Happy 1st Birthday!

Well, I don't know how this happened. One minute I have a newborn, and the next thing I know she's walking around and feeding herself and dancing and growing up! I can't believe my baby is a year old! It has been a great year. We waited a long time to finally become parents, at times wondering if it would ever happen for us. I can say now, that I am (somewhat) grateful for the struggles we had because I have never taken Gracie for granted. I feel honored to be a mother and so blessed to have been given such a happy, healthy, energetic, wonderful child. Her vest for life keeps me on my toes!

Happy Birthday Gracie! We love you so much!

August 21, 2008....here she is just a few hours old!

August 18, 2009...we celebrated a her birthday a few days early with my parents. She's enjoying some green frosting from her birthday cake!

Blowing out the candle (with a little help from daddy)

August 21, 2009...her true 1st birthday. Of course we had to celebrate with Grandma and Grandpa Howard too! Bryant's entire family (except our brother in law Ryan) were there for a little family reunion!

Gracie got TONS of presents of course. Here is just one picture opening one of her gifts. Her cousin Bayden was very helpful in showing her how to unwrap presents!

Go Padres!

Well, you know us....we couldn't possibly go to a city that has a baseball team without going to a game could we?! So we all went to a Padres game before heading back to Yucca Valley. I was really nervous about how Gracie would deal with it since she didn't do so well a few months ago when we went to the Mariners game. I did have my mom this time though, so we decided worse case scenario, my dad and Bryant, who are both HUGE baseball fans would be able to stay and watch the game and my mom and I could leave with Gracie if we needed to. We did get earplugs for her this time, and it actually help a ton. She did great at the game! Earlier that day my dad found this cute little Padres jersey that he just had to get for Gracie to wear.

My dad and Bryant enjoying the game.

That's one cute Padres fan!

Me and my Mom

Gracie and I enjoying the game!

Ready to "root root root for the home team"...and for the Mariners of course! (she had on a Mariners hat in case you can't see it!)

Summer is fun...especially at Grandma's house!

Here are some odd's and end's pictures of the fun things we did while at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Gracie is such a lucky girl to have so many people who love her! Thanks to my mom and dad for being such great grandparents to my baby and for such a great summer!

Gracie with her dog (which is also a leash and one of the BEST purchases we have ever made!)

This is a bit blurry, but a fun picture of the three of us girls. Notice Gracie's crazy hair!

Gracie giving us her new "stinky face." If you tell her something stinks she wrinkles her nose and sniffs!

We took a few hours out of our time in San Diego and went bowling! Gracie with Grandpa and Bubby.

Sitting in the toy basket.

Swimming

While we were in California, we took lots of opportunities to go swimming! Gracie became quite a little fish! The Relief Society President in my parents ward had a really nice swimming pool that my mom and I took Gracie to several times. These are all pictures in San Diego taking advantage of the hotel swimming pool.

Grandpa, Gracie and Daddy

Gracie and her Bubby

Gracie and Daddy. She was so glad to be with him again. Being apart from her Daddy for a month was really hard for her (and for me too!)

Getting ready to hit the pool!

Grace Howard come on down....

I hope some of you don't think I'm a horrible mom when I tell you this, but Gracie LOVES watching The Price is Right. It's kind of a tradition for the two of us to watch it together every morning. It's so funny to see how excited she gets when she hears the music come on. She claps for the contestants...win or loose! She also fell in LOVE with her Bubby (that's Grandma Carter). She loved sitting my Bubby and watching the Price is Right with her while we were in California. Here's a few fun pictures.

Gracie also loved this little chair. She'd sit in it and read herself a book or to watch the Price is Right if her Bubby wasn't available to sit with her! She's actually multi-tasking in this picture and doing both!

Dancing Queen

Gracie has learned how to dance. I wish I had a better video to show you, but this will have to do for now! She does this cute shoulder roll move. She has since added some additional dance moves which I will try and capture and share in the near future. Until then, I hope you find this as darling as we do! She was really entertaining us this particular night!

Our 10 1/2 month old doll!

While we were in Kuna, we got some cute pictures of Gracie. She's 10 1/2 months in these pictures. I can't believe how fast my baby has grown up! You'll see from the pictures that she's walking! She started walking at about 9 1/2 months.

Sporting one of the new bows Aunt Julia made!

This is Gracie chowing down on some pasta. Grandma Howard got a big kick out of it and had to snap a few pictures!

Chewing on a celery stick and playing with a shoe. Life doesn't get any better than this!

I thought this was such a cute picture of my two favorite people! This was Bryant's first day at his internship.