M.I.A.

I am not M.I.A. (You aren't that lucky.) The reason I have not been posting as of late is my computer is sick. It contracted a nasty virus (thanks Facebook!) and is at the 'doctor'. The prognosis does not look good and I am sweating bullets that all the pictures and videos I have taken and saved to my computer will be lost. (No I didn't back them up like I should...I know, I know...you always back that kind of stuff up! GET OFF MY BACK!)

So how am I writing this post you ask? My iPhone. (I LOVE technology.) As cool as this thing is it is not very blog friendly so this entry will be short and lackluster. I just wanted to let you know that we are alive and kickin' but cut off from blogging. I REALLY miss my computer. Without it my house is way too clean. The laundry is done, folded and put away. There are clean sheets on the bed and I've been baking up a storm. It's like I am a homemaker or something.

One Reason

There are many things I love about living in the country, but one of the things I particularly love is that nature seems to be right outside our door. Literally. In the tree just steps outside our back door, a mama bird made the most perfect nest and patiently sat on her eggs for weeks and weeks.

Finally, they hatched and she had four, perfect little babies! You can only see two in the pictures.
They were always hungry! Talk about a full time job.

The babies grew up almost overnight and just a few days ago the last one left the nest.

Happy Half-Birthday!

For mother's day, my mother-in-law and some of her friends gave me a very generous and thoughtful gift - a gift certificate to a local nursery. What woman doesn't love flowers, trees and shrubs for her yard, right?

It was a perfect gift because I had been meaning to buy a tree to commemorate Grace's birth. As the tree grows, so will Grace and we will have something to measure time against...plus something beautiful for our yard (when she will no longer humor us by standing next to the tree and letting us snap thousands of photos of her).

I had a tree when I was little.


Not sure what kind.
Unfortunately, it was in a bad accident with a tractor and it did not survive.


Anyway, choosing a tree took a little leg work. Our only criteria was that it had to have pink blossoms...since Grace is a girl. (I know...if #2 is a boy, finding a tree with blue blossoms might be tough. We'll cross that bridge.) I went to the nursery and spoke with one of their people to tell me about what kind of trees they had, which would grow well in our area and which had pink flowers. That narrowed it down to about 15 trees. We googled all the options and after meticulously viewing the images of each tree, we chose the Yoshino Cherry for it's beautiful pink blossoms and it's graceful appearance as it matures. You are probably familiar with Yoshinos...they can be found all over Washington D.C. and in the quad at the University of Washington campus (my alma mater).

This is what our tree will one day look like...
at least as long as we can keep it away from rogue tractors.

Yesterday, was Grace's half-birthday. She is six months old!! I can't believe it. I just can't believe how fast the last six months have gone by.

As you can see by these pictures, I'm not the only one who celebrates half-birthdays...although I must admit I hadn't thought of a half-birthday cake (thank you Google for bringing me yet another excuse to have cake).

In honor of this momentous occasion, we measured Grace against the tree.

Happy Half-Birthday Grace Elizabeth!
You have made the past six months magical and memorable. Can't wait to see what the future holds for you...besides cake on your half-birthdays!

Ready

Grrrrrrrrrrrr...
I am ready for the summer -
or teeth.

Waking Up

Even though mornings are rough, at least until I've had my morning coffee, it's pretty tough not to wake up on the right side of the bed after seeing this...


this...
this...

or this!

Running Errands

Living in the country not only means fresh air and lots of wide, open space, it means LOTS of hours in the car trekking to Costco (an hour away), the vet (an hour away), the dealership where we get the oil of the 'Burban changed (an hour away), the dry cleaner (an hour away)...you get the idea. We spend a lot of time in the car. Luckily, Grace is a trooper and is usually content in her car seat.

What Grace normally looks like while riding in her car seat

When she does start crying while we are in the car, I turn into a crazy, frantic driver. I was recently returning from an ever-thrilling trip to Wal-Mart (the "good" one is...yes, you guessed it...an hour away) and cruising along the highway where the speed limit is 70 mph. I found myself daydreaming for just a second and when I returned to reality, was forced to quickly slam on the brakes. Some woman driver (yes I said it) was puttering along at 50 mph - IN THE FAST LANE! To make matters worse, she WOULDN'T get over. Grace was having a bad moment in the car - her cries starting to reach frenzy level - and my brain felt like it was about to short circuit. Not sure why Grace's cries compel me to drive faster but they do. The louder her cries, the heavier my lead foot (and we all know that that was a bit on the heavy side to begin with).

I suppose I could have taken the high road...or the right lane...and simply sped around her. Instead, I chose the more "mature" alternative and rode her bumper while laying on the horn for a solid minute. It took her that long to check her mirror and realize that an angry Suburban driver was slightly annoyed that she was occupying the fast lane. Eventually, she got over and I sped by her. For the record, I did restrain myself and kept all offensive hand gestures to myself.

Sittin' Pretty

Grace and I have been working on perfecting sitting up and crawling. Sitting up is going well. I can sit ALLLLLLL day now if I had to...oh wait! You want to know how Grace is progressing....well she is sittin' pretty!

To encourage crawling, I am trying a "new" technique. I hear parents have been doing it for years though I told myself I would never resort to such antics...

I am sure that once she is mobile, I will long for the days of a stationary child. Until then, I will keep luring her with toys!

Catch-up

Blogging has taken a back burner the last few weeks as we approach Court's busy season. We wanted to sneak in as much family time as possible and unfortunately, Court and Grace don't like hanging out in front of the computer as much as I do!

I was able to get a few posts up in the month of May but here are a few that never made it online (because I ran out of time, energy, hands, etc...).

I had a fabulous first Mother's Day! I received some beautiful cards from friends and family but this one, from my sister, was particularly funny.

On the inside it says, Not to mention prettier!

Grace got me a shiny balloon that is STILL floating around the living room.

Court got me the second book in the Twilight series which I devoured in about 2 days! (Another reason I haven't been blogging.) If you haven't read the Twilight series, I highly suggest listening to all the hype. I was leery at first too...teenagers? vampires? But it is SO good! Trust me! I am seriously considering springing for the third book even though it is currently only in hard back and costs about $25. If I wait until August 4, I can get it for $8 at Wal-Mart. August 4 also happens to be Court's birthday. Hmmm....maybe I can kill two birds with one stone?? Nothing says Happy 32nd Birthday better than a book about teenage vampires falling in love, right?

Anyway, we spent Memorial Day weekend in Sun Valley, Idaho. A quick seven hour drive turned into a 10+ fiasco. Grace didn't want to sleep in the car. She didn't want to be in the car - period. I think I have now stopped at every exit between here and Boise at this point...in case you were wondering, there is a great truck stop bathroom right outside Ontario. Cleanest public bathroom I have EVER been in. We eventually made it and spent a fun, relaxing and warm weekend eating and drinking.

Grace picked up a new trick by watching Dad and his beer.

After returning from Idaho, I headed over to Seattle to hang out with my mom and sister...and to get a few more moles removed. Somehow, I didn't take any pictures which just goes to show how busy we were...shopping, eating, drinking and mole removing. We had a great time and I am happy to report that none of the moles were cancerous! Yeee haw!

After being in Seattle a few days, my mom came back to my house. She offered to babysit so Court and I could go out to dinner, just the two of us, for the FIRST TIME since Grace was born! (5.5 months to be exact!) It was a true date night - Court brought me roses!


Though I did feel slightly "naked" not having to balance a baby with one hand while shoveling food into my mouth with the other, we were able to have a wonderful, relaxing evening as we were sure that Grace was in good hands. When we got home, I wasn't sure who had more fun - Grace or my mom!

We squeezed in time to have Grace's "six month" photo session while my mom was in town. Although Grace is only 5.5 months, I wanted her to have some pictures taken with her Grammy. When I get the proofs, I will share them with you by posting them to the blog. And when I say share, I of course mean that I will carefully screen them and then share with you only the "good" ones (aka the ones where Grace looks like a Gerber baby and I look like I've lost all the baby weight!) Stay tuned!

We are officially caught up! Let the June postings begin!