My favorite Gracie Sayings

We are getting to a point with Grace where she is learning so many new phrases and words that I can hardly keep up! I definately have mommy ears and can understand her words better than others (and so can Josh) but with new words It takes me a while of repetetivness from her to catch up and figure out what she is saying. It is really fun though, it's neat to watch her learn something that we practice all the time, and it's really cool when she picks up on things that I didn't even try to teach her!

These are some of my favorite words or sayings of hers at the moment. (and their translations!)

I wub you too too (I love you too)

bayeeg (big)

cawur me (carry me)

pee pee (means both pee pee, as well as peanut butter and pannebaker!)

she is also learning songs like row row your boat, twinkle little star and my favorite, Happy Birthday! We taught her to sing it for my birthday so she sings it to Mommy every day!

Josh and I have been going through the grueling and mostly stressful process of trying to buy a house this summer. We started the process in June and are now just finishing up! We have long dreamt of our own house, a place where we can paint the walls and settle down enough to keep the same address for more than a year. Adding to our anticipation for our "own" place is the fact that we haven't unpacked our bags since we left McMinnville in March! It will be such a dream to put clothes in a closet, sleep in our own bed, and to give Grace her own special space again! I have learned a lot from the process of buying a house.
1. Don't throw away important papers
2. If you need something from someone at a loan company, and you're on the phone trying to get it, be nice and be persistent, and call every single day until you get what you need or they'll forget you even have a loan with them :)
3. Work with people you trust
4. Focus on loving your spouse extra during the process because it's hard to be loving under so much stress!
5. Know that God knows better than you, and that having your own house is not what life is about!
About a week before we found out our loan info had been approved, I realized that although having a house would be absolutely wonderful, it would not change anything about my marriage, my relationship with my daughter, or keep me from living the life that God wants me to live.
Friends and family, thanks for all your prayers and advice; we can't wait to have you over!!
Here are some pics of our new place!

From a Veteran Two Year Old...

Today, I hijacked Leslie's blog (don't worry I got permission to help her with something)!

I can't believe Gracie is going to be two soon! Where does time go, seriously?

Maisie is about to turn three in two weeks and I'm a little sappy about it. Last year, she obviously was turning two and I thought she was SO big. I think it had to do with me being really pregnant and wanting her to act older than she actually was. But she was just a baby!

So, moral of the story, Leslie, is that even tho Grace is almost two, and she is your first, so all new age developments are exciting...PLEASE don't grow her up too fast and SAVOR every day.

We love you Pannebakers!!

Rainy Day Activity

Grace and I were bored on one of our recent rainy days, and instead of watching T.V all day I decided we would pudding paint. Did anyone else do this growing up? We did, although I think my mom usually made a point to do it on a sunny day so that we could go hose off afterwards. Anyways I thought we needed a project and I didn't have any Gracie appropriate art supplies so we painted with pudding and ate it too!

The hollywood hump!

Tomorrow Josh and I will reach the hollywood hump in our marriage. That is what I've decided to call our 3rd wedding anniversary because that's as far as most young married couples in hollywood last these days, especially those who are on T.V! Anyways I was looking at our wedding pictures and started to tear up a little bit! So much has happened since we got married not so long ago, and I just thought I'd take a minute to reflect and share some of our informal pictures with everyone! I love you honey!

Full of Grace

There are so many special and important milestones in your child's life, holding her head up, sitting up, walking, saying momma and dada, and so on and so forth. Grace has had several fun little milestones lately, saying her ABC's, counting, singing songs, calling out hi mommy hi mommy and other short sentences. Watching her accomplish all these things bring me such pride and joy, I get so excited over things I never expected to be such a big deal. With that being said, yesterday Grace hit a milestone that has to be one of my favorites so far, and one that I had never thought about before. I had a headache and decided to lay down on the couch to watch T.V for a little while. Josh left Grace with me for a few moments while he got ready to take her out and wash the car together.. Well I was lying on the couch and grace grabs two big blankets and walks over and covers me up! Ok maybe this is a silly thing to write a whole blog about but it completely warmed my heart, and it made me realize that she reached a new milestone, compassion! We always talk about when our kids walk and talk and learn to use the potty, but I never thought about when she would learn to care, to love selflessly and to be gracious and compassionate. Anyways, just thought i'd share, being a mom is so much fun!

Mommyhood

This past week I've been thinking a lot about mommy-hood and Gracie and just all the great things having her has brought to my life. All prompted by our good friends who will be having a baby any day now, I started to reflect on some of our families coolest moments so far. First of all, the first few days after Gracie was born were the absolute scariest yet best days of my life. I simply cannot put to words how I felt holding her, finally getting to see her beautiful face, and learning (with lots of help from nurses!) how to tend to all her tiny needs. That time also allowed my hubby to completely shine in action. Since I had a C-section I couldn't get out of bed for the first 24 hours and even after that it wasn't easy to do , so Josh did just about everything he could. He changed her, held her, helped me whenever I needed anything, and then when Gracie lost a lot of weight he stayed with her in the nursey even though he hadn't slept a wink in days. I can honestly say I love the man more than when I married him!!


My next favorite moment, or more like feeling or thing since Grace has been born might sound silly. I had a really really tough time feeding Grace after she was born and so after three weeks she was %100 bottle fed, which was fine, I always made a point to have either Josh and I feed her, and we cuddled and would make it good bonding time anyway. However, when Grace started eating solid foods I decided to attempt to make most of her baby purees. This consisted of many hours of cooking veggies and soups and different things, puting them in my food processor and then freezing them in ice cube trays. It took a long time and always made a mess, but I can't explain how cool it felt to really make something for her to eat. Like that I was creating her food for her. Like I said that may sound kind of like not a big deal, but I really feel like I got to experience a little bit of what it would be like to feed her myself when she was first born. Anyways, it was cool.

Another thing I was thinking about was teething. Which in most cases is a seriously not-cool thing, at least in our house. Except for the excitement of getting a new tooth, it means fevers, drooling and lots of crying at night. This doesn't happen quite as dramatically as it did the first 5 or so teeth, but a few nights ago I was up with her in the middle of the night. And at first I always get really frusterated because I'm so tired and just want her to go back to sleep, but then I think about how one day I'm never going to get to hold her like that again! And it's just around the corner! She's already a busy bee who doesn't have much time to cuddle and one day she will be all grown up and it will be over! I know that is a somewhat sad thought, but it just really put things into perspective for me about a lot of things. Caring for a baby and then a toddler can be exhausting but once its over its over, and all those sweet moments will be memories! (I know I sound melodramatic and the next age will bring good stuff too..sorry!)

Ok last one, for now. Her birthday. I've always loved birthdays. My parents and grandparents did a great job (and still do) at making us kids feel so special on our birthdays. However I never expected Grace's birthday to mean soo soo soo much more to me. I mean I did know I'd probably be way more excited about her birthday then mine, and excited to throw her a party and all. But as a mom, that day is like so meaningful because you are reflecting on the day she was brought into the world. It was an anniversary for one of the best days of my life, and I was just really surprised at how emotional I got, and how special a birthday really is when you realize it is celebrating her creation! You just don't think that way about yourself!

Well I better cut this long post short, my little creation just woke up and is singing her abc's in bed! (another favorite moment!)
So to end, to our friends Ty and Molly who inspired me to reflect, cheers to whats to come its going to be amazing!!!
-Leslie