The First Boyfriends

Grace was IN LOVE with these two. They were her first true loves!

Daddy's Girl

Navy Baby

We supported Daddy from an early age!

Grace...A History

Cheesing early...
...the love of the be-be...
...One day old...
...sweet dreams.....















...early Harley fan...

In Honor of Your Birthday

Linda Grace Hardy was born on September 25th, 2004, at 10:45 PM. She has been a joy each and every day since. Grace, you have always been an easy going child, with so much love to give. You are unbelievably wise beyond your years. It often seems as if you know the answer to the question before it is asked. Maybe it is your Grandmother whispering the answer in your ear. Years from now, when you read this, I hope that you feel the love from us, your mother and father, as much as we feel it from you today. With each passing day, you are more amazing that the previous. It is hard to believe how big your are now and how fast the time flies. I can only say that if the next years half as wonderful as these, then I look forward to them with all of the anticipation that I had on the day before you were born.

Love always,
Mommy

Chucky Cheese

We went to Chucky Cheese for Grace's birthday on Saturday. Apparently we invited the entire midlands of South Carolina to come along. IT WAS PACKED!!!! Grace had a great time, and between all of the adults there, we won her 1000 tickets. We got her a prize that she really plays with instead of a sticker or a piece of gum, like you normally win. Thank you Aunt Julie, Derik, Aunt Laurie, Aunt Rai, and Uncle Brandon for the tickets!!! I am glad that you like to share!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Eating on my REALLY REAL birthday at California Dreaming with the family.

Stickers, Stickers EVERYWHERE

Thank you for my stickers, Ms. Janet! I loved them soooo much, I kept them all to myself and used them all at the same time! At least I did not put them on the furniture like Uncle Walter used to when he was my age:)

Hard Day

After playing in the jeep, Grace CRASHED in the living room.

My JEEP!!

Dad got Grace a Power Wheels Barbie Jeep for her birthday. It has doors, seatbelts, and a real FM radio. Big difference from the fire truck, eh Walter? Anyway, BIG hit was the jeep. Grace drove it around the yard at Dad's. She really does not understand the concept of steering. She is too busy watching the back tires roll while she drives in a circle. She did run into the embankment after about 10 minutes and the woods about five minutes later. She finally ran into Dad's garage and left a dent in the side door. It was then that we decided to take the batteries out for a while. She had just as much fun in it without the battery. We moved it to the courtyard, and she would play back there for HOURS. She also found an old umbrella, or as us Southerners would say...parasol, to keep the sun out of her eyes. TOO CUTE!!

PawPaw's Bike

This is me and Grace on Dad's four wheeler. She calls it PawPaw's bike. Daddy has one. Why shouldn't Grandpa. Granted, she cannot tell the difference between a Harley Davidson and a four wheeler yet. Guess that will come with time, right. In the beginning she would only look at the four wheeler. By the time that we left, she would ride all over the farm. Gotta love the country. Nothing like it!!

Hanging in the South

Grace and I went home to SC on September 19th. We stayed until the first Saturday in October. Being this far away, Grace does not get to enjoy her grandparents and extended family the way that Lamar and I did when we were younger. We took this opportunity to let her spend some quality time at home with everyone. We will probably head home early over Thanksgiving as well. We had a ball while we were at home. Daddy came down for a week in the middle. We spent lots of time visiting and shopping. We took Grace to Charleston. She was enthralled with the horse and buggies down there. We were eating in Tommy Condon's on the patio, and she would alert us each time one went by. Thanks to everyone who put up with us!!

Posting Delays

We are in South Carolina. We have been here since the middle of the month...planning to hang out for another week or so. We have taken LOTS of pictures of the birthday girl with all of her loot. I promise to post when we get back to civilization (loosely translated...back to a town where there is a high speed internet connection and not dial up!!)

GO TIGERS!!!

What team was that on the field in Tallahassee on Saturday night? I did not know that Clemson could win...on national TV...at night! When was the last time that happened?......

WHO CARES!!!!

GO TIGERS!!!!

CLEMSON 27
FSU 20

Boy revenge is sweet! The "puntrooskie" what?? Start carving the tombstone!

Ticket to the game $48
Drinks at the stadium $8
Hotel room in Tallahassee $199

Catching the FSU defense looking and COMPLETELY offguard.....PRICELESS!

See you all in Tigertown on September 23rd!

....Can you tell I have had a little caffeine today?

Quite Possibly the BEST recipe EVER

If you like spice cake, this is IT! We love this. I stumbled across it on the internet the other week. Try it. You can alter the spices, add nuts, add frosting. I bet cream cheese would be good! Okay...I digress. I have been using the Sam Adams Oktoberfest beer. It is a really good dark beer with caramel and toffee flavors (so they claim??) Anyway, this is it.....

Beer Spice Cake

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup beer
1 cup nuts (any unsalted kind, optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Sift together flour, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, allspice baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well. Add flour mixture alternately with beer and mix well to combine. Fold in the chopped walnuts.

Pour into a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Bake at 375 degrees F for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

YUMMY! YUMMY! YUMMY! YUMMY!
Happy Baking!!

Two Peas in a Pod....Or is it Two Nuts in a Shell

Grace and Lamar were playing in the office tonight. They were too cute together. Lamar was making faces at Grace, and she was trying to copy them. She would crack up before she could get it down. Later, I caught her making faces at her Care Bear. I guess that she was practicing for a rematch without any distractions:) The serious picture was the face that she was trying to perfect.

At Home Projects

This is a picture of the front door that Daddy put on the house. We are also going to be tearing out the kitchen at the end of the month. I will post the before/after's then. For those of you who have not been here before...I have also posted a picture of our house.

Hanging At the Park.

Really cool slides, fun swings, lots of ladders, and sand!!! Who could ask for ANYTHING more than the PARK!!!

WOOOO HOOOO!!

My name is Gracie...and I am a monkey!!!

Grace's Big Girl Room

I finally remembered to take the camera upstairs after nap time. This is Grace's newly decorated big girl room. The only thing that you can't see is the butterfly comforter. It was in the washing machine.

New Haircut

Grace has a new haircut. Her hair had grown over the past two years into two very distinct layers. The bottom, longer layer was the one that was still left over from when the baby hair fell out during that lovely stage at six months old. The top layer was what had grown back over the time of the great fall out. Many people had asked why I cut it into layers. She will NOT allow any bows, ribbons, barrettes, etc. into it, so it was ALWAYS tangled. She is a wallower, so it would end up a mess in the morning. This was the result of the haircut. She had to sit in my lap and watch Bob the Builder, but, hey whatever works, right!

Scrub-A-Dub-Dub

"Boy, Daddy, your bike is dirty! You would think you have been riding it or something." Grace LOVES to wash "Da-da's bike." She has really become a big help around the house and outside. She likes to wash the cars, empty and load the dishwasher, and clean up her toys...Well...maybe not the last one:)

Playin' With Leila

Grace and Leila have a good time playing together in the couch. Grace will usually run in a wake a sleeping Leila. They will roll around on the couch together. Grace usually has enough first and ends up crying when Leila does not understand that the game is over.

NOT Watching the Clemson Game

Grace playing in the den with Mommy, trying to take our attention off of the Clemson/BC game. Thanks, Grace! Mommy needed an attention diversion:)

Adventures in the Hardy Household

Well, today is my official last day of work. Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray! We will see if I am still this excited come November. I will be doing some subbing for a Christian school here. I will be able to take Grace with me. I am also going to keep my membership to the YMCA. That will give us an outlet.

So adventures in Hardyland...

1. Lamar has new saddlebags and pipes for his Harley. We are in the process STILL of installing all of the new features to make the Deuce bigger and better. Good Luck Daddy! Have fun.

2. Grace has learned to lock the bathro0m door. How do we know this, you might ask? She demonstrated her skills by locking herself in the bathroom Tuesday night. Lamar had gone to Auto Zone to get a bolt for the saddlebag installation. I could not find the screwdriver, so Grace just sat on the other side of the door until Lamar got home. He was able to get her out pretty quickly. She came out and stated...."no like that, Mommy."

3. Grace has moved out of her crib to the big girl bed permanently. We moved the crib out this past weekend. We painted her room purple, and she has butterflies all over. I will take pictures and post later.

Next adventure....potty training...

Mac Website

Lamar has updated his website. Look for the link below. He has also put together a slide show and a movie of our action/adventure/romance/biographical saga.

http://web.mac.com/curtis.hardy/iWeb/Linda%20Grace/Linda%20Grace.html

YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Julie and Derik are engaged!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Julie and Derik are engaged!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The wedding is May 5, 2007.
Julie and Derik are engaged!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

www.derikandjulie.com

Wait....Did I mention that Derik and Julie are engaged?!

YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Garden City Beach 2006

Well, we survived the First and hopefully Annual family trip to Garden City Beach no worse for the wear. We all had a wonderful time. We included...Lamar, Jennifer, Grace, Paw Paw, Janet, Grammy, Pop, Grammy Gladys, Amy, Uncle Walter, Uncle Justin, and Brandon. Lots of fun, food, drinks, and lounging around doing nothing. I had to go to the hospital only once. I fell on the stairs and ended up with a sprained ankle. Lucky Janet was there. The rest of us would have treated it with alcohol...not the rubbing kind:)

We loved our house. Plenty of room for everyone. We had an elevator for Grammy Gladys, and as it turned out, me. We only got stuck in it once. Ask Grace about it. She will be happy to recant the story for anyone. She can also tell you anything that you want to know about Amy's bathing suit.

We all had a wonderful time. For those of you that did not attend...hopefully you will try to carve it into your schedule next year. Same week, same house. You really did miss a WONDERFUL time.

Toddler Time at the Beach

Sure, I might be up to SOMETHING....the question is what? And how long will it take for you to figure it out:)