The Cincinnati Zoo

Hello! Hope you all enjoyed the last long-overdue blog entry. Exciting news- I actually have something else noteworthy to write about! Here we go!

Evan and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary last Friday (September 18) and to celebrate we took Grace to the Cincinnati Zoo! There's nothing better than taking a 3 year old to the zoo! It was her first time and she really loved it. We really had a wonderful day-

I'm allowed to be up and around in the mornings and am supposed to lay down in the afternoon and evenings...and I've been religious about it up until yesterday! Our plan was to be at the zoo when it opened (9:00am) and stay until 1:00pm (which is when I typically crawl in bed to lay down-and when Grace naps)- hoping to get out of the house, have lots of fun and still follow doctor's orders. We did a good job- left the zoo around 2:30pm. I have to say though, even though I'm up and around in the mornings here at home, I was surprised how winded and exhausted I was just slowly walking around the zoo- I loved being outside and craved the exercise! I'm paying for it a bit today but it was completely worth it! We had a perfectly beautiful day and really made the most of it!

Grace was hilarious because every time we saw really awesome animals (elephants, giraffes, zebras, etc.) all she really wanted to see were the snakes. I have no idea where this fascination of snakes came from but she's really in to them. You'll see at the bottom of this message that she even picked to buy a snake from the gift shop over everything else. We spent lots of time in the reptile house!

At the zoo- Grace also ate her very first ice cream cone. Thank goodness we brought an extra set of clothes because it was MESSY! She loved it and didn't mind getting sticky at all- so funny! After her ice cream treat- we took the train ride through the zoo. Grace loved going on the bridges. One of the bridges was over the lake so we had ducks on both sides- yippee! I got her to pump her arm up and down and say choo choo and we waved at all the people we passed.

After the train ride- we headed home and it didn't take 5 minutes for sleepy Grace to fall asleep. What a day!

One new thing that Grace is doing now is calling me mom (instead of Mommy) and Evan dad (instead of Daddy). It's really strange and we have no idea where she heard it. She sounds really grown up.

I put the extra pics at the bottom of this. I just realized too that if you want to see the pics larger, you can click on them. I had no idea!

We haven't completely dropped off the face of the earth...

Yes, I know it's been a long long time but everything has been really crazy. With the new pregnancy and surgery, not feeling well for several months, painting the nursery, etc this just hasn't been on my top list of things to do. Sorry! Will try to be better now.

Appears to me that I need to change the name of this blog- now since it's not just going to be Grace...hmmm, what to change it to? Time will tell-

So, new things happening... We are having a baby boy due Feb. 7th (will probably arrive between December 27th and

January 10th). Since I'm able to get up a bit now in the mornings, we've been really busy trying to get the nursery ready and going through all of Grace's old clothes to sell. Names have been put on the back burner- as has this blog (grin) b/c those are things I can do in bed. Yes, I'm laying in bed quite a bit now but I'm usually napping- or reading to Grace.

Grace is really excited about the baby and has asked some interesting questions. When we first told her that mommy had a baby in her tummy (about 10 weeks gestation) she thought about it for a minute and then asked, "How does the baby eat?" Very clever! She's still asking lots of questions and is constantly talking about the baby.

When we found out at 17 weeks that we were having boy, Grace said, "no I want a girl...it's a girl." She's since accepted the fact that the baby isn't going to be a little sister and is very excited to teach her new brother lots of things like puzzles and how to dance, etc etc.

Since my last post we haven't really done too many exciting blog worthy things. Grace had a wonderful 3rd birthday party. Her theme was Pinkalicious- after her favorite book and everything was pink! We played games like who has the longest and shortest straw, we fished over a homemade board for prizes (with me hiding behind it- so cute) and other easy games. We had a great turnout and had lots of fun.

We took a vacation to Charlevoix, MI (thank you Mimi and Poppy for a wonderful time). We went on boat rides (even had a picnic on the boat- yummy), took Grace fishing for her first time (yes, she caught lots of fish) and played at the beach and on the sengset. Grace did really well swimming in the pool this year too! Grace loved the plane rides and got to sit by the window on every flight!

Next we took Grace to the Barnum and Bailey circus downtown Lexington at Rupp. She had so much fun! Nothing better than taking a 3 year old to the circus. We still love living in Lexington- it's so nice to just have a 10 minute drive home from big events rather than having a 45 minute drive back to Muncie from Indy.

We expanded our back deck ourselves this last summer also. It's so nice to get the patio furniture out of the garage and use it...and we use it a lot. We love having breakfast out on the deck on weekend mornings and frequently spend time outside blowing bubbles and playing in the sandbox and pool. We love to have friends over for dinner also-

The two baby ultrsound pictures were takeen at 11 1/2 weeks gestation and the second at 19 weeks gestation. It's amazing how much is formed at just 11 1/2 weeks gestation- when the baby was only 1 1/2 inches long.

Enjoy the long overdue photos!

Disney on Ice...and Grace's first fear~

Isn't this the cutest picture? If Evan were in it, it would be perfect... there's a pretty good one of all three of us down below...but look at Grace- this is so cute! I couldn't help but put it at the top. What a happy little girl!
About a month ago, Grace got her first fear. She is absolutely terrified of shadows. I don't know how fears come about in young children but my goodness, she is scared to pieces. We've tried touching them on the walls around the house, we've tried jumping on the shadows on the floor and we've tried making shadow puppets with our hands on the walls but nothing seems to ease her fear that shadows are all around and are safe. I have 4 books on reserve at the library that I'm hoping to pick up early this week on shadows so hopefully she'll enjoy reading those.

We've been trying our best to have frequent get-togethers with our friends for dinner during the week. Grace and I met Megan and Owen last week for dinner. Megan's husband had plans and Evan has been working on the house so it worked out perfectly. We also had our friends Erik, Daniele and Dylan and Jen, Jeremy and Kate over to our house for dinner. After dinner they all climbed in the chair and started reading (all by themselves). Just before this picture was taken, Grace was reading Dylan and Kate the book Five Little Monkeys. Grace and her friends are too precious for words!

Last night we went to Rupp Arena (downtown Lexington) to see Disney on Ice with Owen, Dylan, Kate and their parents. Wow- was that awesome! Unfortunately Grace doesn't know any of the Disney characters but it didn't stop her from loving it! And we had great seats- what a production! Evan and I both decided that we need to buy her the disney soundtrack with songs from all of the different movies.

I have lots of pics from Disney on ice so I'll keep adding them while I talk about several other new things going on with Grace. Here's the other good pic of the three of us- awww...very cute!

Grace has started saying some really funny things. When I ask her if she's ready to do something (i.e. take a nap) she replies "not quite." Ha ha- so I have to tell her ok...one more minute. She also says "hmmm, that's wierd" and "that's amazing" often. The most funny of all of them is when Evan is upstairs working and she wants to talk to him...she goes over to the stairs and shouts up "Hey Ev" to get his attention. What a hoot-
Another big event that happened recently is that we put Grace back in pull-ups during the day. I potty trained her shortly after her 2nd birthday and for awhile she was doing really well. Several months ago she starting having "accidents" again and after trying every tip in the book (positive

reinforcement, negative reinforcement, sticker charts, candy, etc.)to get her back on track, we decided to see the pediatrician. The pediatrician told us that when you train kids so young (I didn't think 2 was too young considering I was trained at 18 months...but I guess times have changed), it's very common for them to lose interest later on. After the excitement wears off, it's no longer so much fun and such a priority. She also said that after kids master something like potty training, when they move on to master their next big skill, potty training is put on the side burner. It's a bummer to be back in pull-ups but a major relief to not have to do laundry every day and watch her for clues that she has to go potty day in and day out.

This last pic was taken after Disney on Ice (it was late) and poor Owen was so sleepy he didn't want to be in the pic so we just have the three. All of the little ones were so good throughout the entire performance- we are so lucky to have such great kiddos.

Hope you enjoyed this blog entry...until next time- Love us~

Evan's 40th Birthday Bash

2009 is a big year for Evan and I. Luckily, it's a big year for Evan before me (my 30th is in September) so I could throw a killer 40th surprise birthday party for him. The party was amazing and really couldn't be more perfect. We are so blessed to have such great families and friends. We had a huge turnout (I believe the final count was 53 people)! He was definitely surprised too! Just look at that face- he he. Brownie points for me for the entire year! I really hope everybody that attended had a good time! Thank you so much for coming to make this celebration great!

It's been awhile since I've written so I'll do my best to update you on all of the fun and exciting things happening on Sandersville Road.

We had a rough week in January after we were hit with an ice storm. We, fortunately, were not affected as severely as some in Kentucky. With our house being built in a newer subdivision, all of our electricity is underground- thankfully we never lost power. Also, since our house is new, we don't have any large trees- thank goodness. We do have friends who live on the other side of town that were out of power for 5 days- brrr.

Because of the severe weather, schools and daycares (along with some places of business were closed) so I had the pleasure of watching Dylan for several days and Owen for one (Grace's buddies). Dylan is with Grace in the laundry basket and Owen is the one in the snowman towel. He he. The girl at the table is Kate- Grace's new buddy. It is so much fun to watch them interact and play together. I think Grace learns so much from other kids- I can't wait until she starts preschool!

Which brings me to another topic...we found a preschool for Grace. It's a Montessori based preschool. The Montessori method is characterized by an emphasis on self-directed activity on the part of the child and clinical observation on the part of the teacher. She will be in a classroom of 3-5 year olds. I think she'll really like learning from the older children in the classroom- and I think they will learn a lot from her also. I like the idea that it's not a "structured" classroom, instead is a learn as you go and learn from doing hands on activities rather than sitting with paper and pen. She has enough structure here at home so I really think she will thrive! She will start in August and will go 2 days a week. We are also considering putting her in a beginners ballet class around that time. Grace here is showing off her big muscles...so big!

Back to the weather, just several weeks after the ice storm (aka earlier this week), we had a horrendous wind storm. I thought we'd be in the clear, considering we didn't have any large trees with broken dangling branches. Mother nature decided to still get us though...and took part of our siding off of our house. Boo hoo- Luckily, our homebuilder sent a crew out today and replaced the damaged/ missing pieces. We weren't expecting this generosity so we were thrilled. Happy Valentine's Day to us!

Last but not least, we've been remodelling our master bathroom. We went from not so attractive towel bars, white walls, and vinyl flooring to amazing new towel bars, sage walls and new slate tile flooring. We did the project ourselves (took much longer than we expected) and are absolutely thrilled with the outcome. Home improvement projects really seem to bring Evan and I together- we are a great team!

Hope this blog finds you all well. I'll try to update more frequently!

Christmas 2008

Santa Claus came to Lexington this year! What a wonderful Christmas! Grace was really into Christmas this year. She loved Santa too until she had to sit on his lap- ha ha- that was a no go. I still got a great picture though! This was probably the best holiday in a long time (because we didn't travel). It was so nice to not be exhausted after the holidays.

Bob and Sharon made the trip down for Christmas. They had a terrible drive down- the same day Indiana and Kentucky had an ice storm. A 4 1/2 hour drive turned in to a 9 hour drive- yikes! We are just glad that they made it here safely.

Grace was so funny Christmas morning. She came downstairs and saw all of the presents- what a grin! What was funny though was she waited until I gave her a present to open. Did she tear it open like most kids? No way- she would pull one little piece of paper off the present... throw it away, tear another piece off...throw it away, etc. I wanted to say, "C'mon, let's get on it" but didn't want to jinx myself. She's so good at picking up toys and putting things away. So, it was a long morning of unwrapping presents- but a really good one. And I just realized Bob has the photos from opening presents- I'll have to add those later.

It's been awhile since Grace has gotten together with her buddies but we saw both Dylan and Owen last week. Dylan came to hang out with us for 1/2 day Christmas Eve morning b/c his daycare was closed. I'm always so happy to watch him- he is just adorable! Then we got to see Owen the day after Christmas. Owen and Grace had a super time playing at the play land at Fayette Mall. They are such good buddies- even after not seeing each other for probably several months, they knew each other instantly and picked up right where they left off.

Family night tonight was crafty! We started playing Old maid and Go Fish (she doesn't really get those games yet but it's a start). Then we had a pizza picnic on the living room floor (which Grace loved). Then we made masks! Grace loved looking through the eye holes at the reflection in the mirror- what an experience! We also played charades (we would act like an animal, pretend like we were licking an ice cream cone, etc.) and let Grace guess what we were doing. Not surprisingly, she was really good at it. We need to do something more challenging next time.

I think we are going to lay low for New Year's Eve- are we getting old or what? Grace has been feeling kind-of icky the past couple of days. Hopefully Evan and I can make it until midnight so I can have my good luck kiss. Yummy!

Hope you had a Merry Christmas. Have a safe and Happy New Year's Eve!

2009- A New Year's Resolution is something that comes in one year and out the other (grin).

It snowed!

Brrr...it's been cold recently...and we got snow! Around three inches of snow fell a week ago so Grace and I bundled up to go play in the back yard! I'm not a huge fan of the cold but Grace has never played in snow so I figured why not. We tried to build a snowman but didn't have much luck. There was a sheet of ice on top of the snow so we couldn't roll the snowballs- we were able to make a little snowman by packing snowballs with our hands. Our little guy was about 7 in. tall (aww..very cute)- Grace's new phrase of choice. She really loved walking through the snow and turning around to see Mommy's, Grace's and Ralphy's footprints behind us. Hopefully we can take her sledding the next time it snows. I think she would love that!

Darlene (Grace's adopted Grandma- actually Sharon's first cousin but she says that Grace is like her Grandchild- aww. very cute) took a cruise to New Zealand and bought Grace some fuzzy lamb slippers. Aren't they just adorable? Grace really loves them- She also sent a really cute t-shirt with lambs on it to match. Grace is one lucky little girl-

For family night last Tuesday we made a gingerbread house. I don't remember ever making one growing up and Evan said that he made one ages ago- so it was a learning experience for the three of us. Evan was in charge of the icing and Grace and I mostly did the candy. How wonderful that the sets that you buy at the store have the gingerbread house pieces already cooked- basically everything we needed was sold in a great kit. Makes it very easy for inexperienced parents...and toddlers. Grace loved making the candy stick to the icing. I think we have a perfect finished product. What do you think?

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

We sure do have a lot to give thanks for this year. We've had a wonderful year living in Lexington, we have our health and a smart, helpful, and happy daughter. She really is the light of our lives- pure entertainment all day, every day (well almost every day- grin).

It really is amazing to see how Grace has grown and changed over the past year. Not only is she taller but her personality and smarts have come out this year. If you can imagine- she knew her letters around 18 months old and knew all of her phonics soon after she turned two. I figured the next step was to teach her to read...and guess what...she can read! She's great at 2 letter words (in, at, of, on, etc.) and does well with 3 letter words (Sam, hat, get, etc.). She even knows some 4 letter words. I can't begin to tell you how rewarding being a stay at home mom is now that I can actually see and hear what she's learning from me. You know, when you have a baby, of course they are learning every second of the day (facial expressions, food textures, etc.) but the reward is different. You might get a smile or a chuckle. But gosh, now observing how Grace acts around strangers, how she picks up her toys, how she loves to help me around the house, how polite she is- it's just amazing. I know that she learned these things starting when she was a baby by watching Evan and I but now that she's actually doing and mimicking what we have done is just fantastic! It really does reinforce, to me at least, that I really did do something right...and have been doing the right thing around her for a long time. I wish everybody that read my blog could spend time with her because my words just can't describe her. We have been very blessed that she has been healthy this year and hope we can say the same about next year.

Again, we had a great Thanksgiving this year. My brother Dave and his wife Jen were in town from California this year and made a trip Lexington to see our new house. We were so flattered that they made the time to come down because they are always so busy visiting others when they came back home to Indiana. they came to our house Wednesday and stayed until Thursday morning. Gosh, did we have fun. It was so great to have them here and wish they would move here so we could see them more often. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Thursday we drove to Wabash to have Thanksgiving with the Beauchamp family. What fun! We were able to see almost everybody (Grandmere, Grandad, Mimi, Poppy, all of the Aunts and Uncles...and cousins). I think the only people we didn't see were Parker and Katie and Andy and Alisa and hopefully we'll see them soon. We hope they had just as happy of a Thanksgiving as we did. Friday we spent the day and night at my mom's house and Saturday we headed to my dad's house for another feast! Again- so much fun. The entire Brunsman family was there (all of the siblings- doesn't happen often since we are all spread out). We always love to get together and appreciate the opportunity to do it- thanks Dad and Billie! Your new house looks amazing-

We've started family night here in Lexington with last night being our first night. We took Grace to see Santa and got a wonderful (better than expected) picture. Grace didn't want to sit on his lap but she did tell him that she wanted presents for Christmas (big boxes, little boxes, and red boxes...he he.- oh, and pink tights and candy). Then we went to Chuck-E-Cheese. We've been once before (Owen's birthday party). Grace was a little more hesitant this time with some of the rides but she still had a blast! And with her tickets she was able to get a piece of candy, a pink comb, stickers and a sticky frog.

Today and the rest of the week Ball Homes (our homebuilder) is going to be here to fix everything on our one year list. Believe it or not, it's been great! We'll see how the rest of the week goes- I'll keep you posted. So far, so good...no...so far, so fantastic! Yup, I'm still corny.

Grace has started playing her piano and singing along. It is toooo cute. And she has started saying "alright" after everything. I can say ,"Mommy's funny" and she'll say, "Mommy's funny alright!" Ha ha- Hilrious! Our buddy Mike (aka Milhouse) gave her a remote control helicoptor- she's really good flying it (better than me- no kidding). And we are still going strong making homemade pizza. Grace loves to roll out the dough herself- and of course, she's good at it! Ha ha.

Have a good week- Jen