Real Peas... YUM!

Gracie still isn't a fan of baby food, so last night we decided to see what she would do some real peas. She spent forever trying to pick it up, but finally got a couple in her mouth. But boy did we have a mess on our hands. Lets just say we should buy some stock in Pampers wipes! :)

Gracie and Molly

I babysat Molly the other night b/c it was Joey and Hailey's anniversary! Adam was out of town too so it was just me with the girls. Boy did I have my hands full. Molly is now 11 months... she is walking, getting into EVERYTHING, and she doesn't like to share. But we had fun. Here are some pics of bathtime (that was exhausting!) and hanging out before bedtime. They are getting so big... Gracie weights more than Molly now and is practically as tall.

Little Miss Gymnast!

Gracie is just streching before she goes to bed! Gotta get ready for that long nights sleep.
How funny is this!

Prayers needed

My good friend, Kelly Hiss, went into labor yesterday 8 weeks early! Conner arrived yesterday afternoon weighing in at 4 lbs 2 ozs and was 17 in. long. Although he is 8 weeks early, he is very healthy. He will be in the NICU in Toledo, OH probably until he was due to come. The main concern is about his lung development but other than that he looks like a very healthy and strong little boy! So please add Rob, Kelly, Big Sister Hannah (14 months) and their new baby Conner to your prayers!

I will add a picture as soon as we get one!

6 month pro pics...

This picture was the one that she won the contest with!















These were all the other pics that were taken.
I just copied these from the website so they aren't perfect. They had to darken them a bit b/c Gracie looked so washed out. But the real pictures are a bit cuter!

Laundry Day

Gracie just loves to help out with the laundry. She helps me to unfold after I have already folded it and she LOVES to play in the hamper :)

Now how can you get mad at that...

Gracie won a picture contest.

How fun is that! Last week I had her 6 month pictures taken at the Picture People. They are having a contest right now to look for the "New Face of the Picture People". You just pick one of the photos to be entered into the contest. Well they just called me and told me that Gracie won the picture of the week for her age category (under 1 year). So she won a free photo package at her next sitting. She will now be entered into the pick for the month and if she wins that she will be put in the running for the company wide New Face :)

I sort of feel like those moms that enter their kids into pagents. HA! Of course everyone thinks that their child is the cutest, but for someone (strangers at that) to think she takes cute pics is a compliment.

The funny thing about the picture I entered is that I didn't even buy it!! It was very simular to a picture that I got at 3 months. I guess I may have to buy if she wins big :)

Oh and I will post the pictures we did buy once I can get them scanned in. (Next week sometime) Just wanted to share our fun news!!

TEACHER APPLICANT

After being interviewed by the school administration, the eager teaching prospect said: "Let me see if I've got this right. You want me to go into that room with all those kids, and fill their every waking moment with a love for learning, and I'm supposed to instill a sense of pride in their ethnicity, modify their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse and even censor their T-shirt messages and dress habits. You want me to wage a war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, check their backpacks for weapons of mass destruction, and raise theirself esteem. You want me to teach them patriotism, good citizenship, sportsmanship, fair play, how to register to vote, how to balance a checkbook, and how to apply for a job. I am to check their heads for lice, maintain a safe environment, recognize signs of anti-social behavior, and make sure all students pass the state exams, even those who don't come to school regularly or complete any of their assignments. Plus, I am to make sure that all of the students with handicaps get an equal education regardless of the extent of their mental or physicalhandicap. I am to communicate regularly with the parents by letter, telephone, newsletter and report card. All of this I am to do with just a piece of chalk, a computer, a few books, a bulletin board, a big smile AND on a starting salary that qualifies my family for food stamps!You want me to do all of this and then you tell me...I CAN'T PRAY?"

Lake chick

Isn't she cute... ready for the lake in her adorable Aruba dress that Memaw and PopPop got on their cruise this past Spring.

PEAS...

Something she sort of likes! My mom and grandma recommended trying peas... said that we loved them so I tried them out and sure enough... SUCCESS!!! Sort of! We have tried them the last 3 days and she has done okay. She will eat about 4-5 bites and then NO MORE. She will them clamp her mouth shut and nothing is going in. Here is a few pics of the progress.

Open wide...















Tasting the peas...hmmmm... not so sure...















YUM!!!

Yucky vs. Yummy

Our pediatrician told us to try baby food at least once a day. So this week we introduced SWEET POTATOES... this is what she thought of those. Didn't like it. Tried it for 3 days and got the same face every time! So onto the next fruit veggie tomorrow!















He also told us we could try baby toast/crackers/etc so we got some of this special baby toast (it disolves in their mouth so they don't have to chew) and this is what she thought of it. LOVED it! Although I think she had more fun banging in on the highchair tray than eating it!

Her 2 front teeth...

Click on the picture below and you can see her 2 little bottom teeth coming in. Maybe next week I can catch a better picture.

6 month stats...

Gracie went to the doctor this morning and got 2 shots. She didn't even cry. She is such a big girl.

She weighted in at 17lbs 2 ounces (70th percentile) and she was 26.75 inches long (90th percentile).

We are so blessed to have such a happy and healthy baby!

6 months today!!

I feel like I just had her yesterday. Time sure does fly when you're having fun. The last 6 months have been amazing. We have laughed, cried, learned, loved, and changed lots of diapers!

*I will post her 6 month stats tomorrow after we go to the pediatrician!
Gotta know how much my little rolly polly weights!! :)

Here is what Gracie is up to this month:
1. She can sit completely independently now, which is nice to just sit her on the ground.
2.Gracie rolls to get what she wants now... you can't leave her on the changing table or on the bed anymore... so she is on the floor most of the day.
3. She has learned to get up all 4's. But she doesn't stay that way for long and ends up going in reverse. Needless to say it makes her pretty upset.
4. Grace is getting her first 2 bottom teeth. Just the sharp part has come through, but she has been a extra fussy and sleepy the last few days.
5. She is still breastfeeding. She gets a bottle on occasion when Adam and I are able to go on a date! She doesn't eat much else... she HATES rice cereal and pretty much all baby food, but we will keep trying.
6. She loves to do anything outside. She helps dad water the flowers (since the heat is trying to kill them!)

Here is a picture of Gracie when she was first born and one of her now! She has changed so much!!

A few days old... sleeping!

Nearly 6 months old... sitting pretty!

It's official...

Gracie is getting her first tooth! You can now see the top of her razor sharp first tooth. Grace has been a little ham the last couple days (not eating or sleeping well) so I just blew it off that it wasn't teething because last time I thought it was teething it wasn't... it was an upper respiratory infection and ear infection. So last night she was being super fussy and nothing was making it better so I randomly put my finger in her mouth and I could feel a little tooth popping through her gums!! After about 10 minutes I was finally able to pry her mouth open to see it there. I called Adam in the room just to make sure I wasn't imaging it :) and he confirmed that it was there. My pediatrician told me that true teething only lasts 4-5 days, but they normally get their second tooth shortly after, so to plan for a week and half. So I have her drugged on Tylenol (so she is sleeping like a good girl!). As soon as she will let me get a picture I will post it. She will hardly let me put my finger in her mouth. Sort of stubborn... not sure who she gets that from! :)

Tear jerker

Inspiring story to put your life into perspective

A friend sent me this and having watched the video twice, I was utterly overtaken by it. Please read article, then watch video.

Strongest Dad in the World

[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to Pay for
their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. But compared with Dick
Hoyt, I suck. Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2
miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a
wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and
pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars -- all in the same day
(doing the Ironman Triathlon). Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing,
taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S.
on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much -- except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was
strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and
unable to control his limbs. "He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life,"

Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months
old, "Put him in an institution." But the Hoyts weren't buying it.

They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick
was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and
asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. "No way," Dick
says he was told. "there's nothing going on in his brain." "Tell him a
joke," Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on
in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the
cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally
able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!"

And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the
school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want to do
that." Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker" who never ran
more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he
tried. "then it was me who was handicapped,"

Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks." that day changed Rick's life. "Dad,"
he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!"

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick
that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that
he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

"No way," Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a
single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few
years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they
found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another
marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following
year. Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?" How's a guy who
never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to
haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried. Now they've
done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It
must be a buzz kill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy
towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way," he says. Dick
does it purely for "the awesome feeling" he gets seeing Rick with a
cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together. This year, at ages 65
and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place
out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in
1992 -- only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep
track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing
another man in a wheelchair at the time. "No question about it," Rick
types. "My dad is the Father of the Century." And Dick got something else
out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a
race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you
hadn't been in such great shape," one doctor told him, "you probably
would've died 15 years ago." So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's
life. Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in
Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass.,
always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and
compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's
Day. That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really
wants to give him is a gift he can never buy. "The thing I'd most like,"
Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once."

Here's the video....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPrL3n63yg

Bye Bye bumper....

Well Gracie has learned to use the bumper as leverage to get a little closer to getting OUT of her crib! GREAT!!! This is a pic her pushing the bumper down. When I went into the room I caught her with her hands holding onto the top rail! How in the heck? I guess its time to lower the crib too! Not quite sure why they make bumpers anyhow since by time they can roll around you usually need to get it out of there anyway. She is getting so big so fast!!
(Notice Sammie is very interested too... she can see Gracie now.)

Bath time fun...

Here is Gracie posing for the camera! What is that face??

Visiting Family!

This week my cousins (Gracie's first cousins once removed... took us a while to figure it out!) Britney and Kaila (they were in my wedding) came through Dallas on their way back Indiana to go to school. Britney (right) is a sophmore at Purdue and Kaila (left) will be a senior in high school. Aren't they so cute. I need them to take me shopping so I look that cute :)
Anyway, they just loved Grace! They hugged and kissed on her all day and Grace ate it up! She just loved all the attention.

Lake day

We went to the lake yesterday with 6 of our friends. We mainly just hung out drinking beer and sangria (WOW was it strong!). We just had a blast, but of course I forgot my camera. I would have loved to have some pics of Hailey and Rachel doing a face plant when they flew off the tube while we were pulling them! While we had fun playing at the lake Gracie stayed at home with the babysitter and Molly (Hailey's daughter).

Gracie's new favorite toy...

Not sure if you can tell by the pic... but she has the BIGGEST smile on her face! She loves the computer!

TURBO JAM!!!

Well I have a few lingering pounds (7 to be exact!!) of baby fat that I am determined to get rid of. And since I live in the smallest little town we don't have any work out places with a nursery, darn it, so I ordered the Turbo Jam DVDs! I should be getting them anyday. So anyway, I decided to post this so all you out there can hold me accountable. My goal is to do it at least 3 times a week. So I will give you an update in about a week once I try it out! Hopefully in no time I will be back to looking like this... (this is me on my honeymoon... several pounds less than I am now!)