All good things must come to an end

This is my last week on maternity leave. I am very sad to leave my little Gracie. I know she will be fine, but it won't be the same as having me there. I go back on 12/1. A part of me is excited to go back. I have missed SOME parts of my job and my customers! I've seen a few of them here and there and they have made me feel missed. I going to go back full time and may cut back to four days a week. We will see. It is just going to take some time to get use to the routine again. I hope I can do a good job balancing EVERYTHING.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...ALMOST!

Christmas is my FAVORITE holiday. I am SO excited for this year and all the new traditions we will start as a family of three. I know Thanksgiving comes first, but I just couldn't help myself, so I started decorating my house for Christmas. It looks AMAZING=) As I was decorating last week, Gracie fell in love with the Christmas tree. She just stared at it for a long time. I am so glad we both share a love for Christmas!!! Another one of my favorite things this time of the year is.... The GRINCH! I LOVE the Grinch. I have since I was a little girl. I have a few Grinch decorations that I put out and decided it was time for Gracie Lou to meet the Grinch. ( I have called Grace, Gracie Lou from the day she was born. I don't know why, I just have. Its now stuck and that's one of her nick names. Maybe it came from my love of the Grinch!) Anyways, I introduced Gracie Lou to the Grinch and it was instant LOVE!! She is my child=) She even smiled when she heard him sing "You're a mean one Mr. Grinch". Here are a few photos of her with the Grinch.

Guess who slept through the night in her own bed?

Little Gracie! That's right she slept for over 8 hours in her own bed. She has been sleeping in her own bed for a little over a month, but she usually wakes up one or two times and then sleeps in her bassinet. My wonderful friend, Kelly told me about a "dream feed" where you feed them while they are still sleeping. It really worked help her to only wake up once during the night, but you can't do that forever. You have to wean them off. So I decided to not feed her around 11pm and see what happens. I was SO worried I would be up twice that night, but I wasn't. She woke up around 5:30am. I couldn't believe it! I was SO excited. I went into her room and was greeted with smiles. I hope this continues. I sure LOVE my sleep.

New Photos

Last week was REALLY cold! Now we are back into the 80's! Anyways, here are a few photos of Gracie in warm clothes. She would get SO cold during the night. One night, we turned the heat on and she still needed a hat and mittens:)

Halloween

Grace's first Halloween was a day full of fun! We spent the first part of the day with Blake's parents. Grace wore her "First Halloween" outfit and we carved pumpkins. Grandma Kristie even carved a pumpkin for little miss Grace. Then we got ready for Trick or Treating (she really didn't go trick or treating). Grace was a Ladybug. She was SO cute. I was surprised how well she did in her costume. She loved it until I put the wings on her. Blake insisted that I keep them on, but she was so mad. I quickly snapped a few pictures and then took the wings off. We spent the evening at my parent's house where we handed out candy and took more pics of little Gracie. She was SO tired once the night was over. Check out the pic with her cute ladybug jammies!!! Thanks Aunt Courtney for the CUTE PJ's. Here are some pics of Gracie's first Halloween!! Enjoy:)

Happy Halloween

Little LadyBug

Angry LadyBug

Gracie's Pumpkin

Ready to Trick or Treat

Little Lady

Family Photo

Tired Ladybug

She LOVES her Bumbo!

Grace has started to get restless with her boppy and swing. She use to LOVE to be in them. Now, she is only content for about 5 minutes and wants something else very quickly. I was given a Bumbo chair as a shower gift from my friend, Kelly. I know its not for babies until they are a little older, but I was out of options. So we tried it and she LOVES it! She likes to sit and look around at everything that is going on. I hope this keeps her happy for awhile!

Smiles

This past Friday, Gracie smiled for the first time at both Blake and I. We were SO excited. Blake ran to get the camera and of course she stopped smiling. We did manage to get a few photos a little later that night. I can't wait for her to start smiling more and more! Enjoy the pics:)

Growing Gracie

Grace has finally grown out of her newborn clothes and diapers!!! I am very excited. She has so many cute outfits that are 0-3 months. And we have baskets full of size one diapers. Here are a couple pics of her in one of her new outfits. She is SO cute. I LOVE the kitty on her butt:)

A new thing

So it seems like everyone these days has a blog. At first I thought it was just one more thing for me to do, but now I have had a change of heart:) Now that I am a mom, I think it will be a great way to document everything that happens in Grace's life as she grows up. Well, maybe not everything, but as many things as I can post. So here it goes...

Play Time

Grace has been awake a lot more lately!!! She's is so much fun. She use to chill in her boppy, but now she gets bored very quickly. We decided to pull out a "play gym" from her Aunt Cindy. She seemed to enjoy it and after 30 mins she was ready for her nap!