Easter

 We had an enjoyable Easter this year.  Actually, we had two of them!  The weekend before Easter we celebrated at Dale & Grace's with the whole "Standfest" crew.  We had an Easter egg hunt with all the cousins and a delicious ham dinner.  Grant was still sweet to his little sis this year and helped her find some Easter eggs during the hunt.

 

This pic is similar to a pic from last year (http://lawsnews.blogspot.com/2013/04/easter.html, but my have they grown.

Then, the next weekend we stayed at home and Lara made us another delicious Easter dinner.  

We colored eggs a few days before.  Both the kids loved it.

Grant was proud that he kept his hands clean this year.

Easter morning Grant & Grace were excited to find their Easter baskets and eat some candy.

Then, we had an Easter egg hunt with the two of them at our house... 

and finished off the day with a family bike ride.

It just doesn't get any better than this!  *Note Gracie's smile through a mouthful of chocolate!

Where did March go?

It was a cold winter with lots of snow.  

We all enjoyed playing on the ice in the wetland behind our house.

 

Who needs a snowman when you can build a snow slide?

These photos show the beginning of the 13" snowstorm that we had in April.  When Grant was younger he didn't want anything to do with the snow.  Now, he loves it.  Gracie is usually my trooper and often will stay out in the cold with me and help me shovel.  On this day the snowing and blowing were too much and she went inside after about 5 minutes. 

Gracie is still a spitfire that loves to make us laugh.  It is not unusual to hear her yelling, "Oh, yeah, oh yeah!" in response to anything that is exciting (like me coming home from work).  She incorrectly sings the alphabet all the time and after saying,"now I know my ABC's", Grant usually responds by saying "now you don't know your ABC's".  She is doing really well at using the potty.  We have kept her in a diaper so far but I think the switch to undies is coming soon.  She likes to play with her big bro and often is chasing "bad guys" or rescuing someone.  She also spends a lot of time taking care of her baby dolls.  She is most definitely a Mommy's girl and tells me that I don't know how to tuck her in if I try to put her to bed.  She can be quite sensitive and if you raise your voice, her little lips puff out and she gives you the saddest look you can imagine (& sometimes cries).  

Grant loves playing video games and we definitely have to limit how much he plays them.  In particular he loves anything Mario.  He is the first one awake in the morning, usually getting up between 6:30 and 7.  Gracie gets up somewhere between 7 and 8.  He can count to 60 and can count backwards from 10.  Lara and I helped him a bit in learning to count to 60 but never mentioned anything about counting backwards.  After he surprised us by counting down from 10 to 1, he mentioned that he learned it by watching the time countdown while playing Mario.  He is still fascinated by space and in particular by black holes.  Back in January Grant said something that was pretty funny and so I want to document it here.  After he got in trouble for bad behavior and finally calmed down, I asked him why he didn't listen to me when I first told him to behave.  He said, "I heard you and I understood you, but I just didn't listen.  Life is tricky."  Who can argue with that?!  That is the epitomy of our boy.  He always has an answer, for good or for bad.

As my 83 year old neighbor said," you have happy, healthy kids and that's what matters."  I couldn't agree more.

Our snow finally did all melt away last week as we finally had warm temps.  We actually had a day in the 70's but that was unfortunately followed up by a day in the 30's and an inch of snow.  As the weather began to break, we went on a small hike to view the Niagara River by our house.  

In the last photo you see Grant with a bunch of sticks in his hand.  He wants to collect nearly ever stick or leaf that he comes into contact with.  He also hates to throw things in the garbage because he says that he wants to keep them for "crafts".

Grant also took the opportunity afforded by the warm weather to work on his truck.

It has been a great winter and we loved having all the snow but are quite excited that spring weather is finally coming around.

The Laws Come For a Visit

Last month Jason, Heather, Cody and Carly stopped by for the weekend.  It was a fantastic visit that included a trip to Niagara Falls and a great dinner at Grover's Bar and Grill.  Grover's is a small pub that is known for it's burgers and cheeseburger soup.  The burgers were 3/4 lb and delicious.  It is called Grover's because it was Grover Cleveland's hunting cabin.

The trip to the falls was nice but given that it is winter, the overlooks closest to the falls were blocked off.  Nonetheless, it was beautiful.

Gracie was exhausted from all the play with her cousins and fell asleep on Lara once we got home (a rarity these days).

The boys enjoyed playing video games throughout the weekend.

We are so happy that you guys made the trip to the great white north and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

Happy Birthday Gracie!

Gracie had a great 2nd birthday party.  Certainly the roads are a gamble in Buffalo in January and we were happy that everyone made the trip without having to face terrible conditions (as opposed to Grant's party).  Gracie loved playing with her cousins and said after they left, "want cousins to come back".  She played a lot with the older girls.  At one point the girls wanted to go downstairs and left Gracie's room.  Gracie came out of her room a bit sad that they were going downstairs, and being the sweethearts that they are, all the cousins went back in her room to play with her.     

 

 

 Lara made an awesome cake, as usual.  The party was a bit princess themed.  Gracie loves watching Sofia the First, a show about a princess, and so it seemed appropriate.  Usually when Gracie gets up from a nap she says, "Fia on?", in hopes that she can watch the show. 

 As she was at Christmas, Grace was really into opening her presents.

Grace is a good girl with a bit of sass in her.  She is so good at saying please and thank you whenever she asks for anything or you do something for her.  Tonight she thanked Lara for cleaning up the carpet after Lily, the cat, threw-up on it.  Sometimes she even thanks me for changing her diaper or wiping her face after dinner.

When she gets mad at Grant she yells, "no, you go in time-out".

She can nearly count to 10.  She usually only misses 6.

The girl loves to jump.  She hops across the room, jumps in her crib, and climbs and jumps off anything she can.

She is still a tough cookie.  At her 2 year Dr.'s appointment the nurse had to prick her finger and squeeze it to fill up a vial to test her iron.  Gracie didn't fuss at all and just watched the vial fill up with her blood.  Then she had to get a shot and that didn't faze her at all.  The only thing that bugged her was the band-aid on her finger when the nurse was all done.  Lara took and off and she was good.  According to the charts, she is tall and light for her age.

I've asked her a few times if I should call her Grace or Gracie.  She never hesitates and always says Gracie.

Last night we went to a Daemen basketball game and she loved it.  She watched in amazement as the game started and danced to the music during timeouts.  Before going, we asked her if she wanted to go to a basketball game and her reply was, "no, football".  One night she woke up sick and I got her out of crib and cuddled her while I was watching Monday Night Football.  Ever since, she has loved football.

Happy birthday 2 year old!  We love you!