The parts we love about you

HAPPY 9 MONTHS!! Wow Gracee, it's amazing we've only known you for 9 months. Gracee can now get up on her hands and knees, she doesn't quite know what to do from there yet. She gets more and more verbal every week. She open and closes her hands really fast when she's excited and wants what she is looking at. Or she'll also do it and look around frantically if we have the NERVE to set her down anywhere without something to suck, chew or bang with. She still does her nose scrunching thing--but it's morphed into being the way she smiles now. She scrunch her nose and breathes in and out of it really loud to get people's attention at the store, church, or at the house. Once she cathces their eye, she proceeds to charm them by completely engaging and interacting. If people try to talk with her when she is tired or hungry, she usually tries to give a polite smile before she turns back around to mom or dad to show how she REALLY feels! Do we have a people pleaser? =) I can't even begin to count how many times a day I kiss her sweet cheeks, nose, or lips. She's learning how to give kisses, too. She doesn't get the whole pucker thing, but she knows what's going on!

We also love her chubby little thighs!

And my personal SECOND favorite---the neck! It's so cute and little and defined already!

Gracee girl, we love you! You have brightened every day in the last 9 months since you've come to us. We love your sweet, engaging spirit. We thank our Heavenly Father every day for you.

Happy Father's Day!

Father! - to God himself we cannot give a holier name. ~William Wordsworth I knew from the moment I first met him that he would be a fabulous father.

Gracee feels so comfortable with him. From her very first weeks, they were very well bonded--like two kindred spirits.

He's comfortable doing pretty much everything I do with her. He watches her in the evenings and on Saturdays when I go to work. He is very aware of her needs and her moods.

He enjoys all of the fun holiday parts of parenting that I like to cheese up and take photos of, or at least I should say he's a good sport about!

He is everything I ever hoped for in a husband and father and much more. I still realize/learn little things about him and think, "did I know I'd be getting that too when we were dating? Nope, that's just another icing on the cake."

One of the youth in our ward said that he's learned more from Russ in the last year than he has ever learned...that is one of my favorite things about Russ. He's an excellent teacher and example and has a burning testimony, which he is very passionate about sharing.

I am so grateful to have you as the father of my children honey! Thanks for being you because you're my favorite!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!