a christmas of firsts

so my pictures kind of suck but i was preoccupied with my cute FAMILY OK????
anyway...

this christmas had a couple firsts for us!! it was brecken's first christmas and it was all of our first christmas in our new home!! and it was oh, so nice and simple and great.
we woke up to our kiddos talking in their room so we went in and grabbed them while filming, and walked them out to where santa had left them their presents. at first grant didn't see his and thought that santa had brought him a stuffed fox... which was cool ... but not near as cool as percy and james...the trains he has been asking every santa he saw this season for. so we showed him what santa brought and he was so excited! he could've cared less that we got him anything else. in fact it was hard to get him to open anything else up. i love how simple kids are. we could've just gotten him those two little trains and he would've been 100% satisfied. 

what i thought was cute was while we were playing with grant, i noticed brecken crawling over to where her santa stuff was... she crawled over, pulled her self right up and started grabbing the adorable stuffed fox that was waiting for her... she now sleeps with it every night..mostly using it for a pillow. santa also brought her a little toothbrush/teether that she looooves. she chewed on it all morning. she was so fun this christmas. i won't lie... grant was kind of boring at his first christmas... he couldn't care less about presents... but brecken is a lot more interested in toys and playing than grant was at her age. so it made her first christmas pretty fun.

after we opened presents and were relaxing in our living room, soaking in the moments with our kids... we got a call from our bishop telling us church had been cancelled due to the crazy snow. (seriously though...how crazy has the snow been this season????) so we got ready to head to pocatello to spend the christmas break with family. 

we went to normans parents and ate food, opened presents, and relaxed. then headed to my parents to have dinner. we weren't doing presents with my family until the next day when my sister and brother in law got here from boise. the day after christmas we opened presents with them and played our annual christmas game which was SOOOOO fun this year. i mean... it's fun every year, but this year we had to draw a name before the game and then we were to get our gifts as if we were that person (without telling anyone who we were)... it made the game a lot more fun and kept the giving spirit of christmas as part of the game. 

then we spent the rest of the week hanging out with family, sledding, four wheeling, going to star wars (of course), and partying with family while bringing in the new year! it was a great way to end 2016!! hope everyone else had a great season as well!

happy halloween!!

look at me!! blogging like 2 days after the event actually happened! i'm proud of that! i used to be good at this whole keeping up with the blog thing...and then i got busy...and a little sick of blogging because it constantly feels like keeping up with the kardashians...or jones's ..or something. but anyway...i  like documenting our family moments. and this one was a good one!!! it was such a good evening.

it was brecken's first halloween and grant's first halloween where he actually trick-or-treated and knew what was going on! last year he was sick on halloween and couldn't go. so this was a big year!! i was really close to not pulling any costumes off this year. in fact, my shipment of yellow shirts and some overalls (because believe it or not...no where in town has a plain yellow shirt) came halloween day! i had to go pick them up at UPS that morning. when norman saw them in their costumes all dressed up he said "hey! for almost not pulling this off the kids look really good!!" haha. i was feeling good about it. my little minion and agnes from despicable me. cutest ever. 

we had our annual chili and cornbread at my parents before heading out! the kids were all chomping at the bit.... and my little brecken got to tag along trick-or-treating in the stroller and was an angel the whole time. 

grant was trying to keep up with his older cousins and was having a hard time. they sprint from house to house and his run is only fast enough to keep up with their walk. haha. it was cute watching him try but we ended up going every other house so that we didn't hold up the other cousins. 

the first few houses he didn't quite understand what we were doing. he said trick-or-treat (cutest ever) and then would try to walk in each house. hahaha. he did that for about 4 or 5 houses until he realized that we weren't going inside any of the houses. i was actually pretty proud because we got to a house in my parents neighborhood that is notorious for their halloween decorations! their whole yard is full and the pathway up to their door as well. i was interested to see if grant would be scared or not, and he wasn't! he just walked right up like it was no big deal! 

here's a little clip i took of him trick-or-treating at one of the houses. i had to get him saying it on film because it's so cute. also...every time he knocks on a door he says "come in!" haha...so i had to get that, too.

Halloween 2016 from morgreece on Vimeo.

after trick-or-treating around my parents neighborhood we went to my in-laws and visited and relaxed a bit...he was super tired by then. running around with those cousins getting candy is hard work!! 

but it was such a fun day. being a parent is the best... everything your kids do or learn makes you so happy. the pride, the irrational unbridled joy. so the little thing like watching my boy learn how to trick-or-treat...gave me so much joy.

such a good day.

happy halloween!! it was a good one.

PRIEST LAKE: 4th of july

this is our second year we have been up at priest lake for the 4th of july. i was kinda bummed cause the ONLY cold day while we were up there was the 4th of july..... so we didn't go swimming or boating or anything. but we did have a good time! we went four wheeling in the morning up in the mountains so we could overlook the beautiful lake!

^^^this was our attempt at a selfie with a DSLR camera^^^

then we came back and hung out at camp with family and talked. that evening we had dinner with everyone and then treats at the beach while we looked for fireworks around the lake.

^^norman thinking he's a cool kid playing hacky sack with the teens^^

grant thought it was a good idea for the two seconds i took to take a picture of norman and i, to walk into the cold water with this sweats on. (face palm)

my cousin britney bought a bunch of glow sticks for the kiddos. pictures are pretty blurry but...you get the picture...

(^^this was the picture we were taking while grant went to play in the water...you can see him in right hand corner by normans ear....walking to the water....i look away for TWO seconds people....^^)

it's always nice to be in God's country over the 4th of july. we are blessed with a beautiful country and i am grateful for the freedoms we enjoy every day. happy belated 4th of july!