Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! What a difference from last year I remember at thanksgiving dinner last year just hoping that Grace would sleep through the meal so that I could eat in peace. hehe. So loving this age! Grace got to help out a couple times during the preparation of the meal. Here Grace is helping J-pa and Daddy, the night before, cook the sausage for the breakfast casserole. As you can see she was very interested in understanding what everyone was doing in the kitchen! I love the picture of her and all the guys legs. 

 

Hanging out with Grace before her bedtime on the night before Thanksgiving! Can you tell a difference in what a man does to help a child get settled for bed and what a women does? Love it!

 

Early morning run over the river and through the woods to Mimi's house we went! We literally ran from our house to Mimi and J-pa's house. Hopefully  next year the bridge will be completed and we wont have to cross the river in such a muddy fashion.

Cooking breakfast and Mimi and J-pa's. Grace helped with the monkey bread. She LOVED licking her hands after putting the dough in the sugar and cinnamon. A little bit of a sugar high? I think so!

 

Finally we are all showered and back at our house. Ready to start cooking dinner! The turkey came out great again this year and we added a corn casserole that everyone really loved. It has been really fun hosting the actual Thanksgiving meal the last 3 years.

 

 

The day after Thanksgiving we headed up to Durham for a family dinner at a pizzeria and then a walk through the lights. Grace kept going "woah woah woah"

Throughout the week Uncle Tay Tay found his snuggle buddy. I think we wore them both out on multiple days. Grace has gotten to be a really great snuggler too which is extra nice!

 

Mimi entertained Grace with fun kid songs on her phone. Got to love technology. We are  hoping to get smart phones in 2013! Look at Grace's Mom and Dad getting all fancy. hehe

Daddy played around with the camera this week while watching Grace. He got some really great shots, here are just three of them. Thanks Daddy for taking great pics!

Dear Grace,
I can not wait for next Thanksgiving! Each day just gets better and better. You are learning so much each day and becoming your own person. You love dancing when music comes on and if you don't feel you are getting enough attention you are very verbal about it. We love you sweet girl.
xoxo
Mommy & Daddy

bumps and bruises

Wow, learning to walk has been quite the ordeal! So many bruises and bumps and scratches and general "ouch!" moments. We also got some new magnets for the fridge. Grace loves playing by taking them off and walking all around the house holding them! Eventually they find their way back on the fridge.

 

This is a rocking chair that Mama used when she was little. Grace loves to climb up and down and up and down. She also loves to hear stories in her chair!

This week we had another appointment at Duke for Grace's hemangiomas. Currently the plan is that she is back on timolol which is the topical ointment that gets rubbed into both her nose and her back. We go back in February for another look. There is this really great garden area right by the hospital and we spent some time letting Grace get out energy. It is amazing trying to keep up with this kid. She is getting so quick!

This weeks educational activity was putting a string on an empty shoe box. Talk about free entertainment! She loves pulling this thing around and filling it up with toys!

 

We also tried another art activity. This is just flour, water, and food coloring. It lasted about... 10 minutes and then she kept trying to eat chunks of it. I probably shouldn't do this kind of craft so close to dinner time! hehe

 

Raleigh's Christmas Parade! We had so much fun watching the Christmas parade. Grace LOVES the drums and the music. She watched in awe for about an hour, then we decided it was time to go. We missed Santa, but hopefully we will get to see him soon!

Mimi and J-pa have arrived for Thanksgiving! Grace is so in love with her Mimi. I can't believe how she just immediately wants to be held and cuddled by her! I absolutely love seeing these two together!

 

Dear Grace,
Thank goodness you are getting more comfortable on your feet! Mama could not handle all the falling. You don't seem to be too bothered by it, but wow it totally stresses me out! Now that your forehead looks normal and your nose is healed I am loving your "not banged up" look! You amaze us sweet girl. This week you said "Cracker" "Cheese" and "Open" VERY impressive! It is amazing to watch your vocabulary grow.
All our love
xoxo,
Mommy & Daddy

Our Little Love

We have started a new life group that meets on Tuesday nights from 6:30-8. They provide childcare at the house we meet at which is a great fit for our family. Several of the moms are SAHM so we invited them over to play in some of our leaves! It was great to see the kiddos and their Mommies outside of group.

Grace is really exploring everything! Often when Mommy is trying to get things accomplished, Grace is checking out her space. She opens cabinets, pulls things out, gets into baskets, pretty much everything and everywhere! She has been getting lots of bumps and bruises lately as she is getting more confident of herself, perhaps prematurely...

 

 

We got our baby swing back this week - we had loaned it out to a friend and they are done using it now. I can't believe my 13 month old can fit into this swing! haha. She asks to go in it daily now which cracks us up! She walks over to it and says "up, up" She also loves to push all the buttons on the back and make the music play loud!

 

More exploring this week.... Love this little one. She is busy getting into everything. Check out her pants! We were drawing with chalk shortly before this was taken. True artists are very messy!

 

Favorite picture of the week - taken with Uncle Taylor's i-phone and saved on his background. What a great Uncle he is! We are sure lucky to have him. This is a cool little place up in Durham close to where Uncle Taylor lives called brightleaf square.

Sweet Grace,
Your little face is covered in bruises this week! You keep falling over. I sure wish you would learn to catch yourself with your hands instead of with your face. You have precious brains in there child!!! I love you more then you could know. I love you all the brick squares at brightleaf times all the falls this week. You are my sweet girl.
xoxo
Love,
Mommy & Daddy