Fun in the Sun

I love summer time! I love that it calls for
swimming on a really hot day! I love ice cream
and snow cones! Getting to walk around bare
foot because I hate wearing shoes. And out of
all of these activities swimming is my favorite
thing to do! Eating Bahama Bucks snow cones
is probably right up there with it too. Haha!

Grace shares these similarities with her
mommy! This girl is like a little fish when
it comes to being in the water. Which is also
just like me. I hate getting out and I could swim
forever and ever! Grace throws a fit when she
has to get out.

So swimming is just what we did on Sunday
evening. It was very relaxing indeed! Grace
had a blast in her new little floaty. It has a neat
little sun visor on it and cute little handle bars
to make it look like a jet ski. She thoroughly enjoyed
it! We would tell her to grab the handle bars and
say "vroom, vroom!". It was so cute because she
would do it right back to us. Then she would lay back
in it to relax as you can see in the pictures below.
I'm sure that she can't wait to go swimming again,
which will be very, very soon!

Making Progress

Brad and I have been working on the alphabet
with Grace lately. She has several toys and
objects that help her learn it as well. So far, she
has been able to get to letter "d" when singing the
song. She also knows when to say "l,m,n,o".
Her favorite part is "y" because she yells it real
loud! As far as the ones that she can actually identify when
looking at the letters is "m" and "y". I have a little
video of it to show you. I'm proud and amazed at how
she's coming along with learning this.

See, isn't it awesome? I love watching this over and over.
Especially when she holds up the letter "m". She stops
and poses for a minute and it's so cute! I tried to get her
to show more, but she was done after the letter "y". I'll
try to get more to post for you all to see. And we'll keep
working on it and making more progress.

What a Man! What a Man!

.....what a mighty good man he is!
Bradley that is! He's such a wonderful,
caring, loving, heartwarming husband.
And the same goes for being a father.
Our little girl adores no one more than her
daddy. She may want mommy a lot, but
I think daddy has stolen her heart! I don't
think, I know! When she still falls
asleep only with daddy, when she cackles
and carries on with him like with no one else,
when she goes around the house
yelling for daddy, that's how I know
that she truly loves her daddy!So even though I have posted this a
couple days late, Happy Father's Day honey!
Grace and I are extremely blessed to have you
in our lives. Thank you for everything that
you do for us. Thank you for always supporting
Grace, for letting her know that you'll always be
there, and for just being you! I couldn't ask for
anything better than that. And frankly, I don't
think Grace could either. I hope that you had a
wonderful day!

A Visit from Great Grandma

Grace got a good visit from her great grandma
a couple of weeks ago. She thoroughly enjoyed
the company as well as Brad and I did. This grandma
lives a good distance away from us so our visits
are far and few between unfortunately. So
when we do get to visit it's always a blessing indeed.

It didn't take Grace very long to warm up to her.
Her great grandma still has this amazing energy
that is out of this world! She picks Grace up like she's
as light as a feather. And believe me people, she is not
so much. Haha! This girl is solid through and through.

Here are the good times that were taken by
yours truly.......She had such a blast playing with her blocks
and getting to play catch with her great grandma.
The visit was truly a delight and hopefully
we'll get to see one another sooner rather than later.

The Cool Kid

Grace picked herself out a new pair of
sunglasses this past week while we were
shopping for my nephew's birthday present.

She loooves these new sunglasses.
Normally she would toss any other
pair right off. But no, these are different.
These are special because she picked
them out all by herself.This is when we showed up at
Colton's birthday party. She just sat
back and chilled, and it was the
funniest thing. She was standing there
like "yeah I'm cool!". Haha!
Aren't they cute on her? I think she did a
fantastic job on picking out her own sunglasses!
You're such a wonderful girl Grace! You're becoming
so independent and it's hard for me to adjust, but
I know that it will only make you a stronger person.
I love you, you sweet girl!

The Little Man

One year ago today the Cooksey family was
blessed with their first son. He is also
the family's first grandson of me and my
brother's generation. And my first nephew!Little Colton, how sweet you are! I love how much you
resemble my brother. Haha! It's crazy seeing that much
of a resemblance between you two.

You're Grace's best friend. You two get along so well and
I'm so happy for that. Although I think that the two of
you had your first little spat a couple of weeks ago over a phone.
Haha! Too cute! You give each other kisses all the time, and
I love how she lets you pull up on her and doesn't mind!
You can tell that you two will always be there for each other.

I love that you're still small enough to hold like a baby!
Your cute little feet and your sweet little hands.

Like with my own baby, time has gone by way too fast!
You're such a smart little boy! You're going to be a little
speed racer with how fast you can crawl.

And I must say that you're going to be quite the little
heart breaker with your beautiful blue eyes and such a
stunning little smile! You've already stolen all of our hearts
with your charm!

So Happy Birthday my little man! I can't wait to see you
this afternoon. I can't wait to capture all the wonderful
memories that we are going to have on this day with you.
Although we wish that you could stay little forever, we know
that you're going to go so far in your second year of life.
I can't wait to see what you will discover and how you will
evolve this year. We love you so so much!

Already?!

Well it's already here!

Grace is 18 months!

Where have you gone time? Why did you go by so fast?

I don't care what anyone says, she's
still my little baby!

Well if you can consider 34 inches tall little for
an 18 month old! Haha!

She has made so many accomplishments
in the past 6 months.

Of course you all already know how well she
can talk. It amazes me more and more everyday
how well she is talking.

She's getting better at feeding herself, but we
still can't get her to hold the spoon upright.
She always turns the spoon upside down when
she puts it in her mouth. Silly girl!

One of my favorite things that she does is when
you tell her it's bath time, she rips that diaper
right off and runs straight to the bathroom. It's so funny!

When she's done with her milk cup she takes
it straight to the kitchen and puts it in the sink!
Such a good girl!

She loves to snuggle up on the couch with one
of her favorite books and blanket. She will
sit there and read them aloud in her own little
words.

When we sing the alphabet song she knows when
to say "m" and "y". And when we read her counting
books every number is nine. Haha!

Her favorite song is the "Itsy Bitsy Spider".
With hand motions and all!

So here are some updated pictures of my little girl
as of this morning. She's as happy as can be!

She loves playing with mommy's endless amount of shoes!
And walking in them too!
She's so beautiful! I cannot believe I got her
posing like this! So sweet!
Grace Elizabeth you are absolutely one of a kind!
Your personality beams so bright! Mommy and Daddy
love you so so much! I can't wait to see what you will
accomplish next! I feel like there are so many more
things that you have accomplished, but it's so hard
to remember all of them. I love you my little baby!
I wish you could stay this little forever! But I know that
you'll grow up to be a very independent woman with
determination and brilliance! Happy 18 months!

Flour, Water, and Fun!

I know I've mentioned before that anytime
that I'm in the kitchen, Grace has to be right there
with me. She's always curious to know what's
going on or what's being made.

Just the other night was one of those times.
Here I am mixing some biscuit dough and Grace
is standing on her tip toes trying to see the best
that she can. She gets a little frustrated because
she's just not tall enough yet to see what's
going on. Now Grace has a special drawer in the
kitchen. She has her own utensils and a copper
bottom pan that she loves to carry around.
It's too cute! So anyway, she goes to her drawer
and pulls out a little green bowl and a wooden
mixing spoon of her own. She sets them up on
the counter next to me and wants me to put
some of the biscuit mix in her bowl so that she
can stir something too. So sweet!

Well, I got a better idea. I thought to myself that
she would just love to play in some flour and water.
It makes a paste, and she can have loads of fun
with it. And that's just what she did.I did have to show her that you're
supposed to put the water in the flour.
And so the experimenting began!It even became a lotion to her. Haha! She
was squishing it all in between her toes!....add a little more water....a good ol' taste test :/Then daddy came home and she had to show
him what a wonderful job she was doing
at mixing and stirring.Now it was daddy's turn to try it out! Haha!He was such a good sport!

She is going to be such a blast to bake with
when the holidays are around. I had a lot
of fun doing this little activity with her.

You're such a sweet girl Grace!

On the Farm

Yesterday Grace and her daddy went to play
with her pretend farm.

This is what Grace likes to do when she's
on the "farm".

Always greet your guests!Invite them to come in.Offer them something to drink.
In Grace's case, she loves to have tea parties.
Her favorite tea friend is no one other than.....
yeah you guessed it.....daddy!....but she has to be the one to pour.Make sure that you share!And make sure that they get plenty to drink!Another one of Grace's personal favorites is to
crawl all over daddy.Okay, time for a pretend nap. Grace
went and grabbed her blanket and found
the coziest spot that she could find.Time to wake up daddy!So that's a day with Grace on the "farm".
We had so much fun with our little
imaginative girl!

Have a good night everyone!

Don't forget to leave me a comment.

Beautiful Dancer

I'm so excited about this post that I'm
going to share with all of you. This lovely
young lady is absolutely breath taking.
Not only with her smile and personality, but
with her gracious ability to dance.

You see I've always wanted to be a dancer
myself, but decided to pursue my love of art
down a different road. So when I got the
opportunity to photograph this session I was
ecstatic. I was head over hills, could not wait
to photograph her.

And so who is she?
Well everyone meet Allie.Allie is absolutely inspiring with her dancing.
She makes it look so easy. And she's amazing to
watch. Oh how words could never fully describe
about how wonderful she is.

I say that she is inspirational not only because
of her dancing, but because she never
lets anything come between her and her passion.
She lives everyday to the fullest and lets nothing
stand in the way. And for such a young girl to
have this kind of drive is inspiration to me.

Here are just a few more from her session.She's got skill!
Allie thank you so much for giving me this wonderful
opportunity. There has become such a special place
in my heart for you. You always have this radiant smile
every time I see you, and it just brightens my day.
And just so you know, you're gonna go far with the
talent that you present. You are phenomenal!