Adam's Birthday Bash

Just wanted to throw some quick pictures on here, I'm sure Holly will give details soon. We have to get ready for Bama now!

New Links

Please check out the top three new links under "cool sites" on the blog. I am second is a neat site with simple video testimony from some people you may not expect to see. Take care! -Adam

Valentine's Weekend

We had planned on my mother and Gary (my step-dad) to come for a visit this past weekend. They came up on Thursday evening and left on Monday morning as planned. The surprise was that Adam and I were going for a little get-a-way for a night. I didn't know but Adam had been planning this since about Christmas and saving for us to be able to go somewhere for a night and my Mom and Gary were going to come and stay with Grace. It worked out beautifully b/c I was not scheduled to work on Valentine's weekend and it was a good time for them to come too. Adam is so sweet. He planned all this himself as to where we would stay and where we could go out to eat and everything. He did his research and I didn't even know it!!:) We went to Elizabethtown and stayed one night and drove over to Glendale, KY and ate at the Whistle Stop Restaurant and walked around the quaint little shops in the small town of Glendale. It was WONDERFUL. If any of you want to take a trip or go through that area off of I-65 you must stop there! The food was FABULOUS! It is great southern food and everything is made from scratch including the desserts. We even shared a hot fudge cake dessert with ice cream and had other home-cooked goods as our meal. Go here to see about the restaurant and Glendale. We left on Friday and came back on Saturday. On Saturday, we decided to eat the hotel's continental breakfast that even included sausage, biscuits, eggs, and fresh waffles. We even made a late run to Walmart and Target at about 9pm just while we were there to "look around" just b/c we could!:) (That is one thing that we realized we couldn't do anymore after we had Grace b/c she has to get to bed. Before we had her we were night owls and we would go to Walmart VERY late at night on a whim just to "get out"!:) We really enjoyed our time but both of us were ready to get back home to see Grace! That was the first time we have went away from Grace over night and it was a "safe distance away" for the first time!:)

So then on Saturday, we celebrated Valentine's Day. We gave Grace a little Valentine's Bear and some new pacifiers and some puffs (instead of candy, I guess she gets puffs:). We all got out and went to the Mall and never made it past JCPenny. They were having a great sale outside of the store in the Mall with clearance racks of clothes ranging from $2.97-$9.99. Mom was generous enough to buy us a few things there and Gary even found him a nice dress shirt for $3. We went home so Grace could nap and Mom and I left to go to a NICE children's consignment shop in St. Matthews called "Buttons, Bows, and Britches". We found all kind of great bargains that Mom bought Grace. They are having a 75% off sale of winter items. We all later got out and went to this little restaurant by our house called "Dinner is Done" and they even had a man singing and playing a key board as entertainment and to create a "special" atmosphere for Valentine's. Grace enjoyed the music and was getting a lot of attention from people around us. She is really trying a lot of table food now, and got to try some of our food that night, including a lot of a roll while we were there... she liked that!

On Sunday, we all went to church and Grace got to show off her new Valentine's dress that her Nana got her and then we spent a lot of quality time together at the house. It was a great weekend and Grace was so good for them and I am so thankful for that and for all the blessings of this past weekend!

Grace was showing off her new ability to stick her tongue out and smile at the same time:)

This is what she wants to do all of the time now.. she is constantly trying to pull up on things and stand up but still needs some help!:)

Showing off her Valentine's colors!

Grace gets her 1st Valentine from Momma and Daddy!

Happy 10 months!

Grace is 10 months old TODAY! It is so hard to believe 10 months have went by since we met our sweet Grace for the first time! Reality struck me pretty hard the other day that she will be 1 year old before we know it!!! Man, I just want her to stop!:) I hear all of these other ladies talk about their kids in the terrible two's (or three's) turn from a little angel to a little demon, pitching fits and all...! Then others who talk about what they are going through with their teenagers.... and I think NO! I don't ever want to be there!!:) Grace is at a great age right now where she LOVES her Momma and Daddy. She SURE knows who we are and favors us above anyone. She is at the stage where she will cuddle her head into our neck (esp. when she is tired). This feels so sweet! She even seems like she tries to give us kisses.:) She will open her mouth and just put her mouth against our face and smile! She will also get real excited when we walk in the room. She is such a pleasant baby now too! Every time we take her to the nursery they talk about how good she is... they say she will just play and be happy the whole time! I am soooo thankful for this! I can say though that she definitely favors women over men (except her daddy (whom she LOVES). She will occasionally get frightened by men's deeper voices or different looks?? Just a little warming up is all it takes!!!

She is pulling up from short heights now. What I mean by this is that she can pull up by herself from the bottom step on our stairs or from other things... but if she has to reach above her head to grab it to pull up... she can't quiet make it all the way up without a boost!!:) She is also officially in to EVERYTHING. I was telling some people that I just didn't realize all of the hazards that are in our house that we don't even think about!! She keeps Adam and I VERY busy keeping her out of things she doesn't need!!:)

She is starting to try more table food. She has had some meatloaf, hamburger, baked potatoes, rice, baked beans, toast, chicken, chicken casserole, etc. She also eats puffs all of the time and crackers and cheerios. She has liked all of this. Some things she LOVED!:)

Off to fix her supper....

I am posting pics and a video from yesterday where we put her in a box and she was loving it! If you look real close when Adam first zooms in... you can see her two bottom teeth!:)

Tagged

The Rules:

1. Go to where you store your digital photos and open the 4th folder.
2. Post the 4th picture in that folder.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag 4 people.


This was Grace when she was 6 DAYS old. What a face....:) I had to get a picture of her every time I put something new on her! LOL. Do you all remember when Grace looked like this???

Okay, Tag your it.. Christy, Laura, Leah, and Tracy.

Grace is Mimicking and "silly" Grace

This first picture is for those of you who don't see facebook.... This is what she likes to do with her socks.........:)

I am posting a video of her NEW thing for the day! She has learned TODAY, how to copy us when we knod our heads "no" to her. I guess we are doing it pretty frequently these days as she is in to EVERYTHING! :) Although.... it is pretty funny to watch!:)

Ice

Winter Snow and Ice Storm Jan. 2009 Pics

Here are the Pics I promised....

The first two are before the second batch of snow came in on Wednesday morning. This is when all the snow turned to ICE and after we had all the freezing rain.

These three pics are after the snow that came down yesterday morning and this is also our scenery even now. Last night we had another hard freeze and the temperatures are mainly in the 20's during the day this whole week until the weekend. They are forecasting a dusting of snow tomorrow and more snow on MONDAY!

Thankfully, we were able to get out of our road today. You can't see it really in this picture but there is enough of a hill on our road that if it is ice it is very hard to get out! Adam was able to get out yesterday and do A LOT of shoveling and others on our road did too and have gotten out so we were able to today! We went to Walmart and Adam was able to get to work today.

Snow and Ice Storm Jan. 2009

After midnight on Monday night snow started falling in Louisville. I had to work night shift at the hospital and was able to watch it off and on come down from windows in the hospital. It was pretty continuous all night and then it started sleeting during the night and turned to freezing rain and this lasted just about all of Tuesday. I got off at about 8:45am on Tuesday morning and the roads were ROUGH. The road crews had been out all night but with the continuous snow and very cold temps/ice, the roads were still dangerous. It was the worse I have ever seen the roads in Louisville when it is snowing, etc.

I have actually had a sore throat and some sinus drainage, etc. so I had talked to the nurse manager because we were actually over-staffed for Tuesday night (I was scheduled to work Tuesday night too!). He said he couldn't take me off the schedule due to the last minute and the weather, but he actually told me to call in if I needed too!:) I was surprised because the hospital was pretty much threatening us to come despite the weather. Thankfully, we were over-staffed!

I was VERY thankful for this due to we are officially STUCK at our house. I really think I couldn't have got to work if I tried. We are down a slight hill and 3 cars have attempted yesterday and today and all 3 of them are now stuck down at the end of our road. We are unable to get up the hill. The tires just spin. Despite all of this, the rain continued during the night which made an inch of ice over the 3-4 inches of snow that had fallen and then this morning it started snowing again and a few inches more of snow has fallen on top of all of the other. It is still snowing now. Many people are without power so PRAY that we don't go without power! We are okay now, thankfully we don't HAVE to get out! The temperatures are not supposed to get above freezing until Saturday or Sunday so I guess we are stuck!:) On the positive note, it is REALLY pretty to look at!!!!!.............

It won't let me upload pics for now, will try later!

Crawling!

Grace officially started crawling on Monday! We may be sorry now... LOL! :)

9 Month Check Up and More

We took Grace on Tuesday of this week to the Doctor for her 9 month check up. (We were unable to go last week). She weighed 201b. 10oz., height- 27 1/2 inches long, and 17 1/2 in. head circumference. She said she was about 75th% for weight, 50% for height and 60% for head circumference. She said she looked great and Grace showed off her vocal ability for them while we were waiting in the room. She was YELLING out, being very loud saying "Daa, Daa, Daa, Daa"!:) (Still no "Ma, Ma", but I am really working on this with her now!:) The only thing is we got them to look at the bump on her left eyelid again because the warm compresses that we were trying to do for it were not really working. Although, we were not as consistent as we should be (it is hard with an ACTIVE baby:) So to make sure and to help us maybe try something else.. she has referred us to a pediatric eye Doctor to look at it. So we are going to take her this next Friday. I am glad to go get this seen about next week.

We told her how she has been "moving around" and it is totally normal. We did tell her how she is crawling backwards some and she said that she will probably be crawling then with in a month?? She is definitely getting into the crawling "stance" all of the time now and will go a step or two forward and that is as far as she can go!:) She will then go backwards a few steps and come to a sitting position. She does this over and over all of the time now. She has "mastered" sitting up by herself from her stomach or knees and does this ALL OF THE TIME! As a matter of fact, I took some pictures of her of how we find her now in the crib when she wakes up in the morning or at naps!

She also LOVES to be read to and loves Music! Her favorite book by far....................."Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

P.S. I am planning on getting a picture of her first teeth when they grow in a little more. You can really see them more now even when she smiles sometimes, or when she is eating! Cute!:)

This first picture looks like she is "up to something"! Doesn't it??

As you can see, she had also pulled her sock off! :)

Getting in her "stance"!

Posing!

Grace's First (real) Snow!

We woke up this morning to about an inch and a half of snow. We bundled up Grace and headed out for a quick video and pictures. It is already melting now!

Grace is Mobile!!

Grace has decided the way she wants to get around now is by ROLLING everywhere! The bouncing she was doing before was taking WAY too much effort to go a short distance! LOL. She is also "crawling" a little but only BACKWARDS!

We haven't got a video of this but her new feat that she has accomplished is sitting up by herself from her stomach. She is also REALLY working on pulling up. She reaches out for things and attempts a lot now but can't quiet pull herself completely up without falling back down without a little help. :)

A little funny story......... Yesterday, Adam took Grace to church by himself since I had worked all weekend, and put her in "Babies A". When he came back to get her she had been "promoted" to Babies B and was now in that room! They said she was ROLLING EVERYWHERE and trying to touch all of the tiny babies! :) We knew it was coming soon!

9 Months Tomorrow and Curiosity!

Grace is officially "on the move"! Yesterday, we noticed a BIG difference in her getting in to everything! She is still managing to "scoot" different ways to get to where she wants to go. She is constantly scanning everything around her and wanted to explore ANYTHING she can get her hands on. :) Of course, she will reach for the one thing that she doesn't need out of 5 things that she CAN have! LOL We are now getting an idea of how it is going to be "keeping up with her". She is so much fun! She manages to get herself in all kinds of awkward places too. The other day she was trying to go up underneath the recliner and in her room she was scooting up UNDER her crib! So we are constantly re-directing her! (Oh yeah, we lowered her crib mattress too a couple of weeks ago.) It really is fun though, all of these stages!

She also had her first experience last night in a high chair! Adam and I decided to go out and share an appetizer for supper last night at Applebees and she sat in the high chair. She LOVED it! She immediately was "straining" to bend to reach for anything she could get to on the table. She was grabbing the menu, our silverware, reaching for our plates, etc. She did so good though and really just loved taking in all of the sights, sounds, and activity in the restaurant.

Grace will be 9 Months Old TOMORROW! Amazing! Happy 9 Months to our sweet little girl!

Update on Grace and Weekend

We took Grace to the Doctor on Monday and he said that she had a possible Upper Respiratory Infection and her ears looked a little congested and possibly getting infected so he went ahead and gave us a antibiotic to give her for 10 days. He also looked at the bump that she has had on her eye lid that is a blocked oil gland. He said to just continue to put a warm rag on it few times a day. By Monday afternoon, she was already better. Her fever only went up to almost 101 and then it hasn't been up since. I think her own body was really fighting all of that off! She has still had the congestion but it is better today. I haven't even had to use the saline drops in her nose or suction her nose today. So all is good!

I am looking forward to Adam getting off from work any minute now. We will be able to spend some time together finally tonight and some tomorrow. He has worked more this week and I feel like we are only seeing each other in "passing". I worked Mon. and Tues. and he has worked the rest of the week. He is also having to get ready for his Winter Term that is a class that lasts all day Monday through Friday next week. He has to do some reading to get ready for the class. After this, the next week starts Spring Semester! He is cutting back some this semester so I am happy about that. I think it will be good for everyone!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Grace's New Move and SICKNESS

I caught this video of Grace playing in the floor doing her new "move" earlier today. This was in between a fever of 102.0 at 10am and 103.0 at 4pm!! Yes, I said it! Last night after waking up from a nap she was real flushed and felt very hot and we checked her temperature and it was 103.2. We gave her Motrin and I called the Pediatrician. We gave her a lukewarm bath and by bedtime she was definitely feeling better. We set our clock to get up this morning at 2:45am to re-check her temperature and give her more Motrin. It was then 101.7. The Motrin has been getting her temperature down and when it is down you can tell because she is playful and pretty happy. But then it was up and down again today. I called the Pediatrician again this evening to see if we should go on to a clinic and he thought she would be okay till morning (we are going in the morning to see the Pediatric Dr.) He said the fever was a good sign that her body is fighting off infection as long as she acts okay in between fevers and is drinking okay, etc. So we will wait it out till morning. She has a runny nose and congestion, and I am wondering about her ear?? I saw her grab at her right ear a few times last night??

Anyways, the poor baby girl was feeling okay earlier when I managed to get this video!:)

Grace is Growing Up (Over 8 1/2 Months)

On Tuesday of this week (12/30) Adam called me at work to tell me that Grace has a tooth coming through on the bottom. Grace had been acting fussy over the past week some and just more "needy". First, we thought it was just a stage she is going through. Then we noticed she had some diarrhea for a few days and had been having a runny nose. I finally linked it to possible teething on Monday but we never did look in her mouth that day because we were in the car and we forgot to look later when we were home. Then Adam did on Tuesday night and wahlah.. there it was! THAT explains everything! I then felt bad for her thinking that when she was being so needy that I didn't have more sympathy for her in the days before!:) I thought she was just being needy or even getting spoiled for our attention! She always seemed fine when she was distracted but especially when we were at home or even when we were in the car and it was quiet, she would act more fussy. So we have been giving her Motrin or Tylenol. We have even put a little baby oragel on her gums and given her COLD things to chew on. This has helped and thankfully she is still sleeping!:) She has woke twice now around midnight but went back to sleep. We also think another tooth may be coming through on the top. She is dealing with this teething pretty well though!

Grace is also learning how to "scoot" in her own special way! No crawling, but Grace does this funny thing where she sits on her bottom and bounces up and down (gets real excited) and moves her legs slightly and manages to scoot forward. She will also lay on her tummy and will keep rolling over and over and turning to manage to move to get things. She has her own unique ways! It is so funny though, our little Pomeranian will get her moving before anything else. She is constantly wanting to move to get to her and grab at her hair. :( For this reason we have to really watch her and the dog! I will have to get a video sometime so you all can see her new move!

She also moved up to a new car seat. She has officially met the weight limit on our previous car seat (20 lbs.) and exceeded the length (26"). So one of her Christmas gifts was a new car seat. This meant no more carrier anymore! I realized later that it means that she will always have to get out of the car seat when we go in places. This is an adjustment. She has had her first rides in a shopping cart in the basket. She really likes to be sitting up all "big" and being able to look around better at people and things. She also like being able to sit up more in her car seat. I will post some pics.

Grace was excited this day when I put her in her new car seat!

Grace in her new outfit she got for Christmas with the matching toboggan and monkey! She LOVES that monkey too! :)

Happy New Year

We have had a wonderful week this week. I am really enjoying Adam being out for winter break. We have had much more needed "family time" together. On New Year's Eve Adam got off early and we were able to go over to a friend's house (Garon and Laura) with some other couples to have snacks and desserts. We played some fun games and Adam and I had our first try of playing the "Wii". It was a lot of fun too and they had a lot of laughs watching us with our first attempt at it! LOL. We ended up leaving about 10 pm so Grace could get to bed. Adam and I watched the ball drop from home! :) I forgot to take my camera so no pictures. Grace did great though. We played some game where you roll a couple of small PIGS. It is a game of luck and you get points. For some reason when it was Adam and Garon's turn, Grace thought it was hillarious! She just giggled and giggled watching them! Don't know why??.. but it was really cute!

A lot has happened this past year for us in which we are very thankful! So many "firsts" that we have experienced! (Our lives have definitely changed forever with the addition of Grace :) We are also so thankful for our family and friends and for the relationships that we have formed and continue to form on this journey together!

Some new Pics

These are some pictures we scanned today, so please forgive the quality.- Adam

Grace's First Christmas!

When Grace first got up this morning she was her usual "groggy" self. It takes her a little time to get awake (like her Mom)! So when we were showing her the gifts she just kind of stared! LOL!

The set of books that you will see in the video were pretty neat. They are part of a set and they each have their own DVD with stories on them and music. She LOVES music more too now!

We have had a great day! We went to the Christmas Eve service last night with Grace and the kids went to the service last night. (No nursery) At the end we all held lit candles and sang Silent Night. Grace loved all the Christmas Carols that we sang and of course, when we were holding the candles she wanted to grab the candle and stick her hand in it! Adam was having to hold the candle way out so she didn't! Ha! Ha! We then went to a friend's house (Ben and Lauren) after the service with other couples/families that stayed in town for Christmas this year. Ben and Lauren were great host and hostess' and the food was great and everything was beautiful. It was lots of fun!

Enjoy! Merry Christmas to you all. Hope you all are having a great one!!