The Bay in Baltimore

The first thing we did after checking into our hotel on our trip to Baltimore was to walk down to the bay. It was really neat. We saw some really big old boats and some dinner cruise ships. We saw a huge anchor. Gracie is standing on it in the last picture on the second row. We saw cannons and a mock ship's helm. Then we saw these fun paddle boats. We figured they probably only let you go out on them in the summer because they were all chained up, but Gracie really liked them and wanted to go for a ride.

The Tremonton Plaza in Baltimore

We went on a short trip to Baltimore while David was out of school. This is the view from our hotel room. We were on the 27th floor! They asked us if we wanted a "high room or a low room." We chose high. The view was kind of smoggy, but still neat to be able to see everything. It was an older hotel, but they still treated us like we were pretty fancy with valet parking and bell boys and stuff. The next morning however when we were getting ready to check out, we wished we had chosen a "low room" because the fire alarm went off. We had to carry Sammy and Gracie down 27 flights of stairs!!! That was my work out for the day!

Santa Came!!!

Ok, it has taken me a long time to post these pictures, but the SD card that had these pictures on it was misplaced, and I just didn't feel like I could skip this event and come back to it later so I haven't posted in a while. But finally here they are (drum roll please) the Christmas Pictures. We had a really fun Christmas! David and Gracie and Sammy and I spent the holiday at home, just the four of us. We would have loved to be with our families, but since we couldn't we made the best of it and had a great time at home.




Gracie got a new bunk bed for Christmas. We moved her in to it during the night. She was really surprised when she woke up Christmas morning (actually I had to go wake her up... it was about 6:00 and I just got so excited I couldn't wait any longer!). Eventually the bottom bunk will be for Sammy but I think he will stay in his crib a little while longer.


It is moments like these that I wish that I had had Gracie's bangs cut. We are trying to grow them out, because David loves them long, but I wish you could see her pretty eyes and just how much they sparkled!







Here is my cute Sammy. He had lots of fun on Christmas, and while he got lots of fun presents, he seemed just as content with this old orange golf ball. If only we could all me just as happy with what we have huh?

Gracie has been very excited about horses lately. She actually makes the funniest (and most realistic) horse sound I have ever heard from a girl her age.




My mom made me this really pretty Christmas blanket. I finally made myself put it away a couple of days ago. I didn't want to. I wanted to snuggle under it every day until next Christmas!







Here is Sammy with one of his new trucks and with Daddy's new car.

Gracie has been pretending about Christmas since Christmas. She always pretends that she is and Sammy are Reindeer and Mommy and Daddy are always Santa. Pretty funny isn't she.

Sammy got his very first sippy cup in his stocking. He seemed to like it Christmas morning, but it has since lost some of its charm. Much to his mother's dismay he would rather nurse than anything...

Here is Gracie eating her Christmas breakfast. She just couldn't leave all of her presents in the living room. She had to bring Cootie to the table with her!

We had a really fun time! There is nothing in the world like seeing the excitement in your children's eyes on Christmas! I remember all the magic when I was a child and this surpasses even that. We hope everyone had as memorable of a Christmas as we did.

Happy Birthday David!

It is David's 29th Birthday! Happy Birthday sweetheart. I sure do love you. To celebrate I wanted to tell you 29 things that I love about you.

1. Your adorable dimples!
2. Your outgoing personality.
3. The way your hips move when you dance.
4. The priesthood blessings you have given me and our children.
5. Listening to you sing.
6. That you gave me Gracie
7. That you gave me Sammy.
8. Your enthusiasm for things in life.
9. Snuggling with you in the morning before the kids wake up.
10. Having you cook with me.
11. Holding hands when we are out together.
12. Playing phase 1o ;)
13. Hearing you share the gospel.
14. Studying with you for your classes in medical school.
15. Singing with you.
16. Going on bike rides with you.
17. When you take Gracie on Daddy Daughter dates.
18. Having all the women at church think that you are a saint for being the only one to come to the nursery for enrichment.
19. Wrestling with you.
20. Watching you play with Sammy.
21. Your lips!
22. That you are taller than me and you weigh more than me.
23. The way you rub my leg when we are driving in the car.
24. The way you help us have scripture study (almost every day).
25. Cuddling and watching a movie with you.
26. Going on walks with you.
27. That you are always willing to help me with a project even when you are busy.
28. Your unconditional love for everyone you meet.
29. That we could share the last 6 wonderful years together.

Thanks for being my husband David. I hope you have a wonderful birthday!

Congratulations David!

Congratulations David, on getting through your first semester of medical school successfully! You have worked very hard and we are proud of you. And we are especially excited for the two weeks of vacation that you get! We love you!

Tagged again...

I have been tagged again. Thanks Tara, but since I have already done this one, I thought I would think up some things about my family...


1. One day after David and I were engaged we were spending and evening over at his parents house. His mom said to me, "We are serious about our food!" And it is true. There is always an abundance of good food at their house. In fact David loves to go there and raid the "magic white box" that never seems to be empty. He always wants to try interesting recipes like Hungarian goulash soup and buy new spices like saffron and fennel.


2. Gracie loves to sing songs about her family. Her latest is Old McDonald Had a Farm. We sing this two or three times a day. The animals on the farm are always: a Gracie baby pink horse, a mommy horse, a Daddy cow and a Sammy cow. I am very glad that I am a girl and get to be a horse instead of a cow...


3. Sammy thinks the water heater is the best toy in the world. If by some strange chance the door to the laundry room gets left open in the basement Sammy will see it and within one minute he is trying to adjust the temperature on the water heater (he has actually succeeded once too). I immediately move him away from the water heater as soon as I realize that he is there, but he throws these little temper tantrums as soon as I do (isn't he too young for that).


4. David was as full of mischief as a child as Gracie is now. He once tried to lower his brother off the roof with a rope! He soon realized that little boys aren't very strong and dropped his brother. Thank goodness everyone was alright!


5. I keep asking Gracie what she wants for Christmas. Every time she tells me she wants a pink Christmas tree. She already has a little Christmas tree in her room. I guess I could just get some pink ornaments or something for it?


6. Sammy just started walking last week, but he still crawls a lot because he can get around much faster that way. He crawls like a crab though. He doesn't use either knee. He walks on his hands and feet. I don't know if this is because we have all wood floors in our house or what, but it is very cute and funny to watch.


Okay so there are 6 random things about my family. I am tagging LeAnn, Grandma K, and Kelli.

Sorry it has been awhile!

Sorry it has been awhile since I posted. Not much has happened, except for one very fun and exciting thing. SAMMY IS WALKING! He took his very first real steps last week. I have been trying to get some good footage of his footage on video, but he has turned very camera shy for some reason. Every time I get out the camera he hides his face. But he is really the sweetest thing. He is so cuddly and happy. We were at our ward Christmas party on Saturday. I was holding a friends new little baby and Sammy was crawling around on the floor. Another friend in the ward scooped up Sammy just as he was escaping out the door into the hall. Sammy wrapped his arms around her neck and buried his head on her shoulder and hugged her tight. You should have seen my friend melt. She said her 18 month old had NEVER hugged her that way! Sammy really is my little sunshine. He always has a ready smile for his mother (even when she is crabby) and a kiss too (except when he is teasing me). I don't know why, but I have been feeling kind of sad lately, but all I have to do is sit back and consider my blessings, especially my children, and things don't seem so sad after all. What a wonderful Father in Heaven we have who blesses us with exactly what we need to get through our trials. I think I must be the luckiest girl in the world.

My funny kids.

Gracie is such a funny girl. It has been snowing for three days here. Monday and Tuesday it lightly snowed all day, and then last night and today we got dumped on. Yesterday morning when Gracie saw out the window that it was snowing the first thing she said was, "Oh man! I don't want it to snow. It's too cold! Can we build a snowman?" She loved going out in the snow today. We went out twice. Each time the only way I could talk her in to coming back inside was with the promise of hot chocolate.

All of a sudden, Gracie is totally interested in saying the prayer. We tried and tried for a long time to get her to pray, and now she wants to do it all the time. But she doesn't want any help. Her prayers go something like this. "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the food. Bless it to our bodies. Thank you for the food... our bodies..."At this point I try to whisper something in her ear and she responds by saying, "Stop! Stop!" Then she prays for what ever it was I whispered in her ear and says "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." It is really really sweet (except for the little outburst in the middle) and it makes me happy to know that Gracie likes to talk to her Heavely Father.

Sammy was pretty funny today to. I was doing some laundry and a pair of Gracie's sweat pants fell on the floor. The floor in my basement is wood laminate, and it is kind of slippery. Sammy figured out that he could put his hands on the pants and crawl with his legs and not have to move his hands because the pants would just slide on the floor. He looked up at me and I could tell he was pretty proud of himself. He had a grin about a mile wide. He crawled all across the room like that. Then he figured out how to climb on top of the couch. I can see this is going to be a problem, because he doesn't know how to get down on his own yet without just falling. We keep him away from the stairs for this very reason, but I don't see a way to block all the couches in the house... Anyone have any ideas?

Neither of the kids took naps today, so I put them to bed early. David is still at school, so I am enjoying a rare moment by myself. I am going to go pop in a movie and make some more icicle ornaments for my tree.

A Winter Wonderland!

Snow, snow, snow, snow... it won't be long until we'll all be there with snow!!! Isn't that how that song goes? Anyway, it really did snow here. Lots and lots of snow! I was out shoveling the walks this morning and this van came driving down the street. It was slipping and sliding so bad and I was really afraid that it was going to hit the power pole right in front of my house. It only missed it by a couple of inches. I really think there is a foot of snow out there and they don't plow the street in front of my house. I have been looking for a measuring stick so that I can really measure how much snow is out there, but I can't even find a little one (Gracie and Sammy play with it). Oh well. As I was shoveling the snow I remembered how when I was a little girl it was a fun job to go out and shovel the walks. Gracie came out with me and she was climbing on the snow that I had shoveled and rolling down it. It was really fun. Having kids seems to bring joy back into stuff that has become a chore. So today I am grateful for snow (as long as I don't have to drive in it)!

Push the button Sammy!

Today Sammy, Gracie, and I went to the store. It was just your usual trip to the grocery store. You know how it goes. Gracie is constantly trying to run away and play with something on display or adding extra things to the grocery cart. Sammy is making eyes at everyone who walks past and getting smiles out of all of them. I am trying to buy things to create healthy well-balanced meals that everyone will eat. Just another day in the life of a mother. We checked out, and I was really tricky and kept the cart away from the row of candy and gum that is right in arms length of the cart when you are loading your groceries on the little conveyor belt thingy. I was feeling pretty good about our little outing. We went out to the car to load everything. I was trying to hurry because it was starting to snow. I dropped my diaper bag and wallet on the front seat so that they would be out of the way, then I put Sammy in the car. He was crying (he doesn't like to be restrained in his car seat) so I handed him my keys. Keys are his favorite toy, real keys that is. Keys, phones, remote controls... all of those kinds of things. I walked around the car with Gracie to put her in her seat, and for some reason the door wouldn't open. Strange... I knew I had unlocked the car... Oh well. I went to the front passenger side door and thought I would just reach back and open it. But that door wouldn't open either! Then I started to panic. Could Sammy possibly have hit the lock button on the keys? He had. We were locked out, he was locked in, it was starting to snow, and I had know idea what to do about it. There was an angel parking attendant near by and she noticed that something was wrong. She went in to call the Sheriff for me. I zipped Gracie's coat up and put on her hood then did the same for myself. I kept Gracie occupied by feeding her chocolate Christmas bells and we waited... and waited... and waited... We looked in the window at Sammy who was sitting there happy as a clam just playing with the keys. "Push the button Sammy! Push the button and let us in!" Gracie and I were both saying it. Then all of a sudden "click" I heard it and ran for the door. Sammy had unlocked it. Yay Sammy! What a good boy! I reached back and he held up the keys to me and smiled. I think he thought it was all a good joke! I buckled Gracie into her chair, loaded the groceries, found the angel parking attendant and told her that Sammy had unlocked the car, got into the drivers seat, drove home and ate all the chocolate I could find. I guess we are going to need some more chocolate Christmas bells. But I have totally learned my lesson. Sammy can no longer play with the keys when he is in the car.

Gracie

What can I say about Gracie? She is my shining star! She is the sweetest, happiest little girl. I had no idea before she was born how she would change my life. I remember like it was yesterday the way I felt when they very first laid her in my arms 3 years ago. I didn't think it would be possible to love her more today than I did then. All I know is that this great love that I have for her threatens to explode out of my heart when I think about it too much! I am daily grateful to my Heavenly Father for sending her to me. She is so happy and giggly! She fills our home with laughter. Before I had her, I didn't know who I truly was. Now that I have her and Sammy, I know that the absolute greatest, best and most fun job I could ever have is to be their mother.

Gracie, I love you! I hope you had a great birthday!

Gracie's fun day!

What a fun day we had today! It started out (thanks to Grandma Ro and Grandpa Jack) with a birthday breakfast with Dora and Diego. Gracie set these to friends at the table herself. As you can see it is still dark outside.

We spent the morning playing with her new toys (yes there is already green playdoh in the carpet, which by the way vacuums up very well!). She pushed her baby in her new baby stroller and played with all the new toys and ate treats and watched her new Mickey Mouse Mooie! Then we went and picked up Annie and went to lunch together and played in the play place. After that we went to the Festival of Trees and looked at all the "bootiful kissmas trees" and painted ornaments and made a recipe box.

Then it was back to our house for pink cupcakes with pink frosting and sprinkles and marshmallows shaped like stars and trees (the girls got to decorate their own). I finally had to tell them, "Ok only one more marshmallow!" at which point they each took about 5 more, and then it was time to dress up! Look at the beautiful princesses. What a fun time we had today!

Birthday Girl!

Gracie is 3!!!

What I love about Gracie...

I love that Gracie loves her little brother. She comes up next to him and says, "Come on Sammy! Come on!" And he does. He would follow her to the end of the earth!

I love that Gracie loves to eat broccoli!

I love that Gracie loves to go to nursery. She calls it church and we can be sitting in the middle of sacrament meeting and all Gracie wants is to go to church!

I love that Gracie loves music and dancing. She won't go to bed at night unless I sing to her. All day long we turn on the funniest music and dance and dance and dance as crazy as we know how!

I love that Gracie loves to play with her friends and makes friends easily. She makes friends where ever we go. We went to McDonald's the other day and when we left she hugged her new little friends goodbye.

I love Gracie's red hair. I always wanted red hair as a child and feel so lucky to have a red haired daughter myself (David, didn't you know that is why I wanted to marry you?).

I love that Gracie is a natural leader. She goes right up to the kids in church and grabs their hands and gets them to follow her (to bad they are usually doing something they shouldn't!).

I love how smart Gracie is. She is naturally inquisitive and figures out the solutions to her problems without help. She sees what she wants and figures out a way to get it done.

I love that Gracie loves pink and purple things. All pink and purple things! She loves princesses and fairies too. She is such a little girly girl and I love it! She likes romantic movies (like Cinderella and The Little Mermaid... I have even received a kiss when the girl gets her prince at the end of a movie).

I love lots of things about Gracie, but I guess mostly I just love that she is my little girl forever! What a blessing she is to our family!


Sorry this picture is so blurry. I took it at 5:00 this morning and I thought it was just my eyes. Gracie decided to get up early on her birthday so she could have a longer and more fun day!

First Snow Fall

We woke up to thunder and lightening on Tuesday morning. Gracie came running into our room because she was afraid. I took her to the window and we looked out into the dark to see the first snow storm of the season. Gracie took one look at it and said, "Snow!" I didn't know she would remember what snow was. Then she said, "How bootiful!" I think I must say beautiful a lot, because Gracie has picked it up, but she was absolutly right. The snow falling was "bootiful." Once it got light enough I told Gracie she could play outside. We put on her new snowpants and coat and her boots. She thought it was so fun. I realized I forgot to buy her gloves though (I went out and bought some last night) but she didn't care. She wanted to go out anyway. I showed her how to eat snow too! I kept trying to get her to come in to warm her hands for a minute, but she was having to much fun, so her fingers are bright red in these pictures. The snow is mostly gone now, but we can't wait for it to snow again!

Late Night Visitor

We had a late night visitor last night. David was sitting at the kitchen table doing his homework and he heard a noise outside. He went and looked out the window and found this big fat racoon just sitting outside the door. He threw him a little piece of bread and the racoon went right up to it and picked it up and ate it (probably because it was my pumpkin chocolate chip bread). He said the racoon sat and looked at him for awhile and he sat and looked at the racoon for a while and the racoon didn't even seem afraid. All I can say is that if he comes back for seconds he is going to be disappointed because Gracie and I finished off the rest of the bread this morning.

Get me outta here!

Here is another picture of Sydney, Sammy, and Gracie from when my sister was here. I noticed something from all of the pictures we took. It seems like whenever we put them all somewhere together, Sammy always tried to escape! Silly boy! He is too young to not like girls isn't he?

Rub-a-dub-dub...

Rub-a-dub-dub, three kids in the tub!


And who do you think they were? Why it is Sydney, Sammy and Gracie!

What a bum view huh? (Sorry this one is so blurry.)

"Get me outta here! I can't take a bath with a bunch of girls!"

"Do I have something on my face?"

Tagged...

Okay so I have been tagged again. This time I am supposed to come up with 6 facts about myself, so here goes...

1) There is a certain time of year when I have an addiction that I cannot deny. The leaves on the trees start to change color and the weather starts to feel crisp, and I must have pumpkin! Pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pie, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin pancakes, even those little mellowcreme pumpkins (which don't actually taste like pumpkin at all but are in the shape of pumpkins so they count). I don't know what it is about pumpkins, but it just wouldn't be fall without them. I love pumpkins!

2) Some day I want to learn to play the guitar and ballroom dance (not together). My goal of playing the guitar I know I can make happen. It is just a matter of having the money to buy a guitar (which may not happen until David is out of school) and finding the time to play it (which is difficult while the kids are so small), but someday I am sure I can make that goal happen. The ballroom dancing goal may be a different story. I have never been very coordinated or graceful. Maybe that is why I have always envied so much people who are. Someday though, I will take dancing lessons (again this may have to wait until David is out of school... that money thing just seems to get in the way all the time... oh well). Someday...

3) Sometimes, when it is dark outside, if I am all alone, I like to sit and listen to sad songs until I cry. I don't do this every time it is dark outside and I am alone, just sometimes. I think it is a way for me to let out bottled up emotion. I do tend to keep stress and anger bottled up inside me until they explode. I guess this is just a non explosive way for me to let out emotion. "So turn 'em on, turn 'em on, turn on those sad songs. When all hope is gone, sad songs say so much."

4) I start listening to Christmas music a couple of weeks before Halloween! I love Christmas music, and movies. I think I watched Miracle on 34th St. in September this year. Last week I went to Salvation army looking for a desk for David and the best things I came home with were the movie "A Muppet Christmas Carol" for 3 dollars and a 3 foot pre-lit Christmas tree to go in Gracie's room (kind of as a night light) complete with decorations for 4 dollars.

5) I am kind of a skin flint. I get after David for turning the heater up too high in the winter and I tell him not to spend too much when he goes to the grocery store. I feel secure when I have money in savings, so coming to medical school with David has been a real stretch for me. This is the first time since we got married that neither of us has had an income (and it is really scary!!!).

6) I love love love to read! If I am just sitting there doing nothing my eyes wander and look for some kind of magazine or something nearby for me to read. At breakfast time if the cereal box is handy I have to read it. Even if I read it the day before!! I love to read children's books and novels and religious books and picture books and magazines and cook books and holiday books and anything really (except David's medical text books... I am not really interested in them. If I had no responsibilities, I would sit and read all day every day!

So that is 6 random facts about me. Sorry it has taken me so long to fill this one out Caralee. I am tagging anyone who reads this blog who hasn't filled it out yet. Have fun!

The Cider Mill and stuff.

So much has gone on that I haven't blogged about while our computer has been broken. First, I had a birthday! Happy Birthday to me. I am now 27 years old. My youngest sister tells me that 27 is half of 54 which is half of 108, so I am almost 108 years old. No wonder I am so tired! David surprised me for my birthday with a visit from my sister Caralee and her husband, Seth, and daughter, Sydney. It was so fun! I think, with all the excitement of a new place, I sort of forgot how much I missed them until she came. Their picture is on this collage. We are all at a local cider mill. We got to go on a tour there for our play group two weeks ago. It was so awesome. They cider mill is 111 years old and they have been making their cider the same way for those 111 years. We were really heart broken to hear that the cider mill burned down two days later! We were actually the last tour they held there. I really really hope they rebuild! The little girl on the third row of these pictures is Annie. Gracie LOVES Annie. She is always so excited to go to church where she can play with Annie. The other people in the pictures are others in our play group. We all really had a great time!

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween everyone! Finally I am getting my pictures up. For some reason the pictures I took on Halloween didn't turn out so all I have is these ones from the Trunk or Treat. I am half tempted to put their costumes back on them and take come more pictures. I am not exactly sure what Gracie is doing in this picture...maybe yelling to someone? I put make-up on her because I remember my mom putting make-up on me when I was a little girl and got dressed up for Halloween, but the mascara turned out to be a big mistake. Gracie kept rubbing her eyes and scrunching them really tight before the mascara dried, so she looks a little like she has a couple of black eyes. Oh well, maybe in a few years huh?


Here she is looking very queenly and beautiful!

Sammy made the cutest little Superman ever. Gracie is SO funny about Superman. She absolutely loves him! The first time she learned anything about Superman was from the old TV show "Adventures of Lois and Clark." She took one look at Superman and said, "SuperDad!" Since then she has branched out, and now we sing songs about "Superdad, Supermom, SuperGacie, SuperSammy, Supercar, Superbag..." the list goes on and on depending on what is in her line of vision while we are singing the Superman song. Since I love Superman too I love that she sings this song.

We went trick or treating at the houses on our street. Gracie thought it was pretty fun. We almost couldn't get from house to house fast enough for her. If we stopped to talk for even a minute to the people who lived at the houses Gracie would try to go on without us. She wasn't disappointed though when it was time to go home. We told her it was time to go home and eat the candy and she couldn't wait to get home! We felt bad that we didn't have very many trick or treaters on our street though. I think only about 5 little groups of kids came. But I guess that leaves us with all the extra candy! Yummy!!!