Harvest Days

In the first part of August is Midvale Harvest Days.  We were told way ahead of time to plan on going down to Ryan's parents house for the whole day, first for the parade & then for a big surprise that Ryan's parents had planned for all the grand kids. 
The kids LOVED the parade mostly because of the candy but they also love hanging out with their cousins.  Each of my kids are lucky enough to have at least one cousin that is pretty close to their own age to make it fun.  Mason was not too excited about how loud everything was especially the fire engines.  He is such a cute kid with such a kind heart.  There was an elderly lady sitting behind us & Mason made sure that when he got candy he would take one piece back to the "grandma" sitting behind us.  He said that he was fast & she needed to have some candy too.  How cute is that?
After the parade we went back to the Granquist homestead where a large blow up water slide was being put up in the back yard.  Well the kids freaked out.  Ethan & Holly were all upset because they thought that they couldn't play because they didn't have their swimsuits, but of course I had all the stuff they needed hidden away in the van.  Again, much freaking out.  The hard part came telling them they had to wait until it was put up all the way & that they had to eat lunch first.  We had to take them away from the site of all the excitement it get them to eat lunch, but they were happy because we got Astro Burger, a big treat in our household.
They played in the water for 8 hours!!  Almost straight.  We had to make everyone get out & eat dinner.  You have never seen so many kids eat so fast in your life.  I think Holly ate in 10 minutes flat & that includes dishing up her plate.  That 10 minutes I think was the only time the whole day that Holly & her cousin Rachel where out of the water.  Let me tell you she & all the kids slept good that night.
Mason had a hard time getting warmed up to going down the slide.  The kids kept running over him to get up the slide & then when he would take too long they would pull/push him down.  So he spent most of the day crying & being held by Mom.  Uncle Kay helped Mason to be happier by giving him a ride on his Jazzy & even letting him drive it. 
Latter in the day while everyone was taking a break to eat I took Mason to the slide & let me take his time.  He soon got his sea legs & was going up & down so fast he was the one running over the other kids. 
It was such a fun day & a great way to say good bye to summer. Thanks Rhonda for such a fun day!

Spring & Summer

After our trip to Canada from my Grandma's funeral we had Easter, of which I didn't take a single photo.  I know, my bad.  Easter was low key & quite.  Nothing big, just small Easter treats for the kids, no new clothes & a ham w/ funeral potatoes for dinner. 
Then in May we had Holly's 6th birthday.  I know it was my birthday too but once Holly came along I think of it as her birthday.  She got a scooter for her birthday with a bell, which I regretted as soon as she was off and riding it.  The good thing though is that once she got the hang of the two wheeled scooter she decided that she could ride her bike.  Ryan took the training wheels off it last year & tried to get her to try & learn how to ride it but never would.  She didn't have the confidence to do it but once she got her balance riding that scooter, off she went on her bike as well. 
Her birthday was a low key event at home & then we had the big birthday family party with Ryan's family.  We have 6 birthdays in May with Ryan's family so it it easier to just have one big party. 
Just two weeks after Holly's birthday, her scooter was stolen.  She left it out on the front sidewalk one night & some dishonest person took it one night.  She was heart broken.  But fortunately Toy's R Us had pink scooters on clearance and we were able to replace it.  Holly will never forget to put her stuff away again so I guess in the long run it worked out Okay.  She learned a lesson & I didn't have to hear that bell ringing all the time.
In June Ryan's sister & her husband got a great surprise.  They adopted little Titan & welcomed him into their family.  He is so dang cute & we all just love him to bits.  Ethan is especially taken with him 7 fights to get a turn holding him, but I think that is they way it is with everyone in the family.
My Mom also came down from Canada to spend some time with us & my brothers family as well as attend the Utah Highland Games as she does every year. The kids love their annual trip to Toys R Us & to have some fun with Grandma Bo. 
On the 21st of June Ryan & I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary.  We didn't get to take a trip or do anything big.  Liz was nice enough to take the kids so we could go see the last Harry Potter movie & then we got In-Out Burger.  The kids loved it because they got to go to Mike's (Liz's son)  championship baseball game which they won.  So a good day all around. 
July was uneventful & Hot. 

Long Time...

It has been forever since I've written anything mostly because 1) I have children that see me on the computer & think they need a turn and 2) I just have not had any motivation to write.  I've been getting into the bad habit of not doing things when I don't feel like doing them, which is a BAD habit to get into. 
We have had so many things going on & I have not been dealing w/ them in a constructive way...I guess.  So I'm making an effort to be happy & be a big girl by getting organized as this seems like as good a time as any.  With school starting soon it kind of makes me want to get on the bus, sort of speak.  How long it lasts you never know as I admit that I'm a space case most of the time.
I will try and cover what has happened in our crazy lives, in the next week or so w/ pictures as I still want to document everything.  I just have not down loaded ANY pictures off my camera since before Christmas, so it's not just blogging that I've been slacking on.  I would do it now but I'm on Ryan's extra laptop w/ no access to pictures, so...
Here is to more simple, organized, happy living.

Loss in a Short Time

With the beginning of 2011 came many sad times.  First Ryan's Grandma Naomi past away on the 27th of December 2010.  She was sick through Christmas but Ryan didn't get a chance to go down & see her before she past.  He kept telling me that he wasn't worried because she was a tough old bird that always can back when we thought she was on deaths door step.  This time unfortunately she didn't & that made it so much harder for Ryan.  He was so full of remorse for not making the time to go down & see her it just made his grief deeper.  Naomi Granquist was a strong woman who spoke her mind (which just made me like her more), but she did set people on edge sometimes because of it.  She loved her family greatly especially her grand kids & expected great things from each of them.  She was buried on New Years eve in Sandy, UT with her family around her. 

Only a month and a half latter on Valentines day we got a call from Ryan's Dad letting him know that his cousin Andy passed away.  He was only 45 years old & it was very unexpected.  Andy was not only Ryan's cousin but one of his very best friends.  We spent so much time with Andy & his family over the first few years we were married and we loved our time with them.  It was such a shock that I don't think that it really sank in until the funeral.  Andy Walker was a fun, smart & loving man that leaves us with a void in our lives at his passing. 

Then towards the end of March we get a call from my Mom saying that my grandmother Geneil is not doing very well.  So we planned & waited for the end to come, which did almost a week latter.  We traveled to Cardston, Alberta, Canada to gather with her 7 children, 30 grandchildren & 30 great grandchildren for her funeral.  I had the hardest time with this because I was so close to my grandma.  She was in many ways more of a mother to me.  It was a beautiful service full of music just like she would have wanted.  My Dad even came down from Edmonton to be with me, which meant so very much to me & my Mom's family. 

The start of the new year was a hard one for our family because of all those who we lost but we know that they are there beside us watching & helping to guide us though the rest of our mortal lives, until we meet again in the next life. 

Pinewood Derby Baby!

Ethan became a Scout at his last Birthday, which meant that in February he got to be in his very first Pinewood Derby!!  He was so excited & he and his Dad spent a lot of time trying to come up with the coolest car.  In the end they decided to go for fun looking rather than speed. 
They went with a basic car shape but wanted a "Angry Birds" car.  Which meant they needed some help from Mom in how to get something that looked like Angry Birds on the car.  So with a couple of big red pom pom puff balls, some felt & google eyes we had our birds. 
Then they found some cool pictures of Angry Birds online, cut them out & after painting the car mod podged them on to the car.  It turned out very cool looking. 
In the race it self it didn't do that well but Ethan did get the prize for the most original car of the derby.  We all had fun with the pizza that was served & cheering on Ethan & his friends. 
But next year, according to Ethan, they are going for speed so that he can win the whole derby. 
Way to go Ethan!

Christmas 2010

We, Ryan & I thought it would be fun to take the kids on the Front Runner Train down to Salt Lake & see the lights on temple square.  Which they LOVED riding the train, & getting McDonald's for dinner.  Word to the wise, make sure you know the train schedule otherwise you end up waiting a hour to get home.  It made for a long night but a fun one. 
Ethan had to take a camera w/ him as he had an assignment for school that entailed him to take pictures of what he did on his Winter Vacation.  They don't call it Christmas Vacation anymore as the schools have to keep everything PC or they get into trouble these days.  He was snapping pictures of anything and every thing.  It's a good things we had an extra digital camera because I think he had taken over 100 pictures by the end of the night.  You can see Ethan holding the camera in this picture of the kids in front of one of the fountains on temple square. 
The lights were as beautiful as always & there were people everywhere.  I thought we had lost a child more than once over the course of the night.  We tried to get into see the Christus but there were so many people the line to get up to it was taking about a hour.  That is just too long to wait with three kids so we had to skip it.  We didn't even get to see the Nativity presentation.  I think if we do it again this year we will no go on a Monday night, everyone must of had the same idea we did. 
We went down to Ryan sister Katie's on Christmas Eve & had breakfast for dinner.  We also played Christmas Carols on so pipes turned chimes.  Everyone had a different note w/ a number on it.  Then followed a number pattern on a poster board and WA-la a song came out that everyone got to play.  It was fun but the highlight of the night was Uncle Dan, our brother-in-law singing & playing the guitar with a huge sombrero on his head.  He had the kids laughing so hard...Ethan was crying.  It was a fun night but I was very glad that we didn't have to get up and go all the way back down to Midvale for Christmas day.  We went to Ryan's sister Liz's as she had moved to Kaysville, just down the road from us a few months before.   
Christmas morning was early, as usual but we do make the kids wait until 8 am to get up.  Although they are up was earlier than that.  Mason got a Thomas the Train set, which he loved because he can fold it up and take it anywhere in the house. 
Holly got her Princess kitchen so she could play house & have tea parties w/ her friends.  She had received a Tinker Bell table & chairs for her birthday so now with the kitchen she had the full set up.  She couldn't wait to have her friend Ryley over. 
Ethan got the Lego's he so desperately wanted, much to his mothers disappointment, but Santa convinced her that Ethan was only a kids once and that it would help him with whatever learning.  Why is it that Lego's are like sand, you keep finding them everywhere although you were sure you got everyone of them put and put away, but stepping on one is still the worst.  Oh the things we put up with for our kids...
That afternoon we went over to Liz's for dinner and to finish putting together to school bags we had made earlier.  Ryan's family had decided to take the money we would have spent on Christmas gifts for each other & get everything for school bags to donate to the church's Humanitarian Center.  It was fun for everyone to put together & to teach to kids that there are other things more important at Christmas than getting gifts. 
All in all we had a great Christmas.

A Little Wake up Call

I never thought of myself as one of those people who always had to complain about their lives, because I do see all the many things I've been blessed with, but today I had a little bit of a wake up call.  I was on Facebook and used an app to put all of my statuses for the year together .  Sitting reading them all together like that really knocked me for a loop because 95% of them where negative. 
I realized that although I do see my blessing I need to express them more.  I have been using Facebook and probably this blog to vent my frustrations.  Which is great for me but not so great for those reading it.  I must seem like the most miserable, unhappy person ever.  I'm really not, I just get overwhelmed very easily and I've never been one to be able to hold things in, although I've gotten better at it since I've been married.  I've just learned that if I keep things in to long they either turn toxic or I blow up.  I choose to see this as a blessing because I've been able to let go of some pretty horrible experiences in my life and move on.  But over the course of our marriage I've learned to hold my tongue, and Ryan has learned to express his feelings more.  We are truly opposites in so many ways, but in the end we balance each other out...another blessing. 
New Goal:  I need to learn express my feelings more to those around me and talk more of the good things going on in my life to others.  Life amazes me sometimes....we go for a run on this roller coaster and when we hit firm ground we are given these moments of clarity.  Did that make sense? 
For those that have read this blog or has me as a friend on Facebook, I apologize for being so negative.  I really didn't realize I was being that way until it was all put together in front of me.  So I've awakened and pledge to be better.  If I slip I hope you will remind me that I'm doing it again.  So here is to a better year of focusing on the blessings and not the trials. ;)

Overwhelmed and Understaffed

Once again I find myself behind but I am learning to accept that I live my life being overwhelmed and understaffed.  Since the last time I wrote it seems like I've been running, so....lets start off where I left off in October.  Let me take you back, back, back.....(you can laugh because I am trying to be funny)
October brings cooler weather, although not so much this year and of course Halloween.  The kids  were all excited and I did my best to decorate even though it was hard to with the weather still being so warm and Ryan not wanting to dig up the flowers to put in our grave yard, which we never seemed to get put in.
The beginning of October we had family pictures taken with Ryan's family at the Utah State capital.  It was the first real family pictures we have had since Ethan was little so it was nice.  I just got the final pictures and they turned out pretty good.  I say that because I don't like the way I look but love everything else about them, but that's a topic for another day.  I'm just happy to have a family portrait to put up in my house.
Ryan's sister Liz and her family bought a house just down the road from us in Kaysville a couple of weeks before Halloween so we tried to help them move the best we could.  Boy, did they have A LOT of stuff but their house is beautiful and Ethan is very happy that his cousin Mikey, who is just a few months older than him, is living so much closer.  It only takes us about 10 to 15 minutes to get there, compared to the 45 minutes to an hour like before.
The kids had all of their Halloween parties at school, Holly had her Halloween program and then there was the big Halloween Fund-raising Carnival, which was fun.  Holly did such a great job in her Kindergarten Halloween program, here is a video of her singing. (Isn't she just so cute!!)

We spent Halloween at home and had Liz & her family over for dinner and trick or treating.  The kids where not out long as it was raining.  Mason was the one child that did NOT want to come in because he figured out that you could just knock on peoples door and in his case say "Give me candy, NOW!!" and grown-ups would laugh and give him candy.  The bigger kids where trying to keep up with him and he had a major melt down when the rain/cold forced them inside.  He just couldn't understand why you would ever want to come home when there was still candy to be had. 
At the beginning of October I started getting the feeling we needed to look into refinancing our home mortgage.  When we bought this house we only qualified for an adjustable rate mortgage, which we got with the mind set of refinancing before the 5 years where up.  Well we have only been here 3 years but it was always in the back of our mind.  So we started the process to refinance into a fixed rate and with all we had to go through to get our first mortgage on this house I was dreading the process, making my stress level go sky high.  During this process we had Halloween, then American Thanksgiving and Ethan's birthday, which took place on the same day, but in the end we were approved.  On December 6th we closed.  What a relief that was to get over with!  We now have a fixed, low rate on our mortgage and it no longer is a worry in the back of our minds.  The added bonus was that because of when we closed we were able to skip not only Decembers mortgage payment but January's as well.  Now we have the money to pay cash for Christmas and even have some left over to renew my Green Card, other headache which I am not going to get into here.
As I said Ethan's birthday was November 25th, which was also Thanksgiving.  We went to Liz's for Thanksgiving dinner and then back to our house with everyone to have desert and presents for Ethan and Shawn, Liz's husband, who also had a birthday that same week.  Ethan loved the whole thing with the big meal and all of his presents.  We didn't get a good picture of Ethan with his cake because I had left my camera on video mode and Ryan didn't know how to work my camera.  So the video didn't turn out very good, besides you really wouldn't want to hear how the Granquist family sings Happy Birthday to someone.  I did manage to get some pictures of him opening his presents though.
Ethan started Scout's the next week, although I just got his shirt, neckerchief, patches and guild book this morning. He has been looking forward to starting Scouts all year and has hated watching all his friend go without him.  But now he gets to join and couldn't be happier.
Then on December 4th he was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It was a great day, the week before was a little crazy for me because I had to get it all planned, invitations sent out, etc., but Ethan did decide one thing that I was so thankful for in the end.  He decided that he didn't want a luncheon at our house afterwards, but wanted to have everyone go to Golden Coral Buffet afterward instead.  So no food to buy and prepare or clean up for me, yeah!!!   We had all of Ryan's immediate family with their families, Ryan's parents and our family friends the Ropers there to share in Ethan's spacial day.  Ethan asked his Grandpa Granquist to give a talk on baptism and his cousin Anna to give a talk on the Holy Ghost.  No one could play the piano so we had recorded accompaniment but all in all it was a great program.  We are so happy and proud of Ethan for making the choice to be baptized.

Ethan was so excited all day and just glowed after he came out of the water.  Ethan told us afterward that he never felt so happy and wanted to know if he could get baptized again.  So we explained that we only get baptized for ourselves once but when he received the priesthood he would be able to go to the temple and be baptized for those who didn't get a chance to be in this life.  He was so excited, he wanted to hurry up and turn 12 so he could go to the temple to do baptism's, and could have that same happy feeling again.  How cute is that?
Finally just a couple of days ago, we took a quick trip up to Idaho Falls for my cousin Brad's wedding.  Yes this is the same one who just got home from his mission not too long ago, but his new wife was his girl friend for sometime before his mission and waited for him.  So I think she deserved to have a ring on her finger and a new husband without having to wait any longer.  It was a beautiful wedding, Brad looked so happy and it was great to see some of my family.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera at home so I didn't get any pictures.  I am totally bummed about it.  
That brings me up to date and now I get to start my Christmas shopping as I only have one gift so far, which proves just how much I have been overwhelmed and understaffed.  ;)