Busy Times....

Gracie modeling a dress from her Oma

My girl in her tutu

4 months!
I was really hoping to get this post out before Gracie turned 5 months-I'm cutting it pretty close! Four months is always such a fun age and Miss Grace has been a pretty busy girl lately.

She's been busy grasping her rattles and her feet (which are her new favorite toys-she's even gotten them in her mouth already!) Actually, before I could post the pictures of the toe-grabbing phase, she progressed quickly to the toe-eating phase, so I'll have to get those shots on here soon. Seems like she's a prodigy with this-I remember trying so hard to get Josh to get his toes to his mouth for just one picture, and it wasn't until about 6 months or so!





She's been busy rolling-from tummy to back and side to side. And still mostly by accident. I love the look on her face when she lands on her back...."Hmmm, what just happened?" Funny how I really rushed Ben through his motor milestones due to excitement on my part, while I am in NO hurry for Gracie to be mobile, both because she is our baby, and also because of the childproofing nightmare (legos, anyone?) that will ensue.....













She's been busy gobbling baby cereal....(actually we're going slowly with this-just a little bit with her lunch each day). She seems to love it and is quite unhappy when that spoon stops coming at her!




Busy giggling....(Yay, we FINALLY got it on camera!)




And busy growing! At her 4 month (and one week) check-up she weighed 15.6 lbs and was 24.5 inches long, and all her measurements including head circumference were in the 75%ile. I had suspected as much because she seemed to be getting quite long and losing a few of her rolls. (She was 95%ile for weight at her 2 month appt.) She got a shot in each leg and I asked that they hold off on the third, which we will return for in one month. Last time the leg that received 2 shots in it swelled up quite a bit, so it seemed like a good idea to spread them out. This time it was much better.

The boys are also busy as usual, and counting down the days 'til summer vacation. There was a little strife a couple of weeks ago when Josh went into school one day hoping and expecting to get an award for cooperation. ("I know I'm going to get it, Mom. I have been SO cooperative this month!") And I'm thinking, "Maybe at school you have....." At any rate, it turned out that Josh did not receive the award in his class, but Ben was the recipient of the coveted award in HIS class. Since Josh is so fiercely competitive (and emotional, for that matter), I was dreading their return home from school, as I knew Josh would be at the very least, quite upset. There were tears after he got home, but manageable, and instead of Ben gloating (not that he really would do that), these shots show what he did. And we all went out to Ponderosa to celebrate! (Can't wait til they find a new favorite restaurant!)





And I wanted to get this one in to remember, because it was just so sweet....Ben was tickling and playing with Gracie and just blurted out "Oh, Gracie, I wish we could trade hearts, then you could see how much I love you!"
It was just so spontaneous and genuine-OMG-I just love these guys...most of the time... :)

And Mom's been busy recovering from the double First Communion/Baptism celebration on Mother's Day (stay tuned for that post) and prepping for the big garage sale this weekend.........

Ahh, busy times, but good times........................

Dear William

Dear Sweet William Layne,

As your second Heaven day approaches, we want to take this time to tell you how much we love you. As we planted your garden and sprinkled your "dust" around the base of your tree, we NEVER imagined that you would become a big brother. But our family tree has grown another branch, and we thank God for the blessing of your baby sister, Grace.

Your garden is doing well. Your weeping cherry tree blossomed beautifully, but the flowers were all too fleeting, so symbolic of our time together. Your sweet william flowers are poking up through the ground and have spread quite a bit around your garden. And your forget-me-nots are abundant, like the love we all have for you.

Your brothers ask about you often. "Mommy, how old would William be if he was alive?" and "What would he be able to do now?" You would be 18 months old and toddling around, keeping us on our toes, just like your brothers did.


You have a playmate now, sweet William. Your beautiful baby cousin Emma Rose joined you a few days ago. May you welcome her into heaven with open arms and play together, until we can hold you both again.


All my love, Mommy


Planting your tree and sprinkling your "dust", as the boys call it.
August 2007


Weeping Cherry Blossoms
May 2008


Sending you up some balloons
Heaven day May 31, 2008

Slideshow

Got some photos taken by a great photographer, to capture the kids in their first communion/baptism outfits, but as it turns out, I LOVE the casual ones. Her name is Genevieve Fridley and she has a great, real life style of photography, as opposed to the overly posed type. The link to the slideshow is http://www.genphotos.com/Carguello/.

Home Sweet Home and Gracie's First Easter.....

In my last post I omitted one minor (?!) detail about our trip-we missed our flight home! We arrived early for our 6:15 flight on Saturday evening, went to check our bags at the curbside check-in, and the man at the counter says to Patrick, "Why you so late, boss? This flight already boarded." Well, apparently the airline sent us an e-mail telling us our flight was moved up one hour, and we never got the "memo". They put us on stand-by for 1 pm the next day and all 5 of us (and lots o'luggage) hunkered down with Nana and Gaga in their camper for the night. (Thanks, guys!) Thankfully we got seats on the 1 pm flight Sunday and had an uneventful trip all the way to Pulaski. (Thanks Uncle Todd and Aunt Nise for your wonderful airport valet and parking service! :) It felt so good to be home!!

In the midst of all the unpacking and prepping for Easter festivities, a friend of ours offered us some bunk beds (Thanks Miss D!) , so we found ourselves assembling and rearranging furniture, bedrooms, etc this past week as well. Here is one last look at Ben's cute little transportation themed room that he's had since before Joshy was born.....



And now the new set-up, which the boys are referring to as "our" room. Here they are trying to decide who gets to sleep on the top bunk first......



Then it was on to painting Easter eggs (this time with a Star Wars theme-what else?), while Gracie looks on from her highchair...........






Opening baskets on Easter morning-Ben had written a note to the Easter Bunny describing how much he loved the year that he hid clues in eggs to help them find their baskets. He asked him if he could do that again. No pressure!
He also left them some climbing rocks to build a rock wall onto their playset, and Gracie got a baby swing, as well as some baby food, bowls and spoons in her basket. What a haul!

After church, company came, and Pop-pop and Uncle Terry hid eggs for the big egg hunt. (Thanks, guys!) Things must have gotten a bit hectic, cuz I didn't get many pictures. I did get a shot of Aunt Lisa in her last days of pregnancy. Prayers to you and new baby C!! We can't wait to meet him/her!

And prayers also for our cousin, beautiful Emma Rose!



Patrick's parents had arrived home safely from Florida the day before, and we had a nice size group. We have so much to be thankful for! After company left, Patrick took the boys to the park and I had some quiet time with my sweet girl. She is still too good to be true. Vacations are great, but for me, there's no place like home.........

Florida, part 2
The highlight of our trip (besides Darth Vader, of course :) was seeing all of our family, including our Florida family. Gracie got to meet her Great Grandma Beers, Aunt Shelly, Uncle Danny, cousins Danielle, Brian and Erika. Thanks so much for your hospitality, guys! Your place is beautiful and we had so much fun seeing you! Hope we can reciprocate sometime soon!

Disney in Pictures.....
Florida, part 1
Well, we survived our Florida trip without incident-actually, it was one of our best trips yet, especially considering it was our first with 3 kiddos (and a 3 month old, no less!) The flights went smoothly and Gracie, bless her heart, hardly made a peep and slept in our arms for most of the time in the air.










Seeing Nana and Gaga again for the first time in 2+ months. They spoiled us again, chauffering us everywhere and indulging the boys waayyyy too much (see lightsabers in pictures to follow). My favorite was the
fresh orange juice everyday!
























Checking in to the beautiful Yacht Club hotel....




















Gracie's first time in the pool................
Our first park day was spent at Hollywood Studios and the boys highlight was the Star Wars attraction, where they got to go on stage as young Jedi and were trained to battle Darth Vader. We loved the witty "Jedi" host (listen to what he says to each of the boys). We all agreed that he reminded us quite a bit of Uncle Mark V.!


Nana and Gaga were kind enough to watch Gracie so we could join the boys on some of the rides. It seems like I haven't been able to do that for years, (pregnant, I guess?) so it was so much fun. Nana did great with the baby bjorn. Thanks so much, guys!




Here are the kids all ready for the Hawaiian restaurant (one of our favorites). This is where we celebrated Nana's birthday (but I forgot the camera!)

Our next park day was spent at Animal Kingdom. The last time we were here was a couple of years ago and Josh was denied a ride on Mt. Everest due to height (or lack of ). He has been dying to return ever since, so here we are before the "climb". We even escaped the Yeti unscathed-phhhewwww!


This was the hottest day of our trip and ironically we weren't near a pool. Here's what Gracie did most of day. I felt bad since it was hard to keep her cool, but she seemed no worse for the wear... What a trooper.............





Here we are with some of our favorite characters.....
Here are a few other favorite shots..............

Can't you just hear her-"Awww, Mommmm, come onnn...."


Dining with the dinosaurs....