Can't say LIZ without

the GO-GO-GO!To no one's surprise... Corpus hasn't stopped me! Yes, we are always on the move. I promised myself that when we moved I was going to get involved.. meet new people.. and jump right into making Corpus a home. Well, we are busy already! We are now members of THREE Mommy and Me playgroups. This week our adventures included playing at the indoor playground on Tuesday morning, with Grace Anne's new friends Kylie, Conner, Hadie, Ryan, and Lindy (notice Grace Anne is about to attacked this poor baby)! Then Wednesday, we went to story time at Barnes and Noble. The Barnes and Noble here is great!! It has a huge kids sections, lots of fun educational toys, and a weekly story time! We will have Barnes and Noble giftcards on Grace Anne's birthday list for sure!!! We met more fun kiddos and some really cool moms! Tomorrow we are supposed to head to the water fountains downtown for some splash time.

During our outings Daddy was of course working... Tuesday he got a nice suprise.. the afternoon off. The weather was sorta crazy here... Tropical Storm Hermine... and the trainer that was here insisted they not work that afternoon. The winds were 60 mph Monday night and the rain was heavy, but all and all it was no big deal (we can only hope all tropical weather comes and goes so easily)... BUT, back to my point.. Daddy had the afternoon off and we made a trip to the Texas State Aquarium. It's very close to our house and we've heard great things... we loved it! I would say Grace Anne loved it.. but we all loved it. Daddy loved the huge sea turtles... Grace Anne was infatuated with the seahorses... and Mommy really liked the dolphin show. It's a pretty neat place.. so neat we are now members and will be going back as often as we like!

Today we walked about 3 miles today... we have lots of sidewalks and parks in Corpus Christi! I've got to get walking back in our routine! It's strange because it feels cooler at noon than it does at 8am since the breeze isn't blowing hard at 8am... But, as I found out today.. the sunlight it direct at noon-- so now I have a lovely red forehead! Oh well...
Trauma follow-up: Grace Anne is fine. She shows no strange signs of injury or anything unordinary after her falls. She is on the other hand traumatized by "Mean Mommy" trying to make her nap! She fights sleep so badly and spent 45 minutes in her crib screaming and jumping (on her unsafe mattress that we need to replace).... There is no denying that our child is spoiled and gets held when she wants... but oh well... we did it to ourselves and Daddy says we will hold her until she's 18 if she wants us to!

Grace Anne is a BEACH BABE...
or possibly just a fish out of water...

On Sunday we went to the beach. We went to Rockport, TX because we had heard great things about it. We figured we wouldn't go there much so we went on up there as its a further drive. We didn't like it nearly as much, it was more of a "bay-beach" and had small pebbles and rock partials. Maybe the name "ROCKport" is not by coincidence! Grace Anne of course loved the water, but we got rained out! So by the time the shower passed we were almost home and Daddy decided to go on down to Mustang island. We stayed a long time and Grace Anne had to be pulled out. She loved the water and the waves. She made a little friend, Damon. Damon was for 4 according to him and only 3 according to his Grandma. (it's funny how little kids want to be older!) But, Damon had a 7 month old sister at home and loved making Grace Anne laugh and smile. She loves little kids with little voices. He covered her toes with sand and let the waves wash her off. She got a kick out of it. Daddy of course also enjoyed the water... and the trip to the ice cream truck. We are all ready to go back and since we now have our annual driving/parking pass -- we can go whenever our hearts desire!



We actually went to the Children's Urgent Care too. Grace Anne lost her balance and fell and hit her head on the tile then 10 minutes later she was climbing Kris' leg and fell and hit her head. She started acting kinda weird and wouldn't stop whimpering. For a while we kept her awake but then when she fell asleep she went completely limp. She looked like mush. We couldn't get her to wake up so we put her in the car and rushed her to the Urgent Care. The nurse came out immediately and tried to wake her up and noticed she was limp-- with in minutes we were surrounded by 3 doctors and a handful of nurses. They called an ambulance and started connecting her to monitors. One doctor was able to get her awake, they canceled the ambulance call, but left her on the monitor. Her heart rate looked good, she was breathing the whole time and her breathing was normal. They concluded she was probably extremely tired but found it strange she was so limp. I remained calm throughout, but Daddy really took it rough, I really think he had a hard time soaking it all in. He didn't remember part of it! Poor Daddy.

They did head x-rays and they looked good (she was not a fan of the x-rays or us holding her still).. It was heart wrenching to hold her still while she cried to get away. Everytime the x-ray lady came back in the room she screamed! :( . They gave us a tylenol prescription. We of course are on Cobra for a month which makes this a costly trip because now we have to pay the $900 dues... is it worth it? ABSOLUTELY!... We may not be going on weekend getaways or vacations... or big nights out anytime soon, but we know our baby is alright and that's priceless!

IT's FOOTBALL TIME IN TENNESSEE!!

So, yes we are in TEXAS, not TENNESSEE... but we have the spirit of TN running through us! Plus, we have the ESPN game plan so we won't be missing the big win tonight. Grace Anne is ready in her ORANGE!


Oh and we are so happy Daddy is home. Plus, he is home ALL next week and has Monday off! Yay!!


Also, check out the 9 month pictures: Grace Anne- UT GARDENS

Dear Internet World.. Remember me?

In Atlanta before the move, Grace Anne playing with Davis (he's a year and a day older)

So,wow... where to even begin? It's been nearly a month and a half without a blog. Is that terrible? Yes, don't even answer.. I know it is. I am so sorry! So much has happened and I'll do my best to fill you in...

In Mid July Kris interviewed for a job with Nestle USA. He was immediately flown to a 2nd/3rd interview on a Friday and by Monday he had a verbal offer. They loved him and he was selected from a pool of 12 canidates at the face-to-face interview level. By that Friday he had the offical offer letter in hand and accepted the job. The position was to be in Corpus Christi, TX. Kris continued working at UPS while I began preparing for a 1,100 mile move. I began the process by hiring a company to manage our Knoxville house and rent it. Then sorted through our belongs to determine what to keep, throw away, pawn off on family, or put in storage. Luckily I have a wonderful aunt who was able to help in that process! We then recruited help from Kris' fellow UPSers and rented a U-HAUL. We put a lot of the antique furniture in the climate control storage, but we still seemed to have plenty to move. The company paid to have movers pack it move it and put the boxes in the "correct" rooms in our new TX home-- which turned out to be a disaster!!! In late July we made a trip to Corpus Christi to find a home. Kris had already accepted the job and the first day we were visiting we were about to withdrawal his acceptance. After major discussions and analyzing the situation we woke up the next day with a fresh slate. We are so glad that we did because that day we found our new TEXAS home. -- so that's the pretty condensed version to how we got to Texas. (and accounts for part of the reason we've been blog-less)

Now, we are in Texas.. with lots of boxes... some of which are empty. Kris' first day was Monday and he left Monday to go to San Antonio and was gone until Friday. Luckily Grace Anne and Mommy got to visit him Wednesday since San Antonio is a 2 hour drive. Grace Anne is very mobile.. crawling is now very speedy and she cruises along the coffee table and sofa... and boxes... and practically anything she can. She's very curious and fearless! So, we got as much as we could done...

the pack n' play won't usually allow for a nap... but Brewski is on guard

Before the furniture arrived-- notice she is strapped in! haha

Summer Weekend FUN...
in the SUN

This morning Daddy informed Grace Anne that Saturdays are much different in the fall... and to be prepared. That's right.. this is football country in the fall... but today is only July and its only fitting to enjoy the sun and splash in the water. Grace Anne loves the water... there is no doubt she got that from her Gran Gran and my Mom would have loved spending the day with her today. Fortunatly, her Daddy loves water just as much and truly enjoyed spashing in the water at the Splash Pad and then going to Miss Connie's pool (We didn't open our pool this year.. and we've been much less popular because of it). Grace Anne loved the time in the water and almost 5 hours in the sun! Daddy is sunburnt and exhaused... Grace Anne is still going going going like the energizer bunny (no nap mind you).

Also, this weekend Poppy bought Grace Anne the "big girl carseat." The carrier days are over... but I am very happy to have the new careat for safety reasons... after much research and reviews I feel very good about her new seat! Mommy isn't sure what to think about her moving out of the carrier.. why is she growing up so fast?! But, I will admit.. these days are great and I loved her being tiny but I love watching her grow and crawl now.

The most amazing thing happened today...
Grace Anne Kepley took a NAP..

Our child is queen of the catnap. A 10 or 15 minute nap is all she needs and then she is ready to go for hours. I've tried to break this and tried very hard to get her to sleep more than 15 minutes. For months I've struggled. Over the weekend we spent some time with Kris' grandparents and four of their friends. All six of them were amazed at the fact Grace Anne needed such little sleep and was so smiley and active on very little ZZzzz's. BUT, today I told Kris I was putting her down at 1pm for a nap. It ended up being nearly 1:30, but she went to sleep and slept almost 2 hours. She woke up, had a bottle and slept another 20 minutes. It was so amazing. I got sooooo much done. I didn't realize it was possible to mop, clean the bathroom, straighten up the den and do other tasks during the afternoon. We usually play all afternoon. So, I'm going to try this again tomorrow. I hope I'm as lucky, although I am realizing that she had to be absolutly exhausted after an exciting weekend and waking up at 5am... But, maybe my theory of exhaustion is wrong and she will atleast sleep an hour a day.. maybe?

Other milestone news, our scooter is a crawler. Yesterday we saw the big transition from scooting to crawling. So watch out world. Tonight she has been ALL over the den!


Daddy thinks Grace Anne is ready to try driving the BMW... Mommy disagrees!

What doesn't kill us... makes us stronger!

Let me go ahead an not even begin to apologize! Yes, that is right.. I haven't blogged and I'm nto even saying I'm sorry! I am glad that your here though.. reading my updates! I'm guessing some people have given up on us... which brings me to my next thought.. a thank you to all those concerned and caring friends that have reached out to us during the series of Kepley catastrophes!
Kepley catastrophes? Yes, we are in the midst of a bad luck... plague! Daddy's job search-- no luck, washing machine--shot... lawnmower has gone to lawnmower heaven .. we've had electrical issues.. air conditioning issues.. and the latest costly catastrophe.. a gas leak. But, the gas leak has been fixed.. its amazing what money can buy.. On the same token, its also amazing what all these catastrophes can cost!

Grace Anne is growing like a weed! She is so long!! (or seems like it to us) She isn't crawling really-- its more of a scoot.. or army crawl, but she can move ... and really loves her o-rattle ball and her stacking/nesting cups.There is nothing better than being parents and more and more we realize that Grace Anne is the best thing that ever happened to us. How any parent could abuse or neglect to their child is simply unfathomable. Parenthood truly shows you a different kind of love! Sadly, not all parents can put behind their selfishness-- but Kris and I have embraced the opportunity. There are so many occasions we look at one another and think -- wow we really put Grace Anne first.. she is number one! On that note, I'll add... I have fewer shoes and purses than I've ever had in my entire life.. and that is saying something.

PS Anyone have any leads on a job for Kris? haha