Yellow! Red! Orange!

Yesterday my family swung by to pick up Grace and me on their way to a leaf drive. We drove all the way up to Bear Lake and came down through Sardine Canyon where we saw some simply GORGEOUS LEAVES! I know I must officially be a mom now, or at least grown up. I remember sitting in the back seat of the car hearing my Mom rave about the leaves and now I get almost as excited as she does. "Look at that RED! Look at that YELLOW!" We did manage to grab some raspberry shakes while we were up at Bear Lake. Delicious.

Grace and I missed having her Dad along, and we're so thankful for all he does for us. These are the first and second year students in his radiology program at the hospital.
After working for Goldenwest Credit Union for the past two and a half months, Danilo was able to get on as an RPT (radiology practical technician) at the hospital which means in addition to doing clinicals at the hospital, he will work there as well with a limited license. Goldenwest has been a really enjoyable job for Danilo that landed in our lives at an important time (around the time Gracie was born and my last paycheck from the school district arrived). We feel so blessed!

Tending Gracie

Those that have followed our blog long enough might remember a post from May called $59 and a Really Wonderful Husband. It told this sweet story about Danilo following me through a nursery picking out flowers and tools for our first "garden" on our front porch. Well, folks... except for the toughest of the tough, the flowers are dead. Here's a little before shot of our freshly planted flowers:
And here's a picture I took today before I toss them... the picture is slightly crooked because I was holding Gracie in one arm.I was so excited the day I planted my flowers. I told my mom, "These are going to be the best taken care of five flowers in the world," because that's about how many I planted. Well, here's how it all went down.

The petunias were flourishing until my water broke and I didn't get back to our house until four days later. They were crispy brown when we got home.

The gerber daisies needed more sunlight than our shady porch provided, and I watered them to death.

The violas were in a pot with the gerber daisies. After several revival attempts, I finally tossed the whole thing.

The vincas are the only flowers that have survived. There have been a couple of occasions when I've been sure I've lost them. They'll be drooping and looking super thirsty. I water them and when I see them later that night, they'll be chipper and upright again. There's a lesson in there somewhere.

When I told my mom about the sad state of my garden, she told me about a book she'd read called Tending Roses. It's about a young wife who goes with her husband and family to live with her grandmother and the lessons she learns there. Here's a pretty line from the book, "The best times in my life, the times that have passed by me the most quickly, were the times when the roses grew wild." The woman had been wishing she had more time to prune her roses. She's not able to tend to them as she'd like to because she's raising her little ones. That's the lesson she learns from her grandma. I wish I had wild roses instead of dead flowers on my porch, but I don't know, tell me. Is she worth it?

Sweetest Day

Gracie was blessed this past Sunday and as I look back I realize what a truly special day it was. She was blessed in the same dress my Grandma Parke made for my blessing 25 years ago.

Her dad gave her a wonderful blessing. I truly felt like the heavens were opening and Danilo was speaking to Grace on her Heavenly Father's behalf. He wasn't wearing a t-shirt and shorts at the time. That was after, when we got to the park. The men in their black suit coats were a little jealous he'd had time to run home and change. My parents said this picture belongs in an aftershave ad... tough yet soft.

Gracie had all of her grandparents there...


I had all of my grandparents there...I am so fortunate to still have them! (See Grandma Parke above, apparently Grandpa Parke didn't get dragged into any of the pictures.)




All of Gracie's adoring aunts...
And Uncle Andrew.
Thanks to my aunts and uncles and cousins who helped with the luncheon afterward and made the day so meaningful by being there. We love you!! Y tambien mandamos saludos y mucho amor a nuestra familia en Chile.

Back to School

Mrs. Collado's Class Picture 2009-2010

PICTURED (left to right): Mrs. Collado, Grace Collado

Curriculum: smiling, cooing, rolling over, sitting up, teething, crawling, laughing, solid foods, "da-da", "ma-ma"

Thanks to Gracie's Dad and all he's doing (school, work, and clinicals) so that I can be home with our baby girl.

Thanks to Jackie Norris for photographing Grace and Mom at three weeks old. Jackie and I were neighbors growing up and she has become quite the photographer. You can see more of her fabulous work here.

I also want to thank my friend Amy Woody, another up and coming photographer who is responsible for the family picture at the top of our blog. Good grief, she made us sound like the good guys for allowing her the privilege of photographing Grace at three days old. We were so thankful!!

Yay for Mom!

Something important happened last night. Let me rewind a few weeks. When Gracie came home with us, she slept in the bassinet to the side of our bed, my side of the bed. Every time I woke up, I would jump up and check to be sure she was okay and breathing like she should. This is how we did things for the first ten days or so. Then Danilo who has to get up for work and/or school in the mornings suggested that after her first feeding during the night, I move her into her crib in her own bedroom. Ouch, that idea tugged at my heart. I loved having her be one of the last things I see and hear before I go to bed and I love knowing she's next to me. But I could see why it would be a good idea. Our little girl is famous for making horse noises when she's sleeping. That's the best way I can describe them. I realized when we tried it that night, put Gracie to bed in her bassinet and switched her over to her crib where she would wake up in the morning, that I slept much better because the cute horse noises were muffled across the hall but I still was able to hear her when she needed something to eat. So last night, Danilo was trying to get to bed early for an early morning and so I was doing Gracie's bedtime routine in her own room so her dad could fall asleep. My intent was to put her to sleep in the bassinet like we always do. Then the thought occurred to me that since we were already in her room, I could put her to bed in her crib to begin with. I shut out the thought immediately. We couldn't possibly try that yet! I hadn't planned on making the transfer to her crib until Gracie was a month ol.....Gracie turned a month on Thursday. Oh dear. I was coming face to face with a scary hairy fear of mine. I am quite in love with this little girl of ours and always will be. But I don't want it to be detrimentally so. As she grows I envision her always by my side....But what happens when her friend across the street calls to see if she can come over to play? I don't think I should go with her. Or when the first day of school rolls around....As a former teacher I know how obnoxious and inappropriate it would be for me to sit on the back row of her classroom all day to be sure that she's okay. My mom loves me just as fiercely as I love Grace, yet I'm grateful she didn't accompany me on my first date! And as I sat there in the rocking chair I started to understand the subtle balance a parent needs to find between loving and caring for and teaching their children, and allowing them to grow and discover things on their own and trusting their ability to do it. I realized the sooner I started exercising those "letting her grow" muscles, the better it would be for both of us. So I cried a little tear, kissed my baby girl on the cheek as I laid her in her crib, and went to sleep next to Danilo. And I was excited to see her in the morning.

Happy 3rd Anniversary [yesterday]!

I am pretty thankful for my wonderful husband and wanted to put up some pictures that illustrate some of the fun we've had together over the last three years.....




























Danilo....I'm so glad I married you!!

Gracie Loves Her Daddy

We've started up what's going to be the routine around here. Danilo's gone back to work while I get to be Mom and Gracie gets to be sweet baby girl. And that's exactly what she is, almost all day long. When she's not sleeping, she's making sweet faces and sweet noises as she stares around the room with her big blue beautiful eyes. Around 6:00 everything changes. She becomes a grumpy ornery (yet still adorable) bear for the rest of the night. 6:00 is exactly when Dad gets off work and heads home to his little family. We make the rounds changing and feeding her and when that doesn't work, Danilo pulls every trick out of his hat he can think of. I've felt so bad about being the one who gets to enjoy her sweetness all day long when Danilo's worked all day, and that's why I gave thanks for my husband last night before going to bed. After he'd tried everything to soothe her and nothing had worked longer than five minutes, during our family prayer he thanked Heavenly Father for the blessing of Grace, for the joy she's brought into our lives and into our home. He asked for a good nights sleep so that we could wake up and enjoy being together again tomorrow. And he was sincere. I am so grateful to him for being a good dad when it's easy...and when it's not so easy. The picture above is one of his favorite things to do on a Saturday or Sunday morning, and I love it.