IT'S A BOY!!!!

We just got the news tonight that Max William will be arriving on November 11th.  Gracie was already asleep when the news arrived and it was all I had in me to not wake the child up to give her the exciting news.  Being a veteran mom however, I know better than to wake a sleeping child especially on Halloween night:)  I'll be sure to take a picture of her beaming smile in the morning when she hears the big news.  Thanks everyone for helping us get this far so soon.  I'm still doing my happy dance:)

Movie Night

We are so blessed to be a part of Hart Dance Academy.  Our girls have been dancing there since 2004 and we have always felt a like part of the family.  Tonight, we were blessed to host a Movie Night at the studio to help raise funds for Gracie's DAD.  We had about 20 little girls clad in PJs toting their sleeping bags and pillows to camp out on the dance floor and watch Spooky Buddies.  What fun!!!!  I knew it was a hit when they burst into applause at the end of the movie:)  Thanks Gary and Tracey Hart for showing such generosity to our family:)

New Puppies...

Warren Retrievers had another litter of chocolate labs born this weekend.  At last count, there were four but we are waiting to hear if there were any more arrivals overnight.  Maybe, just maybe Gracie's little guardian angel will be from this latest litter; if so, it would most likely be a little boy (1 girl, 3 boys at last count:).  We are so excited as we continue to prepare for (and patiently WAIT for;) her service pup.  News should be coming in the very near future... we hope:)

Creativity

In the midst of everyday busyness along with preparing our home to welcome Gracie's service dog, I find it imperative to carve out a little time to create. It helps keep me grounded and balanced. Tonight I had the rare blessing of enjoying a quiet home and thought I'd pull out some of my supplies to make a few cards. Oh what fun I had! I was in a vintage kind of mood and think the result was well worth the effort:)

Preparing for a service pup

We know that in a relatively short amount of time we will be adding a new member to our family.  Essentially an infant, that even though it will be trained/training to serve it's life mission to protect Gracie by alerting us to her highs and lows, it will still be very young.

Puppy... That word can cause all sorts of mental pictures, can't it?  Sweet.  Soft.  Wet nose.  Adorable.  Yes, all wonderful cozy, sweet pictures; but then how about these: chewing, potty accidents, continual training (for this pup that is so much more than just good house manners), chewing, chewing, chewing.  Oh and did I mention chewing?;)  Now, add into this 4 messy girls.  Hmmmm... are you starting to get the picture?

Well, I've started to prep our home so that it's ready to welcome our little bundle of joy.  Am I nesting?  Maybe:)  But the fact remains that I need to make sure this house is a safe environment for our little pup.  That means making sure that the girls learn not to leave things around that this pup can get ahold of and CHEW on.  So, I've spent the weekend cleaning out and rearranging toys and play spaces.  Quite frankly, I was getting tired of the girls dragging all their toys through the house and leaving a trail anyway (sometimes a playroom is great in theory but not neccessarily in practice) so I've rearranged their bedroom to accomodate their favorite toys.  Yes, we'll still have a playroom ~ a great space for their imaginative play, for games, for dancing, for puzzles, for being a little bit rowdier than Mom and Dad want them to be upstairs; but the toys that they play with everyday have been moved to their bedroom, put away in wonderful cubbies of course:)  The biggest job has always been and will continue to be getting the little princesses to put their things away instead of leaving them scattered on the floor.  Their reward for getting through all this "nesting" their mom is going through?  Shopping of course!  When we are finished properly puppy proofing our home we get to go shopping for things for this precious pup.  We can't wait to find out if we are expecting a boy or a girl; Max William or Lacey Joy.  We have lots of things to get... do we get a pink leash and collar or a blue one?  What color food and water bowls do we need?  How about it's bed that we want to make?  Zebra or paw prints?  See?  Very important decisions are pending this information:)

It's going to take me the week to actually finish all this puppy proofing; maybe longer since I can't seem to just clean a room.  Inevitably, I end up thinking that every closet, cupboard, shelf needs to be cleaned out and every room must be rearranged.  Family BEWARE... when the house is finished, you will all be roped into cleaning out the garage (GASP!!!).

Anticipation!

We're waiting... patiently; well, kind of:)  Hopefully, in just a couple of months, Gracie will have her little guardian angel that will look like one of those above.  So much cuter and softer than a CGM sensor and 100 % accurate 100% of the time.  Gracie always hated her CGM sensor.  It hurt ~ not just the insertion with the really big needle; but even after the needle was out, the sensor would continue to cause her pain and discomfort.  There's no way she wants to go back to those days.  2 insertions = 2 sites 24/7 on a little body with very little fat to absorb the pain.  Gracie's service dog will offer her even more control than she's ever had without all the physical pain.  We love this service dog already, even though we don't know yet when it will be here, what it looks like, or even if it's a boy or girl.  All we know is that little Max William or Lacey Joy has already crawled into our hearts and become part of our family and is offering us more hope for a bright and healthy future for our princess Gracie than we've ever had before.

It's becoming REAL for Miss Gracie:)

This is Gracie with our beloved Jolay, a golden retriever we had adopted in 2000 and loved until she passed away in 2008.  Gracie (well, our entire family) LOVED this dog and Jolay adored the girls, always in the middle of their antics.  Gracie is so looking forward to getting her DAD and having this same close relationship with her special furry guardian angel.  I look forward to knowing that there is going to be a very special, furry friend looking out for her as closely as we do and giving her the chance of a long healthy life.  

I was showing Gracie some pictures of some of the Lab puppies that Warren Retrievers is evaluating soon (they had at least one new litter born over this past weekend too:) and she just beamed.  Now, each day, Gracie asks me to show her the pictures of Marilyn and her pups ~ all 12 of them.  Seeing these pictures has made it very real to Gracie that very soon she's going to have a very special friend that she will be able to depend on, just like she use to with Jolay.  Only this friend won't only be making sure the girls are safe and having fun; this friend will be letting us know when Gracie needs life saving intervention on our part 24/7.