Christmas Break

We have had such a fun time. The best part has been having Ben around! It has been a fun filled few weeks. We started the break getting things done around the house. Ben put in hardware on our kitchen cabinets which look really good. We then went to Ben's parents house to celebrate Christmas with them. Gracie loved the opening door house they got her as well as the rocking horse! She has lots of new things now to play with. We then flew to my Mom's house and spent a week and a half here. It was great having everyone back together. We played games, visited Grandma at work, sang Christmas songs at Margaret's nursing home, Christmas Eve at the Merkley's, went to Rosco's Chicken and Waffles, went to the movies, boys played racket ball and girls got pedicures, fed the ducks, played at the mall, and lots more. Poor Gracie got a high fever (105 degrees) on Christmas which was no fun. Poor baby spent her first Christmas sick, but she was a great sport through it all. We went back to Ben's parents and spent New Year's Eve with them. Gracie cried on the plane for the first 30 minutes (Grandma says it's because she was missing her) then slept after that. We had a great Christmas.

Gracie playing with her new Door House with Pop

Eating dinner together on Nora's dinner night (yummy)

Gracie loves her Grandma (and the rocking chair)

She also really liked her new maracas

Playing "beauty parlor" with Alli. Notice her straight hair.

Feeding the duck and geese. Some of us got a little nervous.

Walk to the park in the wagon.

These two are going to get into a lot of mischief together one day.

Decorating the tree

Riding the Carousel at the mall. This was Grace's favorite thing!

She really liked her first taste of a candy cane.

New Christmas outfit.

Christmas

The Graham Fam

At the rain forest with Nana and Pop.

Santa

Today at library time Santa came. Gracie sat on his lap and loved it. We got to take a picture with him for free. She's seen Santa at the mall a lot and even sat on his lap. It was much to expensive to buy the picture and no cameras were allowed. So instead of the Mall Santa we got the Library Santa. Gracie showed him her new trick of clapping and loved pulling at his long white beard.

Clapper

We finally have ourselves a little clapper. Gracie began clapping today and hasn't let up all day. She loves to show off her new trick. I think most kids begin clapping around 6 months and I've been wondering when she would start. It might be because she was too busy twirling her hands. Now we have a hand clapper on our hands instead of a hand twirler.

Christmas Parade

Downtown Temple had it's Christmas parade this Monday. Gracie went to her first parade and loved it. Even though it was past her bed time and very cold out, she loved all of the commotion. She especially loved all of the lights and music. She was kicking her little feet the whole time. We got her a light up spinning ball that she is fascinated with. We will have to make this a yearly tradition while we live here.

We made an Elf of Ourselves!

click the link if you want to see...
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1155995903

New Do

I've never had hair this short. I decided it was time for a change and got a short haircut. Ben now calls me Sue because he thinks I look a lot like Mom with the new do.

Funny Baby Dance

I love watching America's Funniest Video. When Steven was here he asked why I liked it so much and I said because I love to laugh. This video really made me laugh. This baby has better moves then I do. (just click on the link)

http://www.allkindsofbabystuff.com/funny-baby-videos-baby-dance.html

Nap Time or Play Time

Today during Gracie's nap I heard a lot of fun noises. After about 20 minutes, I realized she was not going back to sleep so I went in to see what was going on. Ever since she learned how to pull herself up that is all she wants to do all day. Apparently thats all she wants to do in her crib as well. Looks fun! (You can see how beat up her crib got in our move. Does anyone know the best way to fix that? Should I sand the whole top part or just the spots that got nicked?)

Visiting Aunt Tami and Uncle Steve

Gracie, Uncle Stevie, and I took a 3 hour road trip to visit Aunt Tami and Uncle Steve. They were having a Birthday Bash for the October, November, and December birthdays. Steven got to pick a treat out of the birthday bag and got a king size pack of Dots. We had tons of fun. We left my house at 10 a.m and didn't get home until 10p.m. Gracie loved all of the animals, especially the little weaner dogs. I think it was because they were just her size and would roam around with her on the floor. Watch out Daddy, she really loves dogs. There were also lots of goats. Uncle Steve took us on a hay ride around their woods. It was so pretty because all of the leaves on the trees were changing colors. Stevie and I took their 4 wheeler out and explored the property. Overall we had lots of fun.

Stevie and I on the 4 wheeler

Gracie playing with the dogs

hay ride

Gracie loved Grandma Dorthy

Uncle Steve showing off his trackter

The crazy goats

Gracie is 10 Months old

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Halloween

Gracie and I went up to Ben's parents for Halloween since he was going to be busy studying. Grace had lots of fun with her cousins. It was so much fun spending time with Nana. She kept us good company. Steven came over for dinner and had lots of fun playing with Gracie and making her laugh. Gracie was the cutest sheep and thought it was hilarious with her hood on in her costume. She was a good trick or treater and got candy for Daddy.

Pumpkin Pie

How this idea came about?...There is the cutest picture of my sister Nora as a baby inside a really big pumpkin. Just her little head is pocking out. I wanted to do the same thing with Gracie. So, we went to the only pumpkin patch known in Temple; WalMart. This was the biggest pumpkin we could find. I asked Ben to place her inside thinking she might fit if she was turned sideways. This is what happened. She slowly started sinking down with her feet up. I thought it was pretty funny. Maybe we can retry this picture one day with our next baby.

Great Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend. It was so nice that Ben didn't have a test on Monday because he got to spend more time with us. On Friday I took Gracie to the park by our house to swing. She love it. On Saturday we decided to get her a swing to hang from our back porch. Gracie made her first trip to Toys R Us. When we walked in the door she started squealing. It was so cute to see her so excited. One of her favorite things was a little rocking horse. I didn't realize that someone could love that store at such a young age. It gave me good ideas of some things she might like for Christmas. We got her a cute bucket swing that Ben hung up so well (pictures to come). On Sunday we carved a pumpkin. Gracie got pretty tired so she wasn't awake for the final outcome. It was a wonderful weekend that we all enjoyed.

9 Months

Gracie had her 9 Months doctors appointment today. She weighed in at 17 lbs. 12 oz. (25th percentile) and was 27 1/2 in. (50th percentile). The Doctor said she will probably be taller than her Mommy when she grows up. She checked out to be a healthy girl and right on track in her development. She was even so brave for her flu shot.

I decided to retake her 9 month picture because I just was not happy with the other one. It's hard to get her to stay still, smile, and take the picture all by myself. Ben helped me with this one, and I thought it turned out much better.

Visit to Caifornia

Grace and I took a little trip to California to visit family. We had so much fun seeing everyone. Of course Gracie loved all of the commotion. For the most part, she was a very good girl on the plane (just wiggly). Gracie loved being with her cousins.

Of course we had to go to the street fair and get kettle corn.

We went for a walk. Zachy and Gracie loved sitting in the wagon together. By the end of the walk we had all three kids in there. Alli wanted to be in the middle of all of the fun.

We went to Riley's Farm and picked apples. It was such a pretty orchard with apple trees, pumpkins, animals, and homemade apple juice.

Slumber Party at Grandma's

Gracie loved Zachy. He could always make her laugh. You can't see it in this video, but every time he would kiss her she would just start giggling. It was very cute. In the car they would hold hands and just smile at each other.

Visitors

This is just a small glimpse of the week...



Shopping



Visit with Uncle Stevie and Aunt Tamie and Uncle Steve

Cousin Time