Productive Saturday

We have had a very relaxing but productive Saturday. First we started out by making a list of dinner ideas and a shopping list. We added a few new meals which should be fun to try!

Since Grace can't really help us plan out our meals (I am sure we would be eating a lot of goldfish crackers, bananas, and chocolate if it was up to her!) she got to do a more fun task.

PAINT!

She is definitely right-handed.

Then it was time to get ready and off we went to shop. We started out at the BX since we had some things to return. As we were waiting in the check out line Maggie ran up to us. What a nice surprise! Grace and Maggie got to play in the toy kitchen they have on display for a little while before we had to go. While I did the grocery shopping Dustin and Grace went to clean out the van and go to the post office.

We made it home right at lunch time. I had bought several new things for Grace to try so for lunch she had a hotdog. She had tried one at the dragon boat races that Maggie had shared with her and seemed to like it. Today she LOVED them. She ate one and then asked for more. There was not a single piece left of the 2 hotdogs we have her!

After a very short nap it was time to play again. We were needing a few things from the 100 Yen store so I took off to get those while Dustin and Grace stayed home to get the car washing stuff ready.

I came home with these cute sunglasses for Gracie!

We had to have a little snack before our next big project.

As you can see, Grace is VERY good at using her fork and spoon!

We washed the van!

Grace was such a good helper!

And now the outside of my van is finally clean.

Steak and Potato kind of Girl

Last night for dinner Dustin grilled steak and I baked some potatoes to go with it (along with some corn-on-the-cob). Let's just say we have a very good little eater! Grace ate almost as much steak as I did!!! Hers must be coated in Jack Daniels barbecue sauce though. She also ate a huge slice of watermelon, several pieces of broccoli, and about 1/4 of a baked potato. And she had just ate 2 bananas (she always wants another one!) only about 1 1/2 hours beforehand.

Where does she put all this food???

Oh, and we did make it to the commissary this morning and bought a dozen bananas. They should last about a week, maybe!

Long week...

I am sure some of you are just dying to see new pictures and videos of Grace since it has been over a week since I have posted anything so I thought it was time for a little update.

{sorry Grandma, I decided I like your Christmas sooo much I wanted to keep it!}

This last week was altogether too long and the weekend just seemed way too short. Dustin was very busy at work planning his battalion's ball. It took place Friday night and was a success! Grace wasn't feeling too well last week and was a little on the cranky side but has a new tooth as a result. She had a really difficult time sleeping during the day and just wanted to be held and rocked a lot. But this week she seems to be feeling quite a bit better, although I think there may be another tooth trying to pop through sometime soon. I am taking a ceramics class on-base. I won up to $30 off the class fee and this one was less than that so all I have to pay for is my supplies. I am making a pagoda and a Christmas teddy bear! It has been way more time consuming than I thought. I have already spent several hours there the past 2 Sundays in addition to the normal class hours of 6-8pm on Tuesdays. Hopefully after tonight I will have something to bring home!

{don't you think it looks better on me anyways??}

Grace is just getting so much more fun and changing so much every day. She is constantly blabbering about something! She has decided that she is too big for baby food most of the time so she mainly eats table food now. I try to sneak a little baby food in for breakfast sometimes while she eats her cheerios and watches cartoons. Some of her favorite foods are: broccoli, pasta, turkey and cheese quesadillas, and grilled cheese. Last night she had roast, potatoes, and carrots and I think she liked it! I wonder what she will think of Thanksgiving dinner??

{I am ready to go shopping!!}

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we are going over to our friends' James & Kelly (and Maggie's, of course!) for lunch. We made a list of things we want to eat and divided it up and are going to have a huge feast! I am making the pumpkin pie now and tomorrow night I am going to make the dough for the rolls. I am also making mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole (since Dustin is pretty picky about his sweet potatoes and this is the one and only dish he just has to have), and the gravy. Mmmmm!!! I can't wait!!

{I try to clean up my messes, I really do}

After Thanksgiving we will be putting up our Christmas decorations. I get so excited to put up our tree each year. Christmas is my favorite day of the year! We have already moved our furniture so we have room for our tree. We will have to go with the fake tree again this year. Getting a live tree when we are back in the states is one thing I am really looking forward to! Here, after about 2 days, they look like what your tree normally looks like when you take it down. We will just put our pine scented wax in the tree so it smells real :-)

{Precious Moments Nativity snow globe that we got as part of our "I'm Thankful for.." gift from Papa Bill. The other things we got were 2 Christmas DVD's for Grace and a stuffed animal that sings a Christmas song. THANKS!!!}

{listening to it play "O Holy Night"}

I will try to put some of more videos on here tomorrow. I can't do it now because Grace just woke up and we have learned that it is not so smart to hook the camera up while she is awake. Last time it was charging (and it has to be on the charger to transfer videos to the computer) she pulled it off the desk and then picked it up and threw it. She has a pretty good arm!

Maybe sometime soon I can get a video of her walking. She can do it but she thinks she has to be holding onto something... even if it is just carrying a toy in each hand!

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!

Messy Girl!!

It is still pretty windy!! We had to tie down everything on the balcony to keep it from blowing away. My tree blew over so I had to move it close to the house. But, the typhoon missed us. We are just getting the wind and rainy weather that happens anytime a typhoon comes close.

Anyways, Grace had a very messy snack yesterday. We let her have some yogurt and she grabbed the container and spilled half of it. The she started playing in it. She really loves to squish things in her hand (as you can tell from the videos). Yesterday she also learned how to pull-up. And she can do a push-up! Well, it is more like a plank but it is still cute :-)