Leelou Swag!

I have never heard of Leelou Swag until today - but I love, love, love the site! Right now they are giving away a Joovy Caboose stroller - which I would LOVE to have! It is a type of Sit-n-Stand stroller. Perfect for Grace and the new baby. I went and explored the Joovy site - and I saw quite a few other must-haves for the registry! :)

To enter in the give-away, I need to share some of my favorite things with my friends and family...so here is a list of some of my absolute favorites!

1. Fountain Coke - icy cold...and must be a fountain. I rarely drink coke otherwise!

2. Torchy's Taco's - Yum. I want one right now just thinking about it!

3. My camera - Can't imagine life without it...I love that I will have these moments forever! Thanks, Nandy, for the great Christmas present - that keeps on giving!

4. Scrapbooking - a fun, creative outlet!

5. Insurance - I know that sounds silly, but with all the complications I have been having with this pregnancy, I count myself as very blessed for having it! Both medical and auto - since that girl totaled my truck!

Now, I am off to explore Leelou Swag and see what else it is all about!

So behind....

I know, I know, the story of my life - behind in everything! I procrastinated through those Easter shots, and now we are half way into May.

I just wanted to write a couple of things down so I don't forget them.

The other day, she was mad at one of her little friends, so her way of being mean was to tell them that she was going to play with Kate and not let them play with her. She said, "I'm gonna hug her real tight and not you." While that is not nice at all, it was sweet to me - because it shows me how much she loves her friend Kate. She loves her so much that the meanest thing she could thing of was someone else missing out on playing with her.

On Monday, Grace and I hit the pool. We were swimming along, playing in the water when she just out of the blue told me, "Mommy, I love you." She did it a few more times. Those are the moments that I live for.

Tonight, while saying our bedtime prayers, she told God, "Please give me back my Poppy." Yes, I got all teary eyed. For me, it came out of no where, but I do remember talking to Jeff about him at dinner, so maybe that was what she was thinking.

I'll be back to update with photos from our busy month since my last post!

Crafts

You guys know how much I love crafts! Here are some of the more recent ones that we have worked on.

Painting with our feet - these are all I have because my battery died (first time ever! I can't believe I didn't charge it!). Gotta love those little feet...except maybe Aunt Shanna and Unc - who think feet are gross. Just weird, if you ask me - what isn't to love about this:Decorating Crosses! I did this as a child at school. I think maybe the first grade? Mostly, I just remember that my dad made all the crosses (almost) for my class. I am pretty sure we spray painted them gold - but with my memory, who knows. When I saw these crosses, I thought it would be a fun way to talk about Jesus with Grace. Especially, since this is the Easter season.Decorating Easter Eggs! I love to do this each year! This year we did it with our friends, Austin, Josie and their big brother, Alec, who was out of school for the holiday. Grace LOVES this activity! And - that thing on her head....a bracelet. Not sure what was going on with that.

Friends - Kate, Ava and Josie

Josie is Grace's newest little buddy. She wants to help take care of her. She wants to feed her and dress her and make sure no one touches her or tries to pick her up (of course, I have to tell her constantly not to pick Josie up!). She tells people all the time that Josie is her sister! Here she is feeding Josie at bottle.Kate is Grace's oldest friend...no, not age wise! She met Kate before meeting anyone else here in Austin. In fact, through Kate and her mom, we met most of our friends in some way or another. We don't seem them nearly as much as we used to, but Grace and Kate pick up where they left off - Kate is almost always the first friend that Grace wants to invite any where, hopes to see or talks about. Recently, we got the girls together to ride their scooters! The red marks on Grace's face are not scratches from Kate, btw! Those are left over bunny whiskers from getting her face painted!Ava is Grace's newest friend. We met them over the summer last year and they attend the same school. They get along really well - off the top of my head, I can't recall a time they have gotten in a fight. When Jeff was out of town, Amy's husband also happened to be gone. Grace and I hung out with them for a fun evening and ended up sleeping over. Ava and Grace read together and then exercised together before bed!

Birthday Parties!

We have recently attended 3 parties; Nakita's (can you believe that I actually forgot my camera?), Kiersten and Bella (the twins from her school) and Austin's.

Kiersten and Bella partied it up at Chuck E. Cheese - one of Grace's favorite places! Almost all of her school friends were there, plus a few other friends. She especially had a great time with Ava and Bella. If I lost sight of her, I was sure to find her with them.Austin's party was at Goin' Banana's. We had a ton of fun there. I'm not sure who had the most fun - Grace and Ava or me and Amy (Ava's mom). Amy and I slid almost as many times as the kids did! Grace loved the chocolate cake - but, not nearly as much as Ava, who couldn't keep her fingers out of the cake. Grace was so tired and filthy after this party. We went straight home for a bath and bed - and, she wanted nothing to do with the bath. I don't know that I have ever seen such a temper tantrum outta that child! She was asleep within minutes of getting into bed!

Here I go getting behind again...

Here are some photos of us having fun! The past few weekends have been full of what we call "Family Fun Days."

(March 22nd) We went to the Buda park to throw the frisbee (lots of fun with a 3 year old!), fly our kite and just hang out!Grace wanted to take some photos - she actually did pretty good. Of course, there are some of just our chins and down, but these are my 3 favorites!
(March 28th) We invited Rachel to hang out with us - we went to the park at Plum Creek. After a while Sean and Rhonda joined us. The guys threw the football for a while, Grace tried to jump rope (notice I said tried), we played on slides, swings and just about everything else!That night, after bath, Grace and I did our nails! She picked a different color for each set of fingers and toes! She is SO girly - loves getting her nails done, her make-up on, fixing her hair. She has to get that from her Aunt Shanna or her Nandy - certainly not from me!Here she is at her little playgroup. This is the one that we have been going to since right after we moved to Austin. These are the friends that she almost always talks about - and the ones that even if we saw them 3 times a week, it wouldn't be enough! Here we are painting with cookie cutters! Grace had a wonderful time with this craft (thanks, Kristy, for organizing it!). She keeps asking to do this one again!