Grace Turns 2!

The weekend Grace's party was supposed to happen none of the guests could come because of the stomach bug that our sweet girl ended up with the night before. Thankfully we had already canceled the party and at the last minute were able to get a few friends together the following Saturday for a celebration of our precious Grace.

We headed up to the park she loves so much and rented a pavilion where we had pizza, fruit, snacks and of course, cake. The theme this year was Mickey as when her Mimi was here while Tim was being born she was introduced to Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse and she LOVES Mickey. We had a great time despite it being one of the colder days and Grace had a blast! Here are a few pictures from her 2nd birthday!

Playing on the playground

Food, yum

The birthday girl with Mommy & Daddy

Our friends Bethany & Paul, and Leigh-Ann with her daughter Lydia

Dad & my other friend Bethany

Grace's buddy from church - Eliana

Logan & Adam being silly

Tim and Grace's friend Luke

Feeding the ducks!

Mickey cupcakes

Timothy slept through the party

Grace's BFF Tyler

David's Best Friend Jonathan and his youngest daughter Sadie

Lisa & Jim, friends from church

Mama & her girl

So excited about her cupcake!

While we were at Lake Lanier we had a second party for her on her actual birthday (which this year was Thanksgiving).  We always said we'd make a big deal out of birthdays having parties on holidays if necessary.  She felt very loved and celebrated and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the cake.

Cupcake cake a'la Mickey

Blowing out the candles!

Chris, our niece Anne, our nephews Wilson & Bennett & David

Just Refreshing

On April 7 we went up to Pinehurst NC to visit my BFF Lacey and her family for a few days.  It had been a year since we got up there, but with gas prices so high and it being a 6+ hour trip, it's just not an easy one to do no matter how much you want to do it.  It is so refreshing to get to just be with someone you miss so much.  I think the hubbys had a good time too and I know the kids did.  Grace had so much fun enjoying the bigger kids, though compared to Jane Dare who is 10 weeks older, she is a little wimpy.  I guess that's the difference between being the first baby and being the fourth, lol.  Since we've been home though she has been much more adventurous.  She has gone down a big twisty slide without hesitation and climbed up a "rock wall" type ladder up to a slide at my friend's place.  She still isn't drinking milk out of a sippy despite watching Jane Dare do it all weekend, but it will come in time I guess, lol.

Ryan & Lacey have the PERFECT kid backyard.  Swings and a slide, a huge sandpit and Grace's personal favorite - a HUGE trampoline.  She loved, loved, loved the trampoline.  She even did ok when the bigger kids were out with her.  I was impressed.  :)

She woke up with a fever Friday & Saturday nights and ended up sleeping with us for the first time since she was just weeks old.  I couldn't believe it.  I wasn't sure what was wrong as she was completely fine during the day, but when we got home she cut 2 molars so I'm guessing that was it.  She has always had a fever when she is ready to cut teeth and these were by far the biggest.

I never make enough time to take pictures because we're having so much fun, but here's a few pictures from our together...

This was our first morning there and all 3 girls just randomly happened to be in pink monkey pjs, too cute!

Ainsley enjoying the fire place and Reid,  being ALL boy, was climbing all over everything.

The girls had a blast watching David launch rockets

I think David enjoyed "jumping off" the big kids as much as the kids did - here he is with Jake in the background.  

Look at those beautiful blue eyes!  I can't believe how big my Jane Dare is!

At dinner one night Jane Dare and Grace were sharing with each other, it was very sweet.

It was a wonderful visit, I sure wish they lived closer! In the mean time I'm just grateful for the opportunity to just have a refreshing visit with 6 of my favorite people.

Halloween Festivities

Our Halloween festivities started a week before Halloween, so here are some picture of all the fun!  She was generally too distracted for a good picture as we were always around other kids, so there isn't a fantastic picture of her from Halloween.  I may try to dress her up again later and try to get a good one.  :)

I have alot more pictures from our trip to Jacksonville, AL to visit Marleah, Randy & Avi, but here are the Halloween related ones.  All of us, adults included, took a nap Saturday afternoon so we were all up and ready to go to the fall festival at their church that night.  We were thinking that after Avi's birthday party that morning we wouldn't go so I didn't pack Tigger for her to wear.  Thankfully, Avi has a fall birthday too so Grace wore her 1st Halloween costume - this adorable flower!  She went trunk or treating (which she wasn't too sure about - she kept trying to give the people who wanted to give her candy her treat bag, lol) and enjoyed watching all the other kids play games and stuff.  Daddy was thrilled with the free yummy cotton candy they handed out, so all in all we had a great time!  :)

Here she is with Avi - obviously at the end of our time at the carnival...

We had a costume party at our place with our small group the Sunday before Halloween and it was alot of fun too.  Grace had a blast with her friend Joshua who is 11 days her senior (the dinosaur below) and Anya who was the GA Tech Bee.  We tried to get a good picture of the 3 of them, but this was the best we could do...

The common costumes were rednecks and ninjas.  Grace had a blast playing with all the plastic ninja toys.  Someone even left a sword here that she LOVES.  So if you were a ninja at our place and are missing a sword - we have it!  :P

The day before Halloween we went to a free fall carnival near our house.  I was determined to get Grace on a hayride and they had one there.  After an hour wait, we got on the 2nd to last ride of the night and she seemed to enjoy herself, though not as much as me!  She spent the majority of the time on Daddy's shoulders watching all the kids walk around and play the games and stuff.  It was a fun evening.

We opted out of taking her trick or treating this year, but she did enjoy watching the kids come to the door and she helped Daddy pass out candy for a little while.  :)

North Georgia Fun

I'm a bit behind, as usual, on the posting here but I'll try to catch up this week since we don't have much planned and I can breathe a little. :)

On Oct 15th, we had a wonderful time up in the North GA Mountains. It was a gorgeous fall day and we hit Bert's Pumpkin Patch and R and A Orchards.

Grace had a blast and enjoyed playing with all the pumpkins, HUGE and tiny alike, at Bert's.  The Dreher's met us up there and we had a good time goofing off, as usual, and took a usual load of pictures.  The last time we went (in 2008) there was hardly anyone there...this year it was PACKED out.  It was hard to get good pictures because of the sheer volume of people. Anyway, we did end up with a few decent shots and we're planning to hit another farm, (hopefully a smaller one where the line for a hayride isn't over an hour!) and we'll get more pictures and our pumpkin there.  I couldn't decide which pictures to post, so I decided since this is my blog I'll post all the pictures I want and not think twice about it.  Enjoy!

Love, Love, LOVE this one!  That grin is just too precious!

There was this beautiful tree and wildflowers by our car so I wanted to take a picture of Daddy & his girl. She kept trying to show him the leaves so until he looked up, we didn't get a good picture. She is so funny. :)

I just love this picture.

Our next stop was R and A Orchards. We've been there before and they have the BEST caramel apples. It's not like you think. They actually let you pick an apple, they slice it, put it in a bowl, then POUR caramel over the top until the bowl is half full. It's dreamy. I don't even want to think about the calorie count, but once a year, it's all good. :)

We opted not to pick apples this year since the options for picking weren't apples we were interested in, so we just bought a bushel of Fuji apples (yummo!) and then headed into the orchard for some photos.  Bethany actually got a pretty good shot of all of us looking at the camera...a near miracle with an almost one year old.  :)

Grace was very excited about the tractors at Bert's, but there were lines to do everything there. This tractor outside the store at R and A was the perfect size for her. She loved getting up on the seat and then standing up to reach the wheel. 

With Baby Dreher due in just over a month, we took the opportunity to take a few maternity pictures. We got a few good ones...

Ally wanted to get in on the action, so she stuffed a pumpkin under her shirt and we took a few silly shots. :)

Love this one...

A pretty good picture of all of us

We are certainly blessed to have such good friends!