celebration, vacation & dedication

So, heads up....another long post on the horizon. My cousin got married a couple weeks ago down in Gig Harbor. All my aunts, and mom and sister flew out for the occasion, so we had a trip on our hands. My sister actually spent one night at my house and one morning/afternoon seeing my town. We drove down to Gig Harbor on a Thursday and stayed the whole weekend.
Levi got Grammy for his playmate as soon as possible.
They crack themselves up

I don't have any pictures of the wedding stuff; I left that to the professionals. However I do have plenty of pictures of hanging out with the family after it all. On Saturday we went to the beach for a couple hours. This was Gracie attending to some diaper-ial needs. I just liked the tutu face.

We were there with Grandad, Aunt Martha, Aunt Lora, Auntie Vera, Grammy, Lenny and Allison.

Levi had to find ways to entertain himself, so here he is sweeping up beach rocks and dispensing them into Auntie Vera's shoes.

It's fun for them to be the only kids around! They get so much attention and love.

The engaged couple finally getting some time to be together. Soon it will be your wedding trip!

I LOVE the tutu around Nathan's neck. Such a "daddy" picture.

Levi spent most of his time at Aunt Martha's house in this hammock, also known as "the web." He would ask all the aunts to go to the web with him and play spider man. It was a special place.

Even Gracie got to be spider man for a while and snuggle up with Grammy Spider man.

Gracie also turned 8 months while we were in Gig Harbor, so now it's time for her monthly photo shoot. I'm in love with pretty much every picture taken of her that day in this precious little dress/tutu. Thus, many pictures follow.

I'm starting to dig on the over exposed sunlight pictures. She's glowing.

She is a crawler and a stander and a cruiser and a dancer and a talker. She does it all these days. She loves to just get down on the floor and dig through her little toy chest all day long. I think she's right on track to walk just as early as Levi did. I'm just worried Nathan will miss the beginning.

She is such a delight. She's all giggles and smiles and bouncing. Even when she's cranky because of teething or whatever else, she is still pleasant about it. Honestly, I've had good babies. Levi was a delightful infant as well.

Really, outfits don't get much cuter than that right there.

Daddy and his little sweetie. He's smitten, of course. He has so many names for her. And he almost always exclaims them in a big excited, elongated voice as she smiles her huge toothy grin at him.

I asked Auntie Vera to take some mama-Gracie pictures for me.

She's very sweet and affectionate. Full to the top with smiles and giggles. And she has become a definite mama's girl. She loves her daddy's attention and playing with him, but she's past tolerating others' holding her at this point. I'm sure it'll come back around.

Grammy playing with her Shalz Grand babies again.

Great Grandad initiated a war game with Levi in the back yard.

I think right after this picture Grandad said, "I shot you dude!" as Levi was still running in circles.

Auntie Martha had...something wrong with her sink. I don't know what. But Nathan and Lenny made a trip to Home Depot to fix it up right. Grandad supervised and gave his final approval.

She wanted a picture with her "heroes."

So that was our weekend in Gig Harbor. Nathan began his Leave time once we got back home. He finally has about a month home and he took three weeks off so we've been soaking up all the family time before he has to leave again for 5 weeks at the end of September.

We've made several beach trips and Charlie's Retriever-ness has finally come out. He gets better each time swimming out as far as Nathan can throw things. It's fun to watch.
Levi has to be a dog also, naturally. He's very into his characters. A fully committed little actor.

As always, Bella girl is sitting pretty.

Last weekend Little Gracie Bella was dedicated at our church. It turned out to be perfect timing. Nathan was actually home so that's an obvious plus, and Grandad is out here staying with Aunt Martha for several weeks. Those two ended up coming and staying the night so they could be with us for this important service. It was fun to have Grandad at our house and seeing our town and church. We haven't had too many family guests over our (nearly) 7 years of marriage.

I think it was nice to have some quiet time with Grandad and our kids. He got to talk with Levi and smile with Gracie.

And it was definitely nice to have some family out in the congregation Sunday morning. I know with all my heart that God has exuberant plans for both of my kids. I have taken both of their dedications seriously and prayerfully. And I really see it more as dedicating myself as the mama of these vessels full of potential. I want all the prayer and grace and strength I can receive to be well equipped to raise them up in the way they should go. God gave me a little glimpse into some plans he has for Gracie last year before I knew I was pregnant and I hold onto that dearly. It has been a constant prayer for her and it was foremost in my thoughts as I stood up on that stage presenting our little family to God.

Although this picture is a little blurry I wanted to show it because it's what Levi and Gracie were doing the whole time the baby next to us was being dedicated. Gracie kept kicking Levi and he was shooing her away. Then he turned around and they were giggling together a little.

It's nice that even if people don't know you, everyone is sincere and thoughtful when praying for a baby.

It's definitely special to have Great Grandad in Gracie's dedication picture.

After church that morning we went out to the car and discovered a flat tire! Yippie! Nathan had to get down and dirty in his slacks and button down. Luckily our church has a nice little playground, so Auntie Martha, the kids and I all played at the park while the men handled the car business. Gracie Bella was SO CUTE in her dedication dress, which was a present from Grammy. Even her tongue is cute!

Naturally I had to have a little "pretty dress/God is good" photo shoot with the girl once we got home.

She's perfect.

Investigating the sleeping daddy

Crying babies are cute. Odd, but true.

This was literally a second after that crying picture. She bounces back quickly.

These two are, of course, playing together more and more. I can already predict how they're gonna relate to each other over the years. Levi's the calculated and cautious older brother who is gonna hover over and council Gracie, weather she wants it or not. And Gracie has potential to be the carefree giggly little sister who smiles when Levi worries about her.

This picture pretty much sums Gracie up. Cute and sweet, mobile and playing, always with a smile on her face. That really is how her face is all day long. She'll burst into bigger toothy grins too, but it seems that her face just naturally sits with tiny little smile. I'm gonna do all I can to keep that smile there forever. And woe to any who sours her countenance.