I'm convinced...

I'm convinced that Grace is the sweetest & cutest girl in the world! In the past week or so, here are some of the things that she has done.. She was at her gymnastics class at the YMCA and the teacher had the kids working on their balance by putting their arms stretched outwards and walking along a balance beam. Grace took her turn and she did a great job, the girl behind her was having a hard time staying up without falling off the beam and Grace went back to her and held her hand and helped her across. I was so proud of her, she is just so sweet. Another day, I had worked about a 12 hour day and came home and was a bit tired. It was about 9:30 PM and Grace had just gone upstairs to brush her teeth and when she was finished brushing she came down to say goodnight. On her way downstairs she saw me laying on the couch and saw me yawn. Now obviously if I'm laying on the couch and yawning then I must be ready to go to sleep too right? Grace came over to me and put a blanket over me and pulled up her chair next to me and started singing me to sleep. After she sang to me she gave me a kiss on the cheek and said I love you daddy, goodnight. It was just one of those moments that was just precious and that I probably won't forget. Those are the things that I love the most about being a daddy. Yesterday we were playing in her play room and she asked me if I wanted her to tell me some stories and I said of course I do.. She just started looking around the room and included whatever she saw into her story. She has such a big imagination. After telling me a couple of stories, she came over to me and said that she really misses Grandpa. I asked what she misses the most about him and she said that she misses how he would always play with her and then her eyes started to tear up. I told her that Grandpa used to love to play with her and then she got a smile on her face and said that she knows and that he is with God now and that he is her angel. It is really cool how she is only a couple months shy of 4 years old and she thinks of her family so much and loves them all so much. My family lives on the East coast and we only get to see them for about 1 week per year and Grace still knows who everyone is and talks about them. The other day she started talking to me about our last trip out there and the fun she had with her cousins, aunts, uncles, Nana and Papa.. She told me that she wants to get on an airplane tomorrow and go see them again. I love that she has such a big heart and that she loves her family. ~02/09/10

Happy 30th Birthday Nicolette!!

So Nicolette joined the 30 club! For her birthday we went out to one of Nicolette's favorite restaurants which is called Iron Chef. It is such a cool place to go.. the guy who cooks our food does it right in front of you but before he does he puts on a show for you. There are about 6-8 people sitting at the table which surrounds the flat stove that he cooks on . The first thing he does is takes your order and then he starts flipping his cooking utensils around and throwing them up and catching them, lighting things on fire and things like that. It is really a cool thing to see, I wish I had a video clip of it to show. Anyways, we ordered filet mignon steak, lobster, rice and shrimp. I don't normally eat steak but I can see why filet mignon is so expensive! That was without a doubt one of the best meals I've had in a long time. If anyone ever wants to go, make sure to call me first! Earlier in the day Grace and I had filled out birthday cards for Nic. I asked Grace if she wanted to give the cards to mommy and she said yes.. When she got upstairs to give her the cards she opened the door and started singing happy birthday to her before she gave her the cards. It was so cute. I was not expecting her to sing and did not tell her to do it. She just does the most awesome things. After dinner we were planning on going out to see Avatar in 3D at the Imax theater but ended up going home because we were a little tired and the show was a late start. (see, those are the things that happen when you get OLD) I hope that Nicolette had a great birthday and that she knows how much we love her. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! ~01/21/10

30 Things I Love About Nicolette

One of the things that Nicolette's Uncle and his family does on their family's birthdays is say the things that they love about eachother and I think it is a pretty cool thing so I decided to steal that idea from them. Since today is Nicolette's 30th birthday, I decided to make a list - here are 30 of the many things that I love about her.

1. I love the way she loves her entire family.
2. I love that we have been together for 14 years and she still tells me every day that she loves me.
3. I love the LOVE that she has for Grace.
4. I love that she supports me in whatever I do, even when it is crazy and doesn't make sense.
5. I love the way she smells.
6. I love the way she does Grace's hair and always makes her look so cute.
7. I love the way she decorates our house.
8. I love her selflessness.
9. I love her beautiful smile.
10. I love the way she works a full time job and still never complains about coming home and doing as much as she does around the house (we appreciate it all)
11. I love how she still holds my arm or my hand when we go out, like we did when we were still teenagers.
12. I love how organized she is.
13. I love how she puts up with me when I'm being grumpy.
14. I love how she is on top of everything all the time.
15. I love the way she dances when there is a song on that she likes.
16. I love how she helps teach Grace how to count and do her ABCs.
17. I love the fact that she'll do things with me, our friends & family that a lot of girls wouldn't do.
18. I love that she goes to baseball games and other sporting events with me even though she is not a huge sports fan.
19. I love that she lets me dress up Grace in Patriots gear on Sundays - and that she wears them too.
20. I love how she irons my clothes so I don't have to do it myself (thank you for that!!)
21. I love how she goes into a store and looks for stuff for Grace first and never thinks of herself.
22. I love watching her with children.
23. I love the way she looks first thing in the morning just as much as I do when she's all dressed up to go out.
24. I love watching her dance with Grace.
25. I love the way she cares for her friends and does whatever she can to help them.
26. I love the way she sings Grace to sleep.
27. I love that she is my best friend.
28. I love that she is a wonderful wife.
29. I love that she is a wonderful mother.
30. I love the beautiful person that she is - everyting about her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIC. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

~01/20/2010

Merry Christmas!!

Nana Grace's ornament

Hanging it with Gracie

Christmas tree!

Christmas tree

Looking cute in her shades!

Time to open some presents!!

My little pony toys

Babies from Nana & Papa

A swing for Gracie's babies

Grace holding Alan's dog Maxine

And yes, the dog is wearing shoes

More presents - camo monkey pants

Annette getting an ornament with Richard on it. We miss you.

Grace's recliner that matches our couch

Grace's new bike!!

Helmet and pads on and ready to go!

Look daddy.. I can ride my bike!!

After a long day of fun Grace CRASHED!

Well, we got moved into our new house a couple of days before Christmas and so far we are about 90% moved in. It is funny how excited Grace was to get into our new place. The day that we were moving she looked sad and said daddy, I'm going to miss this house as we were getting all of the stuff put onto the truck. Later when we got to the new house I asked her if she was still sad that we were moving and this time she said no, this house is bigger so I'm not going to miss the other house. I thought it was pretty funny. She was very ready for Christmas. We ended up putting up our Christmas tree before we finished unpacking all of our stuff. We still have some boxes in the garage that need to be unpacked but we'll get it done. I'm very glad that we were able to get moved in before Christmas so we were able to have people over and actually have the room to make people feel comfortable. Christmas was nice, we started the day off with Annette and Nicolette making breakfast for everyone.. they made eggs, sausage, waffles, fruit, toast, juice.. you get the point. After a while of talking and hanging out, it was that time -- time to dig into the presents! I don't know who was more excited, me or Grace. I was excited to see her open her presents like I always am. She got a lot of presents from mommy & daddy, Nana & Papa sent some really nice things to her, Grandma, Alan & Bobbi, and Peter and Nicole. (Sorry if I left someone out) She really loves the stroller that she got to push her dolls in and the bike that she was given. The holidays have been great this year. I really missed my family with them being so far away, although it was great to go home and see them in November! We all missed Richard this year during Thanksgiving and Christmas. With the holidays here and me missing my family and Richard, it was still very nice to have the company of the people who were here. I have realized very much this past year how much of a blessing each day is and to really cherish the time that you get to spend with your loved ones and your friends. Maybe next year I will take Nic and Grace to spend Christmas on the East Coast. That would be great! ~12/29/09

Moving day in 2 days!!

So we are finally about to move into our new place. We are going to be renting a house with the option to purchase it if we want to. I will be happy just to have the extra room. Our current house is getting smaller by the day! The home that we are moving to is a shade under 3,000 sq ft. which is a bit bigger than the one we are living in now. It will be a lot easier to have people over and not be sitting on eachother's lap all the time. We have a large kitchen, living room and play room for Grace. The back yard is very nice! It is big and has a fence all around it so Grace can go play outside and we won't have to worry about her quite as much. There is a big shed with an attached playhouse for Grace to play in. We are all very excited about living there.. not so excited about having to move! We are lucky to have some of Nicolette's family there to help out. Bye for now, just wanted to make a quick post before I take down my computer. ~12/16/09

Thankful

I just wanted to write a quick note to say how very thankful I am for the health of my family. Nicolette and I just got done watching My Sister's Keeper and it was one of the saddest movies that I have ever seen. It was a movie about a family dealing with a little girl with leukemia. As I was watching it I started to think about Grace and what I would do and how I would feel if we were in that position. The movie brought tears to my eyes and made me think about how precious life is and how thankful I am that my family has good health. That is about all I wanted to say, I was just really moved by that film and figured I'd post my thoughts on it. I recommend watching it if you haven't seen it. Just make sure you have your kleenex! ~12/13/09

Grace's 1st time bowling!!

Grace playing in the arcade at the bowling alley

More arcade guns..

Grace and Mommy making a build a bear

Grace sewing up her bear

What a goof ball

Waiting to see how many pins she knocked down

Grace and Daddy bowling!

Good job Gracie!!

Best day I've ever had bowling!!!

Grace bowling

Grace getting her bowling shoes on

On December 6th after we went and visited Richard's grave site for his birthday we went down to Narrows Plaza Bowl to celebrate Ahna's 4th birthday. This is the first time that Grace came bowling with me and it was AWESOME! Every week that I go bowling for my league she always says that when she gets bigger she will come bowling with me. We had a lot of fun and she was so excited. She was in such a rush to get her little bowling shoes on and get down on the lanes to bowl. We got her a 6 pound ball and I went up to the foul line with her and we counted to three and threw the ball down the lane. I loved watching how happy she was to watch the ball go down and hit the pins. This kind of thing is the best part of being a daddy! After a couple of games she got a little tired and wanted to stop and go play in the arcade where we played for about a half hour. Next it was back to the party where the kids were all making little build a bear type stuffed animals. Grace and Mommy made a little panda bear. It was a great day! We had such a good time bowling that I took her back a couple of days later and we did it again. I told her that the next day that I have off of work that we would go to the bowling alley and bowl a few games and then go to a movie and after that I'd take her to lunch. I don't know who is more excited, me or her. I love my little girl! ~12/11/09