Birthday Girl 2012

Grace turned 3 on March 23! The birthday girl was spoiled rotten all weekend. On her actual birthday we played the morning away with her BFF Briella at Monkey Joe's. Afterwards we drove to meet Daddy for lunch at McDonald's. On the way home we stopped by Monroe to say hi to Grandpa and Auntie Kelly. We had a few hours of playtime at home then we met Grandma at Two Toot's Train Whistle grill for an early (free) birthday dinner and a cupcake. We topped our night off with a musical concert at the library. Not bad for a three year old. I don't know who was more exhausted at the end of the day, me or Grace:)

Briella and Grace in the photo booth at Monkey Joe's

Daddy and Grace at Mickey D's

Grandma and Grace at Two Toots. Her face is not representative of her experience there:)

Seriously excited about her incoming cupcake on the train

The next day was her actual party at our house. Nothing fancy; cake, ice cream, pop, presents and three of her friends. She had a blast and loved being the center of attention (like she never gets attention:) We are so blessed by our little 3 year old each and every day! She brings constant joy and laughter into our lives.

Transition Time

A lot can happen in six months! August is the last time I wrote anything. August is the month we found out we were expecting another baby! We are so excited about our upcoming addition. The due date is May 22, 2012. We're hoping this baby doesn't wait until 9 days after my due date to enter the world. This time around will be different since we found out it's a boy! We have been busy preparing the nursery, moving our office downstairs and buying all sorts of boy stuff.

We told Grace in early December about the new baby and she was not very happy at first. We told her one night at dinner that she was going to be a big sister and she proceeded to cry and say "no, no, no". I have no idea what was going through her head but I think she knew she was about to be dethroned as the spoiled only child. Since December, she has had some time to warm up to the concept of having a baby brother. Now she likes to lift up my shirt to give "baby brother" kisses and "snuggle" with him when we are reading books together. We've come a long way.

Grace is such a big girl now! She will be three at the end of March and and much of the last month has been spent transitioningher to a big girl bed, taking the pacifiers away and as a result of no paci's, dropping her nap in the afternoons. She really loves her big girl bed but we are all still getting used to a new schedule for her. Super Nanny would have been proud of our many attempts to use her techniques at bed time. I think our record was about 25 times for putting Grace back in her bed without talking to her. We were impressed with the number of excuses a two year old can come up with for getting out of bed.

Most of the time Grace is a sweet little girl that brings us so much joy. Watching her grow up and learn about the things around her is such a blessing. She loves to play with princesses and dress up. But she also loves to play dodge ball with Daddy in the basement and run around like a mad woman. I really need to start writing down all the fun things she says on a regular basis. She recently started giving me timeouts when she didn't like Mommy telling her what to do:)

I will post some recent pics when I have the baby's room done and feel like my house isn't flipped upside down with moving so much around. I also don't think I have any pregnant pictures of myself with this pregnancy! I hope this isn't an indicator for how many pictures I will take of the baby. They always say the first one has all the pictures and each consecutive child has less and less.