First Steps

My baby girl took her first steps this morning. She had been walking along furniture or holding onto my hands. Today I set her a few feet away from me and was shocked when she started moving her little feet.

The Face

Grace has a new trick. I'm not terribly sure where she learned how to do this, but I'm grateful for whatever method brought it about. I present to you The Face:

Squinty eyes, scrunched nose, huge fake grin. I can't get enough of it. She tends to bust out the face most when she is eating. She knows Aaron and I get a huge kick out of it and hams things up as much as possible.

I love this child, every cheesy inch of her.

Take a gander at her top gums, those two bad boys finally made their appearance. My sanity is now being regained.

Family Pictures

My sister Ashby asked me to take pictures of her family while we were at the beach. It didn't take long for the word to spread and before she knew it the whole family was in on the picture taking.

Mema and Poppy with their Grandkids

Taylor, Mema, Brooklyn, Emma, Carly, Poppy, and Grace

The Barnards

We're special

The Scotts

Taylor, Stacey, and Carly

The Hatch Family

Brooklyn, Ryan, Ashby, and Emma

This was the last beach post, I promise.

I love family.

The Beach Week 3

Even More Things We Love about the Beach

Swimming

S'mores

Re-celebrating Mema's birthday

Pool Volleyball after the kiddos were asleep

Fitting seven adults in the hot tub after volleyball and forcing half of the water to spill out.

Attempting to turn whiteness into tan-ness

Sisters

The beach was fantastic this year. I can't wait until next year!

The Beach Week 2

Things we love about Beach Week

continued

Sand toys

Front row seats

Watching dolphins ride the waves

Being brave

Boogie boarding

Sun bathing

Cousin love

Model poses

Sandcastle building

Frothy ocean water

Taking your nieces out to play in the ocean only to have a huge wave knock you over forcing you to submerge all parties in the water.

Delivering said nieces back to safety

Popsicles before bedtime

The Beach Trip Introduction

I've thought about writing the Beach Week blog post about a bizillion times. The thought of narrowing 800+ pictures down to a normal sized blog post stresses me out. I immediately give up and declare to myself that I'm going to just refer everyone to my sister Ashby's blog. She is the photographer that took the beautiful pictures and did an amazing job breaking down the vacation. I urge you to read her breakdown. However, I didn't want to completely give up... so here is my take on Beach Week 2010. (Photos courtesy of Ashby Hatch)

Things we love about Beach Week 2010

Introducing first timers to the beach

Shoulder rides

Toes in the sand

Finally getting relief from the humidity

Sand everywhere

(wait... I don't love this.)

Rocket launchers in the pool

Squeezing into the baby's pool toys

Hitching rides with Poppy

Mental Drowning

I remember, a few weeks ago, writing that I was doing all of the pre-vacation stuff that can literally drive a person (me) insane. My friend Stephanie commented that the post vacation madness is far worse. I now whole heartedly agree.

Ever since returning home from the beach I feel as if reality has literally taken a board and smacked me in the face Tommy Boy style. ("Not so much here, or here, but riiiight here.") It seems like there are a thousand things going on and my brain has yet to catch up with me. Like I'm mentally drowning in a to do list that, despite my best efforts, doesn't seem to be getting any shorter. Throw a teething 10 month old and the fact that one of my best friends is moving away and you have one very unstable woman.

I broke down yesterday in a serious moment of defeat. Grace chose screaming and sobbing over sleeping and relaxing (I shake my fist at you angry teething gods!). Her naps are the moments when I regain my sanity, recharge my patience, and press onward. I dragged my feet into her room, burst into tears and told her over and over "I don't know what to do." The mental drowning got the best of me. For a few moments I laid on the floor in Grace's room and cried and wondered how on Earth I could pull myself out of the water catch my breath and keep swimming.

I thought to myself that I had to start doing something, anything. Sitting and mentally drowning weren't going to get me very far. I up from Grace's floor (and mentally added vacuuming to my To Do list) and fed her. Before I knew it, it was 7pm, Grace was asleep, the apartment was tidy, dinner was on the table, and Aaron was walking through the door. I made it. I stayed above water.

There are still quite a few things on my To Do list, one of them being blogging about the beach trip (which I sat down to do, but ended up writing this). But life moves forward and those things will get done eventually, I'll just keep swimming (thanks for the wise words Dori). Or maybe I'll transport myself to a pink raft and just float above the water. Put a Diet Dr. Pepper in my hand and I'd be set. I like that idea better "Just keep rafting..."

10 Months

My beautiful baby girl turned 10 months on the 2nd.

Its gone by so fast, but I've loved every minute

Happy ten months Gracie

Gracers

Lovabug

That Grace

The Gracernator

Catching Up

The Beach Trip post will be a little delayed. My Mom and I aren't the most computer savvy and we didn't get all of the pictures downloaded, so the rest of the pictures are on their way.

In the meantime I thought that I would catch up on a few things.

1.) TEETH! It only took 9 months but Grace finally got some teeth.

2.) Swimming. Grace is a huge fan of the pool and Ella was showing her how to have a good time.
We also learned that she is fearless. About two seconds after this picture was taken Grace walked right off the step and went completely under the water. We quickly grabbed her out of the water and in true Grace fashion, she wasn't phased at all. We, however, put a stop to her water walking adventures.
3.) Father's Day. Grace and I had a fabulous time spoiling Aaron for Father's day. The night before, we got together with the Sager's for "Man Night". A BBQ dinner out, A man movie, and Pumpkin Spice Pazookies. Sunday we spent the day together,And ate all of Aaron's favorite foods.

It was pretty awesome. Grace is one lucky little girl.

It feels nice to finally catch up.