Exciting news in the Garrett house

In a move that defies all logic and common sense we in the Garrett house have decided to add to our brood. Yes, it has definitely been an exciting year in the Garrett household. Both Brody and Brady are incredibly thrilled. So thrilled in fact that they spilled the beans at their schools really early. Brady insists that if it's a boy he wants to "send it back". I'm not quite sure he understands there's no chance of that happening! They also want to be in the delivery room-another event that isn't happening. Either way, both of the boys have been practicing good big brother skills and are shaping up to do a great job.




Now in addition to all of the other things that we have to be thankful for, we are praying for a healthy new child in 2010. This new kid is scheduled to arrive on June 5th or so, but we don't really count on those dates in our house.

We had a rocky start to this blessed event and therefore wanted to keep it under wraps as long as possible. We had several "threatened miscarriage" episodes early on. However, we have now had our second trimester (seventeen week & gender-determining) ultrasound and things look great! We have had a picture taken that specified gender, however, we aren't looking. We also have narrowed down names, but that information is top secret, too. I'm sure we'll still be having "heated discussions" regarding names until the folks from the social security office come to our room at the hospital...or until hospital security is called to break it up.

So, now you know the really big stuff that's been happening with us. Thanks for reading and we'll post here as soon as he or she arrives. We would love to have anyone come to visit...after August 1st. We need a few weeks to get ourselves situated.

Preparing our hearts for Christmas~

The best part of our recent snow day was that it gave us the time to find the perfect Christmas tree. Now we just have to be patient until Christmas gets here.

Our recent flood....

Yesterday morning Mommy, Brody and Brady walked out to the hallway and found a not-so-exciting-surprise: a flood in the hallway and spare bedroom.



Fortunately we had a limited amount of damage and with the help of our amazing insurance company we were able to get help quickly.

Daddy even got to come home early from work (proabably because they were sick of Mommy calling so he could tell her where the pertinent equipment was).

We even got to spend the night in a motel! The boys had a very long playdate with a friend and Mommy and Daddy did the best they could to put things back together. Really, we can't do anything until it's all dry...which will probably be Christmas Eve.

Snow Day!!!

We celebrated our first snow day in Washoe County in five years recently. I remember the last one vividly because it was supposed to be my first week back at work after Brody was born. It was a huge relief to have a little bit more time with my sweet baby. Brody taught Brady to make his first snow angel. Kyra helped.

This time, both boys were ready for action in the snow! Daddy got things ready for us by doing a little shoveling, but then we took the sleds out to our hill for some serious downhill action. He even made a jump at the bottom to add a little bit to the fun.

Daddy and Kyra also played some mean chase games. Our beloved malamute gets so excited when we have this much fun. She's just like a puppy!

Daddy shoveled everything off the patio and into one pile so we could have some extra fun.

The boys had to learn a thing or two from Dad about how to properly enjoy a pile of snow...they thought they were so lucky and that we must be the snowiest place ever...we had to explain to them that almost all of their cousins get a lot more snow that we do...they had a hard time imagining all the places we were last summer covered in snow.

Busy November

November always gives us more than enough reasons to be thankful-it starts with Brody's birthday and then we go to Aunt Betsy's, Kyra (our trusty malamute), Daddy and then Aunt Andrea. We are always hoppin'! This year Daddy didn't feel like being photographed, but we did get him an ice cream cake and tried our hand at personalizing it.

Thanksgiving Day was a little rough this year because after seven wonderful weeks of having Daddy at home every day, he had to go back to work. His first day back was Wednesday and he went to bed at 6:45...so we knew he was tired. Then he went back for more on Thanksgiving.

We made due by playing at the neighbor's house for several hours. We came home just in time to get our turkey started. The boys had so much fun playing that they never managed to take a nap. We played with the turkey guts and heart, made some mashed potatoes and set a timer so we would all remember to go and check on our turkey. Mommy even broke down and bought a new turkey baster so she could throw the one she inherited from her parents away.

Dinner was wonderful. We had all of our favorites: turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry relish, tortellini salad and sparkling cider. It was a great meal! It's so hard to be patient and wait for Daddy to get home when the house smells so good.

It's even harder to wait for Daddy when we get tired. Brady was so exhausted from all the fun we had in the morning that he didn't make it to see Daddy...or enjoy and of our feast. But as always we were just thankful to all be together!!

Brody's birthday

Brody had a wonderful birthday! We had so many friends who came to share the day with us that we didn't even know what to do. So, we played a Scooby-Doo ring toss game and played outside. The weather was beautiful and so we enjoyed the yard. We were all very tired at the end. Brody received more Bakugun's and Transformer's that we know what to do with. Brody even had some friends (girls...) come all the way from Reno to share his special day.

Brody's favorite present came from his brother, which means a lot to me. Brady got his brother a "Jetfire" Transformer. Brody likes Jetfire because he started out a Decepticon, but wanted his life to have meaning and he wanted to be an Autobot, so he gave his life to save Optimus. Brody thinks that's pretty cool.

This is the super special cake that Daddy decorated left-handed.

Superhero fun!!

This year Mom gave up and bought the boys costumes for Halloween. The boys made the choice to go as their favorite Superhero-Aliens, Optimus Prime and Bumblebee.

Soccer Stars!

This year was the first year that Brody was old enough to play soccer. He's been anxiously waiting for about a year. Tim & I were able to be his coaches. Brady was the official Assistant Coach. He even got to play in the last couple of games of the year due to some no-show players. Both boys show a lot of skill and even more heart. Brody learned a lot about teamwork and Brady is very fast. Bro only scored a couple of goals in games (which aren't really counted at the U5 level) but he had many assists. Brady is a speed demon when he is out there. We were lucky that Tim's surgery kept him home for the last few games. The best part was that we made some very special friends...and having an undefeated season didn't hurt our feelings either.

Ok-and we did luckily end up with silver and black uniforms...and we still had an undefeated season.

The Pumpkin Patch

Fall is sure a beautiful time of year. We have come to appreciate all of the activities that it provides for us to do. We love to go to the pumpkin patch in Reno to pick out our very own special pumpkins. The boys love to crawl on the tractor and watch the animals eat their very own pumpkins. There are pigs, goats, and calves. This year we arrived early in the morning and we had lots of time to play games, use the bounce house and then wander around the patch so we could pick out our pumpkin masterpices.

First day of Kindergarten!!

Brody has started school. Where has all the time gone? It's illegal for him to be in public school (because Nevada has the dumbest elementary education laws) so he attends a private program. They tell me he's the nicest boy they've ever had in their program. Who am I to argue with them? We were afraid that he was a bit young as he isn't five yet (but less than a month to go), but he passed his initial assessments with flying colors and is doing really well. The first month has been fantastic! He loves school and we have given up the TV in the afternoon until after dinner is done. We either all do homework or we play together.

Brody's handwriting has imroved tremendously since the school year started. He writes all the time and now he loves to teach Brady new things every day. At the beginning of the year he didn't remember what he did at school by the time he got home. Now he remembers just so he can teach his brother! Brady is writing much better as a result.

At this point in his life Brody wishes to be a Paleontologist when he grows up. He is really looking forward to camping all the time and playing in the dirt. I came into class one afternoon to find that all of the students had their aspirations written on the whiteboard. While the fact that Brody wants to be a paleontologist was not news to me, it was very interesting to see that recorded next to some of the other occupational goals of the students. And, I haven't told him how much school it will require, yet. He still has some time to change his mind.

Multnomah Falls

One of the most amazing parts of our trip was hiking to the top to Multnomah Falls. The boys made it 3/4 of a mile before they started whining. They were also encouraged by the many other hikers we saw along the way. I actually think that Mom & Dad were even more encouraged by the other hikers once the whining started! We started early in the morning so that it would be cool for the entire trip to the top. It did stay cool. We saw a slug on the way (not something we see a lot of in Nevada) and were taunted by a crazy field mouse who would scamper in front of us, but eluded Jen's attempts to photograph it.

Swimming

It turned out that we brought our Nevada weather to the Pacific Northwest. It was over 100 degrees every day we were there. So we spent a lot of time swimming, playing in the sprinklers, and enjoying some cold treats. I'm not sure the boys will ever be same, after all the ice cream that they ate a Grandpa Bill's house.

Picking cherries

One of the greatest parts about being from Oregon is the amazing produce that we have available to us. In fact we happened to try to orchestrate our trip around cherry harvest. So, seeing as there were some cherries that didn't make the size requirement to go to market this year, we took the boys out to see how great they taste straight off the tree.

Bonneville Dam

After we did not find sturgeon in The Dalles, we decided to head to Bonneville to see what we could find there. We found so many different kinds of fish! The boys were fascinated by the fish counters room. The sat there for quite awhile trying to keep track of all the different fish they saw. There were lots of steelhead, and lampreys. There were even a couple of salmon. They boys thought being a fish counter looked like a fun job, but not nearly as fun as being a paleontologist. Tim decided the next time we come to Oregon, he'll do some fishing.

Wonderworks

When Jen was a little girl she used to go to Wonderworks children's museum and play. So on our recent trip to The Dalles, we took the kids. There was a lot of fun to be had!