Learning to Ride a Bike

Grace got a tricycle from Santa last year. It had been up at GG's house until recently since we didn't have a place to ride for a while, plus she couldn't quite reach the pedals. Now that she is a little taller and we have a place for her to ride, GG brought the bike down and Grace has been giving it a try. Grace is a stubborn kid when it comes to figuring things out herself. She often does not want help until she reaches her breaking point. One day after school she wanted to try to ride so we went out. In the video below you can hear her talking to the bike trying to get it to go. It was pretty cute. She got it figured out some, but  I think the mini hill on the sidewalk helped. I am betting by the end of summer she will be unstoppable on that bike!

At the end of the day, sometimes it is just easier to push your bike around!

Having Fun at Home

With the new house and a new mortgage, we often don't have the funds to go out exploring so lots of time is spent at home. We have lots of fun painting nails - even Brian's - and playing outside as much as we can. Grace LOVES her play set outside. The second the child wakes up - at 5:45 am mind you - she is ready and raring to go outside. We do love our house and have lots of fun together!

Grace would swing all day long if we let her.

We even got Grace some fish - she named them fish.

This is her new superman trick she learned from the neighbors. Now she can swing when mom and dad aren't outside.

Children's Museum

Towards the end of February (I know I've been horrible at blogging lately) we headed to the Children's Museum to check it out. Grace had lots of fun playing with trains, shopping in the grocery store they have, painting and tap dancing. She had a blast and while it got really busy towards the end of our visit and Grace got a bit overwhelmed, we still had lots of fun and I'm sure we will go back in the future.

First time Bowling

On Saturday we were invited to join our good friends the Berndt's to go bowling to celebrate Kenny's birthday. We headed out and Grace had lots of fun bowling. She thought pushing the ball down the lane was a grand old time. She didn't even want to watch to see if the pins fell, it was just all about getting a new ball and pushing it down. I'm sure we will go bowling often as she continues to get older. It was a fun night!

Valentine's Day

Grace learned a lot about Valentine's Day at her new school and liked to talk about it a lot over the last week. She even asked Huck to be her Valentine.

We had fun helping her decorate her Valentine box for school which she brought home yesterday with lots of cards and candy.

On Valentine's day Grace wore a special pink tutu we picked out and when we got home later that night Brian made us spaghetti and we made Brian brownies. We had lots of fun!

We hope you had a fun day as well!

Favorite Sayings

Grace is a chatter box, that is for sure. I wanted to record some of what she says of late that we find pretty darn entertaining.

"Mom, ketchup will make you happy."

Grace: "Mom, will you be my valentime?"

Me: "Of course Grace. What does it mean if I'm your valentine?"

Grace: "That you're pretty."

"How you doin' girl?"

"No, I in charge!"

"No, I'm not Grace, I'm the mom, okay girl?"

"Huck stinky." (said after every time she passes gas, she has already learned to blame the dog!)

And probably one of our favorites lately is that every time we discipline her or she gets mad at us she says, "You not coming to my party!"

Happy Valentime's (as is said in our house by little munchkin) Day!

The Last Supper

It was very bittersweet to leave the condo and move to our new home, but on Friday, February 3, 2012 we had our last supper at the condo. We ordered from Pasquinis, one of our favs and enjoyed a lovely family meal at Grace's little table. It was a night I won't forget.

We have so many wonderful memories at the condo that at times it is hard to believe that we left it. It was the first place that I ever owned. I had lots of single girl times there. Then met Brian at a bar near the condo and fell in love. Brian proposed to me there. We lived there during all of the excitement of getting married. Found out we were having a baby there and eventually brought that baby home to live with us to her pink room that we both painted. As I sit here and write this I still get teary eyed. As much as I loved living in the condo I am thrilled that Brian & I are able to now provide a home for our daughter and a wonderful neighborhood for her to grow up and thrive. I imagine we will make many more memories in this new home and I look forward to every last one of them.

We are now all moved and slowly getting the house together. I will post photos as soon as things are a little more organized. For now, here is a photo of the outside of our new home.