It's a Girl!

We are excited to let everyone know that we are expecting a baby girl this March! We are really excited for Gracie to have a sister. She is excited also, and is convinced that she too has a baby in her tummy. She likes to stick her belly out and tell me that her baby is growing bigger.

I had a really, REALLY, REALLY rough time for the first while and don't know if I would have gotten through it all without help from my great, fantastic, super mother in law and wonder- woman friends! So thank you to everyone who has been such a great help with Gracie.

Jesse has also been a fantastic husband, and was great at going on grape Gatorade runs in the middle of the night. Also I have to say I am very grateful for the anti-nausea drug Zofran-I will never get pregnant again without having a big supply.

Poor Jesse will be the only guy a house of girls, but he is doing his best at turning Gracie into a sports fan. Gracie knows that he is a softie, and will let her stay up late if she says "Daddy, let's watch sports." I think it is working well for both of them.

Our New Love........

The Little Mermaid on Broadway

Gracie and I have been going crazy over the music of the Broadway show of The Little Mermaid. It has the same songs as the movie, and some new awesome ones as well. Ariel is Gracie's favorite princess of the moment, and she loves the songs and sings along to all the ones Ariel sings. When the song "Daughters of Triton" comes on she says "Hey, those are my sisters!"

Check out this video from youtube that someone put together. The song one of my favorites! Also here is a preview of the Broadway show. Looks like we'll be saving for tickets to NYC!

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE FEVAH'.................

Why isn't this show just on every day of the week? So, I can't wait for it to air tomorrow so I have to re-live, I mean watch some of my fave dances over the Internet and on our DVR. I didn't think last week was that exceptional of an episode. It always takes a little while for the partnerships to gel and for the dancers personalities to shine. The start of a new season leaves me missing the dancers from the previous season. Although some of the dancers have already become quick favorites. I already knew I would love Twitch because of last year...


so here are my favorites, in no particular order:

And, of course, Cat. The great thing about the show is that Jesse loves it just as much as I do! Gracie even gets into it by busting out in some pretty fabulous dance moves for a two year old!

Happy Father's Day!

I just have to let the world know that Jesse is a wonderful dad! Besides taking such good care of his family he is a great example to us. From the moment Gracie was born he has never stopped doting on her. No one can make her laugh like Jesse can, and no one is as great of a jungle gym either! I guess being a good dad requires you know how to have pillow fights and do body slams (Gracie can't get enough of these) and Jesse dose his share every night after a hard days work.

Jesse is a wonderful husband and I love him! Gracie and I are thankful that he is such a great man! We love you!


Love,

Stephanie and Gracie





Also..............................

Happy Father's Day to my Dad! You have been a wonderful Father and I love you! I wish we could be there to celebrate with you. Thanks for all the love through the years. Thank you for the example you have been to me. I love you! You are the best!
Love,
Stephanie

The leaning tower of Gracie

As I was cleaning the kitchen the other day I turned around to this tall tower that Gracie built. She hasn't been one to really like blocks so I was quite surprised to see that the tower was almost as tall as she is! Lately she has been wanting to build "castles" out of everything. Her favorite thing to build "castles" with is canned food while she sits in the grocery cart. In the picture she is pulling her "say cheese" face where she closes her eyes and usually tilts her head to the side. Silly girl!

Happy Easter

We were so excited to go to Atlanta to Mimi and Papa's for Easter, but this weekend has turned out to be not what we hoped for. We arrived in Atlanta Friday afternoon. Gracie had a blast playing with Ella and Ethan, and she squealed when she saw Mimi! (Gracie had been asking to go to see Mimi every day this past week) Things were all find and dandy until Gracie woke up at midnight with the stomach flu. I spent the night up with Gracie, and she was sick almost every half hour. Finally she felt better and then, guess what? Of course I got sick and was sick all day Saturday. At least Gracie felt good enough on Saturday to have an Easter egg hunt with Ella and Ethan.


We all stayed home from church today. I really hope no one else gets sick form us. We were trying to figure out where we picked this bug up, and Jesse helped me remember that Gracie has picked up some unusual habits, or maybe it is a toddler thing. WELL, she likes to lick stuff. I caught her licking a shelf at the grocery store (YUCK!) and then at lunch on our way to Atlanta she poured salt on the table and licked it up then stuck the top of salt shaker in her mouth. After that she got under the table and stared eating her chips that she had spilled off the floor.

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I bought Gracie two Easter dresses (they were both too cute to pass up) but even though we didn't make it to church today at least she got to wear one of them last week.

She is standing on her bed in her newly painted pink and green flowery room.

I hope everyone had a better Easter weekend than we did!

I got tagged - and I am finally doing something about it!

So, I am the worst person to tag......I have been tagged many times and I think this is the first one I have done. Sorry to everyone who has tagged me so far. Here goes:

Six things you should learn before you are 18

1. Learn how to cook at least one good meal that does not involve all pre-packaged foods.

2. Learn about health insurance- once you are off your parents insurance it is nice to know how health plans work.

3. Learn how to set and accomplish goals. Even if they are small at first, you will always be able to gain a sense of accomplishment form doing something you put your mind and heart in!

4. Learn that you should never have to settle: Be it in love, friendships, a career or even the college you go to, know that you don't have to just take what's around you. Go get what you want and don't ever feel ashamed about doing what is best for you!

5. Learn who you are by keeping a journal. The more you know about yourself the easier it is to be confident in all the relationships in your life. Journals really help you understand how you think and react to all the things life throws and you.

6. Learn to tell the difference between the who really love you and the ones who don't . A friend who really loves you will help you back on your feet- not trip you while you are getting up. This seems obvious, but you will run into situations where sometimes it is hard to tell.

Thanks for tagging me Ali. This was really fun!

Our Holiday!

Wow! I can't believe my last post was the end of November- I really need to do better! New Years resolution......right? Well- we had an awesome Thanksgiving, a fun Christmas and a great New Years.

Thanksgiving:

We spent Thanksgiving at Disney World and it was such a blast! Gracie loved seeing Cinderella's Castle and loved being with her cousins Ella and Ethan.

Gracie loved the rides and did really well waiting in line. She loved the Dumbo ride, but she especially loved the carousel.

I was a little worried that she was still too young for Disney World but she was so entertained by all the lights and shows. We say Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters and Gracie didn't want to go near them and said "They're mean!" when we were passing by.

We were also able to go to Wild Animal Kingdom, which was fabulous! Wow! Wow! Wow! Jesse and I had been really excited to go on the Safari ride because we had recently watched a Travel Channel special on Wild Animal Kingdom. It was beyond cool! But then again Disney does everything perfectly! They make it feel like you are going on a real African Safari. You load up in this big safari bus and the road is really bouncy and then.....you see giraffes, lions, zebras, crocodiles, elephants IT WAS AWESOME! The animals are in different areas, but the amazing thing is you don't see any barriers or fences and the landscape looks very much like Africa.

the croc's- look close there are lots of 'em

After the safari ride, you can walk through a zoo type of area and see Gorillas and some other really interesting animals that I have never heard of! This is a must see if you are ever in the Orlando area. Check out this cool video of a Hippo swimming circles in the walking zoo area.

While we were at Disney World Gracie developed a great affection for sunglasses. She wore these glasses all afternoon and on into evening! She even wore them through her nap.

Car troubles and long drive aside- this was a great trip!

Christmas

We had a very quiet Christmas this year. It was our first Christmas with just our little family, but it was fun to be at our new house. Gracie loved the Tree, our toy Nativity Scene and the "scary monster movie" aka the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Gracie wasn't all that interested in presents, but by Christmas morning she was having fun with all the wrapping paper and bows. Here very favorite gift was from Aunt Sarah. A beautiful Cinderella porcelain doll, and Gracie hasn't put it down since Christmas! She also loved her purple dress from Great Grandma Hovey and she begged me to put it in her as soon as she realized what it was! ( She is definitely a girly-girl and I LOVE it!)

Merry Christmas to all our friends and loved ones!
And a Happy New Year, too!

New Year's was celebrated the way I learned to celebrate it six years ago: FOOTBALL! (Six years because that is how long we have been married)

OK- so I love to watch Georgia games and a few bowl games, but Jesse really rung in the New Year by following through with his New Years resolution to watch football all day long. It was not a surprise that Georgia won, and I swearer, that was the longest, most boring, most painful football game I have seen. I think I took three different naps during the game. It finally ended after four excruciating hours. Next year IS Georgia's year!

We wish everyone the best for 2008 and hope you are all well! We love you all and hope to see many of you this year!