memorial day weekend and such...

We had a fun filled memorial day weekend. The weather is already hot, hot, hot! My mom flew in on wednesday and stayed for the weekend. we went to the shark reef at mandalay bay, let's just say if it wasn't for the locals discount I wouldn't go. On Monday we took gracie to mission hills park. They have a huge splash pad... and yes I was the only mommy that made her child wear her tevas with her bathing suit!!! I don't trust the ground there :) On another note, gracie is growing so quickly. Weighing in at 30lbs, her pediatrician says shes the average size of a 3 year old. She knows tons of animal sounds, including owl and sheep and loves to drink out of a straw. She also enjoys throwing things at you and saying "uh-oh". But that's a whole other blog entry.

Silverton Aquarium

I have totally been neglecting the blog lately. I've been a little busy learning how to balance being a mommy and working. On top of that I lost the cord to attach my camera to the computer... luckily I found it in the backseat of the car so now I can post some new pics.

Last Saturday we went to the aquarium at the silverton hotel & casino. Everything in vegas that you would want to take your kids to is either in a casino or attached to a casino. Anyways.... the cool thing about this aquarium is that they have these chicks that get in the water every 15minutes who are dressed like mermaids. They swim around all mermaid like and put on a little show. Could you imagine putting that on your resume???

halloween weekend & gracie's birthday

We woke up the morning of halloween in our halloween pajamas ready for all the fun we were about to have.

After a long morning of grocery shopping for gracie's birthday party that was scheduled for the following afternoon, we went to grammy's work to show off our costume!

After everyone got home we carved pumpkins and ate pizza for dinner. This is our pumpkin family.

This was gracie's pumpkin, they both have the same teeth!

I wanted to get a quick pic with my little bee girl!

Papa and gracie trick or treating..... at grammy and grandpa's house!

At auntie kenzie's parents house

"Put it in my bag mommy!"

candy!

Brandon will be mad at me for adding this to the blog...

We were all very sleepy. It was time to get a little sleep before the big party the next day!

I told my mom what I wanted on the cake and she made it happen. The cake was chocolate and the pumpkins were carrot. My camera broke during the party so I'm waiting on people to send me their pics of her eating one of the pumpkins. She liked it at the time, but ended up throwing it up later.

Cake table

I made plain and vegetable with meat chili. There were different kinds of chili toppings and breads. We had chili because it's a family tradition to have chili on halloween!

On wednesday it was Gracie's birthday we celebrated by going to the Jungle. It's an indoor place with lots of tubes and balls and nets to climb on. You have to be 1 to go there so we thought it would be a good way to celebrate... kind of like buying smokes on your 18th birthday. LOL!!! We started her off in the toddler area but she seemed kind of bored , so we tried out the "big kid" area and she loved it!!! Her climbing amazed both of us, she would crawl behind me in the tunnels, laughing and screaming with excitement. She must have really got a taste of adventure yesterday because this morning she climbed up onto the back of the couch using brandon as a ladder! Brandon and I should have taken advantage of the knee pads they offer for adults. I'm hurting today!

Escaping the balls can be difficult!

Mommy and Gracie at the Jungle.

When we got home we opened a couple more presents. Grammy and Grandpa got her a little people house to go with the little people farm that Auntie Jen and Travis got her.

As usual she was most interested in the cards.

Birthday kisses from Charlotte!!

Wednesday at the Pumpkin Patch

Today Brandon and I took Gracie to the clayton valley pumpkin farm. Brandon is off on tuesdays and wednesdays we figured we would take her during the week in the morning when there would be fewer people. As brandon puts it there were a "gang of folks" there, he was asked if he was part of Stacey's playgroup when we got out of the car. LOL! Gracie was really into the hay... it's new to her. And she mostly sat and pet the pumpkins!!

Gracie and Mommy!

More Gracie amongst the pumpkins

how tall this fall???

It was hard to feel festive in 75 degree weather...

I think this picture is precious...

duck, duck, goose.

On Saturday Brandon and I took Gracie to feed
the ducks in the pond behind Pixie Playland in concord. My grandparents used to take me there regularly and I probably haven't seen it in 20 years. It was fun to go back and see if it was how I remember it, and it was.




Brandon thought the family in the right hand corner of this picture was "fearless" because of how close they got to the geese. LOL!

Papa & Gracelyn

a swingin' good time

My parents and I took Gracie to the park to do some swinging. I wasn't at all surprised that she loved it, she's quiet the daredevil!

Gracie and Grammy

Viva Las Vegas....

We just got back from Vegas.... I had my camera but for some reason didn't take any pictures. We went to check on our house. The lawn is completely dead. I find it ironic that it's the first time we've ever hired a landscaper and the yard has never looked so horrible. It's partially due to our sprinkler system broke so Brandon spent the two days we were there re-plumbing it or something I'm not too0 sure what he did but the sprinklers are working better than ever. Hopefully the lawn will start to grow back. Gracie and I had some guests to keep us company while Brandon was busy making repairs. Tuesday my friend Jennifer came over with her son, Rio,who is 5 weeks older than Gracie. We like to get the kids together when we visit. On Wednesday the family had lunch with Auntie Kenz so we could give her a birthday present and visit. All in all it was a nice little trip, aside from the total 18 hours we spent in the car!

a day at the zoo...

On wednesday we took Gracie to the Oakland zoo. This was her second trip to the zoo . When she was 4 months we took her to the San Francisco one. On that trip the polar bears were all the rage.

This time it was the Meerkats!

So cute in her little sun hat!

We had to sit on the frog for a pic. I'm not sure why brandon thought he would be small enough to hide behind her! LOL!

Gracie and Papa. We call Brandon papa, it's old school and that's the way we kick it!

I think I'm missing my calling. Wildlife Photographer???