Visitors From the North

This weekend Miss Grace had the privilege of meeting her first aunt and uncle from Mom's side of the family. Uncle Cary and Auntie Amanda fought through windy weather and late night driving to come down for the weekend.

From Grace

We had a low-key weekend of studying, sleeping, eating, movie watching, and diaper changing. Amanda had a take-home test and Cary was studying for his three finals on Monday morning. We were very lucky to have them come.

As you can see from the picture, Gracie fell in love with Amanda right away. They had some great snuggle time and gave Mommy a enough of a break to do the dishes, a little laundry and even take a shower!

From Grace

Uncle Cary taught Gracie a new pose to add to her collection. It's her "I mean business" face.

From Grace

From Grace

We are thrilled that Cary and Amanda were able to visit and can't wait to see them again. Grace and I are planning a trip back to Bismarck in February to meet more of the family. We are VERY excited!!

From Grace

(I've posted some new pictures on the web album, too. Just click on one the photos here and it should take you to the rest of my album.)

Meet one of Gracie's teammates - Adam!

Hi,

I'm Katie, Lucas's first cousin, and mommy to Adam, Gracie's (second? first once removed?) cousin. Adam was born on July 13, 2008, which makes him 6 months old. Adam has met Gracie twice, and although he thinks girls are "icky" (he told me so) he says Gracie's okay. She has the coolest Little People Barn to play with, he thinks her dogs are hilarious, and he really enjoys "kissing" her mommy! Here's Adam playing at Gracie's house on New Year's Eve - before Gracie made her big debut!

Adam had his 6 month check-up today. He weighs 16 lbs and is 27 inches long. He had to have 3 shots, but thankfully, they don't seem to be bothering him this evening. He is a very happy baby, and seems to smile at everyone he meets!

Invitation to Post

All right..... Gracie and I had a rather long discussion today about her blog. Right now I have creative authority, but she is still the star and the producer. She informed me that the blog needed a little more depth and unfortunately Coppola and Scorsese were not available to direct new material. Grace let me know that she would like to know what all of her other cousins are doing.

From Grace Ryne Goes Home

So this is an open invitation for all the cousins to add their own new material. Send me an email if you want to post on here and I will add you as a contributor and help you set up picture storage. When I setup this blog I wanted a place for all the cousins to be able to update us with new pics and stories about what is going on in their world. Hopefully we will have updates from all over the US. Don't feel shy... it's really easy to add an entry!

Gracie Exits the Hospital with Flair

Wow! I now know what sleep deprivation is really all about. My daughter has a most uncanny knack of recognizing her parents sleep status. Everytime we put her in bed she waits until the exact second that we fall asleep and, bam, she starts crying. No matter how much we think positively and hope she falls back asleep it still doesn't matter. At least Grandma Jan is here to help out when Kate and I have had enough.

From Grace Ryne Goes Home

The staff at Iowa Methodist took pictures of her before she left and posted them on a nursery website. We heard a rumor that she may even be enrolled in a "beautiful baby" contest with the prize being $1000.

From Grace Ryne Goes Home

At the hospital yesterday Grace decided that she needed to be as cute as possible to prepare for her arrival at home. She was also preparing for her very first car ride. Daddy had a few words of encouragement for her " do it for your momma."

From Grace Ryne Goes Home

From Grace Ryne Goes Home

Gracie cooed as soon as she was in her car seat. I think that she takes after her mom and thinks that any seat with a four point harness is for "racing." Kate has been known to kick butt and take names on many a go-kart track around the nation. I heard from one of her old co-workers that she was the "queen of speed." We raced Gracie home as fast as the Iowa speed limits would allow. There was someone at our house waiting anxiously awaiting our arrival.

From Grace Ryne Goes Home

I haven't seen Grandpa George this excited to see someone or something since the 2003 NLCS. Well..... ok maybe he was this excited to meet Mr. Logan Till. Grace had quite a few other visitors that stopped into see her as well.

Katie, Adam, and Aunt Joan

From Grace Ryne Goes Home

Grandma Ede

From Grace Ryne Goes Home

Barb and Lilly (Bill's sister and niece)

From Grace Ryne Goes Home

Brett was a little hesitant, but he proved that even a 16 year old boy loves babies too. Brett also wanted to know what the rental policy was going to be later this summer. This of course after I told him that young girls really digg babies!

From Grace Ryne Goes Home

Grace Gets Visitors

Well it's day two and we have experienced an evening of baby and sleep. It wasn't as bad as I thought.... although our nurse did tell us that she(the nurse) won't be coming home with us, bummer! All the nurses here are amazing and the facility is great. Grace is having a lovely time, but can't wait to get home and meet the dogs... we have told her so much about them. Good thing she gets to meet them tomorrow. She has lots of new friends in the nursery and Kate and I have taken advantage of that to get some much needed rest.

From Gracie Ryne

Grace was excited to see that it was snowing outside. We opened the window shades up in our room and held her so that she could see the beautiful morning snowfall. Not only was Grace excited to see the snowfall, but she was elated when her Grandma Jan walked through the door. Jan had perfect timing to meet Grace just as she had finished nursing and was wide awake.

From Gracie Ryne

Late last night Grace was able to meet her other grandma as well. My mother, sister and brother-in-law got to stop into our room very briefly. Kate had Grace at 7:23 and we had a brief window of opportunity to have visitors from 9:10 to 9:25. We almost had to bar the door to keep the nurses out and finally Melissa (the 2nd delivery nurse) announced, "ok Kate it's time to get you all cleaned up and your first trip to the bathroom." Rose, Lane, and Kirt took the cue and made their exit, although absolutely not happily.

From Gracie Ryne

From Gracie Ryne

Grace got to have some great cuddle time with Grandma before her next visitor knocked on the door. Uncle Tim was able to brave the snowstorm to to bring Grace her very first toy (a really cute plush puppy) and also get in his own cuddle time with our little one.

From Gracie Ryne

Uncle Tim was so excited to see Grace for the first time..... he even declared that he was happy to have another Bielfelt baby to take to all sorts of neat shows. I can only remember a few of the concerts and events that he took me to, but I'm sure they were unforgettable for him. Don't worry Tim I'll gladly buy the tickets and popcorn for you. The best part about having Tim stop in to visit us is that he is a Lutheran Pastor (actually most of you know that.... he married us as well) in Huxley, IA. Tim gave us the best present of all by saying a prayer of blessing for our new family.

We are headed home soon and will update everyone with new stories and pictures soon. Grace is especially excited to meet her new Uncle Bill. She has heard so many stories already and can't wait to get home.

Gracie's Dugout

Welcome to Gracie's Dugout. This is the first post in what is intended to be a journal for all of our friends and family. Distance has spread us apart but hopefully insightful commentary, loads of pictures, and interaction from all of you here in the dugout will keep us close. If you haven't noticed, I have a little bit of an obsession with baseball...... ok, maybe it's an addiction. In my history a dugout is a place for teamates to share stories and tell jokes. I guess that's what we are looking for here. Feel free to paruse the articles, gander at the photos, and post commentary at your leisure. And without further ado..........

From Gracie Ryan

Kate and I are so pleased to intoduce the newest member of our family - Grace Ryne Bielfelt. We feel so lucky to experience the joys of being parents. Our wildest dreams could not compare us for the elation that we experienced meeting Gracie for the first time. Kate had a long labor and of course it came during the middle of a snowstorm.

From Gracie Ryne

Kate went into labor on Saturday night while watching episodes of House. We have our own suspicions regarding this. Somehow in my flawed logic (just ask Kate... she'll glady explain) I figured out that Gracie just wanted to get to the hospital. Gracie is already proving to be the extremely intelligent child we thought she would be. You see Gracie figured that Dr. House was really good looking and also a great doctor. Alas Grace did not get to meet the arrogant Dr., but she did meet an incredible staff of nurses. We highly reccomend the maternity department at Iowa Methodist Medical Center. Gracie already has lots of new friends.

From Gracie Ryne

From Gracie Ryne

Kate and Grace are now resting comfortably and would like everyone to see their new pictures as we update them. To see Gracie's album please click here.