Let it Snow!!! Lots of it!!!



Looking at all the snow


This is how we want her to eat her yogurt...

This is how she wants to :)

Annie and Gracie at Thanksgiving

Great Grandma reading to Gracie
I can't believe it has already been over a month since I posted anything. I also can't believe that Christmas is practically here!!! We had a very good Thanksgiving down at the Lake and also got to spend time with Nick's mom. Gracie even got to ride horses, thanks to the nice weather. Too bad that did not last much longer.
The weekend after that, Gracie stayed with her Gramma for a night. Nick had a wrestling tournament and I spent the day and evening shopping with some friends. We also had the ISU vs Iowa wrestling meet that weekend. That was fun, but disappointing, as ISU lost. Ballard. however, is doing very well again this year. Not quite as solid as last year, but they should do pretty well if everyone stays healthy.
We got lots of snow the next week and Nick and I both took a day off from work to shop. There were very few people out because of the snow. Ballard also was closed for two days, so I only had a two day work week. Then we had a dual tournament to go to at Oskaloosa, which is conveniently very close to Nick's mom's. So we stopped there afterward to have dinner. This past weekend was Nick's brother, Josh's, graduation from Law Enforcement Academy. YAY!!! Nick went to that during the day and we drove to Josh's in the evening to help him celebrate. Saturday was another wrestling tournament at Waukee, which Ballard won. We had to pack yesterday to get our luggage on the trucks. We are heading for Arizona in less than a week!!! I am so excited!!! Can't wait for warm weather.
Gracie is doing fantastic. She has started to say "Bye" when she is leaving or someone else is leaving. She loves playing "ring around the rosie" and making all of her animal sounds. She finally has enough patience to let us read a whole book without stopping. She can scrub herself in the bathtub and is getting really good at splashing water all over. She is starting to be able to feed herself, but as you can see in the pictures, still needs a little assistance. She kind of knows what Santa is. She has a stuffed Santa and knows what his name is. She washes her hands all the time at daycare. They have a child size sink with a soap dispenser next to it for the kids to access. I think they have to watch her pretty carefully with that. She comes home from daycare with raw hands, but at least she is clean. :)
This week, my parents will be in Iowa, and are staying with us for a few days. Then we will head to Nick's mom's for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. There is supposed to be some bad weather, but we'll hope for the best. We are hoping to see Annie and Chad sometime before we leave, as well. Our plane leaves at 3pm Sunday and I am counting down!




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