Long time, no blog

I always feel like I drop off the face on the Earth around the holidays. This is, of course, for good and happy reasons: I am often having fun with family and traveling. This season would be no different. We had my parents come in to Cincinnati for about a week, and then we all drove down to Charlotte, NC for Thanksgiving with my extended family. Grace did well enough on the long car trip that we are already talking about when we could go back. Here are some pics from the trip.

If grandparents are for spoiling, the rest of the family must be for showing how to really have fun by playing in the dirt. Grace thought it was the best. I'm still cleaning dirt out from under her finger nails... Grace's Great (really, Grand) Aunt Susan taught her how to be Miss Wishy-Washy and give the barnyard animals baths. Grace got how to use the brush on them by herself. It was awfully cute. Now if only she could give herself a bath!

Party Pics

Yikes! Is it really November? I guess that means I am a bit behind on posting Grace's birthday party pictures. Please forgive me!

The party was fun. We had four other families come with their kids and served chili and cornbread. I made the cake (in a shape of a pumpkin of course!) and her smash cake. I was even able to find sweet fall pumpkin plates to go with the pumpkin theme (the invitations said "Our Little Pumpkin Is Turning One!"). For her birthday Grace got her two front teeth. I'm not kidding.

Can I have my cake now, please?

She wasn't sure at first, but once she realized this thing was mushy, she dove in. And once she realized it was sweet, well, there was no going back!

Grace and her friends, all born within 9 months (except the poor little boy at the bottom who's head got cut off!)

She's a ham, alright!

The girl's got style!

I promise to post pictures of Grace's birthday as soon as we get them organized, but I took this picture today and thought it was hilarious. Grace crawled over to my purse and pulled it out from its hiding spot. At the same time she was playing with her toy cell phone. I think she thought she was turning 16 on her last birthday, not 1....

In other news, we are back from a fantastic 5 days in Chicago. Man, we miss living there. We ate too much and shopped too much. Poor Erik had to be in a conference during the day for 3 of those days, but we still got to see him for lunch.

I also have started weaning Grace. It was such an emotional decision! I thought I would get to a year and "woo hoo, I'm done!" But I found I'm not quite ready to give up the closeness and the fact that she needs me several times a day. There are many reasons I am weaning Grace, not just that she is a year old, so I think I am making the right decision. And I must admit it will be nice to be able to leave her with grandparents now for a weekend away! Oh, I think I hear the phone ringing now...

Our Pumpkin Is One!

Happy 1st Birthday, Grace! I remember October 11, 2005 well. We are so happy that God blessed us with you and your sweet spirit! You are a daily blessing to us and are loved by many.

5 Things

I've been tagged by my dear friend Stephanie to post this. I'm sure she thinks I have forgotten since this was weeks ago, but no, this is just the way my life is right now. Ask my husband who is looking at piles of papers from last month. Still on the kitchen table. Just wipe around them. :)

5 Things in my Freezer:
-Four containers of ice cream; I'm concerned I might be pregnant again!
-Two types of sandwich bread because I like mine chewy, he likes his soft and we take forever to finish a loaf off.
-Homemade baby food (I might have caved on the cloth diaper issue, but at least I kept my word on making her food from scratch!)
-A frozen pizza for that desperation dinner
-A frozen teether that we haven't need much because Grace only has two teeth (still)


5 Things in my Closet:
-Shoes (my husband says too many)
-Purses (my husband says too many)
-Panty hose that I never wear (I'm sure they will make the perfect craft someday)
-Some clothes that go all the way back to high school (there's a reason I don't by trendy stuff!)
-Skeletons (well they say everyone has them, right?) <- I stole this from Stephanie because she is too clever

5 Things in my Car:
-A stroller
-Gum, my greatest addiction
-Grace's "car stuffed animal", the softest lamb you'll ever touch
-A very comfy car seat
-A cloth trash bag, because I'm that much of a neat freak (and I'll make you use it, too)


5 Things in my Purse:(did a thief come up with this list idea to decide who to put on the hit list?)
-A very worn wallet with very little cash because I love my Discover card cashback (don't come after me, thief)
-More gum (I said I was addicted)
-A cell phone that sometimes is charged, sometimes not, and everyone knows not to call because I never hear it ring
-A hair brush which is now an emergency inappropriate toy for Grace
-My palm pilot which may as well by my brain

5 Things in my Diaper Bag:
-Can of toddler puffs (if you don't know what these are, they are little nutritionless cereal puffs that kids love and come in flavors from corn to apple to strawberry to sweet potato)
-Grace's soft, washable bunny which has saved the day numerous times
-During the summer we always had her sunhat and sunscreen, and sadly they are still in there
-A few toys which don't really entertain her any more, they are only good for dropping from the stroller
-Diapers, wipes, and rash cream, duh!

Pulling Up!

Here's what Grace learned to do today! She started by pulling up on the chair below her, since it's a bit closer to the ground and then reached up and grabbed the table. What a big girl! She's discovered a whole new foot and a half of world!








She also wanted to try on daddy's shirt. She's got some growing up to do before it will fit.















Mom took Grace to the zoo last week with all of Grace's friends (Grace is in the back right stroller).

Trip to Minnesota

Here are the pictures from our trip to Minnesota to visit Erik's family. We spent two days up at the cabin in Northern Minnesota, and then two days in Minneapolis. On one of those days, a bunch of extended family came by for a "Meet Grace" dinner. It was a lot of fun, and a ton of people dropped in.

Uncle Peter and Grace You can see her two teeth here.

A picture of the great-grandmothers, Alice Johansson (left) and Margaret Lindell (right), and Erik's mom, Beth

Have your cake and eat it too

This is not going to be the picture that you want to see (I promised ones of Grace a "few" days ago), but I took a four week cake decorating class and want to show off my final project. I also made a cute one with clowns on it and another with a rainbow, but forgot to take pictures before we dove in. I took the class with a friend who has already volunteered us up to make another friend's baby's 1st birthday cake in September. I'm thinking she should invest in cake insurance.

Congratulations, Erik!

Just wanted to give a shout out to my fantastic husband for passing his last exam! He found out last Friday. That means he has eight under his belt, with possibly two left to take. He is taking the fall off from studying in order to focus on finishing up his FSA degree (passing exams 7-8 was the first part). He is working on his Professional Development (PD) credits, and once he has those done, he will have received his second degree (he earned his ASA by passing exams 1-6), which is very rare for someone his age to have. Clear as mud? He has been taking exams since we first got married, so to have him "present" more is already wonderful.

We just got back from a trip to Minneapolis. I will post photos in the next few days (sunshine is coming, Susan).

GAC

I'm hoping you'll join me for a gathering of the "Grace Admiration Club". Membership is free, but there are frequent meetings to attend!

When Grace was first born, we took something like 300 pictures in her first 2 months. We didn't have to buy the film- thank goodness for digital cameras- so we went a little crazy. Except then Miss Indecisive (me) wanted all of them printed. How could I weed them out? "That one is cute, too, because it shows a little different side of her face." I am blessed with a patient husband!

Now we have slowed down on the picture taking, but I am obviously still a first time Mom. No one else may think these pictures are cute, but I love them. The first one is Grace's latest trick, standing on her knees. And the little duck on her rear made this picture all the cuter.

The second one is how Grace falls asleep sometimes. Now she sits up in her crib, and even though she is tired, keeps herself awake by telling her bear about what she has been doing the past few hours. I'd give anything to see this happen- she must just quite simply be dead tired on her feet and just fall over!

And finally there are these pictures. Grace did this by herself- she took out all her toys and then wiggled into her toy bucket. I caught her in the act!

Give it to Mikey, he'll eat it!

I thought I was feeding Grace enough. She is getting less chubby, but still in the 50th percentile for weight, so not too shabby. But here is a limited list of things she has put in her mouth or we have found in her mouth, besides food. I think I need to take a CPR class, just to be safe!

1. Grass, dirt, and other "outside" items
2. A good size pebble
3. All of Dixie's toys and bones
4. A dog treat (apparently Dixie didn't want it, but Grace did!)
5. Daddy's sock
6. My shoe (on a daily basis)
7. Dog hair (she is especially fond of the clumps floating on the floor)

P.S. To the child advocate who will now most surely be knocking on my door- I watch my child very carefully! I really do!

Over the river and through the woods (shhhh, there's a sleeping baby!!!)

In honor of Grace's 10 month birthday, we drove an hour to Madison, IN on the Ohio river today to visit Clifty Falls State Park. Dixie came along and (as usual) decided she didn't really like breakfast afterall. The weather was great for hiking. We borrowed a friend's baby carrier and tossed the baby in for an hour hike around the falls. At first, Grace was a bit scared of being on dad's back, but eventually took a liking to it. So much so, that she decided to take a nap. I guess nature isn't all that interesting to a 10 month old. We ended the trip with lunch. Great park and a great day!

The Hunter strikes again

Dixie killed her 4th rabbit today. Erik said he is beginning to feel like he is making sacrifices to the backyard god everytime he dumps another dead rabbit behind our fence. It is getting disgusting!

My other little stinker learned how to open and shut doors today.

Maybe if I could keep Dixie inside, because she will never learn how to open doors, and Grace outside to play nicely with the rabbits, I could actually get something done around here! :)

First Blog - July 31, 2006

Here we go...We'll start with a family pic. Grace is 9 months old in this one. She's crawling and has 2 little teeth poking through on the bottom of her mouth.