Conference Weekend

This weekend we had the awesome opportunity to listen to General Conference (a semi-annual meeting for the entire church world wide to listen to counsel from modern day prophets and apostles).  It was fun to see how Grayson reacted, he tried to say all the names of the different speakers which was very cute.  He especially liked when the choir would sing.

Sunday morning we made a huge brunch and had some delicious food.  Our friend Jane came over to watch with us since her husband was out of town.  We made sourdough biscuits, sausage and gravy, grilled pineapple, fresh fruit, homemade syrup and amazing french toast made from awesome cinnamon bread.  In short, we were stuffed by the end of it and it all tasted absolutely amazing!!

Grayson really loved the food too.

Jane spent the night, so we left up the air mattress and enjoyed using it to watch conference.  I put up some pictures so that I could use them to show Grayson what the speakers were talking about.  He got really good at pointing out a picture of the temple and Jesus Christ.  It was really cute, he would get so excited and run and point at the pictures.

As you can tell, Grayson really likes Jane.

Jane and I were having 'quiet time' between sessions and the tasty brunch caught up with us, so we both fell asleep.  Luckily Grayson took a really long nap, so he woke us up about 10 minutes before the session started.  We thoroughly enjoyed General Conference!

Our Visit with Uncle Tanner

Trevor's little brother has been serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Charleston, WV mission for the past two years.  He will head home this Friday and it just so happens he is right now serving about an hour south of us in a little town called Buena Vista.  We got special permission from his mission president to take him and his mission companions out to lunch on Tanner's birthday this past Friday.  We met them at a cute little Italian restaurant and had delicious calzones for lunch.  Grayson took a little bit to warm up to his uncle since they had never met before, but in no time they were buddies.

Giving his uncle 'knuckles.'

We could never get him to say Tanner's name, but he said it all the way home.

While we were waiting for Tanner to get Grayson's present out of the car, Grayson had to hug each of the pumpkins sitting by the front door of the restaurant.  He really loves pumpkins!

Tanner got a cute car for Grayson which he loved!  The drive home he kept saying 'car, car, car, Tanner, Tanner, Tanner' it was hilarious.

There they go, going out to work hard and serve the Lord!!  So proud of my little brother in law.

Camping Trip

We decided to fit one camping trip in before it go too cold, so we headed up to the Shenandoah National Park.  We got there first and picked out too beautiful camp sites.  Grayson was so excited as soon as we got him out of the car.  The only downside is he figured everyone's campsites were fair game, so we had to keep a good eye on him.

He really liked helping dad set up the tent.  He walked around carrying the tent stakes and 'hammering' with them.

Then he started 'hammering' some acorns he found.

As soon as the tent was up, he didn't want to leave.  Of course he had to give his daddy a hug because he was so excited.

He really had fun playing with toy cars in the dirt and rocks.

When his friend AJ got there, those two boys had a great time.  They loved playing in the tent and with cars around the camp site.

Relaxing by the fire.

Joe being super dad and holding all three boys at once.

It was unfortunately a very cold night, so it was a little rough for little man, but they sure did like sitting by the fire and eating graham crackers.

We tried to keep them warm and even taught them how to put their hands in their pockets.

Overall it was fun, but it was pretty darn cold and we didn't get a whole lot of sleep.  We roasted smores on our very tiny fire (the wood they sold was complete crap and we couldn't get it to light) and had hot cider.  We tried a new dutch oven recipe for dinner, which turned out very tasty and had amazing sticky rolls, fruit and scrambled eggs in the morning.  We will definitely go again, but camping with a little one is a new experience for me, so I will be better prepared next time.

Grayson-isms

Grayson had his 18 month check up when we got back and he is healthy and doing well.

Height: 33 3/8"

Weight: 25 lbs 4.5 oz

I can't believe how big he is getting.  He is going to be 2 in just a few months.  He is talking a lot and starting to put words together.  Check out this cute video!

• I found Grayson sitting next to my purse surrounded by gum wrappers.  I walked over, he smiled, drooled some peppermint, said "Mmmmm, gum!" and popped what turned out to be his sixth piece of gum in his mouth.
• He has been showing interest in potty training, so we got him his own potty.  Lately, his toys and stuffed animals have been needing to go potty a lot.  We sometimes find his monkey stuffed into his toilet.  
• Grayson is getting more imaginative.  He brought me his toy screwdriver (a squishy fat one from Ikea), called it ice cream and started to lick it.
• His favorite things are trains, airplanes and cars.  
• I have had to move his laundry basket and trash can because he will start pulling things out when he is supposed to be sleeping.  I actually found him sitting inside his laundry basket in his crib one time.
• I kept stubbing my toe and so now Grayson frequently says "owie" and points to his foot.  
• Anything we do, he likes to help with.  He helps me cook dinner and empty the dishwasher.  
• He kneels down and folds his arms when we say family prayer and will even say his own prayers with our help.
• He knows his friends' names now and gets so excited when he gets to play with them.
• He is a big climber and quite the daredevil.  He doesn't scare easy and is pretty fearless on the playground, I have to keep an eye on him.  Oddly enough though, he sometimes is a little nervous going down slides.
• He likes to say "hi" a lot!  If you don't say hi back, he will just keep saying it, louder and closer to you.  
• Bath time is still a big favorite of his.  Anything to do with the water really.  He was helping me cook dinner the other day and he started dipping his graham crackers in the dish water.  
• We got out Halloween decoration and he gets really excited any time he sees a pumpkin.

Motherhood is definitely a whole new world.  Here are some funny things that I never thought I would hear myself say:

"No one wants rocks on their head, buddy."

"Please get your mouth off my feet."

"Get the eyeball out of your mouth!"  (a consequence of getting the Halloween decorations out)

"No, toots come from your bum, not your back"

"I wiped your bum with that, please don't use it to wipe your face"

"Babies are not toys."

"Your monkey is all done going potty today" (That little monkey must have IBS or something)

This and That

We are all settled back into our apartment and having fun being home again.  We decided to have a family date night.  We watched Ratatouille and had a dinner of crepes, fruit and cheese.  It was a lot of fun.

There was a football game when we got back, BYU vs UVA.  We didn't get tickets, but we went to a friend's house to watch the game.  We were especially glad we didn't get tickets when it started pouring rain.  It was fun and a little surreal seeing so many BYU shirts around town.

A few weeks ago, we discovered this little buddy living right outside our door.  We named him Barnabus and he hung out right outside for a few days.  Grayson still goes to the door sometimes and asks about the bat.  It's pretty funny.

Alabama Wrap Up

I have been terrible about updating the blog, but we have been so very busy since we got back to Charlottesville.  These are a few pictures to wrap up our summer in Alabama.  We had a lot of fun our last few weeks.  Grayson liked to look like his daddy and especially liked helping him get ready for work in the morning. He really liked to help him pick out a tie and as you can see, would carry Trevor's work bag around too.

We went to the farm again to pick some tomatoes for canning.  Grayson helped us pick tomatoes...well specifically he picked one tomato and he held onto it the whole morning.  He was very proud of that tomato.

Still holding the tomato....even when he went for a ride on the Gator.

Trying on Trent's sunglasses...still holding the tomato.

It occurred to me that I had never taken pictures of our apartment, so here it is:

Grayson's room

Our room.

Kitchen.

Grayson loves to sleep and he really loves this hat of Trevor's.  

We decided to smoke a brisket for our last Sunday family dinner.  We started around noon the Saturday before and it was well worth the wait!

Here's the final product and it was absolutely divine!!!  My husband did a good job.

Grayson insisted on trying on some of Trevor's clothes.

We went to the cabin for one last trip and had an incredibly relaxing weekend.  We took the paddle boat out, went for walks and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.  It was perfect.

Grayson was not a huge fan of the life jacket, but we got him to wear it anyway.

He kept wanting to play in the water and probably would have jumped in the lake if we had let him.  In short, we had a wonderful time and were sad to go, but we were happy to be home again.