Gracie's Baptism

Slowly catching up. Slowly. Only 7 months behind. So overwhelmed with everything that I need to post that I should just start over right now, but how can I skip such an important day? Grace was recently making the decision if she should switch back to her old school. She told me it was the second most important decision of her life. I asked her what the first was. She said it was if she should get baptized. Ah the pride I felt. She HAD taken that decision seriously. I asked her why that was such an important decision. "Because I did not know if I was going to drown or not. I could have died." Wow. O.K. Well, at least she still did it. Risking her life. I am still so proud of this girl because she really did take her baptism seriously and continues to choose the right everyday!

It's Great to be Eight!

Of course Grace needed her very own red velvet bundt cake to celebrate. Everyone else got cupcakes. The party went off without a hitch!

Way Back In May....

I was 8 months pregnant and Gracie turned 8! Unfortunately that is how far back I have to go to catch up with this blog! I should start with Grace's birthday party. Have you ever tried to plan a birthday party in one day, that happens to be 90 degrees, you happen to be pregnant, and you have a Sears vent cleaning man at your house all day because of the dead baby bunny in your furnace? Didn't think so. To go back even further, I will start with the baby bunny that we thought was oh so adorable that lived under our neighbors tree. Everyday we would drive up and ush and gush about how much we just LOVED it. It looked exactly like this. Cute right?

Well, one day I came home from a girl's night out to find my house in disarray. We are talking barstools turned over, furniture blocking doorways, etc. Shawn was just sitting calmly on the couch. "What happened here?" I asked. "The baby bunny is in our house." "Where?" I asked. "I have no idea", was Shawn's reply. Awesome. There is a nasty little rodent lost somewhere in my house. Notice I don't think that it is so cute anymore.
The next day my friend Kelly came over. After mentioning that there was a baby rabbit in my house somewhere, we just kept chatting. Until Kelly saw that little rascal hop across the room and under the very couch on which I was sitting. Long story short, it took us one hour to make an obstacle course to get that little guy out the door. The kids thought it was the funnest thing ever.



We all celebrated as he hopped out the door and I breathed a sigh of relief that I did not have to worry anymore. That is, until two days later when I am UPstairs cleaning. I was all alone in the house, or so I thought. When all of a sudden I turn around, and there is that nasty baby bunny staring at me as it hops up the last step. Seriously? I have to get rid of you again? I trapped him in the guest room so that Shawn could deal with him this time. Shawn's idea of dealing with him was looking under the bed and declaring that the bunny must have hopped down the stairs and found his way out the door because he was nowhere to be found. That night, at 1:30 in the morning, I found Gunnar asleep on the floor next to his bed. Being the wonderful, protective mother that I am, I slept on his bed in case an attack rabbit came in the middle of the night. Every five minutes I would open my eyes because I was soooo paranoid. Finally, after twenty minutes, here comes that nasty little creature hopping straight towards my helpless, 70 pound 5 year old. HA! Not on my watch. I chased him into the guest room again and didn't open the door for a week. Shawn did go in and look around but of course there was no bunny to be found.
Fast forward to the day of Gracie's birthday party. It was 9 am and already wicked hot. We turn on the air conditioning, and that is when the stench hits. The Sears guy came and graciously cleaned our vents for a mere $500. Where he really earned his money is when he found the dead, decomposing rabbit in our furnace. He took care of it. And I love him for it! Later on, I found this note in our basement written by Grace.


So that is our bunny story! I suppose I should do a separate post for Gracie's party!

We can't get enough of Gwyneth!

Gunnar finally started calling our baby "Gwyneth" instead of "Baby LULU." It doesn't happen everytime but at least there is progress! What a rough road this child has had with a name! She is totally a Gwyneth now! We don't see much of a change in her but I am sure that is because we see her everyday. Maybe she will look older to everyone else. I hope not because I am hanging on to everyday of her newbornhood with every ounce of strength I have! There is nothing like the smell, the squeaks, the quick breaths, and all of the other little things you slowly forget as your baby gets older. I don't want to forget this time! In other Tidwell news, Gunnar has an ear infection, and Grace told us that she would rather be a millionaire than a genius because then she could hire people to tell everyone that she was a genius. This girl is so funny with her money! Her $2 foot massages are a dream come true though! She is going to take me to the poorhouse!

Oh what a beautiful morning!

......the corn is as high as an elephant's eye! The kids have been working very hard on keeping and watering a garden this year and their efforts are definitely paying off! Get ready because this post is GREEN!