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! :)