The Grau Family Blog

12/25/2011 - Merry Christmas!

2011-12-29T14:48:00.001-05:00

November & December Albums are up!

11/04/2011 - Fall is FUN!

2011-11-04T11:59:00.008-05:00

We have had a very busy but fun fall...from soccer to the pumpkin patch to trick or treating and throw in a trip to Disney in the middle! Here are some of my favorite shots. The rest of the pics are in the October and Disney albums on the right.

"Mom, coach said I could take a break!!"

"Trick or Treat Tink"

"You see mom..."

"Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique - She wanted to be Rapunzel"

I love this one because it was so much fun to see how much she enjoyed the rides at Disney. She was just tall enough to ride the ones with a 40" minimum (w/ tennis shoes and her hair done just right :)) She loved "that fast train at Magic Kingdom" (Big Thunder Mountain Railroad) and on every ride asked if it was going to go fast too :)

Tinkerbell's Boyfriend :)

What a conversation!

I love this one too because she had such a great conversation with Rapunzel. She asked her if her mom was nice and Rapuzel said "She's nicer than she used to be". The line to see her was so long but definitely worth it because she really interacted with the kids and Anna Claire just loved it.

Buzz and Woody had a long line too and she just couldn't make it. Buzz signed her autograph book "Nice to meet you Sleeping Beauty" :)

08/13/2011 - Dance Recital

2011-08-14T15:12:00.002-05:00

07/16/2011 - Trip Maine-ly for a Wedding

2011-07-20T20:46:00.010-05:00

Last week we traveled to Maine for a friend's wedding. We had a great time and it ended up being one of the most active vacations that I think we've ever been on!

Day 1: Kayaking

Day 2: Hiking on Monhegan Island

Day 3: Trip to Freeport (with no pics to show for it but I did get a couple of great pairs of shoes :)) and Candlepin Bowling

Day 4: Lobster Boat Tour and Boat Cruise for bride and groom

Day 5: Lobster Bake for Rehearsal Dinner

Day 6: The Wedding!!

The rest of the pics are in the July album.

06/18/2011 - Beach Trip

2011-06-24T15:38:00.005-05:00

04/24/2011 - Happy Easter!

2011-04-23T16:40:00.002-05:00

04/16/2011 - Pony Party & Other Weekend Fun!

2011-04-17T17:37:00.009-05:00

Anna Claire had a birthday party with her friends on Saturday at Peachtree Farms. The weather turned out to be much colder than expected but fortunately we were able to move everything to their indoor arena and have a really fun afternoon!

When I asked Anna Claire if she wanted to ride ponies for her birthday she said "Yeah, to the castle!"

On Sunday we went to the zoo with all of our Chattanooga/Atlanta friends that came in for the weekend.

The Pony Party pictures are in a separate album and the rest of the pics are in the April album. I also posted a link to the pictures that we took for making her invitation...whenever we do those we always get so many funny outtakes!

04/08/2011 - Anna Claire's 3rd Birthday!

2011-04-10T18:32:00.003-05:00

We celebrated Anna Claire's 3rd Birthday with a trip to the zoo and family party at our house. Check out the April album for more pics!

03/17/2011 - March Fun!

2011-03-17T11:17:00.003-05:00

March has been a fun month with a princess party, trip to Atlanta and my baby brother's engagement!!

Check out the pics in the March Album

02/14/2011 - Valentine's Surprise!

2011-02-14T21:01:00.007-05:00

Today we went to Anna Claire's school for what we thought was going to be a performance by our little star and instead we were surprised to see a performance by a real star: Sheryl Crow!

She sang several children's songs and two of her own hits (which were of course edited for little ears :)) We all had a great time and Anna Claire is still singing all of the songs!

01/21/2011 - Snow, Snow and More Snow

2011-01-21T12:53:00.008-05:00

Since we moved to Franklin in November, we've seen the most snow we've ever had in a winter! Since we're snowed in yet again today, I thought I'd take a minute to share some pictures from the last big snow. We went for a walk and took some shots of our new neighborhood.

We're slowly continuing to settle in but are ready for visitors anytime!

12/17/2010 - Patterns

2010-12-18T17:26:00.002-05:00

I was so proud of Anna Claire for understanding the concept of "patterns", so I wanted to post this video. She must have learned about them at school...it's always fun to find out something new that she knows!

10/31/2010 - Happy Halloween!!

2010-10-31T07:35:00.001-05:00

10/02/2010 - Pumpkins!

2010-10-15T14:32:00.004-05:00

08/06/2010 - July & August Album

2010-08-06T14:39:00.001-05:00

The July album is complete and we've started an August album!

07/30/2010 - Mommy and Me Dance Recital

2010-07-31T09:22:00.005-05:00

Well, I wasn't sure how I would feel about sharing this video but despite a slightly rough start on figuring out which way to sway and my watch coming off in the middle of it, I think it went pretty well! My favorite part is during the swaying in the beginning when Anna Claire is really getting into lifting her legs! I think in the end she got more out of the class than I thought she was!

07/09/2010 - Chick-Fil-a's New Poster Child

2010-07-09T15:05:00.004-05:00

"EAT MOR CHIKIN!"

The other July pics are in the album!

06/20/2010 - Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T20:45:00.002-05:00

06/14/2010 - Love that Belly Laugh

2010-06-14T08:47:00.005-05:00

Here's a short clip of Anna Claire cracking up over me trying to open a jar of jam!

05/29/2010 - The May Album is Up!

2010-05-29T12:11:00.000-05:00

04/16/2010 - Anna Claire's 1st trip to Wesleyan - oh yeah, and my 10 year reunion!

2010-04-23T13:45:00.007-05:00

Last weekend was my 10 year college reunion (yes, I feel very old!). My mom met me in Macon and took Anna Claire back with her to Columbus. I had a great time seeing old friends, hangouts and traditions!

This picture is very special to me because Anna Claire is standing in the spot where Eric proposed!

There are more pictures from the weekend in the April album. (April has been a very busy month!)

04/08/2010 - Happy 2nd Birthday, Anna Claire!

2010-04-13T20:21:00.013-05:00

Birthday call from dada before heading to school to celebrate.

Trip to the aquarium after the school party.

"Ages 2+"

On the big girl swing at her party.

Big Girl Slide!

Later that day she said "They sang Happy Birthday Anna Claire!"

Licking the icing off of the candle.

Playing with some of her birthday toys.

Flintstones car.

All grown up :)

The other birthday pictures are in the April Album...there's a ton!

04/04/2010 - Happy Easter!

2010-04-05T13:14:00.002-05:00

03/28/2010 - Big Girl Bed

2010-03-28T12:53:00.005-05:00

We put Anna Claire's toddler bed together today. So far she seems pretty excited about it but stay tuned to see how she sleeps in it tonight!

Here is a slide show of the pictures that we took for her birthday invitation.

03/04/2010 - You make me happppy when skies are grape!

2010-03-14T20:22:00.005-05:00

Lately it seems like we've been doing more video than pictures since Anna Claire is in that really fun stage where you never know what she's going to say! Here is a video of her singing "You are my Sunshine".

02/14/2010 - Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-13T16:04:00.003-05:00

Anna Claire has really enjoyed celebrating Valentine's Day this year. She had 2 parties yesterday (one at our class at the Creative Discovery Museum and one at her school). She helped me color and put stickers on her Valentine's and enjoyed putting them in her friend's mailboxes. She definitely has our heart :)

The other Valentine's Pictures are in the Feb album on the right.

01/23/2010 - I'm Proud of Me!

2010-01-23T14:00:00.003-05:00

Anna Claire is at that age where she's constantly saying new things and making us laugh! She said something the other day that I wanted to make sure we got on camera. We're not actively trying to potty train her yet but she gets to sit on the potty at school if they go to change her and she's dry, so we've been doing that at home some too. This video starts right after I ask her if she had gone to the bathroom on the potty...

01/16/2010 - First "Trim"

2010-01-22T14:45:00.011-05:00

We took Anna Claire to get her first haircut at G.G.'s salon last Saturday. Although, we barely cut anything off so it was more like a first "trim" rather than a "haircut"! We didn't want to lose any curls so G.G. just cleaned up some of the baby hair underneath. Anna Claire did great! She loved sitting in the big chair and we only had to keep her entertained for a few minutes!

Before...

...the 5 minute trim...

...after!

01/15/2010 - Pajamas

2010-01-15T14:28:00.003-05:00

Since it has been kind of cold lately we've spent a lot of time hanging out inside in our new pajamas. I've added some pictures to the January album.

01/08/2010 - New Year's Resolution:

2010-01-08T14:27:00.002-05:00

Update the pictures on the BLOG more frequently! Check out the January pics on the right!

A Movie from Our Disney Trip

2010-01-01T21:57:00.007-05:00

I put together some of our favorite clips from our trip into a little 5 min. movie. Enjoy!

12/25/2009 - Merry Christmas!

2010-01-01T13:46:00.004-05:00

We had a great Christmas and Holiday Season this year! We were so fortunate to have time to spend with family that we don't get to see that often. We are so blessed!

12/12/2009 - Disney

2009-12-30T16:43:00.002-05:00

I just finished editing all of our Disney pics and now Anna Claire has woken up from her nap so I don't have time to write much! I'll post more soon but for now you can see the Disney pictures in the album on the right...

10/31/2009 - Bumble Bees

2009-10-31T21:43:00.014-05:00

I think Halloween may be my favorite holiday! I have always had so much fun dressing up and now I love dressing up Anna Claire and Daisy. That's right, Daisy still gets a costume too. The day that I got Anna Claire's costume in the mail, I happen to stumble upon a dog bumble bee costume and so I decided it was fate.

Anna Claire got to be a bumble bee at the zoo last weekend with Mallory the Moo Cow...

...and with her class on Friday morning...

...and on Saturday afternoon with Megan & Mia and at GG & Grandpa's...

...and then finally Saturday night on the mountain with the Harpers!

I think she finally has the concept of Trick-or-Treating down after all of that practice! The rest of the pictures are in the October Album.

10/10/2009 - Trip to Maine

2009-10-19T13:14:00.003-05:00

Anna Claire and I just got back from a trip to Maine where we spent a week at one of my college friend's house (Kristen). Another college friend, Jenna, also flew up with her little girl, Annalee (who's about 3 mos. younger than Anna Claire). We had a great time catching up and wishing we didn't live so far away from each other!

I've started the October Album with pics from our trip.

09/25/2009 - September Update

2009-09-25T15:12:00.004-05:00

September has been a very busy month for us!

Anna Claire has moved up to the next classroom at school (She's a redbird now). This room has more activities for her to get into (she was so exhausted the first week!) and all of the kids sit at a little table for lunch (no more highchairs).

Anna Claire's Aunt Angela and Uncle Brad came to visit from Austin and her Uncle Michael came home from New Mexico on Labor Day weekend. They all thought she had changed so much since April!

Eric and I went to an all-inclusive resort in Mexico for a couple of days with the Harper and the Beards. We thought they were brave for agreeing to travel to Mexico with us, given our track record, but fortunately the trip was uneventful in regard to hurricanes! :) We really enjoyed laying by the pool all day and eating LOTS (and LOTS) of really good food.

In addition to celebrating both of our mom's birthdays this month, we celebrated Eric (and Kathy's) birthday by having some friends over for the TN/FL game. Eric grilled some delicious chicken, burgers and hot dogs on the BGE and the kids had a great time playing together (even though they had all spent the last week inside from all of the rain!).

I took Anna Claire down to Coolidge Park today for her first carousel ride. I think she really enjoyed it, even though it was hard to tell from her facial expressions :)

Here is a slideshow of all of the Sept. pics so far.

09/04/2009 - Rosemary Beach

2009-08-20T13:09:00.008-05:00

Last week we headed down to the beach for our first family vacation this year! After working an extra day this summer to meet a project deadline, I was in need of some relaxation and family time. This was Anna Claire's first trip to the beach since she's been walking but unfortunately she did not care much for the sand! I think her favorite part of the trip was pulling her wagon back and forth to the beach :)

Here is a little movie of our trip. I have been wanting to make one of these since I got the Mac and have finally taken the time! The other pictures from our trip are in the "Rosemary Beach" album on the right.

08/04/2009 - Picture Update

2009-08-04T21:01:00.000-05:00

We've started an August album and finished off June/July!

07/17/2009 - Our chatty girl

2009-07-17T20:36:00.003-05:00

Here's some footage that I took today of Anna Claire playing in her baby pool.

I think you can tell what her favorite response is!

07/04/2009 - Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-05T19:37:00.007-05:00

We had a great 4th full of watermelon, a parade, good friends, good food and fireworks. To see more of our pictures click on the June/July 2009 pics link.

We don't have very many pictures from June...I was gone for work during the first week and then Eric joined me on a company trip during the second week. Anna Claire got to spend a week with her Nana and King Grandaddy so maybe Nana will share those pictures with me :)

05/29/2009 - May Update

2009-05-29T14:57:00.002-05:00

We finally have a May Album! It has been such a busy month. The MacBook is still helping me to update things more easily but it doesn't give Anna Claire a bath or do the dishes, so it's still hard to find enough time to use it!
Anna Claire is starting to communicate with us more and more. She is now saying a couple of words (Daisy, Hi, Bye-Bye, Woah, Yay, Go, No). We walked into her classroom one day this week and she said "Hi!", it was so cute and unexpected! I think she's also understanding the things that we're telling her more. She knows how to walk over to her bookshelves, pick out a book and bring it over to the glider for us to read it to her. It's so fun to see her face when she's walking towards me with a book that she's excited about. We're so proud of her. Enjoy the pics!

04/28/2009 - Pictures from the Weekend

2009-04-28T21:35:00.002-05:00

Here are some pictures from this weekend. On Friday, Anna Claire and I played with her bubbles and then Saturday we all went to the park and then dinner downtown. She's walking all over the place!

Thanks to Eric for my early Mother's Day present, a MacBook! It has made it much easier for me to add updates!

I know "No No"

2009-04-26T22:06:00.002-05:00

So, I've been trying to get some video of Anna Claire walking and I happen to capture something else. From the time that she first started crawling she has always been interested in Daisy's dog food, which is of course off limits. Any time that she would go near it, I would say her name and shake my head "no". You can see in this video that she's definitely gotten the message! All I did was say her name and she started shaking her head no. Pretty cool!! Just thought I would share this "parenting triumph" and we're still working to get some video posted of her walking!

04/19/2009 - Rounding out Anna Claire's 1st Year

2009-04-19T20:48:00.003-05:00

We had 1st birthday party round 2 yesterday and Anna Claire had a great time! She enjoyed playing with her friends, opening presents and eating more yummy cake! Between her birthday and Easter, she has done a lot of celebrating lately! We just put all of the pictures in the Month 12 album, even though she's now officially in her 13th month :( Enjoy the pics!

One really sweet thing that she's doing now (as a big one year old :)) is when we hold her sometimes she pats our backs like we pat hers. It's so sweet. We love receiving her little love-pats!

04/04/2009 - Pictures from Anna Claire's 1st Birthday Party

2009-04-14T11:17:00.004-05:00

Here is the link to the slideshow of pictures from Anna Claire's 1st Birthday Party on April 4.

http://www.dianasimpson.com/slideshow/annaclaire1/

Thanks again, Diana! We have several favorites...it's going to be so hard to choose!

04/08/2009 - Happy 1st Birthday Anna Claire!

2009-04-05T21:11:00.018-05:00

A year ago today I was sending an email to work saying “I won’t be in today. I’m not in labor yet, I just don’t feel well” and about 8 hours later (after receiving an official “diagnosis” :) of being in labor) we were greeted by a 7 lb 1 oz baby girl with the most beautiful strawberry blonde hair.

She has been such a happy baby with a great nature from the start. “Baby’s 1^st Smile” is the one milestone that we don’t have exactly documented because we can’t ever remember her not being able to smile.

She has always been very aware and a keen observer of her surroundings, like she's just trying to take it all in. Nothing gets past her!

But to say that she's great natured and observant, is not to imply that she doesn't also have a BIG personality.

She is one of the most expressive people we know! Her latest expression is "oooohh" if she finds something interesting or "mmmmhh" if she's eating something good.

We also love (and appreciate!) her independent nature.

And to say she comes by it honest is an understatement since she has it running pretty strongly on both sides :)

Anna Claire, you bring so much joy to your entire family and put a smile on the face of anyone that meets you! We love you so much! Mama and Dada

03/27/2008 - 12 Month Pics

2009-03-27T15:37:00.005-05:00

Here is a slideshow of the Month 12 Pics!

03/15/2009 - 1st Steps & Funny Videos

2009-03-15T20:38:00.008-05:00

Anna Claire took a couple of steps today!! I don't know who was more excited, her or us! We don't have it on video yet, but we'll post it when we do. These 3 videos are from an evening a couple of weeks ago. I was putting them together when our computer died but we're finally back up and running. They crack us up and really show her personality, so we thought we'd share them! I've also finished updating the Month 11 folder on the right.

02/20/2009 - Georgia Aquarium

2009-02-21T22:39:00.008-05:00

Our friend Melanie got us tickets to the Georgia Aquarium, so we spent the day there on Friday.

Anna Claire enjoyed her first visit with the fishies!

Here are the other Month 11 pics:

12/02/2008 - Every once in a while...

2008-12-19T14:52:00.004-05:00

...we find something that really makes her laugh...

We have a Month 9 album now...

11/26/2008 - Pulling Up

2008-11-29T15:33:00.006-05:00

Anna Claire has started pulling up! This new found excitement has her pulling up on everything...

11/21/2008 - Anna Claire meets Santa

2008-11-21T21:13:00.004-05:00

We took Anna Claire to the mall today so she could talk with Santa about what she wants for Christmas :) I think she likes him; we didn't have any tears!

11/17/2008 - Video of Anna Claire crawling

2008-11-20T08:02:00.007-05:00

Here is some video of Anna Claire crawling (she's only been crawling for a month now!)

We have also created a Month 8 folder.

10/31/2008 - Happy Halloween from our little pumpkins!

2008-11-03T12:10:00.002-05:00

Anna Claire had a great time on her 1st Halloween (more pics in album on right).

And she has reached another milestone...she's crawling! She started crawling the day after I updated the BLOG saying that she wasn't there yet but was close. We'll post some video of her crawling soon.

10/25/2008 - Mommy's Weekend Away

2008-10-27T19:57:00.009-05:00

I spent the weekend on a Women's Mountain Biking trip at Mullberry Gap. It was a beautiful place, with fun trails and wonderful meals; I would highly recommend it! Here's their website: http://www.mulberrygap.com/

This left Anna Claire and daddy to a weekend by themselves. It looks like they had a good time and he did a good job of dressing her in cute outfits :)

Anna Claire update:

As you can see from the Month 7 pics, she's now sitting up well on her own. She's very close to crawling and even though she's not quite there yet, she still manages to move herself around on the floor.

You can also see from the pics that she's now eating babyfood. So far she's had applesauce, prunes, green beans, squash, carrots, peas and papaya.

She has also started cutting her first tooth! We first felt it a week or two ago but now you can actually see it coming through!

At our last pediatrician's appt. she weighed just under 16 lbs. and is 24" long.

10/18/2008 - Fall Pictures

2008-10-20T15:41:00.003-05:00

We went to a pumpkin patch on Saturday to take some fall pictures of our little pumpkin.

You can see the other pictures in the Anna Claire Month 7 album on the right.

On Sunday, we did Anna Claire's 6th Month sitting with Diana. Click on the link below to see those pics:
http://dianasimpson.com/slideshow/annac6mo/

10/04/2008 - Mandy celebrates her last day in her 20's

2008-10-06T12:02:00.005-05:00

Eric put together a low country boil party for my 30th birthday. The food was delicious and we had a great time. Thanks to everyone who was able to come celebrate with us!

09/28/2008 - Anna Claire's Baptism

2008-10-06T11:51:00.004-05:00

Anna Claire got baptized today and we asked Auntie Mimi to be her godmother (she accepted of course :))

09/12/2008 - Rice Cereal

2008-10-06T11:16:00.005-05:00

Here's some video of Anna Claire eating rice cereal for the first time. We've also created a Month 6 album on the right.

08/25/2008 - Baby Girl or Baby Monster?

2008-09-14T15:58:00.004-05:00

Here is some video footage of Anna Claire and I having a conversation during her "growling" phase.

We've also added a 4 &5 month album on the right!

08/16/2008 - Texas Trip

2008-08-29T20:51:00.013-05:00

Anna Claire took her first flight to attend her Great Grandpa's 80th birthday party in Texas. She did great on the plane (we gave her a bottle during take off and landing to avoid any potentional ear-popping) so fortunately we weren't "those people" with the crying baby :) She had a great time and really enjoyed meeting all of her great aunts, uncles and cousins from Texas!

Of course we have the other Texas pictures in an album on the right. (If we take 1 pic, we take 150 :))

08/08/2008 - Beach Trip

2008-08-29T20:51:00.007-05:00

After several weeks of getting into a daycare and work routine, we decided that we needed a break! So, we headed down to Port St. Joe with the Polks for Anna Claire's first trip to the beach.

Joey took several pictures of us on the beach with Anna Claire in this adorable dress from Mark and Kelley. (The other pics are in 2008 Beach Trip on the right)

07/16/2008 - And we're back...

2008-07-16T18:51:00.006-05:00

It hasn't quite been a month, but close. It's amazing how time flies! As Anna Claire has become more and more interactive, the pictures have slowed; the blog has slowed; but time did not get the memo.

We have had huge accomplishments since Father's Day:

Anna Claire is sleeping through the night!
Nana came and visited for a week or so.
Mandy & Eric had their first mountain bike ride.
Anna Claire saw her first 4th of July Fireworks.
Mandy started back to work.
Anna Claire started school (not really, but Daycare does not sound like much fun)
We had Anna Claire's 3 month pictures with both sets of Grandparents.

What a busy 4 weeks!

In my opinion, the biggest step of these is Mandy going back to work. We had grand plans of giving "school" a dry run for a day or two prior to Mandy starting back, but never made time for that, so on Monday, July 7, I put Anna Claire in the car and headed for her school and Mandy headed to work. We are through week 2 and things are going well...no big troubles or mishaps. Not too shabby for a new set of parents!

I have finally added a link to a Month 3 photo album on the right...

In the meantime, you can see the slide show that our photographer, Diana Simpson, put together from the shoot last weekend.

You can click here to see it.

We will be back soon!

Ciao!

07/07/2008 - Anna Claire's First Day of School

2008-07-07T20:39:00.001-05:00

It's hard to believe that she is almost 3 months old! Today is her first day at school. Mandy starts back to work this week as well, so it is going to be a whole new ball game for us as far as determining how we are going to get ourselves ready for work, Anna Claire ready for school and then get her dropped off...all with us getting to work before lunch!

I drew the short straw and got the dubious honor of taking her to school on her first day. She was a trooper, as usual. I got to school where Dreama and Carolyn were anxiously awaiting the newest member of their class. She was an instant hit with her killer smile.

We added a few more pics to the month 3 album...check it when you have a chance.

07/03/2008 - Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'...

2008-07-03T20:37:00.002-05:00

Well, we knew it would only be a matter of time before our little girl would start becoming mobile. I went up to get her up one morning and found this...

She had rolled on her side and was so content. Up to this point, we have been wrapping her snuggly in a sleep wrap. I guess we need to think about wrapping her arms outside of the blanket so that she can move her head around.

It won't be long before she is propping herself up. She is really getting good head control.

This is awesome!

06/15/2008 - Father's Day

2008-06-19T19:57:00.008-05:00

What do you get the dad who does the late night feeding, makes it to work on time and still manages to put dinner on the table?...

a clean closet...

a couple of ties...

and a little bit of quality time with his little girl :)

We've finished updating the Month 2 folder! We'll get Month 3 up there soon...

05/29/2008 - Anna Claire Update

2008-05-30T09:43:00.004-05:00

We have added some more pics to the Anna Claire - Month 2 album!

She's now up to 9 and 1/2 lbs., growing at about a half a pound every week. She is becoming more and more alert everyday. We love it when she gives us one of her "full mouth" smiles! She is also discovering her voice and doing a lot of "cooing". We're having a lot of fun with her!

05/11/2008 - Mother's Day

2008-05-16T22:06:00.008-05:00

I had such a fun first Mother's Day! The day started off with a card and gift from Anna Claire. She got me a gift certificate to Natural Body. What a thoughtful daughter!! She reminds me of her dad :)

We took Anna Claire to church for the first time. My mom and the Graus joined us and then came over to our house to enjoy a delicious meal that Eric made.

After lunch, Anna Claire and I hopped in the car with Nana to go spend a week at her house. Eric had a conference in Charlotte this week so Nana graciously volunteered to take care of us :)

Anna Claire comes from a family of shoppers so we decided it was time to introduce her to the mall. She enjoyed it quite well. This was her reaction when I told her that we were going shopping :)

Click on "Anna Claire - Month 2" on the right, to see more pictures from Mother's Day and our trip.

05/08/2008 - Anna Claire Turns 1 Month Old!

2008-05-08T19:53:00.008-05:00

Anna Claire celebrated her 1 month birthday today. It is hard to believe that she is already 1 month old. She is changing so much each day.

Here are some pictures of her on the cute swaddle blanket that Ali got us.

05/01/2008 - Updated Pictures in Anna Claire ablum

2008-05-01T21:24:00.002-05:00

I promise we will get back to some words one day, but for now, the pictures are just too cute!

04/20/2008 - More Updated Pics in Anna Claire album

2008-04-19T23:10:00.003-05:00

We've added a few more!

04/13/2008 - Updated Pictures in Anna Claire ablum

2008-04-13T21:20:00.002-05:00

Not much time right now, but wanted to get some more pictures uploaded. I'm sure this will slow down one day, but we're having a good time.

04/09/2008 - Anna Claire Day 2

2008-04-12T20:26:00.002-05:00

Not much more than some pictures right now...more later.

Keep checking the Anna Claire album to the right...we will continue to add to it.

04/08/2008 - She's here!

2008-04-12T20:17:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to write you a quick note letting you know that Mandy gave birth
to Anna Claire Grau on April 8th at 1715 Eastern. Mandy and Anna Claire are doing
wonderful right now...tired, but wonderful. Anna Claire weighed 7lbs 1oz.

We will be at the hospital for another day or two and will get some pictures
out as soon as we can.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers during the pregnancy.

04/03/2008 - 38 Week Doctor's Appt.

2008-04-03T20:38:00.002-05:00

I am still continuing to progress...I'm now up to 4 cm dilated and about 65% effaced. I'm very excited about having made it this far without any contractions!

Everyone that knows how much of a planner I am, knows how hard it is for me to not know when I'm going to go into labor. We're just trying to take things one day at a time and remember that God is in control.

We'll continue to post updates as we know more!

03/30/2008 - 38 Week Belly

2008-03-30T19:54:00.003-05:00

Here's an updated belly shot in the original outfit. It's a good thing that I'm approaching the end of my pregnancy because the shirt is barely still covering my belly!

I have been blessed with a very easy pregnancy but I am starting to get a little uncomfortable now that she has gotten so big!

Since we've ended up with a little extra time on our hands, we decided to play around with some pregnancy photos this weekend. You can see our work under "Pregnancy Pics" on the right.

03/27/2008 - 37 Week Doctor's Appt.

2008-03-28T08:42:00.004-05:00

We had a much less eventful doctor's appointment this week...I'm still at 3 cm and 50% effaced (he didn't mention anything about effacement last time). So, we breathed a little sigh of relief and just spent the evening relaxing. She could still be here any day now but after hearing 3 cm last week, we're pretty much ready (my bags are packed and actually in my car!)

03/26/2008 - Nursery!

2008-03-26T18:06:00.012-05:00

I couldn't post any finished nursery pics without first posting this picture of Blair working in the nursery, since she was such an inspiration for the entire room! Blair was my college roommate and you may remember her beautiful voice from our wedding ceremony. We like to refer to her as our "right brain" friend :)

Eric used a wide-angle lens to capture as much of the room as possible.

The first thing that Blair helped with was her name above the crib. She made this limb and 3-D birds and had the idea for the actual letters. But I do have to give Eric and myself a little credit for actually making the letters, since we typically do not think of ourselves as being crafty :) Eric painted the letters and frames and I hot-glued various colors of seersucker fabric to the backs of the frames.

Here is a close-up of one of the birds that Blair made...she was able to exactly duplicate the birds in the bedding!

There's a lot to share about this pic (don't forget you can always click on a picture to view a bigger image). This is Eric's old dresser that his dad refinished...I really like how the door knob pulls that I ordered on E-Bay pop on the black! The memo board above the dresser is another Blair inspired project that Eric and I managed to pull off. It will be used for pictures and other special baby mementos that we want to keep and display. In the meantime I've displayed some of the mementos from my showers.

The curtain hold-backs are also Blair inspired but sewn by G.G.

I think the $15 changing table turned out to be a great find! (not sure if Peepaw Grau would agree or not :)) Nana got us the baskets and pink gingham liners that we needed to finish it.

Our little girl already has a pretty full wardrobe :) These are her dresses and jeans for the first 6 months (her onesies and gowns are in the dresser). These include shower gifts and clothes from Emery (the daughter of our friend's Joey and Steph, who was born at the end of February 06, so the size & season should line up pretty well!...Thanks Em!)

So, there's the finished nursery! Finished for before her arrival at least :)...I told Eric that we still have some wall space available, but after thinking about it, we want to be able to put some pictures of Anna Claire in the room, so we're probably good for now (he was amazingly quick to agree :))

03/23/2008 - Easter

2008-03-24T19:12:00.008-05:00

After last week's appt. we thought there was a chance we could be celebrating "Baby's First Easter" this year but it ended up just being the two of us (plus Daisy!)

I thought this dress was appropriate for the occasion since it kind of made my belly look like an Easter egg :)

You just can't take a picture with Daisy without her sneaking in a couple of kisses! I bought her a new bed yesterday so she would have something new to lay on when we have to continually tell her not to lay on all of the baby stuff in the floor (we've already discovered that she finds the Boppy pillows as comfortable as everyone else :)) We are trying to ease her transition from being an "only dog" to a "big sister"!

We worked hard all weekend and got the nursery completely ready before the end of the day (our last step was getting all of our shower gifts organized and put away). So, we're still on track for having nursery pics up by the end of the week but first we've got to get our hospital bags packed! (We decided that really should be a higher priority for us at this point!)

03/22/2008 - Baby Wash

2008-03-24T19:11:00.004-05:00

Today was the most fun laundry day I've ever had! I washed all of Anna Claire's newborn outfits and blankets with Dreft. We will not be air drying this much in the future but I just didn't think any of the little newborn stuff could afford any shrinkage!

I thought all of the little onesies and gowns were so cute hanging on our drying rack :)

03/20/2008 - 36 Week Doctor's Appt.

2008-03-21T08:48:00.008-05:00

This was my first appointment where my doctor checked to see if I had started dilating any. I told myself before I went that no matter what he said, I wasn't going to believe that she really would be coming early (I have just heard too many stories from friends that hear news from their OB that the baby is almost here and then they still go past their due date!). But when he told me that I had already dilated 3 cm, I have to admit that I got a little panicked about the nearness of her arrival! My doctor doesn't anticipate that I will go into labor as soon as the next week but he said there's a good chance that she will be here before April 16.

I'm doing weekly visits now, so we'll continue to post updates. No one really knows when Anna Claire will decide to make her arrival, but we definitely feel like a fire has been lit underneath us to finish up the remaining things that we would like to do before she gets here! (hopefully I can post some finished nursery pictures in the next week or so)

03/09/2008 - Grau Baby Shower

2008-03-11T10:23:00.031-05:00

G.G. (Grandma Grau) and Megan (Auntie Mimi) threw me a shower on Sunday. Eric's aunts (Diane and Gayle) drove all the way down from Maryland to come to the shower!

We had such a great turn out!! I was exhausted from opening so many wonderful gifts!

This picture is from one of my favorite memories of the day. I really wish we had video footage of this: As soon as I sat down with my plate of goodies, Anna Claire started moving. At first I just felt it but then I could actually see my stomach moving. It seems like most of the times when I've noticed her moving, by the time I'm able to tell someone, she's stopped. But not today! She was moving so much that anyone who was in the living room could see it. It was like she knew she had an audience and wanted to perform!

I decided that this pic can be my 34 week belly shot. I really wanted to stay on top of taking those to watch the growth but we have been so busy lately! Eric has planned a "babymoon" trip for us in Asheville this weekend (we leave on Wed.) to make us take a break from all of the baby preparations and relax a little bit before the real work gets here! Now that the trip is here, I'm so grateful for his persistency in making sure we take time to relax.

The other pics from the shower are posted under Photo Albums on the right.

03/01/2008 - Harper Baby Shower

2008-03-04T22:51:00.006-05:00

The Harpers had a couple's get together for us on Saturday night.

We enjoyed a really fun and relaxing evening. We had dinner, cake, opened presents and played a couple of fun games (well, mostly fun...check out the Harper Baby Shower photos on the right for more details :))

02/23/2008 - Columbus Baby Shower

2008-02-27T22:12:00.006-05:00

My aunt and cousins threw me a baby shower in Columbus this weekend.

The decorations were so cute and creative and I think everyone had a great time!

Click on "Columbus Baby Shower" under Photo Albums on the right to check out some of the neat gifts that we got!

02/21/2008 - 32 Week Doctor's Appt.

2008-02-27T20:47:00.004-05:00

Today I discovered that Anna Claire and I have had a little growth spurt :) She went from just under 3 lbs. at my last visit just 3 weeks ago, to 4 lbs. & 5 ounces at this visit! This took her from the 47th percentile to the 67th! My doctor said not to put too much weight on the percentiles this far out, but I must admit that I'm a little nervous now about having a bigger baby than I was anticipating!

That was the most interesting part of the visit...everything is still coming along smoothly!

02/17/2008 - Glider

2008-02-17T14:57:00.009-05:00

Back in October, Mandy's dad said that he wanted to buy the baby a gift and asked us what he could get.

Mandy remembered a story that her dad used to tell about the first time that his little girl was visiting her paternal grandparent's house and wouldn't go to sleep. Mandy's dad knew immediately that his little girl was desperately needing a rocker so that her mom could rock her to sleep, but the only problem was that Mandy's grandparents didn't have one. Well, when Mandy's paternal grandfather found out that his granddaughter didn't have what she wanted, he got up in the middle of the night, woke up the shop owner of the local furniture store and went down to purchase a rocker! It was such a simpler time then!

So, Mandy thought that a glider would be a very appropriate gift from her dad :) As the nursery started coming together, we decided that a yellow glider would be a nice compliment to all of the pink and green. We ordered this glider about 3 weeks ago and got it this week. We're very happy with how the color and fabric pattern turned out and also very excited that the glider is super comfortable to sit in!

02/13/2008 - Promotion

2008-02-17T14:46:00.007-05:00

Most women in their 3rd trimester of pregnancy do not pursue promotions at work :) And even though promotion to Director was a natural next step for Mandy, after obtaining her FSA, she still didn't expect to receive the promotion before going on maternity leave. So you can imagine her surprise on Wednesday when she found out that she had gotten it! Eric was just as excited and came home with these flowers to show how proud he was.

02/04/2008 - Prepared Childbirth Course

2008-02-05T13:13:00.000-05:00

For the past 5 Monday nights we've attended a prepared childbirth course at our hospital. Our instructor was thoughtful enough to take a picture of our class and email us the picture.

The class turned out to be really informative. We realize there's only so much we can do in anticipating what Mandy's labor experience will be like, but we found it really helpful to learn about all of the different possibilities (induction, epidural, cesarean birth, etc.) We'll see how well Mandy remembers the breathing techniques we learned once those painful contractions begin! :)

01/31/2008 - 3D/4D Ultrasound

2008-01-31T18:46:00.001-05:00

Today was my 3D/4D ultrasound appointment and we got our first glance at Baby Grau. It was so strange to see her for the first time...she looks different than I expected, but I don't really know exactly what I was expecting her to look like! Of course she is still developing and although better than 2D images, there's still some distortions in these pictures since my OB said her face was pressed up against the placenta.

This picture makes me think that she has her daddy's nose...which is probably a good thing for her :)

During the ultrasound we could see her moving her little hands in front of her face as if to say, "No more pictures please!"

This picture shows a clearer image of her lips. She kind of looks like she's smiling!

My OB added little comments to some of the pictures.

So far, we are both still progressing well. My glucose test came back okay, so no sign of gestational diabetes. He said that she's still growing in line with my due date and is currently in the 47th percentile on size, weighing almost 3 pounds.

We did one more check on the gender and since we are 99.99% sure that she really is a girl :), we are ready to share the name. We are going to name her...

Anna Claire

With Anna as the first name and Claire as the middle name and we're going to call her "Anna Claire". The name Claire is from Mandy's maternal grandmother...we shared a very special relationship and her middle name was Clarene. The name Anna is just a name that both Eric and I like. We wouldn't mind if she decides to drop the Claire when she gets older and just go by Anna. We can't wait to meet Anna Claire for the first time!

01/30/2008 - 29 Week Belly

2008-01-30T20:05:00.000-05:00

We took a lot of pictures at Christmas but decided that I was due for another "official" belly shot.

Eric chose this outfit when we first started taking the belly shot pics. I was skeptical about being able to wear it for all of the pictures, but so far I'm still able to squeeze into it! We'll see if it continues to "fit" over the remaining 11 weeks!

Baby Grau continues to become more active. I usually feel her move some during the day at work but I feel the most movement when I'm lying in bed at night just before I go to sleep. Eric was recently able to feel some of the movement and I've actually seen my belly move a couple of times, which was also pretty cool. Showing more and feeling more movement have definitely made the pregnancy feel more "real".

01/12/2008 - Pink Gingham

2008-01-12T18:10:00.000-05:00

Mandy's mom used various shades of pastel gingham to decorate her nursery (almost 30 years ago!) so she was very surprised to hear that PB Kids is still selling it and even more surprised that her daughter was interested in using it!

Our mom's and Mandy's Aunt Carole bought us a couple of items off of our registry for Christmas.

These curtains have a blackout panel in an attempt to darken a room that gets a lot of sunlight. We're still hoping that little opening above the top doesn't let in too much light.

This lamp has such a cute shape in person and will look great on the dresser.

This changing pad cover is so soft and the gingham liners will be very cute in some baskets that we plan to use with the changing table.

I found a changing table at a consignment sale for $15 (you can't beat that!). Eric's dad is currently refinishing it along with Eric's old dresser. We're all doing what we can to make sure that he doesn't get bored with retirement :)

01/06/2008 - Painting the Nursery

2008-01-06T19:30:00.001-05:00

Eric painted the nursery the weekend before Christmas, but we just took down the painters tape today. At first we had talked about doing a darker second coat but we are officially sticking with the original color.

I think he had some fun with it :)

Here's the final color! It's probably hard to get a good feel of the color on the computer, so you will just have to come see it in person!

I took this picture of Daisy while Eric was painting the nursery. She got into a fight with another dog and got a cut just under her left eye. Daisy thinks she's a lot bigger than she is and tends to instigate things with bigger dogs. They usually just ignore her (or she out-runs them!) but this dog decided to teach her a lesson. The wound is just about completely gone now, but we hope Daisy remembers this experience for the future so this doesn't happen to her again!

Kathy Update

2007-12-31T21:28:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, I posted a "pregnancy" picture of Kathy and me and said that she could be having her baby any day now. Kathy delivered Marley Sophia Harper (in a record short labor!) on December, 18 (the day before her big brother Ty's birthday).

She is even more precious in person!

12/25/2007 - Merry Christmas!

2007-12-31T21:01:00.000-05:00

For our last Christmas "pre - Baby Grau", we did our usual tradition of attending mass and exchanging gifts with the Graus on Christmas Eve and driving to the Driggers' on Christmas Day.

My brother and Eric both got Guitar Hero for their Wii's. They played together a bunch and Eric has continued to play his every night since we've been back home :)

After spending a few days in Columbus, we had to get back to Chattanooga to get ready for a retirement party for Eric's dad. We were a little nervous about hosting a dinner for 15 but we were very excited with how the party turned out! Here is a video clip from the party and you can see pictures under "Photo Albums" on the right.

12/20/2007 - 23 Week Doctor's Appt.

2007-12-23T15:01:00.000-05:00

Today was my 23 Week check-up. Since my doctor was delivering a baby at my 20 Week visit, he did a thourough scan of the anatomy this time. Here's what he told us:

Our baby has a 3 vessell umbilical cord (which means the umbilical cord developed properly)
The spine is fully formed and has good curvature
From viewing the nose and lips, our baby does not have a cleft pallette
All of the organs (stomach, bladder, kidney, liver, etc.) look good
The heartbeat is in a good range (about 132)...we still love to hear it!
The bone measurements indicate that the baby is growing at a rate that puts her within 2 days of our due date

He wasn't able to get as good of a view of the genitalia as the PA did (just based on how the baby was positioned), so he gave us a 95% probablility of girl as opposed to the 99% that we got last time. We'll continue to check on the gender, but as you can see by the previous post, we're proceeding forward assuming that Baby Grau is a girl!

He didn't print off any new ultrasound pics this time (she still looks pretty much the same :)). We'll post another update when I go back in 4 weeks.

12/16/2007 - Nursery Bedding

2007-12-16T21:17:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of our bedding. I actually found it in June on clearance at PB Kids. Even though I wasn't even pregnant yet :), I knew it was exactly what I would want if we had a little girl one day, so with it being on clearance I went ahead and got it!

I also got the crib skirt and bumper.

Here's a close up of the bumper. At first, I wanted a white crib to go with the bedding but I think the black will be more versatile if we have a boy later and when we convert the crib into a full size bed. And now that I see it together, I think the bright colors are really going to "pop" against the black.

You could maybe tell in the crib pics that we've been experimenting with a paint color. We decided to paint another sample in between the white trim, since the paint color that's already in the room was kind of skewing our perception of the color. We still think it may be a little bright/light since this room gets so much natural light but we're still thinking about it.

The only piece of furniture that we have purchased for the nursery is the crib. We're going to use Eric's old dresser and paint it black. I found these drawer knob pulls on E-Bay that coordinate with the bedding. I was very excited about this find!

These prints are another E-Bay find that coordinates with the bedding. My cousin, Kristy, gave me these at our gift exchange this weekend.

This is another Christmas gift from Kristy and Matt. It's a super cute toiletry bag for me to take to the hospital. It will also work great as a smaller diaper bag.

Here is an updated belly shot from our weekend in Blairsville. You can see more pics from the weekend under Photo Albums on the right.

12/02/2007 - Crib

2007-12-02T20:54:00.000-05:00

Here is our first nursery pic!

We ordered this crib on Nov. 18. They told us it would take 10 - 12 weeks for it to come in but then we got a call on the 26th saying that it had arrived!! I talked Eric into making an "emergency" trip to Atlanta on Saturday to pick it up, but he was the one that decided to put it together when we got home around midnight (I think someone else is just as excited about it as I am :))

We plan to paint the walls some shade of green, right after Christmas. So, we'll continue to post updates as the nursery becomes more decorated.

The Harpers came over for dinner tonight and Kathy and I decided that we needed a picture of the two of us while we're both still pregnant. Kathy is due on December 23, so she could be having her little girl any day now!

I have added a link under "Photo Albums" to some of our Christmas Decorations.

11/26/2007 - 20 Week Doctor's Appt.

2007-11-26T21:25:00.001-05:00

We're having a..................

GIRL!

Probably the only thing actually indicating girl to you from this picture are the words "girl parts" :) Unfortunately, this image is not as clear as what we were able to see on the ultrasound screen. Last time I didn't even realize that we were looking at the genitalia when he said "girl" but this time it was a lot more obvious.

At first I thought that I might not even have this appointment today b/c when we showed up they told us that my doctor was away delivering a baby (pretty acceptable excuse for an OB I suppose :)). So instead of seeing him, the physician's assistant did the ultrasound and gave a 99% probability that Baby Grau is a girl.

Here are some other pictures that she took:

This is a picture of the bottom of the feet. Baby Grau was all over the place today! I think I have actually felt her move a couple of times. It's still very subtle but I have definitely felt a few "flutters".

I thought this picture was really sweet. You can tell that she likes to rest with her hand up by her face.

My doctor had planned to do a full anatomy scan this week to make sure all of the organs are okay but we will have to wait until the next visit for that. Since my next visit fell during the week of Christmas, we're actually going to go a little sooner than four weeks (Dec. 20).

Here is an updated belly shot:

My "baby bump" has arrived!

To see details of a recent event leading to "enhancement" of the baby bump, check out the Thanksgiving photos on the right :)

11/01/2007 - 16 Week Doctor's Appt.

2007-11-01T19:25:00.000-05:00

We were hopeful in finding out the gender of Baby Grau today but we're pretty much where we were before we went!

Based on what our doctor could see, he's thinking girl.

But it's still a little early to say for sure (he gave us a probability of 75%). I think we will have a much better idea at my next visit when I'm 20 weeks.

In the meantime, here are some updated photos of Baby Grau.

We could see so much more detail this time! It actually made it harder to tell what was what! Thank goodness that our doctor is there to intepret for us. This is a picture of the spine. A lot of the bone structure has developed at this point.

Here is a picture of the baby's leg. I can expect to start feeling some movement in the next few weeks. Maybe "she" will be a soccer player like mom :) At this point the baby has actually grown so much, that it's hard to get an ultrasound picture with the entire body in view!

This picture scares me a little bit, but I realize that the baby still has about 24 weeks of development to go. Eric pointed out that you can actually see that the right and left hemisphere of the brain are distinctly developing. Pretty cool stuff!

So best we can tell, everything is still going smoothly. Our doctor took several measurements that confirmed that the baby was developing how he would expect, based on my due date. He will do a more thorough scan of the anatomy at my 20 week visit.

10/27/2007 - Halloween Tailgate

2007-10-30T08:59:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween!

At some point, I decided that if I was pregnant at Halloween then I wanted to dress up as "barefoot and pregnant". Well, it was too cold to go barefoot and I don't exactly look pregnant at this point, but we used that basic idea for the "theme" of our costumes.

These pictures were taken while tailgating at the TN/SC game this Saturday. Since we decided to tailgate in Knoxville instead of having a Halloween party, we just brought Halloween to the tailgate :) People kept coming over to see our "little jack russell". Yeah right. They really just wanted to see if our hair was real, since from a distance we looked pretty darn authentic and hey, we were in Tennessee :)

You can see the other tailgate pictures under "Photo Albums" on the right.