Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent the day with all of the the people that we're thankful for!!!

19 Months

And not much has changed... She's crazy and wild and climbs and hides... She gives the best hugs and screams the loudest screams... The main difference between 18 and 19 months for Miss Grace is that she's a collector. A collector of all things... Want a baby? Nope, she'll take three... Want a car? Nope, four please... She holds as many things at a time as possible and drops them and screams. I've been hoping for a long time that she would have a lovey, something for her to cuddle with and maybe even help her sleep. She finally picked it and it's more perfect than I could have ever imagined. She sleeps with the dish towels that my Grandma made me... She's named after my Grandma (Grace VERONICA) but they never got to meet. How perfect is it that she chooses to sleep with a little bit of GG Bonnie every night? She also sleeps with her dalmatian. It seems that she must have a dog, just like Jack... She currently calls him whoo-whoo (possibly her attempt to whistle for him, as though he'll come running)... Too cute as well. But at night time, I am back to being reminded of her tendencies to collect. Happy 19 months my huggy-buggy!

Disney Saturday...

Last Saturday, we had a quick little Disney day and it was perfect - there were hardly any lines and we went on all kinds of rides that we usually avoid because of lines... Dumbo is one of those rides... Jack doesn't really care about riding it and the line is usually 20 minutes or so... this time, there was no wait! Gracie never misses the carousel... Jack and Daddy even went on Mr. Toads... Then the boys went on Thunder Mountain and I made Gracie pose for pictures... Then while the boys went on Pirates, Grace and I staked out a spot for the new parade... It's the characters from the Princess and the toad. Without even knowing what we were doing, we had a perfect spot! First they walked right past us and Grace was so excited (she even got beads)... Then they go and get on the boat and the boat stopped RIGHT in front of us and we watched the whole show! It was really cute! After a while we went over to California Adventure... Jack just had to say hi to his good friends! While Gracie napped... The boys went on the squid ride... Then we played and played ... This girl has no fear of all of the net bridges and things that are up so high and scare me! What a fun day!

Babies!

Baby Liam is almost here! So we got to celebrate! Drew and Jill threw a beautiful shower and we had a wonderful time celebrating! On the same day (at the same time) daddy's cousin Nick and his wife Anne celebrated little Mia, who will also be here soon. It was too funny ~ mommy and Grace and Grama Colleen at one shower and daddy and Jack and Grandma Karen at the other. Of course I called dibs on the camera... Congratulations Jamie, Alex and Aiden and congratulations Nick and Anne! Look at how cute the decorations are! And I had been feeling a little crafty, so here are pics of some of the little things I made...

One and a half!

My baby is eighteen months old! This is amazing to me... A few nights ago, I was re-reading a bunch of posts from the babysite and thinking about all of the ways that our lives have changed since I've been home. There are a lot of things that I don't remember (and I'm glad I wrote down) about the days when I was in school and she was oh, so little. But now, I am blessed enough to not miss a thing! Are you ready to be filled in? There's a whole lot to say about Miss Gracie! She makes me laugh - every day. She just gets this silly "girlfriend" look in her eye that makes me giggle and she totally does this on purpose! She can do it to Jack too, she makes him laugh so much! His silly antics make her laugh too, I love how much fun they have together! She hugs him every night, with all her might... It's a real tight hug! She knows so many body parts and can point them all out. Are you ready for the list? Head, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, tongue, teeth, chin, hands, fingers, arms, belly, beebo, peepee, boobies (gotta love bath time with two kids), legs, knees, feet and toes! She knows a couple of animal sounds: tiger, monkey, kitty and dog. She knows a song! It's from mommy and me class. She can do all of the motions and sing the hello parts... The best motion is "tickle my chin," it's so cute and she does it to tell me that she wants to sing the song. The other day in Target, she started singing it with no prompting from me. Hello, hello, hello, how are you today? Hello, hello, hello, listen hear me say: I can clap my hands, stomp my feet, tickle my chin... Hello, hello, hello, how are you today? Speaking of mommy and me, she LOVES arts and crafts. I would say that this is the first year that Jack has been remotely interested in the crafts during class, but she will sit at least as long as he will and she knows where the paint is stored (DANGEROUS) and gets it out herself! Yesterday, she nearly painted my butt! She loves to paint and draw - especially with permanent markers... She marches. At one of the Halloween parties she was marching in circles with Jack and a bunch of other four year olds, she fits right in... She jumps! She's getting off of the ground now and that makes her laugh so much! She'll do it forever - just laughing and laughing... And she loves playing with kids. I was in the crying room at church last Sunday and she was the party planner in there. She was grabbing this one girl's hand and trying to get her to come with her. Then when the little girl wouldn't, Grace would bend over and put her face in the other girl's and "talk" to her... she's so animated. She really wanted the little girl to see the drinking fountain... It was hilarious! She talks! and talks and talks! here ya go where'd he go? watch hello bye-bye one two three please thank you da da (both for Jack and Daddy) ma, mommy, mama pumpkin baby bike barbie doggie kitty meow I want (when we were in Vegas my mom said she screamed "I want my mommy!") more tickle wawa MINE! ball balloon bus banana apple cookie milk cheese (pictures and food) hot ow-wie eyes uh-uh (better than no?) down shoes boots Elmo and I know there's more, but that's enough for now... She signs more to nurse, she signs fish, airplane, all done ... that's about all of the signs that she uses these days. We finally started reading to her before bed (poor second child). And she loves it! She listens closely to what all of the pictures are and tries to repeat it back. She asks what things are and if you ask her to point to things, she'll do that too... It's really cute and she sits so still! I've mentioned her love of sweets before, but the other day she was playing with some toys - she was really focused. Jack and I were discussing some balloons that we have and I told him that it was in the shape of a cupcake. She stopped playing, stood up, smiled, ran over to me and asked "cookie?" She knows them all... name a dessert and she's probably tried it... Other food tends to be an issue. She's a light eater, really only taking a couple of bites of anything. Her chicken nuggets are a perfect example. If you give her one, she will take two bites out of it. If you give her two, she will take two bites out of each one... Why won't she just eat the whole thing? I guess she hasn't heard of the clean plate club. Apples are another example. Give her slices and she'll take a bite or two out of a couple slices - give her a whole apple and she'll eat half of it. It's so weird. Additionally, she's not a big fan of bland. Jack's a good eater, but sauces are not his cup of tea. When I make certain foods for dinner, then I make a separate meal for them. But when we ate enchiladas, she did not want her quesadilla - she ate enchilada, sauce and all... Same thing with lasagna. She didn't want buttered pasta, she ate lasagna. Though it probably helps that both of those things have cheese in them. The other night, she was ignoring the broccoli on her plate - again. But daddy handed it to her and called it a "tree cookie" and she ate it! Holy cow, until then, I don't think she'd eaten any broccoli in her whole life! She may not always like to eat, but she loves to cook. She always gets out the pots and pans, fills them with the letters from the refrigerator and moves them all around the house. She is really diligent about her work and focuses intently... It cracks me up and I find weird things all over the house... "Why would Jeremey put this here?" ... oh yah, maybe it was the crazy toddler... :) If you're keeping track then you know she was really eighteen months last week, but I wanted to wait to post until I got her hair cut! She hated it at first and then it grew on her... This is how it all began... Then it moved into that quiet sobbing... And Jack and Milan came over to entertain, since the T.V. wasn't doing enough... Look! The tail is gone... Finally... It ended like this and she cried because I took her out of the car... Isn't she cute? Now it will hopefully start growing... And she had her eighteen month old check up today and four shots! She's 34.5 inches which is the 97th percentile and 27.5 lbs which is the 56th percentile... So she's tall and skinny... I figured I'd better write it down, just in case it never happens again ;)... She's such a trooper and cries so much less then she used too. During the shot she screamed "ow-weee" but after, when she found out that she got a bracelet from the treasure chest and a sugar free lollipop, it was as though the shots never happened! Happy half birthday my baby girl!

Halloween!

After all of the preparations, the day finally arrived! HALLOWEEN! First up was a yummy dinner with all the Grandparents... Then a yummy candy apple from Grandma Pat: Then it was time to get dressed! Getting into character! Practicing... And they're off! Oh wait! We need a family picture... First stop... Second stop, pick up Justin!The posse...After they were all tuckered out and sugared up, we went back to Grama Colleen and Papa Pat's house... Gracie and Justin are so cute together... Grandma Karen and the kiddos... Burning off some of that sugar... Loving uncle Craig...On the way home, Jack said that "Halloween is coming soon!" Poor guy has had so many Halloween parties and things that he couldn't even tell which day was the real Halloween...