recreating the crayon

This morning before I had to leave to school, I asked Grant what he liked to do with daddy. He said, "snowing. slide." Which I believe refers to sledding. When I asked him what his favorite thing he likes to do with mommy he replied, "take naps." Right then I knew that I had to change his view of me being a tired lazy mom so today we changed that. Grant is funny when it comes to coloring. He will draw like one line and then request things for you to draw for him. This usually means that I will draw at least ten balloons in one drawing session. His crayons have kind of gotten out of control, some were broken in half, he had ripped the wrapper off of some so I decided enough was enough and we were going to transform his crayons. Here is the super easy steps that we took. I actually saw this on Taza's blog and thought it was a perfect activity for Grant's age.

Here we are pouring the wrapper garbage from our crayon holder. You need to get all of the wrapper off.

Once the wrappers are off, we separated them into this silicone form that I found at the DI. You could separate these into similar colors. We decided that we were going to put all colors in each to make it more fun.

After we had them how we wanted them, we put them in the oven at 250 degrees and I just watched them until they were fully melted.

Here they are right out of the oven and in liquid form. I started by leaving them on the counter to dry, but I have no patience so we put them in the fridge to speed up the cooling process.

Once they were cooled, we popped them out of the form.

This one makes me hungry for starburst.

safe to say that they are toddler approved. Grant loved the shape and that he could put them on his finger. He hasn't really caught on that they are crayons for coloring and he thinks that they are toys, which is fine.

I sure got a kick out of coloring with them.

Grantisms

Grant is talking so much now that I can't help but document some of the things he says. He puts together sentences with ease and is very smart.
-One of my favorite right now is "What doning?" or "Goning?" This is how he asks what we are doing or where we are going. Whenever we are in the car, he constantly wants to know where we are going, it's so cute to see him starting to understand this crazy world.
-"poll-dit" when he sings patty cake he gets this super serious grunty voice as if the 'cake' is really hard to pull.
-We went and visited my grandma who took a fall the other day and he pointed to her scar and said, "gamma, owie?"
-Grant loves to say "hi" to anyone. Some people love it, other people pretend like they don't hear it [rude!]
-He loves to watch 'What does the fox say' on YouTube and will constantly ask me, "Watch ding-ding" cause the first thing they say the fox says is ring-ding-ding.
-Anytime someone leaves he asks, "Where'd [name] go?" He also says "Where'd Dant (Grant) go?" when he is hiding from us.
-Because we had our first snowfall this past weekend, Grant learned what a snowman was. Some little girls in our complex made the cutest snowman and then someone's dog jumped up on it and knocked it down. Whenever we look out the window at it he says, "No-man. Knock it?"
-We live super close to HAFB and the jets are constantly flying. Grant loves finding airplanes in the sky and says, "Airpane loud! Zooom!"
-Grant loves to help with chores around the house and his favorite is to "weep" (sweep), even though he really just spreads the crumbs further away, I love to watch him help.
-He has taken to love skateboarding and loves watching videos of it with Eric. He uses his xylophone as a skateboard and tells me all the time "gay-bowed whills" (skateboard wheels) whenever he sees his 'skateboard'
-"K-zee" (crazy) is also one of his new words.
Grant has started to imagine and it is so cute. He stays playing with one toy longer and it is so fun to watch him drive his car on the edge of our couch or up a hill. He can also throw things away in the garbage (we do have to watch him to make sure that he doesn't throw toys or important stuff away, so far so good) and can take his dirty dishes to the sink.
The other day he colored on the wall and it was all I had in me to take a step back and be patient with him. I nicely [no seriously, I was super calm about the whole thing] told him that we only color on paper and asked him to show me where some paper was. He showed me and then took me to the back window and pointed to it to show me that he also drew on that. Haha, such a smart boy.

Giveaway

I am so excited to be featured on Courtney's blog Unpredictable and Chic hosting a giveaway. Courtney is a friendfrom High School and she has the coolest style of anyone I know. Courtney loves thrifting and making a little go a long way. Her fashion sense is something I could only wish I had and she is so beautiful in anything she wears. She's such a great person and so positive in her life. Head on over to her blog and enter the giveaway Unpredictable and Chic. She also has a special promo code for my etsy site. Head on over to my facebook page and like it. Once I hit 75 likes on there, I'll post another giveaway. You can also visit the Gogee Creations on etsy and purchase fashionable jewelry at decent prices for your loved ones for Christmas! Thanks!

Photo DUMP!

WARNING: Every picture in this post is of Grant. He's our life so we take lots of pictures of him. If you don't want to see them, feel free to roam about the country. 

 Aunt Christine sent Grant this New York Jets shirt from Jersey and we absolutely LOVE it. Grant looks like a little "Sanchez" running around in it and loves to say "hike" then throw a football really fast at you.

 Way back before we had class when Grant's bed was just his crib mattress on the floor. He is not upgraded to a full size twin bed and does GREAT in it. We even kiffed my memory foam from my parents that I had on my bed growing up and sometimes it is SO comfy. My mom also helped me make a quilt for his bed. 

 In his oversized (at the time) Gg shirt I made for him. This was so easy and I loved the idea. 

 Lately, Grant will say "baby" and then lay down in our arms and do a fake cry. I'm not sure where he learned it from but he loves acting like a baby and laying down in his swing. We had to finally put this away since he would play the music during naptime instead of napping.

 This was Grant at his first rodeo. To say the least, he LOVED it. He love horses and animals so it was pretty much a given that he would enjoy this. | Oh to be back in the days of shorts and short sleeves |

 After Labor Day we Aunt Ka-ka and Uncle Nam came camping with us to Strawberry. We went crayfishing and Grant loved it. He loved the fire and hanging out with some of his favorite people. He literally asks for his aunts and uncles daily. He loves his "nam-wee" (family)

 I cannot look at this picture without laughing. I think he looks SO adorable but so silly all at the same time. He had just woken up from a nap and I snapped this since his hair was so staticky. Love this boy and what makes this even better was that he was snuggling next to me during this nap. 

 Grant is ALL boy. He will literally jump off of anything and nothing is too dangerous for him. We watch Tacy (his cousin) on Thursdays and she is starting to catch onto his love for climbing on things. She'll intently watch him and then try it when he is done. Sorry Brad and Elly :)

 Taking his nap during conference I couldn't help but snap this of his longer than life eyelashes. Are these not every girls dream? He is so handsome! Lots of my boy cousins have really long eyelashes like this but it seemed to skip the girls. 

 Trying to steal the neighbors balloons from when their son returned from his mission. Grant will do ANYTHING for balloons. We have at least 3 in our house at all times.

 We went to St. George in the middle of October for Fall break and my dad had a softball tournament down there and Eric wanted to stop at the new Provo skate park on our way down. I was really impressed at how cool this park was and Grant LOVED watching Eric and getting his turn on the "gay-bowed"

 Chalking it up with Audrie in St. George. Grant had such a blast with the Barnes' girls and asks for at least one of them once a day. He also knows that they are in "Dorge" (St. George) if we ask where they are. He also frequently includes them in his prayers. This little boy has the largest heart!

 Only recently have I allowed Grant this close to the cat. On previous "meetings" between he and Kitty, he tends to pull her tail. Aunt Ka-ka (Kimber) taught him how to feed Kitty and now it is one of his new favorite things to do at Mema and Papa's house. 

 Grant loves to "ca-gee" (color) and is OBSESSED with us drawing balloons. I thought I would outsmart him and make copies that he can color in but he did not have that and has to watch me draw them himself. Luckily he has gotten over this obsession a little bit and has learned to color better, minus on the walls and window the other day.

 Aunt Ka-ka and Uncle Nam took Grant to the zoo one day to let Eric and I have a break and get out on a date. We were SO thankful to them and Grant had the time of his life. He really is so blessed with all of the family he has. 

And just because I think we are cute. I love this baby and his daddy so much!

Letters to Grant

Dear Grant,
My sweet sweet boy, you are so fun at this stage right now. You have come so far from the tiny baby that was placed in my arms in March of last year. You now run everywhere you go and are so adventurous! I am so glad that you are my baby, my bugga, and my boy. You are developing quite the personality and I love to sit back and watch you soak in your world. You love anything that has to do with a ball but after daddy took you out on the skateboard last week, you have turned everything into a skateboard whether it be your colorful xylophone or mema and papa's stool. You are so entertaining and are full of energy. You love to jump, especially on the trampoline, and have great balance for one your age. You have always been so smart, so it shouldn't have surprised me as much when you deciding you wanted to go potty on your own potty, but it did. You are still my baby, how do you learn these things and know so much? You are such a good singer and can identify songs on the radio by their choruses. You love to make people laugh, and mommy and daddy struggle to hold our laughter in when you do something hilarious, but that we know is not a good habit aka spitting your water out of your mouth. You give the best hugs and kisses and are willing to share those with everyone. You love to say "hi" to people in the store and you can say any word that we ask you to. We have taught you how to count and you do well to get to three, skip four, and go right to five. I especially love it when you are playing by yourself and I hear you counting. Every color is blue in your eyes and you are so silly when it comes to coloring with crayons. You are just now understanding how to color and you love it when we draw you balloons. You have been sleeping in a big boy bed for about 3 months now and are so good with it. When I peak in on you at night before I go to bed, you look so tiny in that massive bed and I hate to think about you growing up and filling that bed out. I am excited to watch you grow, but always want you to love me the way you do now. My heart hurts when you get hurt and I love that you come to me for comfort. Lately, you have been reaching up to hold my hand when we are walking outside and I love the way your hand fits perfectly around my pointer finger. You love animals and are learning how to be soft, or as you say "sop", with them (and my hair for that matter.) You could spend your whole day chasing the chickens around and looking at the horses at papa's if I let you.
I love you my sweet boy!
Love,
Mommy

For Sale

I am thinking of selling hand stamped custom jewelry. This is the beginning of my journey and I hope it works out. If you or anyone you know is interested in this, I'm getting my etsy site up soon, but for now, just email me at jodynicole20 (at) yahoo.com We can work out an order and payment options that way! Here's to hoping this works out! Here is a sample of what I can do.

May Cara Box

I haven't been involved in the Cara Box for the past couple of months, but jumped back on this time because I thought that the theme sounded fun. It was a regional theme and we were supposed to send things particular to our region, I struggled with that a little bit, but head on over to Jacki's blog here to see what I sent her. (Hint, doing a little missionary work ;)) Mrs. Laura Beth sent me my box and I completely loved it!!! Here is the picture of it all after Eric and I got so excited and pulled it all out of the box.

Laura is from North Dakota which was so fun for me because Eric's dad has a ranch in South Dakota and it was fun to see the farming side of this box.

Laura sent me:

some fajita seasoning since I told her I LOVE tacos. This looks delicious and I am so excited to try it out.

Some Dakota made spaghetti since I love Italian food.

The sunflower seeds are from ND and she said they are about 30 minutes away from where she is.

She sent me a soybean candle (which who knew soybeans made for good candles) and I'm super excited to test it out. 

The cute wheat in the glass jar was from her wedding reception and I think it is JUST adorable! One thing: when we opened up the package, it was full of little wheat tares (is that what they are called Laura?) and Eric and I were laughing because it was from South Dakota and we thought they just snuck in there, obviously they were there from this decoration and I'm so glad it stayed intact through the mail. 

The darling bag is from the place where Laura works and is insulated for picnics. I am so excited to use it this summer and she thought ahead for our Hawaii trip because it'll be perfect for the beach!

I loved this box and Laura did an AWESOME job on it! 

It was fun to meet these girls and have some more blogs to follow. :)