Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was crazy!!! It was a very different scene from last year. Grace had been saying all week, "Mommy, I got a present for you." So I was really expecting her to tear into hers. And the kid didn't let me down. She was hilarious! There were lots of presents to be opened and she opened them all but took her time to really examine each one. The biggest was her "really big race car", we call it a jeep, but whatever. But I think the best was her camera and backpack.





It was awesome and so exciting to see her really get into it this year. She's the best! I didn't think it could be better than being a kid on Christmas, but it's so much better to be a parent on Christmas. Well... maybe minus the bills.

Christmas Eve with Grams

Grams came over on Christmas Eve and we had lots of fun. Grace got an awesome little rocking horse and we are currently over hearing the song it sings. She also got a coloring tablet that makes music as you color. And she and Grams had lots of fun coloring. It was a great time with a nap that was too short and too many cupcakes.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas
-The Fay's

Nutcracker

The Saturday before Christmas, Grace and I went to the Nutcracker. I had been wanting to take her since her first Christmas, and this year I finally felt like she could sit still long enough to actually enjoy it. It was great! It was a girls trip downtown, then to get a yummy strawberry shake, her favorite. I had intended on taking her to get her first of many nutcrackers, but we found a snow-globe instead. I thought it was rather fitting since it snowed at intermission during the ballet.

Halloween

Halloween was such a nice night to trick or treat. It's too bad we didn't get to. In our parish we went on 11/01/10, and it stormed all day! Sucko. finally when we were getting ready to go, it stopped and we got about five houses in before it started again. It was probably a good thing too, because every time I turned around Jared and Grace had more candy in their mouths. We did not go to bed at a good time.

Labor Day Weekend

So Jared and I decided this family needed a little out of the house fun. We decided to take some extra time off for Labor Day weekend and play. On Saturday we went to Global Wildlife Center. In case anyone isn't familiar, it's an enormous wildlife park, where you pay (a lot) to feed their animals. Make sense, right? RIGHT? Anyway, they take visitors out on big trains and and you can feed the animals by hand or from buckets. Except the zebras. They bite, so they ask that you toss the feed to them.

So much fun! I think we were both a little worried about Grace trying to throw herself off the train. We had to keep a really tight grip on her, but she had a blast.




And throwing feed on the ground was fun too!

The next day we went to the Louisiana Children's Museum. Mommy was very disappointed. I went there quite a bit when I was little and it was not what I remembered. Jared pressed every button he could find and not one worked. It was all very sad. Fortunately Grace didn't care. However, she did not appreciate the pushy little children who felt like she was moving to slow. She let a couple of them have a very stern look. And her looks are scary!






Then we wrapped up the weekend with more swimming.

Playroom

I finally got around to a project I had been wanting to do for a while; a playroom for Grace. I really needed to move some of her stuff out my living room. She has been taking over the house since before she was born.
It took a while to decide what I wanted to do, but I finally settled on a combo of a few things. I'm not looking forward to every having to re-paint this room. Like, EVER! I liked how it all came out and so did Grace. While I was working she would periodically come up the stairs and say, "Oh Mommy, it's so pretty!" Sweet, huh? I love this kid.

Hospitals and Fireworks

Forth of July weekend we headed over to Granny and Papaw's to celebrate Papaw's birthday and visit Memaw in the hospital. It would have been nicer if everyone was home but that's the way it was. We got to spend quality time with Papaw. Memaw and Granny were able to come home for a little visit in between.
We got in on Saturday, and Sunday Granny brought Memaw home for the day to celebrate Papaw's birthday. I made hamburger cupcakes and we all had a nice time eating, opening presents and visiting.


Gracie had lots of fun Saturday night picking out stickers to plaster on her father and grandfather. They took it willingly, it was hard to refuse with all the giggling.


We were all off of School and work on Monday for the 4th, so it was a busy morning of running back and forth to squeeze in some quality last visits before we made our way home. We grabbed lunch and headed back to the house before we hit the road, and Grace got the best kid's meal toy ever. It was the crazy glasses, nose, mustache combo. She wasn't fond of the nose and mustache, so I took it off and we all had a blast with the glasses.


Just in case you haven't noticed. That's Grace's pretty smile. Please don't worry, she's not in pain, she's beautiful. I love that smile!
We laughed so hard it hurt.

Lion and Tigers and Bears, Oh My

Lion and Tigers and Bears, Oh My
Another first for Grace was going to the Circus. It was a lot of fun. We had really expensive great seats, so she could see everything. Her favorite thing was definitely the elephants. She even got to take a stuffed one home, which she would not let out of her sight. The cotton candy was a big hit too. There were also was a motorcycle on a high line, which she was not so happy about. All in all it was a very fun day and I'd really like to do it again. Maybe though without the horse pooping in the middle of the act.
And a fun fact: apparently the circus wears out little people at about the same rate as swimming all day.

Pool Party

This past summer brought a cool new pool for Grace. She LOVED it!!! I really would like to get her into swim lessons but it'll have to wait until next year. While she was pretty nervous, she did a really good job of letting go and trying to kick her legs. Mostly it was a lot of "floatie" and tummy floating around, but it's a start. And she loved her cool new tankini Granny and Papaw got her.