Santa Claus is Coming to Town

We took Gracie to visit Santa at The Galleria this weekend. We tried to beat the lines and arrived 15 minutes before Santa's arrival, but there was already a line of about 15 families. So, Trinity and I took turns standing in line while the other chased Grace in the Santa area, which kept her happy while we waited our turn. There was a cute little girl Grace's age in front of us, and she started screaming as her dad put her in Santa's lap. Poor girl cried while everyone in line laughed at her. I wasn't too worried about Grace crying, but I wasn't prepared for the reaction we did get:I'm not sure if it was all the attention or just the teething, but she wouldn't smile or take her fingers out of her mouth! And Santa was so sweet... he kept trying to sing and talk to her while Trinity and I stood in the background trying to distract her. But no amount of bribing with food or pulling her arms down would keep those fingers out of her mouth!

Holiday Party

Grace's daycare hosted a holiday party onFriday, so Trinity and I took 30 minutes out of our day to celebrate with her. When we got to daycare, all the kids were stripped to their pants/diaper only, which was a funny sight to see! They soon were digging into their cupcakes and cookies before running amuck.
As part of the celebration, they did a book swap! Grace wasn't sure what to do with her wrapped present, but she eventually got the book out of the wrapping with some help. Funny enough, the ripping of paper seemed to bother her! Maybe I need to re-wrap her Christmas gift in a gift bag?!?It was so cute seeing all the kids open their books and keep trading back and forth. They were an excited bunch of toddlers!

Giving Thanks

I was thankful for so many things this year, but most of all, I'm thankful that I could take this picture. I am so blessed to have my mom and daughter in my life!

Thanksgiving was spent in Midland again this year. We ate with my family first, as the guys wanted to get out of town for some hunting as soon as lunch was served. We were excited that Grandma got a day pass from the PT hospital (and even better news that she would be released to go home the next day). I was very proud of my very first turkey! I got up early with Mom so she could teach me how to cook the turkey properly. It turned out very moist and delicious!

Gracie loved everything we put in her bowl, but she loved the stuffing and mashed potatoes the most! I believe that she had two servings at our first lunch.

As soon as we'd finished with meal #1, we headed over to cousin Kristy's to give thanks with Trinity's family. There were lots of kids running around, and Grace ate her third serving with her second cousins! I loved that the kids had their very own picnic tables to sit at, but it really reminded me of how quickly Gracie is growing up!

The rest of the long weekend we spent flip-flopping between my family and Trinity's family. We are so fortunate that both of our families live in Midland!

First Haircut

Gracie had her first haircut this afternoon! We went to a children's hair salon called Hair Diddle Diddle in Flower Mound, and it was a great place! They had cute cars for the little kids to sit in, and they even had personal TVs with movies. They put Elmo on for Grace, but she was more interested in driving the car. That's my girl!

We didn't take too much off her head... mostly just trimmed the bangs and evened out the back and behind her ears. Grace did a great job!

Flash From the Past

This picture proves that Grace looks like her daddy! Scary...

Arboretum

Last weekend we went to the Arboretum with Mimi, Pop, Uncle Steven, and Aunt Megan. Sincewe don't have a Halloween costume for Grace this year, I decided to make her a shirt for our outing. Mimi and I went to Hobby Lobby on Saturday morning, and we picked out a black shirt and two Halloween-inspired fabrics for an owl cut-out. Sunday morning I sewed the owl onto the shirt while Grace napped, and then we were ready to head to Dallas.

The Arboretum was decorated beautifully for the fall, and we took lots of adorable pictures. Here are some of my favorites!

And just to show you how much our Gracie girl has changed, here is my favorite picture from last year's fall Arboretum trip.

12 Months

Grace's first birthday has come and gone, and I think I am still in shock!

At her one year visit, Gracie weighed in at 25 lbs 15 oz and was 31.5 inches tall, which are both in the greater than 95th percentile for her age! No surprise to us, as she's currently filling out her 18 month clothing and already wears some 24 month clothes comfortably. Even though she's still big for her age, we can already tell she has slimmed down a bit since starting to walk two weeks ago! I think most of the loss has been to her thighs, as her legs grows and she works on those muscles!

Eating is still one of Grace's happiest times! The girl LOVES her food, and she lets you know it with lots of humming and slurping! So far she's still a great vegetable eater. The only thing she seems to reject right now is egg, but in her defense it is usually cold by the time we put it on her tray and she picks it up to eat. If that's the only thing she won't eat, I figure we'll be alright. When Grace east something she really likes, she'll lift her chin and eyebrows a bit and say, "Mmmmmm!" It is the cutest expression!

Right now some of Gracie's favorite toys include her xylophone, shape sorter, Sesame Street walker, and the new Radio Flyer wagon. If she sees that red wagon, she will walk right to it and start trying to climb in. Sometimes I'll just let her walk back and forth between the two seats, and she's as happy as can be! And of course her bath time toys are a big hit too! The other morning she ran out of her room and directly into the bathroom to start playing with them. I was pretty sure she was begging me for a bath, but we had to get to work/school, so I disappointed her by going downstairs instead.

Grace has begun the transition to the toddler room at daycare. The toddler room requires kids to be at least 12 months, off the bottle/formula, and walking. Grace did all of these things the week of her birthday, so they were ready to transition her on her birthday! This has been somewhat hard for me to accept, as I'm still getting used to her being a toddler. I was also a bit nervous about her transition, as the biggest changes from the infant room are that the kids have to nap on nap mats and have a much more structured day. So far she's spent a few afternoons in the room, and her new teacher says that she has done really well. She even took a two hour nap on her nap mat on Friday! It made me happy and sad at the same time... just more proof that my little girl is growing up.

Another big change brought on by the toddler room is wearing shoes! I was a little nervous about making Grace wear shoes since we haven't bothered with them before now, but she's actually adapted really well. She loves to watch me put them on her feet, and she hasn't attempted to take them off on her own so far. We may have another shoe-fiend in the house!!!

This weekend we installed Grace's toddler carseat, but we're keeping it rear-facing for now. It looks so much more comfortable! There is still plenty of room for her legs and feet with the bigger seat turned backwards, and Gracie really doesn't seem to mind facing the rear of the car. We have a mirror facing her so that we can watch her from our rearview mirror, and she is often talking or signing to herself or laughing at her reflection in the mirror. We're attempting to take our doctor's advice of keeping her rear-facing until two.

Two years old... only 11.5 months to go. Yikes!

From Momma, With Love

My dear, sweet daughter, Gracie:

It is hard to believe that one year ago today you joined us. Most days it feels like just yesterday the doctor peeked your head over the surgery curtain so that I could see your sweet face. I will never forget that first look at you and the way it made me feel complete, utter joy. I thought that I would never feel that much joy again, but then you learned to smile, laugh, babble, crawl, and most recently, walk, and I felt all that joy and more. Each day with you is a blessing.

You have been such a great baby. People always comment on how sweet, happy, and cute you are, and I couldn't agree with them more! You love to give big hugs and kisses, and you smile at everyone you see.

Today is a bittersweet day for me. You are no longer a baby, but I know we have so many things to look forward to over the next year. I love watching you grow every day, and I am so proud of you. You have blessed our family each and every day of your life, and I am so thankful for you.

I love you with all my heart,
Momma

Grace's 1st Birthday Party

We are so thankful for all our friends and family who made it over to our house to help celebrate Grace's first birthday on Saturday. They have all been such an amazing support system, and we couldn't have thought of a better way to celebrate our daughter's first year of life!

Over the past few months, I've done a lot of web surfing to get some creative ideas for the party. I originally planned to make Gracie a birthday dress, but when she wasn't walking a week before the party, I decided to sew her some pants and add a "1" out of the same fabric on a white onesie instead (of course she decided to start walking three days before the party). Since I didn't make the dress, I had plenty of leftover fabric, which I turned into a birthday banner for her birthday seat!

On Thursday night, I made lemon cakeballs and dipped them in almond bark before sprinkling them with orange and yellow sprinkles. Trinity and I had a few issues keeping them all intact, but we eventually figured out how to arrange them in a little yellow pail I'd bought for the party. They turned out to be a huge hit!

Erin, Megan, Jess, and Mimi made the rest of my ideas come to life! They were a huge help in setting up on Saturday morning. Erin did a fantastic job on the cupcakes... I definitely couldn't have done it better myself. And she even came up with Gracie's special birthday cupcake design!

We had a great turnout for the party! The kids had a great time playing together. We designated the formal dining room as the kids playing room and let them go to town! Since we still don't have dining room furniture, it is the perfect place to spread out all of Grace's toys. A few didn't make it into the kiddo picture, but as you can tell, we had a good variety of ages!

Grace was a little unsure about eating her cupcake at first. I'm not sure if singing "Happy Birthday" confused her, or if she didn't like the texture of the icing, but she eventually ate every single bite of her cupcake!

We are so proud of our little girl and are looking forward to watching Gracie grow over the next year!

Musicland in Picture

Trinity, Gracie, and I took a long weekend to visit my Dad and Linda in Nashville. When we arrived on Friday afternoon, we toured The Hermitage, where Andrew Jackson lived, for most of his adult life. It's a beautiful place with lots of trees and beautiful landscaping. Gracie did great and even listened to some of the self-guided tour! She was also a hit with the older ladies who took us on a guided tour of the house.

Saturday morning we picked up our tickets for the Grand Ole Opry and took some family pictures outside the Opry. The weather was perfect, so we really enjoyed the outside time.

We then went to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. Apparently they've done a lot of rennovations since the Nashville flood in 2010. It was beautiful and much bigger than the Gaylord Texan. I'd love to see it at Christmas!

Saturday night Dad and Linda babysat Grace so Trinity and I could go to the Grand Ole Opry. It was my first time, and I loved it! The performers included Pam Tillis, Steve Wariner, Kristin Chenoweth, and Randy Skaggs. We also heard a new singer, Will Hoge, who impressed us both!

On Sunday we drove to downtown for lunch at Jack's BBQ and to peruse through the Country Music Hall of Fame gift shop. We'd all been to the Hall of Fame before, but Trinity wanted to find a coffee table book of old Grand Ole Opry posters. We spent the rest of the afternoon at Dad's house before heading to the airport, where they had a fun, indoor children's playground. It was a great place for Grace to get some of her energy out before hopping on the plane.

Thank goodness she got some playtime because we unkowingly had a LONG trip home. Because we were flying Southwest, we had to stop in Houston, where we ended getting stuck on the plane for several hours due to a rain storm in Dallas. Gracie refused to go to sleep while we were waiting on the plane, even though she was exhausted. We finally left Houston around 10:30pm, and she quickly fell asleep through the entire flight. The next morning was a little rough, but she bounced back by the next day.

Hand, Foot, and Mouth

Not to be confused with Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes (knees and toes).... Hand, foot, and mouth is a diseases infants and toddlers get from exposure to a virus in poop, and Grace came down with it this past weekend. (And we thought Duncan was our only child that ate poop!)

All jokes aside, I was little concerned how Gracie came down with this dreadful disease. At first our daycare thought it might be chickenpox, but thankfully they were wrong. What a cruel joke that would have been, since she is getting the chickenpox vaccine at her 12 month appointment in two weeks.

This disease is named for the blister-like rash that appears on a child's hands, feet, and mouth. Gracie has them all over her legs and arms as well, but none on her trunk (which is why I was shocked when daycare suggested it might be the pox).
At first we thought they were just bug bites since they appeared the night after she's played in the grass at my dad's house in Nashville (a separate post about our trip to follow). But she was very fussy that day, and then she got more bumps and we had the questions at daycare. So, Trinity took her to the doctor, who noticed she had blisters on the roof of her mouth as well. Poor baby!

The rash seems to be subsiding slowly, but the blisters on her feet seem to be the worst! And of course this comes as she's trying to walk. Thankfully they don't seem to bother her too much any more, and she's back to her normal self. She only had to stay home from daycare one day, as the disease is not contagious once the fever is gone and the rash appears. And when we went back to school on Tuesday, two other kids arrived with the same rash. I'm still trying to decide which one of them started the epidemic... in a non-judgmental way of course! I'm sure it wasn't Gracie; at least one of the other kids has it worse.

Labor Day

When we got back home from Amarillo, the weather had miraculously cooled down! So, we decided to ditch our plans to stick around the house on Labor Day and ventured out to the Arboretum instead. And I am so glad that we did... the weather was perfect, and we had a great time!
Since our last time visiting, the Arboretum had added a Peter Rabbit village that was super cute! There were four or five houses made of sticks and leaves, and each house was dedicated to a different character from the Peter Rabbit

We had a great time pointing out all the cute decorations in each of the huts, and then we took a break in the grassy shade to let Grace crawl around for a while.Because of the extreme heat this summer, she hasn't had much time outside since she was born, so it was so fun to watch her feeling the grass between her toes and investigating the leaves on the ground.

I can't wait to take Gracie back in October like we did when she was only three weeks old!

Amarillo by Morning

For our anniversary, Trinity surprised me with plane tickets to see Beth Anne over Labor Day weekend. We took Friday off work and headed to Amarillo that afternoon. At this point I just expect that Gracie will be good on plane rides, and she didn't disappoint! She loved looking out the window at the wing and crawling between me and Trinity on the flight.

When we got to Beth Anne's house, we were greeted by this adorable sign in her kitchen! She has the cutest house, and she's done a lot to it since the last time I was visiting, so it was fun to get an updated tour of the place and see all her new furniture.

We spent most of the weekend in the kitchen or family room, eating and visiting. It was a very relaxing weekend and SO good to catch up in person. We also got to spend a lot more time with Tyler, and it was so good to get to know him better!

On Saturday we did get out of the house to meet our friends Nathan, Larmie, and their daughter Elise for lunch. We stopped by their apartment first, and Grace had a good time playing with Elise's toys. We got the girls to toss a ball back in forth a few times before Gracie decided to steal it from Elise and not give it back! About that time we headed to lunch at a great Mexican food restaurant.

After lunch we headed to the historic 6th Street, where there are several antique stores, local home goods stores, and even a video game store. Somehow, Trinity was able to find a bunch of cheap comics at the video game store! While he was rummaging around, the rest of us headed to Cowboy Gelato! Gracie loved trying the lemon shortbread and dark chocolate gelato.

Sunday we spent most of the day at Beth Anne's house before heading home that evening. Gracie loved looking out the big glass windows at the airport. Here she is waiting for our plane to arrive.

It was a great weekend, but it went by way too quickly. Thankfully we'll get to see Beth Anne again soon for Gracie's birthday party!

Meeting Margot

Our good friends Mary Alyce and Ryan had their beautiful baby girl, Margot, on August 21st. The following weekend, we got to meet Margot and catch up with her parents. Gracie was extremely well-behaved and even loved pointing and smiling at Margot. We just know they are going to be best buds!!!

Holding Margot, I was surprised at how quickly I'd forgot how small and quiet a newborn baby is! It's hard to believe that Gracie was ever that small!

We are so excited to have another baby in our Dallas friends circle! Because of their birth dates, Gracie and Margot will be in the same grade throughout school, so it will be fun for us to watch them grow up together!

Celebrations

This weekend we flew to Midland for two important celebrations: Luke's 3rd birthday and Steven and Megan's engagemenet party! It had also been a while since we'd seen our families, so it was great to spend the weekend with them!

Saturday morning we got some good pool time with Mimi. Gracie loved floating and playing in the water with Daddy! The water was a tad on the cold side, so I stayed on the sidelines and watched them play. Once she got tired of being on the float, Mimi pulled out some new water toys, and Gracie sat and played happily on the pool shelf.


After an hour or so of playing, it was time to eat lunch and go to Luke's birthday party. Kim had rented a huge blow-up pool and slide set for the kiddos. Gracie was a little too small for the slide, and it was pretty hot in the sun, so Trinity's uncle pulled out the baby pool for Gracie. It was perfect for her, especially with the HOT weather. She splashed around and laughed at the kids running around and splashing each other in the big kid pool. Cousin Luke got lots of great presents from the family, and he was pretty excited about the bike that Gracie gave him!

Saturday night we celebrated my brother's engagement to the sweetest girl in the world, Megan! We are all so lucky to welcome her into our family, and we couldn't be happier for the two of them. The party was a huge success and had a great turnout! We had delicious brisket, ham, and a ton of sides, complete with plenty of wine and beer. Mimi and Pop sure know how to throw a party!

The Family

The rest of the weekend we spent visiting with Mimi and Pop or Nana and PopPop. Thanks to our family for another great visit! We love you all so much and wish we could spend more time with you all.