Happy Happy Birthday Gracie Dear

Wow. Four years old. Gracie has been such an amazing blessing in our lives. I can't believe that she was born four years ago. I remember having this discussion with one of my friends the other day (she just had her fifth baby) about how you love each of your children differently. I said how I will always have a special bond with Grace because she was our first and for nearly 2 years it was just her and I. All of the time. Shopping, walks, eating out, everything I did in the day, I just would drag her along with me. I will always have a different bond with Mikey because he is my second and we spent all of that time together alone at the hospital, but I'll save that for his birthday post. When I was pregnant with Gracie, I was so sick I lost over 50 pounds throwing up about every hour every day. for NINE months. It was the hardest thing I had ever gone through up to that point. I remember laying in bed, not having the energy to go out on the couch, crying about how sorry I felt for myself... there were a lot of days like that. I remember promising the baby inside me that I would do everything I could to be the best mother to her if she would just get me through the rest of the pregnancy. Well, she kept up her end of the deal and I try every day to keep up mine. I wanted to put pictures up of some of my favorite's over the last four years, but this is a new computer and I haven't switched them over yet. Gracie is an amazing little girl. She is so patient with me and she is as sharp as a knife. She is always one to call me out when I do something wrong. I love her so much and I'm so lucky to have her as my own!! Happy Birthday Gracie!!

I woke Gracie up singing happy birthday to her and made her FAVORITE food ever. Scratch Pancakes with buttermilk syrup.

This is the traditional picture of her saying how old she is. (okay, about the cake... this was my first time ever using fondant, and it was so hard!! I got it everywhere and it was the most cock-eyed looking fish ever. I later fixed it as you'll see.... She wanted a little mermaid party so the cake is Flounder)

The fixed product

What's a party without a little pin the tail on the donkey?

And a pinata??

Gracie with her mouth full after cracking open the pinata

I had to try and transform my kitchen into the sea... it didn't really work, but I did my best!

Her gift from mom and dad. She LOVES this thing.. she didn't want to go to school today because she wanted to stay home and ride it.

Happy Birthday Gracie... we love you soooooooo much!!!!

xoxoxo

Catch up... Not ketchup

Holy Schmoly. I have been so behind!! After whining to my hubby for the last 7 months he finally gave in and got me a new computer. I have high hopes for my blog updating in the near future. Also, Gracie just started school this week and I find that I will have a littl more free time to update. So I just want my followers to know, I vow to do better ;) But, that being said, I HAVE been taking a ton of pictures with the intent to blog but I just havent found the time. I downloaded the latest and it took me forever! But I finally did it... also, Thanks to everyone for the well-wishes on Mikey's little ouchy on his lip. I took the stitch out yesterday and he is healing like a champ with a little help from vitamin E. I am also recovering from the traumatic experience. Can anyone else atesst to the extreme differences between boys and girls? Gracie always got into trouble, but not like Mike. He gets into t-r-o-u-b-l-e... Always.... any time I turn around the dog food is all over, or something is spilled, or there is PEN ON MY NEW MICROFIBER COUCH... or some other mischief. Oh heavens, he is all boy. But I wouldn't trade it for anything!! Here are the latest...

~Also, my pics are out of order, of course, So be patient!

Ya. Brand new bottle of A1.

Yelling because he wants the camera

Chan,chad and mom making ladder ball

Dustin and Chad (chad had a little spill)

Gracie and Mike on Austins riding mower. Sometimes Mike will walk over by himself and I can always find him sitting on top of the mower. He loves that thing.

Our neighbors got a new puppy for their sons 2nd birthday. Gracie is in love.

Chad and Austin enjoying ChuckyCheese as much as the wee lil ones

Okay, since these are out of order, I'll explain. A couple of saturdays ago Chad and I got ambitios and decided to make Jam. We have two pear trees and last year our dear friend Taylor came and snagged some pears to make pear-rasberry jam. It was AMAZING. best jam I ever tasted. So this year we thought we would try it ourselves. We went to the farmers market and bought up a bunch of berries to we could make pear-everything. We had boxes and boxes of pears to get rid of so we needed to use them for something! It was a fun day of making jam but it took it out of me! And if I see one more fruit fly, I might go crazy. Dallin turned two on that saturday so the Gardners took us to Chuckycheese for dinner. That was a great way to break up the day of jam making!!

We ended up with 75 jars

I thought Mike would love this thing but he hated it!

The day we made jam, the kids were on their own. They were SO good! They watched TV most of the day and Gracie was the best baby-sitter

We got this GREAT idea from Travis and Lyndy (chad's bro and wife) To get Gracie a chores chart and when she does a week solid of her chores she gets a date alone with either mom or dad. This week she chose to go get ice cream with mom and then go to ross to pick out a toy.

A couple weeks ago we went to Logan to visit Chad's parents and to listen to Chad's mission president speak. I don't know if any of you have heard of Pres. Randy Wilkinson, (he is Tyler Wilkinsons dad) But he just got put into the fifth qorum of the 70. He is one of the most amazing men I have ever met. Every time I am around him his testimony oozes out of everything he says. When he talks about the gospel I just take in every word he says. He is so amazing and I'm so blessed to have him in my life!

While he was in Logan we were able to go visit Martin Harris' gravesite. It was a pretty neat experience.

Me, Pres.Wilkinson, Chad and Mike

Gracie feeding the goats in Logan

One of the goats just had twins and they are SO cute!

Gracie and Grandma Staheli walking down to feed the goats

We went to a little zoo and these birds would come right up to the fence so we could feed them. Mike wasn't scared at all!

And yes, Gracie really wore this.

I don't know if you can really make this out, but it is an albino porkypine and it was zonked out on this tree. Its little face was smashed. we were cracking up.

Breakfast!

Because of all the fires the sun was blood red

It was my birthday on the 30th and the Staheli's were so good to me. They got me a really nice casserole dish and some halloween decor. (I LOVE halloween) And Chad of course was great to me also. He made me strawberry cheesecake, got me a new camera, twilight the board game, chocolates, and a gumball machine from the kids. Oh, and of course an incredible hulk card.

Travis and Lyndy's baby Davis. He is such a smiler!!

Chad and Travis had to go get some cows in Boulder so Lyndy and Traci came down to spend the day. We took the kids to mcdonalds and then to swim. It was such a fun day! it was a bit crazy at times with 7 kids under the age of 5 but it was still a blast! Thanks girls we need to do it again!!!