The Place to Be

Let me just say that I love our ward. I like it more and more each week, which says a lot for having church for 3 hours. It is the people around here that go to our ward. They are very down to earth and humble. Everyone is friendly and you can just feel how genuine they are.
I have always known that you go to church because of the gospel NOT the people but having good people makes it easier. So why is this ward so special you might ask?
1)Everyone participates in the lessons and when they do they are real with their answers. Ryan taught his first Gospel Doctrine lesson last week and he came out of it saying "Wow I've never had such an easy time teaching. Everyone contributed". And in Relief Society when we have a lesson where the subject of children comes into it, everyone is very honest in their answers. Like how kids are great but sometimes its just plain hard! Then they honestly go into examples from their own lives. WOW, it just makes me feel like I not the only one who struggles to this degree. It is just a accepting place to be and it feels more like a big group of girl friends.
2)Everyone helps each other. There is a family that has a set of twin girls about 3 months old. They also have 3 older kids on top of that so they have their hands full. Well from the moment they brought them to church someone, different people each week, just take the babies from her so she can enjoy the lesson. It is amazing to watch because this Sister tried to protest for the first few weeks but no one would let her. They just take over and give her a break. Its great!
3)They think of the best ways to do things. Ryan doesn't really like Home Teaching but when he didn't get a slip of paper handed to him and was asked to come to the church to meet with the Elders Quorum he was surprised. He was really surprised when he showed up at the church and they had his companion there ready for him to meet. Then they went through each family with them so that they would not what to expect when they went out. He came home in awe.
4) There is a member of the bishopric at the each door when you walk into the chapel for sacrament. They greet you and ask how you are doing and if there is anything you need. It really makes you feel good.
Last but not least, for me anyway, our ward is full of Canadians!!!! I feel really at home. Maybe that is why the ward is so well run? ;)
I really think we are in the place we are meant to be which makes life much sweeter. I hope everyone has a ward that they can feel so at home in.

Taking the Dare

3 Joys:
My kids (most of the time)
My Husband (more than most of the time)
Beautiful days (72 degrees and sunny)

3 Fears:
Someone taking my kids
My kids getting killed
My husband getting killed

3 Goals:
Loss my baby weight (any weight)
Keeping up with the laundry (so Ryan doesn't have to)
Finding something to laugh about everyday

3 Obsessions:
Having my "great room" clean before I go to bed.
Sleep
Knowing where my kids are

3 Surprising Facts:
I LOVE creamed corn on toast
I have Adult ADD (I guess not surprising to some)
I really like dark music, books, etc. Not horror but just dark.

4 places I go over and over:
Wal*Mart
North Ogden Post Office
Smiths
McDonald's (we get take out on Fridays and the kids love McDonald's)

4 people who email me regularly:
Ryan
Newtowe Square HOA
Martha Stewart
Oprah

4 of my favorite places to eat:
Outback
McGrath's
Crown Burger
Tepanyaki

4 places I'd rather be right now:
My Grandparents house (Southern Alberta, Canada)
Sleeping
The Ritz Carlton in Vail, Colorado with no kids, sleeping!!
Anywhere with no kids, sleeping!

4 people I talk to on a regular bases:
Ryan
Ethan
Holly
Mason

4 TV shows I'd watch over and over:
Grey's Anatomy
Charmed
Law and Order
30 Rock

Figuring Things Out...

Well I feel really bad about my last post. I think I came across a little hard on Ryan. I really didn't mean to, and I think I freaked him out when he saw my post, but we did have a good talk about it and I think I have figured it out.
It is ME!!! Believe it or not I am a "pleaser". I feel like I have to make everyone around me happy, and I make myself miserable in the process. All you have to do is look at my wedding. I was trying to make everyone on both sides of the family happy that I made things worse, and now you can feel the tension in the air when both families are together. Not that they are because my family is now in Canada and Ryan's is here (thank goodness).
Ryan (and my kids) are my whole world and I love them so much I want to give them as much as I can. Ryan works very hard to provide for his family that when he gives me those big puppy dog eyes I can't say no to him. He knows that he has this affect on me so he know how to use this power, but he is working on not abusing it.
I get mad at my self because I can't, and I mean I can't spend money on myself and then resent the fact that I can't. Then I just get upset with Ryan because he doesn't have the same problem which is not fair to him.
I get this problem from my Mom I know. I watched her do this growing up and now I just can't get over it. Self esteem issues anyone?
So...Ryan I am so sorry for sounding so harsh. You are the best husband ever and I need to figure out how to communicate better.

How Does He Do It

Why is it that Ryan knows just how to push my buttons?? We have been looking forward to receiving our "George Bush" check and being able to get a few things for the house, like a new bed for Holly and maybe a swing set. Anyway, Ryan has been wanting the game Rock Band for awhile now and wanted to spend some of the money on it, well I told him that as long as we are able to get the things we need and still have some money to put in savings I was Okay with him getting it. Hoping that once we got everything and he saw the amount left he would just put it in savings and wait just a little while longer. Wrong!! He was all ready to go get the game when he talked to one of our neighbours at church who told him that Guitar Hero is coming out with a better version of a Rock Band type game that can do "cooler stuff" latter this year. He turns to me and says "Okay that can be for Christmas and we can get a Wii with the check that is coming". Now the Wii is about $150 more than Rock Band and my goal to get Christmas down to just little gifts so that we can remember the reason for the season is total out the window. I KNOW that Ryan is the biggest kid that I have. It is no wonder that Ethan is the way that he is because he has a big brother in his Dad.
So now somehow Ryan has gotten me to give in to the Wii and Ethan has gotten his Dad to give into him to get the new Lego Indiana Jones game. How this has happened I will never know.
Now we got our check this morning at 11 am, Ryan was home to pick it up by 11:30am and now he is at FYE getting the Wii. That is after he got me to call all over 2 counties to find one in stock somewhere.
How the CRAP does he do that?? Will someone please tell me, so that I can take precautions against this next time!!

Mason

The Lord knew what he was doing when he waited to send us Mason till now because I would just be crazy if I had my easiest child first rather than third.
Mason just turned 9 months old yesterday and is just the best baby ever. When he gets tired in church he just snuggles up and goes to sleep on my lap. He only cries when he is in pain, hungry or too tired. He is happy, loves to laugh at his brother and sister while they are running around making fools of themselves. You can just see it in his eyes that he will be running right along with them as soon as he can figure out how.
He is sleeping almost through the night, from 9pm till 3am and then till 7:30am. So not too bad. He is army crawling all other the place, to the point that we had to break out the baby gate the other day.
Here is a picture of where I found him the other day...
I had to take him to the doctor yesterday because he was crying a lot and wasn't very happy at all, which is not like him. So when the doctor told me he had an bad infection in both ears it made sense. He now has some good meds and some ear drops and he is back to being his happy self.
I love my little Mason and am so glad that he picked me to be his Mom.

Happy Birthday Holly!

Yesterday was my little girls 3rd Birthday. Time is flying by too fast ! It seems like yesterday she came into the world. Now she is getting so big. She has so much of her Dad in her but unfortunately has just enough of me in her that she will get into a lot of trouble. Ryan is driving Holly crazy though because he keeps telling her that he gets all the presents. She gets so upset she just cries, and cries. Why are Dads the ones who know just how to push your buttons?

Holly woke up and got to "open" her big presents. They were too big for us to wrap so we just put come blankets over them. She got the much wanted basket ball hoop, and a deck table and 2 chairs "just her size". We asked her for weeks what she wanted for her birthday and all she said was a basketball hoop. I tried to suggest a table for her room, or maybe a princess dress up table but no, she wanted a basketball hoop. She get that from her Dad's side of the family! I hate basketball, but Holly has LOVED any and all balls games. She has about 10 balls now and she always wants more. How many balls do you need??

Anyway, I made her favorite dinner, spaghetti and we made a cake to have after dinner. She loved it. We are going to have a big family party this coming Sunday with the BIG cake and the balloon, etc.

Well we had a great day and Holly is enjoying her Birthday Week.

We Love our little bug and wouldn't know how to live without you!

Ethan's Graduation

Well our little Ethan graduated from Talon Totes Preschool last Thursday, May 15th. We are still battling this yucky sick so I haven't felt well enough to get around to blogging it until now. Sorry!

Anyway it was held in the Clearfield High School Auditorium and it was a nice program. Each child had a "student" teacher to escort them on stage one at a time where they introduced each child. Ethan's went like this..

"Hi my name is Cristal and I would like to introduce Ethan. He is the son of Ryan and Barb Granquist. He lives in Clinton, Utah. His favorite colors are blue and yellow and loves to eat M&M's. He likes to vacation in Disneyland and likes to eat at McDonald's and play with the toys. He is very good at racing and his favorite story is "It's Hard to Be 5". Ethan works hard in school and you'll be successful. We can see in your future high school that you will be the captain of the baseball team. We will miss you and are so glad that you came to our school."
Then he got a sand bucket with shovel, full of goodies as well as his diploma, and a very nice letter from his teacher "Miss Pam".

My pictures are not the best. They were either too dark or blurry. At least I got the one good picture of him outside holding his bucket.

We had a great time and now Ethan is VERY excited to go to Kindergarten this fall.

What!?!

For the past few days I have felt like Ryan's Aunt Kathy. For those who don't know who she is, she is Ryan's Dad's Sister and is a very sweet elderly lady who doesn't like to ware her hearing aid. She also doesn't like to be left out of any conversation going on around her which leads her to say "What!?, What!?!".
Well due to this yucky cold I have developed Labyrinthitis (viral infection of the inner ear). I am dizzy all the time and only have about 25% of my hearing, which leaves me saying "What!?!" a lot. I am so very thankful for my ears!!! I feel the sudden urge to go read the Sunbeam lesson "I am thankful for my ears".
I have found that it was a good thing my kids have learned some sign language because I have asked them to sign what they want more than once and have found that we all need to brush up on our ASL (American Sign Language).
Well I am told it should clear up on it's own after a few days to weeks. Seeing how it has now been almost 7 days I think it will be the "weeks". My kids find it funny that I can't hear and they are trying to get into more things. What they don't realize is that they are so noisy all the time that if I can't hear them at all I go looking to see what they are into.
The good thing about all this is that I can't hear Mason as well in the middle of the night so he is learning to sleep through the night better. If that happens this will all be a blessing in disguise.