Family

Mark's sister Elizabeth came down this month for about 10 days. It was so wonderful to have her here. It only makes us wish it could happen more often. It took Grace no time at all to warm up to Tante Liz. They had a blast hanging out everyday together. Grace actually got to the point where she would run to Tante Liz when she got hurt and definitely when she got in trouble with Momma & Daddy. The hardest part of Elizabeth leaving to go back to Jersey was that Grace was fully aware of what was happening and did not like it at all, needless to say a few tears were shed at the airport.

While Elizabeth was here we made a trip down to Galveston and to the zoo but otherwise we just sort of hung out and relaxed. This way Elizabeth could experience a typical day in the life of Grace.

Trip to Galveston!

Collecting sea shells.

I was trying to get a picture of the two of them together but Grace was more interested in the water than the camera.

As you can hear, Presley found the water very exciting. If only it was a little warmer I think she would have had a blast in the water as well but it was just too cold for her.

It was actually very windy the day we went to Galveston. Gracie & Tante Liz didn't seem to have an issue with it however, Presley and I both found the water too cold to go in so we hung out by the towels.


Trip to the zoo!

Looking at the elephants. We usually start and end the day with the elephants, they seem to be Gracie's favorite animal at the zoo.

Going down the slide in the Children's area of the zoo!
Gracie use to have a fear of going down slides. When she was a little younger, maybe just 12months, she went down one sort of fast which I think scared her a little. Then shortly after that we were in our backyard playing on the swing set, Gracie was not paying attention to where she was and got too close to the edge and went head first down the slide on her stomach. That really scared her. However, while Elizabeth was here they worked on the slide and Tante Liz was able to get her to go down them again!! Yeah for Tante Liz!!

Checking out the elephants one last time for the day.

Tried to get a group shot but it was the end of the day and Gracie was getting tired plus she just wanted to go play with the animals.

Reading

Gracie loves to read. She will just go and sit next to her book self and "read" through all of her books. However, I never seem to have my camera or phone on me to take pictures or videos of it. The other morning while we were getting ready she had to take a break from getting dressed in order to read. Honestly how could I argue with her when she wants to read the Bible. Of course after she does her devos then she moves on to some other books. :)

Outdoor Fun....

Be sure to check out the other new post below.

Projects

Project #1

This is usually where we found Grace anytime we went outside. She just loves digging in the dirt or mulch or anything really that she can get dirty in. So we thought we would give her something to dig in.

This random cement slab in our backyard was put there by the previous owners for a smoker. He use to smoke meat all the time. We never use it and could not figure out what to do with it until now.

This was way more fun than helping Daddy out front.

Playing in her brand new Sandbox!! She loves it and wants to go in it every time she gets outside. It has not stopped her completely from digging in the mulch or dirt but she really leaves all that alone as long as the cover is off to the sandbox.



Not to worry about the cats. We built a cover for it so when we are not outside neighborhood cats and our own cats do not use it as a litter box.

Project #2



Mark put a trellis over our garden. It gets so hot here in the summer that it burns the plants and we end up getting very few veggies, if any. So this year Mark decided to build some shade for the garden.





He also decided to build the garden up a little more so we needed to add some extra boards along the bottom.

Gracie was handing Daddy the boards, always the little helper.



Cleaning everything out and adding some new dirt for planting.

Our garden!! Everything looks very small in this picture but it has been a month since we have planted everything and they are growing great. We planted several different types of peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, zucchini and some herbs. This summer we will also add a shade cloth to the front of the garden to hang down in front to block more of the sun.

For now those are the projects for the year. We planted some flowers but other than that we are just going to enjoy the yard this summer. Oh and Brandy to answer your question, no you will never see a post about a chick pen going into our back yard. Although I'm sure both Grace and the cats would love it. hehe :)

Can I have one, please?

A lady from our church owns a feed store in the next town over. For those of you who don't know what a feed store is, it is exactly what it sounds like, a store that sells feed for your animals. Her store mainly sells for horses, chickens, ducks, dogs, cats, etc. During the spring she also sells plants and baby chicks & ducks. A couple days before Easter she sells baby chicks and ducks that have been colored. Basically what happens is right after they come out of the egg they dip them into colored water. She personally does not do it she orders them this way. On Good Friday, Grace and I stopped by so she could check them out. Of course as you probably have guessed, she loved them!

Ducks

She also has 2 horses on her property and a dog that is free to roam the property. Gracie was loving every bit of it and did not want to leave. We ended up hanging out for a little over an hour going back and forth between all the animals.

The horse on the right is a little more friendly than the one on the left. Well they are both friendly but the one on the left was wanting food and she said he would munch on anything that got close to his mouth. We stayed away from him for the most part. Grace liked them but was a little more nervous around them than she was the ducks or chicks.

Chicks

Grace was having so much fun with the chicks and picking them up. Which would have probably been ok but she was squeezing just a little harder than you probably should. :)

Trying to get a group shot but Grace was more interested in the chick than the camera.

Running around all the feed bags. Surprisingly she never tried to climb up on them. I guess she was to occupied with the chicks and ducks.