For your viewing pleasure...

Here are a few fun videos of Grace from the last week:

As you'll see here, sliding on the floor with her dad is one of Grace's favorite things to do. (The funniest thing about it is that she knows the program so well that she'll walk and then stop and lay herself on the ground, so all Travis has to do is pull her!)


Here's a video showing Grace's new trick of walking along the couch (which she can pull herself up to all by herself now too!):


And this is a funny video of Grace pushing a balloon around the room:

Hope you enjoyed them!

Our Weekend of Love

Our Weekend of Love kicked off on Friday, with Travis surprizing me with a beautiful red rose and then whisking me away for a delicious lunch date at The Cheesecake Factory.
We wanted to go someplace a little fancier than our usual date spots, and boy was it a treat! The restaurant was beautiful, and the food was D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S. (more on that in a minute)!

I just love how unique The Cheesecake Factory's archetechure is (inside and out)!


The ceiling:


Those of you who have been to The Cheesecake Factory before know how HUGE their menu is. You can get anything from meatloaf, to a giant burrito, to orange chicken, to steak there! So needless to say, it took us a good 15 minutes or so (amidst eating their delicious bread) to decide what to order. But finally, the decision was made, and we couldn't have been happier with our choices. It was all SO GOOD!
This was Travis' Chicken Bellagio (breaded chicken, topped with prosciutto and arugula, on a bed of angel hair pasta tossed in a creamy pesto sauce):

And my Crispy Chicken Costoletta (the same breaded chicken over a creamy lemon sauce, with the tastiest mashed potatoes ever, and fresh asparagus) and sugar rimmed Strawberry Lemonade (my mouth is watering just thinking about this!):

And the portions were ginormous! We both came home with at least half of our food for leftovers (we had to save some room for their famous cheesecake too, of course!).

For dessert we shared their Chocolate Tuxedo Cream cheesecake (made of chocolate cake, chocolate cheesecake, vanilla mascarpone mousse, and chocolate). It was creamy deliciousness.

My sweetheart and I:

All of it--the food and just being out together--was such a wonderful treat.

The festivities continued (today) on Valentine's Day itself. Travis made me breakfast in bed (cornbread and yogurt--one of our favorites), and left a love note for me as a screensaver on our computer. It was so sweet! And then later in the day, we had a Valentine's dinner with Rachel and Brandon and their kids, which consisted of: homemade ravioli, fettucini alfredo, stuffed shells, salad, and homemade breadsticks (most of it provided by Rachel--thanks again!), and after putting the kids to bed, the adults had some peanut butter chocolate fondue--yum! All in all, it was a wonderful Valentine's Day/Weekend of Love.

To Travis: I love you so much and am so glad that you're my forever Valentine. Thanks for being such a wonderful, loving husband and father! You're my angel.

Moving right along...

A month or so ago, we bought a Playschool Sit 'n' Stand toy for Grace, mainly as a tool to help her learn how to walk, but also as a fun car toy for her later. So far though, she's mainly just been interested in playing with the toys on it (namely the stick shift) or sitting on it and having us push her around, rather than walking with it; but on Monday, I pulled it out and (to my surprise) she started walking with it all by herself! Excited, I reached for my camera (which was first out of memory space and then out of batteries, so I missed getting a video of her really moving, but finally) I managed to get this short but sweet video of her.

Pretty fun, huh? She's also been a crawling machine lately--crawling more instead of scooching around the house. And she's been really in to pulling herself up from all fours to standing too--on the stairs, couch, etc. It's so fun to see her be more active and better at getting herself where she wants to go. We love you Grace!

Completed Goal

At the beginning of the year, Travis and I made a goal to read the Book of Mormon in 30 days, and today I'm happy to announce that WE DID IT! This had been something that I had always wanted to do but didn't think I could. However, thanks to a little determination, a detailed reading schedule, the support of a wonderful husband, and the help of a loving Heavenly Father, I was able to complete my goal. And although reading the scriptures that fast didn't allow for much serious doctrinal study, it was helpful for getting a better understanding of the storyline in the Book of Mormon, and it was a great opportunity for me to invite the Spirit into my life (and feel it!) everyday. I'm so glad that we've done this and look forward to more goal setting and completing in 2010!

She's on the move

For over a week now, we've watched Grace pull herself up onto her hands and knees, then rock back and forth or even make a crawl-like movement or two, and we knew that any day, she would finally just get up and really crawl, and last night SHE DID!

Just look at her go!!

Another of Grace's latest accomplishments is eating table food. It's mostly toddler puffs and pieces of bread that we've given her so far, but she LOVES them and does SO well eating them. This is especially rewarding for us because, after seeing her gag on anything even slightly solid a couple of weeks ago, we had been worrying (irrationally, I know) that she would never eat solid food and we'd be feeding her pureed bananas for her first birthday (and the rest of her life). But after seeing her eat some pieces of sweet bread last night and being all over that, I have a feeling that she's going to like birthday cake just fine.

We are so excited about our Grace's new abilities and are so SO proud of her! "You go girl!" (hehehe)

Pictures from our pre-Christmas trip

We recently returned from a trip to San Diego and Tucson to visit Jenny's family. Jenny may do a bonafide post on the trip one of these days but in the meantime I thought I'd post some of the pictures of our trip so you all can at least see some of those. Enjoy!
(P.S. Don't forget to look at our Christmas Newsletter in the post below this one.)


a 4-generation photo


Jenny made this scrapbook documenting Grandpa Roger's acting career



A pic with all of us at Grandpa Roger's retirement community in San Diego


Jenny's dad was kind enough to go with us to the San Diego temple. It was a wonderful experience in a beautiful House of the Lord.



Grace loved sitting in her high chair

Grace having fun with Grandpa Roger

Grace meeting Helen (Grandpa Roger's wife)

One last pic before leaving San Diego

Grace and Grandpa playing at their house in Tucson, AZ

Grace loved when her Grandma read stories to her

A pic of Grace with her second-cousin, Ray

This was taken at a park we went to. We're not used to views like this in December.

Loving the peanuts at Texas Roadhouse

Grace had fun playing with whatever she could reach on the table

Grandma Bern meeting Grace for the first time

Grace liked it when Grandpa fed her

Almost everyday we walked to this park in the neighborhood. Grace loved being outside.

She didn't like it when we told her she couldn't eat the rocks.

Grace is still trying to figure out what to think of Uncle Jim

A group photo with Santa Claus.

Here we are at the park again

This is Grace opening a very nice blanket she got from Jim and JoAnn.

Christmas Newsletter

Dear Loved Ones,

2009 has been our most eventful year ever! Let's take a quick look at the past 12 months:

In December of last year, Jenny graduated with a Bachelor's Degree from BYU-Idaho.

In April, Travis finished his undergraduate work at BYU-I.

In May, we welcomed our sweet daughter, Grace Lorraine Holloway, into the world.

In July, we moved cross-country to Ohio and began renting our first house.

In August, Travis started his first semester at the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine.

In November, we had our first Thanksgiving away from home.

And in December, Grace met her great grand parents and Travis completed his first semester at OCPM as a straight-A student.

All of these changes, though big, have been such a blessing for us. Although we miss being close to family and familiarity in Idaho, we really enjoy living here in Cleveland, and feel blessed to still live close to some family (Travis' brother and sister-in-law) and to enjoy all of the new opportunities that are here on the East Coast. We like our new ward, and enjoy the friendship of the other students and their wives that are in it. Travis is currently serving as the Second Counselor in the Young Men's Presidency (over the Teachers) and I am the Compassionate Service Leader in the Relief Society, both of which keep us busy. Travis enjoys Podiatry school, and we're all so proud of how well he's doing. Jenny loves being a stay-at-home mom and homemaker, though it's harder than she expected! And Grace is almost 8 months now, and enjoys sitting, scooching, smiling, laughing, talking, biting (with her 4, and almost 6 teeth), eating, bathing, and being the joy of our lives.

At the end of this big year, we feel extremely blessed and grateful for all that the Lord has given us, and we hope that, in this new year, heaven smiles upon you too!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

Jenny, Travis, and Grace Holloway