Huck, Honk! and More Family Updates

Last night our little family attended a HuckPAC party,or Huckabee Political Action Committee party. The point of Huckabee's PAC is to help elect conservatives to office and also to get his message across. I highly recommend his latest book "Do the Right Thing." It was fun to connect with people and we also heard the official announcement of Mike Darr of his candidacy for Lieutenant Governor. HuckPAC was hoping for 50 similar parties to be going on around the US last night, but there were more than 130! It felt good to be a part of something so grassroots and to support someone we admire so much. You will be hearing more from us about HuckPAC!

In other news, one of Gracie's favorite things to do is to pinch my nose while I say "Honk!" Yesterday she pinched my nose while I said "honk" and her little thumb got hooked inside my nose and scratched the fire out of me! I think she was as shocked as me to see a bloody nose! We'll have to be more careful next time. This morning she was also trying to pinch a freckle off of me. She's so detail oriented! Oh well, a little pain for me, but a lot of learning for her!

Tuesday Clay and I attended the AR Business Awards banquet. Clay's firm received the Small Business Philanthropy award. It was exciting to see the partners accept the award. I felt such pride for Clay and the accounting firm he works for! We were also able to cheer on Georgia Mjartan as she was nominated for Non-Profit Executive of the Year for her work at Our House. And on top of it all, I got a new dress! Wendy was so sweet to come over and babysit Gracie. Gracie had such a good time, and played till she dropped!

There's so much going on in our lives. Just wanted to share a little!

Milestone

I put Gracie in her crib to play while I ran her bath water. I came back to this. Enjoy!

Update!

Clay informed me that I forgot some of our nicknames for Gracie. How could I forget? Stinker (Clay's nickname-he has more than he thinks), The Grace Child, and The Babe Grace.

As for each other...Clay just calls me "J" most of the time. In fact, if I hear "Jennifer" out of his mouth, I know something's wrong :) And sometimes he calls me Jim-jay-fus, shortened to Jim. I know--we're weird! And then I rhyme and call him Clim-clay-fus, shortnened to Clim. Double weird.

You asked! :)

Post 101 and the Many Names for Gracie

Alright everyone, let's celebrate! This is post 101! I actually wanted to make a big deal about the 100th posting on this blog, but Clay did that video and I missed my chance. I can't believe we've sat down to post 101 times. So fun.

Do you have pet names or nicknames for your little one? We have so many for Gracie that Clay is afraid she will have an identity crisis one day. Correction, I have many names for Gracie. Clay has pretty much one name and its variations that he calls her.

Okay, here goes.

Booger (I know that's awful!)
Boogs
Boogere (think French--boog air)
Boo
Bugaboo
Sweet Pea
Sweet Pete

And I'm sure I"ll think of some more. All pretty silly for sure. Poor girl.
What are your pet names for your little ones (or your spouse)?

Night-Night Mema and Pop

My (Clay's) grandparents are spending the night with my parents tonight, so this video is for them:

Love me some Huckabee

Come be a part of a HuckPac AR houseparty with us!

Thursday, February 26th at 7:00 p.m.

Larry's Pizza West House Party

12911 Cantrell Rd. Little Rock, AR 72223

Please RSVP with Katie Beth Harris at katiebeth.harris@mikehuckabee.com

Okay, so Huckabee won't be there, but you can come and learn some cool stuff and meet some new people who heart Huckabee!

Food and Fun

Gracie is making progress on her food. I decided that maybe I was expecting too much too fast, and scaled back to one solid food meal a day (lunch). She has done great with our new veggie, zucchini. At 9 months, I will add a second meal, and by 10 months try to be at 3 solid food meals a day. Gracie still hasn't touched my applesauce, but I may try some store-bought applesauce soon. She does like bananas alright, and I made some pears for her to try this week.

Gracie's new favorite thing to do is look at her beautiful self in the mirrored closet doors in our room. She plays in the mirror with her toys, but her latest act is leaning forward and licking the mirror! It's really cute. I'll try to get some pictures or video of it soon.

Anyway, just wanted to share the latest on my cutie! She is growing up so fast!

Birthday and Sweet Pictures

Once again Gracie's birthday has passed without an update! Her 8 month b-day was on the 6th. I am already thinking about her one year birthday party we will have at our house with our families. I think I've already got her birthday outfit! One of my favorite antique/flea market stores (Midtowne Antiques on Markham and Rodney Parham) has a little booth of baby clothes right now, and I found a super cute little blue outfit with smocking for her.

Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks.

Gracie with her Aunt Melinda at the Oyster Bar.

Gracie with Aunt Miriam and Uncle Andre. Uncle Roger and daddy are in the back. Gracie's latest favorite toy--balls. Gracie's had a couple of rough nights here lately. Her daddy took this shot one morning after we pulled an all nighter and I ended up sleeping with her on the couch. We think she's cutting more teeth, but we've yet to see any new ones. And she's almost mobile! She was in a sitting position before this shot. She will go from a sitting position to one like this, and can inch forward a little, but she hasn't quite figured it all out yet. It's just a matter of time, though! She is also pulling up a little bit.

Nanny-Sitting

Tonight my parents are hosting a large dinner party, and I am Nanny-sitting. My Nanny began an adult day-care this past January, and we have seen a big difference in her since she began. She has Alzheimers, but now that she has more daily interaction with people, she is able to speak a little more clearly. Tonight she played with Gracie and remembered that she was a girl (she used to call Gracie a "he"). When I put Gracie on Nanny's lap for these pictures, she said "Boy, she's heavy!" and "I have to hold on tight to her!" because Gracie was so wiggly! At dinner she asked to say the blessing and said a very coherent prayer about God helping the children to grow up (she meant Gracie) and blessing the food. I wish I could remember her words exactly. But my favorite line was during dinner. I asked Nanny if she wanted another bowl of soup and she said, "Well, I have to watch my figure!" She finally agreed to just a little more broccoli and cheese soup.

It's so nice to have moments like those. Tonight she looked around my kitchen and said "I really like your.....bicycle." And she has tried to open the car door twice while on the interstate with my parents. Now they have to sit her in the backseat with the child locks.

So, I'm grateful for the good times, snippets of good conversation, and the way she interacts with Gracie. Nanny is taking a little snooze in our comfy rocking chair as I write this post. She just woke up for a minute and I told her I was working on the computer. Her response was "I hear people talking about the 'puter, and once the fix it they don't have to fuss about it any more." Well, said, Nanny!

The Natural State

I was outside windexing my windows, and Sabrina started raising a commotion. I turn to look, and there was a whole family of deer in our backyard! Sabrina tried to frighten them off with her ferocious barking, but the deer family just looked at us and casually made their way into the woods. I love living in the Natural State!