Across the ocean for a third time

Greg is coming home tonight! He found out on Friday that he had to leave Sunday on an urgent, last minute business trip to Northern Ireland again. He was supposed to come home the following Saturday (this last weekend), but Hurricane Irene shut down all the airports on the east coast and all flights were cancelled until today. He was rescheduled to leave Tuesday but put his name on a waiting list for Monday's flight, and he made it! He is currently in the air, coming home to us. Hooray!

"Little Lucky," the tiny Irish bear he brought back for Aubrey on one of his previous visits, accompanied him this time. Aubrey wasn't too happy after the first email. I think she was worried the bear wasn't coming back. I had to work hard to reassure her that Lucky would return safely with Daddy. Here's the last e-mail from Lucky. (Oh, and Greg made it clear that it's to be read with an Irish accent, if you can do one. I can't.)  :)
Hello dear little ones. 

Little Lucky here.  I apologize for my lack of communication, as it has been a bit crazy for me the past two days.  I hope this note finds you all quite well.  I heard that the youngest of you children, the little grant-man, has not been feeling the best.  And to the oldest, Kari Lynn, I do hope your sleepover was grand.  Your Daddy showed me your Mummy’s blog, and I want to offer my congratulations to the Joel-boy for his loss of tooth.  Just so you know, I think it quite odd that you people ‘lose’ teeth, as my type of bear does not lose teeth.  Of course, I do not have any teeth either!

Aubrey Ann, I do so look forward to returning to my home inside of your box.  You will be happy to know that I am quite well.

And now, for the conclusion of my adventures at your Daddy’s work:
I got into the building, and found MANY yellow plastic parts.  They looked like little pieces of sunshine! 


I made my way about the premises by walking underneath a coffee cup so that nobody would see me (much like I saw the toys do in the Toy Story movies). 


When I made it to the nearest window, I saw many forklifts outside that your Daddy was working on.  So THAT is what he was doing. Working on forklifts!!

It will please you all to know that our work here in Ireland is done.  We wanted to come home today (as much as I want to come home, your Daddy REALLY wants to be with you), but due to some poor weather fronts, we are going to be here for a few more days.  Tomorrow, we will do a bit of sightseeing, and you can pray that we would get on a plane when we can.  We are currently planning on coming home Tuesday evening.

Cheers children,
Little Lucky
P.S. Your Daddy says to tell you that he loves you Kari, Joel, Aubrey, and Grant.  And that he REALLY Loves Mommy. 

Exciting moment here

Joel lost his first tooth! We were in the car when he "twisted it and then untwisted it, and it fell out!" He had some momentary panic in his voice and on his face, but then it was all smiles.

Day at the Beach

The Matt Moffat family invited us to go spend some time with them (and a few other Moffats), at the beach in Rockaway, so we went for the day on Saturday. It was a beautiful, sunny day at the coast. The kids had a blast. I'm still getting sand out of the girls' hair, even after several washes. Aubrey was a mess, but a very happy one.



Grant wasn't sure what to think of the beach. He liked it after he got used to the feel of the sand, and he REALLY liked the water, but his little body couldn't handle the cold water or the rushing waves. He couldn't stay on his feet. We wrapped our shivering little man up in a towel and parked him on the sand with Aunt Leah for a while to warm up. Then the sand eating began. :)
Kari loved every minute on the beach, as usual. She was busy running, splashing, and digging.











Joel truly enjoyed the beach and the water this year, too. He ventured out into the water a lot more than in years past and had a lot of fun playing with cousin Sam.

See the two people kneeling in the sand in the middle? I have no idea who they are, but we got to witness their engagement. We all cheered when they hugged after she, obviously, said yes. :)

Thanks again, Matt and Maralle, for the invite. We had a great time!

Bruiser

Today was Grant's one-year well child visit, and I had to take him with a fading black eye and a fresh, big goose egg on his forehead. Thankfully, our doctor and everyone in the doctor's office know us pretty well, so I wasn't really too worried about what they'd say when they saw him. They know one-year olds, too. He is constantly tripping, running into things, and falling down. I guess that's what happens when a baby starts walking at 10 months...and is a little reckless...and has three older siblings. He's pretty tough, though! The black eye was from his sister (the littler one). He was going up the stairs (someone forgot to close the gate), and Aubrey was coming down. In her own words: "I was trying to go down, but Grant was in my way, so I pushed him out of the way." It was pretty bad. He had a nasty bruise on his cheek and a black eye to go with it. The one on the forehead was from the corner of a chair that was nearby when he tripped.

People have been asking if Grant is short for his age, and now I have the answer--no, not really. His stats today were 30 1/4 in, 23 lbs 4 oz--60th percentile in both. He's solid, that's for sure, a dense, square little guy.


Grant enjoys his food these days. He makes a big mess at almost every meal. He is not a tidy eater.

Just another photo of our smiley little man.

Tennis Camp

Kari enjoyed her first tennis experience. (We haven't found a sport that she hasn't enjoyed. She likes 'em all!) Our friend is a high school boys tennis coach, and he and his team do the camp each summer. Aubrey and Joel liked dropping her off and picking her up because they got to run and play in the field and on the track. I'd love it if Kari decided to do tennis. It's a sport that you can continue playing throughout your life. According to the girls, it's great because you get to wear a skirt and look cute. :)

"Beauty means pain."

That's what my dad used to tell me, and now Kari has experienced it first-hand. The joy of having her ears pierced made up for the little bit of pain she had to endure to have it done. She did tell me, however, that it hurt a lot more than I said it would. :) Kari has been saving her money since we told her she could do it if she paid half. She got her money, waited until her friend, Ellie, had also saved enough, and they went and got it done together. Kari is VERY pleased.

Birthday brunch



The birthday boy enjoyed his cake.

 

It sure was fun to host the party in our new house. It was fun to have my grandma here, too. My cousin, Andrew, is getting married tonight, so she was in town and was able to come to the party.



We had a farm theme going, and the kids and I had a great time making the cake and cupcakes yesterday (inspired by Leah's friend Kate P. and others on the internet). It might just be my favorite birthday cake venture ever. Grant was fairly oblivious to the fact that the whole party was for him, but he liked the animal cupcakes. There was lots of "mooing," "bahhhing," "oinking," and "cheep-cheeping" going around here the last couple days. The kids were really excited and into helping with the party prep, and they tried their best to get Grant excited about it, too.




The little man is ONE today!

Happy birthday to my baby, my last baby. I think I'm going to cry. Yep, crying now. I know it's healthy and right for you to be growing up, and I know that we have a great season ahead, but right now it feels sad to be leaving your babyhood behind. You've brought so much joy to us this last year. You've brought much sleeplessness, too, but we've managed to just accept it, knowing that someday you'll sleep. In fact, you slept all night long (without crying in the night), a 12 hours stretch, for the first time two nights before your birthday! Of course last night wasn't quite as good, but that's ok. It sure is a good thing I didn't know at the time it'd be a whole year from your birth that I'd get a solid 8 hours of sleep! You are quick to smile and have a great belly laugh. You're quick to show your displeasure, too--kind of an intense little guy. You keep life exciting, that's for sure. You have started giving hugs, laying your head on our shoulders and making an "aahhhh" sound. You wave bye-bye occasionally, usually after the person is already gone. You make a beeline for the stairs whenever we leave the gates open at this new house. You have bruises on your forehead constantly these days from toddling around and being a little top-heavy. You love your siblings, and they adore you. They are very excited for your birthday party this weekend. Can't imagine life without you in our family. I'm so thankful God blessed us with you.
We love you so much, little Grant-man.

Alaska Trip

We got back Monday from our trip to Alaska to visit family and celebrate my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. We had such a good time. It was great to see cousins and relatives I hadn't seen in over ten years. We met lots of cousins' spouses and children. The kids did really well with all the new situations and new people and had a blast with new cousins.

This was at the airport, waiting in the security line. Our kids had never flown before, so it was all very exciting.

Aubrey wasn't too sure about the airport, but she made it through. She really thought it was strange that we all had to take off our shoes. I think it's strange, too--very odd behavior at the airport.

They all really liked the "people movers."

 

They were pretty funny during take-off: "Why are we still on the ground? Are we in the air yet? WE'RE IN THE AIR! WE'RE UP IN THE AIR! WE'RE FLYING!!!" We tried to shush them but it was obvious to everyone around us that this was their first time on an airplane. :)  The older kids all did well on the plane. We brought plenty of snacks and activities. Grant did pretty well, all things considered. I wrestled him for the first two hours. My arms were so tired by the time he finally gave in and fell asleep for 40 minutes. Then I wrestled him some more after he woke up. He wanted to get down and walk around and constantly tried to twist his way to the floor. It was a pretty exhausting flight, but he didn't cry too much, so we were thankful for that.

We had breakfast at my grandparents' house the first morning. It was a yummy breakfast, too, with eggs, sausage, fruit, and Grandma's muffins and coffee cake. Mmmm. The kids had fun riding the four-wheeler and playing outside with the tether ball and squirtguns.

We went over to visit my cousin Heidi and her kids (her husband is a police officer and works the night shift, so he was sleeping), and the kids hit it off. Bryson and Blake are a year younger than Kari, Eli is a year younger than Joel, and Brook is a year younger than Aubrey. They had fun drenching themselves in the sprinkler while we were there. The weather was great the first few days, better than the weather at home when we left.

The kids got to play with more cousins when Greg's cousin Janelle and her family came over to where we were staying at the Wick's. Here's Aubrey with Adrian. Their kids are ages 8, 6, 4, and 2, and ours are 7, 5, 3, and 1. All together we had ages 1-8! :)

Kari and Joel on the trampoline with CJ and Megan. I love how Megan is the only one smiling for the camera--so sweet.

We went over for a waffle breakfast at my cousin Cheryl and Philip's house Saturday morning--more kids to play with! Can you believe the view off their deck? It's unreal, and I didn't even get photos of the entire view of mountains and the glacier. It was great to catch up Cheryl and to see her family in person. It sure would be nice if Oregon and Alaska were a little closer. Sigh!

family photo on their deck

We had a family get-together Saturday afternoon and evening. We all gathered at Aunt Sondra and Uncle Phil's home, chatted, and enjoyed some good meals together.

Grandma reading to Aubrey and Joel

Aubrey and Aunt Alene (Grandma's sister from New Jersey) bonded while we were there. They spent lots of time together looking at books, doing puzzles, and having good conversation. :)

Family just hanging out in the afternoon

Zeke (Clay and Kellie's 11 month old) slept in Grandma's arms all afternoon.

Aunt Debbie showing Grant the fish. He loved the aquarium. He also loved the stairs at this house, and I spend a large portion of the day chasing him and saving him from those stairs.

Aubrey with Aunt Alene and Aunt Myrta, Grandma's other sister who came for the week.

At the anniversary reception/celebration the next day.

Kellie, my cousin Clay's wife, made the cake. It was beautiful!

The kids singing a song at the reception.

Siblings--Dad, Aunt Sondra, Aunt Brenda, Aunt Lynda, and Uncle Darris

The whole family! (5 cousins weren't able to be there, but it still was a pretty big bunch)

Our trip wouldn't have gone nearly as smoothly nor been nearly as fun if it hadn't been for these people. Greg's Uncle Scott and Aunt Marianne let us stay with them the whole time. They picked us up from the airport in Anchorage, housed us, fed us, arranged for us to see family, and just made our trip a really good one. Every evening after we put the kids to bed we stayed up and chatted with them (they got us on Alaska time and we stayed up way later than usual with all those daylight hours). It was great to reconnect with them and have a place to relax at the end of each full day. We really enjoyed our stay with you guys. Our kids think you're great, too. :)

Lunch at the airport before we boarded our flight to head home

On the airplane again. The flight home felt longer than the flight there because we were so much more tired. We wrestled Grant again for a couple hours before he fell asleep in my arms. He fought sleep and screamed for abut 20 minutes, but it wasn't too bad. The kids enjoyed both flights, especially the drinks they got two times on each flight. :)

And this one is for you, Aunt Marianne, so hopefully you'll see it. He does that thing with his feet on the tray at home, too. :)