Grandpa

I don't know if it's because I'm pregnant or if it's because there is a man that sits in front of me at church who looks like him, or what but lately I have been wanting to watch the slideshow from my grandpa's memorial. In our various moves we somehow misplaced the only copy we had. Luckily I have a techy husband who not only made the slideshow but was wise enough to save a copy of it on one of our many hard drives. After causally mentioning once or twice that I wanted to watch it, he lovingly burned me another copy and left me alone to watch and cry.

It's the type of video I like to watch every once in awhile, but not everyday due to the obvious emotional response it generates for me. Gracie on the other hand, finds a movie she likes and wants to watch it everyday for weeks at a time. She likes this "movie". I have since watched it about 4 times in the last week so I shouldn't have been surprised when "out of nowhere" I had an overwhelming desire to hug my grandpa. To the point that it brought me to tears. It has been just over four years since he passed away. He was almost 69. I miss him.

2010: A Year in Review

Where to even begin? I didn't write a Christmas letter this year, there was just to much to keep it to one page. Consider this my substitute. :)

What a crazy year this has been! Thinking back on it I am overwhelmed with everything that happened. From the very beginning 2010 wanted us to know it was gonna be one heck of a year. Makayla, my niece, spent the first few weeks of the year fighting for her life, literally. She had a deep bleed in her brain that nearly killed her. The first five weeks of the 2010 were filled with visits to Children's Hospital, to visit Makayla and to support my sister, Kari, who was spending nearly every hour of every day there. We are so thankful that Makayla not only survived, but that she is continuing to exceed the expectations of all the doctors and staff who were and still are involved in her care.

Also during the first five weeks of the year, Gracie turned 2! What a roller coaster that has been! Her personality has totally come out. Most days are really good, but Grace has her own opinions about how things should be done and she'll make sure to let you know if she thinks you aren't doing it the way she wants it done. My mother in law says she is 2 going on 20. She has Bartlow and Hoskins in her which makes for a very stubborn combo, and good lungs. If she chooses to, Grace can make a noise loud enough to make your ears bleed, or dogs whine in pain. Sometimes I feel like calling her "strong willed" is an understatement. Other times, you would think she was the easiest kid in the world to take care of! She has so much energy! Grace loves to sing, dance, color, paint, and "do stickers" among other things. Her imagination is so vivid, which is both a blessing and a curse. She will play dolls forever, but if she thinks there is a tiger, the Grinch or a dragon in her room, brace yourself. Mild panic ensues and Daddy has to "grr" at them before they will leave. She makes us laugh. Her sense of humor is so sweet. Most of the time what she's saying isn't meant to be funny but the conviction with which she says it makes it hard not to smile and laugh. Even when she is in trouble, the things she says makes just about everyone in the room hide their faces and snicker quietly. She brings such joy to my heart.

In December of last year we moved, then in the beginning of June we moved again. That was an interesting week. Steve and I were going to be heading to Atlanta for Foursquare, our church denomination's, Convention. Steve has worked the convention just about every year since he was 16. This was the first year since we'd been married that we were going just the two of us. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7am Friday morning. The week before we left we found out we had to move. (A long story, I won't go into it now) We didn't find a place until the Tuesday before we were to leave and it would be ready until after we got back from Atlanta. We had to pack for 3 things. 1. Atlanta, 2. A few days at his parents house before and after Atlanta, and 3. to put everything we wouldn't need in storage. Talk about stress. Then, on Wednesday we found out that the father of one of Steve's close friends had passed away. The memorial was scheduled for Friday morning at 11am. We decided I would fly ahead and check into the hotel and such and Steve would stay for the memorial and fly standby on a flight later that night. In the end Steve made it to Atlanta and we had an amazing week catching up with old friends, making new ones and seeing the city. Their aquarium, A-MAZING!!! Not to mention that I got to go to the Hoskins' motherland! (World of Coke Museum) So much fun! We got home safe the following Friday and moved most of our stuff Saturday.

In July we took our annual "Bartlow Family" vacation to Leavenworth. We were supposed to stay for three days but after we spent the first night waking up every two hours to let Gracie puke, we decided to head home a day early. We did get in a few trips tubing down the river though, which is always my favorite part. In August we found out we were expecting another baby and in November we discovered she was a girl. She is due to join our family a week after my 25th birthday in April. I'm not sure what I'll be doing for my birthday yet, but I'm sure whatever I do I'll be waddling my way around ready to pop at any moment. If the new baby is anything like Gracie or I; or as Steve calls her, Kelsey Jr, he is going to need a lot of help. That is a lot of emotions for one man!

Speaking of Steve. With each year I grow continually more

amazed at the man God has given me in Steve. He is an

amazing provider and protector for our family. Where I lack,

he excels. He is the calm to my storm, the clean to my, not as clean,

the logic to my oversensitivity. He reminds me it is ok to say "No"

if I really don't want to do something and is more than ready to

stand up for me if I need it. He is everything that I hoped for in my husband.

He is smart, and strong. He can fix my computer and my kitchen sink.

Although sometimes I am tempted to,

I couldn't ask for a more amazing man than the one I have. I love him.

Anyway, that was the majority of our year in a nutshell. I'm sure I've forgotten something but that's all I could think of at the moment and I need to go wake up Gracie from her nap so she'll sleep tonight. I hope everyone had a good year and that 2011 is even better!

What Gracie says

After 2 cups of hot chocolate Steve asked Gracie if she was gonna be bouncing off the walls in a minute. She answered "yep" while looking around at the walls. She then walked into the living room and Steve asked her what she was doing. Her response? "I'm gonna jump on the walls!"

Steve was reminding Gracie she needed to be quiet at bed time and was telling her the consequences if she wasn't. He asked her what she was gonna be and she looked him square in the face and said "A horsey?" Hmmm.... Where does she get her sarcasm from?

Talking about Ellie: "Sometimes she is not a nice baby. Sometimes she's a cry baby."

Driving past a hair salon in Marysville there is a window with a strawberry painted on it. "Mom, that strawberry is wearing shoes. (very matter of factly) That's silly. Mom, that strawberry has hair. (again, very matter of fact) That's silly."

While she was disobeying, she told Steve "Well, God says obey. God says obey your moms and dads and Ellie's"

I've been talking to her about telling the truth lately so when ever she disobeys and Steve or I tells her she needs to obey she says back "We-ll, the truth is not obeying!"

Gracie snuck into our room during the night and the next morning Steve was asking her how she slept and why she came into our room. She told him she was scared in her room. He asked her why she was scared and she said "I don't know, I was just freaking out!"

Grace and the cousins were gonna play Simon Says. Rachel said "I"m Simon!" Gracie said "I"m Theodore!"

After my in laws were here for dinner: "Mom you did a good cooking when Grandma and Grandpa were here."

Noticing we only had two string cheeses left in the drawer "I thought we were gonna save them for Micah and Tyler"

What Gracie Says, Halloween Edition

Sitting at dinner Gracie was telling Steve about the Shark (Shrek) movie and how Donkey says "I'm a Logan (Ogre), AAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGG!!!!!!!" Steve: "You're a Logan?" Grace: "Ya a Logan."

Michael's craft store has their Halloween decorations out. One of the things they have is a witch statue. Gracie call her a "silly grandma" She was telling Steve there is a silly grandma at the "crap store"

What Gracie Says/Translation please?

"When I was a baby I was teeny and tiny"

Talking to Steve: "Can I have... whatever I want?"

"I'm Gracie, I'm two. Mommy says I'm two and a half."

Talking to her chicken nugget: "Get otta here!" (Said just like Grandma)

Missafella= Isabella (she has 2 friends named Isabella!)

Germote=remote

Camtoons=Cartoons

Cutie and the Beast= Beauty and the Beast "Daddy says it's Cutie and the Dude, he doesn't say Cutie and the Beast"

While I had my hands on my stomach feeling super nauseas: "Mommy got a baby in her tummy, I don't have a baby in my tummy. Just Mommy"

These she knows how to say correctly now but they were so cute and I wanted to record them before I forgot what they were:

beeeceeeteee= Christmas tree (Which is also what she called ANY Christmas lights she saw. It didn't have to be an actual tree.)

Yo-Yo's= The Wiggles

Bae=Baby

da ganch= the grinch

What Natalie Says

Picture taken at The Farm last October just after her 3rd birthday

Inspired by the mother of a friend's blog about what her 5 year old says, I am starting a "sub section" to my blog entitled, you guessed it, "What Natalie says" (at least this time, she's had some good ones lately and I've been dying to share) In case you don't know Natalie is my 3 year old niece.

So here goes:

While talking to her mom about her birthday list (her birthday is months away): "Mom, um for my birthday I want a real deer and a real sheep. You know, like pets."

After singing Jesus Loves the Little Children with Auntie Katy: "Jesus loves all the children and all the cheese"

Talking about age:

Her: "Na na (it's what she calls me) did you know that on my next birthday I'm gonna be 24? Ooops, I mean 4."

Me: "I did know that. Did you know that I'm 24?"

Her: "Ya. (she didn't) But Na na, did you know that someday I'm gonna be really old like Papa?"

Me: "You are?"

Her: "Ya, but first I am gonna be just kinda old like Grammie."

Me: "I bet she would love to hear you say that!"

Losing It With Kelsey

Recently there has been a new show on TV called "Losing It With Jillian" I have never seen the show but I imagine it involves that spunky, bossy, noisy Jillian from The Biggest Loser and is all about how she travels the country looking for families in need of something and how she yells and screams them into shape.

This is not like that show.

This show is about a young mother of a 2 year old and her everyday struggles to maintain her sanity, unsuccessfully, I might add.

Today's episode begins with said 2 year old touching her behind while she was pooping, thus spreading poop ALL over the toilet seat, her legs, that pesky hair that won't stay out of her face and consequently, her face.

Not cool.

She has done this before and had a stern talking too. But to no avail. Mother and child hop in the shower to wash off. Child screams and hits the mother when it is time to wash her hair because there is no wash cloth to cover her eyes, even though she hasn't used or needed one recently. The mother tells the child (who had hit her earlier in the morning as well) that she will be getting a time out and a swat with the spoon as soon as they are out of the shower and proceeds to wash they screaming child's hair anyway; remember, there's poop in it?

They get out of the shower and the mother instructs the child as to where she can find her clothes to get dressed. Apparently the shirt the mother picked out was not a good choice, even though she bought it for her daughter while she was away for the first time a few months ago.

Might I add it is a very cute shirt.

Bright pink with mermaids on it.

(It was bought at the aquarium)

The child starts to scream and cry about how she "doesn't like this shirt" and "I don't want to wear it!" The mother forces the shirt over the child's head, puts on her pants and takes the child to her room where she proceeds to scream and cry for the last 40 minutes. She wants her kitty and baby, see post: The A Team, but since she still has not calmed down the mother refuses to bring them in.

Will the child be sold? How long will it take the mother to curl into a ball and cry herself?

Stay tuned.