Lunch Under the Tree

A few Fridays ago Grace headed to Chicago with her Nana, Aunt Amy, and Anna. The ladies lunched under the Christmas tree at Macy's and stayed the night downtown. By all accounts, everyone had a great time!

Fairy dust

This is Grace saying "Cheese!"

Ice cream sundae

Always a big helper!

Kisses for Anna at the hotel

Slumber party!

Someone doesn't want to get dressed!

Home :-)

Reindeer Games

Christmas Program

Last Tuesday Grace had her Christmas program at school. She did such a good job! Her class sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Jesus Star" complete with hand movements. She certainly showed her personality throughout the show. Walking into the auditorium she did not seem nervous, just curious and her teachers told us after the show that she was very excited to get on stage.

Grace sat next her friend, Molly. And after the first song, kept signing for "more"!

I had to split the video of Grace's song into two parts. When people are walking across the stage they are pulling the one year olds in their wagons. They dress them as little angels. I loved it when Grace was an angel last year, but seeing her perform this year was much more fun!

My FAVORITE part of the program was at the end. As the kids were led off the stage, Grace looked at the audience and started waving!?!?! Where does she get this from?! I love it!

O' Christmas Tree

Despite the bitter cold temperatures, we headed out to get our Christmas tree yesterday. With the way our schedule is if we didn't get it up last night it was going to be the week before Christmas and I just wanted a little more Christmas Cheer than that :-)

Patiently waiting to decorate the tree

A lot of our ornaments were in that little area!

Trimming a tree is hard work! Grace taking a break!

The finished product!

New Desk

Grace got a desk from Grandma and Grandpa Applebee for her birthday. We finally got her toys organized and found new homes for them so we could put the desk together and have space for it. She is absolutely loving it!

Baptism

This past Sunday we had Conor Gall's baptism. It was so fun to be included in such a special event. Grace had an awesome time looking at the baby and playing with Conor's big brother Noah.

Mark and Jamie--Conor's God Parents

Snuggle time with the baby

I can't believe that the two of them actually sat still long enough to cuddle with me!

Grace and Noah have so much fun playing together!

The Baptism was early on Sunday so we drove to Indy Saturday night and stayed the night at Mark's parents. It was nice getting to spend some time with them.

Grace set the table for breakfast--not bad, huh?

Happy little family ready to head to church

Let it snow!

We had our first big snowfall on Saturday. We had to run to the mall to get Grace boots. She loved the new pink boots and insisted wearing them out of the store. Then she insisted on traipsing thru the snow in the front yard when we got home. (We're working on getting her to wear mittens--it's been a challenge!)

Hanging at Home

With the weather getting cold, we've been hanging out indoors a lot more lately. It's been pretty fun watching her imagination expand and the things she comes up with to entertain herself. We did have her two year check up right before Thanksgiving. The doctor was very pleased with her development. She weighed in at 27 1/2 lbs. and was 34 inches tall. Both put her right at average for her age.

Here are some shots of Grace being Grace at home!

Dinner time

Play time--for so long she couldn't get any of these to open up, now she's an old pro!

The best part of play time is climbing on daddy!

Mark got Grace to actually wear a barrette in her hair for a bit one night. If only she would cooperate with this more often. I think it's adorable!

On Saturday morning, Mark and I were folding laundry in our room and Grace was next door playing in her room. All of sudden we heard giggling and when we went in this is what we saw...

Grace had decided that sitting in her the pack 'n' play for her dolls would be a good place to read her books!

Then she decided she wanted all of her dolls in the pack 'n' play with her as well as all the stuffed animals from her crib.

Then it was time to put all the blankets on.

Then she threw everything out and had Mark start all over! (I think he repeated the cycle 3 times before she got tired of it.)

Pretending to change our baby's diaper

Ready to head to the mall for some Christmas shopping!

Best Friends Reunited

Grace was so excited to get Daisy back from the "Doggy Hotel" yesterday! She has been spending extra time cuddling with her on the couch and has been giving her lots of hugs and kisses!