Goodbye Sweet Pittsburgh

 Yes if word got to you, its true, we are moving.  We made the official decision May 30th.  First we are headed west to Minnesota for my sister Dana's June 23rd wedding and will stay there for a month or so in transition.  Transition?  Yes.  We are taking a leap of faith in a direction that we feel the Lord is taking us.  Since late October, 2011, Tuff received from the Lord a specific call to help the Native American people throughout the United States (I'm sure there will be much more elaboration on this later as things unfold).  We are praying through every step until we find where God wants us to be.  This opportunity is exciting and fearful because we will have to live out what we believe in a deeper level of trust and faith. 

So for the last week we've been hanging out with great friends and selling a few things on Craigslist.  We also made a Craigslist purchase, a 6 x 12 cargo trailer!

Ok for those who gotta get their Grace fix, here you go:

Videos first.

Waking up in the morning.  So cute. 



Eight hour sleep!



Giggles.



Practicing riding horse and motorcycle. 




Now for some pics.

Post bath time with dad.

Matching skin tone.  Beauties.

She's the total length of her playard.

Loves her tummy and sometimes I let her nap like this.

Little bath shark.

Binkie with an attached lamb stuffed animal.  Lamby also is her nickname so its quite adorable.

Her classic propped up position.

First time to spray park. 



That's about all you'll get to do with a two month old at the spray park.  When the water hit her feet she just pulled them up like someone was tickling them.

Instead of the spray park she was more interested in doing  two month old things like sleeping.

Some of you we will be seeing very shortly and some of you we will be saying goodbye to.  This move is bittersweet.  We love you all.

Our Big Baby

Little Grace is not so little anymore.  Tipping the scales two Mondays ago on her six week visit at 12.6 pounds and 24.5 inches long, she was in the 99.5 percentile for height and 97.5 for weight.  I know I'm tall but I did not expect this big of a baby.  By our own weighing techniques at home she weighs about 14.3 pounds now. 

Just a few weeks ago, we received a beautiful handmade cradle board from Tuff's mom and sister Toni, made by a craftsman on the Northern Cheyenne reservation.  We are in the process right now of enrolling Grace as a Northern Cheyenne Tribal member. Tuff is 25% Northern Cheyenne, 25% Crow and 50% European.  To be enrolled in the Crow Tribe you must be 25%.  Grace gets to be enrolled in the Northern Cheyenne Tribe because they operate their enrollment by descendency.

In the picture below Grace was mad about being in the wool cradle board on a hot day.  However, I think this mad face is so cute I had to share.  It's been in the 80's and 90's quite a bit this spring and our apartment only has a window unit AC that doesn't pump out much cold air.

Nothing the bink can't fix.

 

Below are a few pictures from Grace's baby dedication on Mother's Day (she was six weeks old).

Tuff read a prayer we wrote for her in front of the congregation.

Auntie Dana bought Grace a lovely necklace.  She looks adorable in it.

All smiles every morning when we get her out of her crib.

An adorable outfit from our Minnesota neighbors the Israelson's.

The picture below is from our small groups trip to the zoo last weekend.  We forgot to take a group photo so you will just get one of Grace in her zoo outfit from Debra.

Tuff holding Grace as she is about to drift off into dreamland.

She loves being propped up.

Some of the many headbands Auntie Dana bought Grace.  Just trying out a few.

Grace's first giggles from today in the video below!  So cute.  Today she is eight weeks old.



We also got a chance last Sunday and this Sunday to go to One-Year-Old birthday parties for Sophia and Harlow. 

One-Year-Old Sophia and her go at the Cookie Monster cake.

View of Pittsburgh from Sophia's deck!  Tuff is looking like a movie star.

One-Year-Old Harlow and her mommy Kacia in their matching aprons made by Kacia's mom.

Also from Kacia's mom are these matching rompers for Harlow and Grace.  Too cute.

Yesterday I had my first full day away from Grace and traveled to Erie, PA with my amazing friends Anne and Jenny, while Tuff stayed back and watched Grace.  We spent the first half of the day visiting the local wineries and the second half at the Presque Isle State Park beaches. 

Southshore Wine Company.

Jenny and Cab, the Irish Setter at Lakeview Wine Cellars, who greets customers at the door.

The grapes are growing for harvest in the fall.  So tiny right now.

On the pier at Presque Isle State Park on Lake Erie.

Senior Pic Remake
Please scroll down to view the senior pic and the very serious senior pic remake.

Transition

April 20th-23rd  Tuff attended the NFL Transition Program in Atlanta at Georgia Tech University.  It is a program that prepares NFL players for a new career outside of football as well as helps them work through the challenges of a transition.  35 applicants are accepted.  Tuff really enjoyed it.  They covered things from a hand shake, to resume building, to networking.  Tuff even got a real interview out of it for the company Stryker in medical equipment sales.  No word on that position as they are not hiring for another 4-6 months.

Back home in Pittsburgh, our neighbor has a bird feeder and Tuff has enjoyed taking pics from our kitchen window of some of the Blue Jay and Cardinal bird sightings.

Big moon on Cinco de Mayo.  Tuff LOVES taking pictures of the moon. 

Also on super moon night, we sighted an extremely odd sight in the sky.  People are calling it the triangle UFO.  It was three orange lights in the sky moving in unison side to side.  One by one the lights flickered out.  Very strange.  Not sure what to think of it but there was a lot of buzz about it and several sightings of the same thing around the world.  I took this picture from online because none of our cameras captured the mysterious lights.

Sadly I won't be using the scooters very much this year as I traded in my baby (my scooter) for my real baby:)  For some reason people don't approve of her riding the scooter around with me yet.  Haha.  We drove up one of our two scooters to a friend who is thrilled to use it for the summer.  Tuff currently rides our other scooter to the gym and track for working out. 

Here are the latest photos of Grace.  She is now going on 6 weeks old and has really gained weight.  She has a pediatrician appointment on Monday so we don't know her official weight but guess she is just over 12 pounds.  Big baby!

Little Pocahontas

She loves being on her tummy.

She's quite serious about her new swimsuit from our friend Debra.

Tuff being funny on a hot day, with little Grace in her swimsuit and Dad on skis.  Pretty cute.

 

Grace follows faces.



Grace stretches like a "C" every time we wake her.



Grace is in deep sleep in this video.
 


Mothers day is this Sunday and we will be getting Grace dedicated at our church.  It will be special to come in agreement with our supportive community to raise Grace up to know Christ Jesus.