I promise…

I haven’t forgotten about my blogger friends.  It has been super busy here.  My mom visited this weekend and it was a busy week last week at work and getting ready for the visit.  I will catch up with all of you tomorrow.  Promise!

Fun Fall Weekend

We actually had some fall weather this weekend!  I was a little surprised to say the least.  I knew I wanted to spend Saturday outside.  So we decided to head to Boo at the Zoo.  We have gone every year since we have been here in El Paso.  Gracie loves to go to the Zoo.  Her first time going was when she was two months old!  Like I said in my previous post, Halloween is just not that big of a deal in our house, I just love the excuse to dress her up in cute things!  I love to look back and remember how cute she was the last two years:

And this year is no different!

Gracie and I had a lot of fun walking around the zoo.  I love that she has gotten big enough that she can walk on her own.  We made sure we got there early enough that we beat the crowd.  We timed it perfectly because we were able to watch some of the animals eat.  The giraffes were so close!  I barely used my zoom on this picture:

Gracie as usual had fun watching all the animals.  She knows so many of them and the sounds they make.  If she doesn’t know, she will ask.  Here are a few pictures from our day.  We had to ride the carousel twice, which was where she was being the most photogenic.  This girl is one hard girl to photograph.  I sure hope she behaves with Emily when we have them taken next month!

After the zoo, we had lunch the two of us at Chedder’s.  We had fun coloring and just chit chatting.  This girl definitely takes after her mama in the chatting part!  I am sure her Papa may call her a Chatty Cathy just like he did me when we were in high school!  I don’t think Mike knew what hit him when I walked through the door! ha ha!

The rest of the weekend was pretty much spent at home.  We did attempt to go to the pumpkin patch on post, but I got irritated at the mom’s there since they weren’t watching their children and taking 10 pumpkins when they only paid a dollar, so I swooped up Gracie and we went for ice cream!

At Gracie’s school, they set up a mini pumpkin patch so I took my camera and tried to get a picture of Gracie.  This is what I got:

I can really tell my camera is on it’s last leg!  These were the best ones between the sun, Gracie being silly, and my camera!  Come on Christmas, mama needs a new camera!

I also took a couple of pictures of me picking her up.  There are a couple that are blurry, but I have to include them because you can see how big she is getting.  As a matter of fact, I talked to her teacher about when she is going to be transitioning into the preschool room.  She is definitely ready to go, I don’t know if I am ready for her to go though!!!!  I do have to admit, she is getting to be quite the big girl!

She was showing me her art.  She can usually pick out which one is hers.

So are you asking yourself when did she get to be such a big girl?  Yeah so am I, when you find the answer, please let me know!

Settling In

So, I think we have this down to a science.  It is currently 8:02 and Gracie is in her bed on her way to night night land.  I am sitting here enjoying the quiet.  I could seriously get used to this.  Of course, I have household chores to do downstairs, a long list of things I need to do for Gracie’s 3rd Birthday Party…I know, I will give you a second to recover from the shock…I, myself, am in complete denial over the fact that she is going to be 3.  But it is nice to take a few minutes out of the day to reflect on the day.  I am finding more time to blog when I take this time out.  I know I don’t have any complaints from any of you about that! :)

Gracie is loving everything about life right now.  She is missing her Daddy but understands that he is gone to training and we will get to see him soon (40 days to be exact).  Grandma Beth is coming in next Thursday to spend the weekend with us.  It should be a fantastic time.  Other then that, all the talking that is going on in the house has to do with pumpkins, her birthday, and what her babies are doing.  I love that she is so animated now.  That of course comes with a little bit of attitude and she can be a tad bossy.  As a matter of fact, this little conversation happened tonight:

“Gracie, please take your books back to your bedroom.”

“No, I don’t want to.” (Picture a hand on the hip and a little bit of sass)

“"Gracie, you got them out, you need to put them away.  Your books do not belong in Mommy’s bedroom.”

“You not talk to me.”

(This is where I hid my giggle and responded with)

“Gracie, go sit on the stairs and when you can come back with a happy face and listening ears, then we can talk.”

It took her all of 1 minute to come back with her shining smile and her clean up song.  That little girl is testing her limits daily, but our happy face and listening ears is doing wonders! I recommend to every parent!  I do have to admit, if this is all I have to deal, I shouldn’t be complaining.  I was talking to a friend today and she was telling me stories about her youngsters, and I couldn’t help but be thankful.  I got lucky in the attitude department.  Gracie is so easy going and flexible.  As long as she understands what is going on, then she is fine.

I didn’t take any pictures today, but I should have some more by the end of the week.  We are supposed to have a cool front come through and drop our temps into the 70’s so I am thinking a picnic at the park for dinner may need to be in order!  Happy Wednesday everyone, only 2 more days until Friday!!!!

Take Two

So, here it is, night number two, and Gracie is fast asleep in her bed.  It only took about 20 minutes before she was completely asleep.  She is still afraid of falling asleep without me being in there but I figured it was a work in progress.  Honestly, it gave me a good 20 minutes of peace and quiet.  It seems I am meeting myself coming and going.  It is nice to take a moment to slow down without distractions.

Other then it being another boring Monday, Gracie did get her Halloween costume in the mail today.  She wants to be “Mickey Mouse” so bad…she really means Minnie Mouse so I found a costume on sale.  She looks so cute.  Halloween is not a big deal in our family.  We treat it as a dress up day and nothing more then that.  But I do have to say I have the cutest little Minnie Mouse ever!

Well, I will keep you updated on our progress with Operation Big Girl Room!

Update

*Check below post for full story on Gracie sleeping in her big girl room*

Well, Gracie is fast asleep in her new room.  I found this thing I had received as a present at my make shift baby shower that plays music and projects images on the wall.  Gracie watched and watched it, which means she loves it.  However, every time I tried to leave the room she cried.  Not surprising since the only time she has slept by herself in a room is during nap time and it is always in a room she is used too.  So, I laid down on the floor next to her bed until she fell asleep.  Now I am sitting in my room, a very lonely room now without the presence of a crib.  I will be ok, but I know realize Gracie isn’t the only one transitioning.  It is good for all of us and it is long overdue, but sometimes it takes me a minute to let go.  I know most you probably think I am silly and have had your opinions, but I did what was best for us.  It didn’t feel right until now, to make this move.  Even though it is hard, for both Gracie and I, we will make it just like we always do!  Now let’s see if she makes it all through the night in her big girl room!  My girl is growing up and fast.  It happened in the blink of an eye….

1 week down & some new things

Well, we are one week down with Matt and about 8 more to go.  Gracie is handling this whole thing a lot better then I thought.  She loves her Daddy and she loves it even more when her whole family is together.  However, she seems to be adapting great.  We have gotten into a new schedule since, quite honestly, the last couple of months it has been so scattered.  So what better time to rock a new schedule then now?   So this is how our evenings now go.  No matter what, we now start with story time at 7:00 and end with lights out at 8:00.  Tonight we are starting a brand new thing.  This hasn’t happened since she was a tiny infant.  By the advice of our doctor that then turned into habit, Gracie has always been in our room from the time she was a newborn because she needed to sleep elevated to help with this choking thing that is common with babies that are born via c-section.  It was never anything to be of great concern, but still a need turned into a habit.  Now don’t get me wrong, she has been sleeping in her own bed for well over a year now, it just that her bed has been in our room up until now.  To make a long story short, we just didn’t see the need to move it when we thought we were moving in less then 6 months, but now that we are staying put, she is in her own little room and I don’t know think Gracie could be any happier.  We will see how that goes tonight when it is time for night night. 

In other news, Gracie is turning right into a funny little person.  She constantly cracks me up.  Today we were talking to Matt on the phone.  Gracie ran upstairs with the phone to talk to her Daddy.  Well, I went up about 5 minutes later to find our precious little girl talking to her favorite person on the phone.  And she says to me “Hey, what are you doing in my room?”  As if she has complete say as to what goes on in her room.  I was laughing so hard.  I had a flash forward moment of about 10 years!  Is this what I am in for?  If so, wow, I think I will just stay in this phase! ha!

The other day we went to the park and had a few minutes of playing.  Gracie loves playing on the slide and swinging.  Now that it has finally start to cool down a bit, (we are in the lower 80’s finally), I have a feeling we are going to have to start spending more time at the parks.   Here is a few pictures for a bit of a Gracie fix…

Oh how I love this little girl!  Well, it is the beginning of a new week, hopefully this week will be a quick and fast one! 

Life of a Military Wife

On Saturday we said goodbye to Matt for two months.  He is heading to the east coast for his career counselor training.  It seems like this weekend just popped up.  I felt like I had more time to prepare, and no, I didn’t.  It doesn’t matter if he is gone for a week, months, or a year, it is still hard to say goodbye.  I think the hardest part of saying goodbye this time is that Gracie gets that Daddy is going to be gone for a long time.  She does understand that we get to see Daddy for her birthday party since we are going home for the Thanksgiving holiday (although if you were to ask Gracie she is convinced we are going to Jamaica to go camping).  She hasn’t really asked for him yet, but she did want him when I made her mad today.  You can tell her schedule is off, she didn’t take a nap all day and is now in bed at 7:30 watching Mickey Mouse Playhouse. 

On our last day with Matt, he kept Gracie home since he was on leave.  He decided to drive to South Carolina so he is stopping through Illinois to see his family.  Gracie and Matt had a Daddy and Gracie morning until they came to see me for lunch.  I ended up getting off of work early so we went swimming.  Gracie can now swim by herself with a jacket on.  We have a little fish on our hands.  I think this spring we are going to put her in swim lessons.   

Gracie and I have been just hanging out and working on the house.  Just because we are not moving does not mean that we can’t do a major clean out.  I also switched our guest room with Gracie’s room.  She simply needed more room.  I am in the process of redecorating her room…it is going to be so cute! I promise to show it off when it gets all done.  We did take some time for the park yesterday.  Gracie was not being camera friendly, so I only got two cute ones!

Well, it is the start of another week, I am already looking towards the weekend!  It will be our first full week without daddy, I will let you know how that goes.  Today was a little iffy…so I will keep you posted!

Princesses

So where do you take a little girl who loves princesses?  To Disney on Ice, of course!  We didn’t tell Gracie where we going, and let me tell you when she all the Princesses, she got so excited!  Gracie just kept giggling.  It was so cute.  We took our seats and for the next 2 hours we were blown away.  Gracie kept switching laps between me and Matt so she can tell us who she saw.  So funny…the pictures aren’t so great, but none the less we captured the moment.

We had a really great time!  It did make me think of my grandmother.  She loved ice skating.  It was great to share that memory with Gracie even though she is so young.  Either way, we made our own memory and I am sure we will have to take her again!  Next time I am going to dress her up as a princess!!  

Camping Take 2

So last weekend we packed up the Escape and headed to the Gila mountains for our last camping trip of the fall.  This one was dramatically different then the first one, both the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

The Good:

The beautiful view:

 

Spending time with friends (and everyone riding bikes except for me):

Yummy campfire food (although pay attention and see below)

The Bad:

Jamie encouraging Gracie’s Pringles habit…seriously…she ate 2 out of the 3 cans we brought for her. (It was only one night!)

  

MAJORLY putting my foot in my mouth at the Border Patrol stop…yeah how about after the 4 bikes went through, I pulled up saying: “I am carting all the goods.”  The border patrol agent knew what I meant but about a mile down the road, I realized that that seriously could have had serious, and I mean SERIOUS repercussions.

 

The boys had no faith that we could successfully make pancakes and eggs on the campfire for breakfast so they turned to Pringles and beef jerky.  About 15 minutes later we served up the best pancakes and eggs!

 

The Down Right Ugly:

Well, I had to make a patch with Hello Kitty Band Aids because we had a hole.  The worst part, there were 3 other ones that we didn’t know about so we woke up on the rock hard ground.  Not.Good.At.ALL!!!!

After that wonderful breakfast, we heard some rumblin’ and tumblin’ and sure enough, we saw raindrops.  By the time we got the camp packed up, this is what happened:

However, there were a few highlights: 

As we were driving down the mountain, we saw a cow in the road.  The conversation I had with Gracie went a little like this:

Gracie:  “There is a cow in the road!”                 

Me: “Yes, Love bug, there is.”

Insert a good 30 second pause.

Gracie: “He needs to go to the kennel!”

I laughed so hard, I could hardly see the road.  It amazes me how much this little girl knows.  There are times I have to remind myself that she is growing up, especially when she comes up with things like this! 

Even though I had to get a little more in touch with nature then I intended to, there are things I couldn’t complain about.  This campsite was more isolated then the last one.  It was beautiful.  We were lucky enough to have a creek down the hill from the site.  I was so glad I packed Gracie’s rain boots.  She had a lot of fun playing with Daddy in the creek!

Times like these make memories that are going to last a lifetime.  I am grateful for the time I get to spend with my family, I love each and every moment, despite holes in air mattresses and surprise rain showers!

Stay tuned for what you do for a little girl who loves princesses…all things princess!  I will fill you in tomorrow!

More to come….

I promised myself I was going to type a blog tonight, but I am so tired, it is going to have to wait.  However, I will promise a blog about our latest camping adventure and I am also thinking of a post about some of the things Gracie believes in…should be entertaining!  Keep looking, I will update.  We do have a lot going on this week, but I am going to try to keep up!