Christmas Fun

We went to make sugar cookies at my grandma's (Gracie's great-grandma) house today. Grace liked the cookie cutters and the rolling pin, but her fingers kept getting sticky. The OCD was coming out in her and she really didn't like the sticky feeling. So she and Grandma went outside to play while mom and dad finished the cookies.

Grace's 4 month old friend Brooklyn came over to visit and Grace was trying to teach her to crawl. Didn't go so well!

We got Grace's "big girl" bed today- it's going to take awhile to get her used to that. Cousin Molly comes in March and wants to use the crib, so we are starting to work on the big girl bed.

It's already been a busy week and on Christmas day we will be heading to Fredericksburg for a few days.

We held our First Annual Donuts with Santa at my school this past weekend. It was a great fundraiser for our school. Steven brought Gracie and they had donuts, made a christmas card and Gracie had her picture taken with Santa. This Santa is a special one- a good friend of ours. Gracie loves her Jeff and I think she recognized his voice under the Santa costume and did such a great job getting her picture taken! She just kept looking at him like "I know this guy!"

She saw a friend of hers, Brenden, who is almost a year old. She was talking to him and just carrying on a long conversation. Brenden was a good listener!:)

Gracie had a blast running the halls at Donuts with Santa and playing with the other little ones. She didn't want to go!

Aunt Elysa and Grace

My little bug...She was supposed to be a cow, but she didn't like wearing the cow costume. I think she turned out so cute as a ladybug!! We trick or treated at my parents, my sister and her husbands house and at Great grandmas. We ended up a friend's house for a Halloween party where she got to see her babysitter and kids. Grace was up late and up early this morning!! She was too cute saying "trick or treat!"

Sitting on a giant pumpkin coloring book Great Grandma bought her!

One last picture from the Arboretum.

The Dallas Arboretum

We went to the Dallas Arboretum a couple weeks ago with my mom and grandma. Grace had a great time climbing the mountains of pumpkins. She loves being outside, so she had an awesome day!

My Future Hawk

We went to the Rockwall Heath football game Friday night. Grace was feeling much better by Friday so we went. We only got to stay for an hour, but Grace was having such a good time! We checked out the new aquatics center next door before the game- She was VERY interested in the swimmers in the pool.
Next week is the Rockwall Heath vs. Rockwall HS football game. Grace and I will be sitting on the Heath side with daddy, but we will be wearing Rockwall HS orange since that's where mommy went. She has a cute little Yellowjacket "bling" tshirt and clip so watch for pics next week.

And they're in!

Gracie now has four molars in. #4 is about halfway through the gums. These last 2 days have been terrible! Short naps, not eating much, fussy, screaming! Hopefully this is the end of teeth for a little bit. I could use a break! (And I'm sure Miss Tina agrees too :) )

Hose

Mimi (my mom) taught Gracie how to play in the water hose. She loves it as you can see. This day we were playing outside and she picked up her little pool off the deck, walked all the way around the deck straight to the hose. She kept reaching up to the faucet trying to turn it on. She had a blast playing the hose. She loves it when the dog drinks out of the hose while she is holding it.
Grace is getting so many new words each day. It's just amazing! Her latest ones are "side" (outside), walk, and back (that is her telling the dogs to get back). It's really cute. We hear "side" quite a bit. She loves to play outside. We've been out quite a bit now that the air has been a little cooler the last few days.

More summer pics!

This is Gracie and 2 of her cousins that visited from Missouri a couple weeks ago. I'm just now wading through summer pictures on my camera! We went to play at the sprinkler park and then the kids had snack...They had a blast!
Steven and I are back to work and Grace is back to Miss Tina's. So far the year is off to a good start!

Summer's Over...

It's back to work tomorrow for me and Steven and back to Miss Tina's for Gracie. Here are a few pictures from this summer- Gracie has been very busy. We were in Fredericksburg for a week, drove to Missouri for a week, then to San Marcos for a family reunion, Houston to visit family, and then Steven's family was here for the last 5 days. She was a very good traveler on all the car trips, but she definitly loves her routines and naps.

It seems every time we saw Omie and Pops (Steven's parents), she cut a new tooth.. We've seen them 3 times this summer and she is cutting her 3rd molar. They left today so hopefully this is the last tooth for awhile- I need a break!

She will be 18 months on the 27th. I remember leaving her last year at Miss Tina's when she was only 6 months- barely crawling. Now there is no slowing down for her!! She is talking so much! It's amazing how many words she has picked up this summer.

Slimy Baby

Sorry no pictures of this incident, but it was pretty funny to us. I have a box with a hinged lid in the den that I keep some of Grace's diapers, wipes and bottom cremes in so we don't have to go to the bedroom every time to change her. She was sitting there and she was a little out of sight from me but I heard the box opening and shutting so I knew what she was doing. Then it got quiet for a few minutes and I looked around the couch to see if she was there and she was, with an OPEN vaseline jar. She was rubbing vaseline all over her legs. By the time I got to her it was in her hair and she had it all over BOTH legs and her hands were covered in it. She got so mad when I took the jar away  but quickly calmed down when she got a bath out of the situation. She always wants to put lotions on her like mommy so  I think I am going to have to be more careful about what she has access to! It was funny!

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Grace stayed at Miss Tina's yesterday so I could get work done in my disastrous classroom and while she was there they had arts and crafts time!! The finished project was too cute. I will have to take a picture and post later!
Some of the pictures on this link are from May- our school playday.

Happy Birthday Gramps!

We had lunch at Grandma and Gramps house to celebrate Gramps's birthday a little early. Grace started out the day by unloading my drawer under the sink and then getting IN it. Then she was drinking water out of a sterling silver serving spoon while sitting ON the counter- Grandma started all this--and ended the day by reading one of Gramps's golf books in his lap. Such a busy girl!!

4th of July

Here's Gracie at the 4th of July parade in my parent's neighborhood- she loved it!! Most of the pictures I took had the flags in front of her face as she was waving them. She got so excited when she saw the horses from the sheriff's department. She had a great time and finished up by playing in the hose.
We've been busy-- Grace went to Fredericksburg last week to visit Omie and Pops and had a blast. They have a new donkey and Grace said donkey and loves feeding the cow (she says moo to everything now) and the goats. She swam alot with her cousins who were there from Kansas City.

She is getting another tooth on the bottom- they always seem to come up when we are visiting the inlaws.

We are hanging around Rockwall for the next 2 weeks and then we are off to Kansas City to visit her cousins! She is getting lots of family time this summer which is great!!

15 mo check up

Since school is FINALLY over I took Grace in for her 15 month well check- we're only a week late on it. Dr. Bala was really impressed with how well she's doing and all her words. She has only gained 3 oz since her 12month check and now is 31 inches long. She only grew 1 inch since 12 months. Her doctor said she doesn't need to come back until her 2 year check- we can skip the 18 month well check! We will still go in for a weight check and keep up with her shots. She needs 15 month shots, but that's a trip for another day. Will post pics later!

Super Cute Pics

Check out this website : www.brookebarnesphotography.com. My sister surprised Steven and I with some pictures of Grace for our birthdays. This is a girl I went to high school with and she is also related to one of Elysa's best friends. We loved the pictures and think they are so cute!

Sprinkler Park

We took Grace to the sprinkler park yesterday that is in our neighborhood. She had fun!! It took her a few minutes to get used to the water squirting up - and it was cold - but then she really liked it!

At Tina's

This is Gracie's friend Brenden that Ms. Tina watches a couple days a week. Grace likes to give him kisses and put the pacifier back in his mouth when it falls out. She is kind of jealous of him and enjoys the days that she has Ms. Tina all to herself. 

Sleeping Beauty

She had a rough Mother's Day can't you tell?? She didn't want to wake up this morning to go to Tina's!

Old Toy

This is the top to her little bouncer seat-you know the one she sits in and jumps up and down. It's been apart for about 3 months now, the rest of the pieces are put away, but everytime I start thinking about putting the top piece up, I find her sitting in it playing! Happy as can be. And of course, there is the trusty blanket close by. But we have started interchanging that one with a much smaller one so that's one battle we have won!!

Smush em!

I think the pictures speak for themselves....She normally loves them, but this was her 2nd dinner so she wasn't as into eating them as she usually does.

Movie Day

Grace's friend Kennedy came over to watch a movie today. Grace LOVES Kennedy. She is an awesome friend with lots of baby experience-she has 2 little brothers, one that is a few months older than Grace.

Here is yet another picture of Grace in her toy box. She takes everything out and then gets in to play some more!

14 months

Grace will be 14 months old on Monday. Time sure has flown by!! Just about this time last year, I was going back to work. Grace has 4 teeth, with 2 more popping through soon! She is into EVERYTHING!! We are constantly "baby proofing" around the house. Her latest escapades include taking all the toys out of her basket and then putting herself into it, playing washers with daddy and Uncle Blake, getting IN my wine rack, and sitting on the little stool with the humidifier on it. Such a mess but she's a cutie!!