Becoming a Family: 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...