18 months

Gracie turned 18 months on Saturday. I can't believe she has grown up so much in such a short period of time. Gracie has been so sweet and delightful to have in our home, I just love her so much. She has definatelly started to become her own little person and seems to have an opinion about everything. She has started getting a little bit more whiney and dramatic lately, but after Emma I am very used to the drama that life brings us. She is wonderful to have around and brings so much fun into our home. She loves to laugh, play, sing and dance.

Aghhh, here is the face that I love!


Grace is very particular about things and needs to have things a certain way. Here are some of Gracie's MUST HAVE'S...

Grace must have her favorite blanket with her in the morning, she will not come out of her bed without it.


Grace has built up quite a collection of things that she has to have with her to sleep. She keeps adding to her collection. I think all of her things take up more space in her crib than she does. She has to have both her and Emma's blankies that my mom got them at Dear Lizzy. She must have her bunny, her pinky (the pig), her puppy, her baby, and of course a cup of water. If any of these things are missing from her crib she will cry and ask for them and not go to sleep until I find it. These are way to many things for me to keep track of.


Gracie must have time with her daddy. He is her favorite. When he is home she wants him to hold her the entire time. She has even gotten lately where she doesn't want to sit in her own seat at meal times, but she wants daddy to hold her while she eats. She gets so mad that we make her stay in her booster seat.


Grace must have her baby. She loves her and carries her everywhere.


A few more...

Grace must dance to Justin Bieber at least once a day. She loves his song "Baby" I think she thinks he is singing to her cause we all call her baby. She loves to dance and also like "Sound of Music", "Camp Rock 2", "Newsies", "High School Musical" songs and the Jonas Brothers.

Grace has to watch Barney or Wiggles in the evening or she will not let me fix dinner.

She must have cuddle time with mommy when she wakes up in the morning for at least 10 minutes or else she is honery the rest of the morning.

Grace must have a 3 hour nap everyday

She loves to play with her brother and sister and gets upset when they lock her out of Cayden's room so that they can play lego's. (She still puts them in her mouth so I don't let her play with them while they do them.)

Gracie loves babies, and must hold and touch every baby she see's.

Grace must pick out her own pajamas, thank heavens she lets me pick her clothes during the day.

When we skype our family and friends back home, Grace must be in front of everyone else and loves to put her face up close to the screen and talk talk talk and point at the people she see's on the screen. She won't let Cayden or Emma get close to be in the screen to.


Grace loves to do funny facial expresssions, she is so animated and you can always tell how she's feeling by looking at her. I will catch her looking in the mirror practicing her facial expressions.

The many faces of Grace...

Angry


Sad


Silly


Excited


And Happy!


I love my silly little 18 month old. I can't believe that she is going to be 2 this year. With no prospect of another one coming anytime soon I am a little sad she is growing up. I want her to stay my cuddly baby forever.

Goodbye Grandpa!!

My sweet Grandpa passed away last night. He was diagnosed with alzheimers about a year ago, and things went quickly downhill after that. I am feeling so sad that I was not able to be there to say goodbye, and to be there for my Grandma. I am glad that he didn't have to suffer for very long. I know that things had gotten really hard for both him and Grandma, and 2 months ago he got bad enough that he had to go and live in an alzheimers care facility. It was so hard for him to leave my Grandma and I think he just gave up after that. He missed her so much. I feel so much happiness and peace that he is out of pain and his mind is finally free of his devastating illness. It was funny, every time we went to see him he could always remember Cayden but he would forget that I had Emma and Grace and he would always say, "Amber, I didn't know you had more kids." I feel really bad that I didn't go and see him while I was out in Utah for Becca's wedding. I was so busy helping my mom prepare for the wedding that I didn't even think to go and visit him. I guess I didn't think it would be the last time I would get to see him. Anyway, he was a wonderful Grandpa. I love him so much and I'm so grateful for him in my life. Grandpa, you will be missed!

Best of 2010

My cute friend Sara did this on her blog and I thought it was so fun, I just had to copy her.

Our best memories of 2010...

Best Movie...
Chuck- Nothing was memorable
Amber- Harry Potter
Cayden- Tangled
Emma- Narnia
Gracie- Anything Barney or Wiggles

Favorite book I read...
Chuck- All I read was law books! So the Book of Mormon.
Amber- Not my will but thine by Neil A. Maxwell, and Harry Potter with Cayden
Cayden- Harry Potter and the Book of Mormon
Emma- The real Peter Pan and the Book of Mormon
Gracie- My farm animal book

Most exciting even...
Chuck- Graduating w/ my Ph.D.
Amberly- Chucks graduation, and of coarse Hawaii
Cayden- Hawaii
Emma- Hawaii
Gracie- Starting to walk

This year I am most Grateful for...
Chuck- Law school acceptance letters
Amber- Any time I get with Chuck
Cayden- Grandma helped us get a dog
Emma- The temple
Gracie- Cheerios

Best thing we've done in Indiana...
Chuck- Children's Museum in Indy
Amber- Brown County State park in the fall
Cayden- Swimmin at the YMCA and the Wonderlab
Emma- Nature day at the park
Gracie- Wonderlab

My favorite new friend...
Chuck- Dan
Amber- Giulia and Natalie
Cayden- Jonas and Hannah
Emma- Can't choose, I love them all
Gracie- I love to play with Luca

Friend we miss the most...
Chuck- My brother Steve
Amber...Aimee and Kendra and my sisters
Cayden- Ben, Cort, and Brock
Emma- Riley and Avery
Gracie- Gavin

Our best Christmas present...
Chuck- My puzzles from Cayden and Emma (he really loves them, they are those wooden mind game puzzles that you have to figure out, he is always trying to figure them out.)
Amber- Gone with the Wind (I bought it for myself on Amazon)
Cayden- Hogwarts Castle
Emma- Tinkerbelle Stuff
Gracie- My play kitchen, I love to poor all the food out and make a huge mess everyday

Biggest Accomplishment this year...
Chuck- Completing 1st semester of law school and defending my disertation
Amber- Homeschooling Cayden and surviving 1st semester of law school
Cayden- Finishing my Hogwarts castle
Emma- Learning how to serve others
Gracie- Eating with a spoon, without spilling very much on myself

Favorite Hawaii memory...
Chuck-Riding on a sea turtles back
Amber- Zodiac ride up na pali coast, seeing dolphins jump right by us, walks on the beach with my family and snorkeling in the rain with Chuck on our anniversary
Cayden- Jumping off the Pier with Ben and the Zodiac ride
Emma- Swimming in the ocean
Gracie- Eating lots of sand

What we miss most about Utah...
Chuck- The mountains
Amber- My family, late night visits from Aimee and Blue Lemon
Cayden- Ben
Emma- My cousins
Gracie- Grandma and my Aunties spoiling me

Valuable lesson learned this year ...
Chuck- I'm not as smart as I thought I was
Amber- I can do ANYTHING with the Lord's help
Cayden- Reading my scriptures everyday makes me happy
Emma- Jesus can help me go to sleep and not be scared and have faith in his priesthood
Gracie- Crying doesn't get me out of bed at night

How Jesus helped me this year...
Chuck- Understanding Legalese
Amber- Find strength and wisdom
Cayden- To remember to read my scriptures
Emma- He helped me be nice to Cayden
Gracie- To finally sleep through the night, so mommy didn't die.

Favorite Restaurant...
Cayden- Korean restaurant- Cafe Ami
Amber- Panera
Cadyen- Cafe Ami
Emma- Cafe Ami
(Cayden and Emma LOVE Korean food)
Gracie- Fazoli's

Lesson I learned from the scriptures...
Chuck- King Benjamin's instructions on how to always retain a remission of your sins
Amber-The blessings and power that comes to those that follow Christ and submit their will to the fathers. I must become Holy.
Cayden- Nephi teaches to always listen to Heavenly Father
Emma- Jesus will come again
Gracie- I get in trouble if I'm loud during scripture time

What I learned about History...
Chuck- The evolution of the legal system
Amber- Isaach Watts
Cayden- Moroni and how he buried the plates
Emma- Jesus suffered for our sins
Gracie- If mommy didn't let me eat the toothpaste yesterday, or the day before, or the day before, history will most definately repeat itself.

Our favorite food...
Chuck- Sage and cornbread encrusted pork tenderloin
Amber- I have discovered my love for Potatoe Pizza with cream sauce
Cayden- Pizza
Emma- M & M's (I told her this wasn't really a food, just a candy, but she insisted)
Gracie- any soup that mommy makes, especially pasta e. fazoli

We had a great year. Hope this next one is just as great!!!

New years Eve

This year for new years eve we went to a party at our good friends the Rogers. Giulia is from Italy and I love her, we have become really great friends. Her husband Dan is so much like Chuck and they love each other. Giulia threw a big party and a bunch of people from our ward were there. We had great food, games and fun. After everyone left about 9:00-9:30 to get their kids in bed we decided to stay to ring in the new year, so we put Gracie to bed in their room and let Cayden and Emma stay up for their first ever midnight party. We watched the ball drop and counted down and gave hugs and kisses all around. It was so fun. Then we ended up staying until 2:00 just talking. I am the worst mom, I let my kids stay up playing at their friends until 2:00 am. Oh well it's just once a year, and we had so much fun.

Christmas outfits.

If you are wondering why our outfits for Becca's wedding, Steve's wedding and Christmas are all the same, it is because we are poor, and couldn't afford new Christmas outfits this year. They looked super cute though, and they didn't notice that mommy has way overused their flower girl dresses.



Grace was in the worst mood this morning and we tried forever to get a good picture of her, but this was the best we could get and still show her pretty dress.


Little Emma is always posing!


Gracie would only sit for a picture if we let her hold her new baby.

HOGWARTS

Cayden worked for 3 days staight, and was so excited to finally finish his Harry Potter Lego Hogwarts Castle. He only needed a little bit of help from daddy, but did most of it on his own. I was very proud of him. And of coarse, he spent 3 days putting it together, about 30 minutes playing with it, and then proceeded to break it apart again. I guess the fun was in building it. He is currently working on building it again.

Christmas 2010

We had such a great Christmas this year. It was so nice to have time just for our little family. And while we really missed having family around, it was great to have a quiet Christmas that was just focused on our little family. The kids were thrilled with everything they got and didn't seem to notice that Santa was on a very strict budget this year! I knew it would be a meager Christmas this year so I started a savings account in January and started putting a little bit into it each month, so when Christmas came we had all we needed to get them a couple small gifts. Plus I got some awesome deals and I know the kids were so happy with what they gave and recieved.

We always love opening our stockings!!! The kids always get a movie in their stocking. Emma got Wizard of Oz this year,


and Cayden got Newsies! Gotta love Amazon black friday, $4 movies!


All Gracie cared about was the puppy that was in hers, she wouldn't even look at the rest of the stocking.


First we opened our presents from Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Ron since they were the kids best gifts. Emma and Gracie got this amazing play kitchen from them. They LOVE it and haven't stopped playing with it since. They also gave the girls a bunch of Melissa and Doug food kits and play stuff for it. Even Cayden likes to play with them.


Cayden has been begging us for this way to expensive Hogwarts lego castle. He was thrilled and so surpised he got it. We had told him there was no way we could afford that, so he was so happy that grandma had surprised him with it.


Next our gifts from Mom and Daddy!

We got Gracie this ride on toy, she loves it and gets so mad if Cayden or Emma try to sit on it.


Emma had been begging for a scooter like Cayden's, and I found a great deal on one. She was so excited when she opened it.


We got Cayden a remote control helicopter that he has been begging us for. He was so thrilled with it.


Next our Santa Gifts!

Santa got Cayden some Knex motorized Robots. They are so fun, he loves them.


Gracie got a baby from Santa. She has always just used Emma's old babies so she was so happy to get a new one that is just hers and it still has clothes on.



Emma got this fairy play set, she has been way more into fairies lately and I am glad she's moving on from Princess'


Cayden and Emma saved their allowance for 3 months to be able to get each other Christmas gifts. Cayden got Emma a tangled dress, and Emma got Cayden a harry potter wand and glasses. They love to play pretend together so they always get each other something that they can play pretend with together.


I got Chuck Star Trek and a I Tunes gift certificate, and he got me a converter for my Ipod to put in my car. The kids got me a cute scarf and they got Chuck some mind games.


Grandma and Grandpa Meeker got the kids some fun books and Grandma made them each a cute blanket. They loved their blankets and are so happy to have their own TV blankets.


We had a wonderful Christmas, and really enjoyed simplifying and focusing on the true meaning of Christmas, The Savior.

Colors

Emma and Cayden had a little friend over today and they were all coloring. Emma asked her friend what her favorite color was and she said "White, because it's the color of a bride's dress." Then she asked Emma what her favorite color was, and Emma replied. "Yellow and White, because one of them is the color of Jesus when he shines and the other is the color of the Temple." So sweet. I love that little girl!