The Growing Gant Family...

It's neat watching William grow and change into the little boy that he is. I know it's going to be a blink of an eye before I'm looking at a little boy that's turned into a man...but we won't rush things too quickly. I'm enjoying where he's at-every day is precious. William's creative side has definitely shown through. There is hardly a day that goes by that he doesn't ask me to get the guitar case down so that he can play. Here he is strumming the "tar". He climbed up on the chair and called me in to bring him the guitar. He liked being able to rest it on the arm rests so that it was easier to strum (o; And as the big brother, you must always teach the younger brother. Craftin' a little macaroni...(while eating a little too-for some reason he loves to crunch raw pasta). He told me he was making a "boat"-a Noah's ark to be exact. Here he is right before Easter with his friend Peter. They had fun fing...

Auntie Tauna (or Auntie "Ta Ta" as William calls her), wasn't in the States when Calvin was born. She moved to Japan right after William turned one and then traveled to Brazil for four months before heading back to the U.S. We missed her. She's been the only one in my family that lived here in Oregon when we decided to start a family and was actually in the room when William was born. We have a special bond. She now lives back down in CA and unfortunately, we'll only get to see her maybe twice a year. But, we thank God for the little things like Skype (so we can actually see her when we talk!) and the little gifts she sends like this one(o; Tauna brought it back from her adventures in Laos (o; So, I probably should have put it on him like a month ago...He grows too fast! We managed to still button it up and I think it's just so stinkin' cute. This one's for you "Ta Ta"! Only thing that would've made it better was to have ...

Once you're a mom, you find yourself gleaning wisdom from those that have gone before. Not that I hardly feel qualified to be dishing out any, but I guess I have learned a few things over the past three years. Moving from one kid to two, the workload doubles and so does your creativity on how to get things done. Here's just a peek into how I (and I'm sure many other moms out there), get er' done! Even though he's still a little small for it, he's (1) comfortable (2) right next to mom where he likes it and (3) both of my hands are free to get a few things done (o; It's pretty...perfect. Thank you to whomever thought of the ERGO. Enlisting older sibling to help...This can be both hilarious and a little dangerous (o; Big brothers don't understand the limits of play with baby brothers. So, although there's not complete submission of supervision, it is incredibly cute to watch these two interact. They hold each other's hands in the car, ...

We try and plan two events around the Tulip Festival every year, one big get together with all of our Portland friends we used to live next to and another get together with our Life Group at church. This year we did both all in one weekend-a bit crazy but a ton of fun and definitely worth it. Since we live within walking distance, our venture down to the field usually starts with tractor/trailer ride through the orchard and then we walk the rest of the way to the festival. Makes for some great memories... Here's the bandwagon of Portlanders... Ridin' on the hay bales...Just me and my boys. The famous slide...it's one of the only things that's free and ALWAYS a hit. Not sure why they like it so much...It's an incredibly bumpy ride the entire way down! Family. (Calvin was asleep...not about to wake him up for a picture) TRACTORS! Here are some good ones... A bit of parental guidance, but the captured poses + expressions tell all. William a...

My little Calvin is 5 months old today (yes, he's still little in my eyes, even if he is almost 20lbs). Time seems to be flying by much more quickly as Calvin grows. I feel like it was just yesterday we were taking him home from the hospital...Is there a pause button somewhere that I can push? Calvin's a lot more interactive now. He's pretty keen to his Mama and gives Dad a hard time the evenings I work and Dad's in charge for the night. He can let out a pretty good cry! He's glued to William as he watches him bounce around the room in front of him. He easily smiles and giggles now and is such a cute little man. He's now realized he has feet and I just love it when he grabs on to them and sways back and forth. He can almost fit his whole fist into his mouth and loves to gnaw on his fingers, drooling everywhere! Here he is, rockin' Tummy Time! He does really well holding his head up and doesn't mind tummy time for quite awhile. Then the head gets...

This year was the first time William went to a formalized Easter egg hunt other . We met friends from church at the Canby Fairgrounds and I decided, since he was the only 3yr old within our group of friends, that I would just keep him in the 0-2age range. William's not the type that's gonna run like a mad man for eggs while pushing over the younger kids (o; In fact, quite the opposite. He's always been a very cautious little boy. Instead of running himself (of which I was encouraging him to do!), he wanted to hold my hand and take me to each egg that he picked up. I had to take advantage of it...Not like he's going to want to hold my hand forever. Here he is in all his excitement, hiding his face from Mom with the camera. And then he started shaking them...maybe there actually is something in there like Mom said there was going to be (like I would lie to you William!). We ended up with 6 eggs. I was so proud of him. And even though he didn't show much exci...