Oh to have recorded this...

Two funny things this evening...

1. Bapa, my dad, and I were putting up some new curtain rods. While telling Gracie "Look Gracie Bapa is actually doing work around the house again", I know a little gab at my dad, Gracie quickly responded with "Yeah Bapa" The man will work until he can't work any longer when he is at the farm, so it is a great sight to see when he works around inside the house. At least he had a really cute cheerleader to help him.

2. We were on our way to bed and I asked Gracie to say goodnight to everyone. That lead to a 5 min walk up the stairs saying good night to everything with a wave included "nite nite water, nite nite Angel, nite nite Angel wa wa, nite nite Bapa belt, nite nite chair, etc." The waveing made the event even better. Honestly I felt like I was driving her in some homecoming parade.

It's a Wiggly Party

Gracie loves the Wiggles, so when I learned they were coming we of course had to get tickets. She is also getting a Wiggles birthday party in September. We were lucky enough to sit next to people from our church and be there with two other friends. What are the odds, you use to see people you knew at bars and now it is at a kids concert.

Gracie was so excited to see the Wiggles come out and would announce who each of the people or characters. She is very into Dorothy, Henry, and Wags. So cute! She of course went between Adam and I, though we were lucky the people in the row before us moved after the first 10 mins. Gracie now sings "Hot Potato" all the time as well as "Whole World Hands" (Whole World in His Hands).

ABC's video

Here is the great video of Gracie singing her ABCs. We are so proud.

Where o' where has the summer gone?

It is possible to blink and have a whole month pass in a second? That is a bit how I felt this past month. After trying to get settled in the house, working during the day, and spending as much time with Gracie, there isn't much left for anything else?

Here is ring-around-the-rosie, with three generations. She would have kept going if we wanted to have stayed at the family fun fest.
There were so many wonderful summer fun days and nights. Most days you will find us after work going to the fountains at The Streets of Southglenn, going to the swimming pool, hanging outside on the slide or house, going to the park, or just running errands. Oh the fun of a quiet summer. Here are photos that are pretty self explanatory.

Gracie's favorite new activities are cooking with mama. Eggs are the popular choice though noddles are a close second. We just made cookies for the first time and Gracie enjoyed the dough, which I think is in her genes from Gigi.

A few other fun things she has liked, first our neighbor provided Gracie with some excitement, much like George has, with a new sidewalk being poured. She asked to see the big trucks for days. Second, Gracie continues to love having her photo taken, looking at herself in the mirror, and entertaining herself. Very funny for all actually.
Gracie is saying her name often which sounds like "saysie." She surprised us with singing the ABCs last week with missing only a few letters. While I was getting over a cold I was trying to sing in the car and Gracie told me "no sing mama." Makes you feel great to be shushed by your daughter. Her typical morning is early morning wake-up, banana, milk, and time with Gigi. Here is a typical morning photo with banana peal in-hand.

July 28th Gracie had her first trip to the dentist. Granted all we did was have the dr just check her mouth quick since she still only has a 12 teeth and we brush them everyday. We will be seeing another dentist in the future though we are lucky because Gracie loves to brush her teeth.

Getting ready to celebrate

Even fighting a cold the family decided to go to the farm for the weekend to celebrate and get out of town to relax. When you have an almost two year old, there is only much relaxing you can do while keeping her entertained. Grandpa had a great idea, head to Windsor for a little time at the playground, beach time a at the lake, and then to lunch. Slides are her new favorite especially when she tries to climb up any of them.Gracie learned to like the water but didn't like the small waves due to the boat wake. The biggest excitement before nap was our find at the consignment store near lunch. I just wanted to stop in for a second and $50 later I had two Wiggles dvds, a Wiggles movie, a couple other items, and the most amazing Wiggles chair. Even this morning after giving me a hug all she wanted to do was go sit in her Wiggles chair. After a short nap we enjoyed time around the house with a little bit of cooking with Gracie. She loves to crack eggs and stir anything.

All the ladies should be so happy in the family, Gracie adores tomatoes. She even picked one off the counter, calling in an orange, and started to eat the thing whole. Here is after a couple of bites.

Almost 4 hour nap worth of July 4th fun...

We were so lucky to have an amazing day celebrating the 4th of July. The day started off so nice with a good church service at the Greeley Stampede, Cowboy church to be exact, with Uncle Brad. The early start allowed us to stay away from the heat, walk around without crowds and be the first to the petting zoo and pony rides. After the party last weekend with pony rides you would have thought Gracie would be old hat at the rides. Sadly I had to bribe her with a lollipop to get her on the horse. She loved every min of it though and worked our appetite up for any type of food you would want on a stick. Brad got a pork chop on a stick while we stayed pretty normal and even had to work at Gracie to enjoy a funnel cake. She is easily distracted while in public places with lost of people.

Next was to the carnival section of the facility. Uncle Brad wins so often on the games that involved any bit of skill. The guy practically wins anything and always did, even a robin hood bear for his kid sister years ago at Circus Circus. So, now he was able to pay it forward to his niece. He was able to get a ball into a bucket winning Gracie a Monkey almost the same size as she is. After all that adventure she feel asleep within 1 minute of leaving the grounds and slept for almost 3 1/2 hours during nap time.


The Stampede is so tiring...

With renewed energy we decided to take a trip to the local fair in Firestone. They had some good younger kid-friendly rides that we enjoyed. Here we are in the Gracie/Monkey car of the train. Since there are so many trains near the farm she has a new ear to hear the horns and looks for them often.

Since she was too small for the cars we opted for the carousel instead. Grandpa got selected as the approved adult to join her on a solo ride around, the crowds weren't bad at all.
With the new found knowledge bestowed by Brad to his sister I decided to take a chance at winning Gracie a toy myself. There was no way I could get any new stuffed toy that would even compete with the monkey so I tired for a goldfish. There were doubts on my ability to win such a game of chance, which is partially was, but I got the ping-pong ball in the bowl and won Gracie a fish. Though it wasn't expensive to win I am helping the US economy by buying all things to keep this stinker alive, which Gracie named Tank. I first suggested Henry, which could have been confusing since Henry is the Octopus in Wiggles, so I changed to Hank...again could be confusing with her Papa J, so she then said Tank. It has stuck and we will see how long this guy lives in the peanut plastic tub he is in now. Here she is hugging Tank, prior to being named, after trying to kiss him and play with him. Oh yes, he also danced on the way home...the poor fish probably got sea sick from the movement.

We luckily beat the rain home, which was a blessing since it has been raining on/off for the past two plus hours. It was so nice and relaxing. Dinner was our own indoor bbq with hot dogs, corn, and root beer floats.

For your entertainment: Evolution of Gracie's Root beer Float.

Put ice cream, a favorite, with some yummy root beer to say Happy Birthday America!

We are blessed to live in a country that lets us praise God freely and celebrate our country as we want.

Party, Ponies, and Alpacas Oh my.

Once back from Breck the week was full of change though fun. Instead of being at the MS 150 ride as much as I thought we would we instead were able to enjoy going to our friend's birthday party.

First Gracie got to play with her dolly on her slide. We keep trying to give her ideas on how to play safely on the slide. As you can see, we are only successful 50% of the time. The second photo is of Gracie with her head between her legs at the top of the slide after she walked up the slide section.

With the change in the plans we were able to celebrate our friend Brayden's birthday with ponies. Gracie loves her pony at the house and it prepared her for the real thing. I couldn't keep the girl away from the ponies. It was even better to have Abigail and Ian with us Gracie, oh and their parents too :)

After the pony rides we went to the farm for a little be of R&R without looking at boxes or work. Grandpa even took us to look at Alpacas together, which Gracie loved. Now to getting over the colds we all got :( Independence Day is next!