Halloween

Here are some pictures from October. Nathan's mom came to visit one weekend so we decided to head to the pumpkin patch.

Playing on the tractor:


Our little family out in the field of pumpkins!




I think her favorite part was the little playground they had. She could go down the slide all day!

Walking across the bales of hay.
They also had a bunch of chickens and some goats. She loved the chickens. It was so funny to hear the way she kept saying "chi-kin" over and over, so cute!




Grace was a cute little witch for Halloween. We went with her cousins to a little downtown Halloween fair type thing where they had trick or treating in shops and little activities to do. At first she wasn't quite sure about everything, but once she realized there was candy involved she was all for it and wouldn't let go of that trick or treat bucket! She even managed to learn to say "tick o teet!" It was pretty cute!








I wanted to get a picture of her posing on our front steps, but she was too interested in what she got! I think she's the only kid who loved the toothbrush someone was handing out! She LOVES toothbrushes and has 4 or 5 of them she carries around the house.





Messy face girl that's had too much chocolate!

Grace definitely makes holidays more fun! We are really getting excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Recent Family Photos

It's no secret, this girl is adorable!

Here are a few things about Grace lately:

• Grace LOVES the song "Tonight Tonight." When it comes on the radio we turn it up loud and the girl gets a huge smile on her face. She sings along to the "tonight" and "wo-oh-oh" parts by saying "night! night!" and "woah, woah." Of course, we had to buy it on itunes. Sometimes she begs for it by either saying "night!" or "more song!" and I turn it on repeat. It is not uncommon for it to play on a continuous loop for over an hour (usually while I'm making dinner) and yet every time it gets to the end of the song she gets extremely concerned and begs "more! more! more song!" and then, a few seconds later as it begins again, the smiling and dancing recommence.

• Her vocabulary has exploded! At around 14 months I was curious to know exactly how many words she knew. I counted over a few days and came up with about 40 words that she used correctly and consistently. I thought it would be fun to keep track of her words as she learned them, but that soon be came an impossible task, it seemed as though she was learning a new word or two every day! Now, at 17 months, she has started putting words into short phrases and is very good at expressing what she wants and needs.
  

• This girl knows how to put on a show, what a ham! This last weekend, Nathan's mom and sister came to visit. I swear, Grace was in "perform" mode the entire two and a half days. Running around, laughing, being extra cute and adorable. I can't describe it, but she just attracts attention and smiles from everyone.
  

• She is so loveable and cuddly lately. As an infant she was not one that really liked to cuddle a lot, she was just always so alert and wanting to watch everything that she never ever put her head on our shoulders to relax and go to sleep or anything like that. Things have definitely changed as she's gotten older. She is always hugging and kissing her stuffed animals. Any time she sees Nathan and I hug or kiss she says "Hug!" and runs over as if not to be left out of the fun. Then we have our little family hug, which is cheesy and adorable. She runs up to Nathan when he gets home from work and grabs his legs to hug tight.. And lately, she's taken to letting me cuddle and rock and sing to her before bed, and I'm just trying to soak it in because I know it won't last forever.

• She's addicted to her stuffed Minnie Mouse. Well, she loves all her stuffed animals, but especially her "Munny" as she calls her. Minnie comes in the car with us often, but I don't allow her to come in the stores or other places with us. :) And, she's also gotten into blankets, dragging them around like Linus from Charlie Brown. Pretty darn cute is all I can say about that!

• She loves babies. She goes nuts over every baby we see at church or out and about. One Sunday before church started, a friend whose wife just had a baby was showing us pictures of his new son on his iphone. Well, once the meeting started, he put the phone away, but Grace was not done looking at that baby! She begged for "more baby!" and sat and looked at those pictures for a good chunk of the meeting. We just finished all of our paperwork to be approved for another adoption, so here's hoping it won't be too long before she has her very own little baby brother or sister!
  

• Her great-grandma sent us a play high chair and crib with Nathan's mom this last weekend. Grace has really gotten into it and puts her baby "nigh night!" in the "cib" all the time. I love that she's starting to act things out.

Overall, Grace is in such a fun, happy stage lately. Though, in truth, she's always been a happy baby. She just attracts people to her because she is so cheerful, friendly and talkative. People comment all the time about how much she talks. If only I could get it on video! She always wants to grab at the camera and stops being all cute whenever I pull it out! Darn.

We love this girl so so much.

Random summer photos

On Dad's shoulders at the zoo:

Very excited to see some animals. When we got to the lions she said "kitty!" without any prompting from us. Pretty funny!
Barbecue at the zoo:

Eating some delicious fruit salad!

Grace loves the park!



Happy girl waking up from her nap!

She loves to push around and ride her car.

This is typical Grace when going to bed. A binky in the mouth and stuffed animal in each arm.

She likes to "help" me do the dishes.

More summer vacation

We flew to Utah in June for Nathan's sister's wedding. Grace actually did really well on the flight, we were a little nervous. Here she is waiting at the airport.


Our little family outside the church after the wedding.


As cute as she was in her fancy dress, Grace was very happy to be out of it after the ceremony!



Daddy and Grace at the wedding reception:


We also took some family pictures while we were there. Unfortunately, she was a little grumpy in this picture!


The flight home was a little more stressful, it was past her bedtime and she refused to sleep on the plane. She did enjoy, however, reading all about the safety features of the plane in the little brochure!

Summer Vacation Photos

We went to visit Nathan's family in Utah and went camping at Bryce National Park. Grace had a great time, because she LOVES being outside. We even took her on a 5 mile hike and she mostly did great. (The last half mile or so she was getting fussy and hungry, but she otherwise was so happy.)

She wasn't walking yet when we took this trip, so we brought a little crib for her to be in at the campsite. She loved watching the squirrels.




This is her riding in the backpack after a little morning hike with her Grandpa. Looks like she had fun!

Grace at the beach

Wow, it has been so long since we've posted pictures for you guys. I'm so sorry if you've been checking this and there's nothing new! Grace is in SUCH a fun stage right now. She started walking 2 weeks ago and it's so cute. I will post some more pictures of our summer this weekend, but here are a few from a beach trip we took earlier this week. She LOVED the sand, the ocean, everything. She kept pointing to the water saying "wa-wa, more!" More water please! She just wanted to be playing in the water!

In these two pictures, I was getting Grace into her swimsuit, and the second I took off her shirt, she laid down on the blanket as if she was sunbathing. So cute!