Family Photos

We went to Orlando the weekend before Easter. It was so nice to see and spend time with Vicki, Dave and Blake as well as Erica, Dana and the kids. While we were there Erica took us to a botanical garden and shot some beautiful photos of us all. We are so lucky to have a very talented photographer in the family. I even had her photographed in my old dress that my mom had sent down to me. Here are the photos that she took.

Grace Discovers Easter

This is the first Easter that we actually get to enjoy. Grace's first Easter was spent flying over the Atlantic, back to Germany and battling jet lag. I took advantage of the Easter Egg Hunt that was on our base. They held it two weeks before Easter, so it gave kids a lot of chances to attend more Easter Egg hunts and get their fill of sugar. Grace is no exception to that. She really didn't have much of a clue about running after the eggs and putting them in the basket, so Lisa and I had to help her so she could have SOME eggs in her basket. After the race was done Grace was having a great time putting the eggs in the basket and taking them back out. She thought that was the best game, until she discovered that the eggs opened and there was candy inside. That was a whole new world to her. She spent the rest of the time trying to open and eat all the candy, sometimes wrapper and all. She even tried to help herself to other kids baskets too. We all had a great time at the Easter Egg hunt and Grace even got her photo taken with a scary looking bunny, and didn't cry. Next year should be a lot more fun, she'll have a better idea of what to do.

Grace and Lisa before the hunt.

Being silly.

Kind of scary Easter Bunny.

Curtain Call

Grace has always loved playing Peek a Boo. She now has started to stay "boo!" when she wants to play. We opened up the windows here at the house to allow the beautiful warm spring breeze in. Of course it moves the curtains and that alone is enough of an invitation for Grace to play with them. She got the idea to start playing her own game of peek a boo. She'd hide behind the curtain, I'd pretend I couldn't find her and "search" for her. After she can no longer contain her giggles, she would pull the curtain back and shriek "ER YOU ARE!", which means " There you are." Who knew that curtains blowing in a spring breeze would create such an entertaining game!

At The Carwash!

Brandon spent last weekend washing and waxing the truck. It took the ENTIRE weekend, but his efforts paid off and the truck looks nice. When he was washing the truck, he had a little helper who thought that the hose and sprayer were the COOLEST thing she had ever seen!!! She was such a good helper (sort of).

We Feed Her, I Promise...

I blame this on Brandon. He showed her how to rub shampoo in her hair. Of course Grace being the smart little girl she is, discovered that it makes bubbles on her hand. Being inquisitive she decided to eat them. This now has become a nightly ritual. I shampoo her up, she eats the bubbles. Instead of fighting her, which is a battle I couldn't win, I just let her. I'm going to blame this one on Brandon...

This video is from her bath tonight, she was in a theatrically whiny mood. In other words, she was putting on a whining show for our viewing pleasure. She even decided to throw in the screeching at the end as a bonus. Gee... we are so lucky.

The Door

Grace can finally reach the door knobs in our house. Thankfully she can't turn them yet, but she can pull the door open with them. Apparently it is quite fascinating. She loves to do this. This morning she didn't want to let me in to my own room. She would close the door every time I knocked and opened it. It must have been an very amusing game for her because this went on for over a half an hour. I don't know what I'm going to do when she gets old enough to actually open the doors. I guess that is what locks are for.

Easier Days

It used to be a lot easier to take pictures of Grace. Back when she couldn't sit up or roll over, I snapped away freely. Now that she can get up and run, I have a much more difficult time. I had very good intentions to take pictures every month or so of Grace in the bathtub with her name and age in foam letters behind her. It used to be fairly easy to accomplish this. Now that she is older and more mobile, it is much more difficult. Matter of fact, it is down right impossible. These were the closest photos I could get.

I did get a cute video of her blowing bubbles though. That is one of her favorite things to do in the bath. She is busy, but she is such a cutie.

Monkey Jungle

We went to Miami this past weekend for a doctors appointment for Brandon. We decided to make a weekend of it. We did some shopping and went to Monkey Jungle in Miami. Once she learned she could feed the the monkeys and fish she loved it!