To Our Beautiful Daughter

Dear Grace,
We have no idea what just happened! How are you one already! A few days ago, you were wrapped in blankets and snuggled next to the bed in your bassinet.



Yesterday, you were crawling for heavens sake! Now, without permission, you are walking and saying your first words! We are so very proud of you...watching you grow is the greatest gift we could ever receive. Please, for us, try to stay small just a little while longer. Time has no meaning sometimes and we can't help feel like we are missing everything. Everyday means the world and we could not ask for anything more...accept that you stay healthy forever! We love you more everyday.

We love you,
Daddy and Mommy

And then she turned ONE!

It's offical. Our baby girl is a sweet little one year old toddler... but she's still our baby. I must admit while I am happy that she's growing strong and healthy, I had a hard time with this first birthday. I had my fair share of crying over the fact that she's becoming a little girl and she's not a baby anymore. I even pulled her out of the crib last week just so I could to rock her a little while longer. I could cry right now watching her walk across the living room drinking from her sippy cup. A sippy cup? She's getting so big.



I wanted to do something fun for Grace's 1st birthday so we decided to take her to the zoo. We went to the Baton Rouge Zoo, which was a disappointment considering both Jared and I grew up with the Audubon Zoo. Seriously, one of the two elephants is knocking on heavens door. It's sad, but true. Despite all that we had a great time. Grace was loving the giraffes, so we spent lots of time with them. We ate lunch at the Flamingo Cafe and Grace got her first taste of ice cream, and of course loved it.









Later that day she got a couple presents from Mom and Dad and thenit was cake time. It went over pretty well, better then we expected, but her actual party was a different story.





The next day I took Grace to her 1 year checkup. There were shots of course but it wasn't all bad. There is no more formula in our future, which gives Mom and Dad's checkbook a sigh of relief.

Then it was time to get ready for the big party. Grace even helped by cleaning the floors for Mommy.

Of course I made Grace's invitations and cake, which I was so excited about.






I think all my OCD stressing out actually paid off. I just really wanted her to have a nice party, even if she won't remember it. Grace got tons of awesome presents that she is loving. Everyone was so sweet. Thanks a bunch!




Then it was on to cake time, which didn't go over quite as well as it did on her actual birthday. I think it may have had something to do with the 15 or so people starring at her. She gets a little nervous in front of all those people.




She played a little and then it was time for a good nap. We hope you had a great birthday party Grace. Daddy and Mommy love you.

Catching up

Okay, so I know it’s been a loooong time since my last post, but I’ve been super busy with a certain birthday party extravaganza! I’ll get to all the birthday stuff in a later blog, but on to the other fun stuff that was February. So I left off on Valentine’s Day. Grace got lots of presents from Mommy, Daddy, Granny, Papaw, Memaw, Grams and even Aunt Judie! Wow, this kid gets a lot of love. We had to wait for sleepy head Daddy to get up to open her presents, which I noticed was starting to really irritate Grace. I got her an oversized Valentine’s ladybug balloon, and she wanted it! NOW! After we opened presents I took what is my favorite picture of Grace so far; her Valentine’s Picture, complete with a red blanket and sweet little red dress. She look like such a proper little lady with her hand on her knee, but let me warn you, do not trust a picture. Grace is as rough and tumble as they come. Next up was Mommy’s birthday. So the 24th was not only my birthday, it was Mardi Gras and Kelly’s birthday. Happy Birthday again Kelly. I hung out with Grace all day since Jared had to work. Neither one of us are big parade people so we didn’t make it to that. I’m not a fan of the crowds, they make me nervous and I didn’t want to go into a full blown panic attack with Grace there, and a whole bunch of $.25 bead hungry drunks. So instead we played and cleaned and napped until Dad got home. He brought presents and flowers. I got books and a SPA package, all of which I was super excited about. Jared booked my appointment, and I went yesterday. I also got a long overdue haircut, and went shopping, all by myself. It was so much fun and I really enjoyed all of it but I was sad to be away from Jared and Grace all day on one of my oh so short weekend days. Onto the best part of February. Grace started WALKING! HOORAY!!! I’ve never seen three people more excited about anything. We all jumped around and laughed and WALKED! So Jared was playing with her on the floor and she stood up by herself for a long time, so I stopped what I was doing and got on the floor. Now keep in mind that she’s never really stood by herself for more than a second. So when I got on the floor Jared stood her up and we started coaxing her to come to us and she did. Grace was so proud of herself. We have a little video of it, but it’s kind of dark.