week in review

Gracie "reading" her little Bible.
Gracie after a spaghetti dinner last night! She loved it!

Bananas

Sometimes it's more fun to get a little banana in your hair than not. Gracie loves bananas these days and tries to eat the peel sometimes...she's learning.

This is her "uh-oh" face!!

link added

I would like to be the first to welcome the Bratcher Family to the world of blogging!!! Please visit their new link at http://www.thebratcherbunch.blogspot.com/.

then and now

July 2006
August 2007







July 2006
August 2007









I just wanted to post a couple of pictures from our beach trip last summer and compare them to how big Gracie is this year and thought you all might enjoy seeing them. I would like to note that the white dress Gracie is wearing this year is the same one she wore last year (it's a big 6 month dress) =)

Vacation

For a beach lover like myself it’s hard to put into words how I feel about being at the beach with my family for a week, but I’ll try. We left home Aug.4 and returned yesterday Aug. 11 (Gracie is 19 months old!!!). Our gang included the 3 Cooks, Bill, Suzanne, Julie, Ryan and Noah (5 months old)…what a fun group. We stayed at Romar Beachside (I think) in a great house tucked away from the big high rise condos.

Our week started off great with a Sunday visit from our friends Kathy, Todd, and Jackson Rowland. The Rowland’s are our good friends from Mobile and I was ecstatic to see them and have them spend the day with us. Jackson is about a month younger than Gracie and they were best buds in Mobile. Kathy and I already have great pictures of the two of them to show at their rehearsal dinner!! Kathy and I got to do a little shopping at the Wharf while the kids were sleeping and we enjoyed catching up.

Gracie “played” so well with Noah all week. She doesn’t really call too many people by name, but she definitely has a name or two for Noah. She called him No-oh, No-no, and sometimes just kept repeating the no part…Nononono. Noah was a trooper all week with her but we decided this will probably be the last beach trip where she is bigger than he is. She loved kissing, hugging, and patting Noah. She was even pretty good at putting his pacifier back in his mouth if he would start crying (which was rare by the way)! Noah is such a great baby and is such a joy to be around. Julie and Ryan are great parents and we had a blast being around them this past week. Noah makes the cutest noises and talks so much more than we remember Gracie talking last year. He’s got a great baby squeal and Gracie would occasionally talk back to him too. We’re recruiting the Bratcher’s back to Alabama and we even know a great realtor to help find them a house =)! Gracie slept great and played hard all week. She loved rolling in the sand and only tried to eat it a couple of times. She didn’t get nearly as worked up over sand in her eyes and mouth as she used to. Gracie’s favorite part of the beach was crushing all the sand castles we built. She was the big Gracie-zilla stomping on the castles and she thought it was pretty funny.

On Friday Julie, Ryan, Bill and I went to Waterville and had a great time. It was pretty cloudy most of the day and the lines weren’t long at all so it was a great day. Bill even went down the crazy vertical blue slide. I went down it once and that was enough for me. We all enjoyed the slides and the lazy river. Jason and Suzanne were great enough to stay at the house with the kids. We figure next year Gracie will be all over the kiddie part of Waterville and that’ll be a blast to have her there.

It was such a special week to be with family and this is such a great time to have Noah and Gracie together. Bill and Suzanne were in Grandparent heaven all week. We were so thankful to have such loving parents and family to spend the week with.

On a side note, tonight we had dinner with the beach gang and most of the Warren family…Betty, Jim, Jamie, Emily, Ryan, Eric and Emma were all there (Julie, Jackson, and Jonathan are out of town this week). We were celebrating Ryan Voelkert’s birthday. Gracie had a lot of fun playing with Eric and Emma tonight. We’ve talked about the two families vacationing next summer together and tonight we got a little taste of it (minus three people). It would be wild, but it would be so much fun!!

Well, thanks for reading about our great vacation! I have about 300 pics I think, but I’ll try to narrow it down a bit =)

Ok, so I tried using photobucket to do a slide show since I had so many pictures. An unknown error came up when I tried to put the show on the page, so I'm just pasting the link. Hope it works. There are three slide shows =) Not too many pics =)


http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/aa276/sarahcook49/?action=view&current=b60c3834.pbw

http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/aa276/sarahcook49/?action=view&current=48683281.pbw

http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/aa276/sarahcook49/?action=view&current=285172e2.pbw

more fun pics

We are having so much fun with Gracie! Everyday seems to be a new adventure with this kid! Gracie is learning so much and blabbing all the time. We can't understand everything she says, but her non-verbals are pretty good, so she usually gets the point across. Her newest thing this weekend was putting on our shoes and walking around in them. She's been playing with our shoes for while now, but she's really into putting them on and making the rounds. Gracie loves looking for the phone when it rings and always responds with the sweetest "hi". Yesterday Jason and I discovered the best way to get all of Gracie's energy out before bed...dance with her. She has always loved to "dance" (bouncing up and down and twisting at the waist) and is really into it now. The past two nights we've turned the music on in the study and just started dancing with her. She thinks it's so much fun and loves to try to jump with us. It's really cute when we tell her to raise the roof or lift her hands up and she starts waving them in the air. Gracie was 'gettin her praise on' to a little David Crowder Band last night. If only I could post a video =)

Jason is healing great and is back in the full swing of things at work. He has his first closing on Wednesday and we couldn't be happier! God is faithful to provide for us and we are continuing to pray for more work opportunities for Jason. We are heading down to the beach at the end of the week with Jason's family. Julie and Noah are flying in tonight and Ryan will get her on Saturday morning just in time to hop in the car and head to the coast. I know I'll have tons of pics of Gracie and Noah after the beach, so check back in a couple of weeks!

Thanks for keeping up with us.

This is Gracie's newest response when I say "1, 2, 3, cheese!!"

funny girl

Look at that face!! Gracie was upset because Jason had gone upstairs and we were still downstairs. The tears didn't last long, but they sure were cute while they lasted. Gracie was trying on her new bathing suit over her clothes =)
Gracie showing off her front teeth.
Gracie showing off her upper teeth (all four). She's up to eight now =)

My new favorite hobby!!

Holly and Sarah at Sips n Strokes

Ashley, Holly and Sarah at S&S with our "Abstract Poppies"






This is by far one of the neatest and most creative things I've done. Sips n Strokes is a place where you go and paint and leave that night with your own canvas painting. The instructor is great and makes it low key and not too stressful. She walks you through the whole process of painting your very own masterpiece. Everthing you need is provided. It is byob(beverage) hence the "sips" part. The next month's calendar of classes/paintings comes out the last week of the month. We plan to go back very soon if anyone in town is interested in going with us. You can visit the site at http://www.sipsnstrokes.com/.

Gracie had Manicotti tonight for the first time and loved it (Thanks for the dinner Jenny)! After dinner she walked around with a juice box and piece of toast. Funny girl. We also played peek-a-boo on the couch for a bit and she did a lot of laughing and rolling around.

Jason is the same. Please continue to pray for a smooth recovery.

fun pics

Gracie loves playing with her bows, but she can't put them in by herself. I decided to just put them all in there as she handed them to me. We really know how to pass the time while Daddy is laid up on the couch =)

Gracie and I are feeling great. Jason is still uncomfortable and in some pain, but he's resting well and taking meds for the pain. Thank you again for all of your prayers.

Our Crazy 4th

Well, yesterday wasn't the wonderful day we planned it to be, but we are all alive and very thankful for that. We drove down to Northport yesterday with Bill and Suzanne to have lunch with Jason’s Grandparents. We dropped Bill off at their house and then headed to Dreamland to pick up lunch. Gracie had fallen asleep in the car, so we kept her in there to get a few more minutes of sleep. At the light before turning into Dreamland some moron ran a red light and t-boned our car. We had been sitting at the red light and it had just turned green so we were not going very fast at all, but he was going very fast we think. The impact was mainly on the front passenger’s side door where Jason was sitting. Jason was pinned between the door and the center console. He has three fractured ribs and had a small pneumothorax yesterday, but that has resolved and he just has a bruised right lung and the fractured ribs. Jason was admitted to the hospital in Tuscaloosa for observation and was discharged earlier this afternoon. Gracie was sitting directly behind Jason. It’s a miracle that she doesn’t have one scratch on her little body. She had been sleeping soundly but woke up on impact. She screamed a lot and was reaching for me. I didn’t see any blood on her and the door didn’t seem to be pushed in, so I took a risk and got her out of her car seat. She calmed down fairly well after I got her out. Suzanne was driving and I was sitting behind her. We are fine, just bruised and very achy. We are all back in Birmingham tonight recovering in our own home. We are so thankful to be alive and that Jason’s injuries aren’t any worse than they are. After our wreck in 2004 I didn’t think we would ever have to go through something like that again. Our injuries aren’t as bad as they were then, but the mental trauma you go through is just as bad. One thing we learned from that wreck and have learned again is that you can be in control of your own car, but you can’t control how others are driving around you. During Jason’s recovery over the next two weeks he won’t be able to lift anything over 10 lbs, which means he won’t be able to pick up Gracie. We’re all very sad about that. I’m just praying that she will have some sort of understanding of “Daddy having boo boos” and that she won’t try to jump on him. We were grateful to have my parents drive down so quickly to be with us and for my family in Northport and Tuscaloosa who came to visit with us. A big thank you to those of you who have already been praying for us. We just ask that you continue to pray for a quick and smooth recovery for Jason.

Gracie's hair is getting so long! It's hard to tell how long it really is when it's dry because it curls so much at the ends. Jason enjoys doing Gracie's hair at bath time!

more zoo pics

Father's Day and the Zoo

Daddy, Gracie and Granddaddy







Gracie and Daddy on Father's Day








Daddy pointing out the animals at the zoo.






Gracie and the "cat"
























Gracie being not so sure about the moving monkey.








Gracie playing in the fountain at the zoo.









What a fun few weeks we've had! We've been in the new house two weeks today and love it. Jason started work last week at Re/Max Over the Mountain and is really enjoying it. He is enjoying catching up with his old buddies and getting reacquainted with people we haven’t been in touch with in a while. He is being trained very well in the world of real estate and is getting first hand experience with it already. Jason has his first contract and will close August 1. We’re looking forward to what else will happen in these first few months of his new job.

Gracie and I are back to our normal routine…sort of. She has adjusted well to being in the new house. She seems to be cutting a new tooth almost every week and that has caused some night waking and fussy days, but overall she’s been such a trooper. She now has 7 teeth through and I think she’s working on her last molar now. Gracie is still growing daily it seems. She’s getting taller, but still has her cute potbelly. She’s learning new words and is very verbal, even if we can’t understand much of anything she says. She loves cats and dogs and has her own sounds for both. She even says “cat” and “kitty cat” fairly well. She also calls anything with a beak a “duck”. She loves to name things and gets excited when we praise her for it. She even said “stop” this morning after I told her to stop digging in the trash =)

We took Gracie to the zoo on Father’s Day with Jason’s parents. Gracie had a good time, but her favorite part by far was the tiger. When we got to the tiger he was pacing back and forth along the window. There was at least one other child there with his parents at that time, but Gracie quickly made herself at home in right in front of the tiger. She got so excited and started jumping up and down and banging her hands on the glass and screaming “cat!! cat!! kitty cat!!” over and over again. I was laughing hysterically and thankful at that point that the other family had walked away. Suzanne got some great pictures where it looks like Gracie and the “cat” are making eye contact. I was disappointed in myself that I didn’t have my camera so we could take a video of it, but the pictures are still very cute.

I had mentioned in a post a few months ago that we planned to travel to NC to visit, but since we closed on our house in Mobile the day we planned to leave that trip was postponed. We do plan to be in NC for a wedding in September and hope to visit with all of our friends then.

Gracie is such a blessing and we are really enjoying this time with her. We are so thankful to be back in Birmingham with our families and for Jason’s new job. Thanks to those of you who have been praying for us during this transitional time. We're excited to be settling in.

New pics

Here are a few pictures from last week at Bill and Suzanne's (the head shots) and a couple from this weekend of Gracie petting the neighbors cat. Gracie LOVES cats and dogs and LOVES that we have neighbors with both.

June Update

Gracie has more than enough hair for pigtails!!!

Gran, Gracie and Noah

Jason, Sarah, Gracie, Pa Pa, and Grandmom Memorial Day Weekend

Jonathan, Jackson, and Gracie Memorial Day Weekend

What a busy month we've had! We're officially residents of Hoover, AL. We closed on our house almost two weeks ago and have done a ton of painting since then. Big thanks go out to George and Bill for helping paint most of our house. Most of the boxes are unpacked and hopefully this weekend we'll move in. We've been staying with Bill and Suzanne the past couple of weeks and have had a blast being so close to family. Julie, Ryan and Noah came to AL last Friday and Noah and Julie have stayed the whole week and we've had a great time hanging out with them while we've been here. We'll post pictures of the house once we get in.

Jason has had a very busy week with Real Estate stuff. He had three tests this week and passed all three. Jason passed the Alabama Real Estate License Exam this morning and we celebrated tonight by eating at P.F. Changs!! Yummy! Jason will start training at Remax Over the Mountain June 11. If you are looking at buying or selling give Jason a call!

Gracie is still cute as ever. She now has FIVE teeth. Her two bottom teeth have come through and we think she might be working on another one. She has done tremendously well adjusting to our crazy schedule in Birmingham. I know she will be very glad to sleep in her own bed, but she is loving staying with Gran and Granddaddy (especially since Granddaddy doesn't mind getting up early with her)! She is watching everything we do and picking up on things very quickly. She has such a sweet spirit and fun personality already.

We're very excited to be in Birmingham with friends and family so close. This is an exciting time for us and we can't wait to see what all God has planned for us here. Thanks as always for keeping up with us.