My little Girl

How did we get from this itty bitty little fragile thing to this happy, active little girl. Time has gone by fast ... too fast. It really does seem like just yesterday that I was freaking out about being a mom of two, and how was it possible to love this child as much as Jackson, and will this child love me as much as Jackson does, and how in the world do you get a schedule that works (sheesh ... this list could go on and on for a while). All these fears were present and more (the more would include spinal blocks, freaking out on surgery tables, and heaven forbid if something went wrong) as Kelly and I drove to the hospital at the crack of dawn to have little Miss Grace. Although the surgery did not start out as smoothly as it did with Jackson, once the spinal block drama was over, it went great. It was nice to be coherent this time and really enjoy the experience (especially having my mom in there telling me stories during the procedure). When she finally came out all I could think of was that "she's here, she's finally here!" Everything that I was so consumed with before was gone in an instant. All that really mattered was that I had this beautiful, dark haired, wrinkly, precious little girl that I was blessed enough to have as my daughter. It was so silly of me to worry because this beautiful girl is and always has been mine. How truly grateful I am for her in my life and I can't wait to see what the future holds.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACIE! I love you!

Big Birthday Morning

I think it might be my birthday this morning!Wait a minute ...

IT IS!!!!

This will be such a great day!

Who is this guy?

Maybe this is the reason that I make cupcakes so much! Who could resist this face?

You can't catch me!

Aquatic Center

We love having the new Aquatic Center down the street. It's an easy way to pass the long summer days here in Arizona. If you have ever seen Jackson in action in the water, then you can understand when I say, that it can be a bit draining. He gets pretty crazy and tends to be all over the place. Usually Grace and I sit at the beach entry and while she happily splashes around, Jackson runs around all the sprinkler systems. Once he gets tired of that, he moves on to jumping in from the side. He literally will jump in, climb out, jump in again. It lasts much longer then you would ever think it could. All in all it's a great little escape for this family.

Pig Tails

Here are the first documented pig tails. They are definitely not the best pictures, but the girl was so excited about her new found hair accomplishments that she just had to strut her stuff (or at least that's what I think she was doing).

Trip to Utah

At the beginning of August, we finally made it to Utah to visit some friends and family. First, we stopped off to visit the Cragun family. They had moved up there at the beginning of the year. It was great to see them and their new home. Jackson
was ecstatic to see his "best friend Lukey" as he is known in our house and his friend "Bidden" (aka Brandon). They rode bikes , attempted to learn the art of the scooter(some more gracefully then others ... Jackson was not one of them), played with trains, and just generally had a great time. The next day we headed to Manti to see Kelly's family. There were so many cousins and fun things to do for the kids. We were even able to drag them away for a brief moment to see the Manti Temple. They actually enjoyed it and especially loved the flowers and butterflies. Kelly, however, did not enjoy the mass amounts of flies! Like all trips, it was fun while it lasted, but definitely nice to be home!

Boat over load

Since we spend so much time on the boats in Michigan, we tend to take the majority of our pictures there. Why is it my children are the ones that just give up the fight in the life jacket and go to sleep? Jackson did the same thing when he wore that jacket. I guess it's got a pretty nice pillow all around her, so why not!

If I haven't said it enough ...thanks mom and dad for a great week!

Summer time in Michigan

For our family, life in Michigan is all about dock days, boat fun, reading, wandering around all the little towns, movies, games, and of course food. This year we weren't able to spend as much time with Becky and her family as they went home a few days after we arrived, but it was great to be with them even for a short while. Jackson adores them and it's always hard when we have to say good bye. As a side note, these boats are not ours. Shocking, I know. You'll notice that we are only allowed to be so close to them. Can you believe how massive they can get?! The blue one is about triple the size of our house. Yikes!