Grace turns FIVE!!!

My baby is five! November 22nd, Grace had her fifth birthday. She continues to amaze us with how "old" she is for her age. Her vocabulary remains enormous ("oh my, your hair smells delicious!", "Mommy, is this store available for going into?", "Sister, you are frustrating me to pieces!") She is already writing well ahead of the curve, reading several words, and adding more every day. She is taller than a lot of kids two or three years older than her (she has to have jeans size 7/8 for the length). She LOVES to sing and dance and twirl to any kind of music, and plays a mean air-guitar too. Grace's new-found main passion right now, though, is gymnastics. Once a week we pack off to the gym, where she is learning tumbling, beam, and is even starting on bars now.


Way more important, however, is her sweet heart and the spirit God is fostering within her. Grace truly seems to attune to others easily and goes out of her way to make people laugh or smile. She is an excellent big sister 99% of the time and teaches Lily so many things. She is already becoming our little prayer warrior, sometimes even praying for issues of people that we aren't even yet aware of. Grace routinely floors me with her complex questions about God and spirituality, and Lee and I can both see God at work in our oldest. Talk about amazing!

Here are some highlights for the big girl's birthday:

On Grace's actual birthday (not the day of her party), we took her to eat at our favorite spot here in Graham. When Vetoni's found out that it was her birthday, they brought her a huge piece of cheesecake (that she refused to share AT ALL) and sang to her. She loved it, and blushed like a pro!




The asked-for purple/pink/princess/castle/sparkly cake.


Grace's reaction to the cake. This is a true representation of her most-excited smile




She is the only small child I know that cares about cards. She carefully read through each one and stacked them to peruse later!



Happy Birthday Sweet Girl! We are proud to be your parents!

Lily's 2nd birthday

Sunday, August 1st, was Lily's 2nd birthday. Being that Sundays are mayhem at our house, we opted to celebrate with family on Saturday. No shock to anyone who has talked to Lily more than five minutes, she wanted an Elmo theme. For several weeks leading up to this, Lily would just randomly start talking about how Mommy was going to make her an Elmo cake. So that's what Mommy did! Here is the photo series of her seeing the cake for the first time. It was so cute, she jumped up and down and clapped her hands and admired it for a good several minutes. And that is why I go to so much trouble for these cakes, people! It's always worth it . . . When we sang to her, she totally knew that she was supposed to be blowing out her candles. After we got done and we asked her what we should do next she said "Do it again!" So of course we sang it again. Twice.








Lily had a blast that day. This year she definitely understood that it was all about her, and she had no problem being the center of attention. Her favorite item of the whole day besides the cake was a giant Elmo helium balloon Lee and I found. She is STILL carrying it around with her all over the house and giving it hugs.

She also really got into opening her gifts. She would start to unwrap one and we would say "What is it, Lily?" She would hold her hand up and say "Hold on, hold on." Hysterical. Some highlights . . .


Loving on Uncle Eric

Trying on her new kicks. The girl LOVES her some shoes.

Testing out the new sleeping bag from Mammaw and Pop



We bought her a new baby doll. This is the photo series from her opening it; such a little Mommy!




We also got her an Elmo "cell phone" that you program online so that Elmo says her name in several phrases. Here she is figuring out why it's special . . .

I was really proud of Grace. She did extremely well keeping any jealousy or bossiness in check. Several times she was really helpful, on Lily's terms, and then went right back to being an observer. Really a sign of some maturity with her I thought. Here's a sweet picture of her and my mom.


I take Lily for her two year checkup in a few days. Post to follow on all she's up to these days.

Happy Birthday Sweet Sunshine Girl!

Random shots

Here are a bunch of random pictures from the last few weeks for you to enjoy!

Looking at a butterfly. Lily: "Look, Mama! Budfly in my hand!"

I think Grace looks so old in this picture. It seems not so hard to imagine her face as a grown-up in pictures like these.


Uncle Eric's birthday cake that Grace made him.





Gum in the mouth, swinging on the swingset in the wind DON'T mix, it turns out! (and yes, I was the one that cut it out, not her.)




Grace gives Daddy a gift she made him at school


Playing at the park






Daddy's sweet girls


Lily's first piggy tails. She looked in the mirror and pronounced herself "Piddy!" (pretty) I also love how sassy she looks. Nothing gives a girl confidence like a good hair day!






After supper one night, the girls grabbed leftover oatmeal from breakfast (yuck). Lee and I were talking, and the next thing you know, we hear the bar stools being drug over to Lily's highchair. We expected Grace to try and put her in it, but instead they used it as a table top and giggled the whole time. Why that was fun, I don't know, but it was cute!



Who knew underwear was so multi-purposeful?