Weekend in Nebraska

Eric decided he needed a break from work so this past weekend we took a couple days off and headed to Nebraska to visit Eric's parents.  We met them in Omaha on Friday morning and went to the zoo.  Grace had been there before, but she was only four months old.  She enjoyed it much more this time.  She loved the aquariam ... this girl loves anything to do with water!    Here she is looking at penguins.

The zoo is huge so Grace took a quick sit down break with Grandpa.

When she saw the carousel she really wanted to get on it, but the wait in line was too much for her ... by the time she got on she was screaming and clinging to Eric ... once it got started she totally relaxed and I think even enjoyed her first carousel ride.

After our day at the zoo we headed back to Seward to spend more time with Grandma and Grandpa.  We took Grace to the school a couple of times to play on the toys.  She has apparently gotten much braver since the fall.  She freely went down the slides over and over again on her own.  Like the crazy static hair?

Her other favorite part of the park was the swing.  Here she is with Grandma.

It was a quick weekend away, but it was fun.  Grace enjoyed all of the attention and really enjoyed seeing her Grandma and Grandpa Roundy.  We took this quick picture before we left.  A miracle because Grace was screaming while we were trying to take it. 

Morning Routine

Grace is a funny kid ... no denying that.  She comes up with things to do that just baffle me, but one of my favorite things that she does has become a part of her morning routine.

Most mornings she likes to play in her crib for a little while so I just let her and when I go in to get her out one of the first things that she says is "doggie".  She immediatly runs out of her room and looks around until she finds Cletus.  This was them together this morning.

She leaned over to give him a kiss and then layed down to talk to him for a minute.  She doesn't really feel like talking to me in the morning, but she always has to check in with Cletus.

Big News!

Ok, ok, I know it has been FOREVER since I have posted.  Sorry ... I tend to get behind and then think that I need to do a million posts to catch up on everything and then I don't.  Sorry.  This is not going to be a catch up post.  That is too daunting.  So I will get going again and try to do better.

The one thing that I will catch you up on is the really big news.  I didn't share this until a couple weeks ago on facebook so don't feel like you are too in the dark.

This summer we are expecting an addition to our family, which is very exciting.  Grace is officially going to be a big sister and the really exciting part is that ...

I find the whole boy thing pretty overwhelming.  After spending the last almost two years with a little girl it just feels strange to start looking at boy thing.  We are very excited and anxious for him to make his arrival, it won't be until sometime around August 9th.  With any luck he will have a name by then, but I make no promises.  

In any case, getting ready for this little man is certainly keeping me busy.  I have been working on sewing his crib bedding and getting Gracie ready to move to a big kid bed.  Lots more to do and it is much more challenging this time around with a toddler trying to help me.

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.