More Happenings

We all were invited to a co-ed baby shower for Rachel and her family this past Saturday evening. She is having a girl that is due in October and she has another little girl (Averi) who is only a week younger than Grace. She is Grace's little friend too.. we met them all at Ninth and O Baptist. The shower was out in the country on a farm and it was a nice scenic drive out there. As soon as Grace saw Averi they started walking towards each other and giving each other kisses and were hugging each other! They were SOO cute together! We had a very good putlock dinner and it was fun and we really enjoyed the time with all of them. It was so funny as one of her 'baby' shower gifts she got a snuggy! They said Rachel has been asking for one for a while so they bought Rachel one as a gift! Rachel's hubby was not as enthused about her having one but it was very funny!

As for church, we are absolutely loving it! We have been able to get real active at church and this past Sunday night we started our home group/ (mission group). It is mainly our adult bible fellowship class (which is young couples/ or young families) that is starting this and we split into two group and there is also a college home group. Our pastor and another guy heads our group and it was at the Pastor's house. Our focus is to be more on 'mission' group because we are trying to invite people in from the community and such that are maybe lost or un-churched. We don't want it to be all about us! We are trying to reach people and THAT is our main focus! I am SOO thankful for this and I know I have one particular girl from work that I am really working on (and her boyfriend) and got an opportunity to witness to her the other day and I just pray that she will come and that she will be changed. There are so many more so we have a HUGE job to do!

I have also started helping with Awana (for the children) at church on Wednesday nights while Adam is working. Adam has been doing a lot with Gary who he is interning with that is the Minister to Adults. They are reaching out to a local school in the Valley Station area and helping with reading to the children after school, providing space at the church for their Volley Ball team and just reaching out to kids and families through different ways. Adam is also heading up greeting on Sunday mornings, etc. It is all great and I am thankful that the Lord is gracious enough to use us for HIS work!

As for Grace, she is talking more and more every day! New words all of the time. I am going to try to get a video up of her saying a few more words soon.

The weather has been beautiful in Louisville and Grace and I have been especially taking advantage of it and going for walks mostly on my off days! We are about to go now! Happy rest of the week! Oh yea.. and football season is HERE! ROLL TIDE!

Grace and Averi giving each other hugs!!!:)

Wrapped up in the snuggy!

Sweet friend Rachel and precious Averi!!:-)

Opening gifts!

More on Nana Visit...

While Nana was here we were able to get out and enjoy our time together. On Thursday we spent the day shopping. We went to my favorite consignment shop and between Thursday and Friday we went to Target, Walmart, and Kohls. Thursday night.. Mom cooked us a yummy dinner and she had brought some fresh corn and tomatoes from AL that we enjoyed! (There is nothing like those AL veggies!). We had found Grace a little swim suit at Target and on Friday we took her to the Seminary pool. Adam wanted to go with us so we waited until he got off work and went after dinner. This is the first time Grace has gotten into a big pool this summer. Grace didn't really like the big pool.. she acted like she was scared in it. We ended up spending our time in the baby pool which was really nice there at the Seminary.

On Saturday, Adam and I had planned on going outside to fix the siding and to clean out the gutters. He borrowed an extension ladder from our church and I went out side with him to hold the ladder and to help hand him stuff, etc. (It was up very far so I DID NOT want him on the ladder by him self.) Adam got the siding fixed and then we all went to Huber Farms for dinner as planned, after Grace got up from her nap. It is on the other side of Indiana. It has a country cookin' restaurant there and there is a animal petting area, and some fruit patches, Farmer's Market, and gift shop, etc. It was actually an unusually cool evening for Aug. so we didn't end up walking around the Farm very much. The food was good and we brought home some fresh green beans, more fresh tomatoes, and some chocolate covered peanut butter balls from the Farmer's Market and gift shop! ;-)

On Sunday morning we all went to church and then that evening Mom decided to stay home with Grace while we went to church. Grace really wasn't at her best any ways because she is teething again but with all of Nana's attention she was JUST FINE! Adam and I was able to grab a little dinner.. just us two.. and have a nice peaceful ride to church. It was good!

Nana left on Monday morning.. but while she was here she was able to see how Grace's little personality is just developing more and more every day! She also saw how she is saying more and more words all of the time. On Saturday.. Grace said HER own name for the 1st time. She kept saying it over and over in the car and it come out like 'Gace'. ;0) She also said 'Na Na' a couple of times! She also can not get enough of ELMO these days!

This is what Adam and I was up to on Saturday morning.. Adam (not me) was on that ladder.... You see why I wanted to be with him!

This is just one area that he fixed.. there were two more areas that he fixed but I didn't think to get a picture before he fixed those.. This was all from wind damage.

And after..

I don't know why blogger makes these pics look 'blocky' when I upload them..

Headed to the pool!

Overlook me! ;-)

Big girl!

Grace and Nana

Grace 'taking in' Huber Farms!

This is a bib Nana got her.. Elmo! Elmo! Elmo!:)

Sweet girl!

Nana Is Here!

My mother (or Nana) came for a visit this past Wednesday and will be here till Monday. We have been having a lot of fun getting out and about. I will post more later on her visit...

Since her arrival, Grace has been showing Nana how she LOVES to give kisses. Immediately after we picked Nana up at the airport she was giving Nana kisses! She has also been showing off her many abilities (talking, dancing, etc.) :-)

I am posting a pic of her giving kisses to Nana right after we walked in the door when Nana got to our house!....

Silly Grace!

Grace has also been 'dancing' for Nana. I am posting a video of her 'in action'. As you can see, Grace has some new bows. Grace is getting a little better at keeping her bows in so we got her some pretty big bows. I have been wanting to get her some... We got these at a specialty consignment shop along with some other REALLY good bargains! FUN!

The Task

16 Months Old TODAY!

Our baby is now 16 months old! I was just telling Adam that it seems like yesterday that Grace was sleeping ALL of the time and we were having to take time out for her to get multiple naps during the day. It felt like every time we turned around she needed to nap!=) Now she is down to 1 or maybe 2 naps a day.... depending on the day and how late she sleeps in the morning.

Adam and I have started to try to teach her to color (or I should say scribble) in the past week. We finally got her some jumbo crayons and she will do a little bit but is really more interested in sticking the crayons in her mouth or to play with the papers and the crayon box, etc. =) The other day while I was at work Adam got the idea to start trying to teach her to associate some very important things. He said he was thinking that since she can associate who Elmo is and the dogs, shoes, body parts, and other things.. that we could teach her who Jesus is, what the Bible is, a cross, etc. I thought that this is VERY TRUE! I am posting some pics of what Grace and her Daddy was doing the other day while I was at work!

We also cut Grace's hair a little in the back and above her ears the other day for the first time. This was VERY interesting! I have been told be a few people that this would also help her hair grow faster and she had some stray hairs in these areas also!:)

Grace is really a girly girl too! She will walk around all day with the play rings on her arms as bracelets and she has one plastic bangle bracelet that she puts on all of the time too. She also walks around with a 'purse' on her arm all of the time too!

Grace 'scribbling'

This is 'Daddy's artwork and he was teaching her what each of them were.. =)

Grace's hair before (above) and then after (below). We actually ended up cutting the back a little more the next day to even it out.

This is Grace's 'Home Alone' face that we taught her. She even does the sound effects.. she hollers or screams when she does it!=)

You can see Grace is wearing her bangle bracelet in this picture! 'That's my girl!=)'

Smart Little Girl!

A few pics first....

This first one is from the other day.. This is just to show you how expressive she is and she likes to go 'check herself' out in the mirror when we get her dressed!:) LOL

Silly girl.. she was wanting to play with my sunglasses in the pool today!

Sweet girl!

Grace was in rare form for videos today. She was showing off some of her 'abilities' today! It was a nice day for the pool. I am posting 2 videos. You will see in the second video that just with the mention of 'daddy' she got a little upset. She wanted her Daddy! 'Awww'!!! (As Grace would say...) He has been working today!

(I don't know why these videos have flashes of light lines going through them.. I don't know if it was the sun affecting the camera??...)

15 mo. Checkup

Grace went for her 15 mo. check up on Monday. ( I know... she is getting closer now to 16 mo. but it took a while to get an appointment. ) The doctor was pleased with her and she weighed 24 1lbs. 14 oz. (75th percentile) and 30 1/2 inches for height, and I can't remember the head circ. right this minute but she was in the 5oth percentile for both of those. She showed off real good for the doctor and showed her some of her abilities of knowing body parts, etc, 'talking', and just being active in the room. She had to get 2 shots which of course, she didn't like but overall.. all good!:)

Uncle Greg and Kelly Visit

My brother Greg and his fiance Kelly came for the visit last Thursday and left on Monday. We had a lot of fun together. They were very happy to see Grace and by the time they got here on Thursday Grace was asleep so by Friday morning when Grace woke up Uncle Greg was anxiously walking in to Grace's room to greet her at her crib and to hold her. She quickly warmed up to them both and we had a lot of fun times and Grace showed off her 'silliness' to them and they taught her a few things while they were here. She learned where her or our nose and eyes are. She also learned the word 'boo!'

On Friday, Adam had to work a few hours in the afternoon so the rest of us went to Brown Park to walk around, feed the ducks, and to let Grace (and Greg) play on the playground. Uncle Greg was having fun taking Grace down the BIG slides and it was quiet amusing to watch. We then went to the mall and walked around and then came back home for Grace to get a nap. We later went and ate Mexican and went to Walmart and uncle Greg bought her a Elmo doll that talks and blows kisses! She LOVES this and gets very excited when she sees it and carried it around with her just about the rest of the weekend. Then the adults watched the movie 'Bedtime Stories' after Grace went to sleep. It was really good too! On Saturday, we went to The Louisville Slugger Museum as planned and this was a lot of fun and very interesting. This is the first time we have went and it was neat getting to see all of that. We left there and went to Kingfish on the Ohio River. We didn't get to sit outside because they were having a family reunion outside but we had a very nice window seat with a distant view of the river. They also have a playground for the kids and Putt Putt which is really neat. After dinner, we walked down to the river and Grace played on the playground a little bit.

Then on Sunday, we had a great day at church. We all went to Sunday School (or Adult Bible Fellowship) and to the service and just had a great service. There was no church on Sunday night so we spent the evening at home and I cooked dinner and us Adults played Outburst while Grace napped and then again after Grace went to bed. We spent a lot of time just playing with Grace this day and the weather was BEAUTIFUL the whole weekend and we spent a lot of time outside also. They temps were milder. We all took a walk Sunday evening too around our neighborhood.

Posting pics.....

Quality time...

No slowing down on this slide!:) (At Kingfish)

A view of the outside of Kingfish Restaurant and then the River below the Putt Putt course

Fun times! The upper pic is from Brown Park and the lower from Kingfish playground

Grace checking out the Baseball players signature wall!

Being silly at the Slugger Museum

Our Family:)

More fun at Brown Park!

Grace Being Little Mommy

I'm adding another quick video of Grace being little Miss Mommy. Uncle Greg and Kelly brought her a stroller for her 'babies' and a little 'baby' bottle and 'baby' sippy cup and keys set. She also got a Elmo shirt from them and she LOVES Elmo! Now she says " Ehmmmm" for Elmo! We kept asking her where Elmo was and she would point to her shirt. Later into the weekend Uncle Greg wanted to buy Grace something and he got her a Elmo doll and she LOVES it! She gets so excited for Elmo!

More to come...

Grace's Indian Sound

My brother Greg and his Fiance Kelly just left this morning to go back to GA. They came in for a visit on Thursday and we have done a lot of fun things while they were here. While they were here we were having fun with Grace with different sounds, etc.

We are about to leave for her checkup today for her 15 mo. I will blog more later on the visit!

More Firsts and Fun with Our 'Buds'

A couple of weeks ago I bought Grace some sidewalk chalk because I thought it would be fun to see what she does with it and if she would really use it. She used it a little bit but really wanted to 'eat' it more than write with it! :) I kept having to pull the chalk away from her mouth! As Adam has said she is also saying more and more words! What sounds like-- "Elmo, Allie, Bud, Bye, Bye, Ball, Hey, Momma or Mom, Da Da, etc. etc." I am sure a lot more that we just don't understand!:)

Yesterday, Grace and I met our friends Rachel and Averi at Brown Park. We had fun with them and it was very good seeing them. Grace hasn't seen little Averi in a while since we moved churches. Her and Averi are the same age. Our baby girls got to get out of the stroller and see the ducks and then have soom time on the playground just playing... while us Moms got to talk. Averi is a little playground monkey. She amazed me how she climbs so well up the steps and goes down the slide and every thing.. like a pro! Grace needed some help! Grace has never really tried to climb much yet. Grace just enjoyed walking free around the area and picking up TRASH under the pavilion! Fun times though!

More Random Pictures