Goofy Gracie

Gracie is such a nut - she has such personality... a very silly one. She started playing with her tongue a couple weeks ago and she's absolutely fascinated with it. She's copying all of our motions and loves putting her finger up to her mouth and listening to her own voice as she strums her lips like a guitar string making the silliest noises. Her tongue finds it's way out every time she sees something that she wants and starts after it with determination. She reminds me so much of Jacob at this age.

Zoo Pics (see more at thebangos.smugmug.com)

The Phoenix Zoo

I decided to take a week off of work mainly to spend time with Jacob. He's been looking foward to this week all summer and one of the things he really wanted to do was go to the zoo. I told him it would probably be too hot but we'll see and to pray for cool weather!

Jacob thought is was pretty awesome that God answered our prayer on Monday. We woke up to and overcast 81 degrees outside!

We packed up some snacks and doughnuts...can't forget the doughnuts... and headed off to the zoo at 630am.... coffee anyone?


Gracie did great just hanging out in her stroller and was more interested in the trees than in the animals but whatever works! She did stop and look at the ducks that were crossing the path by the lake. Sitting there with her foot propped up on her carseat just chillin watching the ducks cross. We checked out the Harmony Farm petting zoo to see the goats and she was very interested in touching them and talking to them! So cute! Then she was out for the count the rest of the time at the zoo. She's like her daddy and will sleep anywhere!

Jacob was on map patrol and took his job VERY seriously. He led us around the whole zoo following the map by every detail. He enjoyed trying to show his sister all the animals and was quick to point out the rear ends of all the animals... what a boy!

On out Jacob wanted to do the camel ride which lasted all of a minute and was $5! After getting off the camel and walking off the steps he says "that wasn't a very long camel ride for 5 bucks!" LOVE IT!!!

After the zoo we went to Grandma and Granddads to eat lunch then home to play the Wii. We had a great day!

Wii Had Fun at Grandma & Granddad's!

On Saturday we spent the day with Grandma and Granddad and brought the Wii our friends let us borrow during vacation. Granddad was bound and determined to play a game of bowling with us. He figured it out pretty quick and bowled a 118 - which is NOT BAD for a blind dude! :) After bowling he was ready to move on to baseball and mom even stood up and said "Let me try!". We had so much fun! (I can't get the video to post though - anyone have a tip for me?) I absolutely cherish these moments with my parents seeing them with their grandchildren. I'm so thankful our children have such awesome grandparents. Gracie was copying Granddad's patterns of patting his hands on the little white table that was just her size. I think she may have some "drumming genes" in there somewhere!

Creepy Crawling Baby!

I

can't believe Grace is eight months old already. I feel like I've missed so much I should have written about. Never too late to start though - right?!

Grace started crawling on July 1st - her 8 month birthday. She had been scooting around for a couple weeks, then on the first, it clicked. She was off! She's so determined as she seeks her destination with her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth - it's so funny!!!

I HIGHLY reccommend "Baby Legs" for when your baby starts crawling. Doesn't work real well on the tile - but on the carpet it keeps her from getting rug burns. You can find them at any specialty baby shop.

She's talking so much more now too. She calls me from her room at night when she wakes up and wants me to come in her room. "mam maa mamma ma ma" and when she sees Daddy - it's like she knows what she's saying! "da da da da da"

At dinner the other night we had her intently waching us as we were all telling her "I love you" she was really trying to copy our sounds. So precious. She really is the sweetest thing. Such a cuddler, I love it.

Yesterday, she decided to get up on her knees and pull herself to standing on her Leap Frog activity table and then walk all the way around it! She loves opening and closing the little latch that's on there and turning the pages of the book. She'll stand there for at least 15 mintues doing that.

can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Promise to keep up....

I'm terrible about keeping up with blogging about what's happening in our life. I'm really going to try to keep this blog up - or at least get it started... for starters...