Happy Birthday, Gracie!!

Gracie's 3rd Birthday! I can't believe our baby is 3!! She's such a joy and loves life. We had a wonderful birthday party on Sunday with family. I figure this may be our last family only birthday party as Gracie learns that parties can include friends too =) Before opening gifts Gracie did a little jig while Jamie and Jackson played a little Rock Band. I wish the picture was a video, becuase it is so fun to watch Gracie dance along with the music. You can kind of tell that she's "moving" in the picture. Gracie wanted a cash register for her birthday and she was so delighted when she opened the gift that was the cash register. She plays with it 24/7 it seems. It even comes in the car with us. She loved everything she got, but she is really into her new princess dress-up things and her craft cart. When she woke up the morning after her party the first thing she said to me was "Can I put that on?" as she was pointing to her new princess dress. She also wants to make a craft anytime we're downstairs. I think she's just really excited to have her own scissors and glue stick!

Other big news in the Cook household: We are paci FREE! On Monday, Jan. 5, 2009 (this is a big deal) we collected all the paci's we could find (9 to be exact) and put them in a ziplock bag and headed to Toys R Us. Gracie picked out a new baby doll and handed over her paci's to the cashier to "pay" for her new baby. The first few days were pretty rough at nap time and bed time (those were really the only times she got the paci anymore), but after a few days she has settled into a paci-less life nicely. The past few nights she's actually gone to sleep easier than before and is sleeping great at night. She has even stopped her one middle of the night wake-up to go to the bathroom and I couldn't be happier about that! We'll be doing plenty of middle of the night wakings come May!

Gracie is still very excited about having a baby brother on the way. She always wants to know if the baby is awake or asleep and loves to talk to and touch my belly. She is so tender and likes to give the baby a kiss, especially at night.

Enjoy the pictures!

Zoolight Safari and cotton candy

Friday evening we went to Zoolight Safari with Bill, Suzanne, Grandmom and the Bratchers. The kids had a fun time looking at all the lights and riding the carousel. The line for the train was a little longer than we wanted to wait, so we passed on that. After Zoolight Safari we had delicious take-out from PF Changs and then set up one of Bill's new Christmas gifts. Suzanne got him a small cotton candy machine. We all love cotton candy and we're very excited about trying it out!

Christmas with the Cooks

The first three pictures in the slideshow are from Christmas Eve. The remainder are from Christmas afternoon. The kids had naps after lunch and we opened more gifts after naps. Gracie and Noah were a bit overwhelmed with all the gifts and festivities of the day, and Noah kept going to the back to play with his trains. I think Jason opened most of Gracie's gifts and she would pick one or two and play with those. Jason got a Wii and it has become a big hit in the Cook household. We got Rock Band 2 yesterday and we've been playing non-stop =) I'll post more pics of Rock Band later.

We had a wonderful Christmas and loved being with family.

Christmas with the Hayes Family

We went to my Mom's house for Christmas lunch with Marland and Betsy. We had a delicious lunch and had fun opening gifts. Gracie really enjoyed playing with the wooden train under that tree. The train was Marland's when he was a boy. It was good to be together as a family and my Dad was missed tremendously. We shared a few memories about my Dad during lunch. After lunch we sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and Gracie and Uncle Marland blew out the candles. I made my Mom a photo book of the pictures we used for the slide show at my Dad's funeral. I think she was pleased to get it since she doesn't have all of the pictures at her house.

I didn't take many good pictures at my Mom's, so this slideshow is pretty short.

Christmas at our house

These pictures are from Christmas morning at our house. We had a wonderful and special time being home with the three of us. We had a lazy morning and even ate breakfast before opening gifts (I guess this might be the last year that happens). Gracie loved her new things, especially the new princess lunch box. She carried it around all day.

Presents a little early

For Christmas this year Gracie's big gift from Mommy and Daddy is a new big girl bed! We bought the bed last week and put it together today. Gracie could not be more excited about it! She left the house today with Gran while we were finishing the bed and came home to an updated big girl room tonight. If I had it to do all over again I wouldn't wait until 8:30ish to show her the new bed. She was already a little wired when we got home tonight, but seeing her new room just added to the excitement. It's now 9:55 and she's still awake. The other adjustment in her room is that the glider is no longer in there. This is a pretty big deal to Gracie and I think may be part of the reason she's still awake. She still LOVES to be rocked at bedtime. She doesn't fall asleep, but that's just been part of our bedtime routine her whole life. When we walked in the room tonight she ran to her bed and hugged it and then said "where's my rocking chair?". I told her it was in the guest room (will soon be the nursery) and she then stated that she needed it so she could be rocked so she could go to sleep. We were hoping that reading to her in bed and even laying there with her for a few minutes would make the transition easier, but that's not the case tonight. We'll see how she's doing in a few days =) My Mom gave Gracie her new sheets and comforter for Christmas. Gracie's Christmas sheets are on the bed, so we'll put her new ones on after Christmas. She liked the new bedding so much that she wanted to sleep on the pillow with the sham on it and not her regular pillow. She also didn't want her sheet on, but instead just pushed the sheet down and pulled the comforter up. She's a mess =)

Gracie went bowling this morning for the first time and had a blast. I'll post some pictures after I get them. I forgot my camera, but thankfully both of my friends that we went with had theirs.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

She's asleep now =)

tagged

I've been tagged! My friend Hannah tagged me (I think Tawnya might have tagged me too, but that was a while ago and I never did it). This post is a bit late, but it's getting done =) The instructions for this tag are to pick the 4th picture folder on my computer; choose and post the 4th picture; explain the picture; and tag 4 other people to participate. Here it goes:



This is a picture from Jan. 5, 2007. We were in Mobile at the time. This was right before Gracie turned 1. Jason and Gracie were in the backyard walking around. She was not walking independently yet, but loved walking around holding one of our hands.

So now I tag:
1. Tammy Eanes
2. Amelia Nolen
3. Kathy Rowland
4. Janelle Hite

(ok, so now I'll just wait and see if any of you read my blog =))

Cook/Warren Christmas

You can click on a picture and it will pull up the slide website if you want to see the pictures bigger and individually.

On Saturday we celebrated Christmas a little early with the Warren family for Cook/Warren Christmas. We had it during Thanksgiving break this year because most of us were in town. We missed the Bratcher's, but are really excited that they will be here for Christmas! We met and exchanged gifts, the children do the exchanging, and then went to lunch at Johny Ray's. We had a great time visiting with everyone and Gracie loved have Emma there. Before we got there she kept telling me that Emma was a girl like her =) I think she was excited that there would be another girl there. I think Emma enjoyed having another girl there too. All four of the Cook/Warren "daughters" are pregnant, so it was kind of fun having 3 of the 4 together yesterday. After lunch we went back to Bill and Suzanne's house to watch the game and eat dinner. Gracie took a great nap and the first thing she asked when she got up was "Can I play with my new toys?". She was really excited and quickly got into her make-up from Friend and Pops (Jim and Betty W.). She had a blast putting on her own nail polish and lipstick. I think she especially enjoyed putting eye shadow on the rest of us! It was a great day. We're really looking forward to getting our tree up (hopefully today). I know Gracie will love having the lights up and helping put the ornaments on the tree. I'll try to do a better job of updating with pictures over the next few weeks =)

a little update

Today is Jason's birthday!!! Happy Birthday, Jason!! We went to dinner tonight at Stix with Jason's parents and my mom. This was Gracie's first time going to a Japanese restaurant and she LOVED it. She really liked the onion soup and was disappointed when we came back from the bathroom and they had taken her bowl. Suzanne shared the rest of hers with Gracie and she almost finished it off. She loved eating with the chopsticks. She's played with chopsticks before, but they gave her the children's kind that have the rubberband at the end and she did great with them. She ate most of her meal with them and greatly enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun watching her face during the cooking time. She even said at one point "This is really fun!". Jason had the great birthday song with the banging drum and that was entertaining, especially the hat. There was another family at the table with us and their son was celebrating his 13th birthday, so after Jason's song they came back and sang to him. Gracie enjoyed clapping along with the drum both times.

One day soon I hope to update with more pictures. We went to Disney on Ice a few weeks ago and Gracie had a blast. She was really looking forward to the princesses, but enjoyed the whole show too. We have a few pictures from that, so I hope to get those up here soon.

Our other news is that we're expecting baby #2! I'm 16 weeks and due in early May. We're really excited and Gracie loves to talk about the baby. We'll find out next month the gender of the baby, so be sure to check back mid December for that new info!

Gracie and her little pumpkin
Gracie on the hayride
Mommy and Gracie on the hayride
Gracie and Logan picking out a pumpkin

Gracie and Logan

Owen, Logan, Gracie, and Katelyn
We went to the Great Pumpkin Patch this morning with playgroup. It was rainy the drive up, but the rain stopped right before we got there. The kids (and Moms) had a great time looking at all the pumpkins and different activities. It was pretty cold, but the kids didn't seem to mind a bit. We made the tie-dye pumpkin shirts last week at playgroup and they all turned out really well. Janelle gets the "Super Mom" award for keeping Gracie awake on the drive home! Gracie loves to sleep in the car, but I needed her to stay awake so she would nap after we got home. Janelle did an awesome job entertaining Logan and Gracie for the last 15 minutes or so of the drive.

More to post later...we went to the zoo a couple of weeks ago and we've moved! Lots to post about later!

Roll Tide!!! What a great game today!and she'll be cheering for AU tonight, too.Jason taught her how to wash/rinse her hair under the faucet.
She's taking our order...this is one of her favorite things to do. She'll ask "What do you want?" over and over and over again...

Gracie in her cute new monkey pj's from Gran.
This is what happens when Daddy and Gracie have too much fun with the yogurt!I can't remember what she was doing here, but I think it looks funny.

It's been a while

Gracie playing with her doll house.

Gracie sitting on the potty imitating her Daddy (hand on chin). Gracie is almost totally potty trained. She's done really well with it and enjoys wearing big girl panties!

My high school 10 year reunion was at the beginning of August. We went to the picnic at Homewood park Saturday and then went to an evening event at Iz the Place (I think that's what the new name is). We had fun getting dressed up and going out for a bit. Thanks, Mom for taking our picture and staying with Gracie while we went out!

Ok, so after the crib recall Gracie slept in the pack and play for a couple of weeks. We finally got our voucher in the mail, but we weren't able to find anything in stock that we liked. So, we just put her mattress on the floor. She didn't mind at all. The only problem was that she would roll off of the bed, onto the body pillow and then onto the floor. Most mornings I would find her half on and half off. She really seemed to enjoy sleeping out of the crib and developed a new love of reading in bed. She had to have at least one book (most nights two) in bed with her and she would read for a while and then just go to sleep. For a couple of weeks she wanted her Bible in bed with her.
Then, at a consignment sale I went to last weekend I found this great toddler bed for Gracie for $15!!! I was so excited! I didn't want to pay much for a toddler bed because I didn't think she would be in it that long, so I was thrilled to find one in great condition for such a great deal. Again, she has done great in it. We do put the little gate at her door, but she doesn't get out of bed much at all (I'm more concerned about her walking to the stairs than anything). She will call me if she's ready to get up or if she needs to go the the potty. She loves her "big girl bed" and I couldn't be happier with the transition!

Gracie just being cute.

We went to Wald Park one Sunday afternoon after naps and an open house. Suzanne came and took some pictures for us (Thanks, Suzanne!!!). We had a great time playing and eating ice cream. The picture below is of Gracie "serving" ice cream.

Our FamilyVisit with Julie, Ryan and Noah