Christmas Recap

A few pictures before we get to the Christmas stuff. Here's our house on the 22nd. I just want to sing "walking in a winter wonderland" every time I see this picture. Nevermind that the snow became a total pain. Can you believe that I actually miss it now?!



Grace has been pretty determined to hold her own bottle. She only gets one a day, so her practice is pretty limited. She ripped the bottle out of her dad's hands with a "I can do it myself, thank you very much." look on her face and then proceeded to down the rest of it on her own. If only we could teach her to get it out of the fridge and warm it herself.
Guess who started sitting like a big girl.....

This picture cracks me up. My cat, Oreo, can only be a good sport for so long. She has a major scowl on her face and Grace is in the background just screaming her head off and trying to scoot towards the cat. Once this kid gets mobile, the cats don't stand a chance!


OK, on to Christmas. I must say, it is my absolute favorite time of year. I was really excited for Grace's First Christmas too. We made it out of Portland (finally). The trip was absolute hell. I'll have to spare you my little rant about ODOT and their absolut inability to keep I5 safe. I'll save that for another blog...and possibly a letter to the editor. It took us almost 6 hours to do a 3 hour trip. 3 of those hours spent from our house to Salem. That's right...SALEM! I digress....

Once we made it to Roseburg we had a wonderful time. Grace was played with constantly and was exhausted by the end of each day, not to mention the 5 naps she needed during the day.

We visited all of the family, including a visit with Grace's Great Grandparents. Such a cute picture!

I'm not sure if Grace liked the gifts or the wrapping paper best...

Here is Aaron with his other first love...a glass of morning bubblie.
Here she is with Uncle Nick and Aunt Jana.

We miss everyone already! It was wonderful to be able to visit with all of our family. We miss them, and so does Grace! She loved the entertainment. That's all for now!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

More snow pictures....

Grace: "What is all that white stuff? I want to check it out"


Grace: "PLEEEEAAASE can I go out?"

Grace: "Sweet, I'm out but I'm not sure what I think about this. I didn't realize it would be SO cold."

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Thanks to our friends Ron and Shirley, Grace has a perfect snow hat. Never mind that it's way too cold for her to go outside, but she really does enjoy watching the snow through the window. We had about 3 inches on the ground from a few days ago and it's been dumping lots of snow since this morning. Here are a few pictures.

Now, before I get any "worst pet owner" comments by anyone, you should all know that the cats have been inside all week and totally have Cabin Fever. Oreo was begging to go outside with me and was really saddened to see that the snow was still there and was actually getting deeper. She did enjoy a few minutes of chasing snowballs that I was tossing through the yard. Then she quickly realized that her feet were freezing and came back to the porch to take a break. Life is so rough when you're a cat!

Grace is 5 months old

It's hard to believe Gracie celebrated her 5 month birthday this past Saturday. We got some real snow yesterday (you know, the kind that actually sticks on the ground). I was hoping to go out and build a little snowman family, but it was a toasty 21 degrees today (7 degrees including the wind chill factor) and neither Aaron or I were interested in spending any time outside. Grace is very interested in the snow and loves to yell at it as it falls.

She has been busy getting ready for Christmas and has been on a stakeout in front of the Christmas Tree waiting for Santa. She also loves her little red Santa sleeper. Psssst...Grace. He doens't come for another week!


Our latest adventure has been giving her some solid food. We just started this past week and has sampled sweet potatoes and butternut squash. I made some food a few weeks ago and froze it in ice cube trays. It’s amazing how long it takes her to eat once ice cube size serving. She wasn’t very interested in the sweet potatoes but really liked the squash. She is also obsessed with drinking water from a glass. She thinks she is quite the big girl when she does this. My mom bought some of those little Tupperware cups for her similar to the ones I used as a kiddo. They even came with sippy cup lids, but Grace thinks she is a big girl and refuses to drink from the sippy cup lid – thank you very much.

I call this photo "Squash? What squash?! I don't know what happened to it but I certainly didn't eat it!"

Grace isn't a big fan of 'tummy time' on the floor but really seems to like it in her crib. I think she likes being up high and looking around the room. Aaron snapped this one of her this week while she was playing in her crib.

That's all for now from the Gores. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Random, Misc., Potpourri

Since I have neglected the blog lately, I have quite a few random shots to add. I'll narrate as I go:

Grace is VERY interested in the kitties lately. Oh, and the cats are VERY interested in avoiding her at all costs....even if it means staying outside in the cold.



I love the remote! I think I'll be like daddy soon and become a couch commando in no time.

Daddy and Grace reading the story of the Beavers loss in the Sunday paper. They were both very sad.

Grace had a great visit from Grandpa and Grandma over Thanksgiving. They kept her entertained from sun up to sun down!

Why Grandpa, what interesting white hair you have. Mind if I pull it?

I'm so happy!!!

Hungry Hungry Hippo Hat.

Yawn!!!

Man, this whole "up at 4am" thing is really making me tired! I think I'll start sleeping thru the night again. I'm un such a better mood when I do!
Love,
Grace

I'm back

Blow, blow, blow. That's just me blowing the dust off my blog. It has been quite a while since I've actually had time to blog. I'll have to keep this short since princess is going to wake up any minute. I have a few pictures from my friend Erin at our Mom's Group. Her son Wesley (one of Grace's boyfriends) was graduating that day, so we took a few pictures of the kids on Wesley's last day. I'll go ahead and interpret what is happening in each picture. You know, in case you don't speak baby...

Wesley: This is FUN. I love having my picture taken

Grace: I'm not sure sure about this boy with his arm around me. How's my makeup? Do I look OK?

Grace: I DON'T LIKE BOYS!

Wesley: What did I do? Man, this girl sure can scream.

Wesley: There, there Grace. Everything is OK. Our mom's found our paci's so we're OK now.

Grace: PHEW!!! Feeling better now...I think.

Grace: I'm not sure I like boys holding my hand!!!!!

Wesley: Seriously, enough with the pictures. This girl is a drama queen and I'm being the perfect gentleman.

Wesley: I'm not sure I'm ready for a girlfriend. Women are so complicated!

Grace: Did all of that crying ruin my mascara?

Lastly, here is a quick shot I snapped this morning. Grace has really gotten into reading. I like to think it's because she is a total genius already. Oh, she also likes to eat books and then spit up on them too. Not sure where the genius is in that, but I'm hopeful :-)

A 'Must Watch' for all the ladies out there...especially moms

This video came courtesy of my brother.

Grace is 4 Months Old!

It’s hard to believe Grace has been in our lives for 4 months already. She has done a lot of growing over the past 4 months and is gaining new skills every day. Plus, she is so much fun to be with. We had her 4 month check up today and she is sprouting up like a weed. She’s now 25.5 inches long (90th percentile) and 12.5 pounds (50th percentile). At her appointment last month she was only 50th in height and between the 10th and 25th percentile in weight. That’s quite a bit of growing in the last 4 weeks! She is officially a long, skinny baby and is still wearing some of her newborn pants since they still fit her around the waist. Of course, they are total highwaters……the beginning of a lifetime of highwater pants I’m afraid.

She has been doing a lot of babbling and screeching and loves to tell us about her night full of dreams when she wakes up in the morning. That is probably her most talkative time of the day. Unfortunately there were also a few nights in a row where she decided to be talkative at 2am. That was a little less fun for us but she totally enjoyed herself.

We started going back to church and she, of course, has to be in her Sunday best. I have the cutest pair of tights for her and the grandmas in the church nursery just eat them up. I/we finally worked up enough courage to leave her in the nursery a few weeks ago for the service and it was WONDERFUL!!! Needless to say, she is a regular in the nursery now. She also seems to enjoy it and usually gets held by someone the entire time. Is it wrong that the free childcare can sometimes be a modivator to make it to church on Sunday morning??

Family Picture Day

OK, so I am WAY behind in posting to 'ye ole blog'. This girl keeps me busy. I must say, I am very sad that our dry, cool, crisp, sunny fall days are gone..sniff, sniff. Even though it was only about a week of beautiful fall weather, I enjoyed every minute of it. Fall is, without a doubt, my favorite season of the year. The only problem is, the season lasts all of 2 weeks in Oregon before the rain and wind come and blow all the leafs from the trees and turn the season into winter over night.

We did manage to take advantage of one of the days last week and cruised down to a local park and took some family pictures. It was fun and Grace was in a pretty good mood, although she didn't like looking into the sun. Let me paint the picture for you....It was Aaron, Grace and I and our trusty old tripod and self-set timer on the camera. I think poor Aaron probably logged about a mile of run/walking between the camera and us trying to get a picture where Grace was actually looking at the camera. She is such a tease. She would look at the camera for the first 9 seconds and then turn her head away quickly on second 10 when the camera actually snapped the shot. Oh well, we managed to get a few keepers. I must say, they are the most precious pictures I own!! Here is one of my favorite with her...

I love this next shot. Makes her look so smart :-) She has recently started to like her books and really loves story time just before bed. This is a picture of her taking matters into her own hands since it wasn't bed time yet.

Not really much else to report. I am SO GLAD that elections are over. I was about ready to go out and finally buy TiVo just to avoid those commercials. Seriously, these people must spend a fortune on making themselves look good and others look bad.

I can't believe I don't have more to write, especially after taking a week off of blogging. Man, my life is totally uneventful!

Judging by my calculations.....

The standard deduction for one child is still not enough to keep you from getting screwed on your taxes.....

I've Been Tagged

OK, I've been tagged by Dena and actually have time to participate!

(The rules....link your tagger and list these rules on your blog. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.)

Fact #1 - I hate sandwiches! There is nothing grosser to me than a cold cut between two pieces of bread. My mom made 'assembly line' sandwiches for all 3 kids when we were in school and it basically ruined the whole sandwich thing for me. I do however like any warm sandwich or tuna. It's just the whole cold cut thing that is totally nasty to me.

Fact #2 - I was once chased by the Russian Police when I was an exchange student for breaking into my own apartment. It was totally scary! They make our police look like total wimps. Handguns? PFFFFT! They actually carry semi-automatic, war-like guns! That was an interesting evening.

Fact #3 - The fact that you can't buy yourself a beer at the age of 18 but can vote and become a trained killer in the military is one of the greatest American irony in my opinion.

Fact #4 - When I go to Mexican restaurants, I find myself ordering the fajitas just so I can have that one little scoop of sweet corn goodness they usually have with the meal. Mmmm!

Fact #5 - I feel like I should write a book titled "The Things You Should Have Known Before Having Kids". It would go a little something like this - Chapter 1 - the first weeks "Did I totally eff up my life by having children?". Chapter 2 - the next few weeks "Hey, I'm kind of getting the hang of this." Chapter 3 - "Where to buy the best under eye conceiler". Chapter 4 - the 2nd & 3rd Month "Having Kids is the Best Thing Ever! - most of the time"

Fact #6 - I met Aaron in 1st grade. I'll bet there aren't many 30 year olds who have known their spouse for 23 years. I must say, he's gotten even hotter with age! GRRRR.

Fact #7 - I have never seen the movie Grease. Just not interested. Oh, and I think the sound track is lame.


Hmmm, I don't even have 7 people to tag. How is that for lame! I'll do my best though. I'm tagging Erin, Angie, Lisa, Mia, Rache and Kelly

My Little Pumpkin Head

Costco Pizza...continued

I think I have a problem. I just cannot stop buying hoodie outfits with ears on them. I can't help it. I'm a total sucker. I think I may have a problem.

I made my biweekly trip to Costco recently. I must say, it prefer to go during the week day. It's a much more enjoyable experience. The place is filled with moms, kids and lots of old people....mainly at the food court. There must have been 5 people actually shopping in the store.

Some of you may remember my little incident at Costco when I was pregnant...you know, the one with the pepperoni pizza that resulted in my wishing death and destruction on the teenager behind the counter when I was told they wouldn't accept my debit card?! Well, I have purposfully avoided the food court (or whatever you call it) at Costco because of that incident. I'm sure the $2 loss in food sales really hurt them over the past few months. That will teach them!! Anyway, I digress. I finally gave in and had a nice slice of pizza. It was DE-LISH, but not as good as it tasted when I was pregnant.

After a nice, 4000 calorie lunch in the form of one slice of greasy pizza, I decided to do a bit of shopping and came across the most adorable winter onesie-coat thingy for Grace. I couldn't resist, after all it had ears on top and was too cute to pass up. She needed something for the cold weather, and coats just don't work on a 3 month old. So, I bought this. Needless to say from the picture below, she was less than thrilled.

After some cuddle time with dad, and a nice walk around the neighborhood for her afternoon nap, she changed her mind and decided she liked it.

I just had to include this picture. This is the best smiling picture we have of her. Never mind that she totally looks like a boy!