I love Ellen

I may already have a post by this title in my archives, but hey...it's still true. In case you don't watch Fox's So You Think You Can Dance (which I recommend if you enjoy watching dancing...it's only on in the summer when nothing else is on anyway! :) Ellen was on the finale doing a hip hop performance with one of my all time favorite SYTYCD dancers - Twitch. It was AMAZING! I was bouncing up and down and cheering the whole performance, she was awesome and it was the highlight of the show. She has posted on her site the "Road to SYTYCD" and here it is along with with the live performance at the end. Enjoy!

Oh and in the "oldies but goodies" category - here's a flash back, in case you missed her season premier last year...

Catching Up

Wow, apart from our anniversary post, I haven't posted in over a month - sorry all! We have a good excuse, we've been with family and friends and busy having so much fun. Here's a brief recap of our last month...

On July 21, Grace & I headed up to WV to visit with my side of the family. This time I left at 2am so she would sleep the first half of the trip and it made it much more manageable. It's still 10+ hours in the car no matter how you shake it, but it definitely helps for her to sleep through half of it. The preschool prep videos worked a little, so that was good. She was VERY ready to get out of the car when we arrived and she scooted all over the house for an hour before she conked out. All in all I would call it a success.

First up was a few days with my dad & step mom. Grace just loves all her grandparents and I think she is just even more blessed to have 3 sets instead of just 2. She sure is spoiled by love and attention when we are all together and I love it. While we were with them she had a blast with their cat Caspur. She would chase him and play with him in his tube, I have a video but it keeps publishing to youtube choppy and I can't figure out why. Here it is anyway as it's just too cute not to share.



Here are a few pictures from our time in Elkins...

She LOVES her Nana!Cuddling with GrandpaI love this face, cracks me up!Playing with Caspur - so fun!

On Friday afternoon we headed up to my mom's place where we would spend the next week. We had a wonderful time hanging out with all our family in Fairmont. Unfortunately Grace's cousin was sick so we couldn't play together until the end of the next week, but we got to spend lots of time with her Great Grandma and she LOVED having us as company. David flew up Wednesday night and my dad was gracious enough to go to Pittsburgh to play golf and bring him home for us. I certainly appreciated not having to spend another 4 hours in the car. :) Grace was so excited to see her Daddy, she woke up at 2am hungry and just about leaped into him when she saw him in the bed. It was so sweet.

We went to see my Great Grandmother (my Dad's Grandmother) and introduced her to Grace. For a 95 year old lady she held on to our little squirmer with ease and just loved playing with her.

Here they are togetherHere's a group shot with my brother & Kayla as well

We had a great week in Fairmont capped off by our family Reunion at Rock Lake on the 31st. We always enjoy seeing all the extended family and David had a blast playing hard at the lake with all our cousins. Grace had her Aunt Kayla wrapped around her little finger I think, she definitely has bonded with her (and Uncle Mark too!) We'll have to get up to MI to visit them or have them down so she can spend more time with them. Here are a few pictures from our trip, I stole some of these from my dad and my cousins...I definitely need to learn how to take more photos while toting around and caring for Grace.

Playing with Daddy & Great Grandma'sDavid going down the slide at the lakeSplashing in the lake with DaddyCrazy cousin John giving Grace a new 'doMy old NKOTB towel...found it when looking for a few beach towels to use - made me laugh out loud!!

We returned home again leaving at 2am only this time the trip wasn't as uneventful. I think the country roads didn't sit well with our sweet girl as she threw up about an hour into our trip. I was so tired I was standing in the Go Mart parking lot holding her tight just crying. David got us all settled down and I rode the rest of the way in the backseat with Grace...made me long for the day when we'll have a minivan! :) I hope once she'd forward facing she won't get carsick, but her Daddy does so it's definitely possible.

We had a week at home just the 3 of us before my friend Jennifer arrived for a week long visit. We met in college and have been best friends ever since. She is such a hoot and we had a wonderful, relaxing, silly time. I miss her dearly and I am so glad she was able to fly down for a visit. I'm even more grateful for her husband, parents and in-laws who kept her 2 girls so she could come down. I am realizing more and more than you need silly, crazy, girl time as a mom to keep your sanity. :) Here she is with Grace one afternoon before we headed to the pool. (Jen put the scrunchie in her hair and she didn't pull it out!)

Disclaimer on the silly video below...Jen & I LOVE The Jerk. We made David watch it for the first time with us while she was here. I often sing the Thermos song to David in our every day life. So, Jen decided to be super silly one morning and this is the result. It's a little dark, but still funny none the less. Hope you enjoy the silliness!



Before Jen arrived, I let Grace watch a Baby Einstein video for the first time ever. She was so cranky and not feeling the best, so I caved and let her watch 30 minutes of TV. I tried to get her attention to take her picture and this was the result - they sure do learn early!!
So that's been our month - we hope you all have had as much love and fun in your lives as we've had in ours. We are blessed, truly!

8 Amazing Years

Every year I grow more and more grateful for the life I have with my beloved. He is an amazing husband and I am blessed beyond all measure. In our 7th year of marriage we became parents to our beautiful Gracie girl. Seeing David as a Dad has been remarkable. He is so good and sweet with her and she adores him completely. I also realized that I can love my husband more. I didn't think it was possible, but when he handed me our baby girl for the first time with tears streaming, I fell in love all over again. My heart has grown in it's capacity to love my family more in the last year than I ever thought possible.

All that said, I thought it was a wonderful way to celebrate our anniversary when David left these flowers for me on our mantle.
Including Grace (and any other children) in our anniversary celebration will be something we do for years to come. So with that said, Happy Anniversary David, I love you more than words.