Happy Birthday Gracie!!!

Gracie at Courtney's for Annie's shower

Opening lots of presents!

Playing in her new toy box

Gracie's birthday cake

She really enjoyed eating it.

Wow! One year old already! I can't believe it. Gracie's birthday was a success and I am so glad that everyone was able to come. Gracie didn't really know what was going on, but she had a great time. We had her birthday party at a local park in Huxley and almost 30 of our friends and family came to join us. Gracie got to play with her cousins at the playground and run around all afternoon. She opened lots of new toys and clothes. Well, kind of. She wasn't really interested in opening the presents except to get ahold of the paper to eat it. She loved the birthday cake, though. We let her have the top layer all to herself and she destroyed it. It was pretty funny to watch.

Earlier in the day, we went to a bridal shower for my sister. Gracie attended, but again, wasn't all that interested in the shower. She ran around out at Courtney's and loved playing with her dogs. Annie's wedding is just over two weeks away and we're getting pretty excited for the big day!

PrairieFest was also this weekend. I did the 10k race and got second in my age group. Then we took Gracie to the pancake breakfast and parade. She didn't pay much attention to it except for the marching band and the fire trucks. Anything that made noise. I took her up to the dog show in the afternoon and she loved watching all of them and wanted to pet them. That didn't last very long, though because she kept running away from me.

Gracie has her one year check up this week and I'm guessing she has grown quite a bit from her previous check up. She really likes to read books right now and will read the same ones over and over again. Most of the time she will plop down in my lap for me to read to her. She can turn pages by herself and will sometimes sit by herself and "read" outloud. We can't really tell what she is saying, but I'm sure she knows. She is still saying dog and dad quite a bit, but has started to do more. She is saying mama more often and does an "uh-oh" sound that is pretty funny. When she is sitting in a rocking chair, she says something that sounds like "rock, rock, rock." But it doesn't come out quite right. Gracie can crawl up and down stairs pretty well now. She has also learned that she can open the cabinet doors in the kitchen.

She is doing better at daycare this week. It has been a little rough for her moving up to the next room. She is only getting one nap now, so she is usually pooped by the time she gets home. For the past week she has slept for an hour or so in the evening after dinner. We try to get her up by 6:30 so she will go back to bed between 8 and 9. This seems to be working for now. She is taking about 1 1/2 hour nap in the early afternoon at daycare, but will sleep for over two hours at home on the weekends for at least one of her naps. She fell asleep in her high chair while eating lunch on Saturday. I don't know how they keep her awake for so long at daycare.

I start my new job at Ballard in less than two weeks. I'm really looking forward to working at the school, having Holiday break, spring break, and summers off!!! It will be so much better to not have to drive everyday. Hopefully it will go well and I'll like it better than what I'm doing now. I also have another race that I'm running this coming weekend in Madrid. Maybe I can bring home another medal.

ISU's first football game is Thursday, so Nick has been busy getting ready for that, among the other events that have started with the new school year. I miss summer already, but it is nice to be busy again, as well.