Gracie is ONE!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Gracie!

I can't believe that we are celebrating Grace's first birthday today. The year has gone by so fast, and we are so thankful for a year of great memories, fun stories, and good health. Grace is such a joy, and we love to watch her grow each day. We celebrated as a family tonight by going out to dinner with just the four of us. We talked all about Gracie and the day she was born and how thankful we are that she is a part of our family. Joel has been singing happy birthday to her all day. She hasn't yet mastered walking, but she loves to cruise along the furniture, and when she's feeling especially brave...she'll take a step or two before she goes back to the trusty crawl. She's very good at finger foods, but as you can see...the spoon and fork have yet to be mastered. This was a fun dinner...
We love you, Gracie girl. We can't imagine life without you. Happy Birthday! JOEL-ISMS

Well...this is definitely a story for the baby book! Joel has been getting up early and coming into our room more often lately. A few days ago, I woke up and before I even opened my eyes, I knew that Joel had climbed up into our bed. I could hear him breathing and moving around waiting for me to get up. Without even opening my eyes, I said, "Good Morning, Joel. Did you sleep good?"

"Yeah," he responded.

"What are you doing in mommy's bed?"

"I'm putting sprinkles on you."
Still with my eyes closed and amused at his sweet toddler imagination I said, "Oh, yeah. What kind of sprinkles are you putting on me, bud?"
"Boogie sprinkles."
With that, I opened my eyes to see him picking his nose and crumbling his dry boogers all over me as I slept! I leapt out of bed and started shaking everything off as I tried to recover from being totally grossed out. Nice way to start a morning, right?
Joel thought it was pretty funny.
Also...Joel was introduced to Rice Crispies this week. He was amused by the characters on the box (whom he referred to as Crap, Snackle and Pop). Here he is listening to his breakfast. Very exciting stuff.