A few pictures

A few pictures to capture the last 2 months!
Did anyone hear that the Giants won the World Series!?!?!?!? We had people over every night and could not believe the outcome!!!! Gracie is going to be a Giants fan... no doubt about it!

This was not her Halloween costume... though it will be next year... her daddy has the same one. She was Minnie Mouse.. pictures are from someone else and will come soon!
Getting into trouble. She is caught, thus the guilty look.
SOOOOO much fun at the State Fair, I thought she would be too young for it, but I was sure mistaken. She flipped for all the animals:)
Look at that smile!

Having some fun at the beach
Showing off her belly in her little bikini.

An update

So here we are August 31st... Gracie is almost 14 months and things are moving and shaking for that little one!
Developments:

• She is walking! Everywhere! Which means we are running! Everywhere!
• She had 6 teeth come in within one week (she had 2 teeth for 8 months before)
• New words: Baby, Kitty, Key, Ruff Ruff, Uh Oh, Thank You
  
• She signs for more, please, hungry and thirsty
• She sleeps through the night (when she is not teething) usually around 5 she will wake up and come and sleep with us
• She goes outside, pats her chest and says "kitty Kitty" (like here kitty kitty)
• She kisses icons, books, ducks... everything, but not Mommy and Daddy very often:(
• Her favorite game is chase... running around the house with mommy and daddy hiding behind doors and screaming when she finds us... SOOO CUTE
• No longer eats baby food!
  
• She loooovvvvess blackberries and peaches (from our land)
• Takes 2 hour naps! (yippee)
• Loves slides and WATER!

There are many more, just hard to think of them all at this point. She is so fun, happy, smiley, lovable, huggable, kissable... WE ADORE HER! Even her face when she cries is cute, (not the sounds that come out) I am so happy to spend my day with her, and I am so happy when she sleeps!
I am done working 30 hours per week!! I will work 10-20 now, whenever I can, I continue to baby swap with another mom so we don't have pay for childcare.. In essence... you work 10 hours and get paid for 5 because you're watching someone elses child.... But, in this whole first year, I only paid a babysitter once!!! It's all about who you know!
Stephen works M-F 8-5 and is just an amazing dad. So patient, caring and fun! It is a beautiful thing to see him develop into this fantastic father... He loves every second of it.
Moved in, getting into a normal routine... I love normal, I love my family, I love my life. God has truly blessed me! Thank you God!

Gracie Turns ONE!!!

Way back on July 1oth our beautiful little baby girl turned one! We had two parties for her, one on her birthday at my sisters Aimee's house, and another a month later when we moved into our new house!
Here are a few from her first one.... Man did she love that cake!!!!!







These are a few from the second one.


Both were special, we decided to have two because at our new house we had room for Stephen's Mom and my sister Chrissy to stay, as well as my parents who came to both.

Moving... worth it, but man does it take a lot out of you!

So, we are officially moved! It takes about a month total, 2 weeks packing, cleaning and moving the old house and 2 weeks cleaning, unpacking and fixing up the new house. 2 weeks was pushing getting our house together, but it was my grand idea to have a housewarming/birthday party for Gracie 2 weeks after we moved in... Inviting my parents, sister, Stephens mom and friends... so not only did our house have to be ready, but those rooms that we just put boxes in to get them out of the way had to be unpacked as well. It was sooo tiring and hard, but it was worth it, we loved having our family here, and for the most part we can relax in a fully put together house now.
Gracie loves her new digs, plenty of outside for her to play in, grass instead of wood chips, flat land instead of a sloped backyard... we just let her get dirty, and dirty does she get! We used to give her baths maybe two times a week, but now it's a daily occurrence, sometimes even 2 because she likes to body paint with her food.
I love being so close to my Church, so nice to be able to walk to services and BBQ's and man... we live on 4 acres of land!!! Gracie goes on walks everyday, looks for kitties, eats blackberries, plays on the swing, plays with all the rocks... she cries when we take her in.
We went from a family who at least had the TV on in the background pretty regualry... to hardly watching it at all... For those of you who know me, know what a big feat this is. Getting chickens in the spring, starting to plant fruit trees right now, it is just so nice and relaxing to work on this house for some reason!!!
Bottom line is that we could not be happier.
Here are some pictures of it

One view of our living room

The most beautiful fireplace
Outside deck
From the deck
THE KITCHEN!!!! I love it!

Summer Summer Summer TIME!!

So summer is here and a lot of things are changing for us: First, I am now working about 30 hours a week for Mt Hermon at their little Espresso place and I love it. I work M-F from 6-12 in the mornings, which is not that hard because Gracie is getting up around 5:30 anyway:( I leave, Stephen plays with her, dresses her, feeds her and brings her to our friend Lana's house and she watches Gracie till 12. I then pick up Gracie as well as Lanas' daughter Sadie, and watch her for a couple of hours. Luckily that is not everyday... two one year olds can get pretty overwhelming at times. It is nice for Stephen and Gracie to have time together in the mornings, and he gets a dose of what it is like to get her and himself out the door in a reasonable manner.
Second.... IS THAT WE ARE MOVING!!!! We have been blessed with a huge opportunity to live behind our church (which is massive property) into a 5 bedroom, gorgeous house!! Here, we can have our own furniture, pets, room for guests, chickens, gardens... there is a front, back and 2 side yards, not to mention the soccer size field next to our house, as well as the church playground... as well as the church!! The house is a dream! New hardwood floors, beautiful river rock fireplace.. ( I have ALWAYS wanted a fire place!!!))) We are upgrading our kitchen which has 1 drawer right now, TO 11 DRAWERS!!!! YIPEEE!!!
This is a house that I want to have lots of babies (a little at a time) and grow old with Stephen in!! Yes, we only rent it, but it just what I want right now!! I have all these ideals of what kind-of person I want to be or do and this house gives me the opportunity to achieve a lot of it.... Not that it will all happen at once but... I have always wanted to raise my own chickens... now I can (There is already a coop on the property), I have always wanted to have my own garden and eat off the fat of the land, and now I can... there is already a raised, fenced garden (just needs a little bit of weeding) I have always wanted to sew, now I can, there room for a whole sewing room, and curtains that I am determined not to buy, but to make!!!! I have always wanted to have people over to entertain, have small groups, bible studies etc... Now I can!! Not only do we have ample room for adults, there is plenty of room for our kids to play and not be right in our hair! The list can continue for a while, but I feel sooo blessed to be able to have this house, be walking distance from our church and just be our family! Thank you God!!!
As for our little wee one...
She can stand and take a step, but never more than one. She will stand for a long time when she doesn't realize that she is standing, then as soon as she notices.. she falls. She plays peek-a-boo to us, super cute! She doesn't cover her eyes, just puts her hands anywhere on her face then lifts them up and looks at us, and waits for a reaction! She eats ribs... we tried this out at our last Mount Hermon picnic and she will just gnaw on a rib bone for days! She is having full conversations with us, though we have no idea what she is saying.... Loves dogs (and for her birthday we are going to get her a real one!) Her birthday just happens to be close to when we are moving and can get one... It just makes us sound like amazing parents to get our daughter a dog on her first birthday.
She just brings us so much joy on a daily basis. My heart grows more full every time I am with her, and when we are all together playing as a family, I am twitterpated. That's right, twitterpated. I am so happy right now with life, I have a wonderful husband, a daughter who just melts my heart.... and well, I give thanks to God everyday for how much He has given to us.

Pictures are to come, our other computer needs repair, which is where I download my pictures on, but next week for sure... AS GRACIE WILL BE ONE!!!!

A month later...

Well, it has been a while, a month we shall say, since my last post.... So sorry, man has life got busy it seems!

Gracie is now almost 11 months old!!! I cannot believe that!! Yesterday we went to see one of our friends newly born baby at the hospital, and it just felt like I was there giving birth...

yet here we are almost a year later!!!!!!! She is getting so big too, usually you can't see the differences everyday when you are with someone all the time, but lately that is not the case, there are days where she is just bigger and cuter than the last...

She is growing soooo fast, not just physically but mentally too! She is starting to talk a little bit just a few words that all sound the same, but not to my trained ear... She can say mamamamama, ba (ball), herow (hello, but it sounds the way Astro would say it on the Jetsons) ba ba (with a hand wave for bye bye). The cutest is "hello" because she will grab any phone, or anything that looks like a phone, put it up to her ear and say it over and over again with a big smile on her face.... So cute!!! You can just see how she concentrates and can understand things that you do or say, her mind is always working. She stood up for the first time yesterday for a couple seconds, and has done it a few times since, but it is really hit or miss with that. She can also push toys across the floor by walking, a video will come later for that, but she is one mobile chica.... crawling everywhere, onto everything and anyone... picking herself up and learning how to fall down gracefully. She can give kisses with a nice open mouth full of slobber:)

This month we celebrated Stephens 31st B-day and my first Mothers Day. I am not trying to brag, but man God blessed me with the perfect man for me!!!! For Mothers Day he got Gracie right when she woke up and took her out for two hours... which meant I got to sleep in for the first time since she was born!!!! When he came back he had with him a mocha from Verve (my favorite coffee place) and a "Mikes Mess" from Zachary's (the best breakfast place in SC) and a People magazine, my guilty pleasure that I gave up!!! WOW! I was sooo happy, he kept singing "These are a few of your favorite things" as he gave it to me that morning. I love him soooo much and am so thankful for a man that is good, not only on Mothers Day, but everyday, he is the most considerate man that I know, and I am married to him!!!! Ok, I will stop talking about him now....

Last weekend we took our first of many roadtrips this summer with the babe... We went to Humboldt to see my best friend Amy and her hubby Josh. We were both really nervous to take her on such a long trip (6hours) but after a lot of prayer and a lot of books, singing, feeding and stopping... she did really well. We had such a great time! They a have a house sitting right on a bluff on a river overlooking the ocean, so you can take their canoe on the river to the ocean! So beautiful! It was just a nice relaxing time, the pictures below are a place called Fern Canyon, which Stephen refers to as "Fern Gully" for all you Land Before Time watchers...

Josh, Amy, Martin, Brooke and Katie in Fern Gully.
Amy sporting Gracie on the ergo (She wanted the practice)

Seattle Trip

My cousin got married this past weekend in Seattle and we were able to find SUPER CHEAP tickets to fly out there.... So Stephen, Gracie, Myself, Aimee and Marina flew up to Seattle and met all the rest of my sisters, mom and dad and a whole bunch of other family and had a awesome time!!!!! We also met a dear family friend Ruth Larson and her boyfriend James and they took us around the city a little bit. Space Needle, Pikes Market, the Mariners stadium as well as Seahawks... it was a great time.

Grace was FANTASTIC! Both ways on the plane she barely cried, and when she got a little fussy we just passed her around the 4 of us. She crawled up a storm when we got to my grandparents house and loved, loved, loved having an average of 20 people around her! She soaked up the spotlight for sure. With fewer naps and shorter nights, she still managed to be happy and just so fun for everyone!

We were able to see my grandaddy again, probably for the last time, it was so important for me for him to meet Stephen, which he did, though he can't hear and can't talk, at least they were able to shake hands. My great auntie Beth was there too, my grandaddy's sister who came from Florida, cousins and 2nd cousins from LA to D.C came, he was pretty much a family reunion and just a special time for us all to be together, days with my grandparents are numbered, and I just want to soak it all in!

Here are Me, Stephen, Grace, Becky, Jon, Marina, Ruth and James at the top of the Space Needle.

Marina at the famous Pikes Market, (where they throw the fish) watch video at the end)

Stephen and I at the top of the needle. ( we are making a valiant effort to take pictures of just us, 99% of all pictures are centered around the wee one)

Aimee and Marina
The needle from afar
Playing in the scuptures
Stephen and Marina on the Golden Pig at Pikes Market. (they are new found best friends and had a great time together on this trip... my heart melts)
Aimee got volunteered to be a participant when they throw the fish... she is standing with a cup on her head, and they are trying to knock it off with a dead Salmon....

Flower Girl and my big crawler

A joyous occasion! Yesterday 2 dear friends of mine got married! When I say "dear" I mean it! I lived with them both in San Jose, Chad for over 4 years and Jen for over 1. They were not together at that time, it wasn't till after I moved out that they called and said that they were dating... 4 months later they were engaged... and here we are! Chad is Grace's Godfather, which makes Jen her honorary one. We are so blessed to have them in our lives, I love them dearly, and can't imagine them marrying anyone else. They have such a strong walk with the Lord, it is inspiring. Grace was one of the flower girls, and I was honored to be a bridesmaid.

Here is the bride getting ready in the kitchen.... I love the fact that she wore green converse under her dress... sticking to being her self... no picture of that though... she looked AMAZING!!!

Chad looking at his beautiful bride walking down the aisle.
Gracie posing for the camera
My lovely family!
Grace, Karina (jens daughter) and the other flower girls doting on her!
Grace has been cuter than cute of late!! She loves to be mobile and will just crawl everywhere she can. She is talking up a storm, smiling, laughing, giving great bear hugs... she is my love of loves! I cannot imagine loving someone more than I love her. I know every mom says it, and it is true, the love you have for a child is just so pure and beautiful. She gets so excited and flaps her arms all around, and when you come after her she gets this huge smile, shrieks and then turns to try to get away from you.... and when you catch her it's all laughs.... She is talking and babbling and getting up on furniture to walk around.... When you open the door to go outside she just smiles and gets all happy, even if it's just to get the laundry!

It is utterly amazing that something this cute came from me! I give the credit to her daddy though. WE ARE BLESSED BEYOND MEASURE!

What did you find on my daughter?!?!

**Warning about to describe a lot of female anatomy in detail*****

We went to Gracie's 9 month check-up the other day and everything seemed great until she took Gracie's diaper off... She did a thorough check of her parts "down there" and noticed there was an extra piece of skin that kinda looks like a little tab or something. When she looked further she realized that her labia is fused together. That's right, you read correctly, her LABIA IS FUSED TOGETHER!!""" What the heck!? My poor baby. So pretty much that means for those of you who never took anatomy (like me) or never really knew what all of our own parts are called, the "hole" that makes a woman a woman is fused together. So, if we were to find this out later... say when she started her period (which is crazy to think that far in the future) there would be no place for her blood to come out, not to mention sex... which I really don't want to think about!!! Ok, so what happens now? My doctor prescribed premorin, which is an estrogen cream that is usually used on menopausal women (hence the pharmacist was asking me a lot of questions on why a 9 month old would need this).... I got the cream and was reading the side effects cancer this, cancer that, increased breast size (yes in infants as well) vaginal bleeding... and the list goes on. I DO NOT WANT TO PUT THIS ON MY CHILD!! So I called my doctor after I read all this and expressed my concerns, and she said other than surgery, this is the only way to help her open that hole, they get such a small amount of the cream that the side effects aren't as strong and that she would put it on her child. That made me feel better, but not all the way. I "googled" this condition as well which I don't really suggest because you will always get the worst case scenario whenever you look up something.... which I did.... This could mean more than just fused skin... it could mean hormone deficiencies, lack of all female organs and so on. Are you kidding me!?

Right now I am supposed to apply this cream after every bath while spreading her labia... sounds fun. Hopefully it should clear up, but it needs to be checked regularly because this condition usually come backs... great.

This could cause bladder infections as well as a whole host of other infections as well. How did I not catch this??? I guess I really don't look all the much at her down there. I wipe well, make sure everything is out, then just put the diaper on, trusting she has all her parts. In reality, even when my doctor showed me, looking at it, I still wouldn't have said "Oh yeah, something is terribly wrong" So we have another appointment in 6 weeks, and we will see from there. Hopefully this is not too much to put on a blog, I am honestly just scared and needed to get this all out!

9 MONTHS!

Grace is now officially 9 months, and this last month has been very big for her!

• She officially became a crawler this month, so cute to see her go everywhere! The smile on her face when she peeks around a door or can come to you on her own accord is priceless. She started off slow, she could crawl for a while, but didn't really seem like she wanted to... Then one day at church she just went everywhere, and that was it... she is a mover and a shaker.
• She can now pull herself up on furniture which makes her so proud, she gets up, looks around for someone to look at her, makes eye contact with us, gives us a big smile and then turns back around. She can also walk along the furniture as well...
• She is talking more than ever, now obviously not words in the English language, but you can tell her little mind is going. It started with ba ba ba... and now can do many other consonants and just acts like she is having a conversation with you, my big girl.
• She waves and claps, though mostly to herself in the mirror:) She loves kids, so whenever she sees herself in the mirror she gets all happy and gosh, that cute little girl in the mirror always waves back!
• She loves playing with small stuffed animals
• She finally learned to jump on the johnny jump up! Before she would just hang out and chill.... but now she cracks herself up on that thing going "bouncy, bouncy, bouncy"
• We went to the beach for the first time yesterday**thus she discovered sand for the first time as well. She was so fascinated with it, of course trying to eat it, but we did our best keeping it out of her mouth, though it comes to a point where we just shrugged our shoulders and went "eh, let her play" She loved the seagulls and all the dogs, and was not a fan of the cold water (we just put her toes in)

***We went to the beach because Stephen proceeded to get poison oak all over his body and has been miserable!!!!! So I took him to the beach so he can get into that freezing cold saltwater and help dry that stuff out. It helped, he swam for 30 minutes and everyone thought he was crazy! It was freezing, windy and almost dark! Gotta love him.

I am sure there is more, but she has been a little bundle of joy lately. Sure, we have had our moments, she now loves to scream at the top of her lungs for no reason... makes me a little more short that I normally am... She sleeps a lot less then ever and has major separation anxiety... other than that we are all good!

I love her, and wouldn't trade her for the world, she fills our heart with joy!

Sunshine and Guitar

Just few pics from the fab weather we have been having! Gracie finally gets to spend time outside!

She is officially a crawler now!!!

Love this one! Daddy and his guitar!! So sexy

Our visit from the "Easter Bunny"

Our neighbor Patrice came over and said that there is going to be a visit from a local bunny at her house if we wanted to bring Gracie... And so I could not help but put her little spring overalls on and get her picture with Oreo. She loved it.

Petting Oreo in a little Red Wagon
Love her little face!
So excited!!!