Growing Up

I'm constantly amazed at how Grace's vocabulary is exploding! She's such a smart girl.

I think her word count is over 50 now.  Honestly, I can't remember which words I've written down and which I haven't,  so I'm not even going to try to update my list.

I'll share some of my favorite things she says though.

I don't know why,  but she calls Zach, "Zachzach". Hahaha, I don't know why she repeats it.

Every morning I take her out of her crib and she'll lay her head on my shoulder to hug me and then say "Zachzach?"

Grace LOVES her cousins!  Sorry to the older ones,  but she definitely loves the ones around her age the most.

Obviously Zach,  because he is here so much.  But she has recently become obsessed with Eliza who is her same age as well.

She'll just randomly ask me for Liza at weird times.  And at times when we haven't seen her for a couple days or we haven't been talking about her or her family at all.

Her memory astounds me sometimes! She's totally out of the blue with things she remembers.

Grace: "Mama?"
Me: "Yes?"
G: "Liza!?"
Me: "You want to play with Liza?"
G: "YEEEAHAHA!"

When she gets excited she laughs at the end of her yeah. Haha :)

We don't really let her play on our phones,  and TV is usually just baby signing time, but along the way we have happened upon a show called Astroblast!  Hahaha, oh my goodness,  you'd think we'd hit the jackpot or something.

Grace asks for Zazz-zass (Astroblast) all the time time,  it's both cute and annoying,  haha.

I guess it's okay if she has a favorite show.  We just won't be binge watching it like her daddy and I do with The Office!

One of the most hilarious things to date that Grace has done is her attempts at jumping!  Hahahahahahahahaha

She hasn't ever made it off the ground, but that doesn't stop her from trying.

She'll usually try to get a running start and then she flings her body back,  but to no avail.

Hahahaha....

Jeff and I encourage her to do it over and over,  cause it's so cute.  And even though she hasn't made it off the ground yet,  she smiles from ear to ear cause she knows she's trying,  ha.

She's also really funny with animal sounds.

I think her best one is a rooster. She'll say: "Kaw-ll-doo!"

Honestly I can't remember teaching her that one. I know I must have demonstrated it enough for her to catch on,  but one day she just said it and I was like where did that come from?!

She does that with words a ton. I guess she listens and observes me A LOT more than I thought!  And believe me, I already thought she did that a lot.

Her second favorite animal sound of mine is her cat noise. She hisses instead of meows, hahaha. I'll even try to correct her with a meow, but she'll just smile and hiss. I guess she's heard that from my mom's cats too much,  she knows that's their true sound!

Something that I think is really cute that she does is how she greets Jeff when he gets home from work.

She LOVES when he gets home.  She'll run to the door and wait patiently with her arms up for him to put his stuff down. Then he'll pick her up and she gives him the biggest hug followed by a kiss on the lips every time.

He gets so many kisses from her!  Without fail she'll always kiss him no matter what.  I'll ask her for kisses randomly and it's about 50/50. Sometimes she will,  sometimes she'll say no and turn away. With Daddy its a kiss whenever he wants and many times whether he wants one or not!

She's getting so big and learning new things all the time.  Most of the time I have to remind myself that she's not a baby anymore.  She's so grown up!

Christmas 2015

I already posted a little bit about Christmas with my quiet book post,  but I figured I'd add a little more about some other things we did during the holidays! 

We spent lots of time with family,  and got  EXTREMELY spoiled, by all three of our families! Grace got so many fun,  new toys, I think we officially need a toy/playroom!  

(Jeff,  buy me a house)

It was so much fun seeing Grace love Christmas! 

She loved the decorations (partly because we had so many nativity sets out that she could use her favorite word all the time: "Jesus!"). She loved the lights and Santa too!  

You would never know she loves Santa from the pictures we got, but she did! Any book or song about him she'd freak out in excitement! She got really good at saying "Anta!" And would point him out in pictures or when we saw him in public places.  She LOVED him from afar.  

And then we tried to make her sit on his lap......

Oh well. Hahaha

After Jeff graduated we went on a little stay cation to Salt Lake to do a bunch of fun traditions.  

Most of those things included seeing all the Christmas lights in downtown,  but we also went to zoo lights for the first time too! 

It was fun being together as a family and just hanging out with no responsibilities or places we had to be.  

City Creek! 

Temple Square!  

Jeff got Grace a Minnie Mouse at City Creek and she still loves it and plays with it everyday.  She's so cute with dolls and stuffed animals.  :)

Zoo lights! 

This face cracks me up,  cause it's a total Grace face. If you knew her you'd know what I mean.  She always is thinking of something mischievous or silly! I took this during our break when Jeff got to be home with us for 2 whole weeks!

Christmas morning this year was the best!  Grace loved opening presents!  There is something so magical about seeing Christmas through a child's eyes.

Jeff's Graduation!

Jeff graduated with his Masters degree in Accounting a couple weeks ago!  It feels soooooooo nice to be done with school.  We've been in school our whole marriage,  so to be completely done is awesome. 

Jeff is amazing how he was able to finish his degree while working full time.  I never would have been able to do that. I wouldn't have been able to handle the stress and amount of work he went through.  

His graduation day meant so much to us,  cause he sacrificed pretty much everything to do what he did.  Sleep,  a regular schedule, meals with family (and lots of times food period!), hobbies, and free time to do things he enjoys. 

And he did that for several years!  

He's my hero. 

Gracie Goo decided to wear purple with mommy to show our Weber pride! 

We went to two different graduations that day.  The first was only for the Masters students in the business school.  That includes Masters of Accounting,  Taxation,  and Business Administration.  They had a cool hooding ceremony for them,  which was nice,  because there were only about 30 students,  so it was a lot more personal.  

I really liked what one of the professors said to them at that ceremony,  that with a Masters degree their opportunities are endless.  And that because they put in the hard work,  they are going to have really bright futures. 

I really appreciated that,  because it's true!  Having a Masters degree is a tremendous accomplishment.  And having one in Accounting makes Jeff extremely marketable and creditable.  

The second graduation ceremony was at the Dee Events Center and was with the entire university.  

Oh my goodness,  so many names!  Jeff ended up wishing we hadn't gone to that one,  cause it was long and boring,  haha. But,  hey, you only graduate once, right?  

Another thing we are extremely grateful for is that Grace is only a year and a half old.  

She obviously knows that Daddy comes and goes to work and what not,  but she's really not old enough to be asking for him and be sad that he's never home.  

We are so glad that he could graduate before she got any older.  

She loves having Jeff around,  and I know it's a huge blessing that she was so little while he finished school. 

Now today,  Jeff has started his new job and is officially starting his career!  That makes me feel kind of grown up. 

I feel like we have real world responsibilities now. 

(Jk we always have)

I'm so grateful that I can call Jeff my husband.  He is remarkable in so many ways! I love him!