The Growing Gant Family...

At 91, they have a unique program (the only one in the Canby school district) that pairs up 7th and 8th graders with kindergarten buddies.  The goal is to make the transition into school an easier one for the kindergarteners as well as give the older kids someone to mentor. There have been multiple times, while I walk William to class in the mornings, that he's excitedly pointed out his buddy.  I have been in the class when the older buddies have come in for some time with William's class.  They usually get some instruction from Mrs. Ruwitch and then are asked to pair up and work on the project at hand.  Just the other day, the principal sent out an email explaining a recent video that the 7th and 8th graders had put together for the School Board to promote the buddy program.  William and I caught it playing on one of the broadcast tv's up next to the office and were able to hear his buddy talk about him...You should have seen the smile on William's face (o; Here th

Continuing our annual Gingerbread House tradition...Although Mom put the house together and whipped up the frosting, the rest is a 2-5yr old (William, Calvin + the help of a few friends) masterpiece.  I love how it will change over the years as they grow older (o; I think the boys enjoy playing with the dough and cutting out the pieces just as much as decorating it.  Of course, I let them play with the dough like play dough since we don't eat it (o; Calvin in all his goofy glory...Not sure what he's cutting out here, BUT he's having fun! William takes his work very seriously...Meticulously shaping his gingerbread man. This was just pure, crazy, super fun, chaos (with WAY too much sugar consumed)! The goofies and their final product (Josi-4, William, Jaclyn-5, Trent-2 & Calvin) Don't you just love their touches...we helped intertwine the pretzels so our fence wouldn't fall down.  Then they got tired of putting it up about halfway through (

It was one of those rare moments when I get both of my families for the same holiday (o;  Love it when this happens...Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures of us all together, but none the less, I'll remember these times.  There's something special about having both of my families together. Luke and Calvin showing us how to really  eat olives... The classic finger trick Why play with your food when you can eat it?! William's made some pretty fun stuff in Kindergarten this year.  This is a few of his creations as they learned about the first Thanksgiving... And Calvin was really  excited to get to dress up to! I was the most thankful this year for the time I was able to spend with my California family.  I especially am grateful to my brother in law who "let go" of my sister and Z so that they could spend some extended time here in Oregon without him.  SUCH a special time for me to have them here.  Babies just grow WAY too fast

Just a few weeks after William was born, we planted some Christmas trees on a portion of our property.  This year was the first year that we decided they were big enough to celebrate Christmas with...Almost 6 years later (o; The sweetest part about it was that Auntie Mel was visiting when we cut it down so her and Z got to be in on the moment.  My friend Karyn and her kids were also here.  It was a definite family affair (I consider the Hartley's like family since I've known Karyn since I was a wee one!). We learned a few things...Pruning of Christmas trees is usually done in July.  There's a reason for that (as evidenced by the dripping sap on our floor).  And we should have been pruning a little each year, as to shape the tree into the "normal" Christmas tree shape (o; How many kids does it take to screw on the base?! Despite these facts, the tree is beautiful.  It was so tall we actually had to cut some off to fit it to our ceiling (of w