Three Little Words

Wednesday night Gretta said three little words that I have been waiting to hear. "I love you" It is so sweet!! She has been repeating almost everything we say lately. Her list of words is climbing fast at her 15 month check-up we were already at 30 +/- . And she has really taken off since then. Some other additions to her vocabulary are Elmo, Grandma "Mama"(just said it this evening!), Aubrey (our friend), basketball, cold, cool, where are you?, and Me (one we use often). So, just wanted to share the good news. I loved hearing "Mommy", but "I love you" tops the charts.

Working in the Kitchen

We are another step closer to completing our kitchen project. The guys worked really hard this weekend putting in our kitchen sink and counter tops. They look beautiful. Through the process of taking pictures of the kitchen being completed we also got some pretty cute pictures of Gretta helping in her own little way. These are a few of my favorites!

Christmas Pictures

I tried to take pictures of Gretta tonight in her Christmas dress for our Christmas cards. And it was not an easy task. She is all over the place. She would not stand still. I could hardly catch a smile. Finally I got some pictures that I thought I could put on our card so we called it a night. As I was loading them on the computer I thought it looked pretty cool running through all of the shots fast. So, you have my creation above! Enjoy!! Do you know what picture I will choose???

Christmas at the Indy Zoo

We got to have some fun this past weekend with an invitation from the Farnys. We went to the Indy Zoo to see the christmas lights. It was a little cold, but that just gave me an excuse to get some Hot Chocolate. Gretta seemed to enjoyed herself as well as Noah. It was Noah's first visit to the zoo so it was nice to be included in one his first adventures! :) We got some good photos which I have included.Hope everyone is doing well and getting to enjoy some of the Christmas festivities around you. We are having a pretty busy week this week. We had Aubrey over on Monday. We went to Indy on Tuesday. Wednesday we are going to Braxton & Mackenzie's Christmas Program as well as Christmas Shopping with our small group at church. Then Friday we have a Christmas gathering with friends. So, it will be a busy week, but lots of fun!

15 Month Check-up

Tuesday, December 1st Gretta had her 15 month check up and all is well. Finally, she weighs 20 lbs. so we can get the toddler car seat and she will be able face forward now. Yeah!! And she is 29 ½ inches tall. She seems to be ahead in her verbal skills she has over 30 words that she can say and at this age the Dr. likes to hear that they can say 5-6 words. She is even starting to put a couple words together like where going and what doing. So, I have a feeling at our home we won’t have much quite time anymore. When it is just Gretta and I or all three of us, she pretty much jabbers nonstop and you’ll hear some words that you know but a lot that you don’t. I find it interesting now though that I can ask her what did you say? And she can repeat it. Even the jabber is the same. So, it must mean something I just don’t know what it is. She is so much fun.

So, Gretta’s hair is growing and the other day I got pulled up in her first ponytail. It was so cute and I wanted to share the photo.

Thanksgiving

So, we had a great Thanksgiving. We went to my Mom & Dad’s and my sister Carrie and her family was there and we had a lot of fun. Gretta watched the Macy’s Parade and she really got excited about some of the balloons. Cally and her family were not with us this year they were actually at the Macy’s Parade which is awesome and I hope that we get to go one year.
Sunday we had Thanksgiving with the Welchs at Elijah’s Aunt Sherry’s. It was fun too. There are a lot kiddos running around which made it very entertaining. Gretta and I played with one of the cousins who has one of the best imaginations that I have seen. A lot of the family had not seen Gretta recently so it was nice that they got to play with her and be around her on Sunday. It was a really nice Thanksgiving. Lots to be thankful for.

And I can hardly wait for Christmas. We have gotten most of our Christmas shopping done. Our tree is up and decorations are almost complete. I will begin wrapping our presents very soon. I cannot wait to wake up with Gretta Christmas morning. I love the holidays!!

California Pictures

Ryan- This song was chose just for you! :) Enjoy!

No Pictures Yet!

Sorry, I have been trying to upload our picture/slideshow and it is not working. I have to go for now, but will try again tomorrow.

California Vacation

So, we have been back for two weeks now and I am just getting around to posting our pictures. It has been a crazy month with our trip to California and then Thanksgiving.
We had the best time. Gretta did awesome flying out and back. She enjoyed Sea World and the Zoo in San Diego and Elijah and I really liked the Sequoias and Santa Barbara. I actually loved everything about the trip. We got to see so much. PLUS, we got to hang with our really good friends Carrie & Ryan who we haven’t seen in a while. We will definitely go back. I would love to retire someday in Santa Barbara the beaches are beautiful and the whole environment is just fabulous I can’t even describe it. I have been told that there is a Mini Marathon or Marathon there so maybe I will look into that. Either way I would love to go back there and stay a couple days, week, maybe a month, ha, ha…
Elijah’s favorite thing was the Sequoias. This probably won’t surprise anyone since he is so outdoorsy (if that is even a word). We got some really nice pictures there. We got see a few bears when we were driving up the mountain which was really cool. I love seeing wild animals like that, as long as they can’t get to me.
I think one of Gretta’s favorite things were the two cats and dog she got to live with for 9 days. Carrie & Ryan have a dog Jellybean, a cat Big Boy and another cat Berkley (aka: Mullet).
Okay, so here is a summary of everything we did Day 1 we hung out around Bakersfield (where Carrie & Ryan live), had lunch with Ryan which was tons of fun!! ; Day 2 Sequoias loved it! Plus we stopped to see Ryan’s big project-Waste Water Treatment Plant, Carrie & I could hardly pull ourselves away; Day 3 Drove to San Diego and went to Sea World; Day 4 San Diego Zoo, got kind of lost it was such a big place. Good thing we had to engineers with us…ha, ha…; Day 5 Drove back to Bakersfield; Day 6 Santa Barbara, Heaven on Earth; Day 7 Carrie & Ryan had to go back to work so Elijah explored in Bakersfield ended up at the mall; Day 8 Carrie & Ryan @ work Elijah, Gretta and I drove up to a mountain town called Kernville. Lots of old western movies had been filmed there several with John Wayne. Was a beautiful drive. Day 9 ha, ha..probably not the best, but oddly enough it was the thing that I was looking forward to the most, Hollywood. What a disappointment. It was dirty and scary. I was terrified that someone was going to kidnap Gretta. BUT we got to eat at the California Pizza Kitchen which is my new favorite place to eat. YUM! That night we said goodbye to our SUPER friends, Carrie & Ryan and we stayed at a hotel near the airport so we were ready to fly out Sunday. Day 10 we entered a chaotic LA Airport and it took us hours to get to our gate which is crazy. But we arrived home safely and that is what matters most!
We had such a great time and we really appreciate everything Carrie & Ryan did to make it soooo much fun!!