Summertime Fun

This summer has been full of fun adventures. Bike rides, playing in the sprinklers, going for walks, fires in the mountains, pretty much we have been spoiled. I love living here in Heber. When Grace and I go out in the morning and there are hot air balloons flying around, the mountains are so green, and the sky is so blue, we just fall in love all over again with this beautiful valley. And that is what gets me through 9 months of winter!

Grace has been in her usual character; saying crazy things, doing crazy things, crying about crazy things, pretty much we would go crazy without her. She is a handful, but such a cute handful if I do say so myself! The current habit I am trying to break with Grace is this..."Hey Woman, aren't you going to feed me today? It is 1100:00 o'clock and I am starving." (or) "Let's go Woman."  Grace's wonderful father called me woman, I told him not to, so now Grace does. Thank you Daddy.

Another thing that Grace is into right now is babies. Playing babies. She has four different boys that she plays this game with. From what I have observed this game is played by one of the boys being the "daddy" and Grace plays the "baby". Which means, the daddy has to go to work, fix stuff around the house, and she, as "baby" has to lay around and cry or be fed. The game does have various alterations where they bring an actual baby doll to play the role of "baby" and she and boy-toy play the roles of father and mother. I have heard each of these four boys tell her that they need to finish their game.  Funny thing about this game...it never ends! While I have watched her play this game, I have come to a startling discovery; Grace is bossy. (I say startling because it sounds better, but if you recall, she does call me Woman and demand things.) I better lay the smack down before this gets out of control!

Always with the titles...not my favorite.

It started with Uncle Lee coming...ok, that is not totally true. It escalated with Uncle Lee coming. Grace is completely obsessed with poop. She wants to talk about it, sing songs about it, call people strange names involving it. I hear more about poop in a day than any mother (of a daughter) should. She and her best friend Will make up ridiculously silly ryhmes about poop. Well, I guess she went to far.  On Tuesday when she came home from school she told me she wouldn't be getting a turn at helping hands in preschool. I assumed it was because she had had a turn that day. Big mistake. Ms. Katie told me today that she didn't get a turn due to her "potty language".  Some kid ratted her out for saying poop. Better to hear her say poop than what she said to Jake and I on Sunday. That conversation went like this; Me, "Grace, would you like strawberries and cottage cheese for lunch? Grace: "Mom, I want sliced strawberries but I don't want your DAMN cottage cheese!" I bawled my eyes out I was laughing so hard. Methinks this is not a great way to discourage your kid to NOT do something:) Oh well. Being a mom doesn't come with a handbook. It is a learning process. Some days I get better grades than others. So now Grace is trying really hard not to talk about, sing about, or make up names about poop. 
Even with all my sweet Gracie's talk about poop, I love that kid.  Where would I be without her? She makes Jake and I laugh so hard. She is a live wire. Yesterday while I was cleaning the bathroom, she went downstairs, got some of Jake's tools and took a part her piano. Completely dissasembled it. That girl needs her own tool bag and something cheap she can destroy with no strings attached.  
Sometimes it may seem that I only blog about Grace because she has done something crazy and that is why I go so long in between posts...I am just waiting for her to act. Ha HA! What a joke. That girl never stops. For instance, three days ago she drew measles in semi-permanent marker or her friends face. Yep. All over his cute little face were little red dots. And the grin on her face could've melted your heart. 
All in all, I live with a crazy, cute, loveable, poop lovin, 5 year old that makes me smile:)

Questions from a Pirate-

"Mom, do pirates wipe their bums?  Do they poop over the ships railing?  Do pirates buckle up in the car?  Do pirates like chicken nuggets?  Do pirates always hide their treasures?  Do pirates like traffic?  Mom, what do pirates say when they get hurt?  Do they say 'Ahoy Matey that hurts really bad'? "
This started at 3:30 and ended at 7:30 p.m.
Happy Birthday Ellery!! Grace loved your pirate party! I can't believe that you are already 5 years old.  Time flies by like a swashbuckling pirate:)

Sometimes it is easier to talk about the one you love....while they are sleeping!

Grace has done it.  She has hit the "terrible two's".  I am so excited! :( She is only 2, wait according to her, 2 and a half years late.  She has been the ultimate skunk lately. It would be funny if it wasn't so stinkin constant!  (It is 2:19 a.m. as I write this, bear with me.)
It started out funny.  I'm on the phone with my nieghbor when Grace comes to sit on my lap.  No biggie, she usually does this.  Only today she decides it would be funny if she repeats EVERYTHING I say.  Okay, this is cute.  We laugh, all is well.  Then she won't stop! Aaauggghhh.  Not so funny anymore. 
Now we have moved onto asking 5 billion questions about everything.  Example: "Mom, where is hell? Why does Satan live there? What does 'live' mean?  Mom, um, do you, um, Mom, now, where was hell again?"  
And then there is my personal favorite.  Ask me a question and then tell me I'm wrong.
Grace- "Mom, what are bees doing to the flowers?" Me- "They are pollinating the flowers."  Grace- "No they are not.  Ms. Katie told me they are just resting on them." 
Me- "If you know the answer to the question, then why the HELL heck did you ask me?" (This part of the conversation usually is only said in my head.) 
But....my skunk daughter has another side.  Which I absolutely LOVE!  (I love this side, it just takes a lot of patience.  Some days I have more than others:) 
When I pick her up from preschool and she says, "Mom, I missed your guts right out of you! How was class? What did you do?"  Then, she just melts my heart.  
She is "Amazing Grace"  I never know what she is going to say or do.  Like sing to everyone in Smith's while grocery shopping.  I am sure that all the shoppers enjoy hearing "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints" belted out opera style while they are shopping.  
My sweet Piglet can always make me smile!  

Holy Smokes!

What a crazy week with my little/big girl.  She seems to be growing in leaps and bounds this week.  She is making me laugh like crazy:) The week started with her learning how to snap her fingers, then she moved on to tying her shoes by herself, then she took her training wheels off (again) by herself and within one minute of me trying to hold on the back of her seat she was off on her own.  She is now riding a two-wheeler. What a huge week of kid milestones!  She is so excited that she is just grinning from ear to ear. Can't blame the kid. I feel the same way. 
Last Sunday morning, she and Jake were lying in bed and Jake asked Gracie if she could go anywhere in the world, where would she go? She responds without any hesitation; "San Diego of course." When I asked her why she said "Because whenever we leave Tom and Monique's house they always say 'bye, come back and visit soon.' So that is why I wanna go back there Mom."  Makes perfect sense. 
With such a big week for her it seems a shame to end the week with her being sick. Poor thing has a fever, headache, etc...Bladder infection again I believe. No fun.

Questions-

Why? Do you know that I hate that small word! It sounds so innocent. Before I had a child I thought it was cute when I would hear other youngsters ask this question.  I love hearing Gracie tell stories. I love hearing Gracie telling me about her day. I love so much about Grace. I am not so fond of the never-ending questions though!  "Why can't I blow bubbles in my milk?"  "Why are the ants climbing up that little boy and biting him?" "Why did Will take his toy away from me?"  "Why are you rolling your eyes at me?" "Why can't I eat cookies for breakfast?"  "Why does Kenny drink so much beer? (the neighbor)"  "Why is that car green?"
"Why are you smashing your head agaisnt the wall?"  Or, what I am listening to now. "Sariah, can we go downstairs? Can we? Right now? Can we? I wanna go downstairs. Can WE? Downstairs would be fun. I wanna go down there."  Breath. "How bout now?" That conversation takes place in about 2.4 seconds. My mind does not work that fast!
Thank goodness for water balloons. "What? I didn't hear you! Splat! Oh, you wanna know why I just threw that water balloon at you? Why? Why? Because I can."
The end.

~Father's Day~

Happy Father's Day!
I am so grateful to have such a wonderful husband who is an incredible father. He is such an amazing dad. He inspires me to be more patient with Grace. I am so glad that I married him!  For father's day this year, Gracie and I had our pictures taken to give to Jake. He has no pics of just the two of us.  Grace and I had a great time having Aunt Faith do our little photo shoot. And Aunt Jack-Attack was kind enough to get us ready for them. I am surrounded by goodness! So, these are for you Jake--

Of course, a post wouldn't be complete without a Gracie story...
While standing in the bathroom getting ready for the day, Grace walks up behind me and puts her hands on the back of my shirt and starts shaking my back. This is how that ended--Grace "UUhh, how come you have a back like that and I don't? Me-"A back like what?" Grace- "How come your back is all boingy and mine is just flat? That is not fair."  Me-"Gracie, this back took a lot of hard work.  Do you have any idea of how much cake, cookies, milkshakes, and chocolate I had to eat to get my back like that?!" 
Leave it to Grace to point out that I have a "boingy" back. Good thing it came across as a compliment:)