Back From the Dead...

Well I just wanted to do a quick post since I haven't updated since August. The reason for leave of absence from the blog, most of you already know, Jon and I are expecting our second baby! We are super excited, however, I tend to barely make it through my pregnancies alive (ok so maybe that's a bit of an overstatement), so blogging hasn't exactly been on top of my to do list. I haven't felt like doing much other than laying in bed and staring at the ceiling for quite some time. I have been through some serious ups and downs, IV's and anxiety attacks to say the least. Now, I am happy to say, that I am finally among the living and truly enjoying the pregnancy. I feel better now than I ever did with Gracie, so although we don't know what we are having yet (a delay due to insurance changes) I can't imagine that it is not a boy. I shouldn't say that because I now have probably jinxed myself, so we'll see what happens. We should find out within the next week or so.

Our Christmas was fabulous, Jonny surprised me with a new wedding ring! My old one has had some problems and so I have been without a ring for close to four years now. Jon, surprised me with a beautiful new one! I was so excited! I feel like people aren't looking at me like I am some knocked up teenage girl anymore. I will post some Christmas pictures soon....

Like mother like daughter

So, as much as I hate to admit it, Gracie and I go on a diet coke run at least four times a week. (I try really hard not to make it every day). Whenever I go through the drive thru at good old corner 22, I get myself the regular diet coke with lime and Gracie a small sprite. Well today I was on my way home from running errands all morning long, thinking how wonderful a diet coke sounded. I was debating whether or not to succumb to the craving. I never said anything out loud to Gracie, I was just having this little debate in my own head when Gracie says..."I think I probably need a sprite." I bursted out laughing because I was thinking the exact same thing in my head. "I think I probably need a diet coke." I'm afraid I've already gotten my child addicted to my poor habit and decided to skip the diet coke today in hopes that it will help. The last thing that I want is my child addicted to soft drinks at the ripe old age of two.

24th of July fun....a little late

For the 24th our Friends Dan and Emily were in town, so we decided to take a little trip up to the Ivin's condo in Bear Lake. It was so much fun to see Dan and Emily for a little bit and eat raspberry shakes everyday. The downfall was that we didn't have a boat with us, but it was still a great time and beautiful scenery.

The kids loved throwing rocks into the lake. They could have stayed there all day just throwing rock after rock in the water. Every time a boat passed us the kids thought they were pirates. They kept yelling out to the people "Hi pirates!"


While we were out on the beach throwing rocks into the water, Solomon (our nephew) all of a sudden had to go to the bathroom really badly. The poor kid had diarrhea and couldn't hold it very well. Michael (Solomon's dad) grabbed Sol and made a mad dash for a restroom....location unknown. As Michael and Solomon were making their way, they happened to come across several of these bikes along the boardwalk ha! So they grabbed one and biked the rest of the way until they found a restroom. This little bike saved Solli; he made it! When Michael and Solli showed up again riding this bike we all died of laughter. It was like this bike appeared out of nowhere just for them! I mean really, who finds a bike with a sign like this on it in a time when transportation is so desperately needed? Of course we returned the bike where we found it so whoever is in dire need of it next will have it available to them as well.

Our last night in Bear Lake we all stayed up late playing a very serious game of Yahtzee. We were all excited that we all got our kids to bed so could play, all except.....

GRACIE! Now you may be thinking that this picture looks like a sweet, innocent child...O00h no! She was one naughty girl that night. About a week or so before we left for the trip, Gracie woke up in the middle of the night screaming bloody murder. I have never seen a child so shaken in my life! She was as white as a ghost and curled up in the corner of her crib shaking uncontrollably. So I picked her up and kept asking her what was wrong. She told me there was a lady bug in her bed that was crawling on her tummy. (translation: spider in her bed.) She was definitely not going back to sleep in her own bed so I brought her into bed with me and Jon. Even laying in bed with us was not enough to calm her. She kept searching our sheets for more "lady bugs." Long story short, we had an extremely long night, that is until sweet little Gracie asked me if we could say a prayer because it would make her feel better. When we were done she said that mommy, daddy and Jesus would keep her safe and FINALLY fell asleep. It's amazing that a little two year old had faith in her mommy's prayer and faith that Jesus would keep her safe.

For the next several weeks she absolutely refused to sleep in her bed and it was heart breaking to make her try. I don't know what she could possibly be so scared of, but whatever it was completely traumatized her. We were in Bear Lake in the middle of this episode so putting Gracie to bed took some work. However, the first few nights either me or Jon would lay down with her until she fell asleep. No biggie. The last night however, she would have none of it. She refused to go to sleep and every time we got up to leave she would coming running down the stairs after us screaming that there were crabs in her bed. We succumbed and let her stay down stairs with us, although Jon sentenced her to a chair in the corner of the room. The poor girl couldn't leave the chair. She just had to watch us play games from afar. She ended up staying up with us and this picture was taken of her at about one in the morning. Being way too cute to really get into trouble. Thankfully she has finally gotten over this phase, although she still has to sleep with the hall way light on.

Adding a little sunshine in my life

At the end of June our renters moved, rather abruptly out of our house. We've been searching for new renters ever since, and thankfully have just gotten a new family in there. During our month of vacancy Jon, Gracie, and I spent many long days over at our house cleaning things up such as: the yard, our broken sprinkler system, the nine million holes in our walls from all the pictures our last renters hung, and our two broken toilets. Anyway while we were working our hineys (I don't know how to spell that) off, we spontaneously decided to paint our doors yellow with a little extra paint we had lying around. It's a little bright, but I think it turned out pretty cute. I needed to add a little sunshine in my life even though I don't actually live there right now. It still makes me happy to drive by my cute little house with it's new yellow doors.

Painful Goodbyes

Tom and Caralee (my brother and sister-in-law) left for Costa Rica, for an entire year on Sunday. As Tom is my only living sibling, I've been pretty bummed that he and his family decided to ditch me. I am pretty much an only child, yet again. Poor Gracie, who looks up to Brooklyn like she is the next American Idol, wont know what to do with herself. Brooklyn is her very best friend. We'll have to go BFF hunting for me and for Gracie :) The good news is we have a free place to stay in Costa Rica and airfare can be fairly inexpensive into San Jose! We will definately be planning a trip ASAP!

This was the last chance for Gracie to hang out with Brody and Brooklyn before they moved to Costa Rica. My mom officially spoiled them as much as humanly possible at target before their dreaded departure.

Gracie wasn't ready to part with her cousins either. She was determined to at least be in the picture with them

DISNEYLAND

We recently got back from Disney Land thanks to Bob and Debs! It was so much fun to see Gracie have fun there with her cousins. Her favorite ride by far was Dumbo. I think we went on it about five times. She also loved the tea cups, but my mom was the only one with a strong enough stomach to take her on those. I got nauseated just watching them.

Much to Jon's surprise he had a fabulous time as well. It was hilarious watching him in Disney Land. His eyes lit up like a little boy's when he saw all of the rides. For weeks before we left, he kept saying how much he hated Disneyland and just thinking about the crowds and hot weather made him sick. It turns out we all loved it and he especially loved it! Our hotel was right across the street so we walked over everyday. We had a five day pass so we took in all the Disneyland we possibly could before we had to leave. We took a bunch of pictures, but I think they must have ended up on a different card, so these were the only ones I could find for now. Hopefully I will find our other ones soon and can put them on here too.

On our drive home from Disneyland Gracie kept telling me she didn't feel well. Well this is one of her favorite sayings (or at least it was up until this moment) when she wants a little extra attention. Jon and I had gotten so use to her saying "I don't feel good" that we just disregarded it, and in an effort to keep her happy in a confined car, we just kept giving her more fruit snacks and juice. We finally put a movie on for her in Jon's handy dandy little IPOD player. She was happy for a minute but then started to whine a little bit again. Jon and I both looked back right in time to see her projectile vomit all over the electronics in front of her playing her movie! We grabbed the ipod and the ipod player right as she puked everywhere again! The worst part however, was she puked all over her "two" blankies. For Gracie life just simply does not go on without her blankie. I had brought the extra one in case the other had gotten dirty and she managed to cover both of them in her vomit. That made for a long car ride without a blankie to give to her. Because I am a terrible mother and stuffed Gracie full of fruit snacks instead of actually helping her when she was sick, her throw up was about three bags worth of fruit snacks. We all had a good laugh that, surprisingly, Gracie's throw up smelled quite pleasant. After that long ordeal, poor little Gracie, wearing nothing but a swimsuit cover up and without her blankie, was pretty tuckered out.

Sunshine and 68 degrees!

Gracie and I decided to take advantage of the 68 degree weather and go to Tracy Aviery. It was so nice to go outside without wearing a coat and actually be warm! Oh wait, but like three hours later a snowstorm hit. I'm dying. I've never had spring fever so bad in my whole life! Gracie begs to go bye bye every single day. She doesn't care where just as long as we're bye bye. I think she's ready for some warm sunshine as well. Oh well, all good things must come to an end. Atleast we got to enjoy the warm weather while it lasted.

Grace and cute Mable Bott

Sweet Gracie

I figured I write this while this is fresh in my memory, and while I actually have a rare, free moment. Yesterday morning, Jon and Gracie were eating breakfast together. I came and sat down with them a few minutes later. I grabbed a bowl and some cereal for myself, getting ready to enjoy my not so gourmet meal. As I was getting ready to sit down at the table, Gracie slid off of her booster seat and started walking away. It is a continuous battle trying to get that girl to finish a meal in one sitting. So Jon and I both were getting a little frustrated with her. "Gracie come back and finish your breakfast please." "You can't leave the table until you have three more bites." So after her telling us her usual NO to our requests, Jon asked her what she was doing. She replied, "just getting mommy as spoon." When she said this I looked down at the table thinking I already had my spoon, but soon realized I had forgotten it. She had just happened to notice that mommy didn't have a spoon for her cereal, so, without my asking, she took the liberty to get me one! How bad did I feel that I got mad at her for leaving the table?! I know to anyone else this doesn't seem like such a momentous moment, but for a mother, nothing could be more rewarding. The fact that she had noticed this, without my asking, I think, is pretty amazing. I mean really, what two year old puts that together in their mind. Oh mommy needs a spoon, I could help her out by getting her one. I thought it was pretty dang cute.

Happy Birthday Jonny!

For Jonny's birthday I surprised him with a ski trip to Big Sky Montana. He has an uncanny ability to guess his gifts from me, so I constantly fail when I try to surprise him with anything. I had this trip planned two months in advance, so I thought for sure he would have no idea. But of course, as his birthday drew nearer, he started asking his parents if the entire family could go up to Big Sky for his birthday. Uggh!!! I was sooo mad! I had been so sneaky about the whole thing and he just happened to decide that he wanted to do the exact thing I was surprising him with. Luckily, with the help of his family members I was able to steer him away from that idea and the trip ended up being a total surprise.

This was the first time we had gone on a trip without Gracie. I can't believe how hard it was to leave her. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip with my hubby, Peter, and Michael and Betsy, but I missed Gracie the whole time. The trip was definately worth it though!

This was Big Sky ski resort, where we skied everyday of our trip. This was our view from our room. It was so amazing.

These were some more frozen waterfalls along the hike. Peter is actually standing on the frozen river. I was terrified the ice was going to break, but all went well and we now have some beautiful pictures to show.

This was a frozen waterfall we hiked to near peter's house, the way down was a little treacherous, but very much worth it.

Gracie's 2nd Birthday!

We completely forgot to buy candles for her birthday and those two giant candles were all we could find.

This was Gracie's 2nd birthday. I can't believe she is already two years old. What happened to my little baby? She knows how to talk almost better than I do! She is totally in to pink and purple, princesses, ponies, baby dolls, and anything that is girly. Her favorite things to do are brush my hair, put on lip gloss, and change her shoes about ten times a day. I don't know how she evolved into this "big" little girl, but it all of a sudden happened one day. She is so much fun! I love her more and more every single day.

I was unfortunately reminded, by my husband, that mustache march is just around the corner. I recently found this picture of Jon on Gracie's birthday and was so excited to see that Jon already used up his mustache march in January! I'm telling Jon about this tonight, although it probably won't do any good. It's worth a shot though.

Gracie's first snowman!!!

Gracie was having more fun eating the new freshly fallen snow than she was actually making the snowman. Now I can't get her to stop eating it, even the old muddy stuff. It's pretty discusting!