A few of Gracie's loves

Gracie LOVES her purse, carries it around the house & outside everywhere lately

Gracie LOVES her cousin Ella! They had fun playing during our recent visit. She says her name all the time, so cute.

Gracie LOVES to play in the makeup in my little studio. Yesterday she was caught stacking the powders & counting them!

Fireworks, ABC's & 123's

Tonight we went to see fireworks & she loved them. She called them drums & kept saying "BOOM BOOM" or "BAM BAM." She'd point & ask, "see 'em?" & she'd shout out the shapes or colors she could see. While we were waiting she was lying on her back on the grass with her hands in the air feeling the breeze & said "nice out!" We had mentioned a few times how nice it was outside & little ears pick up fast! She's my little nature lover though. She really gets into all the birds, pink clouds, stars, moon, flowers, animals, etc. Her excitement & energy is contagious!


Gracie watching fireworks!


The few of the latest news with Gracie girl ~
Gracie sang the entire alphabet yesterday all by herself! It was the sweetest, cutest thing to hear her little voice pronounce the letters. I've been listening to her sing it up to G and this time she didn't stop. I knew she had it in her!

She can't swing high enough, we swing her as high as possible and she yells at us in this demanding voice like we're holding out on her or something, "High! Mommy!" "High, Daddy!" with her little brows furrowed. We're like, that's as high as you can go, my goodness!
I just had to...Gracie's 1st time swinging, 5 months

She is SO into popcicles, most always asks for one while swinging. Now she wants certain colors. Blue is her favorite, I have to physically show her that blue is gone before she'll attempt to think about another color, she is so disappointed, it's hilarious. After that it's whatever color comes to mind.

This week she strung her 1st bead all by herself. She's been trying & trying and finally got it through the hole & out the other side. "I DID IT...YEAH!!" It's so cute to watch her eyes so intent and her little fingers holding the string & bead, coordinating all the movements together to get it just right. Then she wants to jump rope with it with the one bead on it. She cracks me up.

She's counting almost to twenty now. She skips 17 & 18 and goes for 20! My favorite is that she calls sixteen "pinkteen" I LOVE it! Her new phrase is "for ya!" If she's giving me something she'll say "mommy, FOR YA!" I have no idea where she got that. She also says "Hey guys!" when she comes up to Todd and I. She loves to help me cook & she likes to stir whatever I'm making. Her favorite is rice so she always assumes rice is what I'm making. When we make eggs her job is to put the cheese in and she reminded me today when I forgot and shouted, "Mommy, MY TURN!"

There aren't enough high fives you could give the girl, she adores the high five game. After we say grace, she must high five us, every occurrence is a high five occurrence. She's always got her hand up shouting "five!" And she loves to swing her arm & smack you as hard as she can with full force. Then she'll say "side, high, low." Then we usually say "got you" and tickle her so now she says "got me!" She even high fives the water fountains at the park.

Father's Day Celebrations

Breakfast with mom & dad, Todd & Gracie


New Smyrna Beach ~
Look at these two! They are so cute & having so much fun rolling around in the sand, getting sand in their finger nails, hair, scalp...I am itching just watching them, this is not my day so I'm sucking it up, I am SO not a beach girl, give me my pool or a mountain any day!

Dinosaur Toes & New Freckle Friends

Since we paint toes, Gracie must have decided the dinosaur needed its toes painted red and that was it. I asked her, "are you painting the dinosaurs toes?" She said "YES!" And then said "ALL DONE!"

The other night Gracie's in the bath and we're playing & having lots of fun, then all of a sudden she's looking at something on her right arm in dismay, trying to pick it off saying "eeew, yucky! Mommy OFF OFF!" Over and over & her little hand is wiping it off faster & faster. So I look to see what she's so upset about and it's her first freckle! :) I starting laughing, who would have thought? I said, "oh this doesn't come off, it's a freckle, do you know what that means? You got kissed by an angel!" I looked down and she has one more on the right side of her hip...two little freckle friends, how cute.

~Let It Fade~

You know how you hear a song over & over and then one day you really listen to the words like you've never heard them before? Today I was driving home and this song really spoke to me. I am pretty internal when it comes to matters of my own heart, I love to hear & listen about others. Because I'm sharing this song I feel I should just say a little bit of what's been going on with me. Recently I've lost 30 pounds, when I met Todd I was even heavier, so in total it's been 57 pounds, which is a really big deal for me, but with the shedding of this weight, which I could only do with the strength of God, He has also been healing me internally. In this video, the woman battles alcohol, so I guess like going to an AA meeting and saying, "Hello, I'm so and so, I'm an alcoholic," I'd be saying "Hello, I'm Jaime, I'm a foodoholic." :) It sounds so silly to be addicted to food & running to it for comfort, but that's what I've been battling for the past 12 years. In the past few days I've really been very emotional thinking back to all the pain I've endured, self inflicting pain, all the suffering. Now that I can see it behind me, I'm continuing on this journey in freedom with Jesus, there is so much joy & peace. It really has been "fading away" as this song talks about. It's still a daily process and it's still a choice. It is my prayer if you are suffering in any way, going to worldly things to comfort you, that you find the strength to decide to turn away. God is always waiting for us, He created us, and loves each one of us SO much. It's like picking up the phone to call an old Friend, only He's our Heavenly Father, our Creator, He knows you way better than any friend, even yourself. Thanks for reading.

Have you been walking on a surface that's uncertain?
Have you helped yourself to everything that's empty?
You can't live this way too long.
There's more than this,
more than this.

Have you been standing on your own feet too long?
Have you been looking for a place where you belong?
You can rest, you will find rest.
You can rest, you will find rest.

Let this old life crumble, let it fade.
Let this new life offered be your saving grace.
Let this old life crumble, let it fade,
Let it fade.

Have you been holding on to what this world has offered?
Have you been giving in to all these masquerades?
It will be gone, forever gone.
It will be gone, it will be gone.

Let this old life crumble, let it fade.
Let this new life offered be your saving grace.
Let this old life crumble, let it fade.

Are your carrying the weight too much?
Are you running from the call?
Let it fade.

You can rest, you will find rest.
You can rest, you will find rest.

Let this old life crumble, let it fade.
Let this new life offered be your saving grace.
Let this old life crumble, let it fade.

These boots were made for walkn'!

Gracie loves these boots her cousins got for her birthday. I finally got a picture of her with them on, she's always stomping around the house in them yelling "BOOTS! BOOTS!"

Wall Street

Todd's band played last night at an awesome venue downtown Orlando, Wall St. It is one of THE places to play! We were all very excited. There was a stage outside and a HUGE crowd. Their best performance yet!

From left to right: Frank, Kevin, Todd, Steve & Jason

My man on the drums!



Me & Stephanie ~ thanks for comen' out with me Steph!


Here's the band playing, the sound is not good quality, actually pretty distorted, oh well, I recorded with my camera video.