Happy New Year

All the new things we do….

So, with the busy month I haven’t had a chance to really give you any funny Gracie stories.  Let me tell you, at this age, there are a lot.  She is so funny.  So here are a few of her favorite and new things she does right now:

• We are into potty training right now…and when we sit on the potty we have to completely naked.
• While we sit on her Dora potty, we have to sing Wheels on the Bus or the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  It’s kind of funny
• Her favorite words: Stop & NO…..they are not my favorite words.
• She is way into Wonder Pets still…and Backyardigans…aka “Pets and Yardi”
• She loves her new kitchen.  She always uses the microphone to “call in” orders.  Although, it sounds more like a cat moaning for food then it does actual words.
• She loves to jump on everything.  The couch, the bed, anything that bounces.  I can almost foresee a trip to the ER in the future with a huge bump on her head…again.
• She can walk down the stairs without holding on to the railing, scares me half to death.
• She is starting to sing a lot…you will see that in the video I am going to post.  She loves music.  Her favorite song right now is “I need you” by Lady Antebellum.  I don’t know why she loves it but she does!  She gets really excited and dances in her car seat.
• She is going through the finicky eating stage.  I swear she will only eat fruit snacks, applesauce (tried and true), ice cream, and goldfish crackers.  I wonder if she would survive just on that.
• She loves clothes, she pulls everything out of her drawers if you are not in there with her.  Her room is constantly a mess.
• She loves to cuddle…on her terms.  Don’t try it if she is not in the mood. 
• She knows some of her letters and can count up to 5.
• Amongst other things I am drawing a blank on. :)

Well, off for the last full day of the week tomorrow.  I can’t wait until Thursday.  Matt and I are going to the Sun Bowl game hopefully! I will take pictures and share.  Also, look for my resolutions on Thursday…we will see how far I get on them! :)  Enjoy the video below, I apologize for the venue, but Gracie loves to sing on the potty.  I promise it is G rated, I don’t post anything but G rated stuff!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Favorite Pictures from Christmas Blog 3 of 3

Just a few favorites from this year:

Gracie’s Ornament 2009

My favorite ornaments:

Paris 2007

 

My favorite ornaments from Germany

My smiley girl!

 

Christmas Cookies Blog 2 of 3

On Christmas Eve Eve we baked sugar cookies as a family.  We had so much fun!!!  Gracie loved playing in the flour and it brought back fond memories of baking for both Matt and me.  This was the first time we made sugar cookies, but it is going to be a tradition from now on.  Here are a few pictures from the Cunningham Bakery!

 

This is what happens when you need to put cookies in the oven and Gracie isn’t done decorating even though you can see from the pictures above that they didn’t need any more sprinkles!

Taste testing our efforts!

Baking sugar cookies is hard work!!!!

Merry Christmas….Blog 1 of 3

We had a great, quiet Christmas here in the Cunningham household.  It started off at 6:30 with Matt and I getting everything set up for Gracie.  She started yelling for us shortly after Matt got home.  I think she sensed that her daddy was home.  When we got her out of bed, you could tell she knew something was up.  So we took her downstairs to open her gifts:

Heading downstairs with Daddy

Ripping into presents one by one…she didn’t forget how to do it from her birthday!

   

Playing with her groceries in her shopping cart on her new play table.

Eating homemade cinnamon rolls on her Christmas plate.

  

After we got through with breakfast, Matt went upstairs to crash after his 24 hour duty.  Gracie just played with her toys all morning while I relaxed.  Before we woke dad up, we put together her new Elmo restaurant.  She LOVES it! I am so glad we found it for her.

As you can see, she doesn’t have any clothes on.  She is starting to undress herself all the time.  It is a chore to even keep her diaper on.

After Matt woke up, we went to Cattleman’s Steakhouse.  It is the same place we went last year and had a great lunch.  We got a great table near the birds.  We had a beautiful view of the peacocks.  Gracie loved watching them while she ate (a lunch of saltine crackers and fruit snacks.  We had to bring her actual lunch home and that is what she had for dinner.  Feeding a toddler is unpredictable to say the least.) 

Now we are just relaxing at home, watching TV after taking a long afternoon nap.  We were all tired from the past couple of days.  I love Christmas time.  It is a time to remember that we are here because Jesus was born and willing gave up his life for ours.  As you are winding down from the excitement from the day, remember the real reason why we celebrate Christmas.  Merry Christmas to all of you from the Cunningham’s.

Merry Christmas Eve

Well, our Christmas Eve this year was a bit different then past years.  Typically we sit at home, watch a Christmas movie and fix a favorite dinner, and spend time together.  However, this year, Matt had his 24 hour duty again so we had to revamp.  I actually had to work for about 4 hours today then I picked Gracie up from school, came home, made cinnamon rolls for breakfast in the morning, and then went to Jack in the Box for quick dinner pick up for the three of us at Matt’s office.  It was actually kind off nice.  We watched “The Christmas Story” which is one of my favorites and then Gracie and I came home.

I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish before I went to bed so I immediately got started.  The biggest item was folding laundry and putting it away.  Gracie has been all about jumping…on the floor, beds, the couch, if it bounces, she wants to jump on it.  So I put her in her crib so I could have a steady surface to fold laundry.  I look over at her and this is what I found…

Yep, it’s official, we have to change her bed to a toddler bed.  We have been talking about doing it anyway, but now it’s time.  Just one more reminder that our little girl is getting so big.

Well, we are ready for our opening of gifts tomorrow.  The tree has been stocked and Santa has visited.  Have a very Merry Christmas to each and every one of you!

Holidays, Holidays, and more Holidays

During the years and years of trying to have a baby, there were many, many times I said “I want a baby so much, I just hope that my due date won’t be in December or May.”  I won’t bore you with the many reasons (because there are a lot) but mainly because of holiday’s and birthdays (all of our parents, siblings, and us all fall in either April/May or December).  After saying all of that, December is a busy month for us.  Between birthday’s and holiday parties, we are meeting ourselves coming and going twice as fast as usual, which is why I haven’t posted.  I have started this post a million times but it just never got finished so here is a quick update:

• Gracie is becoming a bigger and bigger little girl every day.  She is getting more independent and ready to potty train.  Tonight she took off all of her clothes and sat on her potty but still didn’t go.  I think she likes the big potties at school, because she will go at school.
• We had another Christmas party to go to last week.  We had a great time together as a family.  Grace was able to make a couple of crafts which turned out great.  She is quite crafty.  Her favorite time at school is Arts & Crafts.  You should see the pile that is quickly growing.

• I have figured out that doing pictures with a 2 year old is quite impossible.  If you haven’t reached that point, do yourself a favor and don’t go with any thoughts or expectations on what you want, it won’t happen.  Although, be sure that your little one will come out with some cute pictures.

• We always find a little time in our busy lives to have a little fun.  Matt and Gracie were making use of some left over streamers from her birthday party.

   

• Gracie got to build her own Build A Bear…she choose a monkey with a “bike” shirt…it has the Harley Davidson shirt.  She loved watching the monkey get stuffed.

  

• She has so many faces and we are having fun figuring out which one means what.  My favorite is her “Mom, come on, that is not true.”

Or the “Na uh, Mommy, I didn’t do it” face.

 

And finally the “Mommy, just give in, it’s easier that way” face.