Blog Changes

So, I have been making some changes to the blog since we're expanding our family. I will try my best to keep you up to date about the baby. We are all doing fairly well, Elijah and Gretta are great, I however have been pretty sick. This weekend it has started to be a lit bit better with the sickness, but now all the sudden I am getting tired all the time. It is so weird how different this pregnancy feels to me than Gretta. It is the same symptoms just in a totally different order and more extreme it feels to me. I don't know maybe I just forgot how bad I really felt the first 3 months of being pregnant. O well, only 3 weeks left!!! I hope.

Pumpkin Patch

Gretta & I went to the Pumpkin Patch to get our pumpkins to decorat. Sorry, I am so far behind on my pics. Anyway, it was lots of fun. Gretta enjoyed picking out her own pumpkins and carrying them all by herself. I heard several times, “I can do it Mom, I got this one.” We brought home 8 pumpkins. We painted them & lots of fun family time!!

I’m a Big Sister!

Most of you should know that Gretta is going to be a big sister. She doesn’t seem to remember or maybe she doesn’t care, ha, ha I don’t know. Anytime it is brought up she does seem to be happy and excited about it. Which I am aware that once the baby is actually here this will probably not always be the case, but so far so good.
We are expecting the new addition to our family in June. We are very excited and everything is going just as expected. I've been pretty sick, which is the same as Gretta. It seems worse this time around not sure why that is, but hopefully only 3 1/2 weeks left of that. Our first appointment is November 19th so we should be able to hear the heartbeat, which I am really excited for Gretta to hear that. My favorite moment so far with Gretta and the pregnancy has been when she first wanted to “talk” to the baby. She walks up to me and says so sweetly to my belly, “I’m the boss” and walks away just as happy as she could be. It was priceless! We will definitely keep everyone posted on the baby and Gretta.

Gretta’s Style

Gretta is really starting to develop her own opinion about her appearance, what shoes she wears, shirts, pajamas. She loves to wear hats, crocs, purses and the latest one….lipstick! She found a tube of lipstick in my purse the other week. I came in to the kitchen and she has pink all around her mouth. Since then she will ask for her “lips”. So, here are a few pics of Gretta and her style.

I love her curls!

State Fair

We made our annual trip to the Indiana State Fair. It was a beautiful day. Gretta enjoyed seeing all the animals, but did not however, enjoy meeting Alpha Pig(a character from a show that we watch on PBS). We had to bail at the last minute in line right before we got up to get our picture with him. She got a little scared, but continues to talk about him and how she got to see him. Crazy kid! We had the pleasure to go with Sara & Noah which made the experience even more fun. We love hanging out with the Farnys!!

Birthday Party

So, the birthday party was tons of fun! Most of our friends and family were there, but we were missing a few important people. Some we got to celebrate with later. I had lots of fun decorating and had lots of help thanks to Carrie & Mom. So, here are the pics as promised. My Mom made the cake and I decorated it, it turned out really well. It was so much fun, I love birthday parties!

Brookville Camping Trip 2010

So, for the last several years we’ve been going camping in Brookville, IN with Gretta’s Grandma & Grandpa Welch, Paps & Grami (Gretta’s Great Grandparents) Uncle Caleb and us. We have a lot of fun together. This year I tried a couple new recipes with the Dutch oven, both took longer than expected but turned out to be really delicious, if I do say so myself :p

WOW...it has been too long!

So, it has been too long since I've blogged about Gretta. We are all doing great. She is growing like a weed. She changes all the time. Her vocabulary is unbelievable to me. People ask me all the time what does she say, if you can say it she can say it and she probably will, so be careful :)

She knows the alphabet song and can count to 13. She definetly knows the colors pink, blue and brown. We are still working on the rest. When in doubt she picks pink. Such a girl!

We had the Toy Story Birthday Party, it was a blast! I will try to post some pictures. We went to the State Fair last week with Sara & Noah which was really fun too. We've been camping in Brookville which was more fun with Gretta this year.

She is such a joy to have and I love watching her personality develop more each day. I love it!! Well, I gotta go, but hope to write more later.

Toy Story Mania!!

Yeah!! Toy Story 3 came out this weekend. Awesome movie, loved it!! We took Gretta of course. It was her first movie theater experience and she did great. Her reactions were priceless.

We started the weekend on Thursday hanging out with our good friends at the Weigand’s (Aubrey’s house). We had a big Toy Story event to build up to the big movie premiere on Friday. We had Toy Story cereal & cookies. We ordered pizza from Pizza Planet!! And we had the green alien juice from Toy Story 1 movie. It was so much fun. PLUS we viewed both Toy Story 1 & 2 (kind of). It was tons of fun. Our friends Matthew & Kelli got each of the girls a Toy Story flashlight, Gretta’s is the character Bullseye, she loves him. We already had character dolls, Buzz, Woody, Jessie, Bullseye, and now a Bullseye flashlight.

We also now have Toy Story pj’s and 3 Toy Story T-shirts. I LOVE IT!! And I must admit I have went a little crazy with it, but in my defense these things are EVERYWHERE and she gets so excited when she sees them. I can’t resist! And she has more Toy Story coming for her birthday!! Her birthday theme, of course, is going to be Toy Story. I can’t wait! We had a great time at the movie and I would highly recommend everyone go see it!

The picture of Gretta above is after the movie, she is holding all of her Toy Story dolls. So, cute!!

To infinity & beyond!!

One More Thing!

Can't wait for the Toy Story 3 Movie coming out June 18, 2010!! We are going on Saturday, June 19th!! It will be Gretta's first Movie Theater experience. Can't wait! She is going to love it!!

Summer is HERE!!

We had a great weekend! We got to spend lots of time with friends and family. Gretta got to spend lots of time with her good friend Aubrey, which is always a good thing. She actually cried on our way home on Friday, because she didn't want to be away from her and the first thing she said Saturday morning, Sunday morning, and Monday morning was "Aubrey". So, it was a fun weekend.

Gretta also went on her first boat ride out on the Pontoon, she had her very FIRST boat ride on Friday on a little fishing boat with Joel, Daddy and Aubrey. She did really well. She loves the water. We have been playing in the sprinkler, the hose, the tub anything that can hold or spray water, she wants to do it.

She has really been changing. I think she has really changed this weekend. Last Monday, I didn't think she looked 2, she still seemed so little. But as of Saturday night, she started to look older to me, she looked 2!! I don't know what happened. And she talks all the time, if you say it she can say it! It is sooo CRAZY!

Below is a picture of Gretta coming in after running through the hose when I was watering the garden. She doesn't look very happy because she didn't want to come in. But it was getting late and the bugs were coming out. She was soaked!

Anyway, we are all doing great! Just wanted to bring you up to date!

Update

Okay so I need to apologize for missing the whole month of April. I knew it had been a while, but WOW a whole month, anywho here is what has been happening.

Easter - tons of fun this year loved hunting for the easter eggs that afternoon. We hid a few in the morning before church as well. Those not too excited seemed a little annoyed that I kept bothering her to go find another egg. Funny!! We got most of it on video. We can tease her with it later in life I am sure.

New York Trip- We went to visit Aunt Cally, Uncle Mark and the girls in NYC. Lots of fun!! Can't wait to go back. I am working on putting our pictures together from the trip. You should see them soon.

And of course wrapped up my training for my 3rd Mini Marathon 13.1 miles. Completed it with a personal best time!!

Gretta has been doing a lot more talking. Putting phrases together and just started asking "why?" occassionally.

We are only 3 months away from her 2nd birthday, the planning has already begun!!! So here are few pictures for you to enjoy!! I love that little girl so much!!!

My First Haircut

Today was a big day for Gretta. She got her haircut for the first time. She did great she sat up in the chair all by herself, there were no tears and afterwards she was so cute. Jennifer (our hairdresser) let her hold a mirror and look at herself and she brushed her hair back with her little hand and says “all done.” It was adorable. Fun little fact, Gretta’s hair was not growing evenly. Her left side was way longer than her right. Not sure why this happened, but hopefully now both sides will grow at the same rate. We kept the clippings and I will be putting those in a scrapbook when I get around to ever doing one of those for her.

Just for Fun

Gretta today

Gretta 1 year ago today

WOW I know. She has changed so much. It is is incredible to watch her change and grow.

Fun with Gretta!

Aubrey & Gretta the original Rock Band!! Sofa cushions make a great stage!! Just in case you can't tell Aubrey had to play all the insturments, but it worked out because Gretta just wanted to do a little singing, but mostl dancing! :)

Gretta feeding Elmo.

So, I don't have a lot to share. I was just downloading picutres off the camera from the past couple of weeks and some really cute pictures that I wanted to post. Gretta continues to expand her vocabulary. We had to take Morgan, one of our dogs, to the vet last week and that was a really exciting trip for Gretta and Morgan. The dog had something wrong with her eye (turns out it is pink eye) anyway when we went back to see Doc Gretta was suprisingly talkitivie to him make sure that he knew that Morgan was her doggie. And now if you mention the dogs she talks about eyes being hurt. It is crazy how much she remembers and picks up on.

In these pictures you will see her new pink princess tent this came from Mama & Papa Shannon. She loves it! It is one of her favorite spots to play and read in. I was not planning to leave it up, but I am not sure that it would go very well if I took it down. :)

We had a fun weekend visiting with friends and family. I am training again for the Indianapolis Mini Marathon and got to do my 7 mile run with Sara (we are planning to do the race together as well). It made the 7 miles go a lot faster with a friend. I am getting pretty excited as it is not that far away.

Well that is all I have to share for now. Can't remember if I shared before but Gretta had her 18 month check up almost 2 weeks ago and it went well. She is 22 lbs and 31 inches tall. Still on the small side, but ahead with her verbal skills. She has now had peanut butter!! Yeah!! She is doing great!! Enjoy the pictures!!

Just a few recent photos!

Taking our own pictures one of Gretta's favorite things. :)

Gretta in her hat that she likes to wear around the house.

Gretta and her friends at nap time.

Lots of Little Things

Okay so I have this typed and ready to post for 2 1/2 weeks but I have just not found the time to put it online. Anyway, I am going to have some picutures with it, but we are getting ready to leave! So, here is the info pictures will come later. :)

Gretta has a new stuffed animal friend that she has decided to add to herd of friends that we take with us. It is Bug. We have had bug for a while now, but for some reason Bug became pretty important to Gretta the last couple of weeks. So, now we have Doggie (who has been one of her favorites since her beginning), Baby, Elmo and now Bug. She likes to nap with all of them and we cannot just have one we must have all four.
Gretta also had her first sucker the other week. This seems like a very simple thing. However, she did not know how to eat a sucker. And now as I type this I think and how would she know how to eat a sucker. I showed her but it took her a while to get it. She wanted to just put it to her lips. It was cute and funny.
What else has happened….she just keeps talking. I have lost track of how many words she has too many to count. The new really big word of the week has been humongous. Thank you Sesame Street!!
Elijah’s birthday was this week so we have been working on singing Happy Birthday. She does the “to you” part and that is it but clearly it is the cutest part of the song. We worked on it the day of his birthday and when he got home Gretta decided she didn’t want to sing to Daddy we’d been doing that all day she wanted to sing to Mommy. Finally, we got to sing it to him a couple of different times. He loved it of course!! And we made him Birthday cards, which he really liked too.
Oh Yeah!! And we are now 18 months old. WOW! I suddenly feel a little sad. She is so wonderful. J

Snow Day

We have enjoyed the time we have had together this weekend. We were snowed in on today and tried to go out and play some in the snow, but Elijah and I thought it was too cold. So, we got all bundled up went out took some pictures and came back in. ha,ha… So, here are our pictures from our snow day!

Soaking up the Florida Sun

We had the opportunity the other week to go down to Florida and visit Elijah’s Grandma & Grandpa Seerley. We had a great time and really enjoyed getting to spend time with Paps & Grammy. Gretta warmed up to them after a couple of days or so. She started missing them in the Orlando Airport and actually kept point out people who she thought was Paps or Grammy. It was really cute. Gretta did great on the airplane going and coming. She is an excellent travel so far. We didn’t take very many pictures but here are the few we took.

Gretta & Aubrey

As most of you probably know Gretta has a good friend Aubrey. Aubrey gets to spend the day with us 2-3 times a week. We have really enjoyed being able to play and spend time with Aubrey. Gretta looks forward to Aubrey EVERYDAY even when she is not coming. She will ask several times for her and if she is not coming that day It is nice to see her have found such a friend at such a young age.
They play well together most of the time (both working through the whole sharing phase). I love watching them play together and sometiems they will start to giggle and they will just go on and on with it. It is the cutest thing. I have thought several times about trying to capture it on video but I’m afraid I will ruin the moment for them by getting the camera out. So here is a few pictures of Gretta and Aubrey. She is such a blessing to our family her and her parents!

SOOO Big

Gretta is getting so big so fast. She has developed an opinion. Well, I guess she has always had an opinion but never been able to communicate so well. Yesterday she voiced her new found opinion about the outfit she was going to wear down to her shoes and a headband. I was like what!!
I was on the phone today with someone and they asked “how is the baby doing?” I thought to myself baby, what baby?? We have a full blown toddler on our hands here. A baby doesn’t insist that she wear purple pants, or ask repeatedly to watch Buzz (Buzz Lightyear that is) in the movie Toy Story. And to top it all she has her own potty chair now and likes to “use it”. However, she has only actually gone potty on it twice, which is fabulous! I am not really pushing the issue but if she is interested in it I am all for it.
But she seems so little to me still. Or I guess I should probably say I still think of her as being a baby. Our friend Noah who is 9 months old now (I think, if I did the math right) is now crawling. Crawling!! I was blown away when I heard this I kept thinking Gretta was just crawling not that long ago. But then realized yeah, but she has been walking for 6 months now. It all happens entirely too fast. And I know everyone says that, and it is sooo true. It is ridiculous. I am also aware that I have had these ramblings before about her growing up so fast, but whatever!!
Okay, so I am working on some pictures and words about the reason Gretta has even taken an interest in the potty, Aubrey. She is our good friend and we watch a couple days during the week. And we LOVE her! Gretta talks about her EVERYDAY! And she is about 2 ½ almost 3 and she is working on potty training. So, I will be posting something soon about their adorable little friendship. Well that is all I have to chat about today. I have left quite a gap since my last post, but I am hoping to get back on track with a regular update. Have a good one!!