Sunday, September 30, 2007

Pump It Up!

Even though Grace's birthday was a couple of weeks ago, she had her BIG birthday bash yesterday at Pump It Up, and indoor play area with inflatable slides and bounce houses. The party was for her and her buddy, Noah, her friend from Sunday school and preschool -- they've been together in Sunday school since they were babies! The party was a BLAST! There were nearly 20 preschoolers running around, along with their parents, and everyone had a great time! Grace played so hard that she asked to take a nap when she got home! That ought to tell you something!! It was FUN!!

Oh, and some of you already heard about the great boxing match that took place -- we may have pictures of that later... Chris and I got in one of the inflatable bounce houses and "duked it out" with the huge boxing gloves they had there! It was quite a sight! But two couples followed after us, and we've all decided that it makes for great marriage counseling! ;-)

Here are a few pictures from the day...

Grace & Noah - Birthday Buddies!


The cake! Noah's mommy got this from Sam's -- a sheet cake with their picture on it! So cute!

Grace "sticks the landing" after coming down the slide!

We couldn't believe it, but Rachael fell asleep just like this!

After this, Chris put her in the stroller and she slept through the rest of the playtime!

Princess Grace -- she and Noah each got their own inflatable throne!

It was such a fun day! Hey, Lori -- thanks for inviting us to yours so we were able to find out what it was all about! :-)

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Rachael Time

Rachael woke up a little early from her nap and I couldn't resist taking some pictures of her while we played. She's happiest when she's mobile these days! After a little bit, it got more difficult to get any pictures of her because she wouldn't stop crawling towards me to try to get her hands on the camera! She's going to keep us busy!!

This is how it started, with both of us playing on the floor...


You can see the curl above her right ear, she's got them behind her left ear as well. Perhaps a curly-locks?

She was on her way towards me here...

And here she is, going for the camera!

This is my favorite (for today)!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Just for fun...

Grace got a cool t-shirt from Grandma and Grandpa for her birthday. Indoors, the picture is black and white. Outside, color appears! She loved it! By the way, I have no idea why she started posing like that, she just does it. And she's standing in front of her new "princess bed" inside -- a day bed given to her with much love from the Moores! Thanks again!


Rachael really loves to crawl, but it just isn't enough for her. Nothing is safe from her trying to pull up to standing -- not even Grace! Here she is caught in the act -- doesn't she look like I'm totally interrupting her?

Sunday, September 16, 2007

We have mobility!

First I wanted to show the adorable cake that Grace's Grandma and Grandpa brought for our mini-birthday celebration today. (The girl's going to be celebrating at various times this month!) Isn't this cute?? I know some of you creative types could probably make this yourself, I am always in awe of my friends who have made such amazing cakes for their kids' birthdays! This was actually two cupcakes together!



And now... (Drumroll, please!) RACHAEL IS CRAWLING! She officially started today, and boy, are we in for it! As much as we didn't have to really babyproof for Miss Grace, we're probably going to be working overtime doing so for Rachael! She's still a novice at it, but she's definitely determined!


Go, Rachael, go!

Papa's Birthday

The girls' Papa's (Vanessa's dad's) birthday was Saturday (Grace's is actually Monday), so the three girls managed to make it to a pancake breakfast early (for Mommy) Saturday morning to see Papa and wish him a Happy Birthday! The breakfast was at a small local airport, and Grace was really interested in all the airplanes and she got a kick out of the powered paragliders too! (Mommy thought it looked like fun!) Papa had a treat in store for her -- one of his friends had his own plane and he took us to the hangar and Grace got to sit inside of it! She's been talking about it all weekend!

Papa explained a lot about airplanes to Grace that day!



Grace in the pilot's seat!

Grace wouldn't wear the headset, but Papa would!

Rachael seemed to have a good time also!

Grace poses with Papa on his motorcycle -- which she kept asking and asking to see at the end of our visit! So far she just likes sitting in airplanes and on motorcycles, let's hope she doesn't want to go for rides too soon!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Happy Birthday, Grace!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

In thankfulness and remembrance...


Thankful for Chris getting out unharmed...
Remembering those whose lives were lost and their loved ones on this anniversary.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Just 'cause they're so cute!

Grace will turn 4 a week from tomorrow and Rachael will be 8-months-old on Thursday! Grace still shows Rachael so much love, she works so hard at making her baby sister giggle and laugh! Grace is Rachael's favorite entertainer! One way we always get Rachael to smile is by singing, of all things, "Nothing But The Blood". I was singing "By His Wounds" one day and got to the part where they sing a portion of that hymn, and Rachael just grinned away! So I started singing the whole hymn and she beamed and beamed -- now Grace knows the song and we both sing it when we want Rachael to smile. Rachael tends to favor hymns when it comes to her music preference -- if she gets fussy, I break out in "Great is Thy Faithfulness" or something and she calms down! Not so if I slip into a chorus of "Hangin' Tough" for fun! :-) Grace's favorite thing right now is to dance around to any music -- but she prefers Mommy's rendition of Shane and David from "The Upside Down Show" doing their dance to "Udder Chaos" most of all right now! There will NEVER be pictures of THAT!


Obviously Grace isn't reaching groundbreaking milestones right now, but it's been a real pleasure to talk to her after school this year! She seems to be much more conversational about what goes on at school, it's so much fun to hear her talk about her friends, what they do in class, what her teacher reads to them... She's also in the preschool choir at church, and after the first meeting she was singing me a song she learned about Jesus being her best friend! Awesome! She also explained that when they see a "p" they sing softly, but when they see an "f" they sing loud. She now knows more music theory than her mother! ;-)



The biggest questions about Rachael right now are 1) Does she have any teeth? and 2) Is she crawling yet? The answer to both questions is, "Not yet!" The pediatrician expects her to be a late teether like her big sister was (Grace's first tooth didn't poke through until well after she turned 1), so it's not a big deal to us! Now, most of you will remember that Grace was fully walking by the time she was 9-months-old, so some people thought we'd be impatient for Rachael to take her first steps early. NOT SO! It's kind of nice to set her down in one place and know she's not going anywhere for now! Rachael does love to stand up, and she has let go and stood unassisted a few times, much to our surprise! You can see the wheels turning in her head when she's sitting and leaning forward to get things, and she's gotten on her knees a couple of times, so I'm sure she'll be crawling before too long! She can take her time and do it whenever she's ready! Rachael's also quite "talkative" at home, she babbles a whole lot -- we hear "Dada" often, but so far we're not 100% that she is referring to Daddy! Although when she was eating one day, she stopped and turned to face the TV where Mommy was faithfully watching a Phillies game, and when she saw the action she said, "Dada!" ;-)

I can't believe how fast time flies by! I'm hoping to come up with a good slideshow within the next week to celebrate Grace's birthday -- just looking at pictures from last year when she started school, I can't believe how much she's changed! And Rachael basically looks like a totally different kid from the one we brought home! :-D Here are some more pictures of the girls, just for fun!

Fun with hats....

Where did Grace's hat go?

She's going to love this picture when she gets older, huh?

Our precious girls...