A letter to my girl

Dear Gracie,
You are 9 months old. I am writing this to you today because I want you to have these letters when you're older and read back on them! I also want to be able to read back on them and ponder what I went through raising you :) hehe

You are such a little miracle. I hope you know that. Your dad and I prayed for you for 3 years! Your older brother came down and taught us many lessons about patience, love, prayer, listening to God's timing, and more.

I have been amazed watching you over the last 9 months. You went from breastfeeding, to bottle feeding, to rolling over, to learning to stand up on your own, and now wanting to walk! it is insane.
People always told me how fast it would go by but i never understood until now! It has flown by like a blink of an eye.

Some days I really wish that you were still little and cuddly and a newborn, but most days i am grateful to see you be so healthy and active, and want to explore your world! you definitely love exploring and get bored of your toys really fast haha. I REALLY enjoy my days home with you. I go to work 2 half days a week to help support our family. I hate leaving you to go to work, but i absolutely LOVE coming home and seeing a big smile on your face when you see me! it melts my heart!

Our days include: baby signing time, poopy diapers, bath time, laughing at your dog, putting dog bones in your mouth, putting starsky food in your mouth 10x a day, touching my nails, dancing, falling over, trying to stand up on your own and falling, hitting your head, playing with toys, pulling starsky's tail and putting it in your mouth, crawling everywhere, eating like a champ, touching mommy's face, being attached to your dad, and so much more!! we have a lot of fun at home with each other! you have 2 teeth and they are so adorable.

Lately you've hit a sleep regression. you got really sick the last week and half and it was so heartbreaking for your dad and I! it made us appreciate you even more when you're healthy and happy :) you have always been a happy girl with a bubbly personality.  Being up with you multiple times a night and seeing you be so miserable broke my momma strings.  Being a mom isn't the easiest thing in the world. you weren't born with a manual that told me what to do for you in every situation. You rely on me for everything. It is up to me to help my girl be happy and strong and grow up to be successful!  You've never been a cuddle bug but I really enjoyed your snuggles when you were sick.  You had a hideous yeast infection, and woke up to throw up all over yourself every night for 4 nights!! it really was so sad, and i hated to see you like that. that was a long week.... :)

Now you are all better, but you don't like sleeping the past week! ever since you were 2 months old you slept through the night. your dad and I have always joked that "our girl just needs her beauty sleep!" people told us we were spoiled and didn't know the meaning of being  a mom and dad because of your sleeping habits. lol. we thoroughly enjoyed it to say the least.

I guess at 9 months babies can hit a sleep regression- pretty sure you're in that stage right now :) you fight your nap times so much and it's sad because i know you're tired! I can see it in your eyes.  At night, (and I think being sick is the reason for this,) you roll over so many times and you sit up, then roll over, then cry, it's like you can't get comfortable.  The Dr. said this is normal though because you are discovering your world! a lot of times you just need me to go in there and comfort you and you'll go back to sleep.  We are working on getting you back to sleeping through the night and taking naps throughout the day. I want my happy gracie back!! :)

Ever since I was a little girl, I always knew i wanted to be a mom.  I loved babysitting, and i LOVED holding babies. of course once they started to cry i would hand them over to their mom. haha! you are my dream come true- and I feel blessed beyond I can say, to have you and raise you. I don't know how it all works in the pre-existence but I would like to think that you chose me to be your mom. I like to think that you and Tuff thought your dad and I would be fun parents and would teach you right from wrong.  That is my goal with you is to be a FUN MOM and do fun things with you!! And I also want you to be able to choose right from wrong and make good choices in your life!

Life is hard. it's busy. you'll have heartbreaks. you'll be stressed. you'll have to make really important decisions in your life. But one things is for certain- and that is that YOU my dear...YOU are the BEST decision I've made in my life so far.  You are so much fun.  Your smile cracks  me and your dad up. you have a DEEP laugh just like mine that is sooooo stinking cute. you are a very determined little girl. You are curious. You are smart. You are adorable. and you are my favorite thing in the whole world!!! (you and your dad)

Even when you are a stinker and suck on starsky's tail, or dump out all my lids onto the floor, or won't sleep.....you are so worth it.  You are my pride and joy and I hope you know that I am doing my best!! I am not perfect but I'm sure trying to be a good mom for you!
Gracie goo- I love you!! I wish you'd stop growing up and being a big girl on me.

I can hear you waking up from your nap so it's time to play!!

Love,
Mom


these pictures crack me up. NO i do not really put massive bows like this on your head. your dad and i got a kick out of it though. and you? I don't think you liked it hahaha

 This was at your 9 month check up! so funny. your facial expressions.  19 lbs! your head is still large, and you're still cute!

 And this is my favorite pic of us. look at your eyes!! and that binky- you love it way too much.

                                              LOVE YOU BABY GIRL!!!

New Years/ Gracie is 9 months old!!

For new years my 2 brothers came into town!!
We played in the snow, played lots and lots of fun games, laughed our heads off playing pie face, ate lots of crap, ate lots of yummy food, made gyoza, had a glow stick dance party, and more!!  I love when family comes into town. and I love that my mom can cook delicious food. it's a win-win situation :) I don't think I have laughed as hard as I did when we played pie face!! my dad was the funniest one. He had a bad attitude about the game and so of course he got the pie in his face. it was so funny. Us adults stayed up way too late playing games. so worth it though!
Here's pics of PIE FACE!!!

As you can see it's a must game for everyone. never laughed so hard in my life.


We spent a couple of days out at Tanner's house as well. His brothers came into town too. His mom is also an amazing cook! gives me a break from cooking. We went snowmobiling, sledding, played in the snow, and we took gracie on a fun little sled ride up and down their lane. she just layed there so content for about 40 minutes! haha. we also played a hilarious game with his family called, 2 truths and a lie. DEFINITELY one of my new faves!! it's super funny and really gets you going on which family members you do and don't know.

I love my 2 families so much. I feel so blessed to have the siblings that I do. i love that I can call any one of them out of the blue and it's like we talk every day. I'm lucky to have my mom and dad so close to us!
I'm also so blessed with the inlaws that I have. They always strive to make everyone feel welcome and their house is always open to anyone and everyone. Tanners siblings are also awesome. I get along with them great. BLESSINGS.
Tanner and I have made some pretty great goals this year. can't wait to see what we accomplish in 2016!!

Gracie turned 9 months old yesterday. She is GROWING SO FAST!!!!! it is so crazy.

At 9 months:
-she is in size 3 diapers
-she is too small for 9 month clothes but too big for 12 month. so.....we hang em loose :)
-she loves all food. we haven't found anything she doesn't like yet. we even fed her a lemon and she didn't even pull a face!
-she weighs 18 lbs.
-she is crawling everywhere and is so fast!
-she loves getting into anything and everything that she can find
-she loves standing up and wants to walk SO bad! she gets frustrated that she can't :)
-she loves her daddy still. when he gets home from work she gets the biggest grin on her face
-loves shrugging her shoulders. it's the cutest thing.
-she's a babbler and copies mom and dad
-she's getting sick of her toys
-she HATES cuddling
-she loves splashing water everywhere in the bathtub
-she still loves starsky but tries to suck on his tail!!!
-she recently started making this hilarious scrunched up face! I don't know where she learned it but it cracks me up
-she has 2 TEETH!!! they poked through at about 8.5 months
-she started full on crawling at 8.5 months too!

-she got super sick this past week. it was so heart wrenching for both tanner and I to see her be so miserable. We spent many many nights staying up with her, rocking her, cuddling, wiping up throw up, changing her bum a lot, and just trying to comfort her. I ended up taking her to the Dr. 3 times because it was so bad. She had diarrhea for a week and it got so bad that she developed a NASTY bum rash. At first I thought it was just a diaper rash so i applied the necessary cream. but then it got worse, and worse, and worse. It started to blister and turn purple and bleed. So I got prescribed 2 different creams and it cleared up in about 3-4 days.  turns out it was a yeast infection. We spend many hours laying on the floor with her bum in the air with a blow drier on it. She seemed to like that. But you can imagine with diarrhea....yeah not fun :( For 2 days the poor girl couldn't even sit down. I'd sit her down to play and she's just look at me and tears would well up. She would moan and groan all night, we could tell her tummy hurt. she woke up 5 days in a row covered in throw up. We thought maybe it was a reflex thing so we elevated her head at night, but then she still threw up. Still haven't figured that one out, but she stopped throwing up YESTERDAY finally :)  I've learned through this situation that wow. babies are so helpless. they really do need their mom and dad for everything. and ESPECIALLY when they're sick. I felt SO SO bad for her, I would just hold her at wee hours of the morning and just cry. just pray for some help to know what to do for her. it was pretty scary and she lost 4 lbs during all that because she wouldn't eat! she was strictly on pedialyte for like 2 days cuz she couldn't keep anything down. But anyway- finally today she's acting more normal and I'm super excited to get to play with her again.

-since she's been sick, she realized that she could roll over in her crib and sit up!! hahaha very frustrating for mom and dad, but we got good laughs out of it. I went in there at 3 am once cuz she was crying, and she was just siting there staring at me. Since she's been sick too, she's loved sleeping on her tummy.. she won't sleep unless it's on her tummy now.
-she still loves her pinky. however I'm only trying to give it to her at nap time, bedtime, and when she's sick or crying and won't stop for a long time.
-she now rolls over on her own!! super weird, but she never would roll over on her own until about 8.5 months old.
-we do a daily ritual of baby signing time! she's learned to sign bird :) we are working on more  and milk right now!



I could go on and on but those are some of the fun things she's learned to do over the last month! she is a sweetheart, but also has some spunk in her. it's fun seeing her personality change and come out every month.  I can't even imagine next month she'll probably be walking!!

Here's some of my favorite pics of her the past month:


here was a fun photo shoot we had one day. she was melting me with her cute personality.

 oh my land. this one is my FAVORITE!!! she's such a doll.

 hahahaha this face cracked me up!!

Here's that hilarious scrunched up face...

New years eve fun!

 she will only stand up in the tub now! crazy girl.

 this was the FIRST TIME SHE STOOD UP!!! she loves this toy so much. definitely a good purchase.

 starsky things it's cool to sit on her in the car.

 she thinks she's a dog?

 fun in the snow!

 oh my heck. this picture is worth a thousand words. we thought it would be funny to prank my mom and show up to her house with this bow on gracie. my mom hates baby bows hahahaha. Gracie wasn't quite sure what to think and we got a good reaction out of my mom!!

 TEEFERS!!!!

 I love this picture so much!!

 cousin time with Aiden!




These are her sick pictures. so so sad. Tanner was so patient and helped me take care of her.

 so miserable.

I haven't really documented much of her sleep habits. THIS SCARES ME SO BAD. she always ends up asleep like this. She has to rub her eye with her blankie in order to fall asleep, and she has to fall asleep to a bottle. I will check on her multiple times a night to make sure she's still breathing. silly girl. we've started to only put this elephant silky thing in her crib with her so she can still rub it on her eye but not suffocate.

her head was on the complete opposite side when i played her down. and she was on her back. I went in to check on her and she had totally turned over and gone to the foot of her bed! silly. maybe I'm looking at a stomach sleeper now.

I love you gracie girl!! stop growing up. Jk you can keep growing up just remember how much your mamma loves you.