Waving & Walking

Here are some cute videos from the past few weeks...

Nine Months

Grace will be nine months old this week!!! These past few weeks she has started intentionally waving 'hello' to people...as well as the cats, stuffed animals, the television and photos on the wall. It cracks me up to get her out of her crib in the morning and watch her scan the walls for the photos so she can wave to them.

She is also pulling up on everything including her walker and the stairs (she climbed the full flight this week for the first time...with us behind her of course).

Her personality is really coming out as well, and it's been so fun to watch her giggle and try to communicate with us.

Five Year Anniversary

It was 5 years ago today that we were married not far from here in Clifton, Virginia. In some ways it seems like yesterday, but most of the time it seems like at least that long ago because our lives (and ourselves) have changed in so many ways that I can't hardly recognize the way we were back then. To list a few of the many changes:
THEN:
-we were living in Phoenix, AZ in an apartment
-I was working as Senator Jon Kyl's (Arizona) scheduler and working very much full-time wearing a suit everyday (and often nylons even in AZ) and also very much consumed by my political functions. In all honesty it wasn't until about a year ago that I stopped having nightmares occassionally about forgetting an event and receiving a call from JK about something...
-Chris was working at Sumitomo in Phoenix and was finishing up his degree at night
-we had just gotten our little babies Penny & Nickles (our kittens...)
-we were in debt up to our eyeballs (and beyond) and I remember painting and slipcovering nearly every piece of furniture in our home to make it cute (IKEA seemed pricey then)

SINCE THEN:
-we're living on the East Coast...
-I'm a stay-at-home-mom... MY DREAM job, and I've been able to stay home for the last 3 years thanks to Arbonne (and our campaign fundraiser who told me about it...Corinne, I'm ETERNALLY grateful for this uber-gift!!!!)
-Chris got his degree in Business.
-Chris is with a government consulting firm, and he loves it.
-now we have our most treasured baby Grace who is almost 9 months old AND Penny & Nickles have been seriously demoted...although Grace sure is fascinated by them.
-we are out of debt (and our home is furnished with REAL furniture), and God has done a true miracle in our lives financially through Arbonne, Chris' job and Crown Financial Ministries.

Anyway, enough about that...here are the pictures I know you relatives really logged on to see (:

Starting to Talk

Yes, it's been a full two weeks since I've updated our blog because I was out of town last weekend to Atlanta for our annual Arbonne conference (the best yet!) Nana, Ompa and Daddy all worked overtime taking care of Grace, and she wore them all out! I of course had a hard time leaving her, but she did great and had a ball.

In the last two weeks she has started saying mama, dada, baba and nana. We don't think she is actually associating the words with anything yet, but at least they are understandable. She's started pulling up on everything including the ottoman and chairs in the living room, and she's successfully climbed the first step (scary!)...of course with supervision.

Almost 8 Months

Not much new to report this week. Grace will be 8 months old on the 8th (WOW, I can't believe it!!!) Here are a few of the latest pictures.

Easter

Grace spent her first Easter here in Virginia, and it was clear but brisk, but at least there was no snow like last year!

Crawling

This was a week of many firsts...

This was the first week Grace crawled across the living room without falling to her belly.

This was the first week Grace sat up on her own from her tummy.

This was the first week she fed herself an entire bottle (this one we discovered quite by accident...I couldn't stop the car to feed her, so I handed her a bottle to see what she would do with it and after a few minutes of frustration she figured it out and downed the whole thing!)

Unfortunately, in all the excitement I forgot to take one single picture the entire week!

Here's a video of Grace chasing a pig my brother played with as a kid (20 years ago!).


There is nothing more attractive to Grace than the color silver...and the camera is no exception.