Vacation

The day has finally come

The "to do" list is finally done

Now its time for some beach fun!!!

I will be in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina until Aug 3rd. Pictures and more when I get back!

Can you hear me now?

Craziest Week Ever

We, along with my mom & dad, Scott & Nicki, and the kids are leaving for vacation in Cape Hatteras, NC next weekend. The picture above is from the last time we went four years ago. This was the summer before we got married. Ally was just a baby! Growing up we would go every year as a family and it is so fun to keep the tradition going now that we have our own families.

The guys are driving down with all of the stuff and are leaving on Saturday and the women and children are flying and leaving on Sunday. We also have our first open house that Sunday. Oh, and then there is Grace's 1st birthday the 4th (the day after we get home), Dana's wedding the 9th, and Grace's birthday party the 10th. So my life is going to be a little bit crazy this week so I am getting my blogging in now!

So lets see, here is my to do list:

• pack for myself and a baby for 8 days (we are renting this house as a family)
• extend our fence to block the crazy neighbors house
• caulk the bathtub
• paint the balcony off our bedroom
• get my haircut
• buy wedding and birthday gifts
• finish Grace's scrapbook and video for her party
• plan the menu for the party and line up lots of help- HA!

Oh, and I have to work all week and I have two dinners. I am so looking forward to a vacation. I am going to need one after this week!

Happy Birthday Adam

Adam turned 28 on Thursday. We went to a BBQ place called Saucy Dogs in Jonesville. They have great Ribs and stuff. Our parents, Scott, Ally, Jeremiah, and Matt came to celebrate. At one point all three kids were crying and I looked at Adam and said, "Happy Birthday! Isn't this fun?!?" Oh how times have changed :)

I can't believe how old she looks in her little booster seat. She is starting to look like such a toddler!!
Happy B-day. You are the best hubby and daddy we could ever ask for! I love you!!

Been a While

Whew! it has been a while since my last post, sorry about that. It is just so hard to find time in the summer to sit down and blog. We are too busy enjoying the sunshine and daylight hours that we only get three months of the year!! Went to Archivers to scrapbook with the girls last night. The store was amazing and the staff took such great care of us. They have so many cool things that our Chelsea store doesn't. We were in scrapbook heaven!! However, the night started off a little rough when I decided it would be a good idea to back into Leslie's new van in my driveway. I felt like such an a*# but she handled it really well and it we called the insurance company and in a half hour were on our way to Novi!! Never a dull moment- LOL!

My good luck continued when I found out I missed my daughter's first steps while I was at the crop. According to Adam Grace was balancing and standing for a full 10-20 seconds at Travis and Beckie's house last night. So he decided to prop her back against the couch and she took 5 steps to him! What!?! He showed me today and she did it again. Not even a week ago she wasn't even standing on her own. Does that count? What is considered "first steps"? She doesn't really realize she is doing it..... OMG I can't believe I missed it.

This evening we put her in the baby pool on our deck while we made dinner. She loves to splash and play with her measuring cups and today decided to keep standing up and balancing. She thought she was pretty cool. Notice that she says her two favorite words in this video, "Dooley" and "Hi". (The video uploaded at he end of the post for some reason- Hope no one is offended by the naked baby).

This was all well and good until she fell face first on the deck. Poor kid got a fat lip. It was so sad!! It swelled immediately and she cried and cried.... poor baby. The first of many spills on the journey to walking...

11 Months

It was 11 months ago that I was sitting on the porch at the lake with Beckie on the 4th of July so uncomfortable and ready for this baby to come. We said, "next year at this time we will have two babies crawling around". It's hard to believe that almost a year has past and what my life was like before Grace was in it.

Lets see, what has little miss personality been up to since my 10 month post:

• She has stopped saying mama and waving. That was sooooo last week. She is on to new, cooler tricks
• She clicks and clucks her tongue. Papa taught her this to "call the squirrels". She does it to call papa too.
• She enjoys greeting people with an enthusiastic "hi" when she sees them. Except it is more like a two syllable "hii-iiy".
• She is always talking gibberish and making funny noises. The best is when she sings in the car.
• She is cruising around furniture and crawling everywhere and boy can this girl MOVE! She even took a few steps the other day without realizing it. I don't think it counted as first steps though because she isn't really close to walking.
• She still loves her puffs but also enjoys cheese, spaghetti, watermelon, and hamburger. She will still eat baby food occasionally but not unless she is REALLY hungry
• She likes to dance. You hold her hands and she stomps and bends her knees and looks like she is tap dancing or something. This usually gets a big reaction from people which she just loves.
• She picks things up really fast and understands so much more than we realize. We are constantly amazed and amused by her antics.

It's official

Our house is on the market! And in case there is any potential buyers out there, here is your virtual tour....

Today, we went to look at the house that prompted all of this. I was hoping to hate it once inside but I think I love it even more. Unfortunately we were the 3rd showing just today- boo. Everyone has told me not to set my heart on this house because we might not be able to sell before the other house is gone. I am of the mentality that if it is meant to be it is meant to be. If we don't sell then we just stay here for a little longer (which is fine). I am just hoping and praying it all works out. Worst case scenario we sell our house and have nothing to move into. Its so hard because we really do love our house right now. We put a lot of sweat and love into making it our own and have pretty much completely redone it. But this other house- it is so perfect for us.... and I don't know if there is another one out there.

I am crossing my fingers...