Friday, July 16, 2010

150!

This is my 150th post, wow! I am enjoying posting when I have time and certainly I enjoy being able to share our Gracie girl with friends & family far away. I've got lots of photos and a few videos for you from the last week, enjoy!

Grace loves her Jumperoo!I have no legs!! (Bonus if you know what movie that's from!) She figured out that she can tuck her feet up under the tray and kind of swing, it's hysterical!Here's video of her going to town...

She just learned how to pull up from a seated position. I can't believe it. Last night she even tried to climb up onto the fireplace. I'm not ready for that kind of mobility! She often can just sit back down, but sometimes she gets nervous and cries for help. Here's a few pictures from her first time pulling up, the video was taken a day later.

We had a wonderful summer rain the other night and it was finally cooling off outside. So, we took Grace out to enjoying the rain on the porch swing. Here she is with her DaddyShe saw cousin Grady use his passy so she knows it goes in the mouth, but still doesn't get what it's for.
Here she is doing her almost crawl...she has done several "correct" moves when crawling, but never more than 1 or 2 steps at a time. She's getting it though!

This was just cute, so I had to share.

We are finally starting to feel better here. I haven't had an allergy issue that bad in quite sometime, but since I couldn't take any meds due to my low milk supply, I wasn't getting any better. The doctor told me (after a week and a half of awfulness) to start taking benadryl and mucinex and just to drink plenty of water, but despite me doubling my water intake my milk dried up after a week. Sunday was my last morning nursing my sweet girl and I'm certainly missing it. I put in alot of work and I was really hoping to make it a full year, but the Lord had other plans and I'm making my peace with it. Thankfully, she's having a much easier go of it since we've always supplemented with bottles of either formula or pumped milk. The good news about not nursing anymore is I have been able to take much stronger meds this week and my migraine has been bumped back down to my normal low grade headache, I can breathe and I am feeling better. Hopefully by Monday I'll be as good as new. I have to sing at church on Sunday, so just pray my voice holds out!

And just a random "yeah me!" thing...I had 2 of my best coupon days ever recently. At Target, I saved 62% (really, really hard to do at Target!) and at Kroger, I saved 71%! 50% is my target at the grocery store, so 71% is something to cheer about. Now, I can do better at Publix with BOGO items and my coupons, but I only buy BOGO items with coupons at Publix, all my other groceries come from Kroger. Since if I did all my shopping at Publix my percentage would go way down, I don't consider the occasional BOGO trip as regular shopping. :)

Bilbo Wedding

While we were in Fairhope, AL on Vacation, David's cousin Jonathan got married (June 12). We just love Erin too and were honored to take their photos. Here's a few favorites and a sneak peak for the new Mr & Mrs Bilbo!

The girls got ready in a nursery/office and they found this toy clock and set it to 2:30 - the time of the wedding...too funny!J&E decided to see each other before the ceremony, but they wanted to have a moment to themselves, here they are just before seeing each other...The guys busting at the seem to get in on the action while J&E had their moment together.Erin and her girlsJonathan was a good sport in letting us take lots of silly pictures...Jonathan was so handsome in his suitErin looked stunning in her gown, a beautiful bride!The Ceremony was beautifulFirst Kiss!Just Married! - I always love these first pictures after the ceremony, so fun! A few shots of the new Mr & Mrs!First dance!This has to be one of my favorite pictures ever - totally matches her personality too! :) The cake was gorgeous (and super yummy!)This picture just cracks me up!David took the guys out on the golf course at the reception site and got some great photos.Love this one!And they're off!

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Around the House

My summer allergies are in full swing, so Grace and I have been staying in lately. We have fun playing together and she's getting more and more mobile every day. Here's a few pics from yesterday.

Sweet girlI love this face she makes - it cracks me up!Whatcha got there Mom?Playing with ScottyHe's done playing but too lazy to get up and move. Silly cat.
In 2 weeks Grace & I are going to attempt the trip to WV solo again and we'll fly David up later so I can spend some QT with my Grandma (and the rest of my family of course!). I have all kinds of plans to make the 650 miles go by...we'll see if any of them really pan out. One I'm now sure of is the DVD player. We have David's folks DVD player and I'm going to take advantage of it. Deborah recommended the Preschool Prep DVDs she used with Erin, so we invested in a used set on Amazon and I'm gonna let Grace watch TV for the first time. To make sure this little trick would work, I put in the meet the colors DVD on Sunday to see if she would "glue" to the TV...

I'm not surprised. She is ALWAYS trying to get a view of the magic box that always goes black when she finds it. LOL. I just hope 8 hours into our drive it's as interesting as it was this time. And I'll be sure to have earphones in one ear so I can listen to something other than the color names repeated over and over for 3 1/2 minutes each and not go crazy.

Anyway, I hope ya'll had a wonderful 4th. We so enjoyed having David home. It's so nice to have so much QT as a family and of course we enjoyed hanging out with our Dreher family, (even Alli who's back from STL). Paul & Bethany are expecting their first, a boy, a week before Grace's birthday...here's the first belly pictures I've taken.

Sunday, July 04, 2010

Happy 4th of July!

Grace looks so cute in her "All American Cutie" outfit today in honor of the 4th...we had to snap a few pictures.

Saturday, July 03, 2010

Good Clean Fun

So I will pay for this at some point in the future and the quality isn't that great...BUT this is a typical night with the Drehers. Paul **may** have had a beer, but just one. :) Turn up your speakers and enjoy!

Friday, July 02, 2010

Milestones with Video

Grace has been changing so much over the last 6 weeks! I can hardly believe she is over 7 months old already. Here's a quick summary of some of her most recent milestones:

  • She has her bottom 2 front teeth (they both came in within a week of each other at the first of June)
  • She has moved into her big girl car seat (more for Mommy than for her!)
  • She was sitting up on her own (if we put her down sitting up) and on Sunday she sat up on her own
  • Immediately thereafter she got her first bump on the back of her head when she fell backwards.
  • She is scooting/army crawling around
  • She spent time in the beach for the first time and LOVED it (not a surprise since she loves the pool so much, but still exciting. :)
  • She has been going to the nursery at church
  • She had a babysitter for the first time with her cousins while on Vacation
  • She has moved into size 3 diapers
  • She is LOVING her solids and is even feeding herself cheerios, puffs and yogurt melts.
  • She loves fresh fruit, so far her favorite is watermelon (just like her mommy!)
  • She isn't a huge veggie fan, but as Grandma figured out, if you mix anything with peaches she'll eat it.
  • She loves to jump in her jumperoo
  • She loves to play with her toys, on her own or with mommy or daddy.
  • She give the best open mouth kisses!

I know there is more, but that's the major stuff anyway. I've been shooting lots of video, so here's a few of the best ones.

Fake Cough - May 9th

Playing while sitting up & Glowworm CPR - June 20th

Just Playing - June 29th

Teeth, Toes & the Hiccups - June 30th

Sitting up & Scooting - July 1st

Thursday, July 01, 2010

Bilbo Vacation

On June 5 Grace & I headed down to Atmore, AL to David's folks house with Deborah, Erin & Grady who flew in the night before. It was great to finally get to take Gracie to Mama & Papa's church and introduce her to everyone (many of whom have known David since he was a little boy).

The next day we headed to Fairhope, AL for vacation with the Bilbos. David's cousin Jonathan was getting married on the 12th and David's folks rented a house in Fairhope (where the wedding was held). We had a great week enjoying the Mobile Bay (which was still oil free when we were there) the local beach and the AC as it was almost 110 degrees with the heat index every day. David drove down on Wednesday night and Friday we got to meet up with our friends Judd & Shell in Mobile. Man we don't get enough time with them! And somehow I let our too brief time together pass without even a picture! I did get a few pics during our family time together, but Mom is now about 80% responsible for our photos (especially when David's not around) so I'll have to get more from her.


We had several beautiful sunsets...Playing with a "big kid" toy for the first timePlaying with Cousin GradyPlaying with Cousin ErinMovie Time! Deborah & Erin's room became movie central on her 13" mac screen, which was the same size as the TV in the living room. The kids would gather and watch movies in there most afternoons. I love Bath time!
Ooooh Water! Splish, Splash! Grace LOVES to splash and it doesn't matter if she's in the tub, sink or the pool...it's always fun. (Especially if you soak mommy in the process) Bath time funSweet GradyErin being crazySilly Anne David & I did the photography for Jonathan & Erin's wedding and while I'm still in full time editing mode, I thought I'd share this formal portrait of the newest Mr. & Mrs. Bilbo! (more to come soon, hopefully!)