The Best We Could Do Under the Circumstances

I decided that for church one Sunday, we were going to dress up in our matching fall tweed outfits. Everyone thought we were on our way to get our family portraits done.

I, however, had no intention of getting our portrait taken because I didn't get a chance to fix my hair that morning and the baby weight I am steadily gaining is showing up not just in the belly, but my face, arms, and thighs as well. But since we WERE in matching outfits, I thought we could try a quick at-home photo shoot and see what we could come up with. And maybe, just maybe, we could use the result for our Christmas card this year.

I should have known things wouldn't turn out well when we started off with this...




I don't even remember what the meltdown was all about. Needless to say, this is not going to be the family photo on our Christmas cards this year. In fact, we have yet to take one that is card-worthy. Which probably means our cards will be late this year. But we are enjoying life these days and looking forward to the holidays. Thanksgiving weekend update coming up next...

Nearly All Caught Up Now

During my unintended blog hiatus, I would try to keep Grace's fans- the grandparents- happy by taking the random pictures taken on my phone and uploading them into Facebook. It was the best I could do at the time, but it still kind of felt like cheating. So I'm glad I'm nearly all caught up now and can get back to documenting our daily family stories on the blog. Here's the last of the random things we've been up to...

Grace has mastered the art of winking after trying for months now.
She jumped in puddles.
And fell in puddles.
She built a rainy day clubhouse.
And spent an evening relaxing.
On our morning walks, she looks for dandelions so she can make dandelion wishes.
We went to the Jacksonville Fair where she pet cute, fluffy animals,
rode carnival rides with Daddy,
and won a prize that was bigger than herself.
Taming an alligator at an ice cream shop.
It's a good thing she learned how to tame an alligator, too, because we went to a party where an alligator showed up as an uninvited guest. Only in Florida!
I know it's inevitable, my girl getting hit on by boys. I just didn't think it would happen so early. This sweet little boy was smitten with Grace and when she climbed into the bouncy house where he was bouncing, he stopped and said, "Awww, you're so beautiful!"

Halloween Fun

We were a little late with our pumpkin carving this year. We didn't get to it until the evening before Halloween. But at least it was out there on our front step waiting to greet all the trick-or-treaters Halloween night. This year, Grace took an active part in the carving process. Well, not really the carving, but the cleaning out the seeds part. She was a little squeamish about it at first- the girl does not like getting her hands dirty- but once we put gloves on her, she was good to go.

I wasn't quite sure how trick-or-treating would go this year. Last year I was excited and ready to stay out all evening, but Grace was done after about two houses. This year, she could have stayed out all night trying to fatten up her candy bucket, but I was done after hitting up one measly court in our neighborhood.

But it was so much fun seeing her enjoy herself and make new friends that I let her go until it was nearly her bedtime. Then I let her have as much candy as she wanted. After all, Halloween only comes but once a year.

Back Home

On our way back home to Jacksonville, Grace and I took a little detour and met Mike at UNC. It was only a three hour drive from Virginia Beach so it was nice that I didn't have to drive the whole twelve hours back by myself. While we were there, Mike checked out the school and Grace and I drove around and looked at neighborhoods and shopped.
All dressed up for school! When Mike told her he was going to school, Grace said, "Okay, Daddy, you can borrow my bookbag, but you'll need your own soon."

I said I would never buy Grace light up shoes, but she spotted these at a shoe store, immediately insisted on trying them on, twirled and twirled, and pretty pleased me until I just couldn't resist.

Grace is back at ballet and she and the rest of the students are busy practicing for their Christmas performance. I was afraid that taking a month off would leave her woefully behind the rest of the girls, but she seems to be catching up just fine.

The weather has cooled and we can sometimes wear our fall outfits! Thank goodness!

And because we've been enjoying fall-like weather- for Florida that means temperatures in the mid 70's instead of the upper 90's- we went to a farm to enjoy some fall festivities.

Jumping Back In

This has been the longest hiatus I have ever taken from blogging. And the longer I went without blogging, the harder it was to get back started again. So instead of all the grandiose plans I had of catching up and detailing everything that has happened the past month or so, I'm just going to jump back in and do picture recaps. If I don't do it now, I fear I may never get started again. And the grandparents would be extremely unhappy with that.

So here goes...

Grace had her first sleepover without me. It was with the grandparents. Two nights away from her mama and the girl had an absolute blast. I, on the other hand, had a much harder time with the separation. (I may or may not have had Mike call his parents for me to check on her because I didn't want to seem like an overbearing mother calling to see how her baby was doing every hour or so. I may have seemed nonchalant about her being away from me, but really, I was a bit miserable without her.)



We visited with the Baggetts and the three played little monkeys jumping on the bed. So sorry, Nellie, for encouraging the behavior so I could capture the shot.


We went to the Botanical Gardens and hung out with Lola and Lolo. I also had the chance to visit with my dear friends, Maritza and Tammy, who I met in Japan.




We celebrated Uncle Josh's 16th birthday. When he was first born, I used to joke with Carl, "Man, when this kid turns 16, I'll be in my mid-thirties!" It seemed so far away back then. (Sigh)




Grace went to a birthday party at a farm where she picked out her very own pumpkin, chased chickens, and petted goats.




We watched one of Uncle Josh's band competitions and Grace loved sitting in the bleachers with all the high schoolers.


Grace and I both indulged our sweet tooth by eating the kinds of desserts we can't get in Jacksonville- a mega sized Filipino halo-halo and my favorite crepe from my favorite restaurant.


While it was nice to visit family and friends in Virginia Beach for a month, we definitely missed our favorite guy. Thank goodness for my phone and it's picture taking and email sending capabilities. We sent Mike lots and lots of picture updates, especially since I was on a blog hiatus. These two were 'good night' pictures."I love you, Daddy!"

This was her expression after I told her it was time to put away the camera phone and go to sleep.

There you go. That pretty much sums up our Virginia Beach visit. I'm sure I missed documenting lots of little tidbits that probably have no importance to anyone but me anyway, but I figure, this update is better than nothing.

Next up, what we've been up to since being back home in Jacksonville...