by the end of the street he was saying "thank you for the trick-or-treats" to everyone as he left their house (which scored him extra goodies at some houses)

I had Mister Carter-lion in the bjorn and he lasted through about 4 houses before he passed out:

Geoff was lamenting that we hadn't thought of him going as the guy from The Hangover with baby "Carlos" in the bjorn because that would have been epic... oh well, still a great night!

Sign of the Times

Heres the sign of the times:
Grant came home from school today wearing a sillyband... it was pink...
(I guess that its a good thing because someone thought he was nice and gave it to him, right?!?)

Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas is only 2 months away...
do you know what that means...
the ToysRus Big Christmas Book is here!

this thing came in the mail Tuesday and Grant has been POURING over it everyday. He flips through it like its the first time every time "hey Mom, it's Thomas" "Mom, look, it's Buzz and Woody"...

I think the pages will be worn we'll before the morning of December 25th!

The New Normal

Heres a look at our new normal: a family Harris Teeter trip

those shopping baskets get small really fast!

The Grant Update

Hi everybody! Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers- yesterday went well and he's recovered beautifully! He's home from school today but not from pain, from a cough that I don't want him to spread. I think its probably half sick and half from the breathing tube from anesthesia

Here are a few pictures of the champ. The first was him before (but after they gave him the woosie/lala land medicine) a nurse had this stupid pig keychain light that he thought was the coolest thing EVER. Only problem was when he woke up afterwards and she- i.e. the pig- wasn't there, he FLIPPED OUT! screaming bloody murder for about 30 minutes because of the *%^& pig, not because of what had just happened! The favorite quote from "before" was when he said the oxygen/pulse sensor on his toe felt like chocolate milk! Thats when we knew the medicine was kicking in...

The second two are from after in the post-op recovery. After he got over the pig thing he got a popsicle and finally relaxed enough to let me read him some books. (shown is Pout-pout Fish which is a current favorite, highly recommended to any toddler moms out there)

Prayers for Grant

If you happen to see this post this morning send Grant some good vibes... we're going in for a little medical procedure this morning and he has to be put under (which makes this Momma more than a little nervous). I'm sure he'll do great but more prayers and warm fuzzies never hurt anybody, right?!?

2 Months!

How fast does one month fly by? Lightning fast...

...and Carter is VERY excited about it! (Mommy, not so much)

Lets Go Jets!

We're all decked out in our Leonhard gear to cheer on Jim and the Jets on Monday Night Football!

Lock Lesson

boy oh boy do I have a story for you!

in fact, it's so good it'll have to have pictures...

So this morning I went into Carter's room to change him out of his PJs and into a fresh diaper/outfit when Grant came to join us. He closed the door and started playing with Carter's stuffed animals.

I got Carter dressed in his cute firetruck outfit and mentally decided what I was going to pack in Grant's lunch for school - we had to leave in 30 minutes. so, Carter is dressed, I'm set to go pack Grant's lunch and go to leave the room. Door locked. ok, Grant must have just turned the lock right?!? well go back and look at the door picture.... really look at it, I'll wait.... yep, Carter has a fancy push down lever handle not the typical knob like ever other room in the house, which means the lock is on the outside. yep, Grant had turned it before he came in thus locking us INSIDE Carter's room.

Panic sets in; Geoff- already at work, all of Carter's feeding supplies- in the kitchen, phone- on the couch, me strong enough to bust down a door- not so much. Okay don't panic, well atleast not enough to get Grant upset. so the only thing I can think of is if you can't get out the door, go out the window

Get the window open, bust out the screen and climb through holding Carter. Ask Grant to follow, end up somehow pulling him through one handed. so we got out of the window- mind you we are in t-shirts and barefooted- but are still locked out of the house. I looked around and said okay, I'm stuck, this isn't a one woman show and officially have to get some help. Neighbors #1 not home, neither are the people in the next house.

We get to house number three, who I don't know and ring the bell, no answer. Start on to house #4 when a woman answers the door at house 3. I asked to use her phone to call Geoff. She explained that she never answers the door during the day because its always Jehovah's Witnesses but let us in and let me call. so we sat in her living room barefooted, watching Team Umizoomi while Geoff missed training to drive back from base (30minutes) to let us in.

I got myself together, got the window back and closed and decided I needed a break, so I took Grant on to school even though we'd be late.

Forgot to ever pack him a lunch!

Things we are thankful for:

-BOTH kids were with me in the room!

-Carter's room, and all 3 of our rooms are on the first floor!

-Carter had just eaten! he chose this morning to have a feeding and go back to sleep without the screaming fit so he was asleep throughout the whole thing! I can tell you I would have LOST IT if he had been awake and screaming the whole time

-I had clothes on! I can't tell you how many morning feedings are when I'm in between PJs from the night before and being dressed for the day... yea, just think about the whole story if that had been the case!

Melt My Heart

This morning I took Carter to Picture People to play around with getting some military shots similar to the ones we got of Grant prior to the deployment. We just had a photo shoot with Shannon to get family and baby pictures so I didn't get any that weren't with the military props but I just had to share this one with everyone because I turn to a big ole pile of mush just looking at it


and because I would just be mean if I didn't show off our military yumminess...

Tassel Hassel

Do y'all remember my adventures in tasseling from last year? well....they're baaaack!

Every other year St Jude's (Geoff's Mom's school) has a Holiday Bazaar where people sell their craftings and such for the holidays, 2 years ago I had a lot of plates and platters but seeing as I still haven't found a kiln in Fayetteville- or time to paint for that matter- this year I knew I had to do something that I could whip out at home... so tassels and hairbows it is!

I tell you what, getting to make these 2 by themselves were a struggle. Got Grant in his bed to nap, got Carter fed and content, got out all of teh supplies and played around to see what I wanted to do, got the glue gun heated up, all just in time for grant to decide he didn't want to nap and come out of his room. Then its trying to get them cranked out without Grant getting too curious about the hot glue gum or the scissors or the rolls and rolls of ribbon.... sigh....