Thursday, March 15, 2012

Out of the mouth of Grace

Tuesday night while in the tub Grace was playing with her tub toys. I guess she was pretending to play with her friends from school too. I heard her say, "Dear God, thank you for our friends and thank you for the bible. Amen. See Camden, that's how you say your prayers." Guess she's teaching her friends how to pray! Maybe she'll end up being a teacher like her mommy!

(an instagram photo I grabbed of Grace playing in the tub)

She was sitting on the bathroom counter as I was brushing her hair after bathtime. Grace grabbed my deodorant and took the top off. I told her to put the lid back on but she touched the actual deodorant with her fingertip about the same time. I told her we dont touch that part with our fingers that its only to be put under our armpits and she replied, "Why not? It'll make me taller."

Just a little while later we were sitting on the couch after Scott got home from work. A throw pillow fell off the couch and Grace proceeded to hang over the couch to pick it up. Scott said, "I'll help." Grace said, "It's okay, girls are stronger than boys." :) 

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

NYC: Day 2

Day 2 of our NYC vacation started off by waking up to snow covering the ground and still falling! After a quick breakfast we made a trip to the Empire State building.

We bought the Fast Pass and go to be able to pass a main line and get to the observation deck without having to wait in a long line. It also included some simulator-ride, the NYSkyRide, where Kevin Bacon flew you around on a helicopter ride through the city. I'd recommend skipping that part. Miss Motion Sickness here had to keep my eyes closed most of the time because it was a very bumpy ride and the screen was hard to focus on because it was moving so fast.

Once at the observation (main) deck on the 86th floor, It was freezing... and doing more sleeting that high up than snowing. We couldn't see very far either due to the fog from the snow, but it was still an amazing view to see the city dusted with snow!



After that we ventured to SoHo for some lunch and shopping. We ate at a DELICIOUS Mexican restaurant, Dos Caminos and I had the fish tacos. SO GOOD! The shopping was fun. I dont think I bought a thing in SoHo but there sure were a lot of pretty things.

I decided to save my money for Chinatown and some knock-off pocketbooks! I'm not ashamed! :)

Thursday, March 8, 2012

{Blessings}

This video is sideways, and I'm not sure how to fix it, sorry, but I did want to share. I've tried a lot of times to record this and finally had success with it last night.



Thank you Jesus..
For our Food, For our Food
And our many blessings.
And our many blessings.
Amen, Amen!

The sound may not match up with her lips, sorry about that too. Not sure why it's doing that either.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Birthdays

As I'm in the process of planning for Grace's THIRD birthday party (yes I did just say THIRD), I realized that I never posted photos from her 2nd Birthday Party on our blog. So I figured since I'm not a full year behind yet, why not go ahead and post them? :)

Grace went through a Toy Story phase. She isn't really into Toy Story much anymore. I can't remember the last time she watched one of the Toy Story movies. But there for a while she was all about Woody and Jessy! I'm not a huge fan of things being plastered with a certain character, especially birthday parties, so we decided to go with a cowgirl-ish theme and throw a little bit of Jessie in as we could.

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Jessie Invitation: Etsy Shop - 3boysstationary, I can't find their shop on etsy anymore. :(

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Cake: Idea found here, Cake made by- Your Perfect Cake out of Greenville, NC
Happy Birthday Banner: Esty shop- Cardboard Sheek
Circle Toy Story Character Tags tied to bags: Esty shop - Little Things Creations
Favor Buckets consisted of more character items: bubbles, mini frisbees, stickers, & a pack of toy story gummies

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Grace's cousin Lilley is 5 months older than her. Lilley had a pink barnyard theme party for her birthday and we were able to borrow lots of things from her like the wooden baskets, hay bales & metal buckets.

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To go along with our horse theme, we have some friends that have horses and they were SO kind to let us borrow one for the afternoon, along with a donkey. We set them up on the lot across the street and the children got to ride on the horse and pet the donkey.

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Daddy with his Cowgirls...

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Such a fun party! I think we're going to go back to water/fish theme for her 3rd birthday, but I'm sure that could change within the next few weeks, we'll see.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Playdate

Scott spent one February, Saturday morning working at his office in Raleigh and needed one of his employees to work with him so her daughter spent the day with Grace and I. We started off the day downtown at the Marbles IMAX theater and saw Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2. After the show they put together a Barbie Bash that consisted of different stations where the kids could do mermaid / surfer crafts and activities.

Grace making a surfboard:
Uploaded from the Photobucket Android App

A balance activity:
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Making necklaces like the one Barbie wore in the movie.

Uploaded from the Photobucket Android App

After the Barbie Bash we went over to the Museum. The girls even got to play in the outside area because the weather was so gorgeous!

Uploaded from the Photobucket Android App

The Splash! exhibit has a fun water feature at The Lighthouse, but you have to be prepared to get wet. Here children can test what floats and what sinks. Its a good thing they have aprons and hand-dryers!

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Upstairs in the museum is the Ideaworks exhibit. The girls had a blast here in the "GoZone" building their own cars and racing them down the track.

Uploaded from the Photobucket Android App

Uploaded from the Photobucket Android App

There is another exhibit upstairs of the museum called Moneypalooza. This area is available to teach the importance of saving and smart spending.

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I thought our morning at the museum would cover the time Scott needed to get some things done but I soon had to find more things for us girls to do. We ventured to McDonald's for lunch and some fun in the play area there, then I treated the girls to having their fingers painted. No full out manicures, just simple finger painting. Grace has never had her fingernails painted so this was definitely a first for her.

Uploaded from the Photobucket Android App

Uploaded from the Photobucket Android App

We had so much fun with Alyssa and the girls played so well together!

Friday, March 2, 2012

62 Years

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On Sunday, my grandparents will be celebrating their 62nd wedding anniversary! This photo is framed and sits on a shelf in our living room. It was taken on their wedding day!

I can't say enough about what these two mean to me. They're definitely the rock of our family and are a great example to us all.

My Nonnie is such a historian for our family as she keeps up with lots of photographs from years past. Just a few weeks ago when I stopped by she had files like this laying around...

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I love going through them and asking questions. It's also fun seeing who looks like who. Example: When I saw a particular photo of my Grandad from when he was younger, I automatically thought of my cousin Jaxon.

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As soon as I took this photo I had to send it to Jaxon's Dad and Grandad to see if they could see the resemblance. They did! I always thought Jaxon looked just like his mother until I saw this photo of my Grandad, Jaxon's Great-Grandad. I am thankful that she has saved so much of our history as a family for us all to be able to look back on and share with our children too!

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Happy Anniversary,  Nonnie & Grandaddy! Thanks for setting a wonderful example for our family and loving us all unconditionally!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

NYC- Day 1

Scott, myself, and our friends, David and Edie, went to NYC last month and had a great time. We arrived in NYC around 7pm on Thursday night. We went to our hotel and then searched for the first thing on our mind- food! We ate at a delicious Italian Restaurant not too far from our hotel.



And then walked around in Times Square some...





Our first day in NYC started early as we had to get up to make it to ABC studios to see the Live with Kelly show.







After the show we had lunch. I think eating at new places is one of my favorite things about traveling.

And then went over to the Museum of Natural History:


That night we went out to the Broadway Play, Memphis:


I loved the show! Then we met Scott's college roomate Franz and his wife Nancy out for dinner, at Becco, after the show! We had so much fun talking with them that we didn't leave the restaurant until almost 1am!