8 months, broken bones, and other happenings...

Well our little G is growing up so fast. She is 8, almost 9 months already. It seriously seems like we just brought her home a couple months ago! It makes me sad how fast time goes. But at the same time I love watching how she grows and changes everyday, good or bad. Boy does she know how to throw a fit. Can someone say attitude?! How did we get so lucky :) She is growing like a weed. At her 8 month appointment she was almost 18 lbs (17 lbs 14 oz) and 27 1/4 in, but she can't seem to keep up with her feet. Poor girl looks like a clown if I put shoes on her :) We're still waiting for her to take off crawling. She turn in circles and scoot backwards, just hasn't figured out how to work the forward gear! But that's okay with me. I'm not ready to start chasing her around yet!!! She still loves to eat her veggies, and is finally starting to eat her fruits. When we would give them to her before, she would take a few bites, make faces or gag, and be done. This girls thinks she needs to eat/drink whatever everyone else is eating. She actually drinks out of a cup pretty well! And the best yet...she started sleeping through the night again!!! That makes her mom VERY happy :) She had never slept in her crib, other than naps. So one night we decided we would try it. Sure enough, she slept. All. Night. Long :)

She's not a fan of lemons :)

At the beginning of the month (Mar. 1) Ty was playing basketball with his city league team. He called me on his way home saying he had hurt his arm and wrist. I didn't think much of it, told him he was fine and that I would see him at home. He got there and we went about our nightly routine getting ready for bed. He told me he couldn't bend his elbow at all. I took a look. It looked a little swollen, but not serious, so I told him to man up :) A few minutes later his step-mom calls telling him his Grma Angell collapsed and they were taking her to the E.R. So he hurried out the door to go see her. While he was there they told him that he might as well let the doctor look at his arm. They took and xray and found a fracture in his radial head (elbow), and recommended he see a specialist the next day. So we went to Cody to Dr. Winzenried's office and met with Dr. Clark. He took a look at the xray, and said there was a possibility that it might need surgery. He sent us to get a ct-scan, and said he would call in a couple days to let us know what it showed. The next day they called and sure enough, a surgery was scheduled. Once again, how do we get so lucky?! So on the 8th, he went in for surgery. They ended up putting two screws in and everything went well! He started therapy a few days after, and had been going three times a week. They expected it to be 10 weeks before he has full motion again. I think it will be a lot faster, but I'm sure he will drag it out as long as possible. He's enjoying not having to change any diapers :)

So other than that we haven't had much happening. Ty has been busy with school and checking cows. He can't do much else. We can't wait for warm weather! I think we are all going a little stir-crazy. And G loves going outside!!! So let's all pray the warm weather is here to stay :) No more snow!!!

Vacation!!!

We were able to take a short little vacation this last week, which was Gracie's first real vacation :) We went to Dallas for the Dallas Safari Club Expo with Grpa and Grma Rael and Ty's step-brother Phil and his wife Becca. We went to Billings on Wednesday (Jan. 5) to do some shopping and stayed the night up there. I was so nervous to fly with little G. She decided that she wasn't going to take a bottle (she usually takes a bottle if it's breast milk) but it was a no-go. So I breast-fed her as we were taking off, and she crashed shortly after :) She slept the whole time until we started descending, but she was still good...just noisy! Such a relief. It was the same story on the flight from Denver to Dallas, except she decided to have a minor blowout. No problem, we were in the front row and had a little extra room, so I just changed her on my lap.

The majority of our time in Dallas was spent at the Expo. It was held at the Dallas Convention Center, which is HUGE!!! There were approximately 780 different booths. Here's a picture that shows about half of the booths. Just an idea of how big this place is...

We spent almost two days at the Expo and didn't make it through everything! It was mostly hunting/fishing outfitters, guns/ammo, and stuff like that. I only wish I were as into it as the guys were :) There were a few things that I enjoyed. There was a lot of artwork, and some home decor that were fun to look at. However most of my entertainment came from watching all different people. Yes I know Lovell has it's share of crazies, but there was a whole different kind of crazy there :) Gracie was such an angel through the whole thing. I think she loved ALL the attention she got from strangers :) I decided next time she goes somewhere, where no one knows her, she is going to have a bow on her head no matter how much she hates it :) We got told "oh HE'S so cute" so many times!!! (She looked exactly how I felt...TIRED)

On Saturday night, we went to the Dallas Mavs/Orlando Magic basketball game. Once again I was worried that G wasn't going to like it. She usually hates anything that's too loud, but she was intrigued by all the lights, music, and especially by the people sitting behind us lol. She did great up until the last few minutes. She was so tired and started to get hungry. Now was one of the times I wished she wanted to take a bottle.

Over all we had a great time!! We ate some really good food, and had enjoyed spending time with everyone! The weather was great (compared to here :)) until we left on Sunday. It rained all morning, and then started snowing as we were leaving to go to the airport. We were told they had already cancelled a bunch of flights out of Dallas that morning, so we were worried we were going to be stuck there another day. Dave and Jennie were going flying to Cancun from Dallas, and they were able to fly out, and luckily they didn't cancel ours either. So we got all checked in and through security and had a half hour or so to wait. So we got a little lunch and walked around to keep Gracie occupied. A few minutes before we were supposed to board, she started getting hungry, so I started feeding her some veggies. Then they call to start boarding, and instead of doing it by section (we were in the last section) they decided to board everyone at once. So I kept feeding her as long as I could. Well she decided she wasn't done, and started screaming as we are trying to board! Anyone who has heard my child scream knows she has a good set of lungs, so I'm sure everyone in the airport was able to hear her. To make matters worse, as we gave the lady our boarding pass, she told us we couldn't sit on the side of the plane that we were assigned to. So since we were one of the last people to board, it took what seemed like forever to figure out where we were gonna sit, all the while Gracie is still screaming. I wanted to die I was so frustrated. Finally I got sat down and got a boob in her mouth (haha yes in times like these this is the only thing that will calm this child down).

After sitting in the plane for an hour and a half (waiting in line to get de-iced) we finally took off for Salt Lake. As I look at our itinerary, I realize we are going to miss our connecting flight to Billings. Awesome, so then I was stressed about that the whole flight. Then to add to my embarrassment and stress, Gracie has a MAJOR blowout as we were descending into Salt Lake. I'm talking up the back and the front!! There was no way I was going to be able to change her in our seats without getting it all over us lol. So we waited till we landed so we could change her in the bathroom. Well, we landed, but sat there for 15 minutes waiting to be taxied into the jet way. So my poor child had to sit there forever with poop all over her before we could finally get up to change her. Poor girl was not happy! To wrap things up, we get off the plane, find out that the next flight to Billings wasn't till 10, and that we were going to be on standby for that flight. The next flight wasn't till the next day. We weren't about to stay there another night, so we try the flights to Cody and were lucky enough to get seats on that flight. Right before they start boarding for that flight, they announce that they need 6 volunteers to stay, because of bad weather?! And that there was a possibility we would have to take a detour to Bozeman. We chanced it and went ahead and got on and made it to Cody!! I won't even get started on our luggage dilemma :) Grma Marla and Grpa Jim, bless their hearts, came and picked us up in the middle of the night, and let us crash at her place!

I was never so glad to get back home! Despite the trip home, it was a fun vacation :) Thank you Grpa and Grma Rael for the fun trip, Grpa and Grma Isbell for rescuing us, Kristin for the ride home from Cody, and Grpa Angell for taking Ty back to Billings so he could get the truck!!! Have I ever mentioned we have the best family ever? :)

At our hotel...

Dallas Mavs game...

Gracie with Aunt Becca...

View from our hotel room...

Place where Pres. Kennedy was assassinated.

Christmas/New Years

The Holidays always seem to be a busy time for us. So many places to go and people to see! And of course I always wait until the last possible minute to do my Christmas shopping. I told Tyler that I was going to get my shopping done before November next year :) We will see if that really happens. We started Christmas early that week. Gr. Grandma Sheri had dinner at her house, and we opened her presents there. Christmas Eve is Gr. Grandpa and Grandma Angell's night for dinner and presents. After we were done there, and after I helped my dad wrap presents, I still needed to wrap all of our presents. And to add to that, my daughter decided she didn't want to sleep :) So after what seemed like only an hour of sleep, we were up to enjoy our first Christmas as a little family! Gracie wasn't real excited about being up early, so we quickly opened our presents, fed the hungry girl, and headed to Grandpa and Grandma Angell's to open presents with Aunt Sable and Aunt Sage! Next, we were off to Grandpa Leithead's for crepes and more presents! After that we were off to Grandpa and Grandma Rael's for lunch and to open presents with everyone up there. It was a full house with everyone! After a long day we went back to Grandpa Leithead's to watch The Other Guys (funny movie:)) and munch some more! The day after Christmas it was up early again to go eat breakfast and spend the day in Cody with Grandpa and Grandma Isbell! Yes it was a long weekend, but we survived :) We are so blessed to have so much family to spend the Holidays with. Gracie is indeed a lucky girl, and was quite spoiled!! We can't wait till she is old enough to know what is going on!

Our New Years was spent at Grandpa Leithead's. We enjoyed some yummy super nachos and appetizers while we played games. We must be old because we barely made it to midnight :) But Gracie decided she would stay up and ring in the New Year with us...since she missed her evening nap, she was up till 2 in the morning wanting to play. Little stinker :)