Christmas Card Engagement!

My cutie! 

She is so beautiful! She looks so grown, makes me a little sad :)

Dakota asked Jill to marry him at the end of their Christmas card portrait session. We were so blessed to be along to witness it. PLUS we got some GREAT pictures for the Family for Christmas! I could not be any happier for my sister and Dakota. They truly deserve the best!

Elf on MORE than a shelf...

Orange's first night at our house, She brought a despicable me DVD

Grace was MORE than excited!

Day 2, Orange and her best friend "Tangled" went for a girls night out cruise :)

Sleepy Orange day 3, Grace must have kept her busy with all of her behavior

Day 4, Elf goes fishing... Only problem... Grace did not have a "fishing" reference and thought Orange was trying to "drink up" the fish. She said "that is so silly"

Day 5 Elf leaves a new cup for Grace in the fridge :)

Day 6..... Well we had a ROUGH day.. lots of whining and fussing. She even spit her toothpaste rinse water across the bathroom, and told mommy that "I'm not your KID anymore". Therefore, Orange did not leave her post. Grace was pretty devastated that our Elf didn't do anything fun or tell santa that she was good. BUT Day 7 she did much better, and Orange showed up riding our reindeer on the bathroom shelf, Silly Elf.

Day 8, Orange and Santa send Grace new slippers after she was a big girl and stood for a picture with Santa at mommy's school.

Day 9, Elf hides in the tree. It took Grace hours to notice her :)

Elf TP's the Bathroom and goes potty :) Day 10 

Elf feels under dressed and makes a tutu... Grace said "SHE MADE ME A BOW!!" Day 11

Day 12, This was one of Grace's Favorites

This has been so much fun, and Grace JUMPS out of bed to see what Orange was up to during the night :) What a fun tradition. 

Elf on a shelf day one!

This is Orange! Grace doesn't know if she loves her or hates her yet...but having ”Orange” around is already helping with her recent trend of punky behavior. When she would start to whine today, ask I had to do was point to this little lady and she sucked it up. When she used her manners with out reminder she said ”I think my elf saw me be good” or ” my elf is watching me”. Hopefully tommorow she will be sold when she gets to dig up a new DVD from under the marshmallows, Orange is a funny lady!

I can't help myself.. :)

This is by far the cutest spiderman I have ever seen :)

The adventures of SPIDERMAN-GIRL

 So, Sassy decided out of ALLL of the princesses, fairies, pink, and purple glittered costumes, that she just HAD to be Spiderman. Not, SpiderGIRL... SPIDERMAN. I glitz-ed it up a bit and I think she looked ADORABLE. She had so much fun this year :) Every time she left a house she yelled, MOM lets go get some MORE CANDY!!

 The little Crew minus Jace, he was a little tuckered out :)

We also had to paint our pumpkin like spiderman :)

The spiderman costume is not really "potty friendly" for school, so we improved this morning for the halloween party, She loved that she got to wear her jammies and tutu to school :)

Lots of candy! Lots of friends! Lots of FUN!

Grace Renee Mess.. oh Guess

Whew.. motherhood, mixed with more than full time teaching, throw in a little graduate work, and good lord I am tired. I am going to try and slow my mind down a little since my body is working so hard. I need to take time and enjoy the little things, and the funny things, and my family, to find the GREAT in every day, and be the mother I need to be :) 

Grace was ROUGH on us this weekend, so high energy, bouncing off the walls, never stopped talking... you get it. I found myself on edge very quickly... I have got to slow down and remember she is just 3, and doesn't understand "mommy's busy".

I wanted to take some time to celebrate her little achievements this week.

1. She can do a cartwheel and land on her feet.

She has been working on this since we started cheer and she is SOO proud of herself. She walked into school on Friday and first thing she did was cartwheel for her teacher :)

 2. She is recognizing letters everywhere and we are working on copying letters and words

- She tried her hardest to write "Daddy" on Daddy's birthday card :)

and love... :)

3. She is HILARIOUS... and so beautiful

and by far the reason we want to work so hard :)

Gracie Boo!

Just a little update on Grace...

- She is 3 years and almost 2 months

- She has been going to cheer/tumble classes on thursday nights and she is doing pretty good. She is learning handstands, cartwheels, back bends, and back handsprings during the first 45 minutes. The last 15 they work on cheerleading where she is doing excellent with her arm motions, jumps and FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS :). She has MASTERED her front and side splits, her forward roll and her straddle jump :) she looks so stinking cute out there. She struggles with criticism from the coach and melts down a little, and she freaks out if she can't see me in the window.

- She is talking a mile a minute... There is no end to the craziness that comes out of her mouth.

- She loves to sing and dance, she mashes up many children's songs together and puts words in if she doesn't the right ones, so funny.

- She loves to watch the Disney Channel, she calls it "my tv" ... we are constantly hearing "mom, I wanna watch MY TV" she likes the big girl shows like "Jessie" and "Austin and Ally". Mom and Dad are about Disney'ed out.

-We have had some bed time set backs. She has been really fearful of the dark so we leave a lamp on in her room at night... not a night light, a lamp. It drives me crazy, but she is sleeping through the night and that is what is important.

- She is doing so so well with letter recognition, tonight she was able to tell me the name of these letters
A B C D E G H I J M O Q R S T V X Z and 1 2 3 4 5

- she can count all the way to 20 with zero mistakes and can get to 23 before she gets stuck at 24 then says 29 :) ha!

- She is very interested in time. "what time is it?, is it wake up time?" we tell her to watch the analog clock and she tell us when it is on the hour, for example.... bed time is 8:00 and when it starts to get dark, she starts watching the clock, when the big hand is pointing straight up, she'll say "uhh it's time for bed.." :) makes me smile.

- Oh she is sassy. We are working on our manners and social skills, especially the polite response. The thank you and yes ma'am are a constant reminder.

- She is eating fruit much much more. She is gobbling down apples, oranges, strawberries and bananas.

-She got her first haircut 2 weeks ago, and LOVED it. Her hair looks so much better, her ends were looking stringy. They didn't take any off the length, just trimmed the uneven. We saved her little curls :)

- She has been dressing herself every morning. From her shirt to her socks and shoes (mommy still picks the outfit). We are loving her little independence.

- She had pneumonia for it felt like FOREVER, right when school started. I think it was at least a month of that!  Thank goodness that is over.

- She is getting taller for sure :) We got to buy 3t pants finally for the length (thank goodness for the adjustable waist), though her little butt wore 18month shorts all summer long HA.  She is whopping  27 -28 lbs!

We are so so tired from work and school, I wanted to make sure I blogged so this sweet age doesn't slip away from us.

3 year stats!!

I can not believe my baby is 3!! We had our well check today, she did great and didn't have to have any shots :)! Here are our stats!

37 inches tall!! 48-50th percentile ( I can't remember what she said)
27 lbs!!! I mean... a few ounces shy of 28lbs!... 20th percentile, which is 5% better than last year!

She's growing!  No concerns other than her EXTREME pickiness and getting enough protein. Her asthma is really under control too!

Happy Birthday GAMMY!

We celebrated Gammy's birthday this week and got some cute pictures :)

Grace LOVES her Gammy and PawPaw, We are really luck that she gets to spend so much time with them :) She asks we multiple times a week if Gammy is getting her :) Happy Birthday to our GAMMY :)

First time for everything!!

This is the first week I have EVER had an intense work out everyday!!!! Sunday I went to Zumba, then did a circuit around the neighborhood. Monday Zumba! Tuesday Double Zumba!!!! Wednesday Zumba! Thursday neighborhood circuit! Friday 5:30am boot camp! Woo hoo! I had originally set a goal of burning 400 calories a week, this week I have burned 1800! I am pretty darned proud of myself, so I am tooting my horn! Bikini bod here I come! Hahaha.... Eventually

Summer, so far, so good!

For fathers day we took Grace to San Antonio for a long weekend of riverwalk, shopping, seaworld, and family! It was lots of fun and we got great picures and memories. Last week Mike took vacation and we were so lazy.. It was fabulous. We were the family of couch potatoes. We did do a day trip to ikea and Galveston on Tuesday. We will go back to Galveston soon, Grace had so much fun and she found a huge shell (not kidding it really is big for Galveston). I found lots of neat stuff at ikea for my classroom too, + a big bookshelf! Healthy summer goals are still on track, we've eaten a little bad here and there, but nothing outrageous. And the girls and I are still making it to Zumba 3+ times a week, we are addicted. I really love being sore, it feels good to know that I'm finally working hard at toning up. Sara and I started doing a little circuit workout around the neighborhood at nights and it's a booty kicker! I could barely walk today. Not seeing a lot of weight come off (I'm down three pounds) but I'm definitely seeing results in my legs butt and tummy, I can't tell if my arms look better or if they are just more tanned!! Ha. I'm going to try to do a couple 2 a days this week to step it up!! Goal by next time this year: Bikini worthy!!!! Stretch marks and all! My family just booked a big Maui trip for this time next year. Oh boy! We got Grace signed up for a kinder cheer class in town and she loves it! It is so funny watching her with the bigger girls, she looks like a shrimp!!! But she followed great instructions to the best of her ability, listened great, and only stole 2 stickers.... Ha. She said "I growed up cuz I get to go to cheerleadering". My sweet boo! She turns 3 August 4th, we've got a small party planned for the evening of her birthday, just cousins and neighborhood kiddos. Momma is going all out with the decor, very pinterest! We will be celebrating in style with a pink lemonade theme. I might have gone a little over board. Oh well, why not spoil her. She'll only turn 3 once.;) Mike will leave Sunday to head back to Austin, again. He'll be gone the whole week. When he gets back, I'll leave the following Sunday and be gone until Wednesday for our leadership conference in San Antonio. So Grace should have an interesting couple of weeks.:)

ZUMBA!

My favorite friends and I have joined Piranha fitness Studio in town and are LOVING it! We are going every other day, carpooling and having so much fun! We are breaking a killer sweat and starting to figure out what instructors we enjoy and what parts of our body hurt after each instructor. MONDAYS are killer.. we are barely walking the next day and sitting is a chore, but her class is AWESOME.. WEDNESDAYs the instructor really works our abs and arms and overall we REALLY enjoy her. THURSDAY is toning, lord help us. It's Zumba with weights, there are no words. SATURDAY/SUNDAY- we haven't quite figured out.. its a little low key (which is good) but it also maybe because its in the middle of the day and not evening, and usually as different instructor each time. Overall I have never worked out so hard in my life! Hopefully my booty will start to show it!

Love our Daddy!!

Sooo Grace woke up relatively early this morning and wanted to "put on make up". I took advantage of her willingness to get dressed up and we went outside and snapped some pictures for Daddy for fathers day. I had every intention of wrapping up the photos and "gifting" them for Sunday. WELL little miss blabber mouth spilled the beans the minute he walked in the door. "HEY DAD, I TOOK PICTURES FOR YOU TODAY! THEY'RE ON THE COUNTER!!" Wow.. thanks so much Gracie :).  She is such a little ham! She loved this today. She was posing and being twelve kinds of sassy:) I think they turned out pretty cute.. It helps to have such a cute little model :).

 This is her new "kiss and wave" move.. um she might be watching too much toddlers and tiaras..:)

I love the progression of these photos!

1. HEY this is FUN!

2. Ok this is not so fun, but I'll smile anyway

3. Ok this stinks.. and I'm done participating

She had lots of fun with these!

I LOVE this one!

And Grace absolutely loved taking the pictures with Daddy's hat :)

**** While I've been posting this, Grace is next to me telling Mike "Hey Dad.. your pictures are on mom's computer come see, but I can't tell you ok? its a surprise." :)

Day one!

Did good on calories today, and worked out a little! Had right under 1000 calories, drank 4 big tumblers of water,and worked out for 45 minutes! Gonna keep it up, and try hard to get tiny! I have probably lost and gained 100 lbs in the last year with this last ten pounds that I yoyo!! Tired of it that's for sure... :)

Starlight music fest at the park!

Gotta love a free concert! Grace had a blast :)

Lazy Sunday

our day was lazy..grocery store, Barbies, lifetime, long recliner nap, then finished the day with a snow cone and Mac n cheese for dinner. :)

Make better choices!

Ok, starting Monday I am going full speed into a healthy summer. I'm going to eat very similarly everyday and cut back to 1000-1200 calories a day. I really need to focus on drinking way more water too. 10lbs to go by the end of July. Week day eating: Special k with soy milk and half a banana or a breakfast smoothie for breakfast Balsamic vinegar spinach salad with either a 1/2 turkey whole wheat sandwich, nuts , or grilled chicken, and a big piece of fruit, for lunch 400 or less calorie dinner... Whatever I want :) Snacks: special k bars, crisps, cracker chips, raw fruits and veggies, dried fruits, Quaker rice snacks, popcorn, pickles, Gonna join a gym when this arm quits hurting too :)

It ain't easy being green :)

From 2006 to the end of 2009, I really considered myself a Greenie. I purchased 90% organic food, 100% plant derived cleaners/detergents, we cut out bottled water all together, and made a conscious effort to eat naturally and balanced. Uhhh what the heck happened in the last two years? Oh yeah, I remember. GRACE. When she was a baby I did really well, she only got organic food, even her formula was organic. Her soaps and lotions for naturally derived and I didn't even buy baby bottled water (we just filtered). So I can't figure out when it all changed... I think it started slow and now we are more than gone. I've got Tide detergent sitting in my laundry room, and send my kid to school in the morning with a YOPLAIT yogurt (omg) and a half of a honey bun. I am officially ashamed of myself. I'm going to try to do better starting this summer. :) I've also got a few lbs to lose.... maybe its all the junk in my house! ha.

Summer Goals

1. INTENSE workout 3 mornings a week, MODERATE workout 2 times a week
- 7 to 10lbs lost, a couple of inches, and tone up!
- jog 2 miles without stopping.. (I HATE TO RUN)
- run with Mike without complaining-- HA

2. Eat whole natural foods 2 meals a day (not fast or packaged)

3. Encourage my daughter to eat more of the RIGHT calories..well just to eat more period.

4. Cook a natural, healthy meal 4 nights a week

I think these are do-able! I'm going to do another cooking marathon when school gets out, and I'm joining a gym next week :)

Ladies and Gentlemen... Introducing the WORLDS PICKIEST CHILD!!

Lord help us I think Grace could be considered in the Guinness Book of World Records for the worlds pickiest eater. I am sure of it. I mean.. who doesn't like mashed potatoes?

I am beyond frustrated lately. Not that this is new... feeding this child has been nothing but a struggle since I stopped nursing. When she was around 5 months old she would go a whole day on 4 oz of formula, refusing to take a bottle from anyone but me. We had to sneak a bottle in her mouth while she slept. THEN at 10 months she refused formula all together and whole milk made her vomit, she ate a handful of items, mostly yogurt, pasta, cereal, and applesauce. At 2 she started eating chicken in small increments and a few raw fruits (apple, strawberries, watermelon). At 2 1/2 I thought "WOW she's been eating really well!!" trying new foods and eating more enthusiastically. We even shot up a few inches and gained a few lb's. THEN all of a sudden... BAM! The appetite is gone... the milk sensitivity is back (which includes a gag reflex and projectile vomit). She isn't eating ANYTHING we pack for lunch, and I'm resorting to calorie rich foods like mac-n-cheese and honey buns just to get her some calories.

OK I have to tell myself I'm doing everything I can. I am trying everything. She will drink V8 splash, and I make sure she gets about 4-6 oz of that every other day. She has a yogurt based fruit smoothie every morning, and she loves those fruit puree pouches that hide good things like  omega-3s, quinoa, chia, yogurt, spinach, and lots of other things. She'll eat dried fruit. She LOVES real cheese (not american) and she likes wheat bread and tortilla's.

We are just tired... so if there are any other moms out there with stubborn eaters, let's share our tricks. Here are a couple of mine. These are weekly staples for little miss Grace Guess.

1. the PIZZA sandwich
- pita bread
- baby food green veggies (green beans, spinach, peas)
- pizza sauce
- fresh mozzarella

Mix greens with pizza sauce, spread inside pita pocket, throw in some cheese, grill in a pan like a grilled cheese, VOala! Pizza sandwich!

2.  Squash-a-roni-and Cheese
- any recipe mac n cheese
- baby food yellow colored veggies (carrots, squash, cauliflower )

easy easy... and she'll eat it.

This has been a rough food week for us. I know it will get better. I just wish she would say "hey mom, can I have some veggies and meat for dinner? ":) A mom can dream right?

Jill is GRADUATED and Mothers Day!

Grace showing us what different emotions looked like.. I think this was her CRAZY face :)

The HENDRY bunch :)

Sweetest face I know!

You'll have to excuse my looks, we partied a little hard last night.. HEY your little sister only graduates ONCE :)

Grace and her Cha-Cha

She loves her DeeDee :)

This is Grace and My Mamaw, Her Great-Grandmother :) 

My beautiful sister!!

 Sweet little beauty, all glittered and bling-ed!

So after graduation Jill and 2 of her friends had a HUGE party for all of their family. There were about 120 people who celebrated with us. We had a blast!

These are from friday night. We were setting up the pavilion and having a GREAT time, and of course Grace looked like a doll :)

Ok sooo we were supposed to be setting up from the party BUT we were distracted by the WOBBLE :)