The rest of 2012

I'm going to attempt to get all caught up by posting a few months worth of pictures at a time.  I'm hoping to do a post everyday for the next week and hopefully we'll be caught up to today!  Again, we're so sorry to have let this slack.  We're going to get back at it!  All of the pictures in this post are from September to December 2012.


End of summer fun with friends, playing in the water:

One of our regular weekly activities is story time at the library.  We've been going since Grace was a baby and have moved from Babytime to Toddler time to now Preschool age.  She loves it and loves seeing our friends there!

 Just out for a walk!

Meeting baby sister for the first time.  Leah was born October 5, 2012.  These two girls are the best of friends.

Grace was so excited to be a big sister!

We had family pictures taken a few weeks after Leah was born.

What a beautiful girl!

 I can't seem to find the rest of the Halloween pictures from that year on the computer, but here are a few of some pumpkin carving/painting we did.

Playing with cousins on Thanksgiving!  We had all of Nathan's family visit for Thanksgiving that year.  It was a packed house, but Grace loved having cousins and aunts and uncles to play with.

Entire Hill family!  We definitely had a full house!

Grace with her Aunt Tiffany.

The girls with their grandparents.

Grace thought it was hilarious to sit in the Bumbo meant for baby.

Christmas decorations!

Helping pick out our Christmas tree.

Decorating the tree.

Just a fun movie night we had.

 The girls got matching pajamas for Christmas.

Summer Fun

Here's some photos from the last month or so of fun summertime things we've been up to.

Our neighbors gave us a new play structure for our yard.  Grace loves the slide!

We made homemade play-doh.  Grace helped stir and then had a great time playing with it.

Our city just put in a new water fountain for kids to play in just 5 minutes from our house.  We've been there lots during this hot weather!

At the Children's Museum.

Looking at clouds with Daddy!

Grace loves to have friends over to play.  She is one social girl!

Reading books with Daddy.

We've also been making good use of our zoo pass.  This was one of the first times I've actually seen the petting zoo open and after a few minutes of being shy, Grace finally got brave enough to pet the goats.

Birthday Videos

Waking Grace up the morning of her birthday:

New toys to play with:

She LOVES her new Thomas the Train:

Cake time!

Grace's Birthday!

I can't believe she's already 2! 

Two of Grace's friends have birthdays the same week as her, so last week we had a party in the park with friends.  Here are the pictures: 

Digging in to cupcakes!

She was even able to get on and off this toy all by herself!

This was the best shot I could get of all three birthday girls.  At least Gracie's smiling!

On her actual birthday, we went into her room after we heard her awake singing Happy Birthday to You and had all her presents out in her room.  She was excited! 

She especially loved the Thomas pillow pet, which I knew she would.  We have a Thomas the Train book that she loves to read.  The Fred Meyer that we go to a lot always has all their pillow pets piled up at the end of the cash registers and every time we go she has to stop and give Thomas a hug.  She was always so sad to have to leave them there.   Normally they are $30, so I really was not planning on getting her one, but a couple of weeks ago a friend told me she had seen them at Rite Aid for 75% off!  Woo hoo!  I was so excited to get it for her birthday, and she LOVED it!

She's also loving the play kitchen.  Her grandparents got her some pretend food and shopping baskets and things to go with it.

That day we decided to do all the things that Grace loves.  After her favorite breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, she played with her new toys for awhile and then we went to the park.  She loves the swings:

After lunch and a nap we headed to the zoo with her cousins and Grandma:

She was even brave and fed the lorikeets:

Later that night we had cake.

Listening to everyone sing Happy Birthday:

Blowing out the candles.  She did pretty well with one, but needed some help on the other!

Helping Daddy cut the cake:

Today after lunch I let her have a piece of left over cake.  She begged me for "Happy Birthday!" and when I started singing she wanted "fire on it" meaning a candle!  So so funny.  So, I indulged her and lit one candle and sang "Happy Birthday."  Funny girl.

We had a full and fun day.  We would have squeezed in swimming too if there were more hours in the day because she LOVES swimming.  We are going to try to go this weekend.

I'll post some of the videos of the day next so you can see how adorable she is!