Sarah and Le Le

These are our two nieces Sarah and Leah. They are Gracie's favorite people in the whole wide world. Notice her in the background with her hands on her hips......like she's mad because she's not in the picture.

Samantha and Telly's wedding

Ron's cousin Telly got married this weekend in Grand Isle. Ron served as a groomsman in the wedding. Here we are waiting for the ceremony to begin.













Our beautiful goddaughter Natalie. She is so grown up!



Gracie with her cousins Jaelyn and Natalie. They had a blast at the wedding. By the end of the night, Gracie had her shoes and stockings off and was rolling around on the dance floor.

Jim, Kraig, Telly and Ron hanging out under Aunt Rose's house after the Rehearsal dinner.


Mikelle, Liz (Ron's sister) and Erica

Brianna sleeping on her Paw Paw Ray - she is spoiled rotten for him.

Sweetheart

You see, she's not always difficult! She loved her dress that she wore to Telly and Samantha's rehersal dinner. She especially liked the black patent leather shoes, which she called her "tap shoes".

Gracie goes Postal

Back home in Cut Off, Gracie saw the mail carrier go down the street. She insisted on retrieving the mail, so I preceded to walk her to the mailbox. Well, like Trixie in the book "Knuffle Bunny", she went "boneless". She threw herself on the ground kicking and screaming because she wanted to go to the mailbox by herself! Of course, a fight ensued between she and I. There tends to be a fair amount of traffic down the street and I didn't want her to get hit by a car! Even as I walked a far distance in front of her to check to see if any cars were coming, she still threw a fit. The pictures above show her victory. I snapped these pictures from behind a tree!

Free Willy

After a very long 9 hour drive down to Cut Off, Gracie was unsurprisingly cranked up at full force. She was so excited to see her cousin Leah. She began jumping up and down on the bed and performing what she calls the "Free Willy" splash. I thought these pictures were hilarious!

Let's go Irish

For those of you that don't know, Ron is a big Notre Dame fan. Here is Gracie in his Notre Dame jersey. Ron has programmed her to say "Let's go Irish!" and
"We are ND!"

Tea Parties and Tickle Fights

Gracie loves to play "tea party". Tuesday night she gathered Ron and I into her play room where she had placed her saucers in a circle. We both had to sit and pretend that we were having tea and baking cupcakes (hence, the silver bowl). She had poured a box of raisins into the bowl and we had to stir it up! Notice she is pointing and telling us what to do.
As you can see, her hair was a mess. That is usually what she looks like when we pick her up from school. We call her FiFi. And by the way, those are Pocahantas braids as she calls them.
The tea party quickly turned into a Tickle Fight! She and Ron play so rough together. Again she was acting like her Uncle Ronnie with the camera faces.
We are heading down to Cut Off on Thursday morning for Telly and Sam's wedding. We can't wait to see everyone. I will be sure to post pictures from our trip.

"The" desk

We decided that Santa would bring Gracie an art desk for Christmas, because she loves to draw and color. Well, I made the mistake of printing out a bunch of different desks off of the internet so that I could decide which one was the best desk for the best price. Unfortunately, Gracie got a hold of the pictures and informed us that she wanted the one in the picture shown above. Of course, it is the most expensive one and the hardest to find. I have called every store that sells Little Tikes in our area and no one has it in stock. I could order it on-line, but it would cost an extra $30 in oversize shipping charges, on top of regular shipping and handling. I thought for sure that Gracie would forget about it, but nooooooooo.........she specifically remembers the "Design Master Studio" desk and I fear she will be upset if Santa brings her a different kind. So, I'm on a mission to find this freaking desk. If anyone sees one, please call me and I will give you my credit card number!

Preschool Fun

The teachers at Primrose sent these pictures home of Gracie. I guess her tower was about to tumble! In the second picture, it looks like she is concentrating very hard........she's very intense in everything she does. And very dramatic, I might add.

New School Picture

Gracie's Fall school pictures came in! Ron and I can't get over how grown up she looks. She doesn't look like a 3 year old. So different from her school pictures taken in March of this year. Her hair has gotten lighter, although she still has the red streak in the back!























This picture was taken in March of 2006.

Smile and say "Cheeseburger"!

Gracie and I went to a grand opening of a new McDonalds near our house on Sunday. She got to meet Ronald McDonald. She was star struck! There was face painting, birthday cake, free toys, door prizes and a special stage show. Gracie was very much "into" the show and screaming "Cheeseburger" to raise the smile-o-meter (ya had to be there, to get it). There was a ton of people and she just refused to go home until she got to take a picture with Ronald.

Go Warriors!

Friday night we went to the local high school, North Cobb Warriors, football game. Our friends, Emily and Michael and their little boy, William were there too. The kids had a great time. As you can see in the pictures, Gracie has a dorito face........she ate a hot dog, 2 bags of chips, a bag of peanuts and she was still hungry!

It was a very exciting game. Warriors won 28-27 in double overtime!

Twinkle Toes

Plie'








Arabesque






Pas

Thursday is "Restaurant" night

Every Thursday, after Gracie's dance class, we like to try a new restaurant around town. Last night, Gracie insisted on going to the restaurant that serves orange juice and ice cream! That would be Henry's Louisiana Grill. Henry's is located in the heart of downtown Acworth and sits near the railroad tracks. Gracie gets a thrill every time a train passes by. We've eaten there a couple times and really enjoyed the food.....it's a little taste of home. I had the St. Charles shrimp and lobster scampi and Ron had the blackened Mahi Mahi....however, nothing can beat Ginny's Balcony-fried shrimp and crab/corn chowder (God, I miss that stuff). Gracie gulped down her popcorn shrimp and, of course, her ice cream with chocolate syrup and sprinkles...washed down with orange juice, of all things. I will try and post pictures of Gracie in her dance outfit tonight. Her new words are "totally" and "completely"....and she uses them in the right context! She's a trip.

Granny Eyes

This picture is kind of old, but I just had to post it. It was taken this Spring, and her expression is too funny. Gracie has her Granny Joyce's eyes and acts just like her Uncle Ronnie.

Move over Emeril

Tonight Gracie helped me prepare dinner. She kept saying "I'm such a great helper" and I kept praising her....she was so proud. Unsurprisingly, she didn't want to eat what she had helped create. So, she had peanut butter and cheese, her usual.

P.S. She got her first "sad face" at school today :(

Big Girl Bed !

In case you haven't heard....Gracie has been sleeping in her own bed, by herself, for about a month now! We are so proud of her. Last night, however, I slept with her because she kept crying "I see Halloween" (see post below for the story). I just couldn't resist taking this picture. She's such an angel when she's sleeping.

Scarecrows and Bubbles

On Sunday, Gracie and I planted flowers in the front yard and put out our Fall decorations. Here, Gracie is posing with the scarecrow on our front porch. When we were shopping at Walmart, she kept asking to go see the Halloween stuff.....but when we got close, she informed me "I don't like Halloween, I like Christmas much better!" She was a little freaked out by the dancing skeleton.













She's such a ham sometimes!

She loves blowing bubbles.......she just makes a big ole sticky mess!

Cagle's Dairy Farm

A few weekends ago, we took Gracie to this little dairy farm in Holly Springs, Georgia. She had a great time learning where milk comes from and also discovered something called "Chocolate Milk". Needless to say, that is all she wants to drink now! She rode a pony, fed the goats and watched a pig race. We also went through an enormous corn maize ---- and got lost. It was great fun!