Where's Gracie?

Lately Gracie will go upstairs and if we don't see or hear her for a couple minutes we know what she's doing... She will go upstairs, take off her clothes, sit in her chair and read books to herself. Love that adorable gap-toothed smile of hers! :)

Sept Favorites

Mom's birthday! We surprised her with balloons in her car to celebrate her birthday!!! And to top that off had a great night with chinese food and ice cream cake! I think she liked the food better than the balloons, but I was proud of her, she left them in there until they started shriveling up and popping :)Not sure what's so exciting about a laundry basket but both of them seemed to think they were just being hilarious! Notice Gracie's naked body - again! She will take off her clothes any chance she gets lately - it's getting hard to keep her dressed!!! Maybe she'll change her mind once the weather starts getting colder :) The nakedness I don't totally mind, I love seeing that cute little body - it's the taking off the diaper and peeing on the floor that makes things a little difficult! :)Then she found the boots! Grandma gave me this pair of cowboy boots for Bradley 2 Christmas' ago. They are adorable but still 2 sizes too big for him so they've been tucked away in the closet. Somehow Gracie found them and is just in love! This girl LOVES her shoes!!! She had never seen a pair of cowboy boots before and just thought they were great! Of course she can't try them on without taking her clothes off first - so this is her outfit of choice lately! :)I can't get over how adorable that devilish grin of hers is :)Not to be outdone, Bradley decides to show off :) Here he is sporting his new TMNT slippers :) Not sure why his pants are off as well, I promise I do have clothing for my children...Story time - no smiles, just silly faces so I decided to join in :)

Aug Favorites

It's almost impossible for me to take a smiling picture of my kids anymore - thanks in part to Tammy and her "silly face" pictures all the time :) Bradley caught on to that idea quick and much prefers it to the boring 'smile' pictures :) I'll do my best to get a smiling one, then do silly, but sometimes they just refuse and go straight to silly, which is adorable too, so who am I to complain? :) Gracie's so cute, now whenever I get the camera and say "smile" she looks to Bradley right away to see what face he's making and imitates it best she can!I don't know if there's anything in this world that makes me more happy than seeing my babies play together. At first they were taking turns on the 4-wheeler, then when it was Bradley's turn he told Gracie to get on the back - sweet big brother! She held on to him so tight and they rode around like that for a long time. It's just adorable how she looks up to him and equally adorable how he looks OUT for her.Gracie's famous scrunched-up face :)Once again - my cup runneth over! They go upstairs and sit in the same chair together and read books together. She is very interested in what he is saying and pays very close attention and he is such a sweetheart and letting her have a turn and trying to read to him.I am so unbelievably blessed!!!

Circus

I thought it would be fun to take the kids to the circus when I heard they were 'coming to town'. Bradley was really excited, but once again got a little scared when it started because it was kind of loud, so he ended up plugging his ears the whole time.I know it's just a defensive mechanism and he just holds his fingers there just in case it gets too loud, he doesn't ACTUALLY plug his ears. He can still hear us talking and he would still laugh at the clowns and got excited when the animals came out. It was funny though, we've never seen any clowns or talked about clowns but I was telling him about them before we went and right away he said "I don't like clowns, I don't want to see them" - not sure what image he had in his head that made him afraid but to this day he says his favorite part was when the silly clown burped :) great - that's what we take away from this experience :) Gracie LOVED it at first, she was swaying to the music and clapping almost nonstop for the first half - then she was done! By that time it was bed time and there was a lot to take in, so it was a little difficult keeping her still and happy the second half (pacifier to the rescue!), but it was a lot of fun.One thing really bothered me though - when we arrived we saw PETA protestors and I knew right away they were there saying that the animals were being mistreated - which I hadn't even thought about before. It really bothered me because I am a big supporter of PETA. The day after I was reading up on circuses and why PETA was there, and I sure hope what I was reading wasn't the case! From what I saw, the animals seemed to be very happy, healthy, and love the people in the circus. There was no cowering, or being whipped to preform tricks - but who knows what goes on behind the curtains. I can say from what I read, not knowing for sure what's true, just to be on the safe side I will probably NOT be buying tickets to another circus with animals - which is too bad because that was my favorite part :(

County Fair

Kevin and I took the kids to the fair this year and Mom and Tammy joined us. I hadn't been to a fair since I was little so didn't quite know what to expect, but it was a lot of fun. We spent a while looking around trying to decide what rides Bradley would like, but as soon as he saw the train he wanted to go on that one.He and Kevin went and I think he was pretty impressed. Then he got on a car ride which he just LOVED!Tammy and Kevin tried one, while Gracie, Mom and I happily watched.I used to like roller coasters and theme park rides but now I get motion sickness like crazy! And I couldn't go on any because of baby anyway - so it worked out :)On the way home Gracie was showing off her new speaking skills to Mammy and Tammy and said "uh-oh" the whole ride home!I think the kids had a lot of fun and Bradley still talks about it months later, so I guess it was a big hit! We'll have to go again next year.

July Favorites

Bradley helping out his 'girlfriend' Carissa.Gracie accessorizing :)We got these nerf guns and Kevin figured out the bullets suction to skin pretty well :) Gracie thought it was pretty funny, Bradley thought it was even funnier :) (Disclaimer - no Gracie's were hurt in the making of this picture, the nerf 'bullet' was simply stuck on her head - not shot AT her head) :)The new favorite game! They take turns pushing each other around in the little doll stroller, it's just adorable! They are very good at taking turns and Gracie is surprisingly strong!Patiently waiting for her turn to be pushed...Just being silly, as always :)Lovin' on her Poppy!Handsome little angel!!!

4th of July

Fun as always :) The past 2 years it has rained on 4th of July and Kevin kept saying if it rained again he was going to snap :) Luckily the weather was great and we had a blast like every year. I don't even remember why we had the squirt water bottle out but Gracie sure liked it :)We all met at Mom's and walked over, like tradition states. We kind of had a hard time finding a spot this time, but we decided on one by the lake and I thought the show was great as always. Bradley was so excited for all the firework shows, but ended up plugging his ears the whole time every single time!I plugged Gracie's the first time because that was the Rockies show and we were RIGHT under them and they were SO loud. The following ones, the one at Red Feather and the City Park one, were not as loud so I only kind of covered her ears, but she quickly realized what I was doing and she kept leaning back to cover my ears whenever I would cover hers :) Sweet girl! Bradley seemed more sleepy than Gracie on the way back.Sure love my family and love spending time with them on the 4th of July!