Welcome Missy

Two weeks ago we welcomed a new addition to our family. Please welcome Missy, out new bulldog! She is 3 years old and we adopted her from the So Cal Bulldog rescue. She is very sweet and mellow. She is awsome with Grace. Grace became attached the minute we brought her home.

Christmas

Christmas Eve was nice and quiet with Tim, Grace and I enjoying each other. We went to Christmas service at church at 4:30. Grace was great during church!!! After church the 3 of us went out for a nice dinner. After dinner we headed home to call Tim's family, they were all gathering at Tim's mom's house in San Francisco to celebrate. After talking with all of them we got in our Pj's and opened a few gifts from Tim's side of the family. We prepared a plate of cookies and cup of milk for Santa and then got Grace down to sleep.

Bright and very early Christmas morning Grace was up and ready to see if Santa had come. First she saw the empty plate of cookies and her eyes were as wide as saucers. Then she saw all of the gifts under the tree and she said, "Oh my goodness!" It was so cute. All Grace kept saying she wanted for Christmas when anybody asked her was ... candy. So she went to her stocking and she said, "I think Santa put candy in here!"

After a whirlwind of opening gifts we got ready and got on the road to my parent's house for a fun day of just hanging out. Around 3:00 my sister, husband and two kids arrived and the whirlwind of opening gifts started all over. It was so much fun!

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Our Christmas was so blessed!

Christmas Activities

I know, I have been such a bad blogger... I will try better. I can't believe Christmas has come and gone, just like that. Our month of December was filled with fun Christmas activities. Here our a few highlights of our month ...

Our adoption playgroup decided to do a Breakfast with Santa potluck. We all brought yummy breakfast food and we even had some mimosas for the adults to enjoy. After eating we had a special visit from Santa!!! All of the boys loved Santa, the girls on the other hand wern't too sure of of the big guy. Grace got close to him but would not sit on his lap. She did give him a hug before he left though.

This december we did lots of crafts and baking. Grace was so fun and helpful this year. She loves being given a job, weather it be to mix the batter or clean up all of the scraps from a project, she will take the responsibility and get the job done. One of the fun projects we did was to make a ginger bread house. We did this last year and had a great time. I thought it could be a little tradition of ours. This year's house turned out much better than last years.

Another tradition that started a few years back is to visit the live nativity at our church then hop in the car and take a drive over to a neighborhood in our town that goes all out with the Christmas lights. This year we had some friends over for dinner then we did the nativity and lights together. We walked the whole neighborhood and Grace loved seeing all of the different light displays. She loved it so much we drove it again the next night. It was really cold that night so here is a cute picture of her all bundled up in her new hat and "globes", ready to go.

Halloween

Our Halloween was very special this year. Tim's mom flew in that day from San Francisco to spend the weekend with us. Grace dressed up as a fairy this year. My mom bought the pattern for this costume a long time before she had any grandchildren. She said that one day she would have a girl grand baby to make the costume for. Well ... this was finally the year! The costume turned out soooooooo cute. It was the perfect year for Grace to be a fairy since Tinkerbell just came out on video. Every time Grace see the commercial she gets so excited. I think Santa will have to bring that movie to her this year. Enjoy the pictures!

Pumpkins!

I love fall, I love pumpkins, I love Halloween! Here are some cute pictures ...

Camping

I am a little behind on updating my blog. Here are pictures from our camping trip in September.

Our Little Princess

Grace got a lot of dress up clothes for her birthday. Her favorite right now is her Snow White costume, especially the Snow White shoes. She puts the shoes on every day when she gets home.

Ariel Party

A couple months ago, when I started thinking about Grace's birthday party, I couldn't decide on a theme. I decided to print out a page of all of the different themes that I found on one of the birthday party store websites. I showed the page to Grace and let her pick which one she wanted. She immediately picked Little Mermaid. I was really excited because I have loved Little Mermaid since it came out, it's one of my favorite movies of all time.

Since Grace picked the theme so many months ago she has been asking me almost everyday if her Ariel party is today. Finally, the day of the big party came on Sunday. We held the party at the same indoor play area that we had her party at last year, Playtown. We ended up having 34 adults and 16 kids! The party was a blast, all of the kids had a lot of fun. Cake was the only thing that got the kids to sit down for a minute.

Grace got so much great stuff. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends.

Happy Birthday

Today our sweet baby girl turns 3!!

Happy Birthday Sweetie!!!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Good-bye Penny Girl

We had to say good-bye to our beloved Penny girl yesterday. Tim had Penny before he met me and when I fell in love with Tim, I fell in love with Penny too. Penny had a good long life. We are going to miss her more than words can express.

4th of July

I need to start by saying I LOVE FIREWORKS!!! In the past few years we haven't had the opportunity to go see any. Grace was still so little and would get really cranky if we went off of her sleep schedule. Plus, she doesn't really like loud noises, she covers her ears when the gardner comes or if a motorcycle goes by.

When I was little our tradition was to go to my Grandma's house for a BBQ then all of my aunts, uncles and cousins would pile into cars and head out to Shaler Park (Pittsburgh) to watch the fireworks. We would bring blankets, chairs, and snacks and we would settle in for the firework display. My sister would always sit in front of my mom or Grandma and they would cover her ears because she hated the loud booms.

After we moved to California we didn't really get into the swing of creating a tradition for 4th of July. A couple years in a row we would take a picnic dinner to a park that was about a mile away from the fireworks. We could see them, but we wern't right there getting the full effect of the fireworks. As we got older we kind of all went our seperate ways for the 4th.

This year, Corona (where my parents live), moved their fireworks to this huge park across from my parent's old house. We decided to make a picnic dinner and make an evening out of it. We got to the park at about 6:00 PM and the festivities were in full swing. They had a band that played the entire time, jumpy's for the kids, a rock wall, games, and food booths. Grandma brought a pinwheel for Grace and she was marching around with it like she was the leader of a band. We were sitting on a hill and Grace turned so her back was facing down the hill and she fell backwards and realized that she could do backward rolls. I picked Grass out of her hair for days from her rolling down the hill! Finally it was time for fireworks. I was worried that Grace wouldn't like the fireworks because of the loud noise, but she loved them! It was such a fun and perfect 4th of July!

San Antonio - Days 3.4. and 5

The next day we decided we wanted to take it easy. We were pretty tired from two action packed days of fun. A lazy day by the pool is just what we needed. I think the pictures say it all ...

























After after all of the pool fun and naps we headed downtown to expolore the Alamo and Riverwalk. The Alamo is smaller then what you picture, but the history there is so great. The Riverwalk is like nothing I have ever seen. It is a beautiful, tropic, meandering river with tons of restuarants, bars, hotels, and nightlife. We took the boat tour and then had dinner.


















On our last full day in San Antonio we went to the San Antonio Children's Museum. We have been to a lot of children's museums and this is one of the best. It had a lot of Texas culture in the activities. One of our favorite things at the museum was the fake cow that you could milk. After the museum we went to the Buckhorn Saloon for lunch. It was a very interesting, old saloon. All of the walls were covered with animal heads.

Later that evening we went back to the Riverwalk for dinner and then we sat outside and listened to a band play while we had some ice cream. Grace was digging the music and even showed off her dance skills a little. I will add a video of Grace and her dance soon, so please check back. It was the perfect end to our wonderful vacation!