Ice Ice Baby

We finally experienced our first ice/snow storm in Oklahoma!  Wednesday it was a beautiful day with 58 degree weather then the next day it dropped into the 20's! Thursday and Friday's classes were cancelled for Matt, and church was cancelled today.  It's crazy how they shut down everything here! I have never seen church cancelled for anything.  It's actually been really fun though and nice to have Matt around so much :) 

The lovely view of our yard...

I've never seen anything like this before! These are leaves on a bush in our front yard.

A piece of "grass" sticking out of the snow...

Matt and I were getting stir crazy by Friday so while Grace was napping we decided to go in the backyard and have some fun.  I think we overdressed, but at least we stayed warm! ;)

When you walk on the snow it feels like you are walking on a shelf of ice.  We were having an aggressive snowball fight and we'd start to slide on ice as we fell to the ground...crazy!

We've never taken Grace out in the snow, so we decided to see if she'd like it.  She did! The minute we stepped out the back door she gave us a big gummy smile!

So of course we had to capture the moment.

We opened the blinds in her room so she could see out into the backyard. 

 Her hair is getting crazy!!!

All in all it's been fun.  We had to cancel our babysitter and our date night, so we've been enjoying housework, checkers, movies, online virtual home tours :), studying for Matt, and scrapbooking and other projects for me!  If you ask me the storm was a bit blown out of proportion,

 but you won't see me complaining!

I almost forgot, we found a BIG surprise in Grace's mouth a couple of days ago...

a little tooth poking through!

She's been up a lot in the night and is more fussy than usual.  I should have known! I didn't think she'd be so young starting this. She is pretty sad about it, so if you experienced mom's out there have any advice on how to help make this process a little easier I'd love to hear it!

The joys of teething! Drooling, biting, fussiness, and uh more drooling...

and as always, handling it like the champ that she is!

Happy Birthday Matt/Rolling

Happy Birthday MaTT!!!

Yesterday was Matt's 31st birthday! 

We had so much fun celebrating!!!

 Matt doesn't usually care too much for his birthday due to his past experiences.  When he was 6 years old his mom dropped him off at school and he was carrying  a large pot filled with popcorn balls for his class.  On his way into the school he slipped and fell on the ice and the balls flew everywhere.  He finally gathered them all up only to fall AGAIN! Poor little guy. He wasn't too happy.  Naturally, he doesn't enjoy the spotlight which has ruined subsequent birthdays. Hopefully this one turned out better for him! :)

After a super romantic dinner, Matt went on a little treasure hunt for his birthday gifts. I had little riddles for clues.  He did a pretty good job, but I did have to help him a little bit. ;) Matt's favorite cake is cheescake so one of the clues led us to the Cheescake Factory.  Delicious.  You can see picture of them below, I got the red velvet creamcheese and Matt chose a pineapple one. Absolutely to die for.  What topped the night off was that they sang to him! He hates that, but I on the other hand loved every second!

Over dinner we read historical events that had taken place on his birthday. Come to find out one of Matt's former cassette tapes with the song We are the World was recorded that day. 

Who knew? :) We'll have to add to the list the announcement of the new Payson Temple!

So exciting!

Birthday CeLeBrAtIoNs!

Matt's final clue led him to his weights.

He's been wanting these for awhile...

I promise! 

Matt and his brother were teasing me that it was a selfish gift. :)

I am so thankful to have Matt as my husband. He has such a tender heart and I couldn't feel luckier to spend the rest of my life with him! Everywhere he goes people just love him.

 SO glad you were born sweetie! :)

I'm also going to brag that his first semster of law school grades were awesome! 

So proud of you babe!

My sweet friend Rebekah was nice enough to watch Grace during the whole birthday fiasco! Then she joined us at the end. Thanks again, it's so nice to have good friends.  Earlier this week I watched her cute girls Elaine and Mariah while she got her ultrasound...ANOTHER CUTE GIRL!  Congrats!

They are seriously adorable.

Oh and I failed to get a picture, but I think Matt's favorite gift by far was from our nephew Jefferson.  A sweet coloring job of star wars characters :) Thanks Jefferson!

Rolling Over?!

Well, at Christmas time I knew she was close because she kept rocking back and forth.  I suppose I just didn't think it would be so soon.  Last week it happened though!  I turned around and she went from her back to her stomach.  I was glad Matt hadn't left for school yet, we just started to cheer and scream!  She just gave us this look like, "...so what?"  Then just a few minutes later she was going from her stomach to her back.  She's just a little mover!

I snapped this right after it happened.

She keeps moving her legs and arms like she's going to crawl.  She gets really intense and starts to grunt, it's pretty funny.  I don't know why she's in such a hurry!  I'm sure it will be a while, or at least I keep telling myself that.  TOO FAST!

Warm January Days!

This week has been incredible as we are experiencing weather in the 60's!  I don't think I have ever felt such a warm January. It is glorious!  Grace and I have been outside enjoying it quite a bit.  I find it fasinating how much the sunshine lifts the spirit.  It makes me feel a renewed sense of hope and purpose.  One of my new years resolutions is to try and enjoy and be thankful for each moment, each memory, and each day.  To give thanks in the moment for the gift that I am receiving.

I know from experience that gratitude brings great JOY!

Euphoria

(kashi cereal...oh so delightful)

Breakfast in Bed for three with...

Leave it to Beaver.

(SIGH) Life doesn't get much better than this.

hooray for martin luther king day.

Fantastic Four

This has been a BIG month for Grace as she has mastered:
1)Taking her binki out and putting it back in. The right way I might add.
2)Standing while we hold her hands. She LOVES this, everytime we do it she shakes and gets really excited! Haha, it's so cute!
3)Rolling on her side, she can go back and forth quite easily!
4)Grabbing toys and putting them in her mouth, of course.
5)Solids! She actually LIKES rice cereal. Amazing.
6)Getting better and better at talking! ;)



We had fun feeding her rice cereal for the first time. She did an excellent job with it.

My little Gabber Girl! Here is just a small sample of this girls talking abilities. She is incredibly loud and sometimes she just goes on and on for minutes. It can be kind of embarrasing, like yesterday in the library...I'm telling you it was DEAD QUIET. Thankfully, the librarians were really nice about it. I think we may be in for trouble later on though! :)



Oh, I just love her more and more everyday!