my brownie batter babes

Polar Express ride 2010

A few years ago my mom started a tradition. One weekend each December is designated as "Grandkids Weekend." All their grandkids are brought to Granny and Grandpa's house for 2 days of fun. She and my dad plan all kinds of things to do: gingerbread houses, light parades, movie night, etc. It's a kid's dream come true. This year, they took all the grandkids (and their parents) on the Polar Express. I think the adults had as much fun as the kids (ranging in age from 22 months to almost 16). Thanks again, Mom and Dad!

Granny and Grandpa with their grandkids

Britt, enjoying the magical tunnel of lights

The Whitmer kids: Jorden, Jayden, Jillen, and Jensen

Marnie LOVED the sing-along on the way to the North Pole.

Ellee and the North Pole

Marnie and Emelyn ring their bells for Grandpa and Granny.

Britt and Justin admire Britt's new bell.

Our little family on the train


And thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Brimhall for watching this guy so we could go. :)

The last year I can count his age on one hand

I'm surprised but, he's five and I haven't cried. The night before Britt's fourth birthday, Justin and I tucked him into his bed and I dissolved into tears because I'd "never tuck in a three-year-old Britt again!" I got over it, and REALLY enjoyed having a four-year-old. Now I'm ready to find out what it's like to have a five-year-old. The night before his birthday, I tell Britt the story of his original birthday. I tell of how excited his dad and I were to be having a boy of our own. How I had to call my boss from the hospital and tell him I couldn't make it to work that day. How scared we were when after 36 hours, he was finally born but didn't scream and wail like I thought he would. How I fainted when they took us to see him in the nursery. How his Daddy sat with him on his first airplane ride at 1 day old. And all about the week (that felt more like 2 months) we spent in the NICU with him. This year, when I finished the story with how thankful we were to bring him home on Christmas Eve, he said, "mom, does it make you sad?" I told him, "Not sad, just sentimental for the days when you were so new and little." His reply was," I miss when you were little too, mom." Whatever that means. :)
I'm thankful every day for our Britt Garrett and the multitude of ways he makes us laugh. Our loving, smart, creative, handsome, sensitive, funny, charismatic, beautiful boy. These are some of my favorite pictures of his first 5 years.

party time

Any guesses what theme Britt wanted for his birthday party this year? :)

and by the way, this is hardly animal cruelty. i gave griz a big carrot for letting me take his picture while wearing the antlers.

Britt had a blast with his friends playing regular games like Air Hockey and Foosball, and reindeer games like Stick the NOSE on Rudolph, and Antler Ring Toss. He requested brownies in lieu of cake, so I found some suggestions about how to make reindeer cupcakes and applied them to round brownies. He was happy with them, so I was happy with them.

Afterwards, we had a birthday party with 2 Grandpas, a Grandma, and a Granny. :) Grandma Tara made a delicious texas sheetcake (with a huge 5 written on the top with chopped nuts) and we enjoyed more of the candy cane ice cream I made. It's nice being close enough to grandparents that they can be at every birthday party and Christmas program.


Marnie was a little jealous all day (kept saying, "Marnie happy day now? Marnie have party with cake?") so we let her have a turn blowing out the candles.

Luke and Leia

Huge Understatement: Britt loves costumes.
I can't think of a day in the last year and a half that Britt didn't dress as some super hero or animal or guy from a movie he loves or even his Uncle Jordan. He has to get pretty creative to put together most of the costumes, and I think that's the part he likes the most.
He came to me recently and asked if I could do Marnie's hair in "Leia buns," because he'd already dressed her in the rest of the costume, but it didn't look complete without the hairstyle. He selected her black leggings and his white thermal as her ensemble.
I felt it called for a photo shoot.
The real Leia and Luke...

...and the pretend ones.

sneaking up on us

Seems like last week we were deciding on Halloween costumes, and now here we are- less than 3 weeks from Christmas! Which means less than 2 weeks until we have a five-year-old (that's if I acknowledge it and let him turn 5...do you think he'd mind if we kept him a four-year-old for one more year?). :)
What makes it feel like Christmas to you? To me, it's the traditions.
Carefully hunting for and then cutting down our Christmas tree,
decorating our living room with warm, festive decorations,
setting up the Nativity scene (which is followed by 'finding baby Jesus in odd places'),
dusting off the Sufjan Stevens Christmas CD box-set,
polishing my (and MJ's) toenails red and green,
making the voyage to a big city to shop for gifts,
indulging in egg nog, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin rolls,
snuggling on the couch, watching one of our (137) favorite Christmas movies, while the tree lights the room,
and looking forward to out-of-towners coming to visit... although, we won't have many this year. :(
I'm excited for the traditions still to come {Christmas week salsa making, sprinkling oatmeal and glitter in the grass (for Santa's reindeer), candy cane popcorn, etc.} and I can't wait to see Britt's face when he opens his gift from Santa this year.
Here are some pictures of the fun we've had so far this Christmas season...

Britt and Marnie helped bury our traditional cream soda in the snow before tree-hunting.

Baby Jesus was the 'gunner' I guess...

A huge tree we saw while shopping at Tempe Marketplace inspired Britt to make some funny faces.

Griz saw his first snowfall and was nervous as could be about it...

until cousin Abbi showed him how fun snow is.

Aaand then they needed a nap. :)


Love that face he makes when he's focused on something.


She loves the tree and even makes sure to say "goodnight tree in house" at bedtime.

Seriously...how cute is this?!? :)