It’s Summer Time

Well, summer already hit El Paso a good month ago, but you know what I mean.  Summer time means swimming, popsicles, and BBQ’s!  Today we had a birthday party to go to for Camden.  I have to say, I am jealous, having a child with a summer birthday is great! I would love to have a water themed party!  I am already trying to decide what I am going to do for Gracie this year for her birthday, December is such a hard moth especially when they are a toddler.  At least I have about 6 months to figure it out!  Before we left for the party, we played a little bit in our pool, Gracie preferred the one at Camden’s house! 

You can really see how long her hair is getting!

She is such a pouter…I have no idea where she gets that!

The birthday boy!!

They play so well together.  She talks about him a lot!

Her favorite thing of the day…the rollercoaster!

Evening At the Park

After we all got home tonight and had dinner, we headed over the park to burn off some energy!  Gracie is really starting to test her limits on the playground.  Matt and I no longer have to follow her around to make sure she is safe.  Just one more reminder (they keep piling up) that my sweet baby girl is growing up!

Tonight, we took her bike with us:

 

We played on the playground:

And we finished off with running around, chasing Daddy:

             Daddy was being silly and jumped over Gracie, she just giggled and giggled…way too cute!

Is it Monday already?

I can’t believe it is time to go back to work already.  I shouldn’t be complaining considering I got a few days off although I was not feeling well at all, but hey you take the good with the bad right? 

We had a nice weekend here at the Cunningham household.  Yesterday, Gracie and I took Matt out for breakfast to his favorite restaurant, Cracker Barrel.  Later in the afternoon we attempted to take Gracie to the movies to see Toy Story 3….. but it was sold out so we just headed home and took it easy for the rest of the evening.

This morning, Daddy wanted to get up and go to the gym, so Gracie and I got busy making cookies and a pie for Daddy for his special day.

 

When daddy got home we spent some time out in the yard, which of course meant Gracie spent time in the pool….

You can tell that she had a lot of fun!

Other then that we had a low key Father’s Day.  It was nice to just relax and catch up on some stuff around the house. 

Gracie is getting to be such a big girl!  I swear she is growing at the speed of lightening.  All of her shoes she owns are almost too small, some of her 2t clothes are starting to fit snug, and the proof is in her measurements…look how much she has grown in the last couple of months…

(pink flower was from about 3 months ago!)

Finally, a just because picture because it is too cute….

Daddy’s Little Girl

There is just something about Daddy’s and their little girls.  Just watching Matt with Gracie makes me fall in love with him all over again.  I love to watch them play together or come up with a plan to over rule what I had just said (i.e. going out for ice cream.)  I love to see them watch movies together, read books, or run around the yard.  The love Matt has for Gracie is one that only girls and their Daddy’s have.  It is a love so sweet, so pure, and so strong, nothing can break the bond they have.  I have talked about Gracie and Matt’s favorite book titled “Dance Me Daddy” a least two or three times.  Well, what I haven’t talked about is the song that is a lot like the book that Point of Grace sings.  The song is based after the book and Gracie likes to listen to it, as most songs these days, it’s her song! ha ha.  Either way, every time I listen to it, I think of the love that is shared between Matt and Gracie.  Her face just lights up any time he comes home or surprises her with anything. It is so super sweet.  I thought in celebration of  Father’s Day I would share the lyrics with you….

“King of the World”

Spinning around on the tops of his feet
Smiles of the angels could not be so sweet
Wide blue eyes And piggy-tails swirl
She's her daddy's girl

Cause he knows the jokes that always make her laugh
He takes her for ice cream instead of her nap
At the end of the day by the light of the moon
They turn up the music and there in the room
And she yells

"Dance me! Dance me around till my feet don't ever touch down
There's nothin' better than bein' your girl
And if I am your princess than daddy
You are the king of the world!"

It's funny how life moves in circles at times
To think not so long ago that face was mine
Houses get smaller we take different names
But some things in life stay the same

"Dance me! Dance me around till my feet don't ever touch down
There's nothin' better than bein your girl
And if I am your princess than daddy
You are the king of the world!"

Cause some day she'll go off and find a life of her own
Marry a good man and make a happy home
Until she comes back and sees with those same eyes
What time can not disguise
She walks through the door with that look on her face
Cause daddy’s brown hair has all turned to gray
They talk for hours they cry and they laugh
Watchin' old movies and thinkin' back
And just as she turns to go
She says, "hey dad, how bout one for the road"

"Dance me! Dance me around till my feet don't ever touch DOWN!
There's nothin' better than bein your girl
And if I am your princess than daddy
You are the king of the world!"

Spinning around on the tops of his feet
Smiles of the angels could not be so sweet. 

Sing Us a Tune Gracie

Gracie is taking after me in yet another area of her budding little personality…she LOVES to sing!  She sings all the time.  It is actually pretty impressive to listen to her sing in the car, she knows most of the words to a number of songs.  Her favorite being the “princess song” by Taylor Swift.  My little girl and her princesses.  Anyway, she actually let me record her singing a few times this week so I put it into a video for you.  Now I will give you a fair warning, the second video is a little all over the place…Gracie took a silly pill before she came home from school today! ha ha!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Gracie is also a dancer…she loves to hop, run, move in any way she can think of.  Anytime music comes on the TV she will run to the rug and bust a move.  Lately she has been doing tumbling type stuff and just coming up with some new moves even I haven’t seen!

 

No one can resist a little butterfly fast asleep on the couch.  These new pajamas are so cute! I love them! 

 

Finally how sweet is this little smile?  She is such a happy little girl!

P,S. Have you noticed what is missing from pictures the last couple of weeks?  Gracie’s mink has officially gone bye bye!   It was such an easy transition for her.  I am still in complete amazement on how quickly she let it go.  She only asked for it a couple of days.  I think the trick was I cut the “nipple” part off and let her find her mink.  She declared it broken and threw it away in the trash.  That was that!  I am so happy and so is Gracie…although she does talk a lot more…like mother like daughter!

Relaxation….

What a nice long relaxing weekend.  I only left the house twice to run a few, very quick errands.  Matt hasn’t been feeling well since about Wednesday, so our weekend “plans” got altered and we just hung around the house doing nothing.  We watched some movies, we watched Gracie being Gracie, and we took naps…both days.  Do you know how long it has been that we have all napped at the same time?  I think Gracie was still considered a newborn. :)

Gracie is just amazing me how quickly she is becoming a little girl instead of a baby girl.  She has really started talking in full conversations.  The funniest thing is that she is saying all the right words just not in the right order.  She also refers to herself in the third person.  It’s too funny!

She spent most of today walking around with the same stack of books asking us to read them.  I think between Matt and I we ready “Llama Llama Red Pajama” at least 25 times.  Not to mention counting all the things in the back of one of her Baby Einstein books.  She is doing a fabulous job at counting.  She can count with ease all the way to 13 and then they all start sounding the same.  Gracie is such a smart cookie!

This week is going to be busy I think.  I know we are busy at work.  I feel like I have been off of work more then I have been at work.  I don’t know if I ever talked about the house stuff…well let’s just say that getting out of my shower and hearing voices outside my window when I live in a 2 story house with the bathrooms upstairs is not my idea of a great time.  The rental company talked to the landlord and they decided to replace the roof, paint the house, and replace the garage door all in about a month.  Granted it has taken longer then it should, but they did the bulk of the work in like 2 weeks.  Did I mention we had no clue about any of this?  Yeah we weren’t happy about it.  But at least it all looks nice.  When they told me that they were painting our house orange, I was a little worried but it isn’t orange orange, it’s a nice burnt brown/orange.  I will try to post before and after pictures soon.  Hopefully we will only be here for another 6 months or so. 

Well, it is incredibly late so I better go to bed.  The naps I have taken the last two days has messed with my bed time! I am surely going to be tired tomorrow!  he he! I don’t have any pictures for you today, I did take a couple this weekend but didn’t get them uploaded yet!  I get them posted soon.  Until next time!

All is quiet….

When you DON’T have a 2 year old running around your house!  We have had a relatively quiet week as far as things needing to be done, but Gracie has not been quiet…at all.  She is cutting her two year old molars which means that she is having mood swings that can put a pregnant woman to shame.  (That was one of my worst things I dealt with during my pregnancy…I would be happy as could be one second and .5 seconds later I was a mess.)  So it has been a lot of crying, whining, laughing, giggling…you get the idea.  You can just picture a little girl with a bright red face, tears streaming down her cheeks, laughing hysterically because a mood swing took over.  I will not be sad when these teeth come all the way through.

She is saying  a lot of cute phrases too.  I have been trying to get them on video, but for some reason, lately she has been camera shy!  I know, it doesn’t seem possible when you constantly have a camera in your face. ha!  A few of her most used phrases currently are:

• OH my goodness!
• Your kidding me.
• Oh Man!

She also has been singing this welcome song they sing at school.  It goes a little something like this:

Gracie’s here today, Gracie’s here today. Hi, ho did you know? Gracie’s here today.  (To the song Farmer in the Dell.)

We have been singing everyone is here today, from Mommy and Daddy to Sleeping Beauty (her favorite princess, which she pronounces Sleeping Doody) to Mommy’s Soap in the bath tub.  It is so cute.  I did manage to get it on video which I will post this weekend.

Nothing else has been going on.  We have settled into a routine for the summer though.  Gracie is adamant that she has her pool time daily.  It is great to let her get some of her energy out before she comes in and settles down for the night.  She loves her pool!!!

Her hair is a mess in these pictures but they are cute.  The top one her telling me that “I’m Gracie.”  The bottom one is such a pure Gracie smile, I had to post it!

   

These pictures are from today.  She insisted on wearing this swimming suit which is a 12-18 month one from last summer.   Amazingly, even with a massive growth spurt over the last 3 months, it still fit her.

And to leave you with one more funny Gracie story, last night we were watching the CMT awards.  Gracie has become little miss independent thinking everything has to be her way.  Her way means clothing is optional.  So she decided to strip down to nothing.  Every time “her song” (which is pretty much every song) came on, she would get up and dance around like a wild monkey.  Well, when they would announce a winner, she would clap and scream in congratulations like she was the only reason why they had been chosen for the award.  It was so funny.  I wanted to get it on video, but the shyness came out again and she wouldn’t do it!  But you get the idea!

Tomorrow is Friday…WOOO HOOOO!  I can’t wait for the weekend.  Enjoy your Friday everyone!

It’s H-O-T

There is no other way to describe the weather other then HOT!  I am not exaggerating (we all know how I can be a drama queen), it was 108 degrees, my friend said in her outside thermometer said 118.  I don’t care if you have humidity or not, once you reach triple digits, it’s hot.  I mean, in El Paso it is a tolerable heat since it doesn’t get humid here…much.  Anyway, it’s hot.  We were actually suppose to go camping with Leda and Brian this weekend but the weather changed our plans.  I just couldn’t do the heat with a toddler. 

So, we went to play at the water park this morning (it was already in the upper-90’s).  Although we didn’t stay too long since the sun was blaring down us.  Gracie of course had fun but today it was a lot more stressful for Mommy and Daddy.  There was a lot of older kids that thought they owned the park.  One little girl thought she could literally push Gracie down the slide with her knee.  Gracie about tumbled down the slide…I about had a fit.  I told the little girl Gracie did NOT need help and to keep her hands to herself.  Then she turned around and did this: Notice the hand right by Gracie.  I was two seconds away from asking the little girl where her parents were but Gracie decided to go play elsewhere so I left it alone.  I am such a Mama Bear.  We stayed about 30 minutes and once again, Gracie had a blast on the slide.  We spent most of the time there…again.    

After the water park, Gracie and I crashed for a good 3 hour nap while Daddy washed both cars…I am glad he can take the heat, I will stay inside where it is nice and cool!  Once we woke up, we hopped in Matt’s truck and went to Walmart to get Gracie a pool.  We had been talking about getting one and debating back and forth which kind we were going to get.  With all the options you have it is a very hard decision.  We finally made the choice to get the plastic ones that you don’t blow up.  When you have two poodles who love to be into everything, we figured this one would be harder for them to clean up.  Not to mention, this one you don’t have to blow up! (Yes, all of you are thinking, “well, Faith, you have enough hot air to blow up 10 pools.” ha…ha…)                                                 She played in her pool for at least an hour and half.  At least we had some shade in our yard.  I will leave you with my two favorite pictures from today and two pictures of our fur babies.  Daisy and Harley don’t get photographed as much, Gracie is a camera hog!! he he!