Dear Lydda Grace

Hi baby- tomorrow you will be one year old. It makes me want to cry- happy tears because of the joy you are in our lives and sad tears because you are just growing up way too fast! This time last year Daddy and I were at the hospital gearing up for your birth the next day!

The Lord truly blessed us with you and our greatest prayer is that you will grow up to know and love Jesus and to serve Him.

This year has brought so many changes in your life. You went from a solid 8lb. 5oz. to 23 lbs. You went from nursing to eating all kinds of foods (favorites are: blueberries, noodles, carrots, waffles, cheerios, cheese... carbs and cheese... you are clearly our child!). You began by contentedly sleeping in the moses basket to now crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything! You are so fast that we can turn around and you are into something new!

Here are some things that you like right now:
- Reading. You LOVE books and will sit for a long time and just flip through the pages of books perfectly content. Sometimes you get really quiet and I look over and you're just "reading" away.
- Drawers and cabinets. You open everything and like to take out whatever you find inside. The other day you pulled a desk drawer completely out on top of yourself. You weren't fazed.
- The Dishwasher. You are fascinated with it! Even if you are playing in the den and hear me open it to put things in you immediately rush to the kitchen. I have had to revise how I clean up the kitchen so I can try to beat you to put things in before you get there and start taking things out again!
- Laundry. Everytime I do laundry I put it on the green couch to fold and you always come and take everything off the couch, piece by piece, and throw it on the floor.
- The Vaccuum. Scared? Not you! You rush the vaccuum as soon as it comes on and talk to it and try to pat it!
- Walks outside. You constantly point at everything you see while we go on walks or runs early in the morning. You and Daddy and I go together and I love this time together.
- Water. You love baths and going swimming, you're a regular fish!
- Pictures of other people and yourself. You laugh and point at pictures all the time! In books, magazines, pictures we have around the house... anywhere, you love photos of people.

These are some things you are doing:
- Clapping and waving. A lot... at everyone... at random times... at yourself in the mirror... etc.
- Pulling up on everything.
- Crawling everywhere.
- Feeding yourself lots of types of finger foods.
- Drinking from a sippy cup and a straw.
- Talking often and a lot. We love it! You say "dadadada" to everything :)
- You have two bottom teeth and today your top right tooth just broke through.
- Waking up between 5:15-6:00am every morning.
- Giving kisses.

We love you so much Lydda Grace! It is hard to remember what life was like before you came. You constantly amaze us by all the things you do and how attentive and inquisitive you are. We can't wait to see what the next year brings!

I love you,
Mommy

pile of pillows

I thought I was brilliant and decided to throw all the pillows and couch cushions on the floor today for Lydda Grace to play on... What *almost* one year old wouldn't love to play on a pile of pillows?
This one was way more interested in the couch that, without cushions, was now low enough for her to climb on to!

She got into the action though.

spaghetti

BEFORE
DURING
AFTER

sitting

I painted this stool for Lydda Grace and it sits in the bathroom and we sit on it when we give her a bath. Now she's big enough to sit on it too! She looks so old here to me!

help celebrate Lydda Grace's birthday!!!

It's hard to believe that one week from today our baby girl will be a whole YEAR old!!

I have really enjoyed (and plan to continue) keeping this blog and hope that one day Lydda Grace will love looking back through at these little snippets of her life. Surprisingly we have about 50 visitors to this site every day and I thought it would be fun for her to see who those visitors were!

Sometime in the next week please leave a comment on any recent post with your name, where you're from and maybe a little bit about why you like to keep up with Lydda Grace or something like that.

Thanks for loving our little girl!

Look how she's grown!!

August 2, 2008

July 2, 2009

Lydda Grace pictures

Since there was only one picture of Lydda Grace in the last post I figured I better remedy that problem :o)

we'll be eating more chicken

We did it! In case you have never heard- Chick-fil-a does a grand opening promo where the first 100 people in the store are given 52 coupons for combo meals (that's one meal per week for a year!)

So... on Wednesday morning at 5:45am Jon and I went with Rebekah, and Jason and Lynn Courter to the new Chick-fil-a. It was already packed! Because there were more than 100 people there we were entered into a lottery and Jon and Bekah both won one of the coveted 100 first spots (Jon was #7!!). Since Chick-fil-a didn't officially open until 6am Thursday they had to remain on the premises for the next 24 hours. We had so much fun hanging out, playing Settlers, eating free Chick-fil-a, and chatting with the other participants. This morning Jon and Bekah donned their official t-shirts and hats and walked into the new store and got their coupons. We were home by 6:02am... it was quick :o)

Mom, Bethy and I brought Lydda Grace up to visit for a little while. She seemed to have to fun!
Playing Settlers with Lynn, Jason, Rebekah, Bethany and Jon (Javier joined us later)

Rebekah and Bethany both won rounds of a hula hoop game!

Here's Jon in line in the morning waiting to go in for the Grand Opening and to get his coupons! The guy in front of him in the cow suit has been to 33 of these things.... crazy!