Santa Party

Last Saturday Grace went to party with Nolan and Grayson. It was a very special party because Santa, Mrs. Claus and Frosty the Snowman were there. Santa rode up in a sleigh draw by 2 big horses. Grace was a little shy with Santa and Frosty. Frosty tried very hard to befriend the curious Grace, but she was just interested in watching him from a distance.

Grace and Mrs. Claus.

Grace and Nolan dancing.

All of the good little boys and girls received a present from Santa!!! Grace got a baby doll, Nolan got a thing for making paper airplanes and Grayson got toy phone.

After the party Grace and Nolan played in the snow.

Snowy Day

I wish I this was of Grace playing in the 2 feet of snow we have on the ground right now, but instead this is a few weeks ago after our first snow.

Christmas Card Picture Part 2

I failed in Hershey at getting a Christmas card picture. I needed to move forward and try something else. Daddy was hanging Christmas lights so I bundled up Grace and headed out. Grace was not interested in posing for me. She was interested in driving around in her car.

Then we became interested in "helping" Daddy with the Christmas lights.

Lots of cute pictures, but not a Christmas card picture. My quest continues.

Devin & Kate Got Married

Tummies all full of Thanksgiving dinner we headed off to Harrisburg, PA for Devin & Kate's wedding on Saturday. Our thought was that Grace would sleep the whole way and we would be able to quickly put her to bed at the hotel and we would all have a nice restful night's sleep. It didn't work out that way. Grace was ready to party at 1am when we reached the hotel. I think we finally all fell asleep around 2:30am.

Needless to say on Friday morning no one was moving too quickly, but we knew we didn't want to hang around the hotel. We went to investigate a museum I had spotted while trying to find some breakfast. The museum was cute. The was a toddler area we played in for a little while, a water table that both Grace and Daddy enjoyed, but it was the trains there that were a hit.

That afternoon we went to Devin & Kate's wedding rehearsal and dinner.

Grace may be cute, but so were the bride and groom.

Saturday was the day of the big wedding, so Grace started the day off with a swim.

After an early nap, Grace got ready for the party.

No time for lunch before we headed off to the capital building, so Grace had lunch there.

Now I wish that I could show you all of the wonderful pictures I took of the ceremony, which was beautiful, but unfortunately I wasn't paying attention and my camera fell on to the floor and broke.

The reception was a blast. Grace met 2 new friends, Aiden and Summer. Grace loved watching them and copiyng them, especially Aiden. Once the dancing started I don't think anyone danced as hard or as long as Aiden, Summer and Grace. It was awesome to watch Grace dance around the floor and try to copy all of Aiden's cool moves. He's quite the dancer. When he spun around on the floor, Grace would lay on the floor. When we was dancing around, Grace would get in front of him and try to dance with him. It was neat to watch. All three rocked it late into the night.

At the reception Grandma Nancy rocked Grace to sleep so Mommy and Daddy could stay until the end.

The next day we had breakfast, said our good-byes, had a nap and headed off to Hershey.

Now here was my big plan. I bought a cute Christmas outfit and my plan was to spend the day taking pictures to get the perfect one for our Christmas card.

The battery died on my camera soon after that picture. Bummer. Hershey Park was lots of fun. They had a large part of it blocked off and mostly just little kid rides open. Grace got to see Santa's reindeer and sit on Santa's lap. She had great fun driving a car and decorating a cookie. After the park we had a fun night hanging out with Devin and Kate.

Monday morning we packed up and headed back to Hershey to go to Chocolate World. We went on a tour around Hershey where I finally saw the Hershey Kiss street lamps. After the tour ended, we rode the "factory tour" ride, had a great lunch and headed home.

It was a long but great weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy belated thanksgiving! We had a busy Thanksgiving this year.

Before we left for Grandma Gail's house Grace had her 15 month checkup. Her doctor said she is doing great! Grace is now 32 inches tall and 24 lbs 14.5 oz. They said that she's in the 75th percentile for weight, almost 90th for height and 90th for head size.

Now on to Turkey Day. We headed down to Grandma Gail's Wednesday night and had a great dinner on Thursday. Grandma did a great job and it was nice to have everybody all together. Grace had lots of fun getting to play with everybody!

My favorite part of the day was when we sat down to give Grace and Grayson some dinner. After Grace was done her dinner she enjoyed watching Uncle Neddie give Grayson his dinner. I think she wanted to help. She kept leaning on his tray and trying to give Grayson his bottle. At one point she took his bottle and hooked him up with her sippy cup. It was very cute to watch. I can't wait to see if Grayson is crawling next time we see him.

This was the picture of the night.

But these are cute too.

I started working on a project to take pictures of all of Grace's family to put on our fridge. I didn't get everybody, but I will at Christmas.

Cruise Part 3.5: How big is the ship?

We sailed on Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas. Its passenger capacity is 3,114. Its length is 1020 feet. Its gross tonnage is 138,000. It has a 3-floor dinning room that seats 1500, 15 decks, a theater, meeting space, shops, 2 pools, some hot tubs, a buffet, an ice skating rink, etc. But what does that all really mean?

Can you find my dad in this picture?

Here's a closer look.

Here's the ship from across the water on ground level in St. Thomas.

Now here's the ship from Paradise Point in St. Thomas which is 700 ft. up.

Cruise Part 3: Aruba

This was Neil and my third time to Aruba. Between spending a week there a couple of years ago and being there on our previous cruise we had pretty much, been there, done that. So we decided to take Grace over to the Butterfly Farm. Grandma Nancy, Grandpa Kevin and Maggie came a long too.

It was very, very hot at the butterfly farm. Which is why it was very unfortunate that none of us brought along beach stuff. Turns out there was a perfect place to enjoy the water across the street from the farm. Grace was the only one who truly got to enjoy the water.

Cruise Part 2: First Day At Sea

Our first full day of cruising was a day at sea. We started the day with breakfast then took Grace to a baby play time. Unfortunately, there was only one baby there, but I Grace still had a fun time playing with the toys. Then Mommy and Daddy enjoyed a Salsa lesson while Grace hung out with Grandma Gail. After lunch Grace had a nap and Mommy tried, but failed, to win a free cruise playing Bingo.

That night was the first formal night in the dinning room. Everybody got all dressed up for dinner. I think Grace's favorite part of the night was went she filled her diaper causing Mommy to have to change her. Being that Mommy was in heels she was having a hard time carrying Grace so she walked like a very good girl over the the elevators. When the doors opened Mommy got on to hold the door for Grace who promptly took off laughing. Needless to say we missed that elevator and had to wait for another.