Keeping up with Gracie and Hope

25 days of Hope

2012-01-29T20:48:00.000-06:00

25 days??? SERIOUSLY!??? obviously it has been a wild year for us, but this seems hard to believe. Our sweet baby Hope will be 1 in just 25 days. I hate to admit it, but Hope has fallen into the 2nd child syndrome- no pictures or very few compared to her sister. I have good intentions, but it just never seems to happen! The next 25 days I want to post a Hope picture. She has the sweetest little personality and is changing so much. I hope you enjoy these.

Big girl

2012-01-29T17:38:00.003-06:00

OK, so I have to eat my words. I told many people when they asked me about getting Gracie's ears pierced, I repeatedly said she needed to be about 8 years old. HOWEVER, I had no idea how many stick on earrings my 3 year old would go through or what a girly girl she would be. She loves jewelry and is always trying to wear my earrings or bracelets or anything she can get her hands on. After several long conversations about the pain of piercing,cleaning her ears, and general taking care, we (Mark, Gracie, and I) decided she could get her ears pierced. She was so EXCITED. Unfortunately her mother did not have her camera or phone charged to take pictures! UGH! As you can tell she is excited:

She talked me into these sunglasses while we were in Claires. I made the comment that they were "loud" after looking at them closely she asked me "where does the noise come out?" GOOD GRIEF!

Backyard fun

2012-01-29T16:09:00.000-06:00

Noah got a Jeep for Christmas! He brought it over to give Gracie and Isaiah a ride the other day. Let's just say it was a hit and a hoot for the mommas to watch. It was very funny to watch the boys play and then contrast that to Gracie's version of playing with a car. As you can see, she was in control of the radio. She actually said the other night that she wanted Noah to bring his Jeep over. He could drive and she would sit in the singing seat! She cracks me up!

Here they had to call AAA to change a tire - please notice the placement of Noah's arm....

As you can see our Technician as very thorough!

Now it was Isaiah's turn. I think he fell in love with driving. There were a few near misses with the only tree in our back yard, but it was so funny! I am just thankful this was not a 5 speed transmission.

G took this opportunity to pose! the one time in her life!

I just liked this picture.

What did Hopers do while all this driving was going on? she was just a swinging!

family pictures

2012-01-29T14:05:00.000-06:00

Well, this was our first attempt at a family of 4 picture. WOW... getting all of us to look at one spot long enough for a picture is nearly impossible. I loved the pictures she got, but was a bit annoyed that 2 certain subjects (one kid and one adult) simply refused to cooperate. Take a guess who I am talking about! ;)

Fairytale party

2012-01-29T13:49:00.000-06:00

I am sure I mentioned a time or two that I LOVE Gracie's school. Well, let me say it one more time: I absolutely L-O-V-E Gracie's school! She has fantastic teachers who make learning fun and she is making some great friends. Since it is a Jewish preschool, they did not have a Christmas party, they had a fairytale party. Every party is "hosted" by a couple of moms. These moms did a fantastic job! Check out the decorations! OH and Gracie is dressed as Alice in Wonderland. This is the same costume she wore last year for Halloween- it finally fits the way it should!

Ms. Marcy is the lead teacher and Gracie's heart! She LOVES her! As you can see, G is sporting princess gloves and a feather boa from her goodie bag!

This is Ms. Toby. She and Gracie adore each other.We feel so blessed to have these special women in Gracie's life!
Ok, here is a mom shot. The craft for the day was making life size gingerbread people. ADORABLE! this is a keeper.. hope it keeps in the attic.

Catch up time!

2012-01-29T13:37:00.000-06:00

I have been feeling rather guilty about this blog. I know there are a few people who keep up with it regularly and I have been very, very lazy about posting. SO SORRY. However, I did get a phone call this morning from Papaw. He requested some pictures of Gracie's new ear rings- yes I got her ears pierced! He also mentioned that I had not updated the blog in quite a while. OOPS. SO here we goooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT has been a crazy while here in the Watson house. I am going to do a quick run down of the major events of 2011.
Biggest blessing: Feb 23, 2011 Caroline Hope Watson was born! YAY! I was blessed to stay at home for the full 12 weeks with her. I returned to work for 7 whole working days before summer started.
We took our first (hopefully of many) beach trip in late July. In early August, Mark left his job and started looking for another one. It took about 8 weeks and 6 interviews.We were afraid that a new job would cause us to move, but God was good and gave us not one but two jobs here in town! During his job hunt, Mark got to keep Hope at home with him with some help from friends who would keep her for him to go to interviews. He started working for First Choice Medical in October. It has been wonderful. We go to church with the lady who sits next to him, although we didn't meet her until he started working there. Mark has been so happy there and his stress level is MUCH lower.This makes for a much happier life. A good friend of mine who is a stay at home mom, is keeping Hope for me. I have really enjoyed having someone I know and trust to keep my baby! I started having some issues probably related to my pregnancy with Hope and had an outpatient surgery on November 7th. I was very sick after, running fever and dizziness on and off. Turns out I had walking pneumonia and my blood pressure was low. I had gone back to the dr to figure out what was wrong with me and my OB gave me the news that the pathology from my earlier surgery had not come back good. She mentioned fast growing cells and the c word. I freaked! That night, they put me in the hospital to receive iv antibiotics for the fever I was running. We also scheduled a hysterectomy for the Monday after Thanksgiving. WHEW! it was a lot to take in at once. I was/am completely confident in my Dr. She is the best. Surgery went well, no signs of cancer outside the uterus. Great friends and family that took care of me. My doctor called the whole experience a "God thing" I have to agree. Obviously I was out of work- again! I started working again in January when the kids came back to school. January has been a blur of getting in a routine and trying to keep my head above water at school. Hence the lack of blogging. I promise to try and do better. OK pictures will be up in the next post!

breath taker

2011-12-13T12:24:00.000-06:00

So it has been a while. Life has been crazy! I will fill you in later, but I had a minute to post. This picture was caught by a friend while we were watching the children's musical. Above, you will see the girls picture with Santa... Gracie was not too sure about that guy in the beard.

Cook Out in the Back Fourty

2011-11-07T22:07:00.000-06:00

Friday night before Halloween, our church had a family night out at the pumpkin patch. We planned to go with our neighbors and my precious coworkers and friends Cora and Felicia. It was so cold, that Mark ended up staying home with Hope, but the rest of us had a great time. Below are the pictures. enjoy!

Amanda and Noah

Me and Gracie- these are rare!

Cora and her precious Allen. I am SO GLAD they came with us.

Felicia with her daughter Catie and Cora's son Nicholas

Kaiden (not our babysiter Kaiden) is Felicia's boyfriend's grandson. Here is a picture of Grandaddy and his boy.

Gracie looking warm and cozy.

There were hotdogs to roast.

and eat...

Marshmallows to roast- I mean burn....

and of course eat...

Kaiden and Gracie are great friends. They love to play together. At one point I saw him put his arm around her on the hayride. I told Noah he might need to watch out!

Sweet friends! We are so blessed! We have great neighbors but they are more than neighbors- they are true friends. God knew what he was doing when he closed the doors on the other 2 houses we tried to buy before this one. They are worth much more than square footage.

Gracie is telling Cora something important!

Kaiden and Gracie just playing in the field.

Kaiden moving the pumpkins around.

We tried to get a group picture, it never worked! We lost Nicholas in this one....

There he is- as the scare crow!

What a wonderful night to spend with some of my favorite people!

Who has...

2011-11-07T21:50:00.000-06:00

The best babysitter ever!? oh that would be ME! Gracie's school was closed for parent teacher conferences a couple of days last week (or maybe it was 2 weeks ago). Gracie went to Sarah's house with Hope on Thursday, but Friday Kaiden came over and kept both girls. Funny thing about Kaiden. 9 years ago when I moved to the Jackson area, her mom hired me at Blue Cross Blue shield of MS. Then my first year at Terry High School, I taught Kaiden in her Freshman year. The following 2 years she was on my annual staff. I left her Senior year, but Mark was actually working with her mom at Cellular South. Our paths keep crossing in some way or another and I am so thankful. She loves my babies and takes such good care of them, I never have to worry when she is in charge. This particular day she folded the girls clothes for me! That is WAY beyond the call of duty. I consider myself so blessed. I am sad to think of her transfering to MSU in the fall, but proud of her all the same.

what's been happening

2011-11-01T21:04:00.001-05:00

Life has been BUSY for the girls & their parents! I have a few posts to make, but I thought I would use this one to show some random pictures from the past few weeks.

Hope is on the move. She is curious about EVERYTHING. She is giving Gracie a run for her money, but most of the time Gracie likes it.

Daddy is doing great at his new job. The girls LOVE their daddy- he kinda likes them too.

I thought this picture was so funny! don't you love the headband.

Gracie is modeling her princess wear and her Halloween outfit that Nana made her.

Where's Waldo? no where's Hope is more like it!

Who has the best baby sitter? ummm that would be me. Kaiden came to keep the girls on Friday. She decided to fold all of the girl's clothes that were in the laundry basket. Definitely beyond the call of duty!

Look at this baby! she does NOT want to sit down anymore. She stood like this for minutes! If you want her to sit down, you must lay her on her stomach or she is not having it. Hope really wants to keep up with her big sister.

How cute are they?

Hard Vegetable....

2011-10-24T21:05:00.000-05:00

ummm ... No Gracie, that is Harvest Festival! Yes it is that time of year! We have had a great weekend of Harvest Festivals and have a couple more fun activities planned still. Hope was sick last week, she had her first ear infection and was running a fever for several days. Life went back to normal on Thursday. Saturday, Mark and I loaded up the girls and went to Meridian - actually Clarkdale- and spent the afternoon into the night there. The school where Natalie and Alyson attend and Kristi works had a harvest festival complete with vendor booths- we could call it a mini Canton- very mini, but nice. Kristi decided to put up a booth for her monogramming and I was her worker bee. Frankie and Mark had charge of all 4 girls and did great! It was a fun night for all. We did have a casualty of the trip- we left "Old Baby Lovie"!!!!!!!!!!! OH NO!!!!!!!!!!! Really this is traumatic! luckily she is becoming less and less dependent on that thing thanks to school. She has shed quite a few tears, but seems ok with "New Baby Lovie" until Aunt Kristi gets it mailed to us. We also left her shoes (thank goodness my head is attached) but new shoes can be purchased, apparently lovie is irreplaceable.
Today we had our church harvest festival. It was wonderful. Gracie is a girl with no fear! there were several jumpy/bouncer things. I know she went through the big obstacle course one 4 times. There were big kids in there and she just went right along with them like she was one of them. She LOVED getting candy, and cupcakes, and having her face painted. We did not get around to the hayride or the train but hey, we got candy and jumped! Now there is a funny story about how our time ended at church today. If you have a weak stomach, don't read it. If you get grossed out by bodily functions- stop reading now! LOL! I mentioned that Hope has been sick. She is on an antibiotic. Mark was carrying her around, the youth girl had just started painting Gracie's face and IT happened! You know IT! I looked at Mark and there was GREEN POOP all over him- in a liquid form! OH MY!!! now to give you the full picture, Mark does NOT do poopies unless he absolutely has to. He gags and covers his nose, acts like it is the worst thing ever. He was COVERED in GREEN, SLIMY, POOP- in PUBLIC!!!!!! I said GO! GO to the car. Fearing his adding puke to the poop on the sidewalk- yes it dripped. I hurried Gracie's face painting along and grabbed her and took off to follow Mark. Here comes the really funny part. we parked beside the main building and the festivities were in the back gym area. It was almost over so the parking lot was almost empty. I had Mark take off his shirt (the poop covered one) and we used the clean part as a pad and I stripped, cleaned and changed Hope on the ground of the parking lot. All the while all I could do was laugh. Here is Mark- he had worn just a t-shirt so no undershirt- half naked in the church parking lot, Hope laying on the ground butt naked and Gracie stuffing her face with the candy she figured out how to open! There were only 2 cars in the parking lot at this time, but of course a family had to leave while we are in the midst of this comedy. I saw them do a double take at my half naked husband - who was probably mortified but was helping with wipes and Gracie patrol. I just told them this was one for the record books. The mom laughed and said she had had a similar experience once too. Not sure the hubby was convinced. I giggled the whole way home at my hubby. He is a champ and never once complained, gagged or threw up! Sorry, no pictures of that fun! I did attach a few from the "Hard Vegetable" mind you they are not the best shots, but Gracie was constantly on the move. Enjoy! She sure did!

Spaghetti! OH MY!

2011-10-16T20:25:00.001-05:00

partners in crime

2011-10-16T20:24:00.000-05:00

These two have a bond over food. I get so tickled at them "sharing" their nightly snacks. If daddy is eating, so is Gracie. Oh and I caught her with the whip cream pointed in her mouth trying to spray it in. Wonder where she saw that!?

Smarty pants

2011-10-16T20:20:00.000-05:00

This summer Gracie went to Mother's Morning Out at a local church. She came home with lots of projects each week. One week they talked about the solar system and she made some magnets for the fridge. Fast forward to last week. Gracie pulled this one off and was showing it to me. She kept saying "see my Earth" I, not wanting her to be misinformed told her it was actually Saturn and that we can tell because of the rings or circles around the planet.

She looked at me and said "no it is Earth." After she left the table I noticed this:

Playing Doctor

2011-10-16T20:15:00.000-05:00

Now that Hope is mobile, Gracie has decided she is her personal playmate. This particular day she was giving poor Hope some new immunizations- in her foot!

A whole new world

2011-10-02T23:41:00.000-05:00

Yep, it is a whole new world for our baby Hope. She is doing all sorts of things on her own these days.
Holding her own bottle...

hanging out with my big sister (please excuse the nakedness)...

Learning how to drive...

teasing my mom with the cute faces then looking away when she has the camera out...

laughing at her momma when I change the pose...

and the giggles continue!

finally giving my mom 2 seconds to catch my swee face on camera!

Can I tell you how much I ADORE this girl!!!!

The 2 year old Chef!

2011-10-02T23:07:00.000-05:00

I have a new addiction- pintrest! if you have not joined let me warn you... it is a bigger time passer (refuse to say waster) than Facebook! I have a virtual pinboard just for recipes. This was one of them.
Gracie cooked Sunday lunch today. Yes, she did. Now we did not have a 3 course meal, but it was quite good and she was oh so proud. Now, let me tell on my crazy momma/teacher self for a minute.
I am a big believer in using every day things to teach those pesky state objectives. Now I KNOW Gracie is only 2 years old, but it is my opinion that the more she or any child is exposed to the concepts and vocabulary that will be used in school, the better she will do. When we read stories, I ask questions, particularly who, what and where questions. We have used positional words with her since she was a baby. But one of my favorite things to do with her is MATH! now this is funny considering it was NEVER my subject in school. However, math to me means cooking! In this little cooking exercise alone, we talked about and practiced shapes, counting, one to one correspondence, fractions, temperature, and time. Now what teacher wouldn't feel like they had presented a full math lesson after that?

Now for the recipe:
Easy peasy! All you need is a can of crescent rolls, pepperoni and string cheese. The recipe makes 8 pepperollies. We used 4 string cheeses and cut them in HALF.

Use one TRIANGLE of dough and place the CIRCLE pepperonis on it (we counted out 4 pepperoni per triangle but use as many as you please). OH and Gracie was quick to tell me that the pan was a circle too.

Then place ONE (HALF) string cheese on the triangle and roll (the fun part!).

I walked Gracie through the first one but the rest was all her!

You can tell she felt like such a big girl.

I did help her arrange them on the stone, otherwise they would have been one big pepperolli! here they are right before they went into the 350 degree preheated oven.

14 minutes later and one wardrobe change they are done! Gracie was so EXCITED when she ran to her daddy and said "I made your lunch!"

After another quick wardrobe change (there are at least 4 per day around here!) we ate. They were a winner!

crawling

2011-09-20T21:05:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Daddy

2011-09-18T20:50:00.000-05:00

I know I haven't been the best blogger lately, but I couldn't let today go by with out giving my wonderful hubby a shout out. Today is Mark's birthday! We had a great day just hanging out at home (after church). Gracie and I made a cake for the ocassion... the cake came from a box, but we actually made the frosting- his favorite chocolate butter cream/cream cheese frosting (yes it is as good as it sounds). Gracie was quite excited about the cake, candles and singing. She was slightly disapointed that Daddy didn't have a Spiderman party as she planned. Hope didn't have cake, she enjoyed a bowl of pears instead. I think she was a bit jealous.

Hope needed some face time!

2011-09-10T23:31:00.000-05:00

Sweet baby girl Hope has had a little cold. You can't tell it in these pictures, but she was a pitiful little girl for a couple of days. We, well, I was taken by surprise with the shift in temperature. I had to run out and get some long sleeve/pant outfits for her while we were out of town. She is SUCH a GOOD baby! She smiles all the time and is just as pleasant as can be. She also gets prettier every day- says her momma!
She LOVES her big sister. Hope watches every move Gracie makes. I hope they will be close as they grow up.

Baking with Nana

2011-09-10T23:14:00.000-05:00

Nana made her fabuloso pound cake while we were in town last week. Gracie helped. I couldn't decide which picture to use, so I just used them all. Gracie has been expressing her opinions on her clothing- this was her choice not mine.

New Profile pic

2011-09-10T16:13:00.000-05:00

Just in case you aren't friends with me on Facebook. This is my newest profile picture. I took these just today. We went to the consignment sale half price day today. This skirt caught my girl's eye. She LOVES anything that will twirl. I couldn't say no. OBVIOUSLY we have nothing ot match it!! The milkshake was a yummy treat!

Reading in bed with sister.

2011-09-10T09:14:00.000-05:00

The other Saturday, Gracie and Hope decided I should read some books to them while they relaxed in the bed. Daddy ran and got the camera.

** take note of the toes at the bottom of the big photo- OHMA GORSH!!!!!!!!! LOVE EM!

My fridge runneth over!

2011-09-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

Life with the Watson's has been slightly crazy over the past month and a half. School started for me and Gracie. My class is extra large this year and has been quite a challenge. Gracie has done beautifully at school. She loves her teacher and is doing well with the children in her class. I could not be happier with our choice of preschools. Mark left his job and has been looking,interviewing, and keeping Hope. To be as honest as I can, blogging has just NOT been on my mind. All that being said, I am reminded daily by friends, family and others that God has us in the palm of his hand and we will all be fine. My fridge is one of those daily reminders. Gracie has brought home some lovely art work. Between church and school our fridge is COVERED in art work. Everytime I see it, I am thankful for two beautiful and healthy girls that I have the privilege to watch grow and learn everyday.

This one is one of my FAVES! for you teachers and homeschoolers out there, this is a fantastic way to learn about the 5 senses. you will notice that the mouth is edible and if this were smellblogger you would be able to smell the perfume on the nose! I will be using this in my classroom!

I worked at a fabulous preschool/daycare while I was in college. I really believe it ruined me for daycare for my own children. We were never allowed to give the children coloring pages with pictures. We were to give them blank paper and encourage their creativity. One of my biggest issues with daycare was the coloring sheets that started coming home- I know if this was my big issue, I need to chill! Everyday now, Gracie comes home with these little sheets of scribbles. Now I know they don't look like much, but I appreciate it because it is what was instilled in me for such a long time. I have finally found a school with the same philosophy that I was taught.

sweet big sister.

2011-08-28T21:48:00.000-05:00