Sunny, Sunny, Sunday....

This weekend was full of some good family time. Around the fun tax preparations and house cleaning, we were able to enjoy time outside and try new food. Saturday I made my own carrot baby food. It is super easy and we just had to let Grace try it. Here is a photo of her after a couple bites. Let's just say, the taste is a bit strong for her still. She is a trouper and will still eat it without much of a fuss. The fuss is coming from the teeth we still think she is getting. There are no signs of anything popping up yet. We know they are down there.

During this weekend we also started looking for a new daycare option. Mel isn't able to watch Gracie any more which is really sad. It is so hard trying to find someone to watch your most precious gift. There are a couple options that I think will work for use though and they are in Parker.

This weekend, and the current week, are unusually warm. Gracie got to enjoy many of trips to the park for some swing time. Here are a couple photos of our sun baby. The weather makes me so excited for this summer and letting Gracie have so many more experiences. Now I am off to Dallas for a day-trip. Enjoy the photos of our little lady :) I love all the hats that she isn't taking off yet!

Teeth, here they come

This week Gracie has been full of fun. She has learned more and more about her tongue. There are new raspberries, lower lip sucking, and kiss sounds. Our friend Phil even got her attention, with the interesting thing above his lip (mustache), and she learned about the motorboat sound. Grace continues to be our happy little girl who makes us smile. The best part of the day is getting her up in the morning and receiving that huge smile! Here are some different faces of Gracie and her enjoying Angel. They are buds. This week she has started to drool more often, so I have a sneaking suspicion that she will start getting a tooth soon. Only time will tell. We are lucky that she stays pretty happy no matter what.

The sun will come out, TODAY!

Today was just an amazing day with 70 degree weather in Colorado and we made the most of it. Grace enjoyed her first time on the swings and I foresee many trips to come. We can only hope we can leave the park without meltdowns as she grows up.

Friday Grace was able to enjoy the day with Grandma Peters. Thank you for spending the day with the little lady. Neil came over for dinner and Grace showed us something new she learned...she was scared of someone. Anytime she could see Papa she started to cry. Luckily Grace finally warmed up to Neil and we all had a great time together as a family.

Saturday our friend's Jody and Mike came for a quick visit and I was able to spend time with Shawna and Melissa. That night was a girls night with some friends from church while Adam had a small poker nights with some buddies. Gracie was able to sleep through the loud man talk and daddy's bad music.

It was project Sunday for us around the house. Now it is back to another work week and we do hope to enjoy more of this wonderful weather with Gracie. Happy Birthday Ms. Jessie!

Here is Smiley :)

5 months and a whole new world

Every parent tells new parents to cherish every minute with your baby this first year and I can see why. Grace continues to learn new things daily.

Highlights:

• Grace now sees Brandy and loves to watch her. (Yes I put her in the hat and booties)


• We unswaddled her, much to her disappointment, during naps. She is still a cuddle bug.


• She won a battle with ending the pacifier. It will stay to help her not be completely dependent on her thumb, which she LOVES!
• She loves to sleep on her side.


• Her feet are some of her favorite toys when she is on her back especially when there are no socks.










• Bath time is still her favorite time of the day and gets so excited when she hears the water running.


• Laughing is coming more easily for her. Bouncing her up and down as well as peek-a-boo are some favorites.
  
• How exactly can very little poop actually stay in the diaper I will never know. Adam was able to experience this.
  
  

Here are some photos of the past couple weeks. We went to our friend Katie's wedding and here is a photo of the first father/daughter dance.

Ian also was baptized earlier this month and the two babies loved to look at each other.

Finally we spent time with the cousins on Saturday and here is Andrew having some fun with Grace.

We are starting to look for a new daycare provider due to our provider moving. Back to square one :( At least Grace is a bit older and I have a couple options in Parker that we are exploring. Wishing everyone the best!

How Time Flies!

My how time flies when you are raising a child and working full-time. Gracie has been changing so much over the past couple weeks it is hard to keep track. She has officially found her feet like her buddy George, which Anne's photo inspired me to take one too in the future to see Gracie's flexibility. There is still a lot of talking, now she can move so many things on the exersaucer, and she can splash in the bath tub thanks to her father's direction.

This weekend we enjoyed some good family and friend time. Friday we celebrated our Valentine's day with pizza. Gracie enjoys going out to eat, which we don't do often, because of all the sights and sounds for her to look at. It doesn't hurt that she smiles at everyone so they smile back. Saturday we got some great photos of our little lady, which we will continue to post on the blog and will probably reduce our posting on Facebook since they changed their rights regulations. I don't want them to have the rights to images of our little lady even if I close my account!!! After the photos we enjoyed some Fondue at "The Farm" with my folks and their landscaper Spence. Man I can't wait to enjoy the farm during the summer with all the new outdoor living area. Sunday was a big day for everyone. Ian, the Sanderson's son, was baptized in Ft. Fun. We enjoyed spending the day with him and can't believe how quickly their kids are growing. Gracie had some fun times with her godparents and even got some loving from Ian.

This weekend I think we will be breaking Grace of her nap swaddle, which we broke of her sleeping swaddle a month ago. Oh the fun for us. Now the question is, to end the pacifier or not to end the pacifier. She loves her thumb during the day while still preferring her pacifier at night. The parental dilemma's are always interesting.

We are wishing everyone all the best and we can't wait to hear about all the great spending the stimulus package has to offer that is being signed in Denver. It is wonderful that we are going to be funding the Homeland Security Offices with over $100Million in furniture...yeah!!!

Is this June or Feb?

Here is an official photo of Gracie and her thumb during bath time. This is her favorite time to suck her thumb. It does make her happy!

Today was an amazing day here in Denver with almost perfect weather. Here are photos of our afternoon in the sun. She was stylin' in her sunglasses. I think the sunglasses actually gave her a whole new view on life as you can see by her looking up.

Here is a video, also on facebook, of our little lady talking to me today. She already is answering me and talking over me.

We love our girl so very much!!

Super Bowl, Super fun 36 hours

Where does the time go!?!? We haven't updated much on Grace but it has been an eventful time for us all. Gracie started rice cereal, has found her feet, and is starting to look at everything. She also began to make raspberry noises at the end of sentences. Guess that's her way of saying "end of sentence" now "I want to do something else and do so quickly".


The big event for us was that we were able to secure club-level tickets for the Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida. We took the Red Eye flight out of Denver at 1:00am Sunday morning, had a brief layover in Atlanta, then arrived in Tampa about 9am (Eastern). We enjoyed a nice breakfast and catching up a little bit on sleep with our mid afternoon nap.

Next we were off to the NFL experience (photo to the left) with our Steelers gear courtesy of the Sandersons. My vendor even arranged for us to be driven around in a private Suburban to/from the game. Too bad I couldn't use it more since ticket holders entrance into the events were limited to entry once. That put a small wrench in Karla's plans for Gracie's needs, though it worked out in the end. We even saw a couple stars...we were in line and Adam noticed a very tall blonde. What audacity he had to check-out another woman with me there until we both recognized her as Kerri Walsh. Her fellow gold medalist Misty May-Tranner,

looking pregnant, was right behind her.









Our seats were on the 10 yard line about 100 rows up in the second level. The whole experience was something we will never forget. Adam got the hang of swinging the terrible towel without hitting any of the 20+ Cardinal fans around us. We were even lucky enough to get back to our hotel 15 minutes after leaving the game festivities.

The 8 hours of sleep in two days didn't bother us during the game. When we woke up on Monday at 4:30 am to drive to Jacksonville for our return flights, that is when it started to hit us more. Grace was at home with Grandma and Grandpa Petersen. Adam and I both went to pick Gracie up from Mel's and we receive the best reception. Grace saw who we were and reached for us. If that doesn't melt a parent's heart I don't know what else would.

Here are photos of Gracie trying rice cereal for the first time. The video will be coming soon. She now is playing with her feet more and continues to suck her thumb right as her bath is being drawn. She rolled from her front to her back twice in one sitting and hasn't done it again. We continue to work on getting her to laugh more. She doesn't have any problem "talking" to you and telling you her feelings. We are now going to work on her sleeping through the night since she slept from 7pm last night until 2am. It will probably be hard and something that will be good for the whole family.

We are wishing you all the best during these uncertain times!