Birthday

Since G's birthday fell on a Sunday, and Sundays are very full with church, naps and Skyping grandparents, we kicked off the celebrations on Saturday and had two days of birthday fun.

We opened presents through both days. It was fun to open, then play, then open some more, then play some more all day long.

Grace got some awesome presents from Mom and Dad and family. She got a play cake, princess and dragon puppets, a tent and camping gear, bath toys, and so much more. Thanks everyone!

You can see how excited she is about the bath toys above. She lined them all up and told them stories. She also got a bathtime Ariel (see below in the sleeping bag) that she loves to give baths to and wash her hair (pass on the torture of hair-washing to someone else, maybe?) :)

Girlfriend loves her some Rolos. Whenever we're in the checkout line anywhere there are Rolos about, she always tries to convince me to buy them. You can see the happiness on her face that she got a whole thing all to herself to eat. That is until tragedy struck...
Dad threatened to eat some.

Good thing he was just teasing. On with the business of downing them. :)

Grace got to choose what she wanted to do on Saturday, so we played a lot, fed the ducks, ate hamburgers and played on the play place at McDonald's, then came home and ate cake and ice cream.

Feeding ducks

Giving Mom a heart attack and running and chasing


I love birthday cake, but I hate making it. It usually is super stressful and doesn't turn out anything like the amazing image I have in my head.
First attempt at a two-tiered (Barbie) life-size Aurora cake: FAIL.

So we salvaged what we could of the top tier and stuck a mini Aurora on it. While this could be the frosting job I would do on a cake, it's not. Grace saw the cake in the morning and took a swipe at it with her sneaky little fingers.


What a fun weekend to celebrate Grace!

Happy Birthday Gracers!

Gracie is 3 now! Looking back on her birthday photos makes those 3 years seem like the longest, fastest years of my life. What a blessing she is to our family!

For those who missed out on all the birthday fun throughout the years, here's a quick re-cap:

BIRTHday

One!!




Two!



Three!


Our sweet girl is:
- a little mama...always helping, bossing, loving, cuddling, scolding or consoling someone
- a singer...she sings all.the.time. primary songs, Barney songs, cartoon songs, made-up songs (my fav!), pretty much anything
- a dancer...she took a ballet and tap class this summer and loves it. she dances all the time and loves watching Disney Princess Sing-a-longs and dancing with the kids in the bonus features
- very sensitive...she tries very hard to do what will make others happy and is very sad when that doesn't happen
- a princess...she loves to dress up in her princess regalia every day and prance around
- creative...she loves to draw, paint, color, sticker-ify, glue, you name it art-wise and she loves it
-a fantastic big sister...this year brought a lot of change in the sibling department for Grace and she embraced it (literally!) and handled it amazingly. She is a wonderful sister who adores Ruby and who is worthy of being adored back and emulated.

Here's to another year of learning and growing for us both!

love, your Mama and Papa

Grace LOVES to Sing

Here's a lovely rendition of "Three Little Monkeys":

Grace's Ballet Class

We got a little video of Grace dancing during her last class. This one's for all of you grandmas out there.

Singing to the Bishop

Each Sunday our Bishop here in Louisville reserves the first 30 minutes after church for primary kids to either sing a song or recite a scripture/article of faith in exchange for candy. Grace LOVES to do this and asks if she can sing for the bishop as soon as we go to church. Today I filmed her singing "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree":

Happenings

We have recently had our love of garage saleing rekindled when last weekend we happened on a sale on a walk and got a brand new in-the-box crayola easel and a ton of brand new looking amazing branded (Janie & Jack, etc...) clothing and shoes (some with tags on!) for a steal. So today we headed out again and found the jackpot of mini princesses.

The castle and all the parts and princesses and their friends for $5. The elevator goes up and down and the top part where Aurora and Prince Charming are rotates around and plays music. So cool. I'm pretty sure Grace with love this more than any of her birthday presents next week :)

Hey, Ruby, what's that on your cute little bum?

It's a cloth diaper! We've embarked on a new diapering adventure!

Princesses Grace and Riley

Ruby is now in the puppy dog phase. She follows me around and I have to be careful where I step because she's always underfoot. She also loves to put anything and everything in her mouth to chew on, or she carries stuff around in her mouth as she crawls. What a fun stage! Her bottom two teeth just popped through last week too.

4th of July

We had a lovely 4th of July with some friends here in Louisville. We started off with a BBQ and ended the night at Waterfront Park watching the fireworks.

Rob and Grace got some fireworks to set off. Grace and her friend Riley loved chasing after the parachutes.

Ruby's cute 4th outfit. I didn't get a shot with her in the matching hat.

The girls and babes

Grace loved dancing to the music from the band. Ruby was a champ, but so tired, can you tell?