Coming in on top of course! More to come…

Happy Zoie has been very cranky!

7.5 months old
Tooth broke skin and moved down 6-5-10

Wow how time fly’s!!

Zoie had her first Dr’s appointment here in Vegas and it was a great experience. In Florida we had a hard time finding a peditrian that just worked for us… someone we liked, someone Zoie liked, and most of all someone who we trusted with their medical help. It seemed like every Dr we saw (we went through 4 in the 4 months we were there) we just didn’t agree with or something was off. Well welcome home to Vegas because I think I found one that we like- yippee!! Now to be sure we will see how the next couple of visits go and to be more sure if Zoie is actually sick I might have a different opinion seeing how she handles it - but so far we are on the same wave length and I love everything she went over and double checked with me on making sure I am doing what is best for Zoie.

Zoie laughed, giggled, waved, talked, and played with Dr Garcia today. They really enjoyed each other. Zoie is ahead of the game with sitting up - she was very impressed with how well she is doing. She is an active one as we know so she gave me some advice with keeping her entertained. Zoie is back to normal weight for her age, she is in the 50 percentile - weighing in at 15lb 13 oz and is getting long at 25 3/4″.

She told me I could dunk Zoie in the pool at this age (of course carefully and all the other precautions came with it!) But that got me more excited to have her in the lake/pool this summer!

She does have allergies as all of us seem to be fighting right now so she gave me some meds for 4 weeks to try that will hopefully help her sneezing and stuffy nose… other than that she is good to go and good to grow!

Zoie finally has her own room! She now has her own crib and we are working on the decorations but so far so good! She loves helping me put it all together and loves all the new things she gets to play with and explore. Here is a pict of her crib - i will take a pict of the room when we are done but for now.. the crib will do!

Z has been working on and practicing her waving techniques and this morning I think it was most most ‘official’ wave goodbye to her daddy. She has done it a few time but not sure she knew what she was doing or that she was doing it in response, etc. This morning it was very clear - daddy waved good bye and then she waved. Waited a minute and did it again and it was a full on wave. How fun!!

Z is full of new things as this morning she had her first official solid meal. Sitting in the bumbo, bib on a ready to munch away. She took the food so well you think she has been doing it all along and is a pro at eating! Of course she is a bit messy but wouldn’t expect anything different. Here is a fun video and some photos you might enjoy!

At 14 lbs, 24″ long little Z is growing up fast and getting excited to go meet the rest of her family! We have no clue where the next couple of weeks will lead us, but the one thing is for sure we are going West (to which state… still to be determined).

Zoie has had a great first 4 months of her life living on the beach, seeing dolphins and whales on our walks on the nice sunny days here in Florida. She has had lots of visits from family she loves and made friends for a life that she will some day get to come back and meet all over again.

Florida has been a great experience for our family - so many things that happened this past year and all positive things to our future in building our family and a solid foundation for our life. We have made some amazing friends that made us right at home and welcomed us as family and we will never forget how they made living here on the beach so special. It is hard to say good bye to them. I hope that all our talks about visiting both ways happens and we get to see everyone again before we know it. You will all be missed OBS Family - and THANK YOU for being you and making our life that much more fulfilled by having you in it! (….had to pause and wipe my tears). As excited as I am to go home, I am sad to leave a place we have called and made a home in the past year. We started our family here and our friends mean so much to us here and its not easy to leave them. One more last drive down the A1A (I hope I see dolphins today!).

Keeping up those honors….

and I got it on video… she started and I grabbed the camera cuz Grady wasn’t home and I didn’t want him to miss out. She did it! Sorry for the screaming on the video.. was a little excited and proud of my little girl. She tried so hard to do it and just did it! Wahooo!

12 weeks old… 11 1/4 pounds, 23 1/4 inches long!

Wow she has grown. She officially went from new born sizes with everything waay too big to everything is too small and fitting in 3-6 month clothes now - just skipped right over the 0-3 month sizes.

She is officially a thumb sucker… like mama was. She has just in the last week started laughing - full on laughing. She has been giggling for a while now but the laughing is so adorable.

She can hold her self up with her arms for a few seconds.

She loves to kick at bat at her animals….

Late 2008 Grady and i created a vision board. Living in Cedar City and newly married at the time and knowing that there was more out there for us and just not sure what direction we wanted to go in for our life’s together. We got out all the magazines and got creative. I look back now and see that in 2009 we completed about 1/3 of our vision. With so many more dreams to create still, it feels great to look back and know we are living our dreams and creating the best life for us and our family; every day seeing another vision become a reality.

Late in 2008, after visiting Schools in Florida we decided to follow Grady’s dream and start a financial and passionate foundation for our future. Struggling financially, we decided to stretch really big and take a leap of faith and pack up the house and move across the country for Grady to go to school full time. No family around to help, me supporting us (ouch!) and Grady starting at the basics going back to school. Its a stretch but it was a risk we were willing to take, an adventure around the corner that we knew the outcome would be fulfilling in creating a financial foundation for us and more than anything allowing Grady to have passion in what he does for a living.

We had a great time ringing in 2009 with our friends and family in Cedar - I cant imagine a better way to start it off. It wasn’t but a short week into the new year that we got the best news ever (well looking back I think it was the best ever!). I was pregnant. Our first baby, unexpected but was part of our vision board… so I guess i cant say unplanned So now not only was it a stretch to move by our self, but now we were doing it in a whole new perspective. I didn’t think I would make it through Grady in school and me supporting us (especially in the 9th month) but some how we always made it work. 2009 was a financial lesson over and over again and I think in 2010 we will start on a great foundation of lessons learned and only one way to go - and that is up! Not only was it a stretch financially, more so it was an emotional stretch and growth for us. Pregnancy hormones, wanting my mom more than ever, starting our family with no clue how and our support 2500 miles away… lets just say I think we spent most of the summer homesick.

We have been blessed with many visitors throughout our months in Florida, thus keeping us going till the next visit. More than anything during the summer of 2009 we met and made some great friends here in Ormond Beach. Some from Grady’s school, others from the Beach. Some will be bright stars in our memories, others will be friends for a life time no matter where the road takes us next. I cant express how much our friends here mean to us, even the ones that we dont get to see often enough with our schedules. Everyone has really reached out to welcome us, to make us family and support us through this big year in our life. Mogli came into our life mid-summer when we needed a roommate and he has been the best roommate, the best uncle to both Zoie and the dogs. We have been blessed in so many ways. Thank you everyone here in OB - we love you tons!

Some of my favorite times this past year was laying around feeling Zoie in my tummy, every week reading our book of what was going on with Z inside of me and growing closer to Graydon every day. Our relationship is stronger than ever and continuing to grow and we have the most precious, beautiful daughter to keep us on the right path. Of course I had some great times in Iowa with my girlfriends - another trip I will never forget. Graydon excelled in school - Graduating in October top of his class and continuing on in November with the Advanced program.

Though we have had some amazing experiences in 2009, Oct 13th tops them all! Holding our baby girl in our arms, the feeling of being a parent, the joy she brought to our life’s in an instant…. nothing tops that for 2009.

Professional Life: I finally got my licensing and new business in place that I have been dreaming and working on for 5 years: www.elocalevents.com. I launched my new website: www.702events.com that I have been working on for 1.5 years. Procrastination or just letting things unfold how they should?? Either way I was jumping for joy the last week of 2009 when my dreams became reality. Now I have years of work ahead of me in 2010 to continue to make those dreams come true. Grady has just another 1.5 months of school and he gets to make his career a reality in 2010 as well.

Ending 2009 with visits from Z’s Grandparents and family and going to bed at 10:30 on NYE with the Drake side of the family spread around the house was the perfect closing to 2009 opening up great new doors for 2010. We are excited and a bit nervous for what 2010 brings us as we know in a couple of months we will be packing up and moving somewhere… but who knows where! All I know is that no matter where we go, our little family is going to be in the perfect spot and all our friends and family will be with us in our hearts and in person at times. You all mean the world to us.

At 2 months and 1 1/2 weeks old, Zoie is celebrating her first Christmas and as fate as a way of making things happen without us planning, we are alone in Florida for Christmas. At first we were a little bummed, but as the time got closer I am more and more excited to have our first Christmas as a family together; where we get to start our own traditions and celebrate the beautiful gifts we have in our life.

Money is tight this year, as it is for many and my gift this year was a Christmas tree. Zoie has lots of presents under the tree from friends and family so we decided to not make a big deal of Christmas and we weren’t going to get us or Z anything. As the days got closer and the Christmas music is playing every day with a tree a lit up… mom got excited. Christmas Eve morning as the boys headed to the gym, I strapped little Z in and we went last minute shopping. I decided that though we dont have much money and our family is across the country, that doesn’t mean we can’t make this the perfect first Christmas for Zoie. So today, being Christmas Eve we officially start our new family traditions.

Tonight after dinner we will all gather around (Grady, Zoie, The Puppies, Me and of course our roommate Mogli) and open our Christmas Eve gift. This is the first tradition of many years to come. We will all go change and put on our new PJ’s and watch a Christmas Movie. This year I rented Four Christmas’s for us to watch. I also bought little Z a book full of Christmas stories so we will read a Christmas story every year as well.

A lady that wrapped our gifts today gave me a great additional tradition that I would like to pass onto my kids. Every year little Z will get a Christmas ornament - one that symbolizes the current year for her and what she likes. These will be kept together and when she moves out and has her own Christmas, she will have enough ornaments to decorate her tree with. This lady was an older lady who said they have ornaments on their tree from when they were kids and I really liked this tradition. Aunt Sheena got Zoie her first one to start off this tradition this year.

Tomorrow will be a fun day of opening Z’s gifts, making funeral potatoes (we are bringing a touch of Utah to Florida this Year) and heading off to the school Christmas pot luck, where many other students and their families that are not home for Christmas will be celebrating with us.

More to come after that….

Christmas:
This morning was a riot opening gifts with Zoie. I thought she wouldn’t’ be that into it, but for 2 months old she was awake and alert hanging out in her bumbo seat. She made it all the way through opening gifts and enjoying every minute of it. After we were done and Daisie was done trying to take her toys from her, she just crashed - just like any little kid that stayed up too late the night before. It was so adorable and fun! She got a great Christmas outfit from Aunt Gina, a Beautiful Blanket from Nana, toys from friends, a book and shawl from Grammy, ornament from Sheena - Daisie and Chicago got treats from friends and Grady and me got more PJ’s from Grammy. It was a perfect Christmas morning for our family shared with Mogli.

Christmas afternoon was fun as we went to Wyotech and ate dinner with some of the students, staff and their families. After we helped clean up Grady and I took left overs to the local mission - where the food was greatly appreciated.

Home now and in our new PJ’s. Merry Christmas to Everyone!