Birthday Lunch

Today Grace and I went out for a birthday lunch with some of my friends. We went to a Mexican Restaurant called La Parilla. It was really good. I ordered the Taco Loco. It was the biggest taco I have ever seen! I love how Grace's little hands are clasp as she tries to take a bite of it.

Then the restaurant sang "Happy Birthday" and brought us some yummy desserts. They also had me wear a sombrero. Then Grace wanted to wear it. She loved it. She did not want to take it off, but it was so heavy she couldn't keep her head up straight.

Grace gets ear tubes

We got tubes put in Grace's ears on January 20th. She has had quite a few ear infections in her short little life, and had 2 back to back in the weeks before we had this done. Her first one was at 7 weeks old. We saw 2 different ENT doctors in the summer that suggested that we put them in if she didn't make it through the winter without getting any more. And then she got at least 3 this winter, so we decided it was time to stop giving her so many antibiotics and get the tubes.

She was so cute when we took her in. It was before 7am when we got there, but she was as happy as could be and was making friends with all of the hospital staff. She was still in her pajamas, but she wanted to go and explore the hospital while we waited.

She did really well. She did not even cry when I walked her up to the operating room door and handed her over to the nurse. She just went with her like she had know her forever. Then Mark went down to the cafeteria to get some breakfast and made it back to the room seconds before they brought her back to us. I think that the whole process was less than 15 minutes. So everything had been smooth and easy up to that point. But as they were bringing her back to us that all changed. I could hear her screaming as she came down to hall to the room. And she was not just crying; she was MAD! Mad like I have never seen her. The nurse said that is how they all wake up. Either extremely mad or throwing up. But mostly MAD. The nurse said that it is the anesthesia and it would wear off in about 3 hours. What? I have to listen to her scream like that for 3 hours? So we put her clothes back on and gave her her puppy and she still screamed. We put her in the car and she still screamed. We drove home and I told Mark that maybe we should stop and get her some M&M's (her favorite candy in the world). We stopped and got her some. I gave them to her. And she threw them on the FLOOR! Ok, we get it. She was mad and nothing was going to make her happy.

After one hour she finally stopped screaming and wanted her nany (candy). Thank goodness it did not take 3 hours.

Little Monkey part 2

Ok I just found a picture of Grace climbing before the age of 1. If you dont understand what I am talking about, see the previous post. Here she is at 9 months on the kitchen table.

Monkey For Sale

None of my kids have every been climbers; until Grace. I dont know why such a sweet little laidback girl would want to climb like she does! This all started the day that she turned 1. After her birthday party she must have decided that she had been such a good baby for 1 year that now she needed to shock her parents. Here she is after her birthday party.
We did not help her get up there at all. I am now getting use to her climbing up on everything and it does not shock my too much anymore. Maybe it should. This morning as I am cleaning the kitchen this is what she is doing. (Notice that she is standing on my laptop! Mark would be thrilled.)You can see in one hand she has a note pad and in the other hand she has just taken a pencil out of the little basket. She knew exactly what she was going up there to get. So, I take the pencil and paper and put her at the table. I even go and get her a coloring book and the crayons and this is what she does.I am sure that some day I will walk in the kitchen and she will be on top of the fridge getting the play dough or something. Oh well, at least she is a good little girl. She has to do something bad or she would be perfect. (I case you were wondering she is not for sale.)

Recipe of the Week #7

Hallie and Carter are at shcool, Jackson is at preschool and I laid Grace down for a nap. I have grand thoughts of all the things that I am going to get done; but what do I do? I bake. That is what you are suppose to do on a cold day. The east coast is under a winter weather advisory. Tonight is is suppose to be -5. That is unheard of in Georgia. So I better take advantage of it while I can. I put some Chicken and Cheese Enchilada Chowder in the crockpot and start thinking about what I can make with some zucchini that needs to be used. It has to be well hidden or the kids wont eat it. So I will make Zucchini-Chocolate Chip Muffins.

3/4 cup whole wheat pasty flour (or all-purpose)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup milk

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup shredded zucchini

1 shredded apple

1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

1/4 cup pecans or walnuts

Mix all dry ingredients together. In a bowl whisk egg, oil, milk, lemon juice, and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients. Fold in the zucchini, apple, chocolate chips, and nuts. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Grace woke up while I was making these. So I put her in her high chair and let her have some multi grain Cheerios. They are her new favorite. When I gave them to her so grabbed fistfulls and put them in her mouth as best she could.

Later she started scooting all over and come in the kitchen to wait paitently for the muffins to be done.

After the muffins were done I made Three Great Tastes Blond Brownies and Cornbread. (I am not going to eat all of this stuff. I am taking it to a girl in my ward that just had a baby.)

So I did not great any of the things I needed to do checked off my list, but I did have fun baking. Maybe tomorrow I will get those things done. Or maybe I will find another recipe that is calling my name and begging to be made!

Plum tuckered out

"Plum tuckered out" is a way that my Mom descibes people when they are worn out. Apparantly that is how Jackson felt the other day when he came home from school. Mark took these pictures of him.

This is how I feel right now. I just spent 5 hours at the mall. I must have lost my mind to decide to go to the mall 4 days before Christmas. I was not Christmas shopping, thank goodness. I was trying to find a pair of shoes for Hallie. Black dress shoes. It should not take 5 hours to find a pair of shoes. But Hallie has these long skinny feet that no store has shoes for. We finally found some, actually a couple pair. I also bought Grace some shoes; and she has the opposite problem. She has extremely small feet. She does not even wear a size 1. The lady at the shoe store told me that size 1 is usually for newborn to 3 months old. I have never had a baby that is almost 8 months old and cant even wear a size 1. Oh well, the ones that I found are cute. Here she is modeling them.

Blabbering or First Word

Grace has started to say Da-Da. We think. Mark is always trying to get her to say it and so he is taking credit for teaching her her first word. It seems very early to me for a baby to start talking, but our kids have always talked early and very clearly. So who knows. You can watch the following videos and decide for yourself. Blabbering or first word?

Grace swinging

Here is a little video of Carter swinging Grace in her jumper. She is not laughing like she was before I got the camera (of course) but you can still tell that she likes it.

Who is carrying you?

This is how Jackson came to me today. I did not take the picture at that time because I had to rush to get Grace before he dropped her. (For this picture I had him show me how he picked her up and then took the picture. And Hallie was standing there ready to catch her if he dropped her.) When Jackson brought her to me her arms were up around her head because she was slipping down as he walked. Later I let him drop a raw egg in the sink to show him what would happen if he dropped her. I dont know that it taught him anything other than throwing eggs in the sink and watching them crack is fun.

Happy 7th month birthday!

I meant to post this yesterday (the 25th) since that is really her birthday but didnt get to it, but I thought I would post it anyway.

Happy 7 months little Gracie. You are such a cutie pie and such a sweet baby. I cant believe you are already 7 months old. I love it when you bury your head in my shoulder and squeeze me back when I hug you. And how you kick your arms and legs like crazy when I come to get you out of your bed. And your sweet baby breath. And how you put your head on my shoulder and sleep after I feed you at 3 am.

Writing this makes me want to go wake her up and play with her. But I wont. Here are some pictures of the 7 month old little girl.

Pearly Whites

Last week was the week of teeth. Grace got her first tooth; actually teeth. She got her 2 bottom teeth in one day. She had been waking up a lot in the middle of the night and I just could not figure out what her problem was. Then one morning she was chewing on my finger and there they were. It took a few more day and then they were completely out. Here is a picture of them.Then, a few days later Hallie FINALLY lost her snaggle tooth. Her front top tooth has been sticking out because her adult tooth was coming in behind her baby tooth. It looked horrible. I told her that if she did not get it out by Friday that I was taking her to the dentist to have them pull it. On Thursday night she was at soccer practice and a boy that was defending the goal kicked the ball and it hit her in the mouth! Knocked the tooth right out. I told her that she needed to thank him for saving her from having to go to the dentist and get it pulled.

Really Big Guy

On Sunday we went to a stake fireside with Coach Ingle and Shawn Bradley. Coach Ingle is a man that is in our ward that is the basketball coach for Kennesaw State Univerity here in Georgia; but coached at BYU when Shawn Bradley played there. It was a very good fireside. It was for the youth but everyone was invited; so we went. Shawn Bradley was a very good speaker. At the end he answered questions that the youth had. He is some interesting things about him. He is 7 feet 6 inches tall. He was only 19 inches when he was born; but 10 pounds. His wife is only 5 feet 4 inches tall. They have six kids. Since retiring from the NBA he now is the the athletic director and assistant principal for a school for troubled teens. Here are a few pictures of Shawn holding Grace; and with me and Mark.