Halloween costume

Gracie's halloween costume came the other day and I just had to take a picture and post it. She is the cutest thing. She is battling a little chest cold right now so I am praying it doesn't get worse than it already is. It causes her to wake up a little earlier than normal these days.

5 Months Old

I know it has been way to long since I have updated her blog. But now that she is getting older I probably will update it a little less. Today she is exactly five months old. Yesterday was the first time she rolled over in bed and woke herself up. So she is now doing it constantly which makes nap times much shorter. I did manage to get her on video this morning performing her new trick. We have been working on Mama and I swear she is saying it. Ok, more like mimicking me but still she is trying it. I have noticed in the past few weeks how much her personality is showing. She is very serious, she studies everything! My Mom asked me if I ever thought a serious child would come out of me and I just laughed. She definitely has her fathers personality. We have been putting her in one of those walkers on wheels in our carport. She has figured out how to move in it. She zooms all around an discovered that there is a dip when you pull out that she can slide down. You have to watch her because she goes for that dip every time. She even knows she is not suppose to because she will look back at John or I before she does it and grin. That part of her personality sounds more like Mom. Everyday seemed to bring more adventure with this child. We had some pictures taken by a local photographer and it will be interesting to see how they turn out. I will have to post some. For now I am just posting some updated pictures that we have taken. It has all gone by so fast I feel like all I will have to remember this time with is my photographs!

Big girl

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. We went to Atlanta to pick up my Mom and bring her back here with us for this past week. It was so nice to have her help again. Gracie went back to the doctor on Tuesday and got her 4 month old shots. She is actually 41/2 months old now. It is amazing how fast it has gone by. She is really starting to enjoy her toys much more lately and interacts with us so much. She will laugh so hard that she gives herself the hiccups. She has been eating baby food and has started reaching for us when we go to pick her up. She still has her fussy times at night but I am happy to report she sleeps through the night great. It might have taken awhile to get here but it is such a relief to get a full nights sleep again. I have got her on a pretty good schedule. She really likes to get out of the house and see what is going on with the world. I have a few pictures to put up so you can see how she changes!

We are moved in!

I can't believe it myself, but we are actually all moved in our new house. If you know John and I then you know we do not wait and do anything. So, pictures are hung and the rooms are decorated! It has only taken us a full year to accomplish everything. We look around at our beautiful new home with such satisfaction and pride. We have worked so hard on this house, it literally has our blood, sweat and tears in it. We did all the demo ourselves, all the painting ourselves (and when I say painting I mean priming, two coats on all walls, and even the woodwork). My Dad and Mom helped us but it was mainly John's dedication that accomplished everything. He worked so hard and I am so proud of him. After all this hard work our bodies must have been really run down because the whole family has been so sick. I was first, then John, and now Gracie. She is only four months old, so naturally I panicked when she had 100.4 temperature last night. We took her to the doctor this morning and he thinks it is just a bug. It breaks my heart to watch my daughter wheezing, coughing, sneezing, and watching her little eyes run constantly. She has been a real trooper though, for a sick child she has not been too fussy. I try to do everything I can to ease her pain. She can't really take any medicine since she is so young, so we bought a vaporizer to put near her crib and propped up the head of it. It is so cute to watch her snuggle up and suck on her thumb to soothe herself ( I know that is a bad habit, but one she came by naturally from her father). She is so sweet despite her sickness. I told John I would rather us be sick 365 days a year than for her to be sick even one. I feel so guilty because I think I am the one who gave this virus to the rest of my family. We are anxiously waiting for the closing of our house in Augusta on Monday. Please pray that everything goes smoothly. Sorry it took so long for me to update but we do have our Internet now as well as our home phone and direct tv! We just do not get good cell phone service so I think we will switch carriers soon. I will post some pictures of Gracie. Please pray that she feels better soon too! When I take some pictures in the next week or so of the house I will update them too! Take care everyone! by they way ROLL TIDE!!! Since we have been together (6years) our two colleges have never played each other, but John and I handles it with such grace. He said I was a very graceful winner. But inside I could not be happier for the crimson tide!

No Internet

I realized this weekend how much I take the Internet for granted and just how dependant I am on it to stay in touch with the rest of the world. We have been in the country working on our new house since Friday. The do not offer DSL out in the sticks so we are looking into satellite. So after this Saturday there is no telling when I will be able to update next. Everyday brings something new with Gracie. She can hold her head up and has been preferring to sleep on her stomach whenever possible. We had dinner with our new neighbors in South Carolina (friends we have known for awhile). They had twins on my birthday July 7th! Jack and Katie are there names and they are so cute! I know they will be Gracie's best friends. Their nursery is the most spectacular thing I have ever seen. It looks like something from a movie. Since they are twins Gracie has a jump on them in the size department. Their Mom Ashleigh is going to stay home with them so it will be nice to have play dates right down the street. Being out there for a whole weekend made me appreciate the grocery store and pharmacy right down the street from our house in Augusta. There is no jumping in the car and running to the store. You have to be prepared for everything. So we decided we will need two refrigerators. I took Gracie around the property in her stroller with the dogs by our side. She was overwhelmed trying to soak it all in. On Sunday afternoon we both took nap and it amazing how quiet it is out there, you can hear the crickets and see the stars at night. It will be a nice change from the city living I grew up in. Thank you all who read our blog and think that our life in amusing enough to keep coming back. I will definitely post pictures of the house once we are in. Wish us luck!

No longer a newborn

It finally hit me the other day that Gracie is no longer a newborn. She is rapidly approaching four months old and gets bigger everyday. She can hold her head up on her own and sits up well in her little bumbo seat. For some reason she is having difficulty again sleeping through the night. I know she is too young to be teething and we have tried the cereal thing. She was sleeping through the night at least every other night but now it is either at 1am or 4am. Since she does not like pacifiers so nothing will seem to soothe her but the bottle! I am enjoying being home with her so much. I get to be apart of every new and wonderful thing that happens to her daily. We will be moving to the country August 23rd and I couldn't be more ready. We have been working on this house for almost a year now. It has been one of the hardest challenges John and I have ever taken on together. It was harder than building a house since we did most all of the work ourselves and gutted it completely. At night I seem to collapse from exhaustion between packing this house during the week, painting and preparing the other house on the weekends, and taking care of our little one during all of this. My family has been a big help, they come over to help paint, clean, do wood-work, and all the other odd jobs. My parents have been amazing and I can't thank them enough. My sister and Mom are coming back for the move. My sister is the biggest work horse you have ever seen. She and John are very similar with their work ethic. John's Mom has been a big help too, she keeps Gracie so that we can get all of our work done. That on top of giving us the house, she has been a saint. Please just pray that we make it through the move! We will miss Augusta, but I know Gracie is going to enjoy being a country girl.

3 Months old

I can't believe I have waited so long to update Gracie's blog. Things have been a little crazy around here. John was in Atlanta for three weeks of training with his new job and I had my last day of work on the 25th. I am officially a stay at home Mom with little Gracie. It couldn't have happened at a better time because we are also in the 12 days of due diligence for selling our house! It is a rough market for people selling there homes right now so we are very grateful that this buyer came along. It will be a little bitter sweet since this is the house we came home to when we were married and brought our daughter home from the hospital. It has been a great home and we have met some great friends here but now the next chapter of our lives is beginning. We are off to the country. We now need to spend every weekend packing and finishing up our new home. We still have some rooms to paint and alot of cleaning. Gracie has grown by leaps and bounds, she is now 3 months old. She grabs objects and pulls them to her face, smiles at our silly expressions, and laughs out loud. She is starting to hold her head up. But the the best new development has been sleeping through the night, the past two night have been 9pm to 8am. We are praying this continues but we know when she starts teething it will get rough again. Gracie had such a good time in Atlanta with her Aunt Julie and Nana. She is having a hard time adjusting to be home since she was held constantly at my mothers house. We had dinner with some of our friends from church and there babies. It is so much fun to see them all together since they are only a few weeks apart. Our best friends Betsy, Walt, and Luke will be moving to Fountain Inn to start a new church. There son Luke was born two weeks after Gracie. Betsy and I went through our entire pregnancies together (even our classes and same doctors office) and usually go to lunch weekly. I am sad to see my best friend go, but I know they will be bringing the gospel to people who need it! I am posting several pictures of Gracie since it has been so long. Thank you all for being such great friends!