1 month on 11-11-11

Here is Grace at 1 month. We can't believe how lucky we are to keep this treasure! We love you Grace!

PS - Happy Birthday Great-Grandmommy Knapp! You were born just 1 month after Grace! Well and a couple years before. =)

4 weeks =)

Wow 4 weeks old and the time is flying by! I look at Grace now and wonder, where did my tiny newborn go??? We are officially finishing up the last of the newborn diapers, and then we will be switching over to size 1. We went to the doctors office today just to get Grace's weight. With her clothes on she was 8lbs 6oz. The nurse said she guessed without clothes she would be about 8lbs even. WOW! Can you believe how much bigger she already looks in her boppy??This is Mommy and Grace having fun playing during some middle of the day tummy time on the boppy. Grace loves to look at the world on her stomach. She is starting to recognize and track faces, but she would still prefer to look at bright strips! hehe

Bean is wondering what this tiny bundle is doing.... why does it squirm so much? haha. Soon we will have pictures of Grace towering over Bean. =)

We love this girl! And especially her spikey hair! It will not lay flat! We think its her "punk rock star" look. =) We do brush it down after baths, but up it goes despite our efforts!

3 generations of girls! Thanks so much for helping us out Mimi. It was sad to see her go this week. Grace and Mommy are making it on their own (yesterday was our first day) but we sure did love having Mimi around!
Gator socks! Willing the gators to win, and they did!! They must be lucky socks!

Mommy left Grace for the first time... EVER! The three men and a baby did a great job. Grace was in one piece when Mommy got back from her pedicure with Mimi! However, I have to say I was never worried one bit, but I did miss her the ENTIRE time. I will never be able to handle her leaving for college! She will have to stay with me forever. =)

Mommy turned 26 this week. And Grace - you are the best gift that Mommy has ever gotten! Thanks Daddy.... we did good. =)

Grace's 3 weeks

I can't believe Grace has already been with us for over 3 weeks! It is the strangest feeling because I can't really remember a time she wasn't there, it feels like forever and also I feel like it was just yesterday that we were at the hospital waiting for her to come! She is definitely the best birthday gift I have ever gotten!

Highlights from the last week

Grace:

She is weighing in at almost 8lbs! We can't believe how big she is getting. Everyone who sees her comments on her length and size. I know some babies come out at 8lbs and more, but when I look at her compared to the tiny 6lb baby we brought home from the hospital, she seems enormous! Grace is spending more time awake and alert, she has decided that she likes tummy time and spends a few minutes every day exercising her neck and back muscles! She has done several stretches of 4 hours at night between feedings, which is great for Mommy and Daddy! Overall she is a very peaceful and happy baby. She only gets fussy when she gets hungry, or she is pooping. =) We are starting to hear coo's, which is really cool! Before this she only grunted or cried. We are still reading to her every night. She loves listening to Mommy and Daddy read her books with different voices. We love you Grace Jacklyn!

Daddy:

Daddy had another great week at Mills Park Middle School. He is getting adjusted to the lack of sleep, and he even comes home from work and still helps out around the house! He loves spending time with his little girl! Every night after Mommy feeds Grace, Daddy takes her and burps her (he is an awesome burper!) then Daddy puts her to sleep in the bassinet. The bassinet is actually on Daddy's side of the bed. =)

Mommy:

This week was a busy one for Mommy. It was the last week Mimi is staying to help out. Next week Mommy is on her own! Just Grace and Mommy! Mommy also turned in her notice of resignation this week. No more Bethesda - just staying home with the sweetest baby in the history of the world! I am excited about my new roll as a stay at home Mom. We will continue to find ways to bring in a little extra money, so that Mommy can stay at home for a long time! There is no place I would rather be then holding my sweet girl.

Athens & Bean:

Athens absolutely adores Grace. When she cries, he always goes over to check on her. One day this week Mommy was vacuuming the carpet, Athens HATES the vacuum, but he was concerned about Grace. So he stood between the vacuum and Grace to make sure it wouldn't hurt her! hehe What a good dog! Bean gives Grace lots of kisses, but Grace is not so sure she likes them. We will continue to get the 2 of them to work on their relationship! =) Bean is having to except that there is a new baby, but she is figuring out her new space. Soon they will be fast friends. =)

All in all it was another great week. We love our little girl and can't believe how much life has already changed in 3 weeks, and how normal it feels. Wish us good luck on our first week without help next week! Grace is such a good baby, I'm sure we will not need much luck! =) Love you Grace!

**This is our super genius baby!! =) Doesn't she look adorable wearing Uncle Taylor's glasses!

2 weeks!

Grace is 2 weeks old today! We cannot believe how the time has flown. This was her original due date. I can not tell you how many times I said the date "October 25th" over the last 9 months. Of course now our date is October 11th - which we love just as much!

At the 2 week appointment today Grace is above her birth weight. She now weighs a HUGE 6 lbs, 11 oz. The doctor says she looks great, and we were very happy to hear that. Of course we already knew she was PERFECT!

Grace was having some trouble feeling photogenic, but we feel the crying pictures also represent a piece of the last week so we kept them! =)


Grace loves her paci! She does a great job of holding it in her mouth - except when she falls asleep... then the paci falls out, then she cries, and the whole process repeats itself about 20 minutes later. lol - It's a good thing she is so precious!

Daddy with his little girl. She just curls up on his chest and loves it there! =)

One funny story about Daddy this week - Daddy started back at Mills Park on Monday. One morning Grace cried at 3:30, Daddy jumped out of bed and was in the shower before Mommy could figure out what was going on. When Daddy came out of the shower - Mommy said "What are you doing?" Daddy said "I am going to work, the alarm went off" Mommy said "That alarm was your daughter - its 3:30, come back to bed! I guess we have had a little sleep deprivation. =) Happy 2 weeks Grace. We love you!

Day 11: Pumpkin Patch

Grace was 11 days old when we headed to Green Acres Farm in Cary, NC. We hung out in the pumpkin patch and took lots of pictures of Mimi, J-pa, Mommy, Daddy, and Grace!

Look what we found in the pumpkin patch! She even has enough hair to clip in a bow.

This tiny pumpkin is the same size as Grace!
Our sweet love! We can't imagine feeling more love for anyone. Every adorable thing she does (even grunting like a piglet) makes us smile and laugh. We are so lucky!
Family on the Knapp side. Uncle Taylor was at the pumpkin patch too, but he wondered off to find hot cider and missed ALL the photos! lol Thanks Daddy for taking such a great picture of Grace, Mommy, Mimi, and J-Pa.

Mimi and J-pa! Nothing like being loved on by your grandparents. She is one lucky girl! Of course we think they are pretty lucky too, having such a perfect grand baby and all!

J-Pa loves his granddaughter! They have matching blonde eyebrows and eyelashes! I hope Grace's stay light. It is so cute when the two of them are together!

We love this girl! The sun just put her right to sleep. It's amazing how she just melts into your arms like you are the only one in the world.

Grace is showing how tall she is! I can't believe that next year when we go back - she will be able to stand up on her own! I guess at 11 days its ok to need Daddy's help. hehe

Family Pictures

We took some family pictures this weekend while J-Pa was up. We came up with the ideas for shots that we liked, J-Pa worked with us to capture the shots, then I edited them in picasa. J-Pa is also going to edit them once he gets back to Atlanta. I'm sure his edits will be even better then these, but I wanted to get them to you! We just LOVE this sweet girl!

These were taken outside in our backyard.





These are in our guestroom! We love the quilt on that bed. We also made the white head board when we lived in Morganton. We found the piece of wood in the shed in our backyard and we fixed it up. =)




Our family feels so complete now that we have Grace Jacklyn. She is PERFECT!