Grace Ann Said It!

Warning - This post is definitely for my personal scrapbooking purposes. Unless you are her parent, grandparent, aunt, or just a dork that cares about the vocabulary of a toddler (i.e. you are Maggie:-) then you may want to skip this one and read the other new post below!

As I've mentioned before, Grace Ann has a really strong vocabulary for her age.  She is putting more and more words together, and I wanted to document some of the things she is saying.  Here are a few phrases that have surprised me and made me laugh:

When I was trying the get her to take a nap and she knew Will's dad was in the next room -

Mommy:  "Lay down and close your eyes, Grace Ann."

GA:  "No, no, no!  Go see what Gandaddy doing?"

When a lady was waving to her in the checkout line at Target-

Mommy:  "Grace Ann, can you say hey?"

GA:  "no, no! Grace Ann shy!"

When Will came in the house after mowing the lawn in the hot sun -

GA:  "Daddy - SHOWER!"

After I changed her diaper -

GA:  "All gone Poop! All clean now"

Every time she picks up a phone -

GA: "Hey Rah Rah!  How you?  What doing? Bye Bye Rah Rah"  (Rah Rah is my dad)

After each song at the concert we went to at the library.  (Laudan and her kids were supposed to meet us, but it filled up and they shut the doors before they could get in) -

GA:  (clapping hands) "Yay!  Bye, Bye Library! Go see Ben and Bec Bec?"

Later the same day when we met only Laudan and Ben for Lunch-

GA:  "all gone Trey, Bec, Kate?" 

When she was in her playhouse outside and it started to rain -

Mommy: "Grace Ann, let's get out of our house now"

GA:  "No, no, no!  I cooking!"

Mommy: "What are you cooking?"

GA: "Breakfast" (and looks at me like that was a really dumb question)

Other phrases she commonly says -

"Mommy/Daddy open it!", "Mommy help you?", "Mommy hold you?", "Mommy wash it" (as in her pacifier), "Touch it?, "Mommy cut it" (her food), "Daddy working",  "Grace Ann drop it", "Elmo (or some other friend) funny", "Mommy sit" (pointing to the seat beside her on the sofa)

Some other words she knows:

Lots of animals (dog, cat, bird, bug, horse, cow, pig, rooster, flamingo, hippo, rhino, frog, snake, zebra, camel, giraffe, lion, tiger, monkey, fish, kangaroo, peacock, seal, penguin, panda, duck, deer, bear)  I could go on forever!  And she knows most of the coordinating sounds too.

Characters (Minnie, Mickey, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto,  Oso, Elmo, Big Bird, Abby, Zoe, Cookie Monster, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, Handy Manny, Barney, and lots more)

She can sing her ABC's  and "Jesus Loves Me" really well and knows parts of a lot of other songs. 

She can count to 10.

She knows the names of all the colors but still gets them mixed up sometimes.

She knows all of the names of the other kids in her class and the teachers.

Basically, if I tell her the name of something one time, she will say it and remember it.  Her brain must be growing so fast right now!   People have asked me lately how many words she is saying, but there is no way I could count them!

But I have to say that the cutest thing she says is "Come On!"  She says it when she is looking for something, "Cassie, Cassie, Come On Cassie!"  or if she wakes up in the night I will hear her on the monitor very calmly saying "Mommy, come on!"  The way she says it is SOOO country!  It cracks me up every time I hear it!

Fun Days with Friends

On Thursday, Haley (one of my best friends from high school) brought her two cute kids, Evan and Avery, to spend a couple of days with us.  We had lots of fun and stayed really busy!  Grace Ann loved having friends visit us!

First, we met Shannon and Collier at the McWane Center!  How cute is Collier in the mirror?

Evan and Avery enjoyed the life-size Light-Bright (I realized the day they left that I didn't get any good pictures of their cute faces! - Haley will have to e-mail me some!)

Grace Ann made a lovely Mr. Potato Head (notice the arm coming from the mouth) and she had to hug it before we could leave that exhibit.

I looked away for one second and Grace Ann tried to climb in the shark tank!

On Friday,we went to the splash pad, swam at the pool, and cooked out with Caty, Ed, and Marianna, but somehow I let the day get away without any good pictures.

On Saturday, we headed to the ZOO!  Once again, Grace Ann loved the hard hats!

Grace Ann ended her zoo trip with her first real Popsicle (other than the ones I make at home from organic apple juice).  Despite the bib, the entire dress was red when we left.  Thank goodness it came clean in the wash!

After the zoo, Grace Ann took a LONG nap and Haley, Avery, and Evan headed back to Eufaula.  We are so glad they came to visit and hope they come back soon!

We ended our Saturday with a family trip to the Deer Expo.  Will loves looking at all the hunting stuff and I will admit that I really enjoyed the people watching there!

Willow Point

This past weekend we went to Willow Point on Lake Martin with Will's parents.  We had a great time!  They have a beach area and a beautiful pool!

From the beach we could see Will on the green (he's in the green shirt and black shorts if you look really closely)!

eating ice on the porch of Catherine's restaurant

Grace Ann loved making friends with Jody and Megan Baker and Madeline Jones.  They stayed with their parents in the same villa as us.  The kids enjoyed playing in the common room and swimming at the pool. Madeline and Grace Ann are about the same age. 

Grace Ann loved spending time with her grandparents (and we did too!), but we were sooo tired when we got home on Sunday night.  Grace Ann is a "challenge" to take out to eat right now, so I was glad to get home to a high chair at the kitchen table!

Happy Anniversary to us!

Seven Years ago today. . .

I actually had a very hard time finding this picture, because our wedding pictures were not digital, and my scanner is not working.  But, thank goodness a few friends gave us some CD's of pictures they took from our big day!  We look so young!  It seems like seven years have flown by, but it also seems like we've been married forever (in a good way:-)!  I'm looking forward to many,many,many more years together!

Full (but so FUN) Weekend = Long Post!

        I always tease Will about trying to fit too many activities into not enough time, but that is exactly what I tried to do this weekend.  Grace Ann likes being busy though, so it worked out great! I knew we had a full afternoon and evening planned for Saturday, so I needed GA to take a LONG late afternoon nap.  I had to find a way to keep her busy and wear her out during the morning, so we headed to the zoo.  She spent most of her time pushing the stroller (so funny what entertains them!)

She also loved the hard hats in the kangaroo area!

After the zoo and a good nap, it was off the Aleah's birthday party.  Aleah is one fo GA's friends from school.  GA was so excited about her birthday and kept saying "happ bird-day Leah".  If you notice the picture below, GA put her hands in Aleah's cake after we sang "Happy Birthday" - I'm sure Aleah's mom was thrilled! I grabbed her before too much damage was done. 

The cutest part was that Grace Ann really understood that it was Aleah's party, and every time Aleah's mom or I gave her something (like a piece of cake, a drink, a party favor, etc), Grace Ann would say "Thank You Leah!"  The Capri Sun drink was really a special treat because A) we only drink milk and water at home and B) I totally avoid juice boxes and things with straws because her shirt ends up looking like this:

After the party, we headed home, changed clothes and met the Moates family for dinner, swimming, and fireworks at the country club. 

Here are McCartney and Elizabeth Moates- how cute are they?

Grace Ann loved having the "Big Girls" to play with!

The next day we headed to the country for the 101st annual Thomas family reunion.  My Great Grandmother was one of 11 children in the Thomas family.  We have a get-together every year at this reunion house which is built on the land where the original Thomas family home stood.

It is normally miserably hot, but this year it was actually very pleasant!

Papa and Aunt Emily (his sister) - aren't they cute?

Aunt Kim was trying to keep GA entertained so I could eat some lunch.  She let her open every piece of gum in the pack from her purse.  She is just TOO sweet (and that is why we love her so!)

We had so much fun this weekend, but I am a tired mommy!

Playing with Cute Collier

We were so excited to have the Hicks over for dinner so that Grace Ann and Collier could have a much overdue playdate!  There were some tears in the beginning, because GA wasn't really into sharing her toys (seems to be our latest battle).  But after we got some food in her tummy, she was over it and back to her happy self!

One of Mommy's shoes and one of Daddy's shoes!

Playing with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head

Thanks Maggie for making our cute dress!

Disney World Here We Come!

Today we officially booked our trip to Disney World for the fall!  To say that I am excited is the understatement of the century!  We are going with Trey, Laudan, Ben, Bec Bec, Kate, and Mrs. Becky!  While I know that we all are going to have a blast, GA and Bec are two major Minnie lovers and I cannot wait to see their faces when they get to meet her!