Precious

Every Letter Makes A Sound...

If you have one, then you know the tune!

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I wanted to take you into our kitchen for an evening of fun! Daddy made a special stop for Lil' Miss Gracelee, and bought her what I think is the coolest toy! We are all about the educational toys in our house! We want to enrich her life to the fullest, and we feel that we need to start early!

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This toy is technically for 2 years and up, but she figured it out! She has a musical soul, so I think the musical aspect of the toy pushes her to figure out how it works...

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She is an amazing child, and we feel so blessed to have her! I love every minute of being her momma! She inspires me and motivates me... I want to be a better person for her!

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***A Word of Warning...
Each of these videos is like 3 minutes long. They are intended to please the family that doesn't getto see her often! It will not hurt my feelings if you stop short of the 3 minutes... But I have to say, She has some ROCKIN' dance moves!***

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Sharing with Momma


Sharing with Daddy
In this video, you will see her master the art of putting a letter in the toy to make it work...

And in this one, you see her RoCk Da HoUsE!!!

Beautiful weather + a Beautiful baby =

In 7 days you will be 10 months old, my angel... My beautiful, sweet baby, I love you!

My little Green Dress

Green is Sassy.

Green is Spunky.

Green is oh- so- much fun to dress her in!

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I love her little finger point... I swear it is a miracle that I haven't gobbled it right off of her little hand!

Showering Lyla Grace with love

My very dear friend Jessica is pregnant with her second child, little Lyla Grace, expected to arrive in mid- March. I had the distinct pleasure of throwing her a baby shower on Saturday!
Jessica and I went to good ole Stephen F. Austin High School together, way back when!
(**FYI** If you visit the link, you wil notice under the faculty tab a very familiar name!!!
Hint: Last name- Derringer!)

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Technology now-a-days is amazing! We rediscovered each other through a mutual friend and Facebook! Now her momma watches Gracelee (thank the good Lord for answered prayers!), and her and her husband have become our WONDERFUL friends!

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Little Lya's nursery is done in pink and green, so I tried to organize the theme around that... including Gracelee's attire!
(I am a self- proclaimed dork... I know!)

I must give credit where credit is due! Through Meredith's blog, I found and fell in love with Design Dazzle, who led me to the Party Dress.

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This is where I got all of my ideas and recipes for the shower, and I feel very blessed to have stumbled upon these wonderful sites!

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We start with dessert: mini strawberry cheesecakes and pink and green cupcakes, the mini ones with hot pink and green sparkling sugar! And of course the diaper cake!

The lanterns were sitting in a closet for the 2.5 years we have lived in the house, and I thought they added a nice touch... again, not my original idea... a much appreciated borrow!

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The candle holders were from Hobby Lobby, recently too, in case you want some for yourself! : )

No little girl shower is complete without some pretty pink flower arrangements, and pink punch... Recipe: One can frozen pink lemonade, One can frozen pineapple juice, One tub raspberry sherbert, and 2 liter strawberry soda (I had one on back up that I used to refresh when it was running low.)



The food was pretty good... I thoroughly enjoyed the recipes... mostly adapted from William- Sonoma.

The favors were little pink organza bags from Party City filled with green M&Ms...

We had so much fun meeting Jessica's family, and I just love throwing a baby shower... especially for the second baby because the gifts are all of the FUN stuff!!!!!!

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Thank you to Mrs. Laurie (Jessica's momma) for the DELICIOUS chicken salad sandwiches and the marinated cheese, which I will be using at my next event if I could please get a copy of the recipe!!!!! It was a huge hit with my husband!

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Thank you to my fellow bloggers for the information and assistance in making my friend's shower so successful!

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Love!

A Precursor to the FIRST Birthday Party.... just a glimpse of the theme!

Healing prayers

Healer

You hold my every moment

You calm my raging seas

You walk with me through fire

And heal all my disease

I trust in you

I trust in you

I believeYou're my healer

I believeYou are all i need

I believeYou're my portion

I believe

You're more than enough for me

Jesus,

you're all i need

Nothing is impossible for you

Nothing is impossible

Nothing is impossible for you

You hold my world in your hands

You are my Healer.

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Please pray for the Tipps family.

Sleeping like an Angel

Her crib, her room... fell asleep on her own... heart breaking to leave your child crying in there by herself... All to make her a good sleeper...

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Gracelee,

Momma and Daddy are so proud of you!

Each day we thank God for you!

I know that learning to sleep on your own is very hard, and you are doing such a GOOD job!

The night time is still tricky, but you are getting so good at it!

Please know that hearing you cry is the most difficult thing in the world for Daddy and Momma!

It is very unnatural to let you cry, but you are crying less and less, and realizing that sleep is a good thing! I miss you so much, and you are right down the hall from me as I type this... you have been napping for nearly 3 hours!

I cannot wait to hear you get up, to feel you wrap your sweet, little arms around my neck, to kiss your little cheeks, and to play with you this afternoon!

I love you and everything about you!

My angel,

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I love you,

Momma

Happy Birthday, Cooper!

Happy Birthday Cooper! Cooper is one of Gracelee's school friends, and he turned 2 this Saturday!

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We had oh-so-much fun at Inflatable Zone in Katy! Gracelee was a terrific bouncer with Daddy's help! And she was even joined by her friends Caleb and Georgia!

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After watching Justin, I am coming to the realization that we are probably going to be the proud parents of several children! My husband is so awesome with the kiddos! He can play with the best of them and they LOVE him in return!

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It was a great experience, and I hope Gracelee can look back at these pictures and see how blessed she is to have a wonderful place to go each and every day, for the friends that she has made, and her wonderful daddy!

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God is good!

Getting ready to play... BTW, the headband lasted only for this picture! LoL!

B-Ball anyone???

Friends!

Super Happy Baby... Look at those teeth!!! The top 2 are through the gums, and I cannot wait to snap her first toothy grin!!!!

So much FUN!!!

Our new office space!

We decided to get rid of the formal dining room because in the 3 years we have lived in our house, Justin and I have eaten at that table in that room a total of ZERO times...

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Pet Peeve: WASTED space

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Sooooo, my very smart and intuitive husband talked me into making this area an office... However, I do not like clutter or paper showing- The desk had to be JUST right!

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Then, we found this jewel:

This room now looks like a sitting room, but when you open the doors...

A beautiful Apple computer awaits me to play and work on it!

Our house looks so nice and we are really using the space efficiently!

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The used-to-be computer room is now a Gracelee play room/ workout room, complete with a chalkboard table that Daddy is making for her... the paint is drying, but we will post pictures as soon as it is ready!

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I love re-arranging and making things feel new!

Her laugh is intoxicating!!!

Sorry they are sideways!

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They are just too cute not to share!!

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Happy Birthday Caleb!

Gracelee has a really good friend named Caleb, who turned 3 today. Caleb is the sweetest little boy, especially when it comes to Gracelee! He LOVES her! Caleb is Gracelee's babysitter's Grandson... so he stays with her everyday at "school." When we came back from break, he was so excited to see her and he wanted to hug on her and hold her... it was precious!

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The party was amazing! Caleb's mommy is one of my dear friend's, and she put together the perfect 3 year old party while 7 months pregnant!!! Last year at this time, when I was 7 months pregnant, I was lucky to remember my name, much less put together a party!!!

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The party was at Sugar Creek Baptist Church, where the family attends, and they have a HUGE indoor play area that is free for the kids to play in! It was so much fun!

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Gracelee did not enjoy the slide as much as Momma thought she would, but it could have been a lack of morning nap. She did enjoy singing the Birthday song, walking around, and loving on Mrs. Laurie!

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It makes a momma feel SOOOOOOOO good and SOOOOOOO blessed when her child loves her sitter!

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Thank you Jessica and Kevin for an incredible party! We enjoyed it!

I love this face!

These are Gracelee's "Classmates"

Emmy enjoying her turn down the BIG slide with her momma

Crawlin' around the baby play area... errr... did I say baby... Momma meant "Big Girl" area

Going down the baby slide... again... Momma meant "Big Girl" slide

Totally wiped out and cuddling on Monkey