Miscellaneous-ness

My new calling is Young Women president. I'm really excited but also completely terrified. It should be interesting.

These are some random pictures that I wanted to post.

Gracie is IMPOSSIBLE to wake up. She fell asleep on the couch the other day before dinner. I got her up and told her to sit at the table because dinner was ready. She stood up, walked over to the table, laid down on the bench, and went back to sleep.

Our June weather was shockingly nice (high 80s, low 90s).
Nice enough that Gracie and Taylor could enjoy a picnic.

Nice enough that Gracie could chill out on the patio with a popsicle.

Nice enough to go play at the park next door.

July started off really nice, with temps in the low 100s mixed with a few monsoons, but lately it's been 110* or higher. Thanks goodness for swimming pools!

Despite the warm weather, Gracie was insisting on wearing her footed-fleece pajamas to bed. Not surprisingly, I found that she'd altered her pajamas one night to allow for a little breathing room. Now she insists on sleeping in just her underwear.

7 Years Ago Today.....

I became a wife. I am one lucky girl!
We celebrated by going to church. Pretty awesome, huh?

And I got a new calling today. Any guesses?

4th of July

Our 4th of July celebrations were super fun and made for a very long and exhausting weekend. On Friday, we went to the lake with the Andersons. Guess who learned how to wake board and wake surf? That's right! ME!! I got up on both boards on my second try. I was so excited! I was really expecting that I would not be able to it and I would just make a fool of myself trying. But I proved myself wrong and I had so much fun!

When I saw this picture, I cracked up because of the frightened look on my face

On the wake board, looking a little less frightened

Wake surfing

Grace had a lot of fun hanging out on the boat, swimming and tubing.This was how Gracie chose to relax. No she's not asleep, she's just resting and trying to keep the sun from scorching her.

Chad went 'cliff' diving

On Saturday, we went to my cousin's to swim and bbq. He's got a bunch of kids so Gracie was in heaven. I was so mad, though, because I didn't find my camera until after we left.
Saturday night, we bbq'd and swam with friends. The swimming didn't last long, though, as we got kicked out of the pool after about a half hour. It was a neighborhood pool and it was supposed to be closed for repairs. We thought that was lame so we just ignored the sign:). Later, Gracie enjoyed the fireworks and crashed immediately after we got in the car to go home.
On Sunday, our ward was extremely short-handed. The primary couldn't find anyone to play the piano, so I played the piano and Chad filled in for me as the chorister. He did a great job and the kids LOVED him. It was so funny to watch him pretend to lead the music while teasing the kids. He had a great time and so did the kids.

Here is a picture of Gracie in her festive Sunday best. I thought she looked so cute!!

Huntington Beach

Gracie and I got back from Huntington Beach on Monday and we had a great time. We took lots of walks in the beautiful weather, did lots of sitting on the beach, and did a little bit of shopping. Christi, who is very crafty, even made me do some crafting. I must say I was pretty impressed with my work, although I don't have any pictures of it. Here are LOTS of pictures from our trip.

This is how we tried to keep Gracie quiet on the drive over. It didn't last very long.

We spent quite a bit of time playing on the beach. Gracie LOVED the water and would play with any other kid she found on the beach. She's such a social butterfly!

A comparison of bellies. You can tell how much taller Christi is than me by checking out her belly button.
This is Christi and her sister-in-law Allison, who made her this awesome diaper cake.
We toasted marshmallows on Christi's gas stove. Yum!!
Grace spent a lot of time in this corner of Christi's living room (no, she wasn't in trouble), either reading a book or playing on Christi's iphone.
Gracie had a lot of fun playing with Christi's neighbor, Marley.
There are yogurt shops all over HB where you pay by the ounce. They are so good and it's so fun to be able to design your own treat. We got yogurt a few nights while we were there.
The humidity did wonders for my hair. It helped to maximize the volume, producing this awesome style, which is what I was sporting all week.
The flight home was easy-peasy. The Orange County airport is super small, so juggling all of our luggage plus a car seat plus Grace by myself was no big deal. Grace was very excited to ride on the plane and made sure her baby was taken care of the whole time. One of the flight attendants even made sure to buckle the baby in.She also intently studied the emergency plans before we took off. While we were taking off, Grace got so excited that she started squealing loudly and screaming and flapping her arms with delight. I was so shocked that I started to crack up but the guy across the aisle from us looked over like he was worried she was going to act like that through the whole flight. Lucky for everyone she calmed down right after we took off.

Reporting From....

Huntington Beach!!

My sister's baby shower was here yesterday and my mom decided to load everyone that wanted to come in her ginormous Yukon for a road trip. The majority of our traveling party left this morning. Gracie and I are extra lucky, though, because we aren't flying home until Monday!

So what have we done?

*relaxed on the beach
*played in the sand
*made friends with random beach children
*played in the water (Gracie seriously can't get enough, which kind of surprised me. I thought she would be a little more timid but she's loving it!)
*walked on the beach and along the PCH
*dined on Main Street in downtown HB
*read lots of books
*soaked up beautiful weather

Tonight, while Matt and Christi were at the hospital for a birthing class, Gracie and I decided to go for a walk. Gracie wanted to walk on the beach but I told her I wanted to stay clean so we had to walk next to the beach on the PCH. She then directed us to a sidewalk that went out over the sand. Soon, she had persuaded me to walk in the sand. We eventually ended up right by the water, and she began telling me that we should just get our feet wet. Next thing I know she is almost up to her waist in the water, laughing hysterically. It was so fun and so funny. She had a great time sneaking her way out to the ocean. She got her jeans all wet and sandy so the walk home was a little uncormtable for her. I think she felt like it was worth it, though. (Sorry for the picture quality; I only had my phone with me at the time.)

So Ya Say It's Your Birthday!

Yep, that's right. It's my birthday! I am officially the big two-six! I had (free) lunch at Joe's BBQ with my mom, grandma, 2 sisters-in-law, 2 nephews and Gracie.Dinner was also free, this time at Joe's Farm Grill with a few girlfriends. All in all it was a pretty fun day!Chad should be home any minute from his trip to Atlanta and then I get to open my presents! I can't wait!!!

PS Check out birthdayfreebies.com for a list of all the places you can eat for free or close to free on your birthday.

PPS I want to send a belated birthday shout out to my sister, Christi, who turned 22 yesterday. WOOT WOOT!

When Did That Happen?

All of my life I thought my first baby would be a boy. I'm not sure why I always felt that way, but when I found out I was pregnant with Gracie, I had no doubt that I was pregnant with a boy. At my 12 week appointment, the doctor had a hard time finding a heart beat so he decided to do an ultrasound. The machine was wheeled in, my belly was jellied, and suddenly my little baby, who was jut a peanut with a heartbeat, showed up on the screen. I don't even think that a fetus's genitals are fully developed by 12 weeks, but I took one look at that baby and I had the strongest feeling that I was having a girl. I was very shocked by this feeling because I had been so sure that my first baby would be a boy. Gracie's gender was confirmed a few weeks later when we had the official ultrasound.

Sometime before 4:00 this morning, Gracie came into our room. Before she could make it to my side of the bed, Chad intercepted her and helped her back into her own bed. I still woke up, though, and I had a hard time falling back to sleep. I started thinking about Chad and Gracie's upcoming daddy-daughter trip to Yuma. Even though Chad was asleep next to me in bed and Gracie was in her own room, I started to miss them. I started to think about how much a love and appreciate Chad. I started thinking about how much I love Gracie.

It's really amazing how much I've come to love my little girl. She is my little buddy and I love being with her. She is always amazing me with the hilarious things she says and the incredible things she learns. A short time ago, I realized that something was different when I held Gracie's hand. She wasn't grasping my finger with her entire hand like she used to do. Instead, we were actually holding hands. Somehow, my Gracie girl has gotten so big that when we hold hands, our palms match up and her fingers curl around the back of my hand. I was taken aback when I first noticed it. It was like I turned away for a second and my little peanut with a heart beat turned into a little girl. For some reason, the hand holding has hit me harder than anything else as I've watched Gracie grow. Even her first day of preschool didn't hit me as hard as her hand suddenly being big enough to hold mine.

Shortly before 5:00, after I had lain awake for awhile, Gracie came into our room again. This time she came to me and told me that she wanted breakfast. I told her it was too early for breakfast. When she told me she was too afraid to go back to her room, I scooted over so that she could lay with me. I was grateful for the time that I had to snuggle with my little girl and we soon fell back to sleep. This morning, Gracie was super stoked for her daddy-daughter trip to Yuma. (Chad's dad invited him to play in a father-son golf tournament in Yuma. I can't go because I have a wedding to go to so Chad thought it would be fun to take Gracie.) Chad wanted to surprise her so she didn't know where they were going but she was excited none the less. Chad had talked it up pretty good. I know she'll be even more excited when she gets there. She loves to see her cousins and her Grandma and Grandpa T. Chad and Gracie are going to have a blast. A trip with dad means no bedtime, no teeth brushing, no veggies, etc. As they pulled out of the driveway, Gracie yelled, "Bye mom! I love you! I'll miss you!" I'm glad they get to take this trip but I already miss them. I'm glad they'll only be gone for a little more than 24hours.I think every mom dreams of having some time to herself and I'm no exception. So don't worry, I have some plans of my own for while they're gone. Dinner with friends, shopping, reading, and of course the wedding.