Pumpkin Patch

On Sunday, the three of us headed out to the pumpkin patch. I was SO excited I could hardly wait for Grace to wake up from her nap! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the pumpkin patch and could easily spend an entire day there! Anyway, this year there was so much more Grace could do which made it even more fun.

Immediately after arriving, Grace jetted toward the giant slide (see pic above)! Nevermind the pumpkins, let's get RIGHT to the RIDES!!!! YES!!!! That's my girl! This was no "baby slide" folks, this was a slide for the big kids including myself! :) We climed up the steps, sat her on my lap, and took off. It actually got my stomach the first time so I wasn't sure if she was going to like it. As soon as we landed, she got right back up and headed for the steps yelling, "Gain, Gain!" hahaha She does have my blood running through her after all! We could've stayed there all day, but we distracted her with a few more activites that the place had to offer. Next up was the train ride. It was VERY bumpy and Grace liked it for the most part as well.

Devan, Misty, and Jalen met us for the hayride and punkin' pickin'. Grace went up to EVERY pumpkin, would try to lift it up and say, "Oh heaby." She ventured over to a pumpkin that had been busted open. Matt wasn't thrilled, but I let her check it out and feel the seeds and "guts". Just wait until pumpkin carving night, Daddy! :)

We found our two pumpkins and were ready to head back. Once it was our turn to get on the wagon, the driver said we'd have to wait for the next one because it was full............GREAT!!!!! I knew what was coming next...............................................Yep, FULL MELTDOWN!!!! Sir, don't you understand that when a 20 month old wants to get on the "train", she WANTS to get on it NOW!!!!!
After trying to convince Grace that we weren't left behind and her wanting to be held and put down, held and put down, another wagon finally came and rescued us! Phew!! There were several things that we didn't get to do again this year. That just makes me even more excited for next year!!

Awwww she's a country girl at heart!! That's also in her blood after all!! She keeps telling me she wants to help Papa with his corn when she's big!! :)

Here's a few pics of Grace and I going down the slide.

Game faces on!!!

"Gain, Gain!""

Grace is still loving this holiday! She points out every "pider," "carecrow," and "punkin'" she sees. This time of year, our neighborhood has a tradition called "BOOing". Once you've been "BOOed" your instructions are to put the "BOO" sign on your door, make 2 copies of the sign and instructions, and take a Halloween something-or-other to 2 neighbors without them seeing you. This continues until Halloween night, and you can see how far it's spread by the "BOOs" on your neighbors' doors. Last week, our doorbell rang during dinner. I went outside expecting to see a salesman and instead discovered we had just been BOOed!!! The next night, Grace and I loaded up our Halloween surprises and waited until it was dark. We ran up to each house, put down our goodies, rang the doorbell, and started sprinting. Ok this part was interesting considering I wasn't supposed to be running yet and I was carrying a 27-pounder........in the rain! I tried to "explain" to Grace that we were supposed to be quiet so one would hear us. After we rang each doorbell and hid, she would yell, "Qiet, Qiet!" hahahaha Oh well, we had fun anyway!!

One final picture of my little punkin' head!!

Nothing beats a good belly laugh.......

I also wanted to share this video of Grace belly laughing at Matt. The picture quality is poor, but the content is pretty cute! ENJOY!!

Another Trip to the Zoo

Last Thursday, Grace and I decided to visit the zoo with Lauren and Vivienne who are in our play group. Yes, believe it or not, we actually got a whole day in Knoxville WITHOUT rain!!! We had so much more fun at this visit than the last because we found a couple kiddy areas that we missed the first time. Note to self......when visiting the zoo with a one and a half year old, MAKE SURE FIND THE KID-FRIENDLY AREAS!!! HELLO!!

Grace got to ride a carousel for the first time, and, not surprisingly, LOVED it!!! It looks like she is going to love all that fun stuff like I do!! YES!! As a matter of fact, we could've stayed there all day since it wasn't a very pretty sight when it was time to get off! Ohhhhh I do love a good meltdown! :)

We also came across an outdoor petting zoo. I'm not quite sure what the goat was wanting Grace to do here or what Grace was about to do, but it turned out to be a rather hilarious picture! She went right up to the goats and sheep as if she is used to being around them on a daily basis. I guess if Pete has taught her something, it's that she is fearless when it comes to animals!

We also found an indoor area that had a million activities for kids to see and do. We saw rabbits (Hoppy as Grace calls them), turtles, rats, lizards, etc. There was also a play kitchen area filled with every kind of food you can imagine, dress-up clothes, a tunnel to crawl through (that I did with Grace and was actually pretty neat), an area with a zillion play tools (once Grace found a hammer, she carried it around until we left.....see picture to the left), and a few things we didn't even get to see! We couldn't leave without taking a look at the gift shop to see what we HAD to have. We ended up bringing some butterflies home and Grace kisses them every time we go into her room.

While I was trying to get Grace to eat some lunch, she tucked herself into a bunch of bushes and ended up hitting her head. The nice lady who worked at the gift shop came out and gave her a sucker which seemed to dry up the tears instantly and give her the right to completely refuse a chicken nugget even coming close to her mouth.......SWEET! By the time we got to our car, she was glued to the stroller and her hair was matted to her face! :) Oh well!

Our zoo offers "Boo at the Zoo" where the kids can dress up in their costumes and get in a little trick-or-treating action. I just might take her to see what goods we can get to start my Halloween candy stash!!!!

A LOT to blog about.......

We've had A LOT going on around our house over the past week, so I decided to try and fit 3 events into one entry. First up: our new wagon! Grace got a new wagon in the mail from Nana and Papa and she absolutely LOVES it.....to say the least!! Anytime I mention going outside, she instantly says, " Waggy, waggy!" I've said forever now that she is destined to be an engineer because she loves figuring out how things work and trying to take things apart and put them back together again. Here are a couple pictures of Grace "helping" Matt put the wagon together and one picture of them pretty excited about the final product!! Thank you again Nana and Papa!!

Last week, Grace and I tried out a new program called Mommy and Me. It is offered twice a month through a local church, and each week has its own theme. This week was called, "It's all about Me." The hour starts off with singing and dancing then the kids are allowed to roam from station to station at their leisure. There were tubs filled with rice and measuring cups, puzzles, cowboy, fireman, and butterfly costumes, "wall coloring", and FINGERPAINTING!! How we got out of there without getting paint all over everything is beyond me! Grace visited the painting station 3 times and LOVED playing in the rice. We can't wait until the next program because this child loved it!!

Finally, Grace and I got to babysit for little Jalen on Friday and Saturday. He is an angel baby and hardly made a peep! He would just look at Grace while she rambled on about who knows what and turn to me with a look that said, "WHAT did she just say??" :) Grace took it all in stride, and by the end of the first day she was crawling around the house saying, "Wa, Wa!" haha She was an old pro by Saturday and turned into quite the little helper. She got Jalen's toy and "me" when it was time for his naps, and loved "assisting" with his bottles! :) On Sunday night while we were eating supper, she kept saying, "Dana (Jalen) where are you?" How cute! Here are some pictures of our two days with "Dana." In the picture to the right, Grace was "helping" me get Jalen out of the pack-n-play after his nap. haha

The next two pictures are showing Grace "reading" Jalen a book and playing peek-a-boo during lunch.

Jalen seems to love our wagon also....hint, hint Santa! :) Come back anytime!

Well that's all for now. 10-4 and out!

IT'S FALL!!!!!!!!

It's finally here.....IT'S FALL!!! The beginning of football season also marks the unofficial start of fall for me. As most of you know, fall if my favorite time of the year! I love everything about it including the cooler weather, football, breaking out our winter clothes, apple candles, apple crisp, The Apple Festival, apple turnovers, apple cider, apple everything, pumpkin candles, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin coffee, pumpkin patches, carving pumpkins, pumpkin everything, hayrides, HALLOWEEN, horror movie marathons, mums, foddershocks (sp?), fall decorations.....I could go on and on. What's not to like about this season as far as I'm concerned! I start looking forward to decorating as soon as the 4th of July is over. Last week, Grace and I got out all of our Halloween/fall decorations, and it was a much different experience this year than last! :) What I'm trying to say is I think Grace is going to enjoy this season as much as her dear old mother! Each item that was pulled out of a box sounded a little something like this: "Pider!", "Witch", "Punky, Punky (pumpkin)", "Whoa"! It was hilarious! She has also discovered a love for candy corn.....not quite sure where she gets that. :) Our trips to Wal-Mart are also more fun these days since she starts screaming "PIDER", "PIDER" as soon as we hit the door!

Over the weekend, we put up our annual foddershock. It was so much fun watching Grace take it all in. I had all the mums and decorations right where I wanted them until I turned my back for a minute and a little fairy had rearranged them where she wanted. Most of the mums ended up on our front step, and our poor scarecrow ended up......well wherever Grace went! :) She lugs that thing around everywhere. It even comes with us on our wagon rides. haha We're planning our second annual pumpkin patch excursion in the next couple of weekends and I'm sure I'll have MANY more pictures to post. I can't wait to take Grace through the corn maze and show her all of the kid's activities she was too little to enjoy last year! Until then, get outside and enjoy this fall weather! SMILE!!

On the road again......

Last Friday, Grace and I headed north for "Great Nana's" wedding and what we thought would be a long weekend. The wedding was scheduled to start at 1:30pm (Grace's naptime) so I was a little apprehensive about how she would behave! All the great-grandkids were supposed to walk down the aisle together and look for Papa so they would know where to sit. I'm happy to report that Grace did great and even lead the pack for part of the way! After a short ceremony and A LOT of smarties, we headed to the reception where we lasted all of 10 minutes. It was 3pm by that time, and Grace was DONE! She was asleep by the time we drove all of 2 miles!! Here are some pictures of the wedding weekend.

We stopped by Laura and Brent's house on our drive into Bloomfield and played for a couple hours. Grace LOVED her first ride on Jack's four-wheeler! Jack absolutely loves Grace and it is SO cute! He even gets this high-pitched voice when he talks to her....hilarious! By the time we left, Grace had a goodie bag and half of Jack's toys!

Here are a couple pictures of us getting ready to go to the rehearsal and wedding. Grace was already exhausted!!

Grace also had a new buddy during our visit.....Uncle Matt. She discovered his iPhone that played "The Wheels on the Bus" song which she LOVES!! That was a big hit with her to say the least!

On Sunday evening, we received news that Grandma Gentry passed away. She was almost 94 years old! This lady was one great cook! While Matt and I were dating, I always heard about how good Grandma Gentry's cooking was. I got to sample some of that cooking on a few occasions, and they were right! Her health had deteriorated over the last several years, and it's nice to know that she is finally at peace. Matt made the trip north for the services, and we headed back to Knoxville Thursday morning. While the circumstances obviously weren't ideal, we did get to stay in Bloomfield and visit with our family for a few more days which was nice.
Hopefully our next visit will be on a much happier note!!

WARNING......Some photos may be graphic!!

Well the surgery was a success! According to my doctor, I am quite the light-weight when it comes to anesthesia. He came out after the surgery to let Matt know how it went, and he said they barely had to give me anything, and I was out! Ummm you want me to go into a deep sleep after 19 months of lacking sleep......NO PROBLEM!! And as you can see from the picture below, I woke up in NO PAIN AT ALL!! WHO HOO!! Now I know why M.J. had a stash of that stuff locked away in a secret place! :) Oh and the Sprite I was drinking tasted like the first drink you get after being lost in the desert with Bear Grylls for 7 days, not the mention the scrumptious graham crackers.....they even gave me 2 packs!!!

It was very strange for the nurse to say it was fine to WALK to the bathroom immediately after having surgery on my foot! Hmmmm! But it was fine.

Above is a picture of my bunion before surgery, and you will see an after pic below. I'll warn you it's a bit graphic! Before the surgery, my doctor and I discussed my options for pain management. I have a high pain tolerance (if I do say so myself), and didn't know if I needed the "hard stuff." I DO NOT deal well with pain medication, and it usually ends up coming back up (if you know what I mean) before it even has a chance to take away the pain. The doc reassured me that Vicodin (yes VICODIN) would be fine and tends to be easy on the stomach. He said to make sure I took the medicine every 4 hours like clockwork for the first 24 hours due to the pain I would be in. The day of the surgery I wasn't too nauseous due to the anti-nausea medicine I was given during the procedure. However, day two was a different story. Yep, up it came! He changed my medicine and even included anti-nausea meds, and you guessed it, it came up also!! SWEET!! How people can get addicted to that crap is beyond me! So needless to say, I have been taking Tylenol since the Friday morning after surgery. I've only had to take Tylenol a handful of times since then. I can't believe how little pain I've been in overall! YEAH!!

Then came our next "incident." I can't get my foot wet for 2 weeks so I was instructed to double bag my foot when bathing. And if it gets wet, I need to call him immediately. I have a great set-up with our garden tub that allows me to prop up my foot without a chance of getting it in the water. This worked out great until Labor Day. I was getting out of the tub and consciously thinking about how awful it would be if I had to call Dr. Percer on Labor Day when it happened.........I dunked it in the water!! I couldn't believe it after all that was EXACTLY what I was thinking about!! I may have only just touched it to the water, but it was enough that the gauze absolutely soaked it up! After mom and I tried drying it with the hair dryer for several minutes and realizing we were getting nowhere, I knew we had to call him! So what does any person do who is obviously thinking clearly?? Make Matt call him OF COURSE!! The good news is the doc acted like it wasn't too big of a deal, and told Matt to re-wrap it.......yes I said Matt! Let me tell you people, he did a FANTASTIC job! While I was laughing hysterically during the process, I managed to snap a few shots for you below. Before he started, he washed his hands thoroughly, put on rubber gloves (that I had for cleaning purposes! Come on people!), and cleaned off the scissors with alcohol. I was as good as new thanks to Dr. G!! And no I don't have Flinstone feet......it's swollen! I also hope you enjoy my yellow toe nails since I always wear polish and had to remove it for the surgery! Funny how now I'm conscious of what my feet looked like after they way they've looked for the past 30 years!! hahaha

What a tool!!
Grace hasn't been too interested in my foot other than saying "ooowie" when she sees it. She's completely content having Nana and "Maga" here to play and read books! So now I have 5 days left (not that I'm counting) until my follow-up appointment when I FINALLY get to start doing things on my own!! Next Wednesday cannot come fast enough! And if you're lucky, I might pass along a few more pictures!! :)

We have been EXTREMELY lucky to have some extra help over the past week!! Mom was here from Tuesday night to Labor Day, and she passed the baton to Barb who will be leaving us tomorrow. I cannot thank you enough for all you have done for us!! They have taken on the role of sole parent not to mention the cooking, cleaning, laundry, chauffeur, etc. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for everything!! It is appreciated more than you know!!!