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!!!

Oh what a week!

Due to financial situations and my own sanity, we decided that I should get a part time job. This was always part of the deal, if not me going back to full time. It's just when I had her, I cannot even imagine leaving her everyday and having someone else raise her. I know people do it, and it works for them, but I had a shining career already, I made a lot of money already, I want to focus on my family. Easily said, but when you live in the most expensive area on the planet, not always the easiest option. With that said.... I got a part time job, and a fun one!

I am now a canopy tour guide at Mt. Hermon!! What is a canopy tour? A series of 6 zip lines, and 2 sky bridges ranging from 12-130ft in the air, and from 100-440ft zip lines!! So cool right? Right! and WRONG!!! Zip line will be awesome, I can work anywhere from 3 to 20 hours a week when summer starts, which is perfect.... but training SUCKED!!!!! I will say that again... TRAINING SUCKED!!! When I was hired they said training will be for a week, from 8-5 and they will more than accommodate my need to pump and or nurse my 8 month old..... Well, that is very nice of them to say, but the ones that hired me are not the ones that did the training. ****A important thing to note here is that I have never left Gracie for longer than 6 hours before, and that was once. She also hates the bottle******

Luckily for me, I have a wonderful sister and fantastic friends, who all watched Gracie. This was a big deal for me!!! I worried about her, worried about me, if I will lose my milk, because pumping is not the same...

Ok, so first day started at 8 and are you ready for this?..... It ended at 7:20!!! I was able to go home at lunch to feed her, but there were no "breaks" for pumping, we were in the trees the whole time! What am I supposed to do, take off my harness, pop behind a tree and pump 130ft up in the air? Not an option. So, no pumping was going on the whole week, I was only able to go at lunch to feed her, and she did not take the bottle for anyone!!!!!! So, solid foods it was, but she never had that much in her life, and her digestive system took a toll. The first night she was screaming for longer than an hour in pain.... Horrible mom I am.

To cut a long story somewhat short... I worked 60 hours in one week. Grace was great for all, but came home Friday with a fever and was miserable the whole weekend... celebrating my big 30th birthday with a very grumpy baby:( I think she was a combination of sick, had tummy aches, and just super mad a mommy for leaving her. She has showed a lot of separation anxiety since I have been back. SO SAD!!!

So dealing with Gracie was really hard, and training itself was really hard. I am used to being the trainer and knowing what I am teaching inside and out. With this training, I felt completely incompetent, I don't know anything about 7 by 19 Galvanized Aircraft extra improved plow independant wire rope core cable.... This was so new, so crazy and so hard for me!!! Physically it was hard too, having to rescue yourself, rescue others, doing mid-line lowers from 1ooft in the air hanging from a cable.... CRAZY!!!!!!!! I felt like quitting so often, came home at lunch in tears to my sister because I couldn't rescue someone because I am wasn't strong enough....

AHHHHHH!! Well, it is over, I passed all but one rescue in the time allotted, and just have to shadow 5 tours before I am an assistant guide.

I am really excited about being a guide, this week was just super intense and it made me realize that I don't want to work 50 hour work weeks like I did before I had her. If that means that we are going to be broke, it's worth it. I want to be at home with my children, or Stephen for that matter, for the majority of the time.

Ok, thanks for listening.... off to zip some people around now:)

Trip to the snow baby!

This weekend we were blessed to go to a cabin near Jackson CA, in the Sierra Foothills. We were there with our great friends Leilani and Chris, the cabin belongs to Chris parents who were there as well, and it was so relaxing. His mom cooks breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and everything in between. There were ample babysitters for Gracie, on Saturday morning by 10 am, Stephen and I were soaking in the hot tub, overlooking a canyon, with a glass a wine in hand! We had naps, long sleeps and went sledding, as well as watched the Superbowl. We are so blessed to have such great friends!!!!!

Daddy and baby, at least daddy is having fun!
Uncle Chris and Gracie
Our little snow angel, who hated wearing this little dohickie of an outfit!
Gracie and momma, momma trying to keep Gracie from going ballistic..

This should just be in a magazine....Gracie showing off her new soccer Adidas shorts that Chris got her:)
For our first anniversary Lani recreated the cake that she made at our wedding (we did not get a bite that night) OMG it was sooooooo good!
Bath time with rubber duckies
Look at those eyes!
Lani got her a A's jersey for her baby shower, and it is almost getting too small, so I had to suck it up and let her wear it for a day.... and now it will go in the "too small" bin
A great time to be had, and we are all feeling great, we just got over being sick. Stephen had such a bad cough that she popped a total of 4 ribs out of place as well as cracked one... Thank God for Chiropractors and pain meds... Grace is just as cute as can be, and momma is happy as happy can be, I am madly in love with my husband (0ver a year now baby) as well can't keep from hugging my baby girl. She is in the mode where she just burrows her head into my shoulder and hugs me, and I just melt every time!!!

It's been a while....

Loving her cheerios!
Don't come between me and my food!
This look comes straight from her dad.

So, it's been about a month since my last post, I apologize. Nothing really big happened, and our camera needed new batteries. Excuses, excuses. Well, Gracie is 7 months old now (in 5 days) and has two teeth!!! Can't really see them because they just broke the skin, but we sure can feel them when she bites them, and there was no mistaking when they came in due to the sheer volume if the shrieking that came from our cute little angel.

Gracie is also very mobile, not "crawling" yet, but she can army crawl and get up on her toes and hands with her butt up in the air. She rocks back and forth on her hands and knees... sooo close to crawling! I am not pushing it, I can wait for her to be completely mobile.... a few more weeks please!

Just introduced to her yesterday is Cheerios, and she can sit in her highchair FOREVER, eating them. Insanely cute:) keeps her busy, mama is happy.

Since she is eating more, moving more and getting teeth, sleep hasn't been as good as it once was. She will wake up 1-3 times per night now, most of the time she will go back to sleep, not always:(

I love her, love her love her! so is so precious. She knows her mommy, and will cry when she sees me because all the sudden she remembers that she is hungry, or sleepy or whatever! It's cute though, I feel loved.

More to come soon. Promise

More 6 months of Gracie

More 6 months of Gracie! At her doc appointment today she measured 27 inches long, and weighed 15.75lbs! That's 90th percentile in height and 50th in weight! She's our tall baby!

Gracie enjoying a Newcastle. (obviously she is not drinking it Dad if her passy is in!)

Sitting up by herself, though looking drunk, I promise it's a different day!
Her favorite toy, a cool colorful mirror that she loves looking in to (just like her mom)... she loves it! Thanks Aunt Patty, Debbie and Alicia!