Grandma & Grandpa Time

Our family loved having Grandma and Grandpa visit from Minnesota for the last few weeks of December. Grandpa and Grandma stayed in our home for a week, then moved over to Matt and Kim's and finally visited Jonathan and Chelsea as well. It was great being able to see them off and on for nearly a month's time. When they were at our home, Grandma and Grandma were fun playmates for Jaden and Cody-- reading stories,

playing lots of games (Go Fish was among the most popular),

and reading even more stories.

On the day after their arrival, Grandpa and Grandma attended preschool chapel with Jaden. Cody, unfortunately, had a fever that day, so he stayed home with Mommy. During part of chapel, the preschool kids sang their songs from the Christmas program.

Jaden shows his sheep ears during the
"ba, ba, ba"portion of this song.

Jaden even got to sit with Grandma and Grandpa during the chapel service.

Another day, Grandma accompanied me to Target to help me begin a baby registry there. Grandpa kept Jaden and Cody occupied by taking them to a nearby pet store and then over to the Dollar Tree to purchase new matchbox cars (which the boys are proudly showing off in this picture).

Cody, Jaden, and Grandpa joined us for the last portion of our time at Target. The boys both learned how to use the scanner and even put a few mommy-approved items on the registry.

One day, Jaden and Cody rode their bikes down to our neighborhood playground while Grandpa ran alongside them. Once at the playground, the boys showed Grandpa how to play two of their favorite games-- "Are You Sleeping, Mr. Bear?" and "What Time is it, Mr. Fox?"

Another fun place we visited was our local library since Mommy had a pile of books that she needed to return. Cody and Jaden showed Grandpa and Grandma one of their newly-learned skills-- how to use a computer mouse! With the widespread use of tablets and touchscreen computers, I'm not really sure how much the boys will ever need this skill, but at least now they know what a mouse is! ;)

Grandpa and Grandma helped the boys learn some new games on ABC Mouse since the library offers this program for free.

Grandma read Jaden some of our newly-picked library books before we left.

One beautiful morning (after Grandma and Grandpa had moved over to Matt and Kim's house), we met the entire Schleicher clan at the tire park. It was just a lovely day for playing outside! The two Minnesota couples, Grandpa and Grandma and Beth and Andy (who had just arrived in town), particularly appreciated the mild December weather. As usual, Jaden and Cody cherished the time with family-- riding the tire swing,

competing in races (officiated by Ian),

climbing on more tires while Uncle Andy caused a few earthquakes,

swinging,

sliding down the TALL fireman's pole,

and just hanging out in the woodchips pile. :)

Grandpa and Grandma also joined with our family on several special Advent box activities (new blog post coming soon!). We loved our time with Grandpa and Grandma and were so thankful that they made the LONG drive out to Texas to see us. We love you both!