Grace Rolled Over

Grace rolled over for the first time today. It's funny because I've been watching Grace try really hard to roll from her back to her front and she just can't do it. So today after watching her friend Livi roll from her front to back I just put Grace on her tummy and she rolled right over. She did it twice and this video is of the second time. Livi is sleeping in the video because she was tired from all the rolling she was doing right before Grace got there.

3 Months Old

Grace is 3 months old today. She has grown up a ton in the last month and I can't imagine how much she'll change next month. We don't go to the doctor again until Sept. 1st so I don't know how much she weighs. We are pretty sure she is around 14 pounds though. I'm squeezing her into most of her 0-3 month clothes and need to put a lot of them away. I'm just emotionally attached to them:) She fits well into all of her 3-6 month clothes so we really need to move on. I've noticed that she is getting extremely efficient at nursing. In the last week she seems to be able to get a ton from me in a pretty short time. That has made feeding her outside of the house and around other people extremely easy. She babbles a lot and even loves to laugh with us now. It is so cute to get her giggling. She is working really hard on rolling over but just isn't quite there yet. When she's on her back she gets everything but her shoulder turned. She also loves to sit on my lap and have me hold her in a sitting up position. She gets fussy if she's laying down. She'll start to do a little crunch like she wants to sit up when she is being held in a laying down position. It is taking a lot of concentration but she is starting to realize she can grab things with her hands. Most of the time if she sees something interesting she'll just go for it with her face but a few times in the last week she has reached for it and pulled it towards her mouth. She does a great job sleeping at night and takes about 4 1-2 hour naps everyday. I'm starting to notice a pattern in her napping so I will probably start working on a nap schedule in the next month. I would like her to get the same amount of nap sleep in three naps but she might still be too little to ask for that. We'll see how it goes. I don't think there is anything else to report. Grace is doing great and we are loving her more and more each day!

Vacation and a Wedding

We just got home from an awesome vacation to Missouri. We went to my cousin's wedding at Big Cedar Lodge near Branson, MO and made it into a nice vacation. In December when my dad was booking a cabin for us I remember being overwhelmed at the thought of having a baby let alone traveling with one but it was really easy. I got used to stopping and feeding Grace in the car in various parking lots and Grace was wonderful. My sister kept saying I think she's only cried for 2 minutes this whole time and I think she was right. She is such an easy going baby that it made traveling with her very low stress. We are very thankful for Grace's temperment. She slept great away from home too.

Lots of luggage for a little trip.

Wednesday - We left around 5 pm and drove to St. Louis for the night. We ate dinner at Wendy's and stayed at the Marriott neat the airport ($50 on Priceline).

Grace's first time swimming.

Thursday - We got up early and got on the road so we could arrive at Big Cedar in the early afternoon. We stopped at McDonald's for breakfast and Subway for lunch. We got to Big Cedar around 2, got our cabin (we stayed with my parents, sister and her husband in a 2 bedroom, 1 loft cabin), and settled in. We had steaks on the grill for supper and then went for an after supper swim. It was Grace's first time swimming and she loved it.

Group shot after our trail ride (my mom stayed at the cabin with Grace).

Friday - We kept busy on Friday spending time outdoors. We started with a horseback ride, mini-golf, lazy river, boating and tubing, and hanging out on the lazy river at the resort. Matt, Grace and I skipped the boating but everyone else had fun. Then we went to Branson for Joel and Sarah's rehearsal dinner.

Getting ready to hit the lake on our wave runners.

Sarah and Joel

Saturday - My cousing Rebecca came over and had breakfast with us, we went canoeing, hit up the lazy river again, and then had a blast on wave runners. My dad rented 2 for us so 4 people could be out on the lake while the other 2 watched Grace. When we were done with that the boys went off to play shuffleboard and horseshoes while the girls napped and got ready for the wedding. Then we walked up the hill to Joel and Sarah's wedding. It was beautiful! We sat overlooking the lake, walked inside for the reception, and walked back outside for dancing under the stars (Matt and I didn't get to dance because we had to take Grace back to the cabin for bed).

This is where we hung out to nurse and change Grace before we hit the road Sunday. Not a bad view.

Sunday - We started the day with brunch with Joel and Sarah and other wedding guests. Then we headed out to St. Louis. We stopped in St. Louis to see our friends Abe, Mandy and their 2 month old and Mike and Dana and their 2 year old. It was nice to visit with everyone. Then we headed over to the Hilton by the airport ($40 on Priceline) to crash for the night in our really nice room.

Shoe shopping at the outlet mall.

Monday - We didn't have to check out of the hotel until noon so we spent the morning lazing around and had a really good breakfast buffet at the hotel. Then we hit the road back home. We took a couple of hours to shop at the outlet mall nearby and made it home around 4.

All in all we had a wonderful vacation. We loved hanging out with family and had a great time getting away. Thanks Joel and Sarah for getting married so we could have a fun trip.

The Kindle

I got it! I got the Kindle from Amazon! I'm so excited! I know a thing is not supposed to make you happy but the Kindle makes me happy. For those of you who don't know it is a wireless reading device. Below are the features Amazon boasts about.

Say Hello to Kindle

Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines

Lightweight: At 10.2 ounces, lighter than a typical paperback

Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots

Books in Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required

Paper-like Display: Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and even crisper images

Long Battery Life: 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging

Carry Your Library: Holds over 1,500 books

Read-to-Me: With the new text-to-speech feature, Kindle can read every newspaper, magazine, blog, and book out loud to you, unless the book's rights holder made the feature unavailable

Free Book Samples: Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy.

Large Selection: Over 300,000 books plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs available


Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise

For someone who loves to read and someone who has a new baby this is a DREAM!! I only have to take the Kindle whenever I go places. I don't need to bring 1-10 books everywhere I go. I don't even have to bring my Bible because I downloaded the ESV Study Bible (which is an excellent Study Bible if you're shopping for one) for only $9.99. I also got the entire Sherlock Holmes collection for 99 cents. If I don't want to spend money I just buy a classic (many are free). I can also read while feeding, rocking, or holding Grace. If I need to get her a pacifier I just set the Kindle down and don't have to find a bookmark. This thing is a-m-a-z-i-n-g! This thing is going to be totally worth the money.

Grace's Boyfriends

Grace has a ton of little people girlfriends who we spend a lot of time with but she also has a couple of really cute boyfriends. Of course she is not allowed to date for a LONG time but it's good to know she has some prospective boys being raised by good Christian parents.

Elliott just wanted to touch Grace's face.

Andrew was very willing to give kisses.

Look How Much I've Grown....

I don't have any really good car seat pictures from when we left the hospital but I think the top picture taken the day we left shows a little bit of how small she was in her seat. The bottom picture was taken today 11.5 weeks later. I can't believe how much Grace has grown. I don't really notice it day to day but when I look back at her 1st days pictures she just seems so tiny compared to now. I wonder how she'll fill out the car seat in 3 more months!

I Get It Honest

A couple of weeks ago my sister came to visit Grace and me and we had some typical Illinois stormy weather. The day was muggy and by mid-afternoon a line of thunderstorms started rolling in. They were pretty vicious even to the extent of producing a few tornadoes. So, when the sirens went off in our neighborhood Laura, Grace and I all went into my closet (we don't have a basement) to stick to Tornado Warning protocol. Of course Matt just sat out in the living room on the computer but we weren't going to risk it. We also brought our weather radio into the closest too. The weather radio was a gift from my dad a couple of years ago and everyone in our family has one. Now throughout the weather ordeal both of my parents called to make sure my sister wasn't going to drive home in the weather and to give us updates on the weather. Matt was a little perplexed because he knows I am slightly obsessed with the weather but has never seen my whole family involved in it. So I said to him, "see I get it honest," and he looked at me like I was crazy. He had never heard the phrase "I get it honest" before and didn't believe it was real. So, we referred to the Internet and couldn't find much evidence of the phrase. The next step was posting a comment on Facebook about it and several people confirmed they had heard it or at least the more grammatically correct version of the phrase, "I come by it honestly." In case you haven't figured out it means you picked up or inherited a trait from your parents. Of course Matt was still skeptical until yesterday when a friend of ours said....."I COME BY IT HONESTLY." It was perfect and now we use the phrase all the time (even when it doesn't fit).

Happy 4th of July!

The 1900 House

I've been watching an intriguing PBS reality TV show the last couple of days the I got from Netflix. It is called The 1900 House and here is the description on Netflix, "A contemporary family is transported back in time almost 100 years, from 1999 to 1900, as they spend three months in a townhouse restored to reproduce the ambiance and amenities of middle-class life in Victorian-era London. This intriguing program, originally broadcast on PBS, follows a real-life human experiment that explores the everyday modern luxuries and technological advances people so often take for granted." After watching the show I am SO glad that I do not live in the Victorian era and here are 10 reasons I love 2009...

1. I am wearing a tank top and shorts right now and in 1900 I would have had on 75 layers of corset, underpants, and dresses.

2. I own many outfits and in 1900 they owned 3 outfits.

3. McDonalds! Life without Big Mac's is pretty lame.

4. The women in 1900 had to make their own pads for that time of the month out of cloth (yuck!).

5. Electricity was just making and appearance in 1900 and I like turning the lights on at night not to mention...

6. The array of electrical appliances that I can use now to get chores done (and if I don't do my chores I am not a disgrace to society).

7. They didn't have shampoo in 1900. Hair was washed with a gross soap or homemade concoctions.

8. I like heating and air conditioning both of which were unavailable in 1900.

9. There seemed to be little time for leisure and if there was time for leisure the available activities were very limited.

10. Lastly, I love modern medicine.