It's a BOY!

Today was our big ultrasound, and we were thrilled to find out that we're having a BOY!!! Grace will have a little brother sometime in early 2010 :-) We couldn't be happier to add a son to our family, and we know Grace will be an awesome big sister!

Miss Bossy and Full of Sass

Grace is becoming quite a sassy young lady lately. There's no doubt that the Terrible Two's have arrived, although one minute she's telling me I'm mean and the next she's telling me I'm her best friend. I see a lot of parallels between Grace and myself as a kid. I was known for being sassy and incredibly stubborn, not to mention very bossy!

Grace loves to boss people around - from her Mommy and Daddy to her Uncle Billy to the other kids she spends her day with to our bassett hounds. When we're playing at home, she tells Martin and I exactly what she wants us to do.

• Sit down, Mommy. On the ground, next to me. Have a tea party.
• Daddy, play in my playhouse. Sit there.
• HUSH, Fred and Phoebe (which she tells them every time she hears them barking)

We get our orders very clearly from our toddler. She even asks me, "Do you want timeout, Mommy?" I thought I was the one who gave timeouts...Grace doesn't think so.

Clearly, we have our hands full, but in the best possible way. She's full of life, keeps us on our toes, and showers us with love :-) This is the life I always dreamed of.

Falling down on the job...

Remember when I promised that I'd do better at keeping up with my blogging. Well, clearly I've not been a woman of my word. Life has been a whirlwind this summer! I honestly can't believe we're quickly approaching September. Where did the summer go?

Alas, here we are! We survived my two weeks away at grad school in Minnesota. It was rough on all of us. I cried a LOT and missed Martin and Grace like crazy. Thank God for Skype video chat, which allowed me to see and talk to my wonderful family everyday. We all made it through, and I am even more convinced that Martin is the best Daddy in the world. He handled two weeks of single parenthood like a pro :-) So now I'm two papers and one online class away from completing my 2nd Master's degree, this one in Philanthropy and Development. Woohoo!!!

In other news, we had an AWESOME visit with Martin's friend, Ollie, from England in early June. You'll find some great pics from his visit in our June online photo album: http://picasaweb.google.com/amberfogarty/TheFogartyFamilyJune2009#. You can also scope out You Tube videos from one of his living room concerts at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejbyzg88zQQ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTtfXi11uUU. Good times! We took a fun day trip to San Antonio, and Grace loved the boat ride on the Riverwalk.

All in all, it's been quite a summer! The heat has been unreal...we're just a few 100+ days away from this being the HOTTEST summer EVER in Austin! Needless to say, we're ready for the beautiful fall weather :-)

That's all for now, friends! Stay tuned, and I'll try to do better about blogging in the months to come.

Happy Baptismal Anniversary, Grace!

Today is the 2nd Anniversary of Grace's Baptism! It also marks the anniversary of the day Martin and I had our marriage blessed by the Catholic Church. It's a day that will always be special to our family. We were surrounded by the people we love the most and shared our incredible, unconditional love, now as a family of three, in the presence of God, our family, and dear friends.

This is one of my favorite pictures from that day, our sleeping beauty who managed to sleep through the entire Mass, even when Fr. Rick poured the holy water on her head!

I especially want to thank Grace's godparents - my brother, Billy, and Martin's sister, Caroline - who have made a lifetime commitment to Grace and our family :-) We're so thankful for all they do for our sweet girl (and for us too)!


Relive the memories with us:
http://picasaweb.google.com/amberfogarty/GraceSBaptismOurMarriageBlessing#

Sharing the joy...

Tonight we got to share in the joy of our dear friends, Adria and Michael, who just adopted sweet little Christian :-) We were thrilled to meet Christian and congratulate the new parents! We love you all and couldn't be happier for you.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day, One and All! We spent last night and most of today in Waco :-) We had a nice visit with the family. Grace's favorite part was jumping on the bed with Nana and Pop-Pop.

As you can see, she was having a blast :-) We got home in time to watch the big Austin fireworks show on TV and to catch a few smaller fireworks in the sky near our house. Grace isn't so sure about the fireworks...she mostly just says that they're loud. It was a great day! Now time for bed...

Potty Training is in full force...

Grace is slowly, but surely, mastering the art of going to the potty! We've been really impressed by how quickly she's caught on. And, of course, we're looking forward to buying less diapers!

There's a great potty video with Elmo and friends that Grace loves. We've watched that DVD a LOT, so much that we pretty much know it by heart. Martin and I can sing along with the songs, which makes Grace giggle :-)

My one beef with the Elmo DVD is when it goes through all of the ways you can talk about going #1 and #2. In the #2 section, most of the names are pretty harmless. Then a little kid comes on the screen and announces, "I call it dookie." And guess what word Grace has latched on to? Yep, you guessed it. Dookie :-)