Gracie-ese

Grace has been talking for a long, long time. Like her mother before her, she was a very early talker. She could say her ABC's by 16 months and carry on a conversation by 18. (Don't worry we don't have any delusions of granduer, her mom didn't exactly turn out to be a genius :)

So, it's hilarious to her easily amused parents, to find that many, many months later, she still has some seriously amusing mispronunciations.

Here are a few examples:

nockbooblers = binoculars

Sleeping Booty = Sleeping Beauty

tearbears = carebears

uppa bubba = up above the (as in twinkle, twinkle)

... for the Bible tells me soap = so

She has also taken to yelling, "ERIC! NO! Don't go under the sea!" several times a day.

Ariel cookies = Oreo Cookies

Dego = Diego (he's not Italian, but she yells racial slurs at the tv every time this show comes on

She tells everyone that Belle is wearing a flashlight now that she has a cone on her head

cocky = coffee

maffles = waffles

And my personal favorite...

chilled grease = grilled cheese!!!

California

Finally another Blog post! I told you I would be terrible at this...

This post is just a collection of pictures from our recent trip to Newport Beach with the family. We had an amazing weekend relaxing, playing on the beach, catching an Angles game (unfortunately, Brandon didn't play), and looking at lots and lots of wedding magazines! Brandon and Lindsey are getting married in November of 2010! So exciting!!!

Our Little Family

The whole gang about ten steps from the beach house

The girls on Newport Ferry to Balboa Island

The newly engaged couple!

Me and my Kar

Had a great time with Maegan! Hey Meg, did you grow?

Grace was over the pictures at this point, she just wanted to jump in the sand with Kar

Silly cowgirls! Maegan and Grace had to have set the world record for the most hours of 'Little Mermaid' ever watched in one weekend! They are kindred spirits!

Lovely Grandma and Gracie. Don't mention the carousel behind them, Grace is still bitter she didn't get to ride it because we had to catch the ferry

Brandon coming after me with a bucket of freezing water... I ran

Brandon attacking me with a piece of seaweed (noticing a trend here) I did absolutely nothing to provoke him, of course. No throwing of sand in his hair, nothing of the sort. No one can prove a thing.

Grandpa and Grace playing in the waves (They're nuts, the water was about 40 below)

So cute!

The girls at the game. So excited to have another Lindsey in the family!

Whoa, tone down the supermodel posing , Grace.. You're only two.

Uncle Rick (LOVE him so much!) and Grandma and Grandpa eating the awesome Cioppino that my parents only spent 2,346 hours making, give or take a few

This stuff was amazing!!!

Somehow we failed to take any picture with Tracy and her adorable boyfriend, Matt. We had a great time with them on Balboa island eating chocolate covered bananas.

What a great weekend! We are one blessed family!

Theology in the eyes of a two-year-old

Grace is turning out to be quite the Evangelist. Here are a few examples:

• When we pray in a restaurant, she unfailingly yells, "A-MEN!" at the top of her lungs causing people to look around and chuckle.

• She recently rambled on about Jesus to our neighbor. While her intentions were probably good, I'm pretty sure nothing coherent came across.

• She incessantly sings, "I am SPECIAL, I am SPECIAL!" The words that follow this line are, "God made me," but Grace fails to add that line, causing people to likely think, "yeah... you're special, alright."

• When we ask her to pray, and she doesn't particularly feel like it at the moment, her response is always, "I don't need to pray, my prayers are in my suitcase." Okkkkayyy... no idea where that came from, but I'm glad she's prepared and has them tucked away for safe keeping.

• Jesus is probably now a pre-teen in Grace's mind. Until recently, she only referred to him as Baby Jesus, causing most people to recite lines from Talladaga Nights. Dear Sweet Baby Jesus...

• She will often randomly say, "Jesus loves me, he willy, willy does." Yes, he does!

Our little angel:

This is a picture of Grace when she was six months old:

Here is another from just a few months ago:

Have I mentioned that I'm not looking forward to the teen years?!?

Name Game

Grace is really into finding out what people's real names are.

She realized a few weeks ago that Kevin and I have names other than Mommy and Daddy. I yelled "Kevin" down the stairs because there was a bug in our room. She spent the rest of the day yelling "Kewin" down the stairs, too.

Later, she said, "What yours name, Mommy?" When I told her my name was Lyndsey, she was very confused. She said, "No, yours name not Windsy, Uncle Brandon's Windsy!" In Gracie's grammar, pronouns are always plural, and this was her way of saying, no, your name can't be Lyndsey, Uncle Brandon's girlfriend is Lyndsey!

It took a couple days, but now she constantly reminds me that my name is Lyndsey, too. So we've been going over everyone's names and here are a few of her interesting pronunciations:

Here's Crapa, aka Kerwy

Here are Uncle Bwandon and Aunt Windsy

Grama aka Jill (she does surprisingly well with that one!)

Kody and Kade, aka My Boyz

Here's Mima, aka Suit

And Papa, aka Carol (Sorry, Papa:)

Daddy, aka Kewin

Young Love

For those of you who don't know, Gracie's Best Friend Forever, Jack, moved to New York a couple sad, sad months ago.

Before they left, they were inseparable. Grace was happiest when she was playing with Jack, and they played really well together.

I don't think she understood when he was leaving that we weren't going to be seeing him for awhile. Every couple days she will ask where Jack is, but I distract her easily and she moves on.

That is, until this morning.

Grace woke up this morning and charged into our room. She slammed open our door and yelled, "MOMMY! WHERE'S JACK?!? Where is he? I want to see him right now!!!"

I told her, we can't see Jack right now, but we can call him. To which she replied, "OK, but call him on the puter, not the telephone, I want to SEE him!" (It's a little scary when your two-year-old requests to Skype her boyfriend)

We tried calling, but they're not home, so she won't give up. I'm trying to distract her, but even pancakes aren't doing to trick this morning! I think she finally realizes he's not down the street anymore. It's pretty heartbreaking! Ah, young love!

Here are some pictures of Gracie with her BFF:

When they were little babies

So sweet!

Daddy doesn't approve of this one!

Yeah, they're close

Sorry, Terry!

Jack's Mommy. We miss her, too!