Gracie Grew!

Yesterday was Grace's 4 year pediatrician appointment which went well even though it concluded with three shots in her leg. The first thing they did was weigh and measure her and then they tried to do a vision and hearing screening. She wasn't really cooperating with the vision test and I told them she had just been to the eye doctor a few months ago so they didn't get too far in that one and she didn't cooperate for the hearing test either but we're pretty sure she hears just fine. She just seems to have normal selective hearing. You know, not hearing me when I tell her to do something or to quit bugging her brother! She also got to have her blood pressure checked for the first time. They described it as giving her a hug which worked to make her less nervous. She decided it felt funny but didn't hurt.

I really like our pediatrician and she had nothing but good things to say about Grace. Grace loves to talk and she chatted her up until Dr. Farah said she got a 110% in personality! At the end of the visit Grace got 3 shots in her legs which she didn't like but survived. She did say the one still hurt this morning which I expected since the Tetanus shot does hurt! They gave me the dTap right after I gave birth to Ethan which was terrible timing on their part. Of course I was pretty sore already so I guess it didn't make a lick of difference. Ethan saw that Grace got an owie and gave her two hugs. It was so sweet, makes me glad to know that they do really care about each other!

Here's Grace's stats:
30.6 lbs 10th percentile (up from 26lbs and 5th percentile last year!)
38" tall 20th percentile (up from 35.25", same percentile)

I knew she had grown because I'm buying size 4's for her for next fall/winter and I haven't bought her age in clothing since she was tiny! Last year I was buying 2T for her for heavens sakes. What a difference a year makes!

Backyard Camping and Blueberries

Grace has been asking to camp outside ever since she snuggled into her sleeping bag for the first time Thursday night. We told her we would all sleep in the tent on the weekend which she reluctantly agreed to. Saturday afternoon David and I set up the tent that David has had for over a decade (high school graduation present!) but that I've never actually seen in use. That's right, I've known David for almost 10 years and we've never gone camping together. Probably because his idea of camping involves a lot of hiking and no bathrooms which is not really my style. I am willing to go without a shower but a toilet of some variety is something I really find necessary. Mostly I'm in it for the campfire and some s'mores!

We didn't have a campfire but camping in the backyard wasn't as bad as some of the horror stories we've heard from other parents of young children we know. We decided to put the kids down when it got dark around 9pm and we laid in the tent with them for awhile before we got out. Neither David or I wanted to go to sleep that early and I had some photo editing to do from a high school senior session I did earlier in the afternoon so I sat outside with the laptop and said "get back in your sleeping bag and go to sleep" about 500 times. By 10pm I was tired of telling the kids to lay down and I finally got in the tent with them and got them back in their beds and within 15 minutes they were both out. I snuck back out of the tent to do more photo editing inside the house but with the sliding door open so I could hear them. The bugs were really bad and I have about 8 bug bites but it was worth it. You can check out the pics on my photo blog (link is on the left column).

Friday evening David went out with the guys and the kids and I went blueberry picking with friends. We picked a ton of blueberries in the two hours we were there along with a bunch of beautiful flowers that we are enjoying! Saturday morning we enjoyed homemade blueberry pancakes and this afternoon I made blueberry zucchini bread which is pretty tasty too. I love summer!

Grace's Party at the Park

We celebrated Grace's birthday with a party at the park which turned out to be a lot of fun. We invited a few friends to join us and my Mom and brother were able to make it as well. We let the kids play on the playground and we ate pink cupcakes and opened presents. I forgot about the library events at the park on Thursdays so it was a happy accident that Grace had a children's comedian at the park for entertainment. The girls watched him for about 15 minutes before losing interest and went back to playing on the playground equipment. I lucked out and Grace's "Birthday Girl" shirt from last year still fit so we got two years out of it! Definitely a good purchase.

Grace spent her birthday morning at Vacation Bible School and on the way home we stopped at the Dollar Store so she could pick out her birthday balloons. Are you surprised that she chose two of the exact same princess balloons? I didn't think so.



I forgot to take a picture of the cupcakes at the party so I snapped a quick one this morning of a leftover cupcake. Grace picked everything about it out. She chose chocolate for the cake and wanted pink frosting with the sprinkles she chose at the store. I brought a pink candle for her cupcake but unfortunately the lighter we brought didn't want to light. We sang Happy Birthday to her anyways and I didn't feel too bad since she blew out candles in Idaho last week.


Grace had plenty of pink presents to open and was pretty excited about them all but when we got home she kept asking if we could go camping that night because she wanted to sleep in her new purple sleeping bag. We weren't in the mood for camping in the backyard on a weeknight so we told her we'd put the tent up and practice camping this weekend. She settled for sleeping in her new sleeping bag on her bed.

Thanks to our friends and family that came, Grace had a great time!

Happy Fourth Birthday Gracie!

Today my little girl turns four years old and I can hardly believe it. Most days it feels like I've been on this parenting journey forever and it's crazy to think that it's really only been four years. So much has happened in the past four years. She's learned to sit up, crawl, walk, run, jump, and dance. She taught me the patience required for a nursing relationship to survive 16 months, has always thought peas are disgusting, loves to eat garlic bread and red grapes, and has the same raging sweet tooth as her mother. She's mastered potty training, sleeping in a big girl bed, climbing to the top of the play structure at the park, and how to ride her red tricycle. I still can't believe she starts kindergarten in a year, I'm nowhere near ready!

Grace is a very sweet little girl with a very big sweet tooth. She loves ice cream, candy, chocolate, cookies, and anything sweet. I have no idea where she could have learned that!

It's fun to watch Grace's personality develop and see how alike and different we are. My daughter doesn't have a shy bone in her body which is a big departure from her parents. She has no fear of strangers and has no problem playing by herself and keeping herself occupied. I'm thrilled to see her confidence and hope that we can foster that trait in her.

We have her party this afternoon at the park and she's really looking forward to it. I'll post pictures of it later!

Catch Up

Sorry I dropped off the face of the planet for awhile. July is always a whirlwind of activity for us and this year is certainly no exception! In the last 7 days we drove 9.5 hours home from Idaho, drove 90 minutes up to Portland for my 10th High School Reunion, celebrated David's birthday by going out to brunch with my Mom and brother while still in Portland and then had friends Pat and Katie over for dinner and ice cream sundaes that night, took pictures/wrote descriptions/listed 68 Ebay auctions, volunteered for check in/check out duties at VBS this week, prepared for Grace's birthday party tomorrow and baked/decorated cupcakes, took the kids to a friend's house last night to run through the sprinklers and eat ice cream, ordered a new flash for my camera, visited Corvallis to scout out locations for a senior photo session this Saturday, and fit in a trip to Salem to go to the bank and ran to the grocery store twice. Not to mention that it's been super hot (106 two days in a row!). If that has your head spinning I'm not surprised because I can barely keep up with myself!

Let's break it down a little into the important events.


The drive home from Idaho went pretty well considering it was 9.5 hours long and we had two kids under 4 in the car with us. Grace is actually a really good traveler and the only complaint I have with her is that she frequently waits until we're 2 minutes outside of a town with 45 minutes until the next potty to say she has to go to the bathroom. I can ask 16 times as we drive through a town and she doesn't have to go until the opportunity has passed. She almost had to pee in the bushes next to the freeway but was saved by a well placed rest area 20 minutes outside of Hines, OR. Ethan did pretty good but was completely DONE rear facing by about Bend. He threw a huge fit and when David asked if he wanted to watch the movie (he could barely see it by craning his neck around so he knew it was there!) he immediately stopped crying and nodded his head yes vigorously. We took the hint and when we stopped in Sisters for gas David flipped him forward facing. I had wanted to leave him rear facing until he turned 2 this fall but he's definitely a lot happier and the last 3 hours home were much more pleasant without the fussing.

My high school reunion was interesting. I still think it was pretty spendy and could have been done cheaper but it was still fun to see everyone. I didn't stay in contact with many people after I went to Idaho for school so it was fun to see everyone and find out what everyone is up to and where they landed. I missed seeing a few people I would have liked to have seen.

Sunday was David's birthday which was a fun day. We had breakfast at a place near my Mom's house that we have never been to despite passing it a bazillion times since we moved to Clackamas in 1987. Turns out it was a pretty good place to eat! While waiting for a table we checked for any nearby geocaches (another activity we've recently taken up!) and found one about 15 feet from our car. Even funnier is that we recognized our friend's name (who live in Monmouth) on the list of finders! That night we had Pat & Katie over for Pizza Mac and an ice cream sundae. It's been so hot and we weren't home for me to bake a cake so I jazzed up the ice cream sundaes with crushed candy bars and new toppings. It was pretty tasty!

This week we've been doing VBS at our church. Grace is in the preschool program and seems to be having a great time. I volunteered to help check in/out which has worked out pretty well since I have to be there to drop off/pick up Grace anyways. Ethan "helps" me but is usually not willing to be far from my lap in the mornings. In the afternoons he is very content to play with a ball next to me.

Tomorrow is Grace's 4th birthday. I'll blog more about that tomorrow. Grace deserves a post to herself! I did make the cupcakes this morning to her specifications: chocolate with pink frosting.

Snake River Stampede 2009

The Snake River Stampede Rodeo is done for the year but not before we had a chance to join in the fun! We attended three evening performances in a row, no small feat with two small kids. Of course my mother in law, the kids, and myself only made it through saddle bronc each night before we headed home which is about halfway through the performance. Bareback and saddle bronc are my favorite events so I'm glad I get a chance to see them. We also got to see the steer wrestling and team roping in addition to the first round of chuck wagon racing. And of course we saw the Stampeders at the start of each performance, the highlight of Grace's evening. We miss tie down (my least favorite event), barrel racing, and the bulls. I like to watch the bulls but since very few cowboys seem to actually ride for all 8 seconds it's not worth keeping the kids up until past 11pm. Oh well.

I realized that the last time I saw a rodeo in it's entirety was June 2005, a month before I gave birth to Grace. Oh I've been to lots of rodeos and even stayed through their conclusion, but I always miss part of it by standing in line at the port o potties, walking behind the grand stands with a toddler who can't sit still one more minute, or nursing babies as discreetly as possible next to hot dog vendors stands. That's on top of the general fun of keeping children under the age of four entertained for three hours in the hot sun on metal bleachers/stadium seats that they don't weigh enough to keep down. I'm actually glad that my children have had a chance to enjoy rodeos from such a young age but I'm looking forward to the day that we can sit through an entire rodeo from start to finish without a meltdown or crisis of some sort. Of course that would mean my children are grown up and I'm not ready for that to happen yet. So maybe I don't mind missing out on an event or two or even the sticky cotton candy fingers. No, I don't think I mind it one bit.

Here's a picture of the Stampeders. They do their horse routine in the dark with Christmas lights to decorate the horses and riders. It never fails to impress, especially if you're Grace! She waves hello to them the whole time they perform.

Ethan sitting with Opa during a break in the action.

Grace managed to sneak a turn on Opa's lap too.

Totally scored a nice picture of David! Mostly because he was smiling at someone else and didn't notice the camera aimed in his direction. Otherwise he would have been cross-eyed.

Ethan watching the horses.

I ♥ Faces Photo Contest Week 28: Feet Week

This week's photo theme is Feet and I immediately thought of this photo I took of Grace wearing her new pink dress up shoes as she tried out her brand new shiny red tricycle at her third birthday party.


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