Getting Crafty and Making Friends

I wanted and needed to make something to hold all of Grace's hair clips. I checked on Etsy and found some I liked and realized I could make it myself!!! Unfortunately I couldn't get the picture turned around though :( It was so easy and is working great at keeping her bows under control:)



Through our adoption agency, we met a couple who adopted a little boy about 8 months before us and they only live 45 minutes away! We have gotten together a couple times and it is so nice to have someone near that has lived this journey also. Andrew is a such a cutie!!! He is also from the same baby home as Grace! I didn't take any pictures but this one (I know, shame on me). Here they are finally winding down and watching Diego!

Moon Sand

Again, I stole this idea from the blog... Play at Home Mom - playathomemom3.blogspot.com (Horrible at adding links)

Easy, inexpensive and messy! I'm lucky to have a sunroom that I can just leave messy things there and shut the door until I get around to cleaning it up!

Grace enjoyed playing in it. She isn't crazy about her hands getting messy but loves messy feet!

The Rest of December 2011

I am so behind on blogging. It really it becoming a burden and I think I may be wrapping it up soon. My thoughts are that I will keep going until our 2nd Family Day, then I will print out the blog and just post pictures on facebook (so much easier to download). I really need to do a post catching up with Grace developmentally. This post is unorganized and probably going to have lots of typos. I just don't care tonight. Just need to get it done :)

December was busy and a lot of fun! Grace really enjoyed the holidays and handled all the commotion pretty good. She had to miss naps several times and then that coupled with a noisy party proved to be a little overstimulating for her. Grace really got into the presents, Jimmy our Elf, the songs and just talking about Christmas Eve. One day before her nap, I read Twas the NIght Before Christmas. Big mistake. Poor kid couldn't grasp that it really wasn't. As she went to sleep, she kept saying she heard Santa. When she woke up, she said, "Merry Christmas" and then started crying that there was "no presents". Very cute, but sad.



Grace wanted NOTHING to do with Santa at Brad's work party. She literally crawled and scrambled through the crowd of kids on the floor to get away when he called her name. This water fountain ended up being more fun than the man with presents!



My grandmother and dad. Nanny is 95 years young!




Jimmy before he headed back to the North Pole.



Someone needed a little rest between presents.





Long Christmas Day. Grace and Pop-pop chillin' together

January 2012

Grace went to her first Princess birthday party. She went as Rapunzel and really enjoyed herself. She especially loved the wand she got to bring home!


I got this idea off of a blog (which I found from another blog). I'm horrible at adding links!
Anyway, these are water beads. I had a pack laying around that my mom gave me to use in a vase. Never did that, but found another use. They feel so cool and are great for kids that need a lot of sensory play. I also found more of them at AC Moore for $1.99. Grace loves to scoop them and play ice cream parlor :) All you do is dump them in a bowl of water, wait about 4-6 hours and you have these fun, non-toxic squishy balls. They even bounce. We found that out fast and I was forever chasing down little blue water beads.