Graciedotes

Little anecdotes from the daily life of Grace.



little hands- One of Gracie's new things is using her hands to direct attention and show affection. When she gives kisses, she'll often use her little hand to pull us in. She uses the little hand when she talks to Grant. The other night I was laying with her before she went to sleep. I was rubbing her back (in a very specific circular motion--"like this" she'll say and do a little wax on/wax off in the air) when she put her hand on my cheek and gave me a dreamy little smile. The little hand stayed there until she was asleep. I wouldn't have moved an inch for the world.

a mantra- When I'm said or stressed or upset about something Gracie will say, "Don't be sad mom, just be happy!" Even when she is crying, she'll brighten up for just long enough to send her little mantra my way.

F.H.E. last night- We were looking at some pictures and talking about the first vision.

Me- This is Joseph Smith.

Grace- Oh, Joseph Smith

Me- What is he doing?

Grace- He's praying.

Me- That's right. And then, (pointing to the next picture) Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ...

Grace- aaaaAAAAaaamen.

Blessings

• Cori. The day after we got back from our long trip he did all the laundry. And there was a lot.

• Our wonderful neighborhood. We came home to nearly a foot of snow in our driveway. We high-centered the accord on the plow ridge getting it in. The next day Gracie and I headed out for the first shift of shoveling (Cori was doing laundry). One of our neighbors noticed us as he was driving home and showed up a little while later in snow clothes with a snow blower. That's just how people are up here.

• Helping with the Red Cross blood drive this week. Though I wasn't able to give blood at the actual event, I'm grateful that I got to help in other ways. I was able to make calls from the Red Cross office to fill all our appointment slots and contribute in other small ways at the drive. It felt really good to be involved.

• The new Relief Society manual. I'm so excited to be learning from the teachings of Joseph Smith this year.

• Gracie's independence. Though she is sometimes maddeningly stubborn about doing things herself, I'm so grateful to have at least one child who is happy doing things on her own. (Grant, if you are reading this, undoubtedly years past the time it was written, I am indeed implying that you have been fairly clingy, whiny, and otherwise difficult to leave alone this week. But you're just getting back into your schedule while simultaneously advancing through other stages of change--so I'm trying to be patient.)

• Grant's adoration. Though he has been a bit challenging this week, I can always count on one thing from him. When I give him my undivided attention he coos, giggles, blows bubbles, smiles and is so scrumptiously adorable. It makes me feel very loved and happy.

Getting there

Last night we got both cars into our garage. Not this garage in case you were wondering how we got two cars into a one car garage. Yes, we have lived here for nearly 4 months and should have hit this little milestone a while ago. Our project downstairs has made it difficult to get everything in its place. But we're getting there!

The Joy of Giving

A little while before Christmas Cori started making comments about how cool it would be to have a remote controlled helicopter. Once we had set our gifting budget I only had so much money left to spend as I had done some of his shopping already. I had to choose between making his last gift an adult gift, or... a radio controlled helicopter. I went for the latter.

Once the layer of wrapping had been breached (the night before we left for UT) it would be another 2 1/2 hours before we went to bed.

He plays with it everyday. He gets so excited about it. I love it. It makes me happy to see him so happy about it.

This Christmas

We had a wonderful holiday in Utah and enjoyed much fun, love and family time. Here are a few snaps of our Christmas.

Gracie helping Grandma Sandy with some treats.

Christmas Eve
All the grand kids did a little production of the Nativity story. Gracie was the angel.
Grant was Jesu bambino. He slept the whole pageant through, the way all good baby Jesus' should.
The whole cast

The kids got to open a special package Christmas Eve night. Christmas PJs!
Christmas morn




We went sledding a couple of times. Gracie loves the snow. Not pictured here: Uncle Damien cruising on his 4 wheeler and the rope connecting us to him.

We spent an evening in Salt Lake with Grandpa Randy
We also spent some time on a special gift for Mom O and Ray. We took down wall paper and cottage cheese ceiling texture and refinished the walls and ceilings in a couple of their front rooms. It was a fun project. Nice looking faux effects with the paint, wouldn't you agree?
We loved having so much time with everyone. We watched movies, played games and ate tons of yummy food. It was a wonderful Christmas.

Welcome!

Welcome to our new home. I decided to move us in the interest of some increased identity safety. Sorry for the inconvenience of having to change links etc.

Not much has changed. I've been able to move everything over so far except for all of your wonderful comments. Hoping to get that figured out soon.

Wordless Wednesday: Ghost of Christmas Past 2005