Grandma's Back in Town

Grandma Ricks came back for a few days to finish up her dental work. We had lots of fun while she was here.

READING BOOKS

SHARING CARROTS WITH GRANDMA


VISITING THE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT HOUSES

Here in Buffalo there is a Darwin Martin Complex. It consists of 3 houses and a garage with an apartment above it. Darwin Martin was a wealthy man that hired Frank Lloyd Wright to design his home. Frank Lloyd Wright used unique design such as long bricks, no rain gutters, garden areas, walkways, etc. Darwin Martin later lost all of his money in the stock market. After he died his wife tried to sell the house, but couldn't so it sat vacant for 17 years. It is currently being renovated to remove asbestos and bring it back to it's original design.

Darwin Martin Home

side view where the flower garden usually is

Barton Home
Darwin Martin had Frank Lloyd Wright build this home first to see if he liked his designs.
He later had his sister and her family live there.

Gardner's House
This house was smaller but had a really cool open design.

BUILD A BEAR

We had a groupon for Build a Bear so while Grandma was in town we went there.

Hayden picked out a monkey, who he named Curious George

Brinley got a dog. Hayden named him TT after our dog Teton


Stuffing the animals


adding some love

giving it a heart

giving them a bath

looking at the accessories...or trying them out!

cute little miss watching

Grandma got stuck in town because of the snow. She had to stay an extra day, but we had to go to Erie for Josh to take his Boards so we left her alone for her extended night and she had to get a cab to take her to the airport. We felt bad, but we couldn't change his boards.

9 Months Old

Height: 28 1/4 in ~ 75th percentile
Weight: 19 lbs 12 oz ~ 75th percentile
Head Circumference: 17" ~ 25th percentile

Brinley is now 9 months old! Seriously, where did the time go?! She's such a cutie! We love her to pieces! She is now army crawling everywhere and recently got up on her hands and knees and rocked. She LOVES to sit and play with the toys. I can set her down by the toys and she'll play for quite a while, and she has a good time. She pulls all the books out of the bookshelf, just like Hayden used to. She is SO happy all the time. She gets excited when she hears her daddy's voice and she loves it when he gobbles her. She loves to put the blanket over her own face and have us play peek a boo with her. She loves her feet! She pulls her socks off all the time. She also puts them in the air and plays with them and puts them in her mouth. She loves cheerios, graham crackers and yogurt, and is starting to eat some table foods. She takes 2 naps a day. Morning and afternoon. She sleeps best in her bed. If we are out and about she has to be exhausted before she will fall asleep. She doesn't like to snuggle like she used to. It makes me sad, but it's a good thing too. I will hold her and rock her standing up and sing to her and then lay her down and turn on her music and she will fall asleep. At night she will snuggle with me and while I rock her and feed her a bottle. She also doesn't like to be swaddled anymore, she wiggles out of it. I wrap her up now but she usually likes her arms out. She loves it when her brother plays with her. She thinks he is so funny. I love dressing Brinley up! Josh teases me that our kids are my dolls. I don't care, it's fun!
We love ya little girly!

Playing with her feet

Playing in her bed when she is supposed to be sleeping.

army crawling

cute little miss all dressed up!

Playing

Turkey Fun

We went to the mall where they had some Thanksgiving activities for kids. They read books, had face paintings and made a turkey. Hayden love it!

Hayden chose to have a turkey painted on his cheek

Hayden and Jason posing with their turkeys

Brinley and her friends
{Brinely, Tatum, Lexi & Lexie}

Brinley LOVED this balloon


Later in the month we made turkey hands and wrote things we were thankful for.

this little man is proud of his turkey hands
{once again LOVES the super grover hat & wears it all the time! LOVE this little boy!}

On Thanksgiving Day we spent the day together. I made turkey and all the stuff that goes along with it. Everything turned out and tasted pretty good! We planned to go to a movie at the cheap theater, but instead we decided to buy Toy Story 3 and watch it at home.

Brinley got to try a little of almost everything. She liked the rolls and turkey the most. She wasn't a fan of the mashed potatoes, but I think it's because of the texture and because I was feeding her instead of her feeding herself.

The kids before we ate

cute little man

Watching Toy Story

Hayden was so nervous anytime anything happened to the toys.
Of course we had to have snacks!

Daddy's Boy

Hayden is definitely his father's son. He LOVES action figures, flying, swords, ninja fighting, wearing his boots inside during the winter and while at pottery barn story time the other day he brought me multiple boxes of Lego's that he wanted.

We went to Target the other day as a family and Josh took Hayden to look at the toys. He told Hayden he could have one toy and kept pointing out different toys to him. Hayden kept wanting an animated Anakan action figure. I even pointed out a buzz toy, but he was set on Anakan. He sleeps with him every night now. And Hayden thinks he needs a little Yoda now!

When Josh was little he LOVED action figures. Star wars were his favorite. He would wear his black snow boots indoors all during the summer pretending to be Luke Sky Walker. His mom would have to make him multiple paper zoro masks every day. He knows all the "wa-pa" ninja moves, and he loved legos so much had lego figurines sitting on his desk in his college dorm.

I LoVE these guys!

Best Friends

Hayden, Hugh, Tyson

These 3 little guys are Best Friends

They were all born within five months of each other and have played and shared everything since they were babies.

We had to document their love for each other because they don't understand it right now but there will come a day in the future when we won't live down the street and around the corner from each other. It will be a sad day when Hayden says "play with Tyson" " play with Hugh" and he really can't. We try not to think about it.