9 Months

Gracyn Faith is 9 months old and we just adore her more everyday! Can you see her crooked little smile in that last picture? When she smiles, she shifts her bottom gums over to one side....that sideways grin just melts me. She has been a busy girl this month. She pulls-up, crawls around and can pretty much get anywhere she wants to now. She is so content just making tracks all over the house and when I get her undressed at night, her poor little knees are red and raw! Gracyn says "dadadadada" all the time and mimics other sounds we make. She loves her learning table, balls and books and she dances to music. Since discovering so much to do, she no longer finds it necessary to take naps. I am lucky if she takes two 40 minute naps in a day! I know she is tired, but she just won't give up and go to sleep.

Gracyn is adored by her big sisters. At church, a few days ago, someone asked Addison what her favorite thing to do was, she answered, "Just play with my Gracyn!". They both love to play with her and help take care of her. And, they are good at it.

Today was Gracyn's 9 month check-up. She weighed 19 pounds and was 27 inches long. That is the 75th percentile for both. She also got two shots. Funny thing, she didn't cry about the shots, she only cried about them making her lay down to get them. Everytime they tried to lie her down, she flipped over, crawled away, and sat up in a flash! That checked off most of what they needed to cover on the developmental chart!

I am loving her little personality and having so much fun with her. What a blessing she is to all of us!

Merry Christmas!

~Toys, toys and more toys!

~Yummy food!

~Skyping with the families!

~Playing all day!

~New books to read!

~New Puzzles to build!

~Birthday Cake for Jesus!

~Gracyn's first gumball (oops)!

~Relaxing

~Time to reflect on our blessings!

~A perfect day!

Christmas Eve

This is the one lone picture I got at church on Christmas Eve, before my camera battery died. It was such a great day. It was so nice to have all the work done....gifts bought, presents wrapped, meals prepared.....everything was all set and it was time to just sit back and enjoy my family.

We headed to church to work at the 3:30 service and then attend the 5:00. Tommy helped in Reagan's classroom and Addison came with me to work in Gracyn's room. It was so sweet to watch Addison in there helping with the babies. She really was in her element. That girl was born to take care of little ones. It delighted her to feel needed and helpful.

Next, we headed into service with all 3 girls. We thought they might like the candlelight service and didn't want them to have to stay in the nursery for another hour and a half. We got them each a hot chocolate at our Starbucks counter, grabbed the activity book for kids and headed in. The worship was amazing and it brought tears to my eyes to experience that all together. Reagan has such a big heart for worship and she was dancing in the aisles! She sang, raised her arms and praised God!!! I think it touched the hearts of all who could see her. Then....the worship ended, and she couldn't sit still and Gracyn was jabbering. We ended up leaving early, but that's okay.

We had a great dinner, then came home to put milk and cookies out for Santa. The girls were thrilled to find that Santa had sent them each personal emails. Funny though with all our recent Skype calls, they tried to talk back to him. After the messages they were off to bed and sound asleep quick!

Christmas Sledding

Tommy and Addison went out for a little Christmas day sledding this afternoon. They made a little message for you all!

Addison's Christmas Program!

This video is really long....but the grandparents might want to see at least a little of it! Addison wasn't too in to the first song, but she seems to like the rest better. Don't miss all of Gracyn's noise in the background.

Gingerbread House

Last Sunday evening our church hosted a family night....bring your own graham cracker "walls" and come make a gingerbread house. We met another family from our homegroup for dinner and then headed to the church. There was plenty of icing and candy for all and the girls had a blast constructing their house. As usual, they went with the "more is better" philosophy and pilled so much on that the house collapsed. Tommy saved the day and rebuilt it. We had a great time!

Christmas Recital

The girls had their Christmas dance recital on Saturday! It was Reagan's first. We had fun getting everyone all dressed up and ready to go. Addison danced to Peppermint Twist, and twist she did. She is an old-pro at recitals now and, as usual, did a great job! Reagan danced to Lollipop, Lollipop. She was just precious! She did the whole routine just as she had learned and only added a few freestyles moves right at the end! And, as she was exiting the stage, she saw me in the audience, waved and said "Hi, Mamma!". So sweet!

Tis the Season

For School Parties....

Last Wednesday, we had Addison's party at her class. They sang several songs for us, then served us cookies and gave us a present. She did a great job singing. Reagan sat in the front row and loved watching. Gracyn squealed out load a few times.....during which, Addison would stop singing and tell her to "Shhhh". By the way....sometime between when I dropped her off at school and when I arrived at her party, she had taken out her bow and ponytail that I had put in her hair that morning, and attempted to do a hairstyle of her own. Is this the 4-year-old version of changing clothes after you leave the house?

Who Needs Sleep....

....when you can do this? Gracyn learned to pull up and stand a few weeks ago, but she has really gotten the hang of it over the last few days. She is so proud of herself and excited about the new vantage point, which unfortunately interferes with her sleep. Over the past several nights, any time she stirs, she stands up. And, she doesn't know how to get down. I believe last night, I went in her room 8 times, throughout the course of the night. Tommy has been out of town and the sleep has been rough....for example....

10:45/Addison is awake and crying, she's half asleep and needs to go to the bathroom

11:45/Gracyn is crying, I feed her and put her back to sleep

2:30/Reagan comes down the hall to jump in our bed. I return her to her own bed and console all the crying because she wants Mommy and my bed.

3:00/Gracyn is up again....standing up and chatting, I go in lay her down and tell her to go night-night. I repeat this at least 5 times.

4:30/Desperate to get her back to sleep, I fed Gracyn again and put her back to bed.

6:15/Reagan and Addison are up for the day!

Not much rest around here lately, but I wouldn't change it for the world. I was just thinking about how about 2 years ago, before we were pregnant, I would be out on a walk, daydreaming about one more little girl to name Gracyn. She certainly is a dream come true

Winter Wonderlights

Saturday night, we headed out to the Winter Wonderlights, Christmas Celebration at a museum near our house. We had a great time last year, one of my favorite things we have done here, so I couldn't wait to go back. This year proved memorable too, but not for the same reasons!

We arrived and first headed out to the lights display. It is around the perimeter of the building and you walk through the lights. Is was really pretty and the girls loved it....despite the COLD!!! After that, we headed inside in search of the craft room. I never found that before it was time to head into their theatre to watch "The Grinch." The plan was to watch the movie and then head back outside to Santa's village where we could visit with Santa and his Elves, pet the live reindeer, and put mail in the North Pole Mailbox.

We grabbed our popcorn and got settled into the theatre. I left for a few minutes before the show started to feed Gracyn. When I came back I found Reagan all snuggled on her Daddy's lap waiting for the show to start. Sweet, right? Wrong....poor girl had lots of Coke to drink at dinner a few hours before and had a large potty accident in Tommy's lap. I returned to find him sitting there wondering what to do! There was no way we could have gotten both girls out of the theatre, before they saw the movie, without a huge scene. So, Tommy took one for the team. He just sat there, with her in his lap and both of them wet, throughout the show. The minute it was over, he carried Reagan, dangling in front of him, and made a run for the car. Poor guy, he was a good sport about it all, and handled it really well.

Needless to say, we missed the rest of the festivities. We might go back this week. If you are a long-time blog reader, than you know similar things have happened to me....TWICE!!! Daddy's catching up!

In the car, when I asked her why she didn't tell us she needed to go potty, she said, "Well, the movie was going to start and I didn't have time!".

A Little Elf Mischief

The girls excitement about The Elf on the Shelf went up a notch last night, when Tommy and I decided to put our Elf up to some antics! When the girls came downstairs this morning, they discovered that upon his return from The North Pole, our Elf had gotten into the candy jar. They found him perched on the side, with the lid off and candy wrappers spread all around! They were delighted!!! Hmmmm, I wonder what else this guy might be up to between now and Christmas?

Update on Trey

Just a quick note to thank you for your prayers for Baby Trey! They are being answered. At this point, he is on the lowest amount of oxygen that he has been for a long time. From what I understand, there is talk about moving him out of ICU into a regular room, and then hopefully from there to home. Praise God for his improvement, may he continue to make strides each day.

The Dallas Morning news had an article with Cliff and Elfin about their stay at the Ronald McDonald House. Hopefully this link will work, if you are interested in seeing it.

www.dallasnews.com/.../latestnews/...112609dnmetronald.35bld94.html

After the Snow

So, I often show you pictures of the beautiful, white blanket of snow that I see from my back windows. Today, I thought I would show you another side of that snow. Do you see that mess in my garage? This is what it looks like after you drive through it.....slushy, black, dirty, wet, mess. And, after you park your car, said mess, falls all over the ground around your car. You can imagine the challenges associated with getting three children in and out of the car without tracking that yuckiness all over! Thankfully Reagan usually sheds her shoes in the car, and I carry her in and out! Gracyn is in my arms and Addison has gotten really good about remembering to take her shoes off at the garage door and leave them outside. Just wanted to show any of you who might be jealous of our winter weather....it's not all pretty!

Reagan's Earrings

Reagan has been asking for a few weeks to get her ears pierced. We got Addison's pierced when she asked for it, so we did the same for Reagan. It was a family event Saturday morning, when we all headed to Jack and Jill Children's Salon to get them done. She picked blue star earrings and then we headed off to the piercing chair. She was such a big girl, and didn't cry a bit. She was definitely shocked, but she took it well!

Here she is in the chair, ready to get started.

2 guns ready!

Such a sad face, but she quickly cheered up with a lollipop and a mirror to see!

They look pretty!

Still getting over the shock!

And, here we are at the Nutcracker, a few hours later, all the pain forgotten!

The Shoemakers Elves

One night this week, we left the baby sisters at home and took some of the neighborhood girls to see How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Shoemakers Elves. They were performed by a Christian kids theatre we have here called Audience of One. I recently took the girls to see a performance of Mulan, that was put on by their group of older students. These two shows were by the younger group. They do an amazing job with the kids and some of them are really talented! The girls love, love, love to go and Addison is even thinking about being in their next show. I think her favorite part is hugging the characters after the show!

While we had a good time, the show was an hour longer than we expected and didn't end until 9:30pm....that's why Reagan is snuggled up with a paci. They girls were happy but tired....so were their mama's. It was an adventure! By the way, Reagan got that precious hat from her Grandma for Christmas. It is her new love and she calls it her snowflake hat.

The Elf on the Shelf

We started the tradition of The Elf on the Shelf this year. If you have little kids and you don't have this guy, you should pick one up and start the fun at your own house. The Elf, who is male, but was still named Sofiana by my children, mysteriously showed up in their room one evening when they came up for bed. We read all about him in the book, which we found beside him. The book describes all about how Santa sent him from the North Pole to watch over the kids in the house. The Elf then flies back to Santa each night to give a report. Each morning, he has flown back to your house and will be perched in a new spot.

When the girls first found the elf, Reagan's eyes were big and round with amazement. She was really impressed and very excited. Addison had to think about it. She asked us to read her what it said on his tag. She questioned us to see if we had put him in her room and she just wasn't' sure about it. However, she was the one who jumped out of bed, before dawn the next day to find him. A week later, they both look for him first thing in the morning. Most of their neighborhood friends also have elves, so they look for him everywhere they go. It is so cute to hear them, off in another room, chatting with their friends about their elves.

There is only one downside to this little elf game! I finally had to tell my girls yesterday, that if they didn't stop getting up before the sun to look for the elf, that I was going to tell Santa that he couldn't come back. We spent the first four days this week getting up between 5:30 and 6:00am. They were jumping out of bed, ready to go and find him! We had a big chat about it yesterday and after being warned that Mommy was about to boot him from the house, they slept until 7:30 today!

We are loving this fun little game....I think it will be a great Christmas tradition for many more years.

8 Months

Baby Girl turned 8 months old on Monday! My, how time is flying. We are enjoying all the holiday firsts with her. We had a great time in Texas, showing her off to the family and letting her spend time with her extended family.

For now, her eyes are still bright blue, we are hoping they stay. We have our two brown-eyed girls, after me....hopefully she will keep her Daddy's blues.

I don't know what she weighs now, but she is BIG and I suspect she is at least 20 pounds. Though I don't know how she maintains that because, she really doesn't eat much food. She likes snacks like crackers, cheerios and puffs, but, she won't each much baby food. She still nurses many, many times a day. Although, we had 24 hours of her constantly biting me and I thought we were going to have to quit. I was a nervous wreck in the middle of the night wondering what I was going to do. None of my babies have ever taken any bottles and I didn't want to start now. Thankfully she finally seemed to figure out that biting was not okay and we are back to our grove!

Gracyn's most favorite thing to play with right now, is the plastic name badge I have to wear to pick Addison up from school. She yanks it off of my shirt immediately and chews on it every day. If she is fussing in the car, I usually grab it out of my console and pass it back to her. She also loves books, things that spin, and her xylophone. She likes bathtime and being held. She is not a fan of loud noises (or loud nows as Reagan calls them) or being left alone.

Gracie girl is picking up new things each day. Her latest trick, she learned in the last few days, is sitting herself up. She got lots of practice in the middle of the night. I think each time she woke, she sat herself up and then wondered what to do next. My girls have all been like that....no sleep when they are learning a new trick....too busy practicing.

Love this girl....we are looking forward to all the days to come!

Gingerbread House

Friday was our last day in Texas, so we met my sister back at Babe's for one last round of yummy Texas food! I was serious about my plans to eat!!! After loading up on one last plate of chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, we went outside to take some pictures. The Gazebo in the square had this really cute Gingerbread House that the kids loved. Cute pictures, but another Christmas card fail on the group shot!