Imagination Station

Palmer's imagination has kicked into high gear lately.  Every day he says something like, "Let's pretend like we are astronauts!" or "Let's play pirates!" or (one that cracked me up) "Let's play that 'Baby Jesus Game' (aka pretend like we are Joseph and Mary going to Bethlehem)" 

Palmer's games and imagination ideas either revolve around favorite characters or favorite past memories.  For example, he often says, "Mom, let's play Horseshoe Bay!"  This usually involves something along the lines of him driving a jet ski to the marina for gas and M&Ms.  (Funny, I never took Palmer to the marina for M&Ms.  Hmmm.)

Grace has quickly found a spot in Palmer's role play.  Usually, she represents the baby population as a "baby dinosaur" or "baby astronaut".  But, sometimes she is the donkey (for Mary and Joseph) or the horse in a castle.  

Luckily, Grace doesn't object to her casting choices yet...

 -Bethany

Wordless Wednesday

-Bethany

Seven and Eight Months With Grace

No, I did not miss a monthly post for Grace.  With the holidays, I decided to consolidate two months into this January recap.  Thanks for asking.

Plus, poor Grace has been off and on sick for a lot of the last six weeks, so she's had a lot of downtime lately.  

First things, first...

Seven Months with Miss Kitty:

Eight Months with Miss Kitty:

Eight-month stats:
Length: 26.5"
Weight: 18 lb
Teeth: 2

New Skills:
*Army Crawling: Watch out world, Grace is semi-mobile.  Grace cracks me up because she has to be totally motivated to crawl across the room.  She will see something, sit and think about if she wants it bad enough, and then either start scooting fast or ignore it and stay where she is.

*Clapping: Palmer is always the tireless encourager in all new skills with his sister.  Grace is clapping and signing for "more".

However, unlike her brother, she isn't always interested in "more" food.  Meanwhile, baby Palmer was always ready for "more" and never mastered "all done"!

*First teeth: Look closely and you will spy two cute little teeth in the front on the bottom.

*Pulling up: Again, in the mobility department, little miss is starting to pull up.  We had to lower her crib last weekend when I all of a sudden had nightmares about her falling out.

Likes:
*Activity Table

*Walker: Miss Grace used her walker to get across the kitchen the other day.  The next thing I know, she had the pantry door open and was helping herself to spices.  Yikes.  Can you sense a theme in this post?  Things are starting to get interesting.  Mobility, mobility, mobility.

*Bouncer: I'll let you be the judge after watching this video as to whether or not Grace likes her jumparoo.

*Big Kid Activities: Grace really just wants to do whatever Palmer is doing.  And so far, Palmer is thrilled to have a sidekick.  Whether the two kids drive the cart together at the grocery store or splash together in the bath, I hope they remain close friends when they are older.

Grace, we're starting to figure you out: you are sweet, happy, and deliberate. You put careful thought into your actions before you make a move.  We love you wholly and hope to profit off of your poker moves one day...

 -Bethany

Wordless Wednesday (strike-a-pose edition)

-Bethany

Wordless Wednesday

-Bethany

Davy Crockett

For reasons unknown or understood by this mom, Palmer has taken to pretending to be Davy Crockett. I believe he watched the movie with Rick, although I really try to steer clear of any such old movies and don't pretend to grasp such habits.

Nevertheless, the coonskin hat, a gift from Grampi's Colorado vacation, is a favorite for one certain 3.5 year old.

My little Davy and his poor sister, the good sport:

On Thanksgiving morning, we all woke to Palmer singing (from his bed because the bunny clock hadn't told him he could get out yet), "Daaaavy, Daaavy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier!!" This went on over and over for about 5 minutes until everyone was thoroughly awake.

Target shooting in the backyard with a BB gun.  I know, we're so urban.  And yes, Rick really does think buffalo checks and stripes match.  I gave up on that one years ago.

 Speaking of urban, Davy meets the big city for a downtown parade...

 Palmer in his happy place: playing with big kids out on a ranch or lots of land.

Have I mentioned how much I love having a girl?  I speak girl.

I don't speak all this dirt and shooting.  But, luckily Palmer has a dad who completely understands the Old Wild West.

-Bethany

Wordless Wednesday

-Bethany

Christmas 2014

Once again, Rick and I hosted our families for Christmas Day.  We enjoy spending Christmas morning around our tree and making our own traditions and memories for the kids.

Palmer came downstairs right on time in the morning...

He was excited to find a remote control car and a castle peaking out in front of the presents.  He was also super pumped to see Santa had filled everyone's stockings.

Of course, the remote control was promptly taken to the streets before anyone got to open further presents...

We let poor Grace sleep in because she was quite sick for her first Christmas.  When she finally joined us, she found her new activity table from Santa.

(No, I absolutely did not pull that out of the garage and recycle it from baby Palmer's heyday.  I have no idea what you are talking about.)

Of course, Grace enjoyed the wrapping paper and boxes just as much as the presents this year.

Samantha and I work for days to put together a feast and fancy every minute of it! We scour magazines and blogs for weeks trying to outdo the previous year.

As is becoming a tradition, I challenged Samantha to another Southern Living cover white cake.

We picked the 2011 cover's gingerbread-chocolate ganache-toffee cake for this year's treat.  Again, she nailed it.

I came across this picture on Rick's phone.  I have no idea and have no words...

Sweet cousins...

 The ladies.

Grace, the next singer-songwriter:

Merry Christmas from our family to yours (Yes, I wrote that in January of 2015.  Get over it.)

-Bethany

Wordless Wednesday

-Bethany