Seriously

How could anyone look at these pictures and not think that dogs are the cutest creatures on the planet? I know some of you think that I am crazy and obessive about my dog, but wouldn't you be if this is what you had to look at all the time? This is what I found when I walked into the bedroom today. Scottie was completely out and snoring because he had basically stayed up all night studying for his test this morning. (He got an A on it, he's so smart!) Kingsley was competely out and snoring because... hmm...because... he's a fat, lazy, sausage. But he has his work to do as well. He has to make sure and snuggle up against us when it's time for us to get up, making it impossible to get out of bed. He also has to entertain Gracie by chasing her around while she squeaks his toy. It's a very loud and sometimes annoying form of entertainment, but since she doesn't have any siblings to play with we allow it to go on for awhile. (By the way does anyone know a doctor who treats infertility for free? No? Well I guess the annoying squeaking game will have to go on for a little while longer:( Anyway, he also has the job of putting his head on my lap when I'm sad, jumping up to greet us as soon as we open the door, winking, yawning, and doing anything we ask for a piece of cheese. Seriously how could someone not love this, or any dog. I would bet that if a Chinese man saw him he would put down his fork and knife, repent of his wicked dog eating ways, and start his own non-profit animal shelter. (Can you tell I have issues with China?)
I think I'll stop now and go stare at my cute dog for a while.

My Little Ballerina

Gracie's dance studio had a family night on Tuesday. They let the parents come in and see the dances they have been working on; it's their way of making up for not having a winter recital. The girls have been working on their dances for a few weeks now, and they don't know all of the steps by themselves. The parents were sitting in front of the mirrors, and the girls couldn't see Ms. Trish very well especially in the Lion King dance. It doesn't matter because they still looked adorable. The first video is of Gracie and her friend from preschool dancing together. They are two of the silliest girls I have ever seen together. Despite the fact that they have been together all day at preschool, they still jump around, hug each other, and giggle uncontrollably before dance class. The second video shows me in all my moronic glory. I still can't get it through my head that you can't turn the camera sideways. So I will apologize once again if you get a pain in you neck while trying to watch the video. The last one is their little orphan Annie dance. I think this one will be my favorite when they do it for the recital. The video quality isn't very good, maybe if I had a better digital camera I could take higher quality videos. What's that you say, my 30th birthday is coming up? I would never think of asking for a big present or money towards a big present for such an insignificant birthday. No, I would rather let this milestone of a day go by quietly while we enjoy an evening at Pancake City and drink from their 1981 stained plastic glasses. I'm a very simple person you know. :)

Gracie and her preschool friend

Lion King Dance

Tomorrow

Just Like Daddy

I have some video and pictures of Gracie's dance class to put on here, but I couldn't resist doing these first. She is just too cute! When I came into her room tonight this is what I found. She is "studying" just like Daddy. If you've ever been around when Scottie is studying you will see the exact same picture. He has his notes in a binder, highlighting important info, and his laptop is always right next to him so he can listen to lectures. Gracie is using her little learning laptop she got for Christmas, and a while back Scottie gave her a binder with old notes for her to highlight. I couldn't help but smile when I saw her, but it also made me a little sad. She really misses her daddy when he is studying. Unfortunately this has become the norm at our house. Daddy shut up in the bedroom studying while Gracie and I find ways to entertain ourselves. This quarter hasn't been much fun, especially the last few weeks. It seems as if Scottie never gets to take a break. Which is apparent with the empty cracker packages laying on the floor, note cards sprinkled throughout the house, clothes laying here and there. He has been trying really hard to keep his stuff picked up, but it's hard to remember to pick everything up at 3:30 in the morning, or whatever crazy hour he goes to bed. I can also tell he has been studying a lot when I find myself getting cranky over small things. It hits me out of no where, then I realize that I'm either getting lonely or I'm tired of doing a lot of the housework by myself. I just have to remember that this will one day be over and he will have an awesome job to show for it. Sometimes I feel like George's dad on Seinfeld, "Serenity Now!!!!"
Oh- and just in case your wondering, yes Kingsley has to follow us into every room. He's sweet like that!

A Picnic in January

I don't what the weather is like for all of you, but we are freezing our buns off here in Missoura. It's just too cold to go anywhere. Of course Gracie and I sit around weeping for all the poor doggies stuck in their tiny wooden dog houses, or their concrete pins. (Scottie is not happy that Gracie has inherited my passion for animals living conditions, mainly dogs ) But that's not the purpose of today's blog. I told Gracie that we should do something fun today and she suggested a picnic. I thought that would be fun, so we planned out our menu and headed to Wal-Mart. We tried to think of summer type foods in the hopes that we would forget about the below freezing temperatures we've been having. I had the idea to try and fry chicken for the first time in my life. There are a few reasons why I have never made it before and they are: #1 I HATE any kind of meat that is still attached to the bone (Mom- remember that cornish hen we had at the Dixie Stampede? I had to cover it with a napkin because I couldn't stand to look at it in it's true form) #2 I don't like to deep fry my food. I like fries from McDonalds, but I would never fry french fries on my own. #3 I despise the way my house smells after cooking things in oil. But since it is a picnic staple I went ahead and tried my hand at fried chicken. I did excatly as Paula Deen said, but I have to say that I was not converted tonight. I will continue to bake and grill my chicken and feel good about all the fat I'm not putting into my body. We also had fruit salad, raw veggies with dip, Doritos (you can't have a picnic without those) and sweet tea. Gracie spread her picnic blanket on the floor and we had a good time. She made me put my glass of tea close to my face in the picture, she thought it was a good pose. I wish she would have posed my body for me, I look huge from that angle! The last picture is her showing off her outfit she put together today. She got the shirt from Dad and Carol for Christmas. The shirt has a picture of a princesses body without a face. It cracks me up! That girl is so stinkin cute! Thanks for the picnic idea Gracie!

New Year's Eve

Well, I finally sat down and download some pictures from Christmas break. We have been pretty busy since we got back. I have been subbing a lot, which is an anwered prayer for our bank account! Plus we have been getting back into the swing of things, no more lazy days of sitting around with family. So you can scroll down and see some of the pictures we took over break. This is a picture from New Year's Eve. We feel so blessed that we got to see our friends Christian and Emily over the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. We have such a good time with them. We went out to the Olive Garden for dinner. I was so happy!!! I was going to try something new, but I don't get to eat here very often anymore so why risk it? Afterwards we went to Cold Stone Creamery. I hardly ever eat ice cream, but I thought I would try some. Of course the one time I get ice cream I find an eyelash in it, so I doubt I will stray too far from my beloved brownies and cookies again! It didn't matter because it was so fun to talk with our friends. As Christian would say "Good times!"

A few pictures

By the time we got up to Hagerstown we were total bums and didn't take very many pictures. Scottie did take a picture of her modeling her new earrings.
Grace had a blast playing ping pong at her Uncle Joe's house. Their room isn't big enough to fold the table down all the way, so they just hit it back and forth. Grace had such a good time. She is sporting her new crocs with the fleece liner that she got from Uncle Joe. They have been great for the morning rush when Gracie doesn't want to put shoes on, thanks Joe!

Here is a picture of Jeff and Penny's cat. It doesn't have a name although Grace calls him Jello or Chello, I'm not quite sure which one she is saying. She loves playing with him, but I wouldn't call him the friendliest cat in the world. He scares Kingsley to death. He will wait at the top of the stairs and then without warning come racing down the stairs and scare Kinglsey. The sounds that come out of my dogs mouth are indescribable. It almost sounds like he is being run over, and the cat never even touches him. I know, my dog has some mental issues.
Gracie had a good time with Scottie's parents. They took her shopping and to the movies. They went to see the Water Horse. It's a children's movie about the Loc Ness monster, trying to show that it isn't really a monster, but it's from a legend called a water horse. They said that Grace liked,but got upset towards the end. Think- Free Willy. The men were shooting at it while it tried to get away, and then at the end it had to leave the little boy who had raised it because people thought it was a monster. I guess we should wait a few more years before we let her watch it again. I had no idea it would be so emotional, the previews made it look like a happy movie. Oh well, she still enjoyed going to the movies with her grandparents.

She's Growing Up!

Grace was so excited to see her best friend Gabby. She hadn't seen Gabby since her birthday. We went to the mall (I was in heaven) and let the girls play in the kid's play center. Kim said that Gabby has tried three times to get her ears pierced, but has chickened out every time. So this time she said she would do it with Gracie. Grace had told us a few weeks before that she didnt' want her ears pierced, but as soon as Gabby said it she wanted to do it to. So we headed to Libby Lou's. The girl asked who wanted to get it done first, and both girls pointed at each other. It was so funny. But Grace said that she would go first and Gabby said she just wanted to watch before she decided. We could tell right then that Gabby was backing out. Kim felt bad because she felt that Grace only did it because Gabby said that she wanted to, but we all know Grace wouldn't do something unless she really wanted to. So I told Kim that she shouldn't feel bad, I'm sure Gabby will come around one of these days. :) I'm glad that Grace got it done. She looks so cute.

We are waiting for the girls to get ready. I can honestly say that I was more nervous than Gracie. I was afraid my sweaty hands were going to scare her, but she was ready to go!

The poor baby has no idea what's about to happen. She only jumped a little, and she didn't cry very much. I think it scared her, and she didn't like everybody looking at her. She get's really embarassed. But after a few minutes she was fine. The lady asked Gabby if she was ready and she said no. Grace put her hands on her hips and said "Gabby, you said you were going to do it too!" She makes me laugh!

Kim bought the girls frappicuinos (misspelled) from Starbucks. She said she owed Gracie it because Gabby backed out. Kim is so funny.
Don't they look cute? They are such trendy girls!

Back Home in Indiana

Sadly we didn't take very many pictures over Christmas, and with good reason. We all got sick! First it was Gracie, then Scottie got it, and then I finally got it. Curt was also very sick. So it wasn't a very merry Christmas. But at least we got to be together, plus we got to see Kelsey and meet her boyfriend Jackson. This is a picture of Gracie and Stuart opening presents. Gracie still wasn't feeling great. But that didn't stop her from loving her new jungle tree thing. It came with all kinds of animals and a little jeep for the rangers to drive around in. We had to drag her away from it so she could go to bed.

Here we are at Mom's house. Gracie is in the middle of the mountain of presents. Every year mom says it's going to be a small Christmas, and every year it takes 10 minutes just to pass the presents out! Small Christmas - yeah right. This is Grace with her Fisher Price digital camera. She has been wanting one of these for quite a while. Now she can stop grabbing ours and taking random useless pictures. If you look at her camera now you will see a large amount of pictures of books, knees, computer screens, half of Kingleys face, and on and on...

She also got her beloved horse Jackson . He is the horse that belongs to her American Girl doll Nicki. He is huge, and of course she has wanted to start sleeping with him. He takes up so much room, but she doesn't mind. Can you see Curt in the background? Unfortunately that's about as far as he got that day. Well, after he came back from the ER. Scottie only came down to open presents. Then he changed into his new p.j pants he got from mom and went back up to bed. It was a lively day!

Here is Kelsey trying to save face on the Wii. She learned the hard way, along with everyone else that you can't beat Gracie in golf on the Wii. It is insane! As my fifeteen year old cousin Mason put it, "it's a humbling experience to play golf against Gracie." You go girl!!!

Christmas morning

This is what "Santa" left Gracie on Christmas morning. Santa is clever and hung her dress from the ceiling. (Just so you know I wasn't Santa that night, Scottie is the creative one) She loved all her presents. She got a fairy dress that has lights in the skirt, a scottie dog tea set, a stamp set, a baby carrier, baby bottles, and baby doll diapers. She has been acting like a little mommy. It's so cute! She also had presents to open and a full stocking. Complete witht the Last Unicorn movie. If you haven't heard of it then you probably weren't born before 1982, because that's when the movie was made. It is the worst movie, but Gracie loves it. Just to give you a little insight the main character's voice is by Mia Farrow... and she sings.


Kingsley has a stocking too. It has a Corgi face embroidered on it. It is way cute!! He got some treats and a little toy kitten. He managed to have a hole in it and ripped the stuffing out in about 20 minutes. Gracie got really upset when she realized that Scottie and I didn't have anything in our stocking. (medical school budgets don't really allow for husband/wife presents. One day....) Anyway, Grace pulled our stockings down and started dividing her presents up and putting them into ours. It was so sweet, I almost started crying. She has such a sweet heart, even if she doesn't want to show it all the time. :)