Gracie's 1st dance class!

Sorry I have not been keeping this updated; it has been a very chaotic year for us. I will try to do better, I promise. =)

Gracie is now taking a dance class at her daycare every week. It is a very basic class, teaching how to move to music, basic ballet positions and steps, as well as some introduction to styles like waltz, square-dance, and tap. Gracie gets to wear a leotard outfit and ballet shoes, and it is very cute. I visited her class today and took some pictures and video. She is still new to the class (today was only her third or fourth time to go) and my presence today made her a bit shy, but she had a great time and couldn't stop talking about it afterwards. Enjoy some pictures of her new dance outfits and her dance class!

February already?!

Okay. January of 2010 did not go very well, so we're just going to put it behind us and move on. Hello, February! It's so funny, the last blog I posted was about our "huge" snow on Christmas Eve, and now I sit here typing this while over 9 inches of snow sits on everything outside! It snowed ALL DAY today (and is still snowing!), and it just kept piling up! A few branches actually broke off some trees because of the weight, and we're keeping an eye on a certain tree that's leaning way over onto our deck, but otherwise it's beautiful and very fun!

Quick update: We're working on clearing up some health insurance issues so we can get Gracie in for her 2-year-old check-up (a bit late, but the health insurance is delaying a few things), so I can't tell you how tall Gracie is or how much she weighs exactly, but she is wearing clothing sized for a four-year old and it hurts my back to pick her up, so that should tell you that she is huge! Really, she's just a very tall girl. She started a gymnastics class a couple of Saturdays ago, and loves it! She's a pro at the balance beam and "flippies" (somersaults). She talks ALL THE TIME, with so many complete sentences it just blows my mind. Potty training is at a bit of a lull right now, but it'll happen eventually. David heard from the Houston Shutters job in January that they were withdrawing the job opportunity, so he is back on the hunt. I've put in quite a few hours at work and have accomplished a lot in the last few weeks, so there are now tentative plans to put me back on full-time at the same flexible schedule (go in and leave when I want, just can get 40 hours per week) in the next couple of months. We're all healthy, and aside from having three flat tires in six weeks (on different wheels on both cars), we're doing just fine! That's about it!

Enjoy some pictures from the last few weeks!

She loves to read to her horsie!

Our precious nephew Gunner, about three months old.

Gunner, almost four months.

Gracie and I went to feed the ducks, and attracted this beautiful swan!

Gracie loves playing "tea party" on her new table and chairs!

Here's my progress on the filing room. I did this in about two weeks of hard work. Nice, clean, organized. Finally!

Gunner, finally big enough for his jumper!

All bundled up to play in the snow today!

Looking for Mommy's CR-V... you can barely see it!

Walking around the block, looking at how different everything looks with snow!

This was mid-day, with only about four inches of snow on the ground ("only"...!)

Our huge snowman, with "blonde" hair, haha!

White Christmas 2009!

Christmas Eve we left Gran's house in Richardson at 4:45pm and made it home around 6pm. The snow that had started to fall upon arriving at Gran's at 1pm was sticking to the grass and roads, and about the time we reached Lewisville the roads were officially very bad. It got worse the farther north we went and when we exited Garden Ridge the car behind us couldn't make a turn and went straight into a ditch. As we approached the bridge, we saw a few cars going over but also a couple that were stalled. The stupid truck in front of us decided to stop on the incline and put on his four-wheel drive, so we had to make a quick decision to go into the oncoming lane to go around him so we could keep our momentum and not stall out. Fortunately, we made it over the bridge and onto Highland Village road without incident. HV Road was getting very slippery, and we slid a little down some hills getting to our house, but we managed to make it to our driveway and park in our normal spot. The snow was beautiful, a fine powder that stuck to everything.

The ranch truck, covered in snow on Christmas Eve.

Back deck
Gracie eating a cup of snow while Bandit begs for some. She was fascinated by the unlimited supply and ate several cups sitting by the fire.

The next morning we opened the front door and this is what we saw: four full inches of perfect, powdered snow!

Gracie woke up and came upstairs to find that Santa had brought her a beautiful bouncy horse and a stable for her Breyer horses!

Gracie had not forgotten the snow outside, and snacked on a snowball for breakfast.

Sherrie's (Nanny's) apron with hand and footprints from Gracie and Gunner, with plenty of room for more grandchildren! =)

A happily zonked out little girl, snuggled into her new Dora blanket.

A very fun Dora tent!

Holiday Lull

Here we are in the lull between Gracie's birthday and Christmas! We've just been busy shopping around and getting our Christmas plans figured out. Here are a few pictures of us over the last week:

French braid #4. Stayed in all day, so pretty!

Gracie and Gunner

Gunner, 8 weeks old

Uncle David showing Gunner how to play XBOX

Aunt Sara with her favorite nephew!

Gracie's very first gingerbread house! We made it together last night. She keeps wanting to eat everything on it, and insisted on the green frosting and fruit loops. Such a silly girl.

Gracie's 2nd Birthday!

Happy Birthday to our beautiful darling Gracie Jane! At 12:25 this morning I went into her room and gave her a kiss to mark the exact moment I saw her face. What a precious child. Thank you, God, for my little miracle.

Yesterday afternoon we had a little playdate birthday party for Gracie at a place called Going Bonkers in Lewisville. It is a huge indoor playground, with slides and ramps and bouncy things and did I mention it's huge? The best thing about it is that Gracie is confident enough to go through every single part of it, so she's not restricted to a small toddler section. Adults are also allowed in every part of the labyrinth of fun, so David and I were obviously worn out long before Gracie was! We didn't take any pictures, as we were too busy crawling all over the place with her, but we'll definitely take her back. We enjoyed visiting with the friends and family who stopped by to wish Gracie a happy birthday!

The original plan this morning was to go to the Highland Village Santa Day Parade, but then we decided that Gracie would have more fun walking around somewhere and interacting with her surroundings than sitting in a car watching a few floats go by. So we went to the ICE show at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine. David and I went with his family three years ago when we were dating, and it was pretty much the same, aside from the new Grinch theme this year. Gracie was interested, but a bit put out by the constricting parkas we had to wear over our coats and all the people. I think we'll wait a few years to take her again, when she's old enough to move around easier and interact more.

Then we came home and tried to get her to take a nap, but it wasn't happening. Around 3 o'clock her cousins came over and they just played and played non-stop for almost three hours! They left around 6-ish, and Gracie was so tired! She's finally snoozing away, cuddled up with all of her "babies" and with a smile on her face. It was a very tiring birthday! We're looking forward to a final party at her Grandad and Grangi's house tomorrow afternoon! Hopefully we stay awake!

Enjoy some pictures from today:

Daddy, it's snowing!

Me, you, and Cindy Lou Who!

Digging into her cake

Goofing off with her cousin Lilly

Watching a movie

Feeding her new baby monkey (it's mouth actually moves to "eat" the banana, and it cries when you take the banana away, until you hug it to make it stop). Gracie LOVES it, and is so sweet to it!

Kisses

"Does the banana really taste that good?"

"Haha, it got my finger!"