Grady is TWO

COUNTING UP Grady is now two.  He has grown so much and has already been through so much in his short life.  He copies everything, even Axel's naughty side!  He talks sooo much and has a cute little chipmunk voice which is my favorite.  He brings so much laughter and joy into our home and we are so thankful to have the opportunity to help him become the young man God wants him to be!  Happy Birthday Squirt!

Opening presents.  He had the same look on his face the whole time.  I think he was overwhelmed.  Thanks everyone who remembered him on his birthday.  Lora he loved the banner and particularly the kisses (I loved the container :) Tennille the animals were a big hit.  Mariah and Great Grandma thanks for the moola, he will use it to buy something awesome! Grandma and Grandpa Titcomb thanks for making the trip to Bozeman and for the Mater and animals. It was a really special day for him and he totally felt important strutting around all day. 

It soon wore off as he rolled around in his birthday spoils in his diaper!

The masterpiece Mater cake.  Thanks Mom for helping me transform it from my mind to reality!  

Grady liked Mater's special appearance.

The favorite part:  Blowing out the candles.

Halloween was a fun one with great costumes this year.  Darigold passed out milk and took this picture... see even Joker loves his chocolate milk. 

The fam trick or treating.  Can't you tell Eli and I are super hero's too, only we are maintaining our secret identities!  It was an awkward moment in front of Eli's professors house, as we posed forever as she busted out her camera.

BATMAN.  Ya gotta love the pose by the tree.

I love the look on his face and his pointed toe. 

The happy duo ready for candy

We do lounging out really well at our house.  Grady is our copy cat!

Grandpa reading a book.  It must be a really intense part.  Don't worry Grady, I am sure it will all end well.

October12 of 12

Look at me posting 12 of 12 sooo on time.  I figured I wouldn't wait til I had a million pictures to post all at once.  Look at all the time I am saving you by my simplified post.  So, here was our day.

#1 My sweet advent calendar made by my super creative sister, Tennille.  We totally love Halloween, so being able to countdown to it is sooo much fun.
#2 Axel's gloved hand holding a quarter to get a beloved gumball.  Gumballs = A Good Bribery Tool
#3 Axe getting on the bus to go to school
#4 Grady is pro at putting out his lower lip... and here it is, I call it the heart melter.
#5 The awesome cowboy hat that also works as a good disguise since earlier I partially ran a bus stop sign to the same bus that drops Axel off.  I have a fear of being scolded I guess since I went to all the trouble to "change my look"so she wouldn't recognize me.   I should have taken Eli's classic advice and shaved my head and got a face tattoo.  That is our answer for every escape-from-the-police-movie when their best attempts is to put on a hat or color their hair. :)
#6 I finally busted out my massage table.  Let's see I think it has been a year since it has seen any use.  Don't worry though, I still got the magic hands. 
#7 The big grocery shopping day.
#8 My Halloween Village.  I totally LOVE it.  This year one of my additions was a bat boy in honor of my Batman-obsessed boys.  Did I mention how much I love Halloween?
#9 The remnants of Axel's grilled cheese sandwich.  He set it on his plate looked at me and said, "Look Mom a heart!" Then he pushed it towards me saying, "For You!"  It was so sweet and hilarious.
#10 This awesome text from Melissa totally made my day in a laugh so hard I almost peed my pants sort of way.  It says, "What did one saggy boob say to the other?  We'd better perk up or people will think we're nuts!"  I'm sorry if that is offensive but I found it pretty dang funny.  Plus I justified it since the person who sent it to me is sweet as pie!
#11 The nightly ritual of light saber fighting.  I recently found a blue one to add to the collection so Eli doesn't have to use the broom anymore.  Oh boy the fun we have.
#12 Grady using the remote as a phone.  I loved listening to his conversation.  In his high pitched voice he would say "Hello! How Are You?" 

Are you still there?

            It's pathetic to think that I haven't even had a couple minutes to post my september 12 of 12 let alone all that we have been up to lately...which has actually been quite a bit.  But I don't pretend to understand how the moms do it that have five kids, homeschool, have creative and planned in advance Family Home Evenings, cook elaborate meals, keep up on all their sewing and craft projects, keep an impeccable house, and maintain a regular cooking and personal blog.  Yeah, in my dreams that would be me.  When I get busy sadly the blog is one of the first things that gets shoved aside.  So, here is me attempting to catch you up.  We've got everything from Labor Day to Potato Harvest.
            Before we get to the events, we just wanted to thank everyone out there who remembered us and our little bro, Alex.  The Lord definitely heard all the prayers and fasting in Alex's behalf and that is the only reason that he only stayed a week in the hospital and has no brain damage!  It really has been a miracle to witness.  It will still be a long and rough recovery to the boy but I can't tell you how great it was to have him home and joking around telling stories like same old Alex.  We love you, man.

#1 The morning began with the wind carrying off with my Costco receipt only to land perfectly in the middle of the underside of the car.  Come on!  How in the world am I going to reach that with my stubby arms?
#2 I don't know if that is a happy or mad face Grady is pulling while climbing the tree.  Either way it was funny.
#3 I spent the afternoon with an awesome woman, Wendy Roth.  She reminds me of my dear mother and being far away it is nice to be able to hang out with someone like that!
#4 The mini wheelbarrow equals hours of entertainment
#5 This is Axel's makeshift unibrow that he artistically created this morning using my mascara he found in the car.  Being the awesome mom I am he wore it most of the day.  Mainly cause I found it hilarious.  Hey Bert!
#6 A dancing snowman toy that plays music.  Grady finds it every time he goes to Wendy's and it is definitely a favorite among the kiddos.
#7 Chillin on the grass.  This is a total "enjoying days of summer" picture!
#8 Eli reading Gems of our Valley.  It is amazing to read all the rich history that Grace has.
#9 Brothers having fun on the big wheel.  Axel is such a great big bro.
#10 Me, being a goober to Eli when he was trying to sweep the floor.  I know what is harder to believe me being a goober or Eli sweeping the floor?  Well, they are both regular occurences.  Eli, you are a good man!
#11 A definite "show your prom date" picture.  It's one of my favorites.  The water is cloudy because it is pure soap.  Axel is facinated with lathering Dad's soap.  I expect him to pee pure Dove.  :)
#12 This is what I get to look forward to when Grady eats Frosted Flakes.  Grrr.

Grandpa chillin on the chair for a minute in the cellar.

The beautiful Melissa that I can no longer compete with in best daughter in law cause she drives a windrower and the potato truck.  All I can do is laundry.  Shrug.

Eli showing all the cousins the potato operation

Braxton and Camille not forgetting Grady.

If we get to participate in many more harvests then you will find us living our dream!

Dirt is a boys best friend.  If you wonder where Axe is in all these pictures he made instant friends with Melissa and her little guy Jax.  They were inseparable.  They even rode the tractor with Jarom.  He said it comparable to being stuck in a cage with two monkeys...bare feet and all.  Farm life rocks.

I got to play farm wife right along side Lora as we made all the meals and kept the house managed.   The boys got to know their cute cousin, Ben.  Grady welcomed him in for sure as he kept trying to get a horsie ride from him and was completely frustrated when he wouldn't take his binkie. (Axel took the picture...he's getting good)

A very dirty Grandpa.  This was a regular end of the day sight when we could barely see his eyeballs.

We finally got to take a Harley ride together.  My first ride with all the leathers was awesome!

A historical site along the way...(the statue, not me!)

The diner which apparently was the place for all the retirees to go.  Boy did I get some stares from the older women.  I couldn't tell if it was disapproval or envy at what their younger days used to be like!

yeah, check out the view.

The Bobcat Homecoming game.  I colored the boys hair with finger paint and we had the school spirit baby.  It is nice to finally have a college sports team to route for!

He loves to hang from anything and everything

We commissioned Axe to take the picture...Aaaah isn't it sweet!

So, close we could smell the sweat...or my zoom is really good on the camera.  Either way it was a great game.  We creamed the Bears.

And now for some labor day fun.  Sand Volleyball the event we all wait for in anticipation

The whole fam lovin the yard games

All the kids checking out a burrowing toad under the well. 

Master of the Court

Boche Ball

Add caption

August 12 of 12

Yep it is that time of the month again...for 12 of 12 (what were you thinking) aah ha ha ha 

So, here is what you have been missing lately at our house...

1- My morning began to a wake up call of Axel nudging me awake with the words, "Mom, Grady pooped!" That can never be a good sign and it wasn't.  I thought that I was preparing myself for the worst but I wasn't prepared to have to mop my kitchen floor and shampoo my carpet due to my almost two year old having the rocky mountain quickstep BIG TIME.  I will spare you the rest of the gory details.  But I will say that the bissell hand held carpet cleaner is heaven sent and anyone with kids should have one!

2- The regular licking-of-the-Bosch-bowl-session that occurs every time I make something.  This time the batter was brown sugar muffins.

3-The brown sugar muffins as mentioned before.  They are the best!  And a definite contributing factor to my own muffin top!  For good reason since they are divine!

4- Our home-ade podium consisting of the garbage can and the bike pump for the microphone (which even moved up and down).  The purpose of the podium was solely to warm Axel up to the idea of giving his first talk in Primary today but ended up being more fun than expected.  Eli ended up conducting an entire program consisting of: "We would like to welcome everyone out today.  As far as announcements go we will be going to the Malczk's for dinner tonight.  Please bring some peach cobbler.  We will have the opening prayer by Grady and turn the time over to Axel for the lesson."  I was dying laughing.

5-Axel's turn on the podium.  He even had a slip of paper he would unfold to "read" off of.  His "talk" consisted of "and it came to pass Batman and Wolverine fight" or something to that effect.  We closed with a song and a prayer after I gave a "special musical number".  After it was all over, we unanimously agreed that we need a podium for family home evening.  It is a must have after this experience.  

6- The pictures Axe drew for his talk...A CTR shield to stand for what the Holy Ghost helps us do and a smiley face for how we feel when we have the Holy Ghost and a sad face for how we feel when we don't!  He did great on his first primary talk and loved it so much that he had a complete meltdown when we tried to drag him off the podium when his talk was over.  

7- Wolverine using his healing powers on Axel's hurt toe.

8- Playing Batman...Axel's recent superhero obsession

9- The newest additions to our family...bunk beds and a huge yellow slide. We had the brilliant idea to hook the slide to the top bunk and let me tell you the kids haul bum down that baby!  The kids love it and Grady is doing awesome in his big boy bed!

10- Axel's nightly verse reading in his Book of Mormon.  We draw a picture next to the verse after he reads it to help him remember.  He's a boy so naturally he was intrigued with Laban's abrupt end.  

11- Our box of peaches that are the most delicious things ever.  Is it weird that we have been eating them like crazy and still aren't sick of them?  Who buys an entire case of peaches and doesn't can them?  We do!

12- This one catches Grady in the act of taking out his rage on Axel as he is posed to strike him in the head. He often tries to beat on Axe...I remember a time when Grandpa Hubbard came and brought Coke with him.  Axe had a coke and Grady didn't and tried desperately to tackle Axel to the ground to get that Coke.  It was to no avail but you should have seen how red his face got and how loud his grunts of rage were in his attempt.

Intense! Like camping!

Hello once again. Eli here, and like a politician up for reelection, I’m  making my appearance know so you don’t forget I exist.  I usually only write when I have a tale that is worth telling, and I feel that I have a couple of great tales for you today.  They are tales of camping and adventure, high adventure.  No, not high in the hippy Bozeman sense, we didn’t smoke weed the whole time. (I actually knew a guy that sprayed weeds for the county, and for his job description he said that he just drove around and smoked weed all day yeah funny huh, ok anyway)  I went with the teachers and priests on a high adventure canoe trip last weekend for three days, and the following weekend we (the young men’s presidency) were in charge of the ward campout.  We had to plan both activities and I looked forward to the first one and on the other hand, how can I say it?  I looked forward to planning the ward campout about as much as I look forward to pooping in one of those forest service kybos.  So if you have ever wondered if spaghetti was a feasible meal for camping, or the maximum number of times a canoe can be swamped, or if packaging tape will repair a hole in a canoe, or if there is a possible way to identify a tree by feeling its roots in your butt, or how fast a person can go from feeling fine to violently hurling his guts out, stay tuned, your answers are on the way.

                Let’s start in the very beginning and please don’t start singing that song (you know the one I’m talking about and you know you’re doing it).  It all began Thursday August 2^nd.  We left Bozeman at around 6 o’clock destined for Livingston and the Yellowstone River.  If you’re not familiar with the scout life you should know that we do things by our wits, we brave the elements with chins held high we face adversity with strong resolve living off of the land.  Keeping that in mind, you can understand how upset I was when I found out that the restaurant where we ate didn’t have any fry sauce, but under said resolve, I conquered and I am stronger for it.  We had 5 boys with us and including me there was four leaders at least at first there was.  After we ate we drove south through paradise valley and found a small camp site to sleep that night before we put in the river.  Here is the first picture I have.  It is of Caleb, one of our teachers, he wanted me to get a shot of the clouds in the background so everyone could understand the peril we were in.  This goes back to the scouting resolve.  Also featured in this picture is Finn, apparently doing his best impersonation of a tree.

 And here we have Finn, bedding down for the night on top of one of the canoes while still on the trailer.  I know it sounds pretty comfortable, I’m thinking of getting myself one.

So after we all talked for a long time as we do while camping Abe Antonucci, the first counselor, got in his tent and I joined the secretary Chet Heap in his tent.  Just as we were lying down, I heard this faint sound in the distance.  It sounded like someone was coughing in one of the other campsites.  It steadily grew louder and I realized it was coming from someone right outside of the tent, and I also realized that it was more than coughing.  Now I don’t want to go into too much detail….but I will anyway.  He was violently throwing up, how else can I say it?  Barfing, hurling, praying to the porcelain god (or in this case the ditch bank deity yeah I just made that up), ralphing, up chucking, blowing chuncks, speeeeewing.  I got more but I will spare you.  Not only could I hear the puking, I could hear it all hit the grassy bank like someone was ladling soup out of a bowl.  Chet and I both sat up and gave each other the look.  You know, the “oh crap someone is throwing up and I’m glad it’s not me but does that mean I am going to get sick next?” look.  We ended up taking him home.  So from then on we lost our meal planner.  He bought all the ingredients for our meals and we just had to figure it out.  We ended up eating pepperoni wraps for lunch the next day, spaghetti for dinner, and oatmeal and bagels for breakfast the next day.  It was a weird meal but he is Italian I guess.  Using our best Italian accents we would say “Ah, the Antonnuci a family loves to cooka the spaghetti for the camping”. The hardest part was eating oatmeal for breakfast while camping.  I think Chet said it best when he first heard what we were having.  He looked around at everyone with that “really” look on his face and said “well I don’t know about anyone else but I’m going to get up early and kill me a pancake or two.”  If only we could have. 

Well we hit the water and fished and laughed and acted like scouts.  I really love my calling because my maturity level is right there with the scouts.  Same with Chet, so we had a great time.  The second day out we decided to take turns swimming along side of the canoe while our partner stayed in.  One of the scouts while alone in the canoe with a small hole in it and the cooler with all the food, started to panic and ended up swamping the canoe.  In a panic we scrambled and got everything together again but what was done was done.  The same canoe and scout ended up swamping it three times that day.  The hole got worse and we had to have both scouts sit in the opposite end of the canoe to keep the hole out of the water.  With the huge cooler in that end I called it “the Hurse”.  Me and Chet took a turn in it and since he had on a tie died shirt, they said we looked gay.  Yes, we are politically correct.  Here are some pictures of the swamp.  The words “some poor fainting struggling seaman you may rescue, you may save” came to mind.  But that didn’t stop me from laughing and taking pictures. 

The after math of the first swamp.  I think that sleeping bag weighed 60 lbs.

 Here is the second swamp, they were thrilled that I was taking pictures, not!

 Now they are dumping out the water and you can see Chet's tie dyed shirt.

 Here is the crew.  Caleb and his dad in the only good canoe.

 Brandon and Finn

And finally kelly and Ty in the Hurse.  Don't they look like they are carrying a noble warrior off to the burial ground.

Of course I didn't take any pictures of myself.  Caleb's dad did actually and he texted it to me and like an idiot I deleted it later.  So I'll try and get it again.

Now on to the ward campout.  Like I said, I was not looking forward to this but it went ok?  I think.  Well no, no it didn’t.  We got rained on all night long.  A lot of people came up for the meal that night and left to go home and sleep in their warm soft beds, a nice air conditioner blowing in the background.  As you can imagine that is what I kept thinking about as I lay there trying to fall asleep in vain.  The meal was pulled pork sandwiches we had made from bar three barbeque.  It turned out really good.  Then we made smores in the small wood burning stove in the barn that was on the camp site.  I really enjoyed talking and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves.  Then came the night……….and what a night it was.  We still have the same tent that we got when we first got married, a little two man dome tent.  But we figured that since both Axel and Grady only add up to be a half a man that we could still fit.  We got them in their sleeping bags and stuffed them in each corner opposite each other and they were out within 15 minutes.  Now me and Velvet on the other hand.  You know when you get a really good idea but it comes to late and that is all you can think about, for example the idea that you should make sure there are no rocks or tree roots waiting at the bottom of your tent.  Of course this is just hypothetical.  I had a jim dandy of a tree root right in my butt cheek.  It was about halfway through the night that I told Velvet this could be a specific discipline of science.  I gave her an example “From the impression this root is leaving in my cheek, I’m going to say it is a cotton wood or a willow…..definitely a Salix genus.  Now you feel how it starts out smoother at the base and becomes increasingly rough as one moves upwards, that indicates water logging….. Oh, and you feel that knot!  Well all I’m going to say is that the drought of 96 wasn’t good to this fellow!”  Anyway, I don’t think that I slept a wink all night cause even after I managed to work my way into a bearable position and all those years of playing twister finally paid off, then came the sound “PIT.”  “What was that”, I thought as I awoke with a start, “That was…NO it couldn’t be that would be too much, it it was just my imagination, yeah that’s all.”  Then again “Pit pat”  “Noooooooooooooooo!”   “pit-pat pit-pat, drip drip drop little april showers Eli is going to go out of his mind!”  Yeah it rained all night long.  So to make a long story short (too late) I ended up getting up at about 5:30 and getting everything ready for breakfast.  I think I turned it into one of those prison lines.  Just get your food, get your kids and get out so I can go home.  Yeah, hopefully next year they’ll put me in charge of something else. Anyway I think I have taken up enough of your time if you made it this far it means you have nothing else better to do or you are still waiting for me to get to the good part.  In either case I am sorry.  So until the next adventure I bid you adue. 

Axel is 4!

Counting up to Axel's fourth birthday!  My little boy is all growed up!

Thrilled with Cars2                                                            

He'll always be a John Deere Man

Thank you Lora for the banner....

And the chocolate bar which he ended up eating for breakfast.  -shrug- At least he shared with Grady.

The batman pj's were a huge hit Tennille and Mom!

He loves his spiderman sunglasses and won't share them at all with Grady.  Thanks Murf!

Thanks for the Harley shirt and pin for his vest Grandma and Grandpa Hubbard.

Can you tell that he loves his Captain America?

Wolverine, his all time favorite X-men

The sound effects immediately began when Batman was unveiled                                                                                        

I don't know who enjoyed the figurines more, Eli or Axel.  They both seemed to have fun playing with them all together.  

And here is the cake that I have been planning for a long time and it turned out exactly how I wanted it to!  Axel couldn't make up his mind between wolverine and batman so I decided to just do both and he loved it.

Axel's wolverine cupcake cake.  It was totally Eli's idea to use candles for the claws which I thought was a brilliant idea.  But it ended up turning out pretty darn good.  

I made t-shirt capes for everyone that came to his party and the kids loved it.