"S"

Dru smelling the Tulips last year!

Forward

Ian kicking forward in Karate.

Texture

Eli's artwork on his highchair...

GREEN

This was the green I thought of! This is my nephew Samuel and he misses his Auntie VERY much and I miss him more than I can say! This baby looks like his daddy and it's a flash back every time I see pictures of him! (I should mention I stole this picture from his momma...)

Charlie and The Newspaper

This makes me see red!!! Three weeks in a row now and this is what happens to my paper...the 'nice' people who keep throwing it to my dog are going to find themselves with an ear full if I ever catch them! They don't come at the same time anymore and so I haven't been able to get them in the act...This was yesterday and it's so annoying!

Obstacle

Today he is feeling little and he's my obstacle to getting my work out in today...hard to do when someone needs to be held all the time....sigh...

Droopy

Lee's long trip back to the car after a day filled of Thomas the Tank Engine things in North Bend...July of 2006. Slowly... Slowly....

THE Birthday Cake

So here's the story: It was VERY important to Dru that I have a Tinkerbell : The Lost Treasure cake. But when he and his dad got to the store to order the cake he was very torn between a Monsters Inc. cake and a Disney Princess cake. THEN he saw the Tinkerbell cakes and he was sold!So Frank orders the cake. On Saturday he went to pick the cake up and the lady at the Bakery looked at Frank and said 'oh this will be such a nice cake for a little girl!' Frank just looked at her and said....'uh no...this is what mom gets when her 3 yr. old picks a cake out for her.' I think, by Frank's account, the Bakery lady was taken aback and said 'oh' and left it at that. I think he should have said this is the kind of cake a mother of boys would get, when it's left to them...I loved the cake and it made a 3 yr. old happy that I got a Tinkerbell: The Lost Treasure cake.I'm 32 this year. I wonder what this year will bring?

Five Faces Of A 32yr. Old

#1 Uncomfortable center of attention face #2 Intellectual face~I'm SO smart!!

#3 Say WHAT!?! face

#4 I just said something hysterical face

#5 Intrigued face

Who knew that turning 32 would be so maturing? Oh wait! I did!

Dr. Paulson

Paging Dr. Paulson...paging Dr. Paulson...You are needed in the ER...

Wild

Why does Lee does have a wild look in his eyes...again?

Movement

Blowing some candles out!

Beauty

My mother...

Living The LIfe...

Well Charlie is trying to live the life by sticking like glue to this kid...the treasure untold and treats galore that Eli shares with him. Faithful...

Cats

This is Gus-Gus...We had two kittens...I miss them terribly! I'm more of a cat person than an dog...don't get me wrong...I love Charlie...but I love cats!

I think Gus was trying to tell me something...

Children

December 2009

Work

So if I could get these to be side by side it would be a panoramic view...but since I can't...here we sit. My kitchen is CONSTANT work! Uuuggghh!!!

Child Safety Locks

Are they good or are they bad? You be the judge!

So yesterday was a busy day and all with Lee's birthday...cupcakes to school and getting dinner supplies for his birthday dinner. We had spaghetti...again...we have it every year. It's his most fave dinner EVER!

Anyway, since yesterday was Lee's birthday he got to take cupcakes to school and so you and I both know the cupcakes would never survive the bus ride to school. So to save that heart ache I took the boys to school with the cupcakes in hand.

Here is where the story begins...after my nephew gets dropped off at my house I head the boys out to the car. That's 5 children I'm dragging around with a Tupperware thing full of cupcakes! I unlock the car and the kids get in and we drive to school. We get to the parking lot and I tell the kids they have to wait at the sidewalk for me while I get Eli in the stroller and get the treat. I'm out and about doing my thing getting the stroller ready and the kids are fighting to all get out of the door at the same time. They haven't learned yet that it doesn't work that way. Someday I hope it will click for them but I'm not holding my breath for that one.

So for some reason they can't get their act together and open the door and I tell them they need to unlock the door and to push not pull...you know all those things. They still can't get the door open! What gives! I said enough of this and went and stomped over and opened the door and said get onto the sidewalk! I go back and get Eli and the cupcakes and off we go to the school. I drop Ian off and then drop Lee and the cupcakes at his classroom and off the rest of us go back to the car.

I get the 2 big boys in the car and they start buckling themselves and I get Eli in his seat and the stroller put away. I go back around to the other side and climb into the car to buckle up Dru...he hasn't quite figured out how to do that himself yet with his new big boy seat. So I get in and mind you it's very windy where I live and the wind blew the door shut...sorta. It was the kinda shut where you have to pull the door shut and then try and open it back up...or so I thought.

I got done with Dru and went to try and get out of the car so I could get to the driver's side...well I couldn't' get the door open! What the heck!?! So I unlock the door , I make sure I am pushing and not pulling...and I still can't get the door open! What is going on here! I finally have to 'gracefully' crawl to the front passenger seat (awkward!) and get out that way! Apparently it was just the boys but me too?

Well as I was driving myself to the grocery store I call my friend Nikki and tell her I need a new car cause mine is giving me some 'tude! She was bright enough to ask me if the child lock was on (I had not done this with my car in some time, I have it unlocked so my kids can get themselves out of the car). I said well no...I don't think it is? Now I have to look. Sure enough someone had put the child lock back on and was TOYING with me!

I was trying to get out of that car for five minute people!!!!! Five minutes of looking like the craziest person in the school parking lot...short of banging on the window and screaming for someone to let me out! I did toy with waiting it out until a friend of mine I knew was coming to the school to bail me out...but that was like 45 minute wait...I opted to not do that one...

Hope you all got a good laugh from that one...just a day in the life of Gracefully Grace.

My Lee-Lee

January 19Th, 2010 My baby will be 6 years old at 11:01 pm...SIGH! January 19, 2004; 11:01 PM Not very old here!Lee and his daddy at 9 months old...one of my faves. If I knew of a contest of some sort I would have sent this in and probably would have won TONS of money! He could have been the new face for Gerber...right? This one has always cracked me up...he's in the walker backwards and fell asleep...typical of Lee.

Birds

These are a kind of bird right?

Strawberry Pink

Today's word is Pink. I know this doesn't look pink here but it's a Strawberry flavored cake. Here is the end result of the cake...with strawberry frosting...which by the way taste like bubblegum. I will tell you it will be an effort to get through this cake...I don't do bubblegum flavored things. *shiver*

Funny Boy

This kid cracks me up. Just SO somber and then in a flash...I get this smile! Oh I LOVE this kid! And he is going to have a great sense of humor...he thought he was so funny sitting in this toy chest.

Colors Of The Rainbow

Just look at all the pretty colors!

Back...Back To What?

Me and my little brother a decade or so ago...I'd say we liked each other then but that would be stretching the truth a bit...I was in high school and I think at that point we just tolerated each other. I can't say things are great...they are strained and tenuous at best...I'm holding on but to what? And for what? I don't know....

Sonic The Hedghog

The cake that Lee wanted...we kept telling him that they didn't make Sonic cakes anymore. He didn't believe me so I had to take him to Safeway to prove to him that I was right...I was right of course. So this was what Frank came up with...not too bad if I don't say so myself!
The happy almost birthday boy! When we went shopping for plates and such Lee found some candles that could spell his name and then he found a cute number 6. I think all in all Lee had a good day and the cake was a hit!

The Letter 'Y'

It's that time of the year again! Let me tell you they have changed the flavors since I was a kid...OK well really since last year or so. Yellow is lemon=not good! They had Green Apple, Blue Raspberry,Grape,Strawberry, and Orange..of those flavors...only two are good..
you guess which 2 were good.

Love is A Battlefield

Yesterday Frank and I got a new, well new to us, washer and dryer for free! And Frank went after to work to go get and bring it home. Well he couldn't get a hold of either of his brothers to come help him unload the washer and dryer. So he asked how I felt about helping him and I just gave him a sideways look...but he assured me it would be fine and I could handle it. So I agreed to help him. The dryer was fine...lighter than I thought but easy enough. For some reason or another Frank was doing something. I don't know what he was doing but whatever it was it was funky for moving the washer...so while we were moving it I didn't have both hands on my side I had only gotten one and he was holding onto it oddly (*eye rolling*) and since I didn't have my other hand on it, it dropped...not far from the ground or hard but enough that the panel was off a bit and this happened to me.....

I can't tell you the last time I had a scraped knee! Those other two marks...they are only going to get uglier! The nice purple and yellow and all kinds of colors for those bruises...this is very mild to what it is today...I did tell Frank that was the last time I 'help' him with anything! I always get hurt.

Not joking...I can't play sports with this guy cause he inevitably throws a ball or something at my head and it always leaves a mark...the baseball left the stitch mark on my forehead, the other ones just left really nice welts and red marks on my head/face. He's dangerous I'm telling you guys!

Feet

They ain't pretty and they need a pedicure...but there they are! *Did you happen to see the nice bruise on my ankle? That's what happens when you don't kick or stop the soccer ball the right way...just saying!

Ian the Science Guy

Today Ian came home with a book on Volcanoes and such...in class they have been studying earth and volcanoes and dirt and rocks...he LOVES this stuff. He keeps making plans for what he's gonna be when he's older...last week it was an engineer...this week so far it's a paleontologist...

In this book it had different experiments to do and one of them was rock crystals...and it was simple, quick, and easy. So I said sure! Ian did most of the work except for the part where I poured the hot liquid into the mason jar. He was so excited he showed his dad and his Uncle Jason...
Step one: sugar Step two: measure the water

Step three: add food coloring and heat on the stove...stir until everything is dissolved...he was so proud of himself for doing all this! Pretty tickled too!

Step four: the finished product. It will take several days for the sugar crystals to begin forming on the string but it should be fun to keep track of.

I hope it works or I might have a very disappointed little boy on my hands!

Hair-in storyboard form

I HATE first hair cuts...HATE THEM! Dru...as my baby...
Dru has now been transformed into a boy...and every time they get a hair cut they changed just a little bit more and get that much bigger! HATE IT!