HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to me and Chris! On July 28, 2004, we celebrated our first day as homeowners. One year ago! We love our house and we are so thankful for it. Seeing the house for the first time, I just knew it was meant for us. It’s been great.  We don’t miss Paseo–the loud parties next door and the ghetto bird flying above our house looking for criminals, LOL.  Bethany is so quiet and nice and we love having a place that’s ours to call home. It’s perfect for us!

Bye Bye Paseo!

Gracie’s second day in her new house, a little um, disoriented. 

Gracie’s three-hundred-and-sixty-seventh day in her new house, quite comfortable.  And much more hair!

Oh, and Mommy needs her morning coffee, so Gracie decided she needs her morning tea.  Yup.  Almost every morning.  No worries, though, it’s half decaf green tea and half milk.  She wakes up and sits at her art table to watch Sesame Street and drink her tea. 

On another note, I have been diagnosed with asthma.  This would explain my being unable to breathe for the past three years or so.  But I wasn’t really sure it was even a problem, when you’re not used to breathing right anyhow, you don’t know what it’s supposed to feel like.  I had a friend who was legally blind for probably all of his life and as an adult went to the eye doctor.  He ended up with glasses.  He said he’d never seen stop signs had the word STOP on them.  He had learned to recognize the shape of the sign.  Much like my breathing I suppose.  I ws so used to the wheezing and occasional coughing fits I had no idea they weren’t normal.  So I have an inhaler and I feel much better.  You know, like I have air in my lungs or something.   Sweet.

Oh–Gracie’s awake.  She’s standing in her room yelling, “Mommy, Can I come in?” Haha, it’s so cute.  Guess I better go get her.  She won’t come out if  I don’t tell her she can come in. 

Today was a perfect day to go to the zoo!  So we…

played on the playground…

rode the Centennial ChooChoo…

fed the Lorikeets…

freaked out with the Lorikeets…

fed some ducks and told the geese to GO AWAY…

Made a silly face at Mommy through the stroller window…

And ended the trip with a ride on a tiger.  What fun!

My two-year-old teenager.  Today at Target, I went into Starbucks to enjoy a well-deserved Green Tea Frappuccino.  Gracie promtly ordered a grande cappuccino, followed by a stare of confusion from the lady behind the counter.  I cancelled her order, paid for mine with the intention of sharing, but the lady gave us a miniature version of mine for Miss Gracie.  I know it looks big, but it’s the sample size, made out of the extra in the blender.  Grace was ecstatic.  She loves Starbucks.  You think it’s cause I couldn’t live without an occasional Frappuccino when I was preggy?  Or maybe cause I just HAD to have one about three hours after I’d gone into labor.  

Poop story time!  Gracie has had NO accidents when it comes to peeing–she’s potty trained as far as pee goes, even in public and during naps.  We’re just having trouble realizing poop goes IN the potty, not beside it.  She was the first (and only so far…) to take a crap on Josh and Bonny’s new bathroom floor.  Can’t wait to write that in the scrapbook. 

When people ask her how old she is, She’ll reply, “two” (dramatic princess pause, cocked head over to one side, and grinning ear to ear)  “And a half!“  That’s my big girl! Making people smile. 

If you ask her, she will tell you her boyfriend is Kobe (Lakin).    My, my!

So when Gracie’s little footsies got hot, she decided the best thing to do was to slide over a chair to the dog’s bowl and take them for a dip.  I’m sure JoJo loved the taste of feet water.  Usually she just gets the plain old tap kind. 

  We miss you Daddy!  Hope you and the kids are having fun at camp! 

This week was  full of fun. Where do we begin? 

First off, Gracie had VBS this week, and that is the highlight of her year.  First Church does it big (typical First Church style) with all the themes and decorations and snacks to make sure everyone has a blast.  Monday she was pumped and couldn’t believe when we told her, that VBS was an entire week long.  She had a hard time sleeping Monday night.  But Tuesday morning she woke up with a fever and we had to keep her home on Tuesday and Wednesday.  She cried and cried, and looked up at me on Tuesday night with her little fevery red cheeks, and asked, “but I wanna go, Mommy…to see my fwiends and to leawn about Jesus…” Awwww!  Thursday she went back and her class made “the lost sheep” on a piece of paper by gluing mini marshmallows for the body and pretzel sticks for the legs.  Um…I’d post a picture but by the time we left church, Gracie…ate it. I know.  Gross.  And Friday was the biggest and best party Gracie had ever seen, with music and jumping and dancing and punch and snacks. She and Leah held hands and jumped up and down to all the songs, then would fall over and burst into laughter. 

Today Gracie helped her Aunt Bonny open presents at her bridal brunch, and behaved like an angel the entire time.  She had lots of snacks at the shower, including quiche, watermelon, an eclair, and a million creme mints.  She even went to the potty while she was there and of course, came to announce to everyone about it.  She’s so proud of her new potty abilities, she wants to tell everyone.  What a big girl! 

And I know most of you who read this are college and teens and people who won’t care…but I’m posting pics because now that I’m a home owner, I care about this kind of stuff: 

^My morning glories!

^ Our Crepe Myrtles–we have two HUGE ones in the back yard! So pretty and pink!

And this one’s funny–okay, I was trying to take a picture of the morning glories but SOMEONE decided she wanted to come out too.  When I told her no, she made sure I could see her pouting.  Hahahaha.  That’s the best. 

Gracie loves the kiddie pool at Ma and Da’s house.  I’ll get pictures up soon.  She finds pieces of twigs and stuff in the water and says, “Ohhhh, little bird, hello little bird.” and picks them up and makes up wild stories about these twig-birds.  She’s so creative…And kinda weird.

Still going strong with the potty training. She started screaming today and when I asked her what was wrong, she said in the most dramatic princess voice you can imagine, “Oh No! There’s PEE PEE in my Pull Up!” 

She made cookies with Daddy, mainly because she’s so big and she can do anything now.

 Here, she’s saying “My did it!”

She’s taken Josh and Bonny’s wedding invitation off the fridge so that she can keep track of it.  I asked her why and she said “I’m looking at my Josh.” Okay then.