Bamma and the Beach

Mom and Son

Clothes are gone, fell in the ocean, life at the beach is so good!

daddy flew the kite per gracie's request

I love summer

Cowgirl Gracie

Drawin pictures

I know it's not officially summer yet, but I have been thourougly enjoying the fun things that come with the impending season. My favorite season, though we don't get much snow is still winter because I just love Christmas that much, but I have found my self getting so excited at the prospects of lemonade, trips to the beach and the zoo, watermelon, walks after dinner and 9:00 sunsets! We are headed to the beach on monday but today we enjoyed the sun and showed Josh's mom a typical Corvallis Saturday. We went to breakfast, a late mother's day gift, at Sam's station -best potatoes ever! Then headed to the toy store to look around, walked around down town then through the saturday market to the fountains. We had lunch at the dream and then headed home for naps (all of us!) After naps everybody helped plant our garden. (again props to pete for our beautiful planter boxes!) I have a large round pot for herbs, two boxes full of veggies and a few melons and a box of different flowers! We finished off with some bbq chicken (josh made bbq sauce from scratch, he's so great!) It was a great almost summer day and I can't wait for more!

More of Work Party Day

We worked her a little too hard.. Pretty girls!

This is what us girls were up to during the work party

The before pics

This was our yard when Josh first started working on it. He's put in quite a few hours but it was worth it all! We couldn't have done it with out the help of our awesome friends and family. We are really touched by all of your help and hard work! The yard is so beautiful now and we honestly couldn't have done it alone. (Especially because by we I mean poor Josh!) Thanks you guys! Stay tuned for a bbq invite! (Once we're allowed to walk on the grass!)

The Work

That was a pretty cool tractor thing The early morning crew

The chief of operations

Don't have a pic of the afternoon crew but they were there and were awesome!!

boys and big machines.......

Thank you friends and family!!!!

The fruit of everyone's hard work!

We can't wait to have you over for some lemonade!!!!

"I am a big girl mommy!"

This is a tribute to that darn ole binki....

I didn't like the idea of a binki in the first place, but when Grace was born she just needed to suck on something all the time, all night long and the poor girl couldn't for the life of her find her thumb! So she happily used a binki whenever she needed. Around 6 months we made the transition to only having a binki at night and nap times. That transition was really pretty easy. We've had many a scare over the past two 1/2 years leaving binkis, forgetting binkis and loosing them. I went from having several spare binkis in a sterilized container with me at all times to just having the one in her mouth and from boiling them every other day and thoroughly sterilizing them any time one touched the ground to well.......I won't gross you out but I haven't boiled one in over a year, and I don't even know the last time I even washed one! Eww I know.

So we've been meaning to get rid of binkis for good for a while now. I would have even done it a long time ago but we've moved three times in the past year, tried potty training several times and then moved to a big girl bed just recently. I wanted to pick the perfect time, not a time with any other big changes. (Also meaning it needed to be done pre-baby brother!)

Every once in a while Grace still wakes up crying needing me to dig her binki out of her covers so she can have it, and well I decided that I don't need to be doing that any more. Plus waking up to feed an infant and to find my toddlers binki at the same time doesn't sound appealing!

So we were planning on going to the toy store this weekend and "exchanging" it for a toy and leaving it there forever. But tonight she decided her binki was yucky, which it was, and wanted a new one from the grocery store. So after a bit of hesitation we decided to go for it without a trip to the toy store. (But don't worry she will be getting her toy just later this weekend!) And I know this is a really long stupid blog to just be about a binki, but tonight was really sad for me! When she asked me to go get her a new binki at the store I almost started crying with her, tempted to fight off yet another step towards big girliness right along with her. But we didn't. Grace bravely took her binki to the garbage and threw it way. Saying on the way back to her bed "I am a big girl". So we'll see how the night goes I'll give you an update. I just needed to blogtherapize! I am glad to get rid of what we've lately deemed the "stinky binki" but just a little sad that my baby is growing up!

(and yes I did fish that binki out of the garbage for a memento!)

Work Party update!

Party is set to commence at noonish Saturday May 16th!

Snacks and dinner provided! Kiddos and family welcome!

Give me a call if you need directions or anything!

Go Beavs!

Saturday we attended the OSU Spring Football Game........we were really excited! Grace tried her hand at baseball...
And of course football

But all the pre-game festivities (including getting players autographs) proved to be a bit to exciting, this is her asleep before the game even started!

She did manage to wake up for part of the game. We weren't the most loyal fans we could be, and left when it started raining too hard. But we enjoyed a fun lunch afterward at local boyz! Such a perfect afternoon!

Grace Quotes

Latest sayings of our girl Gracie;
The answer to almost every question is ; "Yes I am!" or "no I not!"
Tonight she said " whatchyadoin weswee" (attempting to call me by my first name! Whoa when did she figure that out!?)
And earlier I asked her if she wanted her sun glasses on and she said; "no.....its not sunny out mama its cloudy"
And coming down the stairs today, "your tummy getting so big mama"

I know these may not sound cute when you read them, but they are so precious to me! And it is just so weird to hear her speak in such full grown up-like sentences! Gone are the days where she made the chicken sound (bawk bawk) to say "chicken"!


pregnancy p.s
I know I entered the third trimester a while ago, but as of yesterday I officially rounded the corner. THREE times in two days I have had people comment about my biggness compared to my due date!! Already!! ERRR!