The Grunigs: February 2011

This is the finished birthday cake! It was fun to do-not the easiest cake I've ever made. Fondant is very different from regular frosting. James LOVED it though. I finished it while he was sleeping and so he woke up to it done and was so excited. He kept saying, Choo, mommy over and over. And because he loved it, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

I haven't said much about Katelynn. She will be one in a month. Weird. But good. I'm so glad she's in our family. What a happy girl she is-except when she is tired, being wrestled around by her brother or teething. She will just sit and laugh sometimes and it's an infectious laugh. She is getting braver about trying to stand up, is crawling all over and just had her 8th tooth pop through. She is really good at saying Dad and gets so excited when Trevor comes home.

James really wanted to help with his cake, well he really wanted to eat the powdered sugar. He went to take a nap shortly after this picture was taken.

We had two little parties for James. One was with a few friends and they had a great time. The boys ran around chasing the girls with guns. He was excited to have so many people over. There is a video later on of him and his buddies.

He pouts his lip out a little bit when he gets excited. I think it is darling. And its been pretty consistent since Christmas. He got a fun bubble machine, a few shirts, a teeball set, and some wonderful train stuff.

We worked for a while to get that 3rd finger up. We're still working on the word 3.

One day this week it got into the 40's-it was SO warm! James played outside for hours and made mudpies. I think he even tasted them to make sure they were okay. I've never been so happy to see a muddy wet boy. Hurry spring, hurry!

Remember that part about sewing. Well, here are a couple things I've sewn this last week. The skirt is for my little sister Katy and the apron is for my mom's birthday. I've decided I like to make aprons a lot. In fact, our JoAnn's is moving locations and selling everything out of the old one and fabric is cheap. I went and bought a lot of fabric to make aprons and I just might be selling them soon. I finished another apron last night and I'll post another picture of it later. I read that when you put on a cute apron you feel transformed. Yep I think so.

I've decided to update a little bit. A week from today James will turn 3! We have been looking at train cakes and I think we found one to make for the Bday! We saved it and look at it on the computer at least once a day. It's fun to have a little one old enough to start getting excited about things! He wants to have a little party and it has been fun to talk about that. His eyes get bigger and sparklier with every detail we add. This is our crazy birthday time. James' birthday is February 13, Trevor's 3 weeks exactly later, Katelynn 's 12 days later , and then mine is about 19 days later-that doesn't include all of the family birthdays that don't live in our house. So this is our celebration time-these birthdays are part of what helps to get through winter. One of my favorite things about February is that March is next!

This is the cake I want to make-it will be fun to try it out.

Every winter I get the sewing bug bad. For Christmas, I made a lot of things-it was very fun, but I didn't take pictures of what I made, but I had a lot of fun making them. I've been trying out some new patterns and fun things-mostly for my babies. Yesterday I went to the library and checked out 6 books with lots of pictures of things to sew and make. I like to look at them to. This is a hobby that I hope I keep working on even with little ones! The good news is that JoAnn's is opening a new and bigger store on March 11-that is going to be a good day. Sometimes I think about trying to sell the things I make so I can buy more stuff to make them with. I have the internet at home now, so I might try soon. Only problem is that it feels like there are a bazillion people selling what they make online. So we'll see.

In other news, Katelynn is starting to stand up! on her own! So she's done it less than 10 times total-but she's doing it! And getting excited about it! And so am I! She is also learning to play fun peek a boo games with all sorts of stuff-blankets, pans, toys, bibs, etc. I like it.

This past week, Trevor got an award for Scouting-it's called the District Award of Merit. Only one person from each zone can get it and it's the highest award the district can give. He has done so much with Scouts, especially this past year and I'm proud of him. And the night of the Scout banquet he brought home flowers for me to tell me thank you for the sacrifices our family has had to make so he could do everything he has with Scouts. I was very touched that he would remember those things on his night. I also enjoyed the prime rib dinner they served and enjoyed they had a little extra so I got seconds. It was good. Also we got to bring home some good salad dressing-two bottles of it. They were our trophies for the night. And it was fun to go somewhere with just him. Grandma and Grandpa Clemons came up from Pocatello to be there for it and that was very nice of them, we were glad they could be there.

Oh and if you were my facebook friend and now you're not, its not because I don't like you anymore, most likely I still do like you. I just deleted all friends except the ones I am related to. If I'm related to you and I did delete you, I was just clicking away and I may have accidently clicked someone I didn't mean to-let me know. I was going to get rid of it totally, but I decided that it's a good way to keep in touch with my family. I also got rid of some of the weird email mailing lists I am on. It's nice to feel a little less cluttered.

Well now the part you've all been waiting for.....PICTURES!

Katelynn's 1st Christmas morning! We woke her up!

Santa brought Katelynn a Sweetpea doll for Christmas

James and Katelynn on Christmas Eve. Occasionally I like to put rollers in her hair-for fun. And her hair is long enough that it actually curls after about 20-30 minutes in her hair!

On our way to go look at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve

Look what Santa brought for James! My favorite one is the big football toybox-I really owe Santa for that one. His room is much easier to keep clean now.