Living and Loving: August 2012

Friday, August 17, 2012

Grace turns 1

I've put off writing this blog because I have so much I want to write, yet not the right words to say what I want to say.

Let me just start with the birthday events.

Grace woke up on the happy side of the bed.

She ate a kitkat with her breakfast, which she loved.

While eating breakfast Grace noticed the Monkey Pinata that Papa had finished and started pointing and calling to touch it.

Gwenevere decided to get into the action and wanted a picture kissing the monkey

Heidi baked the cupcakes while we watched our friends kids that morning.

Gwenevere pulled out the birthday decorations and we all tried on Monkey hats

Next it was time for Grace's bath. She loves her bath time.

In the afternoon Gwenevere helped me decorate the cupcakes while Grace took a nap.

Heidi took the girls to run some errands while I gathered up supplies and got ready for the party.

I decided to splurge and get balloons for Grace's party, besides they would double for the garage sale we where going to have the next day. Less than 2 minutes after arriving to the park, we lost the balloons. I wasn't sure if I wanted to cry and laugh but the party was a success even without the balloons.

Heidi did an amazing job decorating.

the kids played with water balloons, the monkey toss, and surfari animals while the hot dogs cooked.

we also ate yummy grapes while we waited.

After dinner we did the pinata and ate cake.

Grace LOVED her cupcake.

the birthday party was a success.

But more than a party I wanted Grace to know we are happy she's in our family. We love her bold spirit, her laughter, and her smile.

Grace at age one

(idea came from Erin Lowe's blog)

Wears 12-18 month stuff, depending on company
In size 3 diapers
her favorite shoe is a size 5 but she wears some size 3 and 4 size shoes. (she loves her silver shoes with sparkles.)
She has 2 teeth and we're hopping more will come soon.
She will stand up in the middle of the room for several seconds. She has taken 2-4 steps at a time but prefers crawling over walking still.
She knows how to climb stairs (been doing that for almost 4 months now)
She is a talker!!! She says "Mama", "Papa" "Up" 'baba, (which isnt' a word but she uses it to ask for milk.) "woah" "ut oh", "mine", "no" "ball" "apple" and "purple" . I was socked to hear her repeat Gwenevere when she said purple but Grace has said it several time since so we're calling it good.
She waves bye, when she wants to go to sleep.
She prefers Mama over Papa at night time but wants Papa more than Mama in the morning.
Loves to dance and really gets into it. We went to a friends wedding receptions and Grace wouldn't stop dancing.
Grace likes to fallow Gwenevere around but also likes to try and boss Gwenevere.
Refuses anything that reselmbles baby food. She loves eating rice, noodles, cheese, crackers, pizza, apples, and pudding.
Loves sippy cups, won't drink from a bottle (never really liked bottles) and but her favorite cup is her camelbak water bottle.
Unlike her older sister Grace loves to put toys away. She thinks it's funny to throw the toys into their bins. I hope she keeps this habit up.
She is big into pointing at everything you see. her favorite thing to point to is her Papa, then get really shy and than do it again. it's their little game.
She loves the swings and always wants Gwenevere to swing with her. Whenever we go to the park we swing for at least a half an hour. Sometimes that's the only thing we do at the park.
She loves the water. We went swimming the other day and Grace kept dropping off the side of the pool laughing hysterically.
Loves having her toe nails painted. (and if you are wondering, yes they are painted purple.)
She understands so much and is a good communicator.
Grace weighs 21lbs and is 30 inches tall

here's a few of my favorite pictures.

The first time seeing my little girl.

It was a great ultrasound appointment and the doctor(s) oo(ed) and ah(ed) over how perfect she was. they said her ultrasound was text book material, especially her strong heart ultrasound video recordings. She held so still they where able to capture a great video clip of her heart beat.

the first time meeting my little girl.

I should have known at the moment I would be in for a determined little girl who wants to do things her way.

The tiny feet hanging out of the scale. 7lbs 8oz

Meeting her big sister for the first time

One week old

She was so tiny, how did she grow so fast.

One month old.

On her blessing day

two months and already trying to be like her big sister

Three months

Four months

I love her smile, she smiles with her whole face

Five months

I just love the cheeks.

Six months and sitting on her own

7 months

Eight months and crawling

Nine months and already tired of the baby food.

Mama give me the good stuff

Ten months
Squawking like a bird

Eleven months and ready to walk

the day before her first birthday

she is full of elegance and grace

Happy Birthday Grace

Here's to the many more years to come.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Next stop Mt. Rainier

First get you balance

Second: Stand up

Now I climb up whatever I can reach

today Grace even climbed up onto my kitchen table.

She has also climbed the couch, the book shelf and the little slide. I've been too frighten to take pictures of any of these events.

I'm pretty sure she's getting ready to climb Mt. Rainier.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Story time with Gwenevere

Tonight Gwenevere decided to tell me a story before going to bed. It went something like this

Once upon a time, when we had our new house in Utah. We had a barn outside. We went to the barn and found two baby, little kittens (in her high voice continued) that are soooo cute. we took them inside our new house and the lady said we could keep them. (referring to the response we usually tell Gwenevere, "Aunt Judy, the owners of the apartment complex, won't let us have a cat, not until we move.")

Then we went back to the barn and found the mother cat and took her inside our house to keep.

Isn't that a nice story Mama?