Thursday, March 26, 2009

My sweet girl!

C is capturing our hearts more than EVER with her blossoming little personality. I wanted to write a few things down on here so I don’t forget how precious they are!

-Elmo is the coolest! She has a little Elmo doll that she calls, “Elmo-kay”. We’ve determined that she’s heard us and Nana say things like, “Let’s go find Elmo, okay?” or “We have to clean up before we watch Elmo, okay?” So his name has changed to “Elmo-kay”. We LOVE IT!

-At dinner, we hold hands and say the blessing. She loves holding our hands and then saying “AMEN” at the end. During dinner sometimes, she reaches for my hand (or R’s hand), bows her head and says “AMEN” again.

-This girl seriously loves fruit! She eats blueberries, strawberries and grapes like they are going out of style! She still likes to eat apple (or “appy” as she calls it) and mango. She’s a great eater! Last night she gobbled green beans faster than we could get them on her plate. She is also a huge fan of “i-keam” (ice cream) and ketchup!

-When we start to get her ready for bed, she’s started saying, “Night-night.”
-She is fantastic at making animal noises! She does pig, duck, moo-tow (cow), sheep, horse, monkey, kitty cat, doggie, and my favorite, DONKEY. She says “heeeee-haaaawwww”!

-Outside is absolutely her favorite place to be. She still loves her “side” (slide) and picking flowers. I think she would sit in a swing and let you push her for-ever. The other evening she fell asleep in the swing in our backyard! I guess she just got really relaxed!














-3 of her 4 one-year molars have come in, so that brings the grand teeth total to 11 so far.

-When we get home (or when they walk into the room) she says, “Hi Gabby! Hi Ollie!” [Side note: Gracie is Grace Ellen, so for short we call her Ollie!] She hasn’t quite mastered saying “Getchen” yet!

-We just got a season pass to the local zoo and she LOVES it! I have a feeling that we’ll be going on a regular basis! We were there last Friday and the birds and “pish” (fish) were her favorites.

-We read her a story out of a toddler Bible before bed every night. She knows the routine because she says “bibe-y?” The other night we read the story of the Prodigal Son and one of the pictures shows him after he had lost all of his money and was then taking care of pigs. Ever since that night C has insisted that we read that story again. She starts snorting when we open up the “bibe-y” and doesn’t stop until we’ve read that one and seen the pigs.

-In addition to the ones already mentioned words used regularly…Mommy, Daddy, baby, “Gam” (Gram), Mimi, Papa, Nana, Pop, “Kay-Ray” (Katie Ray), bye-bye, happy-day, no, "shes" (yes), more, tan-tou (thank you), OH BOY!, nose, mouth, eyes, ears, hair and BOO!

She turns 15 months tomorrow! A celebratory trip to the zoo may be in order!!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Pictures!

Howdy! What a beautiful afternoon here deep in the heart of Texas! I was THRILLED to get the final pictures (all 130+ of them!) that Carrie took of C while we were in North Carolina a few weeks ago visiting Audrey and Sam!

They are really, really LOVELY, and I wanted to share my favorites with you! Click here to go to a Shutterfly album of my favorites! Let me know what you think and which pics you like the best! I'm going to have a hard time narrowing it down!

I love my sassy, blue-eyed, baby girl!

Videos

Part of my mission this morning was to figure out how to get the videos off of my video camera (that I got for Christmas) and save them to my computer. All videos prior to this were taken on the regular camera. It should have been easy, but the software CD has been lost! I'm happy to report that while doing a massive over-haul of the desk, I found the CD, installed the software, and uploaded the videos.

This one was taken just the other day. C can now empty the utensil drawer faster than I can go and let the dogs out. Hopefully I've removed all dangerous objects from the drawer! She's Miss Personality! (She gets that from her daddy!) We L-O-V-E that she can communicate so well with us now!

Now that I know how to do this I can hopefully post videos more often!

Monday, March 9, 2009

The Meltng Pot

The Melting Pot...Oh how I love thee! R and I first visited The Melting Pot while on our babymoon in Chicago. The whole dinner ordeal took around 3 hours, and we loved it! I was eating for two and took full advantage of that!

September 2007

The next time we went was for Valentine's Day in 2008. As evidenced by the picture, we still weren't sleeping all night (with a two-month old) and being out past 10:00 was a stretch for us. We loved it the second time too!

February 2008

We went one other time in December of 2008 but just had dessert. We didn't get any pictures taken!

This past weekend we went for our 3rd full dinner-shebang! After a delicious mimosa, we started out with our usual: Cheddar Cheese Fondue with aged, medium-sharp Cheddar and Emmenthaler Swiss cheeses, lager beer, garlic and seasonings. You dip bread, veggies and Granny Smith apple in it! It makes my mouth water just to think about it! (That is what we are eating in the picture below!)










March 2009

Our entree was next and included teryaki sirloin, fillet Mignon, Key West shrimp, chicken, and Memphis BBQ pork tenderloin. We cooked it (as we've done every time) in the Coq au Vin style which includes flavors of fresh herbs, mushrooms, garlic, spices and burgundy wine. We had potatoes, broccoli, mushrooms and squash to cook that way as well. They have all kinds of fantastic dipping sauces to try along with your meat and veggies!

AND THEN THE BEST PART! I would have licked the bowl if it wouldn't have embarrassed Ryan! The milk chocolate fondue with all the dippers...And when we were done, I believe there were only two marshmallows and one banana slice left on the plate!

We left stuffed and happy and thankful for a leisurely dinner and a chance to visit, eat and enjoy each other's company. I do think The Melting Pot will have a place in our relationship for a long, long time!



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3-0



My hubby turned the big 3-0 at the end of February, so I wanted to do something special for him. With some hard work, creative thinking, help from friends like Dana, Charla, Alicia, Nicki & Kimberly, and an Excel spreadsheet, I succeeded in getting him 30 presents and wrapping each one individually! He was completely surprised and I think he enjoyed opening each gift. C carefully took each present to her daddy, gave it to him, and then clapped and smiled before she ran and got the next one. Sweet memories! I'm including the final gift list in case anyone needs some ideas!


1. Box of Hot Tamales
2. Bag of Andes Mints
3. New headphones/earbuds
4. UNO (card game)
5. 6-pack of Dublin Dr. Pepper
6. A&M flip-flops
7. Loofah
8. Aftershave lotion
9. New Pat Green CD "What I'm For"
10. Air freshener for his truck
11. Flash drive
12. 3-pack of gum
13. Kit Kats
14. Magnetic picture frame
15. Cherry chapstick
16. Camo shorts
17. New box of golf balls
18. Men's hand lotion
19. Bottle of Chardonnay (his favorite)
20. Sudoku book
21. Shaving/Toiletry bag
22. Peanut Butter Sandwich Girl Scout Cookies
23. Mag-Lite flashlight
24. Polo button-down shirt
25. Socks
26. Boxer briefs
27. BBQ grill cleaner brush
28. Texas Rangers hat
29. Peppered beef jerky
30. $10 Sonic gift card

(P.S. One of my rules was that none of the gifts could be "crap gifts"! You know, no little trinkets from the Dollar Store or anything. I wanted everything to be useful!)

Thursday, March 5, 2009

The new slide!

Time: March 5th around 5:30 p.m.
Place: Our backyard
Who: Precious C
What: Her NEW slide!
I feel fairly certain someone is going to sleep really well tonight! She went around and around and up and down no less than 20 times! SO MUCH FUN!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Howdy, guys! C and I are back in Texas after a long weekend in NC! We had SO much fun with Aunt Audrey and Sam! You can see Audrey's post about the weekend here.

Thanks for all of your advice on flying with a toddler! The flight there on Thursday was PERFECT! C had a minor breakdown going through security because I had to take her snack cup away and send it through the x-ray scanner, but after that she was a gem! They moved us to the back of the plane where there was an empty seat next to mine. She loved sitting in her own seat like a big girl. She didn't even flinch when we took off or landed. After a couple of books (and a flip through the Sky Mall Magazine), I gave her 2 teething tablets and she slept the rest of the trip! Three words for anyone flying with a toddler...Hyland's Teething Tablets! Those saved me on both flights! The flight home on Sunday was very crowded, but we made it!

Here are a few pics from our fast and furious trip!


C and Sam in the bathtub! They loved splashing and playing and putting bubbles on each other's heads!

Is she a cheese-ball or what? We went to a fantastic museum on Friday. They had a big display outside with all kinds of musical things for the kids to bang on. C was cautious at first, but warmed up nicely!

Gosh, she's a big girl! Not a little baby any more! She was SO proud of herself just walking all around, looking at the animals and waving at the other children. Made her mommie beam!

Sam was happy to offer a hug! It was precious seeing them interact!

Audrey and I both enjoyed looking in the back seat and seeing our little sweeties! This pic was taken after a delicious lunch at Chic-Fil-A!

Thanks for having us, Audrey & Sam!

P.S. We had professional pics made of Sam and C while we were in NC. Carrie is a friend of Audrey's and she took some beautiful shots. I'll post more later!!