Favorite babysitter and Big girl with bottle

Bear with us as we try to get more techno-savvy on this blog!

Happy 10 months Gracee Girl!

What scampers, scavengars, scrunches her nose and is sweet all over???Our Gracee girl!!! On July 30th she turned 10 months.

She is outsmarting dad's blockades here...

Showing off her two teeth (one more on the way as we speak!)

VERY good with her hands now...

another teeth shot...

LOVES play with lots of things she shouldn't like cords and outlets!

Oh and I don't even need to sweep or mop anymore...

she found this strawberry on the kitchen floor.

caught red handed! Our little scavenger...

Russ and I aren't big pet lovers, but Gracee seems to love animals! dogs..

bunnies.

We went to our friends Scott and Mieka's house and Gracee found new friends: Aggie, the bunny....

rocks...(yum!)

and this ANT! Yes, you read that right, she was chasing around this poor little ant for the longest time. I was laughing so hard!
What are you laughin' at mom??

New little additions...

So I have this friend, her name is Micaela Anderson. She is a completely fabulous, seriously nice person. She's as genuine as they come, a complete gem. ANYWAY, if you go to yourphotosbyme.blogspot.com, you can find more of her work. She's a mom and a nurse and a self-taught photographer. She helped with our wedding and has done some of our little family. She recently edited some photos she took while we were down in AZ. I have been having a blast ever since! Isn't this gigantic 16 by 20 the sweetest thing ever??
more...
And one of my very most favorites...

My friend, Tara, gave me this bamboo thingie a while back, and we just LOVE it. You can always keep it chalked full of your most recent photos...

This one above is showing the letters that I just decopaged with my good friend Kenzie. She just had her first girl yesterday, named her Gracie too. We have parallel lives in so many ways, so I wasn't surprised at all when we discovered that we both wanted to name our first girl Grac(i)ee. So I thought it only fitting to purchase some of these letters she'd requested for myself as well so that we could decorate them together. It was a fun time together. Tedious, but fun. My mother-in-law has started her own vinyl business, and she is fantastic! She is one of the most creative minds in all the land...this little saying for Gracee's door is only a sliver of what ticks in that brain of hers.

Last but not least, I thought I'd include these slightly out-dated pics of our flower gardens in their prime. They are looking much sadder now because I have been 'too busy' with my other projects (refer to the photos above for reference) to nurture my flowers and produce!

It's also pretty hot. One step at a time. I think I'll get better at being committed to my garden each year...we'll see. I really do love it. But I love a lot of things, that's usually my problem. =)

Holy catch up time!!!

WATCH OUT! This is the world's longest catch-up blog. This is like, 6 blogs in one!!

So I am going to apologize in advance at this hasty attempt to catch up on our lives. I, as usual, have been working on tons of random projects and trying to be a good wife, mom, neighbor, friend...etc. THEREFORE, I have struggled to even get on the computer at all these days. I need to catch up on reading everyone else's blogs as well.

we celebrated the holiday weekend with family, so fun! This is us with Star's family at the Scera pool. Cuties! We all tried to wrestle and dunk Star in the pool, but as usual, he was inconquerable!! We also got shave ice afterward!We took Gracee to the Provo 4th of July Parade. It was pretty hot, but I insisted because these types of holiday events are so much more fun with kids. We also met up again with the Hall's there. That evening, we met over at the "Hannig compound" for our annual dutch oven night! (Incidentally, I love those red capris! I found them second hand when I was 20, my mom made them into capris for me. Russ doesn't care much for them, so I hardly ever wear them. When I was wearing them that day, he asked me about them--I told him it was the 4th! I can wear any crazy patriotic thing I want!)Okay, so I realize this is very blurry, but this head tilt thing is to die for! It's Gracee's new thing! And just a couple days ago, she started sticking out her tongue over and over again when she does it. I laugh so hard every time. Where does she get this stuff??Gearin' up for her first firework show!Ah, our first 4th!Happy Birthday Star! When my Dad and Di came to town, we had a blast. We all met at Star's for a BBQ to celebrate his birthday. Schuyler and Gracee are learning how to be playmates. One of my favorite things to do with dad is bike riding. We did the Provo Canyon route...Steve loves walking the route so he met up with us. Doesn't he look so handsome? Though I was leaving for girls camp his last morning with me, we squoze in one more ride, this time we did the Provo trail down to the lake. We felt so adventuresome!Though I missed my angel babe and sweet husband, girls camp was A BLAST!! I had to pump the whole time I was there, but it was worth it, I really enjoy serving in the YW organization. I see it, like the relief society, as a bond of womanhood and strength completely unmatched anywhere. I was so surprised by how much I missed Russ!

But don't worry, he came my last night there with the bishopric, this is the only pic I have to prove it...do you see him there in the corner? Pioneer day was great. People all have work off and everything here! Me and my friend 'Pamela Joy' ran the Pioneer Day run in Provo--she's a hoot! I just love her. Then me and Russ got to go on Sea Doos with our good friend and babysitter, Kenzie Harmon. Other than completely screwing up my neck, RE-bruising my tailbone, and some 'back seat driving' by you-know-who (!) IT WAS A TOTAL BLAST! No seriously, I want to do it again. I really had fun, in all honesty.

Trip to Arizona

Gracee and I recently returned from a 10-day trip to AZ. It was so much fun seeing grandma, great grandman, cousins, friends, and Aunts. Here are some of the pictures from it.

this bow is the first one I've EVER liked on Gracee! We had a magnificent photo shoot at Micaela's with some of Gracee's new little friends.
Afterwards, we had a swim party and Gracee made her usual concerned look at the water....but after being with grandma and seeing a handsome face, she was her usual flirty happy self in no time!

She also got to meet some more new friends--Christie, Emily, Brooke, and Erin--it was so good to see you!
She also got to meet her great Grandma Ione for the first time!
Then we headed up to the White Mountains to stay with Steph's family.
She got to meet her great Aunt Pam and Uncle Starl--and she got to see one of my dad's classic laughing fits. Love to see you laugh dad!
She had her first pony ride!
She got to have lots of cousin bonding time!
Aunt Sandy even came to say goodbye before we left for the airport.
She had lots of fun charming everyone on the airplane. I may have already mentioned this but she does this thing where she will make noises or shout at someone until they look at her. Once she has caught their eye, she engages them in a full head shaking, nose-scrunching, laughing conversation. Needless to say, she had a lot of friends by the end.
First plane ride. Lots of firsts. She did awesome and was so much fun. She really missed her daddy though. We were so happy to be home.