The Growing Gant Family...

Truly, the holidays are incredibly more fun when you've got little ones to share them with. They just get SO excited about the little things. William always gets excited about our tree hunt... Plugging his ears cause the chainsaw was "TOO LOUD!"...as if he's never heard it before! One day buddy...One day... And the decorating...You should have heard Calvin, with every ornament he pulled out of the box, "Mama!!!  LOOK!!!!"  (and why didn't I take a video of this?) And the present opening...SO exciting! There, I managed to get all five boys in one picture, even though Calvin's a blur cause he's running around! We're thankful for our Lincoln Logs... And SpiderMan Jacket... Most of all, I pray that our boys, even at their tender ages, would begin to grasp the true meaning of Christmas-A celebration of the birth of our King, Christ Jesus.  Thank you Grandma Marsha for always reminding us of his story before we open o

After re creating the gingerbread house at Mom and Dad's house after Thanksgiving, I figured it was time to start the tradition at home...I made my own cut outs from Mom's original ones and she copied off her gingerbread recipe.  I was excited to try it at home! Mom still has the original construction paper cut outs we used when I was little...Feels like yesterday. Ready to assemble! Couldn't love her more... We had the Gregor girls over to help create and decorate...As you can see, they had fun! We invited a few girls over to help us with the decorating...Like I mentioned befroe, my boys enjoyed the eating, and not necessarily the decorating. I thought it might be a more appreciated task to share with some girls (o;  (I have to give them some credit.  William lasted about 15 minutes before he was done. Calvin on the other didn't understand why we would put candy on the house when his mouth was a perfectly good spot for it!) The decorating crew!

This one sums it up...My Christmas Tree decorating help this year.... As goofy as the two of them are sometimes, we still managed to get ornaments on the tree (without breaking one), lights around it (without falling into it) AND take a picture (o;  It picture just wouldn't seem right if they were sitting still with pristine smiles.  Oh how I'll miss these moments someday... (Bus and Donna, recognize the bear sitting next to Calvin?!  He sits under out tree every year (o;  )

Once off the boat, the next leg of our vacation began-time with my family for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Our reunite after our Cruise Dad was thankful his shoulder surgery was rescheduled so that Nurse Ratchet (me) could make sure he ate his saltines and didn't over do it on water during recovery (o;  Love you Dad! I got to meet my niece Kaycee Rae for the first time! Auntie Mel and Uncle Thomas gave the whole family their big "gender" reveal during the prayer for our Thanksgiving meal...  They also brought a bunch of pink juice to share with everyone (o;  Yay for a new niece! There's a bump, I see it!  And to think that that belly will be out to my hands in no time...I can't wait! And even though Tauna was far away in Japan, we still managed to get the entire family together for a picture! I've been wanting to get my ears pierced for quite some time now.  I decided to wait till I was with Mom and Mel to get them done.  It had been a

He'd been keeping it a secret for almost nine months...NINE MONTHS! He broke the news just a few days before my birthday...He had been planning a cruise to celebrate our 10th Anniversary since my mention of wanting to do something back in February. One, lucky, woman I am...Honestly ladies, hands down I've got the husband that tops them all (o; Better yet, Mom and Dad got an entire weekend with the boys all to themselves...The first time William and Calvin have spent extended time with Grandpa and Grandma without Mom and Dad! Not gonna lie-I missed them. But, I was excited about the opportunity for them, as well as for Curtis and I. It was the longest we've been away from them-Friday through Monday. We boarded the Carnival Inspiration for a 3 day Baja Mexico Cruise to Ensenada. We'd been on one cruise before and so carried that experience with us into this one-Totally different crusie lines, vastly different location desinations as well as length of trip, prov

I blinked...and then he was two! And what a cutie patootie of a two year old our Calvin has become. His vocabulary is ever expanding and he picks new things up from his big brother every day. William's caught on to this and thinks it's pretty funny to tell Calvin to do things that William wants to do but knows he shouldn't, just so he'll escape the consequences...Pretty ingenious if you ask me. Too bad Mom's caught on to his antics. It still amazes me how two little boys from the exact same parents, can turn out completely different. It's been fun watching the unique personality Calvin has in contrast from his big brother. I remember saying the same thing with William, but the two year old stage is one of my favorite. Personality really starts to shine through, new words are added to their vocabulary daily, and the affection you give is more often reciprocated out of their own will...it's fun. Not that it doesn't come with it's challenges

I had to do a comparison pic of the boys (o; As you can see, they both really enjoy helping Mom in the kitchen (o; William (Feb 2011) and Calvin (Nov 2013) Once again, I think they're looking more different by the day!

Long before the day actually arrived, William wore his monkey suit around the house-anticipation rising for when I'd let him wear it outside on Halloween. We don't make much of a big deal of the "holiday"...if that's what you want to call it. It's fun for the boys (at least for now...) to get dressed up and, of course, get a bucket of candy. Here's our little cowboy...hamin' it up. And our "George"... Funny thing is, the minute we started our trek around Molalla to the local business' that hand out candy to the kids, William stuck his bucket to his side and held tight to my hand. I think he was a little intimidated by the mass amounts of people as well as the intensity of some of the decorations! Needless to say, Calvin was all about saying "trick or treat" and even a "thank you" when the candy hit his bucket. He was being big brother's candy spokesman (o; It just cracks me up how intensely

What a privilege it has been to work side by side with Ericka, Serenity and Heidi; three other Mom's who desired to take part in their kid's schooling. I think what I appreciate the most, is the common love we share for Christ and the desire we have to incorporate that into what our kids are learning about life.  It's been 2 months since preschool's started and I've already grown to love each one of your kiddos! ...I feel as though it'll be like a blink of an eye before we're swapping senior pictures... Here's Lucilla and her Mama Serenity Mr. Josiah and his Mama Ericka  Mr. William (who goes by Will as to not confuse anyone during school time) and his Mama Heidi Calvin had to join the picure too (o; While my sister was here visiting, I had the privilege of having her help on one of my days to teach. It was fun having her participate in our learning (o; Her creativity came in handy when it came time to develop the lesson plan. She