Christmas 2008

We had a very blessed Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with Johnny's parents. The Hayes' got Gracie a bike for Christmas. She still isn't sure what to think about it. She hasn't gotten the motion with her feet down yet. When I took her for her three year appointment in October Dr. Wade said that she should be able to petal a bike. At the time her legs were way too short to reach the petals of her tricycle that she had. Now that she is getting taller we are going to have to work on that skill. Right now all she wants to do is work on her bike with tools and pretend to fill it up with gas and wash it. She loves the basket on the front, but other than that she wants nothing to do with "riding" the bike.

That night we went to the Church's Christmas Eve Service. It was geared towards kids and Gracie did really well sitting in "Big Church." Since Bethlehem she has been begging to go to "Big Church." Afterwards we took Christmas pictures, but as you can tell only one child felt like being in the picture. Gracie refused and instead choose to waller on the ground. I was determined to have a picture of her on here, so here it is.

Gracie was very excited when we got home because she knew we had to prepare for Santa's visit. She helped get a plate ready for him. We even left a carrot for the reindeer. When she woke us up Christmas morning she whispered "Did Santa come?" It was so cute. When we went in the den the first thing she did was show Abbie what Santa had brought her and then she had to show brother his toys from Santa. Before she would even investigate her own she was amazed that Santa had eaten her cookies. Since she isn't old enough to write a letter to Santa we had her do a video to Santa. It was necessary for her to leave Santa something because she has refused to sit in his lap or even visit with Santa before Christmas. I'll have to say she is a well rounded girl. She wanted Santa to bring her tap shoes and cars.

Santa was kind enough to bring her a few "extra" big items. Santa somehow got a hold to my old kitchen set and redid the top of the stove and sink and gave it to Gracie. She loves playing the kitchen and has enjoyed cooking me all kids of foods. Fried pizza, boiled potato chips, and many other entrees. It means a lot to me that Santa was able to bring her this kitchen set. Santa brought it to my when I was three. It was hand made by my dad and something I want Gracie to be able to hand down to her daugther. Hopefully Johnny and I can refinish the wood a bit and have it really looking good soon.

Christmas morning we went to my parents house for lunch. Since Santa had brought Gracie a kitchen set she got tons of new pots and food for her kitchen. Aiden got a front end loader. He especially loves the hard hat that came with it.

We had a great Christmas this year! Thank you for the gifts that everyone got us. We really appreciate everything, but remember that Christ is the best gift that we can be given on Christmas! When we first started talking about Christmas Gracie was a bit confused that it was both Daddy's and Jesus' birthday, but now I think she understands.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry (late) Christmas everyone! Life has been so busy for us lately that we had all intentions of mailing out Christmas Cards, but didn't. Hopefully we will be more on top of it next year. Here is the picture that would have been on our cards, assuming Johnny had the time create the card and I had the time to address envelopes. Our family wishes everyone a wonderful Christ filled Christmas and a very happy New Year! We hope that you are blessed as much as we are!



Don't forget Abbie, she says Merry Christmas also!

Walk Through Bethlehem 2008

Well, Bethlehem weekend is finally over. I don't think I will be coordinating the Nativity booth anymore. It was just entirely too stressful when it shouldn't have been. Why do people have to be so difficult to work with? As far as the babies, the weekend went great. All the babies did very well and we only had to use a doll for a few minutes the whole weekend. I had to take Ash to the doctor today and of course bumped one of the couples who was Mary and Joesph. Both them and Dr. Wade told me that just about every baby from the weekend has come in sick. I hate that, but the weather was crazy this weekend. Burning up Friday and Saturday and freezing Sunday. Ash just has bronchitis, but still I hate it when he is feeling horrible.

I threw on Gracie a costume to wonder around the city. She was amazed by the animals. She wanted to pet the camel, but he stuck out his tongue and it scared her. I knew she would be preoccupied if we toured the whole city, but she was in awe of watching the angel announce Jesus' birth and following the shepherds around to find baby Jesus. I really enjoy how our church helps people realize the true meaning of Christmas.

I forgot to post pictures from her recital. I didn't get very good pictures because of the two girls playing in front of her on stage. After the performance was over, she got camera shy.

Gracie's Recital

Gracie had her Christmas rectial for Ballet Saturday. I don't think I have ever been prouder. Very few of the girls really danced to the song, but I was so proud that Gracie stayed on stage the entire time and didn't look scared. She did most of the motions to the dance. Two girls in front of Gracie started to push each other. They knew what they were doing and loved the attention from the crowd. The video is a bit jumpy at first because I had it, but couldn't see Gracie from where I was and had to hand it to Johnny.

Walk Through Bethlehem

Just a post to advertise Walk Through Bethlehem this year. It is this weekend December 19th - 21st. The weather should be great, not too cold or wet. It just doesn't feel like Christmas to our family until Bethlehem has come and gone. Visit Shirley Hills website for more information. This year Ash will be baby Jesus. Gracie did it when she was only 2 months old. Ash is bit older than she was, so we are only doing it for a few hours very late at night.

All Over the Place!

I haven't posted any pictures of Ash crawling. He started crawling good right before 7 months. He is up, down, and all over the house now. There is no stopping him. I'll put him down in Gracie's room to play and go into our room to fold clothes by the time I make it there and turn around, he is on my ankles. He just started around Thanksgiving pulling up to a stand when he is around furniture. It started where he had to be on his knees, but now he likes to stand on his feet. Here are a few pictures of him around the house.

Abbie

It didn't take long and we got a new puppy. I just couldn't stand it without a puppy in the house. We got a dachshund. We were told she is a minature, so I hope she won't get too big. Right now she is ten weeks and already bigger than Lucy. Gracie loves Abbie and totes her around any chance she gets. She also loves having someone to boss around and put it time out. Ash and Abbie are her little toys.

This is what happens to you when you have an older sister. You get put in the baby doll stroller and pushed around. Poor little guy.

Gracie uses the countdown until Christmas to teach Aiden his numbers. You had to be there he just sat patiently in the stroller listening to her.

Christmas Pictures

We went a few Saturdays ago and had Christmas pictures taken at my school. They didn't turn out like we planned. I was so frustrated because I spent just about every night that week working on their outfits. Gracie freaked out because Santa was in the building. She is terrified of Santa this year. I knew a year would come when she would not sit in his lap. We had planned on taking a big family picture and then get a few pictures of all the grandkids on my side of the family. Needless to say Gracie had other plans. A co-worker of mine could only get a few shots of her in the hallway. I hated it because the photographer from Southern Edge photography wanted to get a picture of her for his website. I really wish she would have done it. He does great pictures.

Tribute To Lucy

My dog of almost eight years passed yesterday. She was my first dog. I got her my last year of college and she has been with me ever since. She made the trip back and forth to Valdosta many times. She made it okay to come home to an empty apartment. I got her when she was five months old and she had been obviously abused by her previous owners. She was scared of people and hated to be alone. My mom always said she sounded like a baby crying when I wasn't' around. Because of her fear we bonded like no other human and animal. She did anything I asked and was the best dog.

Last Christmas we had a house fire that was caused by her pet heating pad. She was rescued by the EMT's and brought back to life. She struggled for a few months with health issues related to the fire. She was blind and toothless, but still she made do and went about life. She was great with Gracie and Ash. Her personality was always so easy going.

I feel really bad because I view her death as almost my fault. I left the door to the sun room open last week while gone to work. Lucy got into the house and somehow climbed behind the trashcan and ate rat poison. The poison wasn't even out for the rats. We guess that a rodent chewed through the package and left it open. There wasn't much we could do. It makes me really sad to think of everything she has been through in the past year.

Justice For Frogs

Gracie adores flags. I think the fascination started this summer after we celebrated July 4th. She knows where each and every American flag is in Warner Robins and question when they have them down. We have just grown used to saying "Yes, Gracie, we see the flag." Attached is a video of her saying her Pledge of Alligence. It is so cute to hear her try to say some of the words, and of course justice for all comes out justice for frogs. God Bless the Frogs...

Sweet Blessings

Gracie has always been camera shy at home and outgoing with photographers, but lately it has been right the opposite. She had a major melt down last weekend at my school. We got Christmas pictures of everyone except for Gracie. She even refused to take pictures at her school. At home though she has been right the opposite. She begs us to take pictures and videos of her doing things, that a few months ago I was begging to get on camera.

Sucker!

Well, we found out Ash loves candy as much as his sister and almost as much as his daddy. We have my mom to thank for that one! Gracie was eating one of the suckers she got for Halloween and Ash just attacked her for it. Gracie knew he wanted it so she lured him to it. After a taste of it he was doing everything in his power to get to her. It was so funny, but as you can see he was a happy man.

Our Ballerina

Gracie Lee has been taking ballet lessons at Mrs. Patricia's. She keeps telling me that she is now a "real" ballerina. Her first class she did not want to go and she cried in the car the whole way telling me that she was not going to ballet class. I promised her McDonalds afterwards. That only worked at getting her in the door. I had to sit with her and watch about half of the first class. She finally got out of my lap and started doing what the other girls were doing. Mrs. Patricia was great. I was able to sneak out. Since then she is excited and can't wait until Saturday for her class. I can't wait until December when they have their Christmas program. I am hoping that this will help her some with being so shy.

Halloween

We had a blast for Halloween this year. It seems like when Gracie turned three she also turned shy. She seems to have nothing to do with people she doesn't know. Thrusday night we went with my parents, Shay, and Eric to Centerville's Fall Festival. We could barely get Gracie to play any of the games. She was slightly motivated by the candy, but we couldn't get much out of her. She was of course a princess. She loves dressing up like a princess. I was going to have Ash be her prince charming before the kiss, in other words a frog, but that outfit never happened. Allie was a ladybug and Garrett was Batman. They were all so cute.

Our Princess Turns Three!!!!

Newborn

First Birthday

Second Birthday

Our little princess turns three today. I can't believe that three years ago today I was sitting in a hospital bed wondering when in the world she would come. After 17 hours I remember the doctor coming in at 4:30 that afternoon to see if we just wanted to ahead and do a c-section. At 5:58pm Gracie entered our world. Two weeks late, but full of life. Time has just flown by for me. It seems like just yesterday I was holding a tiny newborn in my arms, where or where does the time go. I think this is why I am in no hurry for Ash to get bigger and become independent, but no matter what she will always be my baby.

Gracie had her princess party Saturday. She had a hard time deciding whether she wanted a pirate party or a princess party, but as soon as I showed her the dress I was going to make she knew she wanted to be a princess. She had so much fun playing with her cousins. Cassidy even dressed up with her. Gracie got so many adorable gifts. She has done nothing by play with her new toys since the party.

Filling her goodie bags

Thank you to everyone who came, and thank you

for spoiling our child!!! We enjoyed the party so much!

Aiden's new Fascination

Aiden has started showing more and more signs of teething. It is hard to tell if he is truly teething because he has always liked things in his mouth and he has always drooled. Boys are so much grossier than girls. I thought I would post a video with his new fascination. Anytime he finishes a bottle he does this with the nipple. It is so funny to watch, as long as it is the bottle nipple. It wasn't with the bottle that I first discovered this.

Humpty Dumpty

Ash has learned how to sit up!!! He is very good at it too. Gracie likes to come by and try to hold him and still will somehow stay fairly balanced. I am not sure why Gracie thinks she can hold him because he is not much smaller than she is. All I can say is that Ash eats good. I also want to brag on the fact that he is finally sleeping through the night. Today makes exactly one week since I have had to wake up with him (knock on wood). It feels good to get a good nights sleep, something I haven't done in over 5 months.

I thought I would add a picture of Gracie at 5 1/2 months to compare. She was so much smaller than he is. It is so much fun to watch two kids grow up the same way, but be so different. God's grace is amazing!