I am so behind in my blogging that I decided that I would do quick monthly updates to catch up and try to be better about finding time to update more frequently! So, here goes nothing!
December 2009 was an exciting month for our little Grant family. At the beginning of the month Brian and I got away for our first night ever away from our kids! Crazy to think that we have never done that, but living far away from your family (and babysitters) makes it difficult. (A big thanks to Mike and Gina for taking excellent care of the girls for us!) Anyway our first night without kids was in Las Vegas! We went to see Garth Brooks in concert and had a blast with our friends Lexi and Bill Jack. Right before we left, trying to be very responsible I found out that my very first trip to Vegas would not include any late night partying because I am pregnant!!! It was a great trip and concert.
This year we had said since the summer that we wouldn't be home for Christmas this year. It was just too much money and we also took into account that Josie has not has a healthy Christmas since the year she was born. With her asthma the winter is hard and traveling and crazy schedules have always lead to pneumonia and illness at Christmas time. The idea of not being home was sad for us. It was something that we said we would never miss, but we thought it was best for us this year. Well, that last all of maybe a month before we decided that we couldn't do it and starting planning our road trip home. The catch was we were not going to tell anyone that we were coming home. We would drive up and arrive on Christmas eve and stay a few days and head home. This meant that we would be on the road about the same amount of time that we were actually home, but we thought it was worth it. Of course the day we planned to leave there was supposed to be big storms our whole route home, so we left early only to encounter this:
This was the worst of the weather we saw. We were still in Arizona, about 2 hours from home and stuck on the mountain for about 3 hours before they turned us around and headed us back to town. We found out from friends who were watching weather and road conditions for us that all roads out of the state were closed but one and you had to have tire chains for 4 wheel drive for the state troopers to even let you through, but Grants never turn back. ( That's a family motto handed down from Brian's Grandfather) So we called and put some tire chains on hold at Checker auto and headed down the mountain, got our tire chains and headed on to Minnesota. We drove to Kansas City and stayed the night there and left very early the next morning to beat the weather coming our way. I think we were in the hotel for less than 12 hours, but we got some good sleep at least. On Christmas eve we arrived in Minnesota, to a very surprised family!
None of our plans to surprise our family turned out quite the way we planned, but everything turned out great. We were going to just show up at church, but because of the weather we arrived early and just decided to go to the Grant's house and get ready. Allan was shocked when we pulled in the driveway and Diane was surprised by two little girls when she got out of the shower to get ready for church. As we were sitting visiting with Grandma and Grandpa the girls were checking out their tree. They have a ornament for every Christmas with all the grand kids on it and Allan said to Josie that we needed another baby before next year so they could add another name on next years ornament. To which Josie replied, "Well, you know my mom has a baby in her belly!" There went our Christmas morning surprise!
The girls had so much fun with their cousins in Minnesota, we are so glad we made the trip home! Josie even had her first healthy Christmas in Minnesota, which lead to her first time really getting to play in the snow! She loved every minute of it. She shares a love of snowmobiling with her dad. She could have had him drive that thing around the yard for hours, and she did!!
Ellie on the other hand wanted nothing to do with the snowmobile, but loved the snow and playing outside just the same and we all had a great Christmas.
One of Josie's favorite things to do at the zoo is feed the giraffes. She taught Papa how to feed the giraffes.
We also took them up to Sedona to spend a day.
While they were here we also planned to have Josie's birthday party. She turned 4 back on December 22nd, and we usually have a party at home with family, but since we had so few days in Minnesota we decided to have our first Arizona birthday for Josie. Which was a lot of fun because she got to invite all of her preschool and Arizona friends to her party. She really wanted to have her party at Bounce U, so that's what we planned. We had so much fun jumping and playing! After an hour or so of literally bouncing off the walls, we had pizza and cake. Good times were had by all and mom didn't even have to clean up the mess, until she got home.
The only mess to clean up was the disaster in my kitchen from making Josie's birthday cake. Diane has always made her grand kids birthday cakes and does such a wonderful job. When I had Ellie I figured I was going to have to start to learn how to make cakes for myself since I never saw us being home in April for Ellie's birthdays and I didn't think it was fair that her cakes would never be as cool as Josie's. Well when Josie requested a princess castle cake I knew I had my work cut out for me. I spent a lot of time looking at other home made castle cakes online. Trying to figure out how they made them and what was the best design. and this is what I came up with. I have to say that I really had fun making this cake and I have to thank Brian for all his work too. He made the door and all the windows and even stayed back to repair one of the towers I broke in the car before we even left for the party. I thought I was going to cry! Diane did the adorable little princess dress cake and that was Josie's special cake!
