Ode to Grace

Today's post will be directed towards my 2nd child - Grace. I'm going to focus on her today because she is taking me for a ride. It's like a puke-inducing ride that you would get on at "Six Flags." There are some days where you just don't feel like getting on the ride because the ride doesn't EVER slow down, and it makes your stomach drop at inopportune times. Once you get on the ride you find yourself enjoying it. (That is IF you weren't motion-sick to begin with.) There are even parts when you can't help but laugh out loud. When the end of the ride eventually comes you find yourself thinking, "Let's do it again!" That's my Grace. Never a dull moment.

She is such a funny person. She is just happy to be alive. She is ALWAYS smiling (except for when no one is paying attention to her or she is in trouble.) and she is always full of very funny antidotes.

Grace, we love you. I hope that you get a child just like you.



struttin' her stuff in her new skirt. (Her very favorite thing to do in her pettiskirt is to "shake her rump" to see her skirt shuffle)



The "pre" photo-shoot glamour. I wanted to see what hot rollers would do to her hair. Needless to say, she didn't enjoy them too much.



Well this is how we started our morning today before church. If you want to read the entire story, go here: www.onesmallglimpse.blogspot.com

Official photo shoot.

I've officially started a new venture. It's called emily bailey photography. Yeah, I know...reaaaaaaaaaaaaaal original. I took my kids out today for a photo shoot and I realized something. You know what it was?

Taking pictures of 4 kids by themselves aged 6 and under is not an easy task. All of my "group" pictures don't look the greatest, but I had a fabulous time with their individual pictures. This just tells me that I'm going to have to practice and practice. You're welcome to check out my official website with other photos on it at www.emilybaileyphotography.blogspot.com if you feel so inclined. If not, that's great - here are some of the photo's from today:

Grace cheesin' it up

Crede's signature look. Little stinkpot!! He goes into this world of "I'm not going to look at the camera even if you bribed me with pure sugar." and will NOT look at me. This is when he was finally coming out of it.

What a sweet big sister. Gage wasn't too enthralled with our photo shoot today. He sure looked sharp though. Sharp and round at the same time. Go figure.

Our Morgan I know this one is just a tad out of focus...but I still am enjoying looking at it.

Happy Birthday Chance! The big 4-0!! (not really.....)

If ya' want to read the whole "mushy" post I wrote about him, you're welcome to go to my other blog, www.onesmallglimpse.blogspot.com and check it out. Otherwise, here is my favorite picture of my favorite partner in crime.

Happy Birthday, I love you!!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! We started off our festivities this year with a little pumpkin carving. This year Chance stepped up his game by adding actual horns to his pumpkin. Usually his pumpkins just have a deer carved right into them. Morgan got to draw the face on hers and we carved it out for her. Here are their pumpkins. Cute cute. Grace and I carved the ol' standard Jack-O-Lantern face...nothin' too exciting there.

Here are the kids after carving their pumpkins. Cute little kids in their PJ's.

The day of Halloween I had planned a very exciting day. Our neighbor gave us this gingerbread house kit (which LOOKED so cute.). When we got it out of the box I noticed that you needed to be a professional cake decorator to do some of the details shown on the box. Come on people!! The dumb icing didn't hold up like it was supposed to, and I wasn't about to sit and wait 2 hours for it to harden up before moving onto the candy part. Anywho, as you can see below, my impatience and lack of professional training helped our house to look like this.

Here's a nice close up for you too. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......gooey.

After the gingerbread, I wanted to take my kids out to take their pictures in their costumes. Morgan and Grace did really well. They held still, and I got some really cute pics of them. Crede, on the other hand, didn't want ANY part of it. He ran around, giggled, and wouldn't look at me to save his life. Gage was asleep in the car and I didn't want to wake him, so we only have pictures of my 3 kids instead of all 4. Oh well....maybe next year, right?

Here's Morgan:

She was a "charm school" witch this year. Her hat was huge so we took some without it.

Here's Grace, our little ladybug. She was so stinkin' cute in her outfit.

Check out those eyes!

And finally, our stinker, Crede. He was a skunk. He wouldn't let me put his "hat" on, so this is whatcha got.

And lastly...all 3 kids with their bags ready for the fun to begin. Candy here we come!!

Well there you have it. Our Halloween. Gage, next year you will have a lot more fun, I promise. Love you kids!

My New Camera Update...

I originally posted some pictures taken with my new camera, but deleted that post because I needed to tweak them in my "darkroom". So.......here the are - officially.

Morgan: my favorite thing is the freckles.

Grace: My favorite pic is this first one. That's just a classic look.

Crede: This is the only really good shot...he just doesn't sit still!

And Gage: He's so much fun.

I love this part of babies...the neck rolls....aaaaaaaaaah sweet baby smell.

And of course the feet. So cute.

The Kind of Mother....

A good friend of mine posted this on her blog. SHE got it from her Mother in Law - who found it in the newspaper. It brought a smile to MY face today, so I thought I'd share it too. (Thanks Rea!)

"Sometimes motherhood is like being on a merry-go-round that just won't stop turning. Even when you're getting a tad too dizzy, some ornery kid gives it another push.We have to try to hang on and enjoy the ride.

Kids make sure the excitement never stops - don't even think about sitting down to rest - they need a drink, a toy from the high shelf, a bandage for an aching wound you can't even see... some urgent issue is bound to arise just as you put your feet up.

Sometimes, amid the cracker crumbs, foot-impaling plastic toys and sibling squabbles, we need to reaffirm what this job is all about. We must remind ourselves.

We must remind ourselves that the perfect mother is one who recognizes that family life isn't perfect. It's all about making sweet lemon bars out of a sour lemon kind of day, and not worrying to much about the high sugar content. Just this once.

Instead of muttering to myself in a corner, I share my affirmations with you, fellow parents, grandparents and curious gawkers.

I will be the mother who holds her children's hands a little too tightly, always thinking of the awful what ifs in this world.

I will be the mother who serves her kids the same meal I'm eating, refusing to give in to the chicken nugget diet youngsters wish to subscribe to.

I will be the mother who sometimes gives them the Popsicle they really want even though they already had a cookie and a doughnut that day.

I will be the mother who won't give her kids soda, because I said so.

I will be the mother who teaches them to play by the rules and also makes sure they win sometimes.

I will be the mother who lets her kids watch television and make no apology for it.

I will be the mother who won't let her kids listen to iPods and send text messages throughout dinner.

I will be the mother who doesn't really care if the kids make their beds.

I will be the mother who care very much about how the children treat people.

I will be the mother who sometimes says "yes" when I shouldn't.

I will be the mother who sometimes says "no" when I shouldn't.

I will be the mother who loves my children more than they can imagine, on the best of days and the worst of days."

Smiles everyone!

This nationwide event happened last Sunday. Okay, maybe not nationwide...not even statewide. Let's say - This BAILEYwide event happened last Sunday.

Gage has been very elusive and shy about showing his emotions. I know, I know - men. I keep telling him, "Gage, it's really okay to show your soft side. You can laugh and STILL be a man." He just keeps flirting with me (wait - not flirting - that would be weird). He just keeps TEASING me and TESTING my attention span with his smiles and fake coughs.

Last Sunday was THE day. I started in with the soft tickles on his cheeks to get him to trust me. See you have to go in like you don't really WANT him to laugh. He didn't even see it comin'. I went in for the under-the-chin ... in-between-the-fat-rolls tickle that seems to be so popular with other babies these days.

Aaaaaand voila! Gage laughed.

Je t'aime Gage. (deep french laugh) hhhhaughhhh haugghhhh hhhauuugh