Monday, November 28, 2011

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!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

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!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Flash From the Past

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

Sunday, October 23, 2011

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.

Monday, October 10, 2011

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!

Monday, October 3, 2011

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

Sunday, October 2, 2011

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!