Rain boots!

Winter in Michigan is LOOOOONG and very very cold...... and long. I really can't wait till spring! I needed a little pick-me-up, and I've needed rain boots for a long time, so I decided to just go ahead and order some online at target.com.... they have a TON of different rain boots, and they're all really cute! These boots kinda stood out to me:

They make me happy! :)

I got a rain coat too to go with it... it has the same plaid details.

It rains a lot here so it really is a good investment.... I keep telling myself this because I don't spend money on clothes for myself a lot.

It actually warmed up to 40 today and rained, so I got a chance to break my new rain gear in. Later when I was making dinner I turned around and Claire was trying them out!

I have no idea how she even got them on, let alone stood up in them! It was pretty darn cute though. She kept looking down and pointing, saying "mama's boots".

Happy Birthday Josh!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JOSHUA!!!
We spent Josh's 4th birthday up in Canada at my parents' house. Josh had a great day! My mom and I made an icecream cake... it was supossed to look like the fire from the rocket blasting off, but it looked pretty messed up because the icing kept sliding off! Josh was excited to play with his rocket. We made a scavenger hunt for him to find his gifts that day and we all decorated a gingerbread house together.
Joshua's favorite gift was GUM!!! We have been telling him since he was 2 years old that he could have gum when he was 4, so he has been waiting a long time for it and was very very excited :)
He had to show us his first piece!



I know, Josh's birthday was back in November, but just because his Mom is a slacker he shouldn't have to suffer..... so,

here is my tribute to my 4 year old boy! Wow I can't believe he's 4~
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSHUA BRAYDEN GILBERT!!!!!

Joshua is such a sweet, wonderful kid. He is smart as a whip and really keeps up on our toes! He is kinda a ham... loves to "perform" and act silly for people. Josh loves to socialize and has lots of friends at school and at church.
He sings songs all the time, especially when he thinks we're not listening... it's fun to hear him sing songs from the radio. His teacher tells me that he built a stage at school and made a pretend rock band! Josh loves to help his Dad shovel the snow and fix things around the house. He also loves to bake and cook with his mom! If I bake something without him he gets pretty upset that he missed out on cracking the egg.... I've never seen him drop a shell in the batter! He still really loves his trains, and even though he plays with several other things, he always comes back to his trains and includes them in his activities with the other toys.... like building train sheds out of legos.

He loves to draw and color, and has a little desk downstairs where he loves to do art. He worked really hard every day for several weeks coloring and writing names on wooden ornaments for his friends and teachers at school, all on his own motivation. He is such a sweet boy and he still loves to cuddle with me every night before he goes to sleep... he is a very sweet brother to Claire and really tries to look after her and protect her. He trieds REALLY hard to share his toys and be nice to her when she wrecks up his train tracks, and I know that's hard for him. He has a good heart.



We love you so much Joshua.... happy birthday sweetheart! :)

Joshua's 4th Birthday Party

Joshua turned 4 on November 29th and we held his party a couple of days later....he wanted a Dr. Seuss party, and we had a blast thinking of ideas together! We decorated our house really fun with pictures we found on the internet, as well as pictures Joshua drew himself of the "Cat in the hat".... I included just 2 of the several pictures he drew of the Cat in the hat himself, and then he also drew a map of how to get from the Cat in the Hat's house to Sally's house :) The kitchen looked really fun with lots of Dr. Seuss pictures, and red streamers taped to the wall to make it look like a circus tent or something. I tried my best to make the cat in the hat's hat as a cake, but messed up taking the cake out of the pan and it all fell to smaller pieces, so I ended up doing his whole head, hat and bow tie and it actually turned out alright. Josh liked it! We got these koolaid drinks that were red and blue and had funky dr. seuss looking shapes to them, and put out goldfish crackers in a fish bowl, red swedish fish scattered here and there, and multi-colored swedish fish in the goodybags. We got snacks that looked kinda funky like they could be from a dr. seuss book. We also lined up all of our Dr. Seuss books on the ledges in the living room as decoration. We even put a picture of the Grinch on the window greedily guarding the presents. The games turned out pretty fun! Insead of "pin the tail on the donkey", we did "Pin the wocket on the pocket" - Josh won because he was the only one who cheated and would not wear the bandana over his eyes, but since he's the birthday boy he was allowed I guess. :) Then we played "hand, hand, foot", which is basically "duck, duck, goose".... it was a hit! We also had the kids do a craft - Thing 1 and Thing 2 puppets! I cut up a fuzzy blue scarf for the hair and we glued it to the top of white socks, then added red felt for the "body" and white felt with "Thing 1" or "Thing 2" written on it. We added googly eyes and drew on a face with a black sharpie, and Voila!! Puppets! Before the kids left we played one last game outside - Sneetch Tag! The kids ran around and if you were tagged you got a star put on your belly (shirt), then you had to hold hands with the person who was it and run and try to catch another person...that person then got a star and joined the chain, etc. We had lots of great friends come and we're very greatful to all of them :) Overall i think Josh had a great birthday party, and later that day he was already planning for his 5th birthday! Yikes give me a year to recover! :)

After Bath Cuddles

Josh and Claire LOVE bathtime because they get to wear their little robes
afterwards. I took these pictures back in November, but they're so cute I thought I should start putting them up.
They have matching orange stuffed kitties which they both call "Tucker", after one of our real cats Tucker (who is orange and stripey). I wonder if Malea, our other cat, feels left out... ?
Josh had his kitty since he was a baby, and Grandma Grimmett bought Claire one in the summer. Josh carries his around everywhere he goes, so she carries hers around now because she sees from Josh's example that is what you're supossed to do. The only way we can tell the 2 of them apart is that Josh's is faded in color slightly, and not quite as fluffy. But for a week or so after it's freshly washed they are close to the same color. I was surprised to see that Claire can tell them apart and will make sure they have the proper cats when we're going out.
We have a spare "Tucker" hidden in the closet in case something disastrous and tragic happens and we need to replace one of them... I may stock up if I see them in the store again.... just in case!

Josh has nice teeth!! Maybe he won't ever need braces :)

I love this picture... so sweet :)