Happy 1st Birthday, Grace Elizabeth!

Exactly two weeks ago our beautiful GracieGrace turned 1! She is just such a happy baby and a continual joy and delight.

A few one year statistics before getting on to the day itself. :)
Grace is 19lbs which puts her in the 16%; she's 28.75in tall and in the 32%; and her head continues to outdo it all at 82% - lol. She started walking right after her first birthday and uses it more and more every day as her primary means of travel. She's so pleased with herself that she can now finally do it! We're quite pleased too. :) She doesn't say a lot of words but words that she uses correctly consistently are "hi", "bye", "Mama", "Dada", "uh-oh" and, if you count it "yumm yummm yumm" when she is about to eat or eating something she especially likes. ;) She also signs "more please". She mostly uses signing when she's hungry or thirsty - she'll crawl into the kitchen and then sit up and frantically start signing "more, more!" :)
She's a sleeping fanatic these days... sleeping from 6:30/7pm to 7:30/8am with 2 usually 2 hour naps during the day. It's great that she sleeps so much, but it also makes doing things hard sometimes!! :) We're hoping she can at least push her bedtime back a bit here soon so we can hang out as a family in the evenings during the week

Ok, here are some pictures from the big day. :) It was a bit of an exciting one with a massive storm coming through the night before and knocking over 75% of Williamsburg's power out. Thankfully it came back on around 7 the next morning so we could make her her birthday breakfast of oatmeal and blueberry muffins. :) Here are our girls all ready for the party. Notice how Evie has her camera out too. ;)

Nana and Nana Ruth - thought you might like to see how beautiful the daylilies were for her birthday! Glad the storm didn't knock them all off!

"What is in my oatmeal??"

After breakfast was present session #1 for the day. Evelyn quite happily served as the present opener helper/instructor. ;)
 
Purse and ball from Evie - big hits!

These next pictures (I know there are a lot...) are for Nana and Grandpa since they couldn't be here to see her open her baby. Gracie was completely entranced, it was too cute. It was as if she knew right away that this was HER special doll, and not just a hand-me-down from Evie. Her face when she saw what was in the box was one of the cutest things. :)
What's taking so long, Dad??
  
Gracie's birthday just got more exciting as the power went back out around 1pm for the rest of the day. Sadly, this meant that she didn't get her favorite dinner (pasta and sauce) or a cake (but she had cupcakes already at her party... more on that later :)). We had to order pizza instead and have melty ice cream with strawberries - lol. You can tell pizza doesn't cut it quite as much as past...
Also note that we are eating outside... it was both lighter and cooler outside so that's where we spent the evening. :)

Grandma and Papa came over for dinner/dessert/round #2 of presents and we had a great time celebrating with them and our friend Kathryn who was in town. Gracie's present from Grandma and Papa? Her very own mini-Maclaren stroller! As you can tell, she was quite in awe at having her very own stroller! :)

Nathan made her a doll cradle and I made the bedding for our gift to her. She was intrigued, but more intrigued with getting in herself and playing peek-a-boo with the quilt - lol. She'll get it someday. ;)
Our evening ended with a walk to the park and the girls taking their babies for a walk. :) Such a fun celebration of our little Grace!


PS - Thanks Jaime Field for the Flag Day outfit! ;) So glad she could be dressed appropriately on her birthday holiday. :D

Maine: Friends, Lobsters, and Heading Home

Our time in Maine was just what we needed during a super busy and crazy spring. It was beautiful, perfect weather, relaxed, and great family and friend time. Amanda, one of my best friends from all growing up now lives in Maine with her husband. I hadn't seen her since her wedding three years ago and it was wonderful catching up. They hosted us for dinner every night, showed us around, gave us Maine travel tips, AND fed us lobster. :)
We went to a special market to get our lobsters, they had been brought in just 30 minutes earlier. Talk about fresh! The lady let Evie pick our lobsters, much to her delight. :)
So funny looking! She still sometimes calls them "monsters" instead of "lobsters" - lol.
Gracie was intrigued...

All ready to eat! Thanks, Andrew, for helping me get all my meat. ;)
Amanda, thanks for the wonderful hospitality! We can't wait to come again and hope you come down this way sometimet! Tell Andrew that we do have some friends who hunt and there is hunting and camping in western VA or beach camping too on the coast! ;)
Evelyn and her new, very patient best friend, Dallas:
On our way back to Boston for our flight we stopped in Kennebunkport. I LOVE THIS TOWN. It's exactly what I pictured Maine to be like. :) Next time I asked Nathan if we could stay here. :) It's also where the Bush vacation home is. The Bush's home is in the background of this first pictures. It's in the most wonderful location, surround by rocks and waves. This is as close as you can get and we all enjoyed climbing around on the rocks as the waves crashed below us.
You're only allowed to park by the Bush's house for a limited time so when I time was up, we drove a little further for a picnic lunch while watching the lobster boats out at sea. The process was most fascinating to Evie. ;) And yes, that piece of pizza is almost the size of her head. ;)
 
After this wonderful stop, it was on to Boston... The bus rides between the car rentals and airports was a pretty big hit on the trip. ;) And that's Evie's lobster boat souvenir that she's clutching.
This oh so flattering picture was taken about 10 minutes before landing. My exhausted baby insisted on staying up and enjoying the flight until about 20 minutes before we landed. What eventually soothed her? Nathan's Clemson hat - haha. It still remains one of her favorite things that we own. :)

We loved our time in both Boston and Maine and hope to go back again sometime when the girls get older!

Maine: Lighthouses and LL Bean

We loved the Maine coast with the blue water crashing on the rocks, blue sky, and lighthouses! We took the scenic route up and it was a gorgeous introduction to Maine. We were going through some woods and then all of a sudden the road turned to go along the coast and this is what we saw!
So lovely!!
I forget the name of this lighthouse, but it's the most famous one in Maine, Portland Head light. It's the one that is always photographed and painted in storms. :) We loved hiking around it, climbing the rocks, and enjoying the crashing waves and view. I love the sound of waves, but I especially love them on rocks. :) The lighting was a bit tricky in some of these but you get the idea. :)


After exploring and playing on the playground, we headed to a famous restaurant (whose name I forget) for seafood on the water. Before you get too impressed with E and G's food tastes, we packed PB&J for them. ;) Evie loved watching the waves and boats as we ate.
  
After the lighthouse we spent some time in Portland on our way up to LL Bean. The LL Bean flagship store in Maine is kind of like Yankee Candle flagship here in Williamsburg - way cooler than it sounds. :) They had huge stuffed wild life, a whole kids section to run around in (with coloring etc), tents to play in, a gigantic fish tank both girls loved, and of course, a giant LL Bean boot. ;)
Nathan teaching the girls about s'mores - haha.
Such a full and fun day!