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)