Grace is WALKING

I'll have to add some photos and video of Gracie walking, but she is FULLY -OFFICIALLY- A WALKER NOW!!! :-) It's been gradual and it's hard to say when she first started to walk, but on St. Patrick's Day she took 8 steps in the kitchen from me to Daddy. Then two days later it was 11 steps. She would seem to be too scared or unsure of herself to just keep it up from day-to-day, but last week she just really got the hang of it and now she is walking and crawling pretty much 50/50. Even though she was a bit late to start walking -just shy of 14 months old- it seems like she's growing far too fast! Katelyn even said she didn't want Gracie to grow up so fast and that she wanted her to stay a baby. How sweet.

Flower Girl Katelyn

Katelyn was THRILLED to be Annie's flower girl last weekend! She looked so adorable too. She had a BLAST and danced the night away with my cousin, David, who is 5.

I was Annie's Matron of Honor -so I was at the front of the church for her entrance, but could not see her. I did a quick look around -all eyes were on Katelyn- so as any good mommy would do: I walked dead center of the aisle and watched her coming in!!! NO ONE SAW ME!!! :-)

Katelyn took her petal tossing SERIOUSLY and made sure to cover it all very well. She didn't want to stop. Thankfully, Annie's friend, Paige (who was also in the wedding) did a great job helping with her (I was up on the altar area and the rest of the bridal party was not so I couldn't help with Katelyn at all).

The whole morning while we got ready Katelyn talked about weddings, dresses, rings, etc. She knows more than most 3 year old girls given what her mommy and daddy do, but she has a huge interest in them now! She wanted to know about the rings and thought she should get one too. I explained what they were for and how one day she would get one when her husband asks her to marry him (I got choked up telling her that) and another one one the wedding day. She said decidedly, "Okay, but I want a pink one with a big ladybug on it!" :-) (If I ever know of a pending engagement before she does I'll tell her husband-to-be to give her one just like that!)

Katelyn, in her own words, "danced the night away." She first danced with my cousin, Michael, who is 7. But then David, again who is 5, decided to claim Katelyn as his! It was just too cute!!! They were smitten with each other and I could smile forever just thinking back on how adorable they were together. He twirled her around, they slow danced, ran around, played under the tables with glowing necklaces they got from the DJ during the "PARTY" part of the night. When we left David was nearly in tears. They hugged and hugged goodbye. He even kissed her on the cheek.

The next day when we were in the car she was obviously remembering the night before and said, "You know that boy I danced the night away with? I call him 'my prince.'"

Here are some pictures of my little princess Flower Girl (and some of her and her "prince" David).

Getting ready...



Annie & Katelyn




The three of us

Katelyn wanted in on the action shots. This was one of the best featuring her in it...



Katelyn's walk down the aisle...





Katelyn with some of the boys! (From left to right: Michael, Katelyn, David, Johnny)

Katelyn on Annie's lap during the watching of the slideshow we made for them featuring their baby photos through their engagement photos.



Katelyn dancing with Michael:


Then Price David enchanted Princess Katelyn and they danced the night away (Sorry Michael!):




Annie & Bren during their last dance of the night -see Katelyn & David in the background? Katelyn's wearing her glow-necklace.


David hugged his Princess at the end of the song...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACE!

Today is Gracie's FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!

As of last week my lil one weighed 18.5 lbs (she is so tiny!) and 27 inches (but I think she she was more like 26). She has 7 teeth (three on top and four on the bottom). She is not walking, but she is about a month off -so I am guessing. She says "Momma" but not that much. "Dadda" and "Doggie" -which she says more like a funny Scottish accent of "Deg-eh!" When our dog, Roxy, barks or the neighbor's dogs bark she often gets a stern sound and goes on and on with "Deg-eh!" It's hilarious!

She has said many words -just once- like "up" last week. But she says "hi" and "Deg-eh" the most. ;-) She is getting good at signing "all done" and "more." Last night I nursed her (we're on the sllllllow to stop nursing plan) and when she stopped she signed "more." I laughingly said, "MORE?! There isn't any more, silly!" She giggled and giggled and then signed it again and then giggled.

She cries easily -whether she fell and got hurt, just got scared or got her feelings hurt -and if Katelyn takes a toy from her she cries like her hand was chopped off! Let's just say -she is my sensitive girl. -Katelyn, generally, is not physically or emotionally sensitive.

She is so sweet and adorable. I am in no rush for her to grow up -but I can hardy wait to see how she'll be when she is older.

I will be posting a fun slideshow of her first year soon and lots of photos from her first birthday (today) and her party on Sunday.

Grace is crawling now!!!

It's just after 7 pm on Saturday, September 19, 2009. For weeks now Grace has been ALMOST able to crawl. Tonight she almost did it. So I put out my keys on the floor in front of her (a new and exciting toy!!!) and sure enough SHE DID IT!!!

It's so cool that I got to see her do it for the first time. Alex will be jealous and sad -he's photographing a wedding right now. But at least I saw it for the first time (or at least I think I did -for all I know she's done it before and no one was around).

Another update on Ms. Grace: she is cutting two teeth -well they are done cutting, but still only about 1/3 up. It was first her bottom two to her right and then about 4 days after I could feel the sharp ridges or that one I began to feel the jagged top of it's buddy right next to it.

Oh and the BEST update: On Thursday night (the 16th) Grace meaningfully called me "Momma" two different times. Be still my heart!!!

Milestones

I don't have any images for the first part of this post, but it's worth writing it up! Katelyn is now FULLY potty trained! WAHOOOO!!! I thought we'd never see the day. ;-)
She never went on the potty until about 3 months ago. Then it was just once. Never again... Then about 3 weeks ago she started to go on her little potty seat a few times a day. Then not at all for a few days. Then BAM! It's like something clicked!!! She got it. And she's not had ONE accident since. I am proud of her. She did her way. In her time. Like I knew she would -but other people had me starting to doubt it and my decision to not rush her.

The other big milestone around here is that Grace is an independent sitter now. !!!! So not only am I down to only one in diapers -but that little butt in diapers is sitting!

When Grace was about 5 months and a week old Alex tried sitting Grace up to see if she was even close to sitting on her own. (NOT EVEN CLOSE!!!) He thought about how old Katelyn was when she was sitting on her own and said that it didn't look like Grace was going to sit by 5 1/2 months like Katelyn did. The following week she was still not able to sit -even for a few seconds. But then a few days later she could for about 8 seconds and then by the end of that week (it was on a Monday that she could sit for a few seconds) she was able to sit all by herself for about 40 seconds. By the following Monday she was able to go it all alone for several minutes before having an "uh oh!" moment.

Grace is now going on 7 months old and starting to lean so far forward in the sitting position she'll soon be getting into the crawling position. I could honestly be content with her just sitting for a few more months, but she's a mover & a shaker & a bouncer (boy! does she give new meaning to the phrase "bouncing baby") so I doubt she will be content to just sit for much longer. Let the baby proofing begin!

Here are some precious photos of Grace sitting all by her big-girl self & one of the girls together.

ENJOY!

Our First Family (of 4) Vacation

We had the awesome opportunity last week to have a cabin in Tahoe for FREE!!! Our friends, the Castellanos, offered to have us along on their trip this weekend, but we had to decline because we had a wedding today. Michaela explained that it was her family's cabin (it belongs to her grandmother) and she offered to call her grandma to ask if we could come on our own at no charge. I was thrilled she even thought to ask, but words could not express the joy I had when she called back and said it was all ours!
Unfortunately, Alex could only get off two day so it was a very quick trip, but one we will not forget and one I am sure I will continue to enjoy -even in just reflection.
The weather was not the greatest -it was quite cold (the day time highs were in the upper 40s/low 50s) and it rained on and off for most of our time at the lake. But we made the most of it and had a really amazing time just being a family and loving each other and relaxing.
I got to get up early, have some coffee and some quiet time with God. It was soooooo nice!!! And Alex got to sleep in every morning (something that I know pleased him!). The cabin was stocked with all the things we could need -the freezer even had Ben & Jerry's ice cream in it!!! The whole time I was fully aware that we were being beautifully blessed.
On our way up to Tahoe we took the scenic drive up 395. It was breath-takingly-beautiful! The hills were still green and there was snow on all the major mountain peeks. GORGEOUS!!! And we made a fun stop at the ghost town, Bodie. What fun! I want to return just for the sake of photographing for hours!
I need to download my camera's memory card still, but here are a few family photos and a few sceenic ones from our trip. I will add more soon. ENJOY!!!


This first image I took while walking around Bodie:


This image I got while we were driving:

Alex got this next landscape on our way back from Bodie. Isn't it GORGEOUS?! (Remember to click on any of the images to see them much larger -this is one you will want to view much larger!)


Katelyn & me in Bodie (I love all the textures there!):

The next three are all in Bodie:






Lake Tahoe pictures:



Our last day! The weather got MUCH nicer, but sadly we didn't have the time to enjoy it very much.

Cute Katelyn Part 2

Okay, so I have worked on my favorites from my mini session with Katelyn!
I will post about 5 on our photography website's blog. Let me know what your favorites are & why! Enjoy!