We have been cooking around here. This day Gracie wanted to make cookies so I thought I would let her try to do it herself...I took 2 deep breaths and let her go. I thought the kitchen would be destroyed, but she is a very tidy baker! She was in heaven because every time I cook anything it is a constant negotiation of how many things she can do by herself.

The finished product...I'm not sure what happened to them but I only had one. Paul and Gracie liked them though.

And then there was Gracie's birthday party. Gracie has been spoiled by Candice's extravagant parties so I knew there was no way I was getting away with pizza and a Costco cake at the park with family kind of birthday party. Gracie will actually 'play Candice' now. She will come and invite me to her bedroom. I have to knock and she invites me in and she has a table set and all kinds of games planned, it is hilarious.

Weeks before the party Candice would call or text me almost everyday with a new idea/decoration for the party, but I'm not Candice so I could deny most of them (Candice I'm not downing you in any way...I would love to be you, but I don't have the enthusiasm for parties that you do)

Robyn and I made this cake. It took us 5 yes FIVE hours to make. Candice and April came in for a little while to help too. I guess you could call this a true SG cake as my Mom would say (SG-Stewart girl).

Look, there's Zannie to the rescue of Piper so she didn't get trampled. She is so nice, every time I went outside Zannie was in the bounce house with a slew of kids helping Piper.

After the whole party was over I asked Gracie what her favorite part was and she said, "The Pizza". Ok mental note for next year - all we need is pizza!

One of those ideas that Candice called me about was asking if she could invite Rapunzel to the party. I agreed to that one because Gracie is in love with her.

She was a great Rapunzel and was so fun with the kids. She painted their faces, sang songs, had a treasure hunt and did a magic trick. Gracie couldn't take her eyes off of her.

So in other news, Paul went back to school! He is working on his master's in Marriage and Family Therapy. It took him about a year to actually decide to go because he feels old, but I'm happy he decided to do it. It will be a long 4 years, but worth it. This is him on his first day. He didn't want me to take his picture so he only agreed to stop for a second before he left.

And one last thing. I woke up one morning to this:

Everybody needs a chair on the table to read their scriptures while they watch Max and Ruby right?

4G

In keeping up with Apple and all the other technology companies I would like to introduce our version of 4G. On Sunday, March 6th our Gracie will be 4!

I'm sad that today is the last day she will be my 3 year old. I wish she could stay little for me. Do I need to stop calling her my baby...because she thinks I need to.

Birthday Statistics:
Height: 40 inches
Weight: 39.5lbs

A few birthday questions... She was answering these as if she were in a beauty pageant:

Favorite color: pink, black, purple, white and green. Me: do you like one better than all the rest? G: I just like all of those colors...and red too...and pink

Favorite food: chicken

Favorite treat: starburst

Favorite thing about school: music time

Who is your best friend: Levi

Favorite toy: my pretend kitchen

Favorite song: Belle song

Favorite thing about Primary: singing "Scripture Power"

What do you want to be when you grow up: Rapunzel

Favorite tv show: Bubble Guppies

Favorite movie: Robin Hood

Favorite sport: Soccer & Swimming

Favorite book: Cinderella

Favorite thing to do with Daddy: playing tickles with him

Favorite thing to do with Mommy: ride my bike

Least favorite thing to do: not fighting

What do you want for your birthday?: Baby alive with teeth

Gracie is amazing! She has come a long way from being a baby and crying if someone other than mom or dad looked at her or when she was a toddler and passed out at the top of the slide because someone she didn't know said, "hi" to her (true story). Now she says hi to everybody she can and gets really excited if they say hi back. She loves to go to friends houses and play and likes to tell me to, "go run some errands" so I don't stay with her. She is our social butterfly, she needs to leave the house at least once a day or she goes crazy by noon. She loves loves loves school and Mrs. Robyn. She is ok with Primary, but 'happens' to get a stomach ache every Sunday around 2:00. She loves to dance, but not ballet or anything close to that, she does some funky hip hop action. Gracie also loves to sing and is constantly requesting different songs in the car depending on her mood. She loves to ride her bike and is a little trooper, she rode 3 miles to the library the other day (our longest trip so far). I miss having my baby, but I know I will love my new 4G version too!

I have been getting a lot of comments lately about my blog, and well people wondering if I forgot I had one. I remembered...once I was reminded. In the past couple of months we have:

1. Moved to a new house. That says it all right? Can I just say that there are not many things that I really hate, but moving is one of them. Since we moved out of our ward boundaries I was released from my calling as RS President so you would think I would have tons of time to organize and clean, but we still can't park our cars in our garage. I think I will blame my lack of time on #2...
2. We survived Christmas. I love to see Christmas come and I love to see it go. One month of craziness is good for me. We didn't get our usual family pictures taken because of our wonderfully timed move, but I did take Gracie to get her own (the picture above).

I would like to put a disclaimer out there that I don't have a working camera right now and it is really hard to blog without one. I will be back when I get a new camera!

Daddy's Little Girl

A conversation Paul and Gracie had the other day in the car:
G: Daddy why does......?
P: I don't know Gracie
G: But Daddy, you know everything!

Paul for the life of him can't remember the exact question because he said there were too many questions happening one after the other so he just started answering ok, yes and I don't know. Just as a side note, she is wrapped around his little finger and he worries about her all day everyday. He has come around to loving her so much that he doesn't care if we have only girls.

First Day of School

Today was Gracie's first day of pre-school. She has been looking forward to this for month's!

All the way there she was singing 'Sweet Caroline' (her favorite song right now) at the top of her lungs. It takes 6 Sweet Caroline's to get to school.

She is so lucky to have her aunt as her teacher. She didn't even say bye to me, she just ran in to see who was there. That is huge for anybody who knew Gracie 2 years ago she would just cry if you tried to talk to her. When we went to the orientation last week she tried to get me to leave and kept telling me she would be fine.

When I asked her what she did at school this was her reply:

• i hopped
• do the wheels on the bus
• i made a crocodile, ohhh i forgot it at la la's house, can we go get it? (it was really an alligator and it was in her backpack)
• i played
• i didn't play outside cause it raining

A little side note about Robyn: She was somehow named lala by Garrett and ever other niece and nephew since then have called her that. I told Gracie when she was at school to call lala Mrs. Robyn. When I picked her up Robyn told me she called her Mrs. Robyn, lala and just Robyn. I'm sure it's not easy for a 3 year old to keep all those names straight!

Day 18 & 19

Is it cheating on 'everyday in May' if I blog every-other-day? I'm laughing at myself because I feel my blog dedication wearing down. The only thing noteworthy on 'Day 18' was me making a mental note 30 minutes into my spin class that I needed to get my will finished because I was about to die! I can only do so many up hill city sprints Mr. spin teacher! Today was Gracie's activity day...literally! As if dance and soccer on the same day were not enough we just added swim to our Wednesday line-up. Candice signed Gracie & Levi up for swim and the only day they could have class at the same time was today (Levi is way advanced swimmer so they are in different classes). On the way to swim we made a quick stop at Target because we hadn't been there yet this week and we were going through withdrawals. Gracie picked out these sporty pink glasses that squeeze her cheeks quite nicely!

Half way through her class her goggles were falling off but she really tried to keep them on. My zoom is broken on my camera or I would have gotten closer, but I think they are making her look a little like droopy the dog. She told me after swim, "This was the best day EVER!" I'm sure it was!

Day 16 & 17

Day 16:
At church on Sunday I sat in the pew and kept turning around in hopes of seeing our favorite bench buddies. After a while I realized that they are gone... Candice, Levi & Piper have moved on from our Ward. I will miss Piper's extravagant Sunday outfits, Levi's little man ensemble, Candice's latest snack container purchase (2 of them of course), Piper cuddles during Sacrament meeting and Candice being on my Enrichment Committee. I will miss everything about her moving especially her house walking distance from mine.

Day 17:
We had our first freezer meal exchange today. It is funny to get so excited about frozen food, but it is more the excitement that I don't have to cook for 12 days! Here is our groups blog if you want recipes or there are tips and guidelines if you want to start your own group: http://myfreezermeals.wordpress.com/