Missionaries, Music boxes, and Home

Well, our week started off with feeding the missionaries on Monday night. What a great Family Home Evening to have. Although, I have to say, I was monsterously tired by the time I was finished! I made oven fried chicken with cream gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, and and garlic zucchini and squash, and rolls. We served cheesecake for dessert. And I have to say, I made so much that we ended up having leftovers this week. I loved the spirit that the missionaries brought into our home, and I love our ward for always providing this opportunity. We never had the pleasure of doing this when we lived in Utah.







One thing that Grant has enjoyed himself doing is leading me down the hallway to his room so he can play with this music box we got when he was born. He is enthralled with this! As soon as we get to his room he is looking up and reaching for the music box on his bookcase. I sit in the glider rocker, wind it up, and let it play for him, and he loves it. I think he really likes music. It seems to calm him down a lot. (Well, he's pretty mellow to begin with :) )





This week was a short week for me work wise. I ended up staying home with a sore throat on Thursday. I don't know what it is, but when I am pregnant the sore throats come in droves. I think someday the day may come where I need to get the ol' tonsils out. So annoying. Anyway, Grant and I enjoyed our morning together by taking a walk, and then later on visiting Daddy while I went and had the throat culture done. All is well, and today (Saturday) I think it is finally gone. I wonder how many more of these I will get before the end of the year?

Cuddling and more...

I love that Grant is such a cuddler. He is not really attached to just one stuffed animal, but he will take whatever one is in the toy box, and just snuggle with it! I caught Grant with this teddy bear just this morning:

On Friday, we were invited to a friend's house for a get-together. It was at seven in the evening, and I was sure Grant wouldn't be able to wait that long for dinner, so I made him a grilled cheese sandwich. I cut a few pieces of it for him to stab and eat with a fork, but I left most of it whole so Grant could take some bites out of it. I gave him one bite of his sandwich, before I turned and went back in the kitchen to get me drink. Honestly, it took me twenty seconds. When I came back to Grant's side, I was met with Grant's empty plate and a VERY happy looking Cooper.

One Final Hurrah!

So the summer has officially ended. I started back to school two weeks ago, and the kids have started coming back this past week. It is all over, and it went by so incredibly fast. A lot of good memories over this summer, and a lot of milestones have been met.

Some of my faves this summer has been:

Sitting with Grant on the lawn and blowing bubbles! He doesn't look too thrilled in this picture, but trust me, we had a good time!

Getting Grant used to the swing. He loves it! This wasn't always the case. The first time he ever went on a swing, it was a disaster. 

Going to the pool and splashing with James and Grant. Sadly, no pics of this memory. But we had a great time. 

Teaching Grant how to stack blocks and watching him watch me when I start to clap. He gets really excited!  He has grown this summer to building three and four block towers.  

Having a break from Physical Therapy. We only got to see her about three or four times during the summer. She's really nice, and fine with great, but a break is always nice. 

Father's Day for James was so much fun! Grant gave James a keychain with photos on it. I gave James some pictures of me and Grant. 

And finally last night we had a ward potluck at the park. It was so fun to be with friends. We have a wonderful ward with great people. Too fun. Grant, James and I went for a canoe ride in the little lake they had at the park with some friends of ours-the Daly's. They have a little girl that is about the same age as Grant. It was just fun. I guess the summer is officially gone.

It makes me sad, but I am also excited for the seasons to get here and change, because that means our new addition will be here sooner. We can't wait! So excited!

K, I have totally fallen off the wagon since my last post! A lot has changed! First of all, we have news!

WE ARE EXPECTING!

We are due in January and we couldn't be more excited! I totally found out late about the pregnancy, so it has already gone by so fast! We've been to the doctor and so far everything is great!

Thus, the reason for my absence. Some people have aversions to food and smells during pregnancy, but my aversion is so much weirder than that. I have been just nauseous even thinking about going on the computer! Isn't that the craziest thing ever? I haven't had any other pregnancy aversions, just that one. I'm feeling much better now, so I think I'm over it!

Our summer has gone by so unbelievably fast! As far as being home with Grant, he has grown so much. The cutest thing he's done is building towers of two blocks, and he looks at me right when he's done, with a huge smile because he knows I will clap and make a huge deal out of it! So fun! On the long car trips we have taken this summer, he likes to play his own peek-a-boo games with his blanket in his carseat! He gets so excited! I love hearing the pitter patter slap slap of his chubby feet on my kitchen floor, and knowing exactly where he is, because you can hear him moving the dining room chairs, and his high chair around the kitchen. He is a mover and a shaker, and it can be so exhausting chasing after him, but he is such a cute, sweet little boy, and I have adored spending so much time with him this summer!

Families have come to visit! Our first visitors were my family from St. George. I was a little disappointed because I was supposed to see them on Tuesday through Sunday, and their visit ended up being from Wednesday to Saturday. We had a great time with them in Casper and Yellowstone, but when they live so far away, every minute counts. Our first events of the visit was seeing James play softball with his city league. I had never been and finding the field was a challenge. We finally found it though, and it was so fun sitting out there in the nice weather watching James. We got ice cream after it was over. Thursday, my mom, Kirk, and I headed out for some shopping. Grant is now in the stage where he wants to walk everywhere, so riding in the stroller can sometimes be a challenge. This day was a challenging day. I wanted to head over to Toy Town and grab Grant a few new toys. He wasn't very patient to say the least! We ended up grabbing him some farm toys (which thanks to Grandma for purchasing :))

The next part of our trip was to Yellowstone! We had such a good time, and we got to see lots of animals including bears! So we all had a good time, and we even got to see some waterfalls that we would have never have seen if we hadn't of gone with my family.

We actually saw a grizzly bear from a far!


You can't go to Yellowstone without seeing Old Faithful. The trip ended all too soon and we headed back that Sunday.

Our next huge event was camping with the Killpack's at Ferron Reservior. I have to say, Grant is such a good baby at home, but he is exhausting to camp with. He is just everywhere. And the nights were so cold that Grant would just wake up and cry, and thus waking up all of our family. James had a wonderful time four wheeling. Since I was still in my first trimester at the time, I didn't think four wheeling for me would be the best idea. We were supposed to camp for three nights, but it rained on the last evening we were there, so we decided to head to St. George where we could shower and get Grant and all of us ready for Brayden's baby blessing. We also stayed for an extra day and drove home that Tuesday. It was wonderful. More time with my family. There is only one pic of this whole trip, because we forgot to charge our camera battery. We were so bummed, not to take any pictures, but hopefully we learned our lesson for next time.

The only picture of Grant I managed to get before the battery went out.

Our last trip this summer happened over my birthday. Kind of eventful, since this is the year I turned 30! James and I left on Wednesday night and stayed the night in Colorado, to kind of break up the drive. We wanted to see a place call Black Canyon National Park, but we got sidetracked at the Royal Gorge Bridge which was, at one point, the tallest suspension bridge ever made. We walked across the bridge and then decided to take the incline railroad to go down to the bottom of the canyon, but Grant was very wiggly. He did not want to stay in line at all. We were thrilled when the ride finally got going. Grant is at the stage where he just has to move!

We also headed for Mesa Verde where you can see these old indian ruins. Grant wanted to be everywhere though, so it was exhausting keeping up with him. He was ready to leave in these pictures!

There is our summer in a nutshell. Sorry for the long delay, but hopefully things will get back on track now that I am feeling better!

Mr. No Bottle

Love being off of work. I have to say, staying home is agreeing with me and Grant. We are making headway on his goal of getting weaned off the bottle. He's doing pretty good, it's just taking some getting used too.

We made it through 2 days of being off of it, except on Saturday, when I had to go to a Primary activity, I came back to an exhausted James, and the story of how Grant wouldn't stop crying till he got a bottle, and how he spilled everyting in the sippy cup down himself. That's been the only relapse and I have to say, I hope it lasts!

Grant also this week had his first homemade chocolate chip cookie which he LOVED! I love finding out all the things Grant will eat (although frustrated at finding out what he won't!) So far, spaghetti takes the number 1 favorite spot.

This past Saturday on the 30th of May, Grant also went to his first birthday party. Our friends the Daly's have a little girl who turned one just after Grant. It's funny because Grant was the only boy there, surrounded by all of these one year old girls.

My boy loves to be read too. McKinley received some books at her party and Grant just couldn't help himself. He had to find out what those books were about!

The party was way fun, and Grant had a good time. Thanks to Lyndi for inviting us!

One day, I found Grant in the kitchen with two of his favorite toys. I thought this was pretty innovative that he thought of a way to play with both at the same time!

We have yet to see a true summer day in Casper. And by true summer day, I mean nice and warm and having to wear shorts because its too hot. Yeah, we didn't make it out of the 40s today. It rained and we are supposed to see more of this mild weather this week. Isn't winter supposed to be OVER? :)

Catch Ups

Ever since we came back from our trip, I feel I have neglected our blog. I want to make sure that everything we have that is blog worthy makes it on here. So, some of our pics for this is from a few weeks ago. Hopefully, with school being out on Tuesday, I will be able to keep it caught better!


A few things before our trip:


I have the infamous first spaghetti picture. Grant loves spaghetti. Hallelujah! Since feeding him, has been a roller coaster ride lately, I feel excited that there is something he will finally eat! He liked his garlic bread that went along with it too!





Grant's first pair of shoes. As you may have read, Grant is on the brink of walking. Just this past Saturday he took five consequetive steps. His physical therapist suggested that we put shoes on him for more stability, however, he seems to better with bare or socked feet. We did find him his first pair of shoes, which he looks pretty darn cute in:





Another fun thing that Grant is doing is that since he is not walking by himself yet, he likes to hold on to our hands and walk around with us. Grant and I will walk up and down the hall over and over again. Whenever I let go though, to let him walk by himself, his knees bend and he is crawling on the floor. Oh well. He is so close. It won't be too long, and then he will be everywhere.





Another fun thing that has happened is on May 14th, I became an aunt for the sixth time. My nephew Braydon Taylor was born. Such a cutie pie!





Also, I have been going back and forth with this for a long time, and I think I am going to go private. I do post for family and friends, and if you want to keep up with us, please, post a comment, and leave an e-mail address so I can send an invite. All you will have to do extra is sign in to blogger with your e-mail address that you give me, and a password that you create. Super simple. I have the comment moderation mode on, so no worries about leaving your e-mails if you are worried.

Nine Years Ago...

May 26, 2000

...I was married to James Killpack in the St. George Temple at 9:20 a.m. I still look back and think-Wow, he actually picked me! He is such an amazing person, and these past nine years have been such an awesome experience.
I love:

• how James and I are such a good balance. He's really laid back, compared to my nervous and worried personality.
• what a wonderful dad James is.
• how he honors his priesthood and has a testimony of the gospel.
• how we can make each other laugh at anything
• what a good friend he is to me, and how he's a good friend to others.
• how he always tries to do the right thing.
• when he says, "you take care of the baby and I will take care of everything else."
• through all of our trials James and I have stuck together and tried to find the good in the situation.
• how James is the first to find the bright side of any situation.
• thinking about the future and having James by my side, for time and eternity.

I can't beleive it's already been nine years. It's just crazy to me! I truly feel lucky that I have James, and I am so eagerly awaiting what the next nine years will bring.

(We are having a problem with our scanner. As soon as it is fixed, pictures will be here.)