Happiness is...

(Make sure to turn your sound on!)

Grace's message to her cousin Josh...

Wish we were there! Have a great 4th birthday. :)

(we picked orange paper just for you, bud!)

In the year 2000...

I put together a time capsule to be opened in January 2010. I did this project with my achievement days group way back when, and I actually remembered all this time a couple of things I put in it! It was fun to finally look over everything and be reminded of how ridiculous and cheezy I was back then. Ryan and I opened it up together today and had a good laugh!

In the box was a letter with my Testimony. It was sweet to read how I felt about my Savior and the Gospel (don't worry, I still knew it was true back then too). :) I also mentioned in my Testimony how much I loved my family... Did my parents and siblings know I loved them when I was a hormonal, bratty, ridiculous pre-teen girl? Oh, and as a little shout out to my older sister, Lindsey, I wrote in another letter that one of my favorite things to do was hang out with my sister. :)

I also wrote down some things I expected to have happen by 2010. Some of them were:

-less pollution (ha - maybe someday)

-everyone using solar power (smart, but too expensive for everyone to use)

-peace in the world and among friends/family

-still be a member of the church

-exact words "In 10 years I'll probably either be married, on a mission, in college, or thinking about marriage. Jamie, I hope you chose or choose wisely!" (I definitely did choose well among all those things - but I know I never would have believed it if someone had told me I would be married for 3 1/2 years AND have a baby by 2010)

Also in the capsule was a picture I drew of "my future cabin/home"... which Ryan got so excited about. If you know him, you know he's obsessed with the idea of us living on a ranch in a "small town" setting... and I keep saying "no thank you". So the fact that I had drawn this picture (below), is pretty funny. He thinks it proves that I really DO want to share his dream of a ranch type of home.

When Ryan saw this picture he got all happy and said, "SEE! Look at all that land you want. Even a HORSE!! Now we have to live in a small town." (can you see the butt/back legs of a horse on the right side? I'm pretty sure I only drew that part of the horse because I couldn't draw the rest of it) But I still maintain that I'd rather have a cabin we visit sometimes than a ranch house we live in.

Here is an outline of myself at age 13 (about 4 ft 10 inches). It's kind of scary-looking. But anyway, I laid down on it and I was surprised at how much longer my arms are now.

I included some other random things in the box such as newspaper clippings of random stories, comic strips, and newspaper cut-out collages. One of them showed a few pictures of Will Smith with my comments saying he was my dream date. haha. I do still think he's pretty cute. ;) There was also a cut-out from the movie section showing that Toy Story 2 had just come out, and then these were the movies playing at the dollar theatre: Double Jeopardy, Pokemon, Drive Me Crazy (my older brother, Ben, was an extra in that movie), Star Wars: Episode 1, and Superstar.

The last item to mention is the tape I made. I know I do some talking on it, so it'll be really fun to listen to. Why haven't I listened to it yet? Ryan and I don't own a cassette player. We have a CD/ipod player in the house, and a CD player in the car... but nothing to play a tape on! How sad is that.

Overall, it was fun to look through the time capsule. We really did have some good laughs at how funny I was back then. I will admit (and my family already knows this) that I was quite the goody-two-shoes back then. I am a little disappointed that there wasn't more in it... I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but when I was done I felt like "Is that it?" But hey, that's what journals are for! I can always pull my old journals out anytime. :)

To end, here are a couple recent photos of Gracie. Her onesie has her name on it (thanks to my cute cousin, Dar) and it's so cute on her.

Isn't she cute in the Bumpo chair?! Thanks, Melanie, for letting us borrow it. She seems to like it. And of course her adorable newborn size shoes which are still too big for her and won't stay on. But I love that she's little, so it's alright.

Get excited...

This is gonna be good!

Full post to come...

Two Months!

Our petite baby girl is 2 months old now! I say "petite" because, well... Grace is still little for a 2 month old. But she's doing great and the doctor is impressed with her progress. :) Dr. Carrie was also very happy to see how bright-eyed and talkative Grace was during her check-up today. She says it shows good signs of Grace's intelligence. That makes a mama happy.

At 2 months old, Gracie...

- weighs 8 1/2 pounds, yay! (just under the 5th percentile)

- is 21 inches long (a little below what the doctor wanted to see)

- is wearing a lot more 0-3 month clothes finally

- has stayed healthy since coming home from the hospital! (knock on wood) Thank you to all those who have understood our situation and stayed away while you were sick. It's paid off!

- is rolling over from tummy to back

- talks a lot! She loves it when people talk to her.

- follows us around the room with her eyes. When I leave the room and then walk back in, her eyes will still be trained to the doorway because she knew that's the direction I went.

- loves to hold on tight to my shirt (or bra...) while she's nursing.

- absolutely loves her binkie

- only cried for about 10 minutes after getting two shots today. Strong girl!

- still eats every 3 hours during the day (dr's orders) and only wakes up once at night to eat (3:30am)

- wakes up the moment we walk in the door after an hour walk in the stroller

We're so glad that everything is going well with Grace and that she's gaining weight well. It's been an issue since she was born so it's a HUGE sigh of relief for us at this point... especially me. I think it's easy for any breast-feeding mom to blame herself if her baby isn't growing well. It's amazing how guilt-ridden we become once we're parents...

Here are a couple pictures from last night as we spent some time together as a family. Grace enjoys her new play-mat sometimes... if she's in a good mood... and seemed to like it even more when Ryan and I were down on the floor and playing along with her.

On mornings when Ryan is still home around 8 am (when Grace gets up for the day), he'll bring Grace in to the bedroom for me and we'll all hang out there for a little bit. Those times are special for me. It's amazing the bonding that occurs when we're not distracted by TV, computers, or studying and we can spend some fun moments together. I'm grateful for those times as they are few and far between these days.

Proof

Grace turned two months old today and this is her new trick...

10 to go

I had my baby almost 9 weeks ago... and I lost almost all of my pregnancy weight by pretty much doing nothing except nursing.

And then along came Christmas.

So at this point, I need to lose about 10 pounds (depending on what scale I look at) to be just below my pre-pregnancy weight. I really want to get back to my normal size again. I want all my clothes to fit right, especially my absolute favorite (expensive) pair of jeans.

So if I want to achieve that goal so badly, why oh why am I sitting here eating christmas candy right now?!?! There is just TOO MUCH yummy chocolate in this house at the moment and it calls to me!

Anyway, as far as working out, I started going on long/fast walks in the mornings with Grace in the stroller and WOW am I sore already. Plus I don't have time to snack during the day because there's always something else that needs to get done. In fact, that's been a huge surprise for me as I've become a "stay at home mom". I figured I'd eat all the time because I'd be home where all the food is. But I really don't! Whenever I do have a moment to myself, I definitely don't want to spend it standing up in the kitchen making a snack where there's already a mess from breakfast... or possibly from dinner the night before. :(

In other news... Ryan started school again on monday and loves being back to the routine. He has a really hard time during the breaks when there is no schedule. He likes to feel productive (opposites attract, I guess). Next week he starts learning to do the vaginal and rectal exams... on an actual person... yuck. I have to admit I've been dreading this part of his education because I think it's weird. Yuck!... I'm sorry, call me immature, but it's weird! But hey, someone's gotta do it.

Now for your viewing pleasure, I just had to show more cute photos of Gracie's smiles. They just get cuter and cuter. (and NO, she isn't smiling because of gas - I get annoyed when people tell me that. She's just happy!)

nobody can make her smile like daddy. :)

Smiles (7 weeks old)

It's sooooooo nice to see something other than the "concerned look" that Grace almost always has on her face or the whiny cry she has. She's been talking and smiling a little more each day - and she mostly does it for Ryan. I'm so excited for her to be laughing and smiling everyday!

Blessing Day

Ryan blessed Grace on sunday night. It was a very special experience for us - one that we've both been looking forward to for a long time. It was also a special night for a couple of other reasons...

Grace wore my blessing dress which my mom had saved for me.

A photo of me on my blessing day.
The other reason it was a special night is because my sister and brother-in-law blessed their baby, Layla, as well. Here are the two pretty girls in their moms' original blessing dresses.
Layla Hope. Love her!
Ben, Amanda, and the 5 cousins. Yes... 5! Owen Lee Goates will join us in a few more months!
Lindsey & Layla, my mom, Me & Grace
I'm so grateful for my husband who was able to bless our baby girl. He is a wonderful daddy and husband, and I feel so lucky to have the Priesthood in our home. We also have the best brothers, dads, and grandpas who were able to stand in the circle together. Even though Grace slept through it (thank heavens...) I know she felt the love from all the people surrounding her.
4 Generations
What a great night for us and for Lindsey, Dan and Layla. :) Thank you for all those who supported us. We're very grateful that Grace is a part of our family!

The children that come into the world in this generation have incredible little spirits and will truly do amazing things. We, as parents, are lucky to have the chance to raise them. That is how Ryan and I feel everyday that we look into our little girl's eyes and we're reminded that she is ours for eternity.

Lots of Firsts

Christmas of '09 was our first christmas as a family! We had such a great day and were able to spend lots of time with both the Turners and the Goates. The night leading up to Christmas day wasn't so great... Grace didn't want to sleep. But I guess we'll have many years of that to come with her being too excited for Santa to come. ;)

We really enjoyed talking to my little brother who is serving his mission in Argentina, and I admit I was a bit sad after saying goodbye again. :( He still hadn't received our letter we sent which has pictures of his new niece and that also made me a little sad too. You just never know with international mail I guess! Hopefully he'll get it soon.

Ryan's parents always give the grandkids one "big" gift and this year they didn't disappoint! They gave each of Grace's cousins a big stuffed jungle animal (oh yeah, and a dinosaur) that they can actually sit on. The animals have steel frames inside that can hold up to 160 pounds. Neat huh!
Grace experienced snow for the very first time - and she definitely didn't love it. Remember, she's a little sun-baby. Her little fleece snow suit was much too big for her, but look how adorable! I couldn't resist the photo op.
My parents took a trip to New York the week before and got stuck there a couple extra days during the horrible snow storm. During the extra days stuck inside the hotel room, they made up a couple of fun games to play in order to hand out their gifts to us. It was a lot of fun! Unfortunately my team lost at the trivia questions, but we all enjoyed fighting over silly prizes like sticky notes, milk duds and a deck of cards. Great fun!
Ryan and I gave Gracie her first doll. Merry Christmas, baby girl!
It's tradition for my family to eat lunch at Eat-A-Burger whenever we can. I think our big group helps to keep them in business.
Jack and Josh were trying to keep themselves entertained. I love this picture... Josh is making his little brother spin him around on the seat.

Lots and lots and lots of Rock Band. Dan, Ben, Ryan and Jason showed off their 'skeelz'.