Well, Anna Marie arrived, a little early, but she's doing GREAT!! She came on February 25th 7:43 pm 5.5 lbs 19 in long. It took us a few days to name her, and the name fits!

Gracie is loving her (for the most part), when we finally got home today she looked at the car seat and says "Anna!" with a cute grin on her face. Already she likes to hold her and give her kisses.

We spent 5 days in the hospital...the hospital gets boring really quickly I found! After 5 days of nothing to do, I'm feeling incredibly recovered from the delivery, a good side effect of the long term stay. They wanted to keep Anna a little longer for her bili ruban level and make sure she can maintain weight. She lived in a little tent thing with the bili lights on her for 24 hours and got to wear these funny infant sunglasses. The glasses were too big so the nurses held them on with some gauze- see the pics. We're all home and happy to be here :) Grandma is here for a couple of weeks, I don't know who is more happy about this- Gracie or me!

-Lisa

Today was a day of resolve. I took Gracie's binky away for good. She has had it only for sleeping for a while now, but today I decided to get rid of it for good! After her nap we said good bye to the binky and it disappeared.

All was well until bed time when she was requesting it as usual...

She still snuggled up to me while we sang and rocked, but there was a lot of chatter where silence usually reigned. Then I put her in bed and instead of laying right down, she held her head up as she felt around the crib for the missing binky- so sad. At first she just talked and played with her stuffed animals and pj's. Then she started to whine and whimper a little. I went in to lay her back down and she again requested her binky and started feeling around for it. The whimpering continued...she usually lays right down and falls to sleep immediately...it was heart breaking to listen to this sad change of behavior!

She did fall asleep eventually.

When Tim and I checked on her later, she stirred and began to feel around her crib (in her sleep) for her binky. Yep, this was harder on me than I realized it would be.

Early Christmas! Thanks Randy! We put together this smoker, called and "Ugly Drum Smoker" over Thanksgiving. Doing the first smoke today. Can't wait.

So today I was trimming Gracie's fingernails and toenails and got a wild hair to try something new...painting her toes! The first things to figure out were how to get her to sit still and where to paint. Thank heavens for Halloween candy- a sucker was just the thing to keep her sitting still and towel covered ottomans were the perfect painting station. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the process as I was mostly concerned with not getting fingernail polish anywhere but her toes...

It was a success!! She sat still (drooling a LOT) watching as her toes turned a pretty red with pinkish sparkles. She even sat through the after process of blowing on them till I thought they were dry enough to walk around with.

What ADORABLE toes she has!!! I think this will be something she requests in the future :)

This was Gracie's first year of Halloween fun (last year she slept through it all), and we sure had a lot of FUN!! Friday I got a little antsy to take pictures of Gracie in her costume...low and behold she didn't take it off again for a couple of days. She LOVED her 'buggy' costume and was rather content to do everything in it :)
To begin our festivities, our ward had a fall festival with carnival games and a dinner. Gracie enjoyed wandering around looking at all the costumes! I got into the fun by dressing up as a Renaissance era lady. Gracie thought I was wearing a tent and hid herself in the layers and tried (to no avail) to rummage through the petty coat and find my legs! As the carnival began to wear her out, the skirt became her resting post. It was soft and provided easy access to a game of peek-a-boo when she got bored!
Saturday we spent a few hours downtown with our neighbors at a Halloween stroll- the businesses were open for trick-or-treating and we walked all over getting enough treats to enjoy for a while! Then we went to the mall for more trick-or-treating and called it a day! Tim had the day off and it was really fun to have him there...he was the designated photographer and I didn't even snap a photo of him to commemorate his presence! Well, all the activities seemed to take more of a toll on me than Gracie, but we sure had a blast.

photos:
my neighbor and her little boy- we did all this fun stuff together
Gracie requesting more candy at the costume contest
Gracie and I at our ward fall festival
My grouchy lady bug...I must have suggested taking the costume off
figuring out the candy bag
the back of the costume (note the padded bum)
she didn't feel complete until her 'buggy' head was in place
me in my costume...it seemed to fit a bit easier last time I wore it...

These photos are from our family reunion in Delaware in August. We had a blast!
I've updated the slide show. Now it only shows the family reunion photos. NOT the 1500 other photos I have on Flickr.

This is from a few weeks ago, but I'm just getting around to posting it. She had a lot of fun showing off for the camera. She likes flexing to show off her muscles!

My dear friend Bree is part of this new company and I would love a chance to win some beautiful flowers, so, here it is:

So, you've been oriented, this is the blog, you've seen the site, (you HAVE seen the site haven't you?), and you've pretty much met Bree. Well, I'm Keshia... the guru of sorts in the graphic department. Nice to meet you... I like long walks on the beach... cuddling up next to a fire with cocoa... haha no. Well yes, but I digress, this post is mainly to help us get our name out there and reward you for doing so, so here's the deal:

That my friends is our blog button and a code so you can put it on your blog, and if you do... you get a present! SO, if you post our button on your blog and write about us in a post (or copy one of ours) and then come BACK to our blog and comment on this post to tell us that you did it and where, you get your name in a draw for a mod-ern bouquet of flowers. (and yes, we can get them to you wherever you are). OK, sound good? good! so go! Go spread the word, let them know what mod is all about! (And why not follow us while you're at it!)

Well, since Tim is away at meetings I thought I could post an update (without pics since I forgot how to put them on the page) about darling Gracie! The story begins like this...Tim and I whistle at eachother when we are apart and need the other person or want to draw attention to something (thanks Aaron and Jill, we stole your idea). For instance, when dinner is ready, I will whistle to Tim and he whistles back to tell me he heard and then he makes his way to where I am. Gracie has caught on to this habit of ours and goes around saying "dada" and attempting to whistle- a very breathy sound. At that point I will whistle for her and Tim comes to find her!

Since Tim has been away she goes around the house saying "dada" and trying to whistle and seems to be confused that he isn't responding. The other night she did this in the bathtub and after her whistle, she stood up and looked down the stairs to see if he was coming :) It was very cute! We think she is picking up our lifestyle at a pretty quick pace!

Other things she is into right now are baby dolls- dressing them and wrapping them in blankets and carrying them around, singing- well she likes me to sing to her, reading books, playing outside, throwing things in the trash- no matter what it is, if she suspects she wasn't supposed to throw it away she looks at me and says "uh-oh", and dogs- every animal is a dog and every time she hears one bark she says "doggie" and looks to find where it is. She is a silly girl who keeps up on our toes!!!