Out to Eat

Last month we had had a busy Saturday and wanted to go do something fun, so Ben suggested the Olive Garden! I was excited. He usually doesn't choose Italian, but he knew I would like it. So we headed out for dinner. We got there before it was too busy. We had a great time and yummy food. Grace asks for Spaghetti at least 3 times a week, so she was in 7th Heaven.

Garett has developed an extreme fascination with drinking glasses. Everytime I'm drinking something and holding him he starts trembling, clenching his fists and rocks up and down. He loves it! Don't worry it's only rootbeer and He didn't get any of it.

Easter 2009

We had such a great Easter this year. The week leading up to it Grace had so many questions about the Easter Bunny. "But where does he live?" "But why does he hide our baskets?" "But why does he put treats in them?" The questions went on and on.

The Easter Bunny comes to our house on Friday night so Saturday morning we went a hunting. Grace was so excited to find our baskets! She found Garett's first which was hiding in the bathtub, she thought that was really silly. Then I found mine in the Entertainment Center and Ben found his behind the couch. Grace found hers last behind the treadmill.

After we found them all Grace had to empty each one out and organize it, then she had to empty every single egg!
After breakfast we colored eggs. Grace was really into it this year and we had a lot of fun decorating them with our Princess Egg kit that included stickers and glitter!

We had these same ears with Grace and decided to take an Easter Bunny Garett photo. This is right after he learned to sit so he was pretty unstable still.

Easter morning we got up and got ready for church. Here are the kiddos in their Easter Outfits. This is the only picture I took, but they looked pretty adorable!

That afternoon we headed to Grandma Hardy's for dinner and an Easter Egg Hunt. We were going to do one for Grace on Saturday, but I'm glad we waited to have some cousins participate.

I think they found all the eggs in less than a minute. Boy was it fun!

Garett also had a good time with his Daddy.

See? He's such a happy boy!

The Playhouse

I looked and debated for a long time about getting a plastic playhouse or a swingset for Grace. I thought she needed something to play with outside for the summer. So after looking around Ben decided he could build her a playhouse and so the project began. He started on the 28th of March and got it to this point in one day. Thanks to Kyle for all your help!

His goal was to have it done by her birthday, so he came home and worked on it every night for a week and got it done!
He was pretty proud of himself and I think he did an amazing job!

Then it was up to me to paint. It took me forever, no thanks to the weather. Here is the final product. Grace picked the blue.

Here is the inside. We moved her kitchen out, put some outside carpet down,

and her little table and chairs.

She has already spent many hours of fun in it and it's big enough to fit several friends at once! I love it! (Thanks Ben for all your hard work!)

Grace's Birthday Party

(This picture is supposed to go at the end of the post. I have no idea how to get it there)

We had Grace's Friend Birthday Party on the 6th. That morning I took her to the Dr for her 3 yr check up. Here are her stats.

Height: 40 inches 97%

Weight: 36.8 lbs 92%

Right on for her, always the 90th %!

Anyway, her party was so fun! I was going to do a Princess themed party, but half of her friends are boys so we opted for a Farm Party this year. I decorated treat bags for all the kids. The bags looked like pigs,

I made a Barn to play some games with.

We played duck duck goose, pin the tail on the donkey, we planted some seeds and hunted for eggs. Here is everyone hunting.

Grace finding her egg.

We also herded sheep into the barn and then opened presents!

She was excited over every little present! It was so fun!

After presents, we sang to her and had cupcakes!

It was a little crazy having so many friends over (we invited 12 and felt bad leaving people out, but she just kept inviting people and I had to cut it off somewhere), but we had so much fun!

Grace's Birthday

Grace's Birthday was so much fun this year! Since my Birthday in February she would ask just about every day if it was her birthday yet, or she would go around and announce to people that she had an April Birthday. It was on the Sunday of General Conference, so it was really nice to get up and not have to worry about getting ready for church. I decorated with lots of steamers and balloons, which are essential to birthdays according to Grace. She headed straight for the presents when she woke up and was so excited!

I love how she's effectively using her feet to support the present here.
A Piggy Bank! She loves "monies"and was so excited to have a place to put them. (Which isn't her mouth. On a side story, a few Sundays ago she was playing with a penny and put it in her mouth. This isn't the first time she's done this. She seems to put everything in her mouth! Well she was just standing there when all of a sudden I look at her; she's going red and has a terrified look in her eye. I grab her and lean her forward trying to remember how to do the Heimlich, and she swallowed it! She started crying and I took her to her room and freaked her out about how she could have died, and how it was scary when she couldn't breath. She vowed never to do it again, and she didn't for about a week. Every once in a while I still see small items going into her mouth, but she pulls them out quickly when I remind her what could happen. So that is the story of the second penny she's swallowed.)

Here's Garett hanging out during the present opening. Isn't he just so sweet?

The special Princess Crown. This thing has made it through 3 birthdays now!

Here is the Grand Finale....

A Kitchen!!!!! (We actually bought this about a month before her birthday. Jenny and I went down to Provo and bought kitchens from a guy off of KSL. The kids were all so excited, but when we dropped Jenny off Grace started freaking out because she wanted their Kitchen. She lost it that day and we decided to save it for her B-Day. She was very excited about it after that. It also fits perfectly in the corner of her playhouse.)

The actual Grand Finale is a playhouse that Ben built for her. Pictures to come. It wasn't totally finished by her B-Day. It took me forever to paint it!

Grace played with all of her new presents that morning and then headed up to Ben's parents after the morning session of Conference. We had a yummy dinner and Grace got tons of attention from the Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles. After the Second Session, we had Birthday Cake!

Then headed home.....Grace was pooped!

That evening Grandpa Hardy and Grandma Debbie came for a visit. Grace was astounded that she got ANOTHER present to open!

A new table and chair set for her Playhouse! She loves this thing and that Umbrella has made a nice shady spot for Garett to play on occasion.

I love this picture of my cute family!

Grace had such a fun birthday and it was so rewarding to see her excitement and appreciation! Plus she is finally convinced that she is 3 and that's better than 2.

Garett at 6 mo.

Just wanted to record Garett's stats at 6 months. He turned 6 months on March 22 but we didn't take him in to the Dr. until April 6th.

Height: 271/4 inches 70%

Weight: 18.12 lbs 64%

Head: 171/2 inches 63%

Like his new trick? He thinks He is so clever!

Garett's first food

The day after we returned home from St. George, I decided I had put off Garett eating real food for long enough. He was almost 6 months, so I broke down bought some cereal and gave it a go. He absolutely LOVED it!

He was still a little unstable in his booster.


It was a family affair with Grace begging to try it and Ben taking hundreds of pictures.

He barely even spit any out. What a great boy!

He has now mastered all of the vegetables and enjoyed some fruits in his mesh popsicle thingy. He has started to get really offended if we eat without him. Now he has cereal for breakfast and Veggies for dinner.