Grace's 2 Year Old Pictures

Grace has had her pictures made a few times since turning 2.
One of the nice things about living so close to my Mom, who is also our photographer, is that I can just drop Grace off if I have something I need to get done and come back and have lots of wonderful pictures. And we can do lots of short sessions which is great - we don't have to change outfits and we get more good pictures!

Here is just a glimpse at some of her 2 year old pictures

Her Uncle Deuce got her this cowgirl outfit so my Mom borrowed a saddle. Grace tried to rope her calf - Abby, my Mom's dog - but she got away!

And I didn't even know they were doing pictures this day! I had some Christmas shopping to do and when I came back they surprised me with pictures!!


To see more go HERE and select one of the Grace folders.

Random Stuff

This morning we had a farewell breakfast with Dustin's shop. Last week when we did some farewell's they didn't have his gift ready so they decided to do a breakfast this week. So at 7:45 this morning we were at the Tee House watching airplanes land!

We had a nice little breakfast and then they gave Dustin his S4 Hall of Fame Certificate. It is basically something the shop does for people leaving and the rule is only 10% has to be true.

Then they presented him with his going away gift.

After that was all finished Grace and I ran a few errands. I found out the co-op at the gym was going to be closed today (my last day!!) so Dustin watched Grace so I could still go to yoga this morning. They got to go out-process at the library!

By the time I got home they were home and Grace was already napping. This afternoon we spent some time cleaning the last of our balconies. We have been getting ready for our move but now we are in the final days before the movers come so we really have to get busy and get stuff done. We even started packing our suitcases!! We will be staying in lodging for a couple of weeks and I am not sure how the internet is there. I know at one time there was only internet in certain lobbies but that may have changed, we're not sure. So I most likely won't be posting much until we make it back (and then I will have some pictures of Tokyo and Disney Land!!!) so I thought I would post a couple pictures of Grace.

These first 2 we took this evening while Dustin was "grilling" burgers. We gave away our grill so he used the George Foreman. Anyways, Grace found the buns on the table and pulled them off and grabbed 2 to eat!

And on Monday, our mama-san brought Grace a pair of Kimono shoes to go with her Kimono as a going away present! I pulled out her Kimono and had them teach me how to put it on her.

Getting SO Big!

Grace is really growing up! She can recognize all of the letters of the alphabet and knows their name/sound. She is a GREAT helper, especially when it comes to throwing something away or putting something in the dirty clothes. She also LOVES to help load/unload the dishwasher but that is a task that I would rather do when she is busy with something else. I am not so sure if the dishwasher can hold all of her weight when she climbs in :-) She helps sort the laundry on Sunday mornings and she can put some things away on her own. I have just decided I better get used to the dish towels being crammed in the drawer since she will often unfold them before she puts them in.

Dustin took a few really cute pictures of her last night so I thought I would share them!

She has been practicing being a good big sister by taking care of her babies.

Do you like her little pig tails??

A couple of weeks ago she was wanting to play in her crib and when I walked into her bedroom she was climbing on the outside of the rails. I put her in and sat with her for a few minutes but I needed to check on the dinner I was cooking so I told her I would be right back. Not a minute later she was fussing and wanted to get out and come find me. I walked back in her room and her leg was over the crib and she was trying to climb out! We decided that since she is pretty fearless and is also a little monkey it would probably be wise to take the rail off before she fell out trying to climb out. After about a week of her rolling out of bed onto the pillows on blankets we had in the floor we finally put up the bunk beds we were planning on saving until she moves into her new room in our new house.

She loves her new bed!! She got so excited after I had the bottom bunk set up with her Dora sheet on. She likes to play in her bed and run from one end to the other.

She has a Dora pillow that she now has to sleep with. When we go to check on her she is normally laying with almost her entire body on the pillow!

Summer Fun!

Since I have not posted in a while I thought I would just post some pictures of Grace enjoying the warm weather. We play in the water almost every single day and she LOVES it!

She has a pool, a wagon, a slide, and a water table all on our balcony!

And sometimes we even make it to the big swimming pool!

Last weekend we went to the beach to celebrate Maggie's birthday. They had a bubble machine and Grace got to enjoy lots and lots of bubbles!

And she got to spend some time in the water. Someone found a BIG starfish and she got to touch it!

4th of July Pictures

These are some of the pictures we took at our church's BBQ on the 4th of July. They try to bring a little bit of America to Japan each year and they did a good job!

There was a kiddie pool set up and we didn't think Grace would want in since there were so many kids in it but she proved us wrong!

After some time in the water she decided it was time to swing!

And she played basketball with her Daddy and several Japanese girls (one of them was playing in HEELS!)

She was SO independent! She would just walk around, check out the pool, go play with other kids. There were a couple of older girls who would tell her she needed to go back to her Mommy when she would go to play with them.

After it got dark we went up on the roof to watch the fireworks. We were far enough away that they were not too loud, which made Grace happy. But there were some clouds that blocked about half of the fireworks.

Rainy Day

It has been another wet weekend here on Okinawa. It has pretty much drizzled rain since off and on. So not exactly ideal weather to hit up the pools or the beach. So after just running a couple errands yesterday we haven't had much to do. This afternoon we decided to head outside into the rain for a bit of wet weather fun!

Grace kept saying "water, water, water"

She got to touch the water while Mommy and Daddy kept an eye out for cars!

Splashing is so much fun!

She loves her umbrella and poncho!!

This morning we let her play in her swimming pool until she got cold and had to get out. Hopefully this rain will pass soon and it will warm up enough to take advantage of the beach!

Busy Week

I have been very bad about updating our blog and letting everyone know what is going on over here. I am sure there are some people out there who are a bit anxious about seeing new pictures of Grace. I have been really bad about remembering to take the camera with me!

I thought I would share this picture from last week. Grace has really been into her baby dolls lately. So much so that we ended up buying her a new smaller baby that she can carry with her places. The baby you can see in this picture gets drug around a little too much. The smaller baby is hiding in there somewhere too!

On Saturday I went to a baby shower for Kelly's new little girl that will be arriving sometime very soon. Since that was in the afternoon we decided to stick around the house that morning and Grace got an early nap so she could go shopping for a Mother's Day gift. It was a nice day so she enjoyed a little time out on the balcony that morning!

Dustin hung our Koi noborubi that we bought at the 100 Yen store. If you look closely you can see the carp streamers (koi) hanging on the balcony railing.

This week was Golden Week in Japan and yesterday was Kodomo-no-hi or Children's Day. We spent the morning in Naha at the Dragon Boat races.

The boats above are the Navy women's team (black boat), Army women's team (yellow), and the Marine women's team (green boat). The Army Women ended up coming in 2nd in their heat and the Army Men's team took 1st in their heat.

Grace had fun playing with Maggie. They like to give each other hugs!

After a picnic lunch of PB&J we went to check out the rest of the festival. Grace rode on the boat ride!

It was getting to be nap time and it was a pretty warm day so we decided it was time to head home. Grace slept the entire way and we were getting close to home and she was still asleep so we kept on driving so she could nap a little longer. We ended up driving to a Marine base and checking out the beach there. This is the first time Grace had been to that beach!

She loves to play in the sand! And she has had a thing for rocks lately. We met Dustin at his office last week to have dinner with him and she had a rock with her then. Some of the people he works with kept asking coming and asking her where her pet rock was. Needless to say, she found a few rocks on the beach!

On the way home we stopped to take pictures of the carp streamers across a river that we passed by. The bridge was lined with lots of the little one just like the one we have at home!

Time at the Park

Dustin had the day off yesterday so we got to extend the weekend a little. We ran quite a few errands but made sure we made time for some fun! Grace always gets so excited anytime she sees a swing or playground.

First we spent some time on the swings. This is probably Grace's favorite part of going to the park!

And, of course, we had to climb and slide. Sorry, we didn't get any pictures of her on the slide.

The she did a little bird chasing (If there is a bird anywhere nearby she is going to spot it first!) and some flower picking.

And then she made a little friend.

It all started when he gave her a flower that he had picked.

Then they started picking flowers together.

All Star

Grace got a basketball goal yesterday. She was enjoying the basketball court at church on Sunday so we thought maybe she needed some type of sport equipment. After I got it put together she played with it until I made her lunch!

SLAM DUNK!