Trick or Treat!

This morning we carved our albino pumpkin. I have never seen a WHITE pumpkin before! Let me just say this thing was much harder to carve than your normal orange pumpkin. We had planned on carving "Trick or Treat" on the front but once we got started we figured out it was not going to work. The pumpkin is about 2 inches thick and the little pieces of the letters were just not coming out. So we did our best to turn it into a face.

We took Grace on-base to trick or treat this evening. First stop was a friends house. We were a little early but we wanted to make sure they didn't run out of candy before Grace stopped by!

She kept pointing to where the candy was and wanting more!

Then we went to another neighborhood for more trick or treating. It rained the entire time! We decided that after visiting a friends house we would put the camera away for the night since we were all getting wet and it was dark. Grace got a bag of candy and she ate a twizzler on the way home.

When we got home we took some candy to our neighbors. We bought a couple bags to hand out but not a single person stopped by. I guess the rain kept everyone away.

This was our third Halloween being married and we have not ever had a little kid come to our door to trick or treat. The first year we lived in an apartment complex in El Paso. Last year we were in Hawaii. We thought we might get a few kids come by after we got home tonight but the neighbors told us it has been a quiet night here. I guess maybe next year?

Happy Halloween!

We went to a Trunk-or-Treat tonight and met up with our friends James, Kelly, & Maggie. I think we all had a good time and the girls really enjoyed running around in all the grass!

Tomorrow night we are taking Grace to trick-or-treat on-base. Hopefully she will share some of her candy with her Mommy and Daddy :-)

This is the only picture I have of the back of her costume.

She really enjoys playing in the grass

I think we are going to have to try and go out early tomorrow to take some pictures in the daylight because none of the ones from tonight turned out very good.

But here is our little ladybug!

Best Buds holding hands! Grace loves all of Maggie's curls.

Thank You Papa Bill!!

I got a package in the mail the other day. It had my Daddy's name on it but it was really for me! My Mommy opened it up for me since it had lots and lots of tape. She told me scissors are only for grown-ups. When the box was opened I saw lots of animals inside! And a special note from my Papa Bill.

I sat in my special chair with my blanket and the puppy dog and we watched a movie that we got at the library that morning. It was pretty fun watching a movie with my new puppy.

There was a gift card for the BX too so my Mommy is going to take me shopping. Daddy said I don't need anymore toys but Mommy said I can have more. I think Mommy is right this time.

Daddy can be right sometimes too. Like the other night when he had pudding and I wanted some

and Mommy said I didn't need any but Daddy said it was OK. I think Daddy was right that time.

Thank You PAPA BILL!!!!!

Picture Post

I was going to put these on the previous post because I don't like posting twice in one day. But then I realized that I would have to move all the pictures around and edit the post and I thought this would be easier. In case you missed the last post you can find it here.

She has been very loving lately

Hugging her baby upside down

This is during dinner... and yes, I forgot the bib.

She was so happy that she got to feed herself!

Ready for church in her $4 outfit

This is the shirt she got chocolate all over from that cookie she ate last night!

This is a little blurry but I wanted you to see her cute outfit. I ordered it from Gap and it is one of our favorites!

She loves to read her books! The puppies are like miniature stuffed animals on the book.

Miss Independent

Grace has decided that sometimes she is too big to be fed. She wants to do it all by herself! So we went shopping for things that are pretty soft that she can eat. First we tried a scrambled egg. She liked that. Then she had some small pieces of string cheese. Yummy! And some pita bread which is pretty good too!

But best of all was the chocolate chip cookie she stole from me at church last night!

Tonights dinner consisted of table food for Grace.

On the menu was cheerios and shredded cheese as an appetizer. Hey, she got hungry before dinner was ready. And then the main course was peas and chicken. For dessert.... no, not another cookie.. biscuit with apple butter. She loved all of it!

And after she was finished we let her try to spoon feed herself some of her baby food. She loved that she was in control of the spoon!

Here are a few videos from yesterday

Eating eggs for lunch yesterday

Giving Puppy hugs!

Shopping Addict?

Grace needs socks.

She has had several pairs in the past. Most she has outgrown. But most of what we have now don't have the non-slip bottoms. With shoes on this isn't a problem but we don't wear shoes in our house. The pair I like the best that she has, well... it's not a pair anymore. So I decided to see if I could find anything at the BX this morning since we were going right next door to the commissary anyways.

I ended up purchasing 8 new outfits (all of which she can wear right now! And they are perfect for this cool, wet weather we have been having). And no socks. But how could I pass up a pretty Christmas dress for $3? Or the jeans and sweatshirt for $4? Or the cute little leggings, skirt, top, and vest for $4? A set of 2 onesies, pants, and a bib for $4? Yes, I got 8 outfits (most 3-4 pieces) for $30. Oh, and we still need socks. She actually needed a few things since most of the pants and long sleeve shirts I have for her are still too big. I definitely got one of everything that was her size. I think I hit a bargain!

Since I order most of her clothes from Old Navy and Gap I decided to look there for socks. And guess what? I think I picked out about 14 pairs! I am going to go through my cart and delete some because I do not think she needs 14 new pairs of socks. Although, don't dryers eat socks?

And then I saw it! The Santa Baby section on Old Navy. She has to have a cute pair of pajamas to sleep in on Christmas Eve so when she wakes up Christmas morning she will be all festive!

And then these t-shirts are must haves:

Yes, she *hearts* Mom

And she definitely lights up Daddy's life

But then there is this one:

Totally true! Her Grandma can pick out books and toys like nobody else. I think most of her favorite things are things my Mom has bought for her. Like the annoying spinning toy that makes crazy animal sounds (now do you see why I put it in the pack n play for her to have while I shower???) and her puppy or the bag of balls that she LOVES to throw all around the house. And the puppy book and her love bug book that plays music.

And before I even saw this I told her that I didn't find any socks so she could just tell Grandma.

I also told her that Grandma would bring her ANYTHING she wanted. You better be glad she is pretty happy with what she has :-)

And please do not send socks. I already picked out more than she will ever need.

She is definitely more than a little spoiled!

Ready for a vacation

We have our airline tickets bought

We have our visas ready

Hotels are booked

And today... we made the final payment on our cruise!

Just about 90 more days to go...

In the meantime we will continue planning all the little details. Things like which day do we want to see the Opera House? Where do we want to go to see Koala Bears and Kangaroos? What are we going to do at each port? We already have one excursion booked and paid for and plans for a few others!

Watch out world!

Grace is on the move!

She can take a few steps on her own (she has been doing this for about 2 weeks or so). And she can go anywhere if she has her stroller or is holding our fingers.

But lately she has really taken up cruising. She will cruise around the coffee table, along the dining room table, chairs, and her high chair, from toy to toy to bookshelf to toy. At the gym she was walking all around the room holding on to the wall, toy boxes, etc. If she wants something she is going to get it!

The other day I put her down to play and ran to the kitchen to put away 1 sack of groceries and when I came back 2 min. later she was sitting under the desk in the living room. So I move her back to her toys and 30 seconds later she has pulled up and pushed her rocking horse into her spilled basket of toys and fallen over.

But just tonight she figured out how to scoot around when there is nothing around her to pull up on so she can cruise. We call it her "one-legged crawl." She gets one one knee and two hands with her other leg bent in front of her crawling knee so she can easily go back to sitting on her bottom.

She just got another tooth so that makes 3 now. I think #4 is on its way pretty soon.

AND... she just learned how to stick the letters on the side of the bathtub!

She is pretty cute!

It's like Christmas!

I got a package I had been waiting for. And who doesn't like getting things in the mail? I wouldn't have expected it at all until today except for half of my order from Amazon came on Wednesday. So I check on Thursday and nothing. Again on Friday and nothing. This morning, still nothing. So we went to the BX and Dustin had something we needed to mail but we needed to buy envelopes first. When we went back to the post office I had him check AGAIN. And he came out with a box!

My new yoga mat is here!

Isn't it just so cute?

And even cuter is this nice little bag to carry it in.

My old yoga mat is currently being used to keep the rocking chair in Grace's bedroom in place. Before we put it there we would hit the wall or the closet door. Not good considering most of the time she would have just closed her eyes when it happened.

And do you want to know what made it feel even more like Christmas?

Definitely NOT the weather... it had finally started to feel like fall and yesterday we didn't even use the AC! But today we were turning the AC on by 9am.

The candles we have been lighting around the house have helped make it feel like fall...

But Grace got and early Christmas present and THAT made it almost like Christmas.

I like to shop early. Very early. I get that from my Mom. I had some of Grace's Christmas bought the very day after Christmas last year. We have already bought all of her Christmas and birthday gifts for this year. So sometimes we decide that she could use (well... maybe enjoy would be a better choice of word here. Especially after you see the video...) one of the things we had stashed in the spare room waiting for our Christmas tree to go up so it could go under it. She has been walking as long as she has something to push. And we figured since we had the cute little shopping cart we should go ahead and let her use it. She is still a little short but she had fun pushing it around the house!

Here is the video... but first a disclaimer

Please excuse the mess of toys... Making messes is one of Grace's favorite things to do. She especially loves when we let her dump an entire basket of toys (the more the merrier, right?) and she loves to pull one ball out of the bag at a time and throw it as far as she can.

Also, please excuse the cheerios that are scattered across our floor. Again, Grace loves making messes. I think we will be finding cheerios after we move!

If I were to take this video now you wouldn't see the cheerios and you wouldn't see the toys piled on her play rug. But then you wouldn't see Grace because she is asleep in her bed.

The Sweetest Thing...

Grace has started giving kisses! She really enjoys when we get all excited and tell her "Thank You." If we do that then she will just keep giving kisses.

Last night I put her to bed with her blanket and teddy (it used to be bunny until we took bunny for a car ride and washed the spare... now we are using teddy). A little while later I checked on her because she has been getting up and playing with her mobile but she was laying very quietly. And then a little later we heard her cry for about 15 seconds and then stop. She does this sometimes when she changes positions. Before we went to bed Dustin went to check on her and said it was the weirdest thing he had ever seen. She was sitting in the corner of her crib with her legs spread apart and her face on the mattress. She is a silly girl!

Shiny New Shoes & an Old Clunker

Grace is getting closer to running! She took 4 steps for the first time last night. Today she has been consistently taking about 3 and sometimes 4. She has even taken 5!

So we had to celebrate! We bought her her very first pair of Nike's. They are just so adorable!

She also started standing up in her crib. I went to check on her after I put her down for a nap this afternoon and she was standing in the corner of her crib looking at the door. So this evening we lowered her mattress again. This time it is as low as it can go.

Now for the old clunker.... Dustin decided that we should sell his car and get something different. Do you remember what we did back in April? We bought ME a new car. What is the deal with us? When we got my new car it was quite the upgrade. For Dustin, it will be a very big downgrade. And I mean BIG. Why downgrade? For starters we cannot get a carseat in the back of Dustin's current car. It isn't very good in the rain. That and he said he is just tired of his little sports car. He started looking at the classifieds online and found a little junker for $700. So now we just need to sell his car and then we will get this thing when the current owners leave next month. The biggest plus, when we leave we can drive this thing up until our last day here and if we can't find someone to buy it for a few hundred then we can just junk it! He has been excited ever since we went to look at the car.

We didn't take a picture (I will be sure to put some on here when we get the car) so I will leave you with this picture of Grace. This was taken right before we left for church yesterday. Don't you just love her tights?

A Sneak Peak at Halloween

About a month ago we were looking online for costume ideas for Grace for her very first Halloween. We figured we should start looking early because, on occasion, things can take 2 months to ship here. We picked out what she was going to be but the only problem was that most every costume we found was either 1) a fleece suit which is WAY too hot for our warm weather (which, by the way, has begun to finally feel like fall! Now if only it would stay this way). or 2) cheap looking, one-size-fits most costume that would probably be too big.

This led to me deciding I could make one. I had an idea so no big deal, right? Wrong! First there were the problems with the sewing machine. For starters, I have NEVER messed with the whole bobbin thing. Secondly, I had trouble figuring out how in the world to make a head-piece. Yes, I had an idea but making that idea work was not easy. BUT.... it is almost finished! The headband is done (hopefully it will fit Grace). The costume is almost made. All that is left is to attach some elastic so we can put on/take off the big part of it so she will fit in her carseat. I even made a sack for all of her candy!!

So I am going to save the pictures of the costume until Grace is actually wearing it. And, well, she has been in her bed sleeping for about 2 hours and shouldn't be up for about 9-10 more hours. I am not going to wake her to finish this thing so it will have to wait until another day.

But I will share these pictures of her cute candy sack!

And, of course, while I was pulling those off the camera I found a few more that I thought were just so cute that everyone would want to see.

This is what Grace was doing this morning while we were getting things ready so we could go clean out the car.

She loves to pull every single toy out of her basket.

I forgot we had taken a few pictures of her trying her first popcicle.

Her expressions are just too cute!

When she gets excited she shakes her hands like she is doing here

Our neighbor brought us this outfit that her daughter (who is 2 weeks younger than Grace) had outgrown. I though it was just adorable!

I think she was talking but it looks like she is cheesing big time!

More videos of Grace

This is one of her favorite things to do. We gave her the diaper bag to play with while we were visiting her Daddy on staff duty last week.

Last weekend we went to the USO Bazaar and found a popcicle mold at the Tupperware table. We made Grace some popcicles and she had one Monday night. I think she liked it!

This is what she does when she is finished with something.... even her cheerios!

And... she figured out how to ride her horse ALL BY HERSELF! Sorry the video doesn't show more of the horse. I had to stay close enough to catch her if she fell off!

Ready for the Weekend

The weekend is almost here!

Last week Dustin had staff duty on Saturday. That means that he is leaving for work as we are eating our breakfast. And he comes home for work and brings breakfast the next day. So, last weekend lasted less than 24 hours so we are really looking forward to this weekend. We do go and visit him on staff duty. We had lunch together, went to the new BX, and then went back after Grace's naptime.

There is a new rule in his unit - nobody works past 3pm on Thursday's. This means that the weekend comes a few hours sooner!

Not really much going on this weekend which will be nice.

I think tomorrow we will clean out the car and then go to the gym.

I need to finish Grace's Halloween costume.

We need to find a hotel in Sydney for 2 nights after our cruise ends. I have been working on this for a little more than a week now. I want a 5-star hotel on a 3-star budget.

I just got Grace's birthday favors in the mail yesterday and let me just say I am even MORE excited!!

Peek-a-Boo!

Grace loves to sit and play with her toys while I take a shower. After a while I will stand her up (the rail of the pack-n-play is still out of reach while she is sitting) and she plays peek-a-boo!

She is growing up so fast! I can't believe in just a week she will be 10 months old.