Grace's Birthday

I know I am really late at getting to this but last week just got really busy.  Grace has a small and simple first birthday.  She opened presents with mom and dad and Grandma Roundy via skype.  She got a music table, walker, some clothes, and an alphabet for the refrigerator.   She loves to open presents and had fun playing with her new toys.

Here is the alphabet I made her.  It was a fun little project.  (I made another one for my nephew and I hope he likes it too.)

Our friends the Timmin's came over for dinner.  We had some good macaroni and cheese which Gracie loved!  She wasn't so sure about the cake though.  She kind of looked at it for a while.  Touched it, and then didn't like the frosting sticking to her hands.  We couldn't really get her to eat the cake until I scraped the frosting off and then she liked it.  

So we gave her some birthday cake ice cream and she loved that!

And here she is in her post birthday dinner bath.  

We love this little girl and had a lot of fun celebrating her birthday.  I can't believe it!  It has gone so fast, but she is more and more fun every day.

I do have videos, but they are too long to post so if you want to see them let me know.

Grace and Her Walker

This one if for Grandma Roundy.  Grace has taken steps on her own and continues to do more and more but she stills prefer to walk with assistance which means we do endless laps around the living room so I am grateful for this toy.  At first she was afraid of it, but now she is really enjoying it. 

Grace Loves Water!

It was pretty warm the other day and Grace wanted to be out, but we were trying to get things done at home so didn't feel like taking her to the waterpark (which she loves) so we just blew up the little pool Grandma got her and let her play outside.  She loves to just sit and splash.

And she has no fear of sticking her face in the water.  Not sure, but maybe she has been watching Olympic swimming too much.

Here is a quick video of her excited in the pool.

Harvest Time is Here!

 As a kid/teenage I can't really remember an August that wasn't spent canning.  We had a huge garden and lots of fruit trees so there was a lot to do.  I remember a hot sticky kitchen and making a huge mess to fill the food storage room in the garage.  Amazingly enough, they are good memories of time spent with my mom and sisters in the kitchen.

Since then I haven't canned a thing!  I may buy some extra something and freeze it but that has been it.  I was always too busy with school/work or didn't really have room for food storage.  I started getting more serious about food storage when I bought my house in Aurora, but it was just me and I worked to much to can anything so I would just buy extra groceries and store then on a shelf in the basement.

Last summer was our first attempt at a garden.  It did produce well, but I had a baby at the end of July so I didn't really do much with it besides freeze some of the vegetables.  But this year I was gonna get serious.  So last week I got started and here is what I did.

1 batch pickles (cucumbers from my garden)

1 batch pesto (basil from my garden)

6 dozen ears of corn (from a local farmer)

36 pound of pears (were on sale at a local store)

1 batch beets (from my garden, aren't they pretty?)

1/4 bushel peaches (from a local store)

There was also some rhubarb jam with rhubarb from the garden, it is yummy stuff.  I need to do more this week.

And right when I thought I was done Eric suggested we go out to the garden and this is what we came in with.  Bell pepper, jalepeno peppers, chili Peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, pear tomatoes, roma tomatoes, and Italian tomates.   

So I guess I am doing salsa and pickles this week.

Eric's Birthday

This one if for Eric's mom.  Eric's birthday is 4 days after Grace's.  It is an eventful day for our families.  Eric shares his birthday with my mother and both of them were born on their parent's wedding anniversaries.  Eric was really hoping that Grace would be born on his birthday too, but I like that she gets her own day.

His birthday was on Sunday so it was really a normal Sunday. When he got home we had a good birthday dinner and Eric got the one thing he really wanted; an ice cream cake.  We talked with family.  My whole family sang to him viz skype while they were at my parent's house for my mom's birthday dinner.  It was a nice relaxing day and it means Eric is five years older than me for the next three months which I really enjoy.

Twelve Months

Time for Grace's final onesie picture.  

Grace is officially one year old!  That year went so fast!  It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that we brought home our little tiny baby girl. 

And now she is all grown up!  She took her first steps a couple days ago.  She has been crawling around everywhere and cruises along all the furniture in the house.  She gets so excited for dad to come home; she makes he run laps with her around the living room.  She is just such a happy child and loves people! (and they tend to love her)

Grace has mastered her basketball hoop and is working on her building skills.  She is SO busy with toys and playing and LOVES books!  She goes into her room and sits at the bookcase and pulls our books and looks at them constantly.  I hope she keeps that one up.

Just a couple more pictures ... the first one is from the 4th of July (I never posted) and the second is just her when she wakes up ... she can't leave her crib without bringing and animal or a blanket with her.

We LOVE this little girl!  Happy birthday Gracie!

Grace's Birthday Pictures

On the day before her birthday I took Grace to a local portrait studio to have some pictures taken.  It was much more of an experience than I would have imagined it would be.  My typically ultra friendly, super hammy baby totally went blank in front of the camera.  It took a lot of prodding to get her to smile much at all (if you spend much time with her you will know that this is not her disposition at all).

Then, shocker of all shockers, at one point when we have her standing up next to this block, Grace turns to me and takes two steps all on her own to get to me!  Grace took her first steps right then and there!!  I about fell over I was so shocked.  Pretty sure the photo guy didn't know what to do with either of us at that point.  That was all the walking that she did there, but it was amazing!  She did do a couple more for daddy that night so he didn't totally miss out.

North Carolina Vacation

For our summer vacation this year we went to the Outer Banks of North Carolina with Eric's family.  It was our first attempt at a long road trip with Gracie (21 hours of driving over 2 days).  Poor Grace was teething and not too happy about being in the car all day.  

On the way there we were able to stop and spend the night with my brother Ricky, his wife Julie and their son Jack.  We had not gotten to see Jack yet, so it was fun to go meet him and introduce him to Gracie.  They are only 3 months apart so they are each others closest cousins in age.  This is them right before we left for church in the morning.

We stayed in Frisco, NC which is on Hatteras Island.  While there we visited the Hatteras lighthouse which is the tallest lighthouse of the 5 that are on the Outer Banks.  You can still climb this one, Eric and I did, supposedly it is the same as a twelve story building.  I have to admit I was out of breath by the time we reached the top.  It was a muggy day, but we could still see pretty far.  Gracie hung out at the bottom with Grandma and Grandpa.

Over by the Hatteras beach access there is a large pond that has lots of turtles.  People have apparently been feeding them over the years because when you pull up and get out and walk over to the pond they swim over to come see you.  Here are Eric and Gracie checking out the turtles ... I had no idea what this was leading to.

Another site that had to be seen during our visit was at Kitty Hawk where they have the Wright Brother's Memorial. 

Gracie with Grandpa.

We stayed in a beach house that was just 5 or 6 houses in from the beach.  Grace loves water and decided she loved the ocean and sand too.  Here she is playing in the sand with Grandma.

Grace LOVED the water!!  Here is a fun little video of her running into the waves.

On our last full day there we took the ferry to Ocracoke Island.  Here is our little family riding the ferry ... the car is on the other side of the boat somewhere.

While there we visited the Ocracoke lighthouse.  You can't climb this one, but it was fun to see.  Grace saw it with Grandma and Grandpa.

Eric and I tagged along.

While on the island we went looking for a souvenir.  We introduced her to all sorts of cute little stuffed animals and she just threw them all away.  That was until she found the giant turtle.  She clung to him and wouldn't let go ... she still hasn't ... she sleeps with him now.  

We took a quick family picture before we left.  It was a really fun vacation, Grace learned lots of new things and we got to relax and see some new places (well new to Grace and I, Eric and his family had been there before).

Lucky for us Grace did much better in the car on the drive home.

Eleven Months

I can't believe Grace is already 11 months old, but she is.  One more month and I will have a toddler on my hands.  Grace just keeps growing and getting bigger.  She is SO tall these days!  

She is a very active baby and does not like to sit still at all.  This past month she has mastered crawling, started cruising and won't sit!  She is keeping her mama busy!  Trying to take her picture this month was pretty tricky ... she wasn't having it at all.  She is taking over her feeding and eating a lot more table food and a lot less baby food.  She has been working on her two top front teeth for the last three weeks ... it looks like they are about through which will make this momma very happy!

We had a lot of activity this month ... we got to start going to the water park and Grace loves water!  She just splashes and laughs and LOVES the wave pool!  We just got back from vacation with Eric's family to North Carolina where we spent a lot of time on the beach and she loved that too!  She got lots of attention from Grandparents and Aunts so it was a good time.

Here is Grace crawling to get her crazy laughing dog.

She is a fun kid ... we love having her!

Ten Months

Better late than never, right?

Our little Gracie had her ten month birthday about a week and a half ago.  She is getting so big and changing so much!  At her 9 month appointment, which was at about the 9.5 month mark she was 30" tall and weighed 23 lbs 2 oz.  I moved her into 12 month sized clothes at about 8.5 months and she has grown out of those and I am moving her into 18 month clothes this week.  I can't keep up with this little weed of mine.

She has developed all sorts of new skills.  She rolls all over the place and has started scooting backwards and pulling herself up on things.  She is wanting to feed herself more and more and tries to take the spoon from me at every chance she can.  She has finally mastered the sippy cup and loves it!

I am pretty sure she is working on some more teeth.

She loves to be outside.  Here she is with her daddy and a flower in her hair.  I really love how she scrunches up her nose when she smiles!

This one was from lunch today.  Just in case you were wondering what happens when you let a baby feed herself baked beans.  She is pretty proud of herself.

We love this little girl.  She really has the happiest disposition.  The loves people, and loves to smile at everyone.  She has a polite fake laugh which really cracks me up.  She is the biggest ham I know!

Nine Months

Our little girl is nine months old today.  Time really does fly.  She has gone from being my tiny little baby to becoming a little person with a personality all her own.

She is getting so big (I don't know how big exactly)!  She is so anxious to start moving around on her own.  She jumps while she is in my arms, and try to jump out too.  She still isn't rolling all over the place but she has decided to prove that she can.  She is into everything.  I really have to keep my eyes on her when we go shopping because she tries to grab everything off the shelves.  

She really loves her toys ... her favorites these days are her hippo and her frog.  She just loves to grab and cuddle them and then try to eat them.  She LOVES peek-a-boo and will play it with anyone!  She entertains other kids at the YMCA by showing off her skills.  She even plays peek-a-boo with aunts and cousins via skype.  Really it is her favorite thing. 

She is just such a happy and loving baby!  She loves to laugh and smile.  She is a total ham and knows when people are looking at her and she plays it up.  We love our little girl, she brings a lot of joy into our home!

Starved Rock

Eric had Good Friday off of work so we got all of our work done on Friday and on Saturday headed down to Utica, IL to go to Starved Rock State Park.  When we got there we had a picnic and then headed out for a short hike.  Here is Gracie getting a ride from Dad.  (Eric was a good sport and let me put the moby on him to carry the baby).  P.S I love it!

Gracie sported her cute hat to keep the sun off.  She liked it I think, plus I think it makes her look extra super cute!

Here we are on the high point of Starved Rock (to all my family and friends out west, yes this is a high spot for Illinois, I know, it's sad).  We are on the banks of the Illinois River for anyone who is getting their bearings.  

It really is a pretty area.  We hiked some more trails back in the woods.

Me and my honey :).

Dad and baby taking a look at the gorge next to us.

Not sure why, I thought it was awesome!

Baby is in this picture, she is just behind Eric's head.

We had a good time and it was nice to just get out for the day and enjoy time together as a family and time outdoors.

Pinsperation

I am a confessed Pinterest addict, that being said I don't just look at stuff all day long.  I do make a lot of things, try new recipes, work outs, craft ideas, sewing ideas, etc.  Anyway, here are just a couple example of my recent Pinterest endeavors.  

A few months ago I saw this cute skirt pinned on Pinterest.  It was for sale.  I wasn't interested in buying it, but it gave me an idea.

 

I had this skirt that I friend gave me a couple years ago.  I have always liked it cause it is comfy, but it is a little hard to wear since it is a little short on me and the slit in the front makes it harder.  So I took my inspiration skirt and my real skirt and tried to combine them.

I made a really long pleated strip of fabric and sewed it along the bottom of the skirt.

And to fill in the slit I added the piece of fabric for the handkerchief effect.  I am quite happy with the final project.  And the extra couple inches makes the skirt so much easier to wear!

Second, we have been talking about adding herbs to our garden for the last year and over the winter I found this picture on Pinterest.  I thought it was brilliant and that I could tweak it to make it work for our garden.

Here is our finished product.  Eric and I made it last weekend.  It has six-one square foot openings.  We are getting the soil this week and hopefully it will warm up again so that I can plant my herbs.

Really what is better than having fresh herbs right out your back door!