Pinewood Derby

For Activity Days this month, the girls joined the Cub Scout boys in a Pinewood Derby. Each of the girls were given a Young Women's Value to base their car on. Mikkele was given Choice and Accountability which has the color orange associated with it. This was a project meant for the dad's and the daughters to work together on. If you ask Mikkele, her dad did most of the work and she didn't get to help too much. She's just a little bitter about it. We kind of took the easy way out and bought a pre-cut car kit. So basically all we really had to do was paint it and place the decals. Mikkele picked out a bright florescent orange for her car. It ended up looking really nice...too bad the speed didn't turn out as nice. :(Mikkele helping Jeremy put the decals on.

What happened to her arm you ask??? It's called I'm 8 1/2 and I'm a drama queen. Apparently her wrist hurt so she felt that she needed it wrapped. Whatever. I'm picking my battles at this point with this child.

The finished product. The car kit came with the windows and a few other decals, but we still needed the car number and of course racing stripes. So I got out my vinyl and cricut machine and cut out the number 14 and then cut some thin strips for the racing stripes. The vinyl that Mikkele picked out was black, shimmery, glittery stuff. Jeremy pitched a fit about putting that on this "awesome car" that he worked so hard on to make look "cool". He didn't think that glittery, shimmery vinyl belonged on this awesome car. He lost. Mikkele reminded him that it was HER car and that she was going to put what ever kind of vinyl on it that she wanted, plus I had already cut out the numbers and I wasn't going to cut out any more. Really you can't even tell it's that shimmery unless it's in the right light. It still turned out awesome. He got over it, eventually. He's just happy there wasn't any flowers or hearts on it like she originally wanted.

Mikkele and Jeremy before the race.

Mikkele and her car before the race.

Each of the kids got pit passes with their names on it. It gave them access to be down by the track. Everyone else had to sit behind the checkered flags. Each car had to be weighed before beinning. The car couldn't weigh more than 5 oz. A lot of people ended up taping coins to the tops of their cars to add extra weight because their cars were way under the weight limit and wouldn't have a chance. The girls ended up racing against the boys. The poor girls lost every time. It was kinda sad. But the girls still had fun cheering each other on. The girls did get to race against each other once they got into the loser's bracket. Mikkele's car still didn't win. :( Oh well, at least it looked good going down the track, right. You could always pick out her car too. Florescent orange is hard to miss.

Mikkele and Shelby's cars racing each other. Shelby's boat car won. The pictures are a little blury, but you get the picture. It was close, just not close enough.

Shelby, Mikkele, and Amber waiting for thier turn on the sidelines. Shelby's looked like a boat and Amber's looked like a lady bug.

Shelby, Alexa, Mikkele, Ezra, Amber, and Brayden with their cars and certificates. Alexa's car did the best out of all the girls. Ezra's car took 2nd overall. Why is she doing this face in almost all the pictures I have of her? Again, just like the ace bandage...whatever.

The whole group of kids that participated.

Each kid left with a certificate of participation. I think they all had fun, even if all the girls stunk it up. They're all looking forward to next year's Pinewod Derby already and planning what they can do to make their cars go faster.

Double Digits

Today marks the day of 99 days left to go. And Jeremy reminded me that the doctor said that he was gonna take me a week early, so really that leaves 92 days to go. Yippie! I had an appointment yesterday and as far as the doctor is concerned everything is going great. My blood pressure looks great, I've only gained 4 pounds so far, I'm measuring where I'm supposed to be...etc. He gave me my prescription to go drink the yummy orange soda next week. I think I look forward to labor more than that orange soda. He also said that in the next month the baby will double in size and weight. Good thing she's only at about a pound and a half right now, but that's still a lot of growing in the next month...for her and me. This is where I am getting nervous and this is also where the whining begins. (Feel free to quit reading) I'm already having a lot of lower back problems and they are accompanied by other pains "down there". I always have problems with my sciatica while I'm pregnant, but this time has been a lot worse. I have been trying to visit my chiropractor on a weekly basis to help take the edge off. I love my chiropractor! But I'm waddling already. The worse my back feels the more I waddle. Add a full bladder and a baby using it as a punching bag and the waddle is even better. It's pretty good entertainment watching me walk at this point. You should see the looks that I'm getting while I'm at the grocery store, or other places. These looks are even better if I have extra kids that I'm watching that day. I asked my doctor about all the pain and pressure that I've been having "down there" because I feel like I did with Mikkele the 3 weeks before I delivered. He pretty much just said to get over it and that it's just going to get a lot worse. He said that since I'm on my 3rd kid that my muscles just aren't what they used to be so the baby is just lower putting more pressure and pain on things that usually don't get the pain and pressure until towards the end. How do some people have 6-8-10 kids. I just don't get it. He also said that lifting makes it worse, but sense I really can't avoid lifing Grant, so there's nothing to do but watch it get worse as the baby and I continue to grow. Yeah! I wish I could fast forward just a little bit and have spring get here a little sooner. But then that opens a whole other can of worms that I'm not sure I'm quite ready for, just yet. So I will continue to try to be patient and cut the whining to a minimum even though this kid is try to kill me from the inside. Sorry for all the whining in this post. I guess I'll have it to look back on when this kid is older and tell her what problems she caused me.I thought this picture was funny. Good depiction of the baby trying to kill me from the inside out.

Kids Say the Damnest Things

So Grant has been cracking us up lately. He has really been trying hard to say new words. He has been doing really well. He's been experimenting with different mouth movements and shapes that help to form new words. They are really doing amazing things with him at school.
One word that he's been saying for a while now is "Dada". It has been very clear and recognizable until the last few months. Towards the end of last year he started to say "dim" which has now changed to "damn". At first Jeremy thought he was trying to say something else, but when we ask him to say "dada" he now says "damn". Mikkele has been a little upset that her little brother has picked up swearing. We have just had to tell her that he doesn't know better, and she understands that it's still not ok for her to do it just because her little brother is doing it. We also keep repeating back the "dada" to him and hope that it will one day return to that instead of having a potty mouth 4 year old.

Grant's 4th Birthday

Monday, February 2nd was Grant's 4th birthday. He knew that it was his big day, and he was all smiles because of it. He started out his day with a present of this cute crown from Grandma Roberts. He wore it to school to let all of his friends know that he was King Grant for the day. We took in some sugar cookies to share with his classmates also. All of the kids at school really like Grant. They call him their class mascot. They all had fun wishing him a happy birthday. After school we spent the day shopping with Grandma Roberts and Aunt 'Lisha. What 4 year old wouldn't want to do that on his birthday??? That night we had a fun Spiderman birthday party.

Grant, Connor, and Dillon showing off their Spiderman masks.

We had some slightly unexpected visitors come to the party, which we were really excited about. My Grandma and Grandpa Jones were in town from NY, where they have been in the temple presidency for the last 2 1/2 years. We don't get to see them very often, so it was great that they were able to come and join in on the fun. Jeremy's Grandma and Grandpa Decker were also in town from Page, AZ and were able to come. We get to see them a little bit more often, but still not as much as we would like. So it was great to have these extra guests come that aren't able to attend usually.

Jeremy's cousin and his wife have opened up a cute bake shop in Provo, so we decided to have them make the cake this year. Let's face it, I have no creativity left in my mushy pregnant brain. It turned out really cute, and tasted really yummy, I might add.


We couldn't get the sugar into him fast enough. This kid has really turned into a sugar freak since his last birthday. Ice cream is his all around favorite, but anything with sugar will do.

Check out that big smile while we're singing Happy Birthday.


Grant got a lot of fun presents. Jeremy was put in charge of the picture taking at that point, so we don't have too many pictures. :( He got lots of new clothes, which was great! He has grown quite a bit in the last couple months and isn't fitting into his 2T stuff anymore. So it was great to get some clothes that fit. (At least in length. I don't think anything will ever fit around his tiny little hiney.) He also got a cute and cuddly dog and number book from Grandma and Grandpa Gallier, (who weren't able to attend because of sickness) some awesome sunglasses, an MP3 player (see the Texas post to know why), and some money.

We had a fun day celebrating this great little kid that we are so lucky to be able call ours. He is such a sweet little boy, and we wouldn't trade him for anything in the world.