Ella Gaining Coordination

Ella has been such a good baby! She is definitely going through a stage where she is more vocal about her needs, so she can get pretty loud, but I still think she's a good baby. I love to see her smile and she shares her smiles freely, so I'm a lucky mommy!

It has been fun to watch Ella master control over her hands. She really enjoys this bead maze that Grandpa gave Gracie 4 years ago. Gracie cheers Ella on for every little thing she does. Last night Ella took her spoon out of my hands and stuck it in her mouth herself and you would have thought she just won an Olympic gold medal. Gracie cheered and encouraged us to do the same. I hope they will be good friends in the upcoming years.

As If We Needed One More Dress

This is the newest addition to Gracie's dress-up collection. Most of her "gowns" as she likes to call them, were given to us as gifts or hand-me-downs. Last week Brent was cruising the toy aisle at Wal-Mart with her while I shopped and she laid her pretty brown eyes upon this gown. She asked me to buy it and I told her she would have to spend her monkey bank money if she wanted it. (Most kids have a piggy bank, but Gracie has a monkey bank!) That was the first time we have made her use her money for a purchase. She came home and counted her money and had exactly the right amount of money. I took her back to buy it and she spent the rest of the day in a wonderful mood while dancing and giggling. It's hard to explain, but those gowns make her feel like she IS a princess and they encourage her to dream and imagine. As most of you know, she has a strong imagination anyway, but it's fun to see her channel her imagination into ballet these days. On that day, she was a beautiful ballerina who let her daddy dance around the living room as the prince. No photos were allowed!

Gracie's New Words

Our little Gracie really enjoys talking...a lot! She has been trying out some new words lately, so I thought I'd share them with you and the context in which she used them.

1) Delicate - "That is a very delicate hairstyle." (Spoken as we were reading a Disney Princess book.)

2) Refreshing - We were at Taco Bell, and Gracie wanted tea to drink. I got my usual glass of water. Halfway through the meal Gracie decided she needed my water, so I complied. She took a big drink and said, "Ahh, refreshing."

3) Sir and Ma'am - I was driving the other day and Gracie asked, "Mommy, what do we call men?" I told her I didn't understand what she meant and she said, "Is it sir?" I told her we call men sir and ladies ma'am. She paused for a moment and asked, "What do we call babies?" I told her that we didn't call babies anything special. She thought for a minute and said, "I know what we call babies. We call them pie." I said, "Why do we call babies pie?" Gracie quickly replied, "Because they are sweet...like pie." It was pretty cute, although it may not have translated well as I retold it. :-)

I'm sure there are many more cute little things I could share, but I have forgotten them all for now. Throughout the day things happen and I think, 'I need to blog that,' but then I can't remember when I actually sit down to blog. That's what happens when you are 31 years old!

More Weekend Travels

We headed over to Kahoka on Saturday because Brent was preaching at New Testament on Sunday. We stayed in Kahoka and spent some time with our friends, Ray and Mikie. Ray was trying to get Ella to roll over.
The woman in this picture is Dorothy, and she lives in our old house. She's such a sweet lady. She came down to Ray and Mikie's to see us and to meet Ella. Gracie and Dorothy went for a walk and came back with chocolate chip cookies from Dorothy's freezer. Gracie was a happy girl!
Princess Gracie loved to ride Ray and Mikie's rocking horse when we lived in Kahoka, and it appears that she still does.
Gracie was practicing riding sidesaddle. She has been paying close attention to her princess movies, I guess.

Why Does Ella Have to Grow?

Gracie wants to hold Ella all the time these days. She's starting to realize that Ella is getting too big for her.
Whoa, Ella. She about got away from Gracie, and Gracie thought it was funny.

Later Gracie got very sad as she realized Ella is growing bigger. She said she wanted Ella to stay little, and I told her that couldn't happen. Later,that night Gracie was taking her bath and she started crying. Brent asked her why she was crying and she said, "Someday I'm going to get big and I won't live with you anymore, and I don't want to leave you guys." I don't know who planted this seed in her little four year old brain, but it was so sad to see her crying about such a big concept. Brent held her for a long time and told her she would always be his little girl. We all got a little teary eyed over that conversation.

Happy Birthday, Nana

We headed to Moberly tonight to help celebrate my mom's birthday which was yesterday. Gracie thought we were having a huge party, but it was actually just a nice supper with cake and ice cream. Nana hadn't seen Ella for a while, so she enjoyed some one-on-one time with Miss Slobberbucket.
Ella was having fun at the party !

My parents have a box of dress up clothes that we have had forever, and they drug it out and let Gracie have some fun. She loved every minute of it! Gracie giggled and giggled as she would look in the mirror at herself in each item. Personally, I liked the granny glasses.

Future Administrative Assistant

Ella absolutely loves to hear me type. She loves it even more if she can get her hands on the keyboard. I granted her wish tonight when I put the keyboard down on the floor by her Bumbo seat and she could peck around.

Ella and Grandpa

Grandpa doesn't get many opportunities to hold Ella and just focus on her. That would be because Gracie is very possessive of him. She loves her Grandpa and doesn't want him paying much attention to Ella. She's really not that bad, but sometimes we have to say something. These pictures were taken when we were waiting on Grandma Kaser's back procedure to end after she broke her back. Ella stopped by the hospital to brighten up every one's day. Gracie was in Unionville so Grandpa could freely hold Ella.

Fun In Unionville

Gracie enjoyed a weekend in Unionville. We went over Saturday since Brent was still there remodeling his mom's bathroom. It was just a coincidence that Unionville was having some kind of festival on the square all day, so they had fun activities for the kids. I walked up with Gracie and Ella and let Gracie ride a train that was going around town. She enjoyed it very much.
Gracie and cousin Kalyn both bounced away some energy in the bounce house.

Gracie enjoyed the train ride enough to go again with Aunt B and Kalyn.

Gracie Story

We have been working on our almost finished basement like crazy because the carpet is coming any day now. I was painting in a closet and Gracie came down and said, "Oh, Mommy. Isn't our basement beautiful? We are almost done, and then we won't have to paint it ever again." I questioned her and said, "We won't ever paint it again?" She said, "No. Well, not until we die and then we will paint it ugly. We will paint it ugly so that the next family can move in and make it beautiful again, just like we did." I'm sure the former homeowners would appreciate knowing that Gracie thinks their house was ugly until we worked on it.

VBS Week

This week was VBS at our church. Ella and I went Monday, Tuesday and today. Gracie only went one day because she wanted to go with her daddy to Unionville the other days. Brent is helping to redo his mom's bathroom, so Gracie is probably running wild and having a ball with her cousins! Anyway, the craft teachers made tie-dye shirts with the big kids, so they made some little t-shirts for the nursery kids as well. The babies were all pretty cute in their tiny t-shirts.

Oh, no!

Ella's little hands are getting mighty quick, and tonight at supper she spied something green she wanted. She got Brent's empty Mountain Dew can up to her mouth super fast. He quickly pulled it back down so she wouldn't cut her lip on the open lid, but she wasn't done trying.

You can kind of see Gracie in the background cheering Ella on as she maneuvered herself around to reach the can again. Hopefully I can brainwash Ella just like I have Gracie that pop is ucky. Gracie gets it on a rare (very rare) occasion.

The Doolin Pirates

Gracie is still wearing her pirate hat that she got miniature golfing on vacation around the house. One day she decided Ella should be the pirate. Ella's a fierce drooling pirate!
Gracie is a pirate who's tush got stuck in the Bumbo seat when she tried to sit in it!

Bathtime Cuddling

Gracie is very much enjoying having her daddy around more this month. He has even gotten in on some baths lately!

Last day of vacation

It was so sad to wake up on day four and realize we had to go home. The ducks decided to trick Gracie that morning, and some came out of the water and landed on the grass above where we were standing. She tried her hardest to feed them as well as those in the water.
My anti-photo girl has turned into the best poser. She suddenly loves having pictures taken!
Gracie was sad it was our last day, but she was excited because we were going to Miner Mike's before we came home.

Gracie is very familiar with Miner Mike's. She loves to go there with Grandpa while my mom and I shop at the outlet mall. She took her daddy on a roller coaster ride at Miner Mike's that made Brent dizzy!
Gracie driving the train at Miner Mike's.
I can't say Gracie was the best cow milker, but she had fun trying.

Day Three of Vacation - Tuesday

Tuesday was kind of rainy off and on, but we still went swimming while Brent was golfing again. Grandpa helped with Ella so that I could swim with Gracie.

This little girl could easily become a beach bum if we lived near the water!

Did you want me to pose, Mommy?

For such a smiley baby I seem to get a lot of serious expressions from Ella when I get out the camera. I still love this picture.

Ella and I usually pooped out before the rest of the gang. We needed our sleep!
Our silly Gracie got even sillier when she spent time with Grandpa!
When Gracie got tired of swimming she just played at the playground near our condo.
Climbing in crocs is quite a challenge, but Gracie managed to not fall.
Guess who's on the other end of the teeter totter? Mommy!

Day Two of Vacation

Monday morning we all woke up pretty early ready to find some fun.
Brent found his fun on the golf course, but he stopped to blow bubbles before he left.
Nana and Ella enjoyed spending time on the screened in patio we had. Ella loves being outdoors.
Gracie was excited because we had ducks that frequented our area of the lake, so she fed them daily.
While Brent was golfing, we girls hung out at the pool. I thought the kiddie pool was more Ella's speed, but we went in the lazy river too. (Thanks for the long shot Mom!)
Gracie loved to water the water, if that makes any sense. She would fill up her watering can and then pour the water back into the water. Isn't a child's mind fascinating?!
Here's a shot of all the girls hanging out at the pool. I wish we had this pool in our backyard!
The lazy river had strong jets that kept it flowing in a circle pattern, and at times it was enough to throw me off balance while I was holding Ella. I held on to Gracie's floaty until I got used to it.

After Brent got back from golfing we ate supper and then went miniature golfing. We went to Pirate's Cove, thus the pirate theme you will see in all of the following pictures. Pirate Gracie found herself in the stocks.
Grandpa decided he would pose as a scary pirate.
We had a great time golfing. All 5 of us got a hole-in-one at some point during the night.
The Doolin's (minus sleeping Ella who was sacked out in her stroller)
I asked Gracie to pose in front of the water by the pirate, and she backed up so far she almost fell in. She wouldn't have been smiling if that had happened!

By the way, in case anyone wonders...Brent won in miniature golf. Big shocker, huh?!