Grammy Time!

What a blessing it was to have Grammy, Kim's mom, stay with us for two extra weeks after Papa had to go home! She helped us get back on our feet and keep life relatively normal for the two older boys!

It was an added bonus that she was with us to celebrate Thanksgiving! We went to church together, headed to Jon & Chelsea's house for a yummy meal, and then came home to spend time together! We had an extra little someone to be thankful for this year! :)

While Grammy was here, she did a lot of holding and cuddling with Nathan. He loved sleeping while laying in Grammy's arms. She even helped with Nathan's bath time once or twice!

Grammy also spent lots of quality time with the older grandsons. She came up with really fun ideas for them to do together.

a tunnel for cars out of Marbleworks pieces

teaching Ian how to make coffee

tickles by the Thomas tent

She helped with big boys' bathtime, too!

She helped the boys make snowflakes to hang on our kitchen window. Ian cut out the snowflakes and Ryan & Grammy decorated them with glitter glue and glitter.

Afterwards, the boys were happy to use the vacuum and ShopVac to clean up the extra glitter.

Grammy spent lots of time playing outside, including digging in the "construction site" with Ryan.

She also spent a lot of time playing trains.

One afternoon after school, Grammy helped the boys make M&M cookies. They were active participants in all parts of the recipe but most enjoyed putting the M&Ms on the cookies at the end (and licking the beaters clean :)).

After Grammy and Ryan came home from dropping Ian off at school together, Grammy thought of some fun projects for just Ryan as well. One morning, Ryan spent quite a long time painting on our easel. He thought it was so much fun!

Grammy also managed to find time to make both boys a fleece tie blanket. Eventually, these will go on the boys' bunk beds (when we muster up the courage to let Ryan sleep outside of his crib ... ha!). They turned out beautifully! Then, Grammy created a scavenger hunt so the boys could follow the clues to find their Christmas presents.

Ian was thrilled to read the clues all on his own, and Ryan enjoyed shining the flashlight. :)

The boys were thrilled by the matching, cozy blankets (and of course insisted on using them that very night). They also enjoyed the "why" book and the "trucks" book from Grammy and Papa.

We had to read them right away!

Later, when we did our Advent box surprise of reading Christmas books by the fire, the boys insisted upon using their Cars blankets! Nathan was perfectly happy in Grammy's arms. :)

As a small thank-you for ALL that Grammy did for us while she was here, we wanted to take her to see the Rockettes perform in downtown Houston. Kim and Grammy took Nathan along on their girls' night. He got a lot of attention from other spectators and was a saint the whole evening. We girls had a great time and really enjoyed the show!

Before Grammy headed home, she even helped us get ready for our next batch of company, including going on a fun, two-hour long trip to the grocery store! She got to witness how much Ryan likes pushing his own small shopping cart and helping Momma in the store! :)

Before she went home, we gave her lots of kisses and hugs! Thank you, Grammy, for giving of yourself so sacrificially while you were here. (And thank you, Papa, for being willing to share her for so long!) Thank you for anticipating our needs and for your advice, encouragement, and help while you were here. You helped things go so much more smoothly!

We all love you very much!