Always a party 24/7

Someone has Beiber fever

2010-06-16T18:26:00.000-07:00

We'll just have Christmas this December

2010-05-11T16:23:00.000-07:00

I miscarried. Last Thursday I went to my regular 10 week OB check-up and they couldn't find a heartbeat so they did an ultrasound and said the baby's heart had stopped beating 2 weeks ago. On Friday I went in and had a D&C. I have never been more devastated in my life. This is my second miscarriage this year (I miscarried at 6 weeks in Feb) and I am almost afraid to try and get pregnant again. There is nothing more in this world that I want right now then more children. That being said, I know this happened for a reason and we are trying our hardest to get passed this and move on. I am just trying to keep myself busy as much as possible and not think about no longer having a baby inside of me.

I know you aren't supposed to announce you're pregnant until 12 weeks for this very reason but I am so glad I told everyone early because the support of everyone that knew over this past week has been overwhelming. I have gotten so many emails, phone calls and Facebook messages and it has made me feel so loved and is definitely helping me get through this. I love that I have so many people to be able to talk to when I am feeling down. So thank you everybody.

I am also so grateful that I have this little guy around. I'll take a dozen more please.

Coming December 1st

2010-04-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

Just in time for his 18 month mark

2010-03-25T17:09:00.000-07:00

Just when we were sure I was going to have to carry Graham into Kindergarten, he started walking!! I could not be more excited about this. He still isn't walking full time, or even part time actually, but at least now I know he can do it. Each day he walks a little more and I think in a month or so we will finally be able to advance from just swinging on the swings at the park to actually running around and playing with other kids!!!

What we have been up to this week

2010-03-12T05:39:00.000-08:00

This week was pretty crazy. One of my friends who is a nanny was out of town and asked me to fill in for her so I watched a 5 year old boy on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I also watch a 17 month old girl every Monday and Wednesday so we had quite a houseful. Yesterday was the first day it was just Graham and me and it was pretty nice. So quiet without a million 5 year old questions coming at you.

Caribbean cruise anyone?

2010-03-07T16:52:00.000-08:00

Did I already tell you all I was going on a cruise? Well, I did. A few weeks ago actually. My biological mom (What? You didn't know I was adopted?) decided to take my sister Stephanie, my brother Jake and me on a cruise as a fun vacation and as a chance to get to know us a little better. It was SOOOO much fun!! The first night on the ship was the day after my birthday so my sister had the waiter bring out a cake and sing happy birthday. The cake was outrageously delicious.
In fact, most of the food we ate on the ship was super delicious. We definitely took advantage of everything tasting so good and ate until we thought we would die at every meal. Oh my gosh, it makes me sick thinking of it now.
My sister and I are almost exactly 10 years apart (her birthday is 10 days after mine) and she does not have one wrinkle on her face yet. I am hoping for this same miracle.
One night we played bingo and all 3 of us lost. Not a very exciting story. Jake was bored by bingo and instead decided to entertain me by spending about 300 hundred dollars on the quarter game. Don't you just love that thing? I could seriously sit there for hours waiting for those quarters to drop (as long as it's someone else's money going into the machine :)

Arriving in Jamaica.

First we hiked through the Grotto Caves.

Then we hiked up Dunn's falls which was sooooo awesome!!
The day after Jamaica we were supposed to go to Grand Cayman but the weather was bad there so they rerouted us to Key West which was kind of a bummer but still fun to do a little shopping and walk around.
The last night on the ship all four of us did Karaoke and has a really good time. I tried to choose an upbeat song that I thought would be easy to belt out (My Boyfriend's Back) but it turns out that is actually a really hard song to sing and there are a lot of talking parts and it ended up being incredibly awkward so I had to leave the stage early from embarrassment. I was nice enough to provide you with the video of my onstage disaster below.
At the Miami airport headed for home. It was sad that the vacation was over but I was so excited to see Graham and Elliot (who had newly cut hair!!! what a great welcome home surprise!)

THANK YOU NANCY!!!!!!

My 28th birthday!

2010-03-07T16:26:00.000-08:00

These are the only 3 pictures we took on my birthday. Elliot has refused to cut his hair for the last 4 months so I told him he was banned from all picture taking. Graham complied with my wishes and let the nice man at Great Clips cut his hair so he was allowed to be in the pictures (although with the way he screamed bloody murder the entire time, I'm fairly certain Great Clips is praying we never step foot in there again).
Elliot took me out for sushi to celebrate and it was soooooo good.
The night of my birthday I was supposed to fly out to Miami at 7:00 to meet up with my family for our cruise the next day. I got to the airport around 5:00 and had to wait until midnight for the flight to leave because of problems with the plane. AAAAHHHHHH. Spending your birthday in an airport by yourself, eating a ridiculously overpriced sandwich is not awesome. But they did give everyone on the flight a $75.00 voucher for a future flight which was pretty cool.

Sibling for a week

2010-02-18T18:41:00.000-08:00

For the past week Graham has had the opportunity to have a pseudo sibling live with us. Jeremiah is a 5 year old boy that I babysit sometimes and his mom asked if I would mind having him stay at my house this week while she was working. We kept really busy while he was here by going to the park, two jumpy house playgrounds, a birthday party, having several play dates and lots of naps (oh how I looked forward to those naps everyday!). Here are a few pictures:

Watching Yo Gabba Gabba online. Odd that Elliot seems as into it as they are.

Graham showed Jeremiah how his crib works.

They got ready for bed together every night

and then got up together every morning

Graham was absolutely terrified of both bouncy house places and refused to go on any of them. So in essence, I paid $10 for him to play with this stupid bench for an hour and a half. Awesome.

My friend Tracy (I have like 3 friends, what are the chances one of them would have that name right?) came with us and these are her kids. They both loved the bouncy houses but were nice enough to keep Graham company in between bouncing.

At the second bouncy house we went to (don't ask why we even went to a second one after he had such a terrible time at the first one) Graham tried to mack on this cute girl. Unfortunately, she was already walking and thus a little out of his league.

For the most part, it was really great having another kid in our house. I can definitely see why some people say two kids is easier then one, because the two of them played together all day and kept each other busy while I was able to do other things. The only thing I found exhausting was how much talking a 5 year old does!! Oh my word, I thought I was going to go crazy. It was nonstop from the time he woke up to the time he went to sleep. I am now a bit more appreciative of Graham's 4 words that he chooses to use sporadically. Jeremiah is spending the first week in March with us while his mom goes on a business trip so I am just going to have to enjoy my nice quiet house until then....

My how these boys have changed!

2010-02-07T17:50:00.000-08:00

Camera purge

2010-02-06T04:24:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago we braved the cold and headed to the park. Poor Graham is resigned to crawl around in the sawdust most of the time. There is always the option of walking buddy....

Carson and Graham zoning out to cartoons.
We kept telling Carson to give Graham a kiss. So cute.

A cake I made for a baby shower.
Anytime Elliot is in the bathroom, Graham insists on waiting outside the door for him and peeking to see if he can catch a glimpse. This kid won't let his dad out of his sight for a minute.

One laugh and all the naughty times are forgotten

2010-01-25T17:39:00.000-08:00

Graham has enough toys for 8 children. Yet, my entire day is spent keeping him away from the DVD player, every trash can in the house and the plants.
Last night we started putting Graham to sleep at 6:30. He screamed his head off until 10:40 when he finally slumped over in Elliot's arms and started snoring. I think he does these things just to show us who's really the boss of this house. And trust me, it certainly isn't Elliot or I.

We can finally eat like civilized people

2010-01-21T14:54:00.001-08:00

It has only taken us 5 months, but we finally got a kitchen table!! We have been eating off of a dilapidated (you like that? I even looked it up on dictionary.com to make sure it suited the sentence) card table that Elliot's parents let us use until we got an actual table. Thank goodness we finally found one. I was at the grocery store yesterday and saw this table (I have absolutely no idea why a grocery store was selling a kitchen table? There was no sign of any other furniture anywhere in the store) that was originally $300 and was on sale for $75. That includes all 4 chairs!! It was a new years miracle! I immediately got a manager and said I wanted to buy the table right away. She said it had only been on display for 10 minutes. The only time in my life I have had perfect timing. While I was waiting for the manager to get the UPC code for it, two other people stopped and asked about buying the table. I had to engage in a little grappling (this word choice brought to you by the lovely Chrysta Brower), but eventually I fought everyone off and headed home with my table. I can't wait to start having people over for dinner without being mortified of what we are eating off of!

We've found a new way to clean Graham up

2010-01-19T05:35:00.000-08:00

Similarities?

2010-01-18T16:51:00.000-08:00

Pretty ghetto that I had to take a picture of a picture, but we don't have a scanner so this is all I had to work with.

Graham is officially 16 months today.....

2010-01-18T05:32:00.000-08:00

...and still not walking. Sigh.

Run to your local JC Penney's sale!!

2010-01-17T17:12:00.000-08:00

Last night we went to the mall to check out the sale at JC Penney's that my friend had told me about. I got a pair of running shoes for $20.00!! Their Asics. Is that a good brand? I have no idea about anything sports gear related as my butt hardly ever moves from off the couch so I rarely have any need for a specific brand of shoes or clothes to get me anywhere because my bathrobe does a perfectly fine job. That is until now because I have decided to join a gym and get in shape! The last time (and possibly only time?) I bought a pair of running shoes was for my 17th birthday present from my parents. I am turning 28 next month and I am still wearing those same shoes. So I decided it was probably time for some new shoes. After we bought them, we decided to peruse the children's section and found these gems:

Awesome super hero PJ's. After Elliot couldn't find them in his size he decided to just get them for Graham.

Graham was super excited to wear them.

I love this little suit!! Does it get any cuter then this? These suits were $4.00!!! All of the clearance items are an extra 75% off right now because they are trying to get rid of all their winter stuff. Go check it out because there were some really great deals.

Wanna know what Elliot made for dinner? Chile Relleno's. They were absurdly delicious. This is what my life has come to. Blogging about sales and what we eat for dinner because nothing actually interesting is ever taking place. Please help me.

I'll leave you with some awesome family pictures we took tonight. Graham was super into it and loved every minute.

TGIF

2010-01-15T17:24:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law Erica told me about this awesome trick of letting your kid play in the bathroom sink while you get ready. Graham loves it. Lucky for us, our sink is big enough to fit his big ole' bootie.

We had homemade pizza for dinner tonight. Second time this week because that's just how we roll (and you will definitely see some "rolls" soon enough if we continue eating pizza several times a week). It was really good though.While Elliot and I were in the kitchen making the pizza we heard Graham laughing in the living room so I snuck out and caught him on camera. I have no idea why he though this was so funny, but it sure was adorable.

I love this little boy

2010-01-12T18:12:00.000-08:00

All before 9:30 AM

2010-01-11T06:11:00.002-08:00

Hmm...wonder how this key magically came off?It's looking to be a long day.

I haven't had a cold since 2005

2010-01-10T19:47:00.000-08:00

Elliot and Graham were both sick all weekend so while they slept the day away, I had some time to make this little beauty. Don't worry about who Adam is. It's none of your business.

I'm dying a slow death...

2010-01-07T06:02:00.001-08:00

Last night Graham woke up at 9:00, 10:30, 12:00 and 1:30. It was like every 1 1/2 hours his body jolted awake and he broke out in frantic screams. I have no idea what is going on with him, but he hasn't been sleeping well for over a month and it is killing me. I need my sleep! Elliot is usually the patient one with Graham and never gets upset by anything. Graham has finally broken him down and tonight he is on his own to scream his himself silly. Wish us luck.

Graham's first haircut

2010-01-06T17:30:00.000-08:00

Since Graham was born, Elliot has said that he wants to let Graham's hair grow out long. Being the kind of wife that respects all of her husbands wishes, I waited until he was at work yesterday before rushing Graham down to the hair salon.
Graham and I are pretty happy with the results. Elliot is slowly coming around.....

In your face Dr. Jarwar

2009-12-29T15:56:00.000-08:00

Graham's Christmas present to us

2009-12-27T17:26:00.001-08:00

At a mere 15 1/2 months, Graham decided he was finally ready to try standing on his own!! He is so proud of himself and stands there grinning at us like he has conquered the world. As of right now he is pretty content just standing there, but perhaps he will attempt some steps soon? Oh gosh I hope so.

Does anyone even care anymore?

2009-12-22T18:25:00.000-08:00

Hello? Anyone out there? I can't imagine there is still anyone reading this blog, but just in case I have decided to update it. It's a Christmas miracle! Here is a quick update of everything that has happened to us recently:

Elliot

graduated from Georgia State (like the visuals?)with a bachelors in accounting and finance. He is now working as an accountant for his parents business and taking a few night classes to prepare to apply to the masters program at Georgia Tech for winter 2011. He is going to get his financial engineering degree (don't ask what that means because the answer is sooooooooooooooo boring).
In August we moved out of Elliot's parents basement to Decatur, Ga. and we LOOOOVE it here.

We live right in downtown Decatur which has this cute small town feel to it but is still only a 10 minute drive to downtown Atlanta which is perfect. I can walk to the bank, post office, park, grocery store and library which works out great because Elliot takes the car to work everyday and leaves Graham and I stuck at home so now we have plenty of places to walk to when we are bored. Our ward is full of Emory students so there are lots of other people our age with young kids and I have already joined 3 play groups! (don't knock this, these playgroups keep me sane).
Ok, now on to the holidays I never blogged about. For Halloween we went to our ward party and placed 3rd in the chili cook off. Impressed? Don't be. There were only 4 entries and one of them was GROSS.

We also carved this awesome pumpkin. We are so talented.

For Thanksgiving, we drove to see my parents in Indiana. It is a 9 hour drive and we weren't sure how Graham was going to do, but we had high hopes. Very unfortunate for us because the drive there and back was THE WORST EXPERIENCE OF OUR LIVES. Seriously. I am not even exaggerating. We ran into traffic which made the drive take an additional 4 hours and Graham decided to scream at the top of his lungs for the entire second half of the trip. Thank goodness for the DVD player we borrowed. Occasionally he would take interest in it and tone down his screams to a dull moan. I'm not sure we can ever travel with him again. Let this be a notice to all of my far away relatives: you are going to have to travel to me from now on. Direct all complaints to a certain grumpy toddler.

Don't let this picture fool you, this is not how he looked during our road trip.

My brother and his wife and kids came up from Kentucky to spend Thanksgiving with us so Graham got to bond with his two cousins which he obviously thoroughly enjoyed. He also loved seeing his Poppa and great grandparents. He is lucky to have so much family that loves him (remember him in your will's folks. And his parents too).While we were at my parents we celebrated Christmas since we won't be able to see them at Christmas this year. Elliot took all the wrapping paper from our gifts and shoved it inside Graham's pajama's. That's a normal thing to do right? Graham didn't even seem to notice. Last week Graham had his 15 month check up. He now weighs in at 27 lbs and is 32 inches long. In case you were wondering, no, he is STILL not walking. It's getting ridiculous. I cannot continue to haul around all 27 lbs without weekly chiropractic visits. He shows absolutely no interest in wanting to walk either. Lucky for him, he is the cutest baby on the planet so I cannot resist picking him up all the time. We are still going to work on walking though. I'll keep you updated......

Anniversary

2009-10-09T15:48:00.000-07:00

Elliot and I met 8 years ago yesterday.

Graham's 1st birthday

2009-10-03T17:19:00.000-07:00

Here is Graham in the $10 onesie that he can only wear once but that I had to have. What's the point of having a birthday if not to wear ridiculously overpriced clothes? I'm hoping Elliot has this point of view in 6 months when my birthday comes around :)

Waiting for the Dr. to come in. We always have to wait FOREVER for Graham's pediatrician. I keep thinking about switching Dr's but then I remember I am too lazy to do something like that. Too much effort. It's easier to spend 5 hours in the waiting room every few months.

Graham weighed 24 lbs and is 31 1/2 inches long. This is slightly disturbing because he was 31 1/2 inches long at his 9 month appt. How is it possible that he hasn't grown even 1/2 inch in 3 months???? Is this it? Is he going to be 31 1/2 inches long for the rest of his life? Am I going to have to carry him around forever? Because my arms are getting tired. On the plus side though, I'll be able to buy him cute onesies for every birthday. I feel better already.

The poor guy also had to get 4 shots so he was definitely not a very happy camper after the appt. To make up for it, we threw him an awesome birthday party and invited all of his friends. This mostly consisted of everyone he is related to that lives nearby. We're working on branching out.

He pretty much hated that hat but I loved it and insisted on taking a million pictures of him wearing it. I'm an awful awful mom.

Graham is crazy about cats and anytime he see's one he squeals and try's to jump out of my arms to get to it. Unfortunately for him we will never own a cat but I did make him these cat birthday cakes. One for him to go to town on and one for the rest of us to consume.

It didn't take him very long to start stuffing the cake into his face at rapid speed. Pretty much the same way he eats everything.

Present time! Grandma got him some p.j's. He was obviously thrilled. What kid doesn't get excited about sleepwear?

I gave him the blanket that I recently finished that I started making when I found out I was pregnant. Wow.

Elliot's gift was the best. Elliot is really into hockey and loves the Pittsburgh Penguins, so he made Graham his own Penguins rookie card. I'm not sure Graham get's it quite yet but he loved chewing on it.

The party was so much fun and I we all had a great time. I just wish we could take a decent family picture.

Happy Birthday Graham!!

2009-09-17T18:20:00.001-07:00

Graham turns one tomorrow!! So exciting. It is so weird that he could go from this

to this

in one year! He had a rough first few weeks of life but thank goodness he pulled through just fine and is the sweetest, most kissable, giggly little baby and I am so in love with him!! Before Graham I had never been so constantly entertained by someone or wanted to kiss them all over (sorry Elliot, you lose to this little guy) or been so frusterated and at a loss as to what to do. The joys of motherhood.

He has his one year dr's appt. tomorrow so I don't know any of his stats yet but I definitely know that he weighs a ton! It is exhausting lugging him around. If only he would start to walk. So far he shows absolutely no interest in that yet so I guess I have a few more months to build up my arm muscles. He better know that I'm counting my personal chauffeuring as his b-day gift. This stuff doesn't come free around here.

Another fun video

2009-08-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

You'll never guess who I spend my days cleaning up after.

Even Michael Phelps had to start somewhere...

2009-08-06T05:15:00.000-07:00

While we've been away......

2009-08-03T05:54:00.000-07:00

We've been busy enjoying summer. And by that I mean doing laundry, cleaning up the different places Graham has decided to puke and watching various TV shows recorded onto DVR (anyone else watching NYC Prep? Who are these kids?? And where are their parents??). We have had a few exciting events happen as well. A few weeks ago it was Elliot and his mom's birthday (they share the same birthday). Debbie made the most delicious steak you have ever tasted (well, I guess you didn't actually taste it, but I did and it was good) and we had a family dinner.

Elliot doesn't like cake so I made Debbie this cake. In case you can't tell, it is supposed to be a Macy's card. Debbie is a professional shopper.

Graham and Elliot on his b-day.
Megan and I put together a special treat for Elliot and Debbie. Graham's message is a little light, but it says "birthday." Are you already dialing DFAC's?
Graham turned 10 months old. Here are some of his pictures. He was a little sad about getting older. Such is life.
Isn't this outfit awesome? I found it at a garage sale. Elliot does not share my enthusiasm for it. Something about turning Graham into a girl. Does that mean I could finally start putting those cute bows in his hair?

We took a trip to Stone Mountain one night to see the laser show. It was so fun! In all the time I have lived here I have never seen it before.
Elliot's cousin who was visiting from San Diego came along with us.
And last but not least, Elliot took his boy scout troop on a 3 day camping trip. He came home exhausted and with 13 tic bites which I removed. 2 weeks later he now has Lyme Disease and has been sick for days. Oh man. We still have one more month of summer to get through.

Wanna win a pair of designer jeans?

2009-07-28T09:00:00.001-07:00

Go to my giveaway blog and sign up to win. They are really cute jeans.

http://justformeandyou2.blogspot.com/2009/07/ymi-jeans-review-giveaway.html

My first review!

2009-07-25T17:13:00.001-07:00

I have joined forces with my in-law sisters (or is it sisters-in-law? Whatever, you know what I'm talking about) on their review/giveaway blog www.justformeandyou2.blogspot.com. Go check it out! Next week I am doing a giveaway of the same pair of shoes I reviewed today so start following us and enter to win!

What a difference 4 years can make

2009-07-10T16:17:00.000-07:00

Food, friends and family

2009-07-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

We got to stay with my Grandma Joanne while we were in Portland. It was the perfect place for us to stay and I'm really glad we got to spend some extra time with her. She was so great!

Graham adored her dog Rusty, but unfortunately, Rusty did not return the love. He is not a fan of kids and would run to the other room anytime Graham was near. This did not deter Graham though, and he worked on crawling fast enough to get close to Rusty, without ever having any luck. Poor Graham. It was pretty funny. On this trip he seemed to fall in love with any dog he would see. He would laugh hysterically anytime one would come around and pay attention to him. I put a really funny video at the end of this post of him playing with some dogs.
Graham met about a thousand relatives that he never knew he had. He was pretty good natured about it and gave everyone his toothy grin. Here he is with his great grandma.
Graham and Nancy.
Joanne had a kitchen sink that was perfect for Graham's baths. I wish we could have taken it home with us.
We went to 5 BBQ's in Oregon!! We were definitely fed well. Graham took it all in stride and strapped on his bib, ready to chow down on any food we would put in his mouth.
My brother Jake and his wife Amanda.
My sister Steph and I holding our cousin's one month old twin girls!!! They were so small. I don't even remember Graham like that anymore.

Steph and her girls.

The whole family.
The girls loved Graham. You wouldn't know it from this picture, but he really liked them too.l
Siblings.
Elliot's extended family all live in Washington, so we made the trip over the border to seem them while we were there.
My Aunt Debbie and her son Olin.
We met up with one of my good friends from high school, Ben. Their little girl is only 2 months older then Graham so it was cute to see them together.

Our last BBQ of the trip. Graham did not enjoy the pool scene so we stayed in just long enough to take some pictures.
Is this picture not completely priceless??

This was such a good vacation!! I'm really glad we were able to go (thanks again Nancy!!!). It was hard to leave, but nice to come back to our own bed. I can't wait for the next time we make it out there.

Our 4 year anniversary

2009-07-05T17:44:00.000-07:00

On the 4th day we were in Oregon, we celebrated our 4 year anniversary!! Wow, that went by fast. We hadn't been back to the Portland temple since our wedding day, so we took the opportunity to walk around the grounds and reminisce.

It was a beautiful day. It reminded me excactly of our actual wedding day. Except this time we were lugging around an extra 22 lbs with us. Where did this guy come from?
Afterwards we got to go out to lunch with my cousin's Jessie and Jackie. I hadn't seen either of them in at least a few years so it was really nice to catch up.

Newport coast

2009-07-05T17:30:00.001-07:00

I was excited to take Graham to the Ocean for the first time. Too bad for him that his first beach experience couldn't be on the east coast. The Oregon coast is not known for being the warmest spot on earth. I got a short video of Graham's reaction to his first time in the ocean (the video is at the bottom of this post because I can't figure out how in the heck blogger works!!). I don't think he was all that thrilled about the icy water on his feet, but he was a good sport. Right after I took the video, we had to run out of the ocean before getting frost bite! My toes were soooo cold.

He sure made a cute beach-goer.

After the beach, we went to the aquarium. It was pretty neat seeing all of the animals they had there. They have a touch and feel place where you can touch all the different sea urchins. That's my favorite. Elliot refused to let me put Graham's hands on anything in there. Probably a good choice since he for sure would have put them right into his mouth after touching.
Elliot made friends with a sea otter.
The bonus of going there was finding out Elliot has the same wing span as a Pelican. Would we have ever known that otherwise? I don't think so.
I had to take a picture of this when I saw it. I went to throw something away and there were three places to put your trash, compost, recycling and landfill. Landfill!! Ha ha. Only in Oregon. I miss that place. (Does anyone else find this remotely amusing or is it just me?)
Here is the video. Such a cutie.

1st stop: Corvallis

2009-07-04T10:37:00.000-07:00

We had the best time in Oregon!! After we flew in we drove to Corvallis to spend a few days there before heading back to Portland. We stayed with Chrysta (my best friend from high school) most of the time and spent one night with my aunt Peggy. I spent 5 days with Chrysta and oddly enough, this is the only picture that we took together.

This is seriously the best picture we could get of Graham with Chrysta's girls. Pretty sad huh?
One of the days we were there, we went downtown to the fountains where kids play in them. Chrysta's girls loved them.
Graham did not enjoy the festivities quite as much. He didn't want to be anywhere near the water but was ok watching the other kids run around. If only he could walk, things like this might be more fun. Unfortunately, he is showing no interest at all at having to use his legs to get around and is still trying to master his scoot/shuffle/crawl thing he has going (I'll be posting a video of that soon).
We got to pick cherries at my Aunt Peggy's house. It was so nice to be able to go to the backyard to get fresh fruit! While we were in Oregon, we picked and ate cherries, raspberries and blueberries. It was so great. I think we need to plant some fruit tree's in our backyard here (and by "our backyard" I think we all know I mean Elliot's parents backyard that we look out through our basement window).
The day after we got to Corvallis, we celebrated Fathers Day. Graham was so excited to get the party started, he woke up at 5:00 in the morning. I got up with him and considered that Elliot's Fathers Day gift. That's fair, right?

Everywhere we went on this trip, Graham had a friend to entertain him. It was so great. Here he is with his second cousin (I think that's right?) Katarina.
Chrysta's oldest girl Eva loved him. She read to him, played with him and generally kept him busy while I sat on the couch being lazy. Does it get better then that? I'm in serious need of a pre-schooler in my house. Anyone know of one that's available?
And since Blogger sucks (why can I no longer move pictures around????) here are some airplane pictures a little out of order. Graham did pretty well on the way there. He slept for about an hour of the 5 hour flight and the rest of the time he tried to find things to stick in his mouth.

We're off!

2009-06-20T05:42:00.001-07:00

We are leaving for Oregon this morning. 5 hour flight with Graham. Pray for us.

9 months old!

2009-06-18T11:19:00.000-07:00

Today Graham has officially been out of me longer then he was inside of me. How did 9 months already go by?

He is growing so fast!! We had his 9 month well care visit today and he weighs 21.5 lbs and is 31.5 inches long. The nurse said he is tall which is good to hear. I've been nervous that he caught my short gene, and what boy wants to be 5'2"?

I can't believe how quickly he will be a one year old. It seems wierd that I could have a baby that old. He is such a cutie and we have loved the last 9 months!

We're baaaaaack

2009-06-15T18:56:00.000-07:00

So the trip to Indiana was fun. Getting there wasn't much fun since Graham cried 8 out of the 10 hours it took us to get there. Once we were there and he was out of the car things were great. He loved all the attention he got from my parents and my brother's family. Here he is playing catch with my dad. He didn't completely understand the concept and mostly just held onto the ball.

I made a cake for my sister in celebration of her high school graduation. I saw this cake design in Family Fun Magazine and couldn't wait to try it out. It turned out really well I thought and it was super easy to make.

Here are my parents and sister after the ceremony.
Here is a picture of a tattoo on some girl that was attending the graduation. It isn't the best picture because I didn't know the girl and had to stand as close as I could to her and pretend I was taking a picture of someone else. It was slightly awkward but I'm glad I got this shot. Her tattoo was of a blowdryer blowdrying a butterfly!!! What in the world??
My niece Isabelle loves Graham and wanted him all to herself the whole time. Anytime someone else would try and take him she would yell "that's my Graham!" It was pretty adorable. She fed him, helped change his diapers and played with him the entire time we were up there. It was kind of nice. I wish she had come home with us. Our own personal 5 year old nanny. Nothing wrong with a little child labor.

We made the trip up to Indiana with Elliot's parents and on the way back home we stopped in Nashville and celebrated Bill's birthday by eating take out mexican food in a hotel room. Could there be a better birthday? Don't judge his happiness level on the face he is making, he always looks like that.
While we were in Nashville I also got to go to a Carrie Underwood concert. It was a really good concert. I really only know the songs of hers that are on the radio but it was still fun to hear her sing some of her other ones that I had never heard. She sang "How Great Thou Art" which was fantastic. Unfourtanetely these are the best pictures I could get.

Now that we know Graham doesn't like long car rides very much we've decided to test the waters on long plane trips and are leaving for Oregon this Saturday. That's a 5 hour non stop plane ride. Think he'll scream the whole way? I'm sure our fellow plane travelers will think his screaming is just so adorable right?

Road trip

2009-06-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

The last few days Graham has been teething so he's super grumpy and whiney. We decided the best thing to do would be to stick him in a car and drive for 10 hours. The fun begins tomorrow morning. Wish us luck.

Thank goodness it finally stopped raining!

2009-05-29T20:25:00.000-07:00

Graham's top tooth is finally poking through. If you look closely in this picture, you can see it. He seems to sporadically remember though out each day that teething is painful and he should be crying incessantly, but then he'll get distracted by some toy that will keep him busy until the next burst of pain. Poor guy (as well as poor us).

I took him to the pool today for the first time. I went with the quick method and plunked him right into the water for him to get used to it. He was not very happy for about a minute, and then seemed fine. I am hoping he acquires a love for the pool so that we can spend our days there (and I use the word days quite loosely considering he only seemed interested in it for about 1/2 hour).

I couldn't resist putting these pictures up. He cracks me up.

Our camera is broken

2009-05-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

Our camera has been broken for a few weeks so that is why I haven't posted lately. We ordered one yesterday (which by the way, went on sale today for 20 dollars less then we bought it for yesterday. oops.) so hopefully I can start recording our super interesting life again soon.

Rocking out

2009-05-24T20:16:00.001-07:00

Don't mind Elliot's hair, he used a blow dryer on it to try and make it look like Edward's hair. You know, just the normal day to day stuff. Just trying to look more like a fictional vampire.

If you're squeamish about poo, this post is not for you

2009-05-24T19:59:00.000-07:00

There is a first time for everything, and today Graham let us experience one of those firsts.

While Elliot ran dry heaving from the bathroom, Graham was not the slightest bit bothered by the experience.

What I made with the remaining strawberry's

2009-05-24T19:55:00.000-07:00

You can read more about how I made this lovely dessert here.

Jam jam jam, jam and bread

2009-05-24T19:20:00.000-07:00

Last week my friend Betsy and I went to a u-pick strawberry farm and each got a gallon of strawberry's for 10 bucks! It was great because when you get home you don't have to pick out all the disgusting moldy ones that are hiding in the middle of the other strawberry's like when you buy from the store. I think I am converted to u-pick fruit farms from now on.

After we were done picking, Betsy showed me how to make homemade jam. Turns out it is really simple. Who knew? (probably a lot of people other then me) I chopped up the strawberry's in the food processor, added sugar and pectin, and dumped the entire mixture into tupperware. Piece of (strawberry) cake. And it tastes soooo good.

During the whole process, Betsy apparently got jealous that I am pretty much a professional jam maker, so she dumped my pureed strawberry's all over!
After her act of violence, she saw the error of her ways and helped me scoop the strawberry mess back into the bowl so I could finish my masterful jam making. (Side note: if you are disgusted by the fact that I used spilled strawberry puree in my jam, I would advise you not eat jam at my house).
I forgot to take a picture of the finished product so here is a picture of Graham's teeth. In case you were dying for an update on his dental progress, I can feel third one poking through on top.

Summer lovin'

2009-04-29T19:11:00.000-07:00

We are LOVING the warm weather and the approach of summer! The last few days we have spent the afternoons in the backyard in Carson's kiddie pool that he's been nice enough to share with Graham. What a good cousin. It has been in the upper 80's with no humidity yet (cross your fingers that it continues to stay away for awhile). Megan and I have been working on our tans (what a joke) while Carson and Graham splash away in the pool. This is the first summer since I was 15 yrs old that I haven't had a job (other then being a mom) and I have a feeling that it is going to be the best one ever.

(Ignore the 15 pieces of hair coming out of Elliot's chin. He refuses to cut them off until the Penguins win the Stanley Cup.)

SO many posts!

2009-04-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally got around to putting up some new posts. I know you were all waiting at your computers to see what riveting things were going on in my life. Our computer is about 2 minutes away from totally breaking down so I stopped using it for awhile hoping that by giving it a little breather, it would have enough energy left to get through Elliot's last 3 weeks of school. I don't know if it helped. Sometimes it will turn on, sometimes it won't. It has gotten very moody lately. Please cross your fingers that it can make the 21 day journey until graduation without any problems. Because, if it breaks down before then, Elliot won't be able to finish all of his school projects, then GSU won't let him graduate so he won't be able to get a job and we will have to live in his parent's basement forever. It's a nice basement, but I'm pushing 30 and it's time I have an apartment of my own, you know?

Carson's 1st birthday

2009-04-15T19:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Carson's first birthday. Megan threw him a party and he got to try his very first taste of sugar (yeah right. As if Grandma has never given him any of that before).

Graham was pretty excited to help him celebrate. They are both such party animals. Well, until 7:00 bedtime anyways.
The theme of the party was cars (not the movie, just the vehicle in general), so I made him dump truck cakes. They didn't turn out exactly how I had envisioned, but they were cute and it was really fun making them. I'm excited to try another cake for Graham's birthday.

Teething

2009-04-15T19:21:00.000-07:00

Graham got his first tooth a few weeks ago. It has been pretty rough around here. He was pretty grumpy for awhile and then a few days ago he finally started feeling better. The second tooth is just about to pop through so hopefully it doesn't hurt him too bad. I tried to get a picture of it, but he always has his tongue over it, or some toy shoved in his mouth, hiding it.

Easter

2009-04-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

This is the adorable Easter outfit I picked out for Graham. A pair of sweatpants (that I think are getting too small for him) and a random onesie. I really went to town for this holiday. Poor Graham. On top of having to wear the same old clothes he wears every day, he also didn't even get a basket. It was almost as if this holiday didn't even happen................

except lucky for him, I happened to walk by the $1 rack at Target and picked up this little beauty.
He didn't think it was so lucky. He thought he looked like a girl.
Even though we didn't go all out for Easter, we of course used the opportunity of celebrating a holiday to eat three times as much food as normal. I made my first attempt at Challah bread and was pretty excited with the outcome. I have always been too scared to make a yeast bread outside of my bread maker. It turned out to be a lot easier then I expected.
I also saw these cute cupcakes on a baking blog and had to make them. Aren't they cute?

Hoosier visit

2009-04-15T18:45:00.000-07:00

Last week my parents and little sister came to visit from Indiana. My dad had a business trip in Georgia and, since it was my sister's spring break, he decided to make a family trip out of it. It was fun to have them here and really fun for them to see Graham since he was only 2 months old last time they say him.

We wanted to go to the aquarium while they were here, but so did the rest of Georgia so it didn't work out so well. When we showed up on Monday, there was a line to get in about a mile long and it was FREEZING outside so we opted to not wait. The Coke museum was the same so we left and went to the bodies exhibit at Atlantic Station. I've been wanting to go for awhile and it ended up being really cool. The most interesting part was seeing the fetuses (is that how you spell that?). I can't believe how small Graham once was.

They wanted to eat at a really southern restaurant so we went to The Blue Willow Inn in Social Circle. It is a southern buffet. It definitely had some interesting food. I got to try fried green tomatoes and potato pancakes (which were delicious) and collard greens (not delicious). Pretty much every fried food you can imagine was there, along with a few foods you would not have imagined being fried.
I'm so glad they were able to come down Graham of course loved all the extra attention!

April fools!

2009-04-01T19:16:00.001-07:00

This morning I checked my google reader and there were some very clever posts on April fool's pranks. After reading one particular one I was convinced of how hilarious it would be so I decided to do it. It was making cupcakes out of meatloaf and then putting mashed potatoes with food coloring on top to make it look like frosting. Ha ha ha. I was going to be the funniest person alive after I pulled this trick on everyone. So I made the meatloaf (which actually ended up being super delicious) and put it in the cupcake liners and into the oven.
and then "frosted" them all. I could hardly wait to trick my first victim. This was going to be so great! As soon as Elliot got home, I made him eat one, even though he said he wasn't in the mood for a cupcake. Oh gosh, I couldn't wait for his reaction!!! Talk about anti climatic. He saw they looked weird as soon as he took off the cupcake wrapper, asked me what they were and then, after eating one, asked what was for lunch. Not exactly this amazing prank that I had envisioned. I took the rest of them to my YW presidency meeting in the hopes that they could all be fooled into eating them. 10 times worse then Elliot's reaction. The meeting was hours after I had originally made them so I had to re-heat them so they were looking a little.....gross. So even when everyone thought they actually were cupcakes, no one looked all that enthused to put one in their mouths. And then when they found out they were actually made out of meatloaf, there was no roaring laughter or pats on my back for how hilarious I was, just some minor grossed out faces and some polite "oh no thanks, I'm full." I can't blame them, I had no intention of eating one myself but come on, this was supposed to be such a funny joke!! Next year will have to be better. At least Graham giggled with me while we were making them this afternoon.And tonight I was reading my best friend Chrysta's blog and what do you know?!?!?! She did the same excact prank on her family!! Chrysta and I have been friends since we were in 6th grade and it is nice to know that we both still think the same things are hilarious (even if those things also happen to be the same things we thought were hilarious in 6th grade).

What a great deal!

2009-03-29T19:14:00.001-07:00

My friend Chelsea just started a new blog that posts good deals and giveaways from different websites. She posted about pinching your pennies and I am converted. This website is so great! If you click on grocery guide, you can put in your zip code and it shows you all the different deals for the week at all the grocery stores in your area. How great is that? It eliminates a lot of running around to different stores looking for the best sale. You gotta love that.

A little of this and that

2009-03-24T11:59:00.000-07:00

Last week I was putting my make-up on and out of nowhere, the mirror/medicine came crashing down from off the wall and fell into the sink. So weird that it was sitting on the wall, perfectly content for a year and a half and then decided to fall that morning. It made quite a loud noise when it crashed into the sink and scared me a bit.
The weird thing is, Graham was sitting at my feet in his bouncy chair and I immediately looked at him to make sure he was ok and he was still sitting there, playing happily with his toy, completely oblivious to the fact that we had just gone through a life threatening ordeal (I like to make things more dramatic then they actually were). It was like he hadn't even heard the mirror fall. I would think most babies would have at least started crying or something. It was very Mr. Holland's Opus-like (you know the part with the firetruck that the baby can't hear?) I was fairly convinced he had some kind of hearing impairment for several days and kept sneaking up on him and clapping loudly to see if her would respond, making Elliot think I was insane. My study ended up inconclusive due to the fact that he only turned around about half the time.
Lately, if you put any object within an inch of Graham's mouth, he lunges for it and starts vigorously gnawing. I am thinking me might be starting to teeth but I don't feel anything coming in so I'm not positive.

(This particular picture warms my heart knowing we both share the same love)

The other morning, I went in to get Graham and I found him like this. The hilarious part was that he held perfectly still until I moved the blankets from off of him. I think he thought he was hiding and I couldn't see him. As soon as I moved the blankets he got all excited and smiley like I had "found" him.We started feeding him solids and he likes the sweet potatoes and seems unsure about the carrots and avocado's. Being the good parents we are, we are also supplementing his diet with airheads. I hear it promotes good health in babies.The other day the TV was on and Elliot was showing me something on the computer. After a few minutes, I realized there wasn't any noise coming from the tv anymore and I look up to see this.
Apparently Graham had gotten a hold of the remote and was attempting to break the password in order to watch something just a little more interesting.

Megan's visit

2009-03-22T14:27:00.000-07:00

This last week my friend Megan came for a visit. We served our missions together and later were roomates in Provo. She is now living in Texas where she's getting her PHD in marriage and family counseling. It was really great having her here and listening to all of her interesting stories. We kept fairly busy all week. We hiked stone mountain (which I was impressed I could do considering I get pretty winded climbing the stairs in my house).
I dragged her to mutual with me and she got to enjoy making bracelets with the beehives.
We made cake pops which turned out so cute.and we made a stop at Gladys Knights Chicken and Waffles. Megan is a fan of Man Vs. Food and he had an episode where he went here so she wanted to see what it was all about. She got the traditional plate of chicken and waffles. I'm curious who originally decided that combination was going to be a hit?

The last night she was here, she lovingly made us all sushi (yummmm) and even provided entertainment with dinner! She brought her karoeke machine so we could all rock out. Elliot of course loved it and took the liberty to serenade us all with every random song he could find. Graham took pity on him and joined him in a duetIt was so fun having here her and we're glad she could come and visit. Graham is definitely missing all the extra attention he got.

Graham's playdate

2009-03-13T19:22:00.000-07:00

Once a week I watch my friend Betsy's little girl Rebecca for a few hours in the morning. Graham loves when Rebecca comes over (I'm interpreting his emotions for him as talking isn't quite his thing yet). He watches her intently the entire time she is here, waiting to see what she will do next. I can't blame him since Rebecca is significantly more interesting then I am. She dances around, sings funny songs, and lays down next to him so they can share toys. It's pretty great. She can keep him occupied and happy for far longer then I have ever been able to. This week she ran circles around him until he was laughing hysterically and she was exhausted. Totally adorable. They also both share a love for Wonder Pets which is great because the opening song is so catchy.
Should I be concerned that Graham's head looks about twice as large as Rebecca's?

Homemade gooness

2009-03-11T16:17:00.001-07:00

After reading a girl's blog that made all her baby's food (I can't put a link to the blog because this girl has no idea I am blog stalking her and it might be a little embarrassing if she found out considering she has absolutely no idea who I am) and seeing how easy it was, I got inspired and decided to try my hand at it as well. Baby food is expensive and money is definitely something we don't have in abundance at the moment (2 more months until Elliot graduates!!!) so I thought this would be a good solution.
I decided to start with carrots, avacado's (Heather you inspired me on this one) and sweet potatoes.
I baked the potatoes
and steamed the carrotsand mashed up the avacado's and pureed the carrots and potates and put them in ice cube trays
and wha-la! I now have baby food sitting in my freezer. So far I have only given him the sweet potatoes and he seems like like those. We'll have to see about the other ones.

This is kind of a long post

2009-03-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

So right as Elliot was starting to feel a little better, Graham went from just having a cough and runny nose to being full blown sick. On Wed. I took his temperature and it was a little over 102 so I called the Dr. and they told me to bring him in right away. I have no idea why because all they did was test him for the flu, which he came up positive for, and then tell me he is too young for any treatment and to just watch him for the next few days to make sure the fever didn't make him seizure (what?!?!) and sleep next to him so that I would hear if his breathing became too labored and take him to the ER. Great. So all I have to do is watch my son to make sure he doesn't seizure or stop breathing? No problem. I'm not freaked out by that at all.
I fell asleep with Graham on the couch around 11:00 and for the next hour he woke up every 15 minutes screaming until I rocked him back to sleep. It was too much for me to sleep in 15 minute intervals so I decided I would just stay up with him all night. What a night. His fever crept up a little over 103 (that seemed so high to me but apparently baby's temperatures can get up to 105 before you need to start worrying. Who knew? Probably everyone but me) and he kept up with the 15 minute naps until around 3:00 am when his fever finally broke. He slept great for about an hour and then woke up in full meltdown mode. I rocked him, bounced him, and patted his butt, but nothing was working and I was so overly tired by this point I just couldn't take it anymore. I gave him to Elliot who put him in bed with him, rocked him for about 5 minutes and both of them were fast asleep. I was so annoyed. Why didn't he do that for me?
That was the worst of the it and it seems like he has fully recovered at this point. But this stupid flu didn't go away without leaving awfulness in it's wake. While Graham was sick, he would wake up about 5 times throughout the night crying because he couldn't breath or he was coughing and I would go in there and put him back to sleep. Well, somewhere in this last week, this night waking has turned into a habit (nooooo!!!!!) and I am not a fan. Graham started sleeping through the night on his own at 2 months and it had absolutely nothing to do with anything I did. One night he was waking up every three hours to be fed, and the next night he slept an entire 12 hours. I was a little surprised and a lot ecstatic. I had escaped the awfulness of having to teach him to sleep through the night!! Yeah!! Until now. Even though he has been well for the last several nights, he still wakes up multiple times crying, and when the crying is ignored, it turns into screaming. This is not good. I am so mad at this stupid flu virus for coming into our happy home and ruining the good thing we had going! I am praying Graham fixes this night waking problem on his own and I don't have to resort to other methods (anyone looking to adopt an adorable 6 month old?). We shall see.
In other news, it was 80 degrees yesterday!!! So crazy that in the same week it could snow and then be summer weather. We decided to make the most of the wonderful weekend (and last few days of Elliot's spring break) and go to the park for a picnic.
Graham was in charge of bringing the water.
After lunch he decided to lay back and relax a little.
I took the opportunity to try out my new roller blades. I almost killed myself in the parking lot when I accidentally took off down a steep hill, but miracle of all miracles, I am still here today. I really need to work on braking.The picnic apparantly took a lot out of Graham.

Go vote!

2009-03-05T09:44:00.000-08:00

If you haven't come across this blog yet, I highly recommend you check it out. She is pretty hilarious. So hilarious in fact that Parent and Child magazine is considering having her write for their magazine. They have 10 bloggers that are in the running and everyone can go to this website to vote. So go check out her blog and then vote for her!

Spring break 2009

2009-03-02T18:39:00.000-08:00

I can't help day dreaming about last years spring break where we got to sip on pina colada's and go snorkeling in this ocean:During our cruise to Mexico.

This year spring break is going a little differently. Instead of pina colada's, we are downing this wonderful stuff by the teaspoonfulls.As well as sucking snot out of a certain baby's nose.
Who didn't happen to like it all that much. Poor baby.Both Elliot and Graham are sick. Not fun. Elliot had a high fever for a few days and was really feeling crummy and now Graham has started hacking away. We have been spending a lot of days hanging out on this couch resting (not to mention several hours in the middle of the night holding a screaming, congested, upset Graham). And I think we all know it just wouldn't be spring break in Georgia without a little snow storm.
Crazy, I know. It started snowing on Sunday afternoon and kept going until nighttime! It was the first time I have ever seen more then a light snow flurry in Georgia. It was really pretty. We took Graham out in it but he didn't seem all that impressed.

Hopefully both boys will be fully healed before Elliot's spring break is over so we can have a little fun before school starts again.

Want something for free? Check out this blog.

2009-02-27T18:55:00.001-08:00

My sisters-in-law Megan and Erica have a blog that let's you know where to find really great online deals and giveaways. You should really check it out.

http://justformeandyou2.blogspot.com/

A bit of baking

2009-02-27T18:00:00.000-08:00

So we have been doing quite a bit of baking lately. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I somehow stumbled into the world of baking blogs and I am totally addicted. There are so many cool things you can make! I love it. I have never been one to want to spend any amount of time in the kitchen (Elliot is the cook in our family) but these blogs I have been reading make it all look so easy and fun that I couldn't help but want to attempt a few of the recipes. So on fat Tuesday me and my cooking buddy made a loaf (not quite sure if loaf is the correct term?) of king bread.The only picture I took of the bread was mid preparation. Unfortunately I forgot to take one after it came out of the oven. After it was frosted it was supposed to look like this but let's just say mine didn't even closely resemble that picture. Too bad because they made it look so cute. But it still tasted good so no big deal.

Then today Megan, Debbie and I had to frost and decorate 100 cupcakes for a church dinner that Debbie and Bill are in charge of for the singles branch. It was really fun at first and we came up with some cute creative decorations but towards the end our energy started to die out a bit and some of the cupcakes turned out.....pretty ugly. Everyone agreed that I had a hand in making most of the really hideous ones. I got tired, what can I say?Here are some of my favorites:(We rolled out airheads and cut those heart shapes out of it. Super cute but soooo not worth the effort of doing it. That one cupcake took about 1/2 hour. I could have watched an entire episode of the Office. Gotta have your priorities.)

Both babies were strapped in their highchairs most of the day while we worked on the cupcakes. Poor guys. They were pretty good sports about the whole thing. As a reward, I let Graham try his first taste of peas. It seemed to go over well.
These pictures have nothing to do with the rest of the post, but I wanted to put them up anyway. Elliot put a burp cloth on his head and I thought he looked so funny. Doesn't it look like he is giving a peace sign? Thuggin it out. This is Graham watching The Bachelor with me. He is hoping Melissa wins. I am undecided.

It's a birthday miracle

2009-02-24T05:33:00.001-08:00

My nap time woes are over! I can't remember if I have mentioned it before or not, but Graham insists on me holding him through all of his naps. I know that sounds crazy and I'm sure you are all thinking, just lay him in his crib, but seriously he will scream in there for as long as it takes until I come back to get him. The longest I let him go was for an hour and he was still going strong when I finally pulled him out. This has been a cause of much distress in the Wallace household because I have gotten really tired of sitting on the couch all day long holding him through every one of his naps. And for sure by the time bedtime comes around I am just tired of having someone on me all day and I feel like I need some time by myself already! So it is really in the best interest of both Graham and I to have him nap on his own so we can enjoy each other the rest of the day.
Well, that day has finally arrived! And it started on my birthday so I feel that Graham was trying to give me a gift. What a sweet boy. The night of my birthday Graham was still awake at 9:00 and I had been trying to put him to sleep for awhile and I was getting frustrated because I wanted a turn on the Wii Fit and I couldn't do that with Graham in my arms! So I just decided I had had enough and I put him in his crib to see what he would do, thinking he might cry for awhile and then I would get him again (after my Wii turn was over of course) and go back to trying to get him to sleep. Well, he went in his crib without a sound and then talked to himself in there for about 15 minutes and then it was silent!! I couldn't believe it, he was asleep!!!!!!!!!! And he had put himself to sleep. Oh my goodness. What have I been thinking?? Why didn't I do this a million years ago. We weren't sure if it was a fluke or not so we tried it again the next day for all of his naps and it worked. So now he officially puts himself to sleep for every nap and at bedtimes. This has only been going on for a few days so I hate to jinx it but I think this is the real deal. This is the greatest thing that could have happened to me. Yesterday during his nap I was able to get so much done. It was wonderful!
These pictures have nothing to do with naps but I thought they were funny. Yesterday morning when I went to get Graham out of his crib, I found him like this. It really surprised me that he could even do that in his crib. I have no idea how long he was like that for. All night?

I'm having the best birthday ever!

2009-02-18T14:57:00.000-08:00

And it isn't even my birthday until tomorrow! I prefer to celebrate birthday weeks instead of just the one day. I feel that you should really milk it for all it's worth. And this week has been so great already. Debbie got me these great glasses as a gift:

It is so great to be able to slide a pair of glasses on in the morning instead of forcing a pair of contacts into tired eyes and then having to wait for an hour while the burning subsides (does that happen to anyone else? Or could it be that I am wearing my two week contacts well over 2 months to make them last longer?)
My next surprise was a pair of roller blades that my sister Steph sent me!!! I've been wanting roller blades for a long time and am so happy that I finally have my own pair. I have a big plan of going out everyday to get some exercise in them, but any of you that know me know that I talk a lot about the different exciting ways I'm going to exercise but when it comes down to it I have too many other things to do/my leg hurts/I'm a little tired today, maybe tomorrow/Graham is too fussy/there is a marathon of "The Hills" on/(insert any other excuse you can think of because I'm sure I've used it) so hopefully I really do use these roller blades. Elliot played roller hockey in high school so we could start doing it together which would be fun. Either way, it was so cool of her to send them.
And while we are on the topic of exercise, I also got a Wii fit from wonderful Nancy!!! I was so excited when I got it!! We have been Wii fitting it up since we got it and I totally love it. Graham doesn't let me do it for too long because it takes attention away from him (heaven forbid) but I have been doing it in little bursts throughout the day. I was a little wounded by it the first day I stepped on and it burst out laughing and called me obese and then changed my mii character to short and fat (I can't even be tall and skinny in my wii fantasy world. That does not seem fair). Ok, so it didn't actually laugh, but everything else I said is true. Obese. That is not good. I've been doing weight watchers since November and have lost 15 lbs (nevermind how much of that was baby weight. I'm still happy to see the scale go down) and was feeling pretty good and leave it to the Wii to bring me down. Darn him. Or her. I don't think it actually told me it's gender. Anyways, I am now working on not being obese. Seems like a simple enough goal. We shall see. I've also gotten to hang out with these two guys quite a bit during my birthday week. I don't know if it gets much better then that.

V-day exclusive

2009-02-15T18:06:00.000-08:00

This year valentines day was pretty fun. Since we've been married, we haven't ever really done much to celebrate it. My birthday is just a week later so we usually put our money and efforts into celebrating that holiday (yes, it is an official holiday. What? yours isn't? That's too bad) I'm a big fan of birthday's and am ok with foregoing valentines day in order to make the birthday festivities that much bigger.
Anyways, this year was really fun. In the morning Megan and I went to a library book sale that is the second Saturday of every month. We hadn't been before and didn't know what to expect and it turned out to be so great! They had kid's books for 25 cents and regular books from 25 cents to 1.00 depending on if they were hardback or not! So I got 7 books for 5 dollars!! I would highly recommend taking a trip out to Conyers for this if you are a big reader. They had a lot of books that I have heard about or been wanting to read. I got "The book seller of Kabul" for 1.00!! I was really excited because that is one of my all time favorite books.

After we got back, Debbie, Megan and I all went to the mall to shop a little and for me to get an eye exam. They mostly did the shopping while I got the exam, but I felt like I had shopped through them a little.
When I got home from the mall, Elliot had a surprise for me. He had written 10 little love notes and hidden them throughout the house and I had to go on a scavenger hunt for all of them. (that is what the previous post is all about.) It was so unlike him to do that which made it all the more fun. I loved it!
Here are the two cute boys in my life. I have no idea why Elliot can't ever make a normal face in pictures.
Debbie made a delicious dinner to celebrate and for dessert we had chocolate fondue!!
Graham just wasn't quite sure what to make of the whole day.

Reason #2

2009-02-14T11:09:00.000-08:00

You have the best sense of humor. You are unmatched in your quick wit and joke telling abilities. Heck, you are even funny in your sleep.

Clue for reason #3 take me home country road

The ear picture

2009-02-11T14:43:00.000-08:00

For some reason the ear picture didn't come out in the last post so here it is in all it's glory.

what we've been up to (not much)

2009-02-11T04:50:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged in awhile because absolutely nothing has been going on here lately. The regular laundry, naps, and the cleaning up the continuous flow of puke coming out of Graham. Seriously, I have no idea how he keeps gaining weight when most of his meals end up all over me post-ingestion.
Elliot has been studying all the time and Graham and I can't wait for this semester to be over and for Graduation to happen!! And with the way the economy is going, we just might have a lot more time then expected with Elliot after graduation. Graham spends most of his time with Elliot helping him finish up projects for school. Who knew how helpful a 5 month old could be?
A few days ago Debbie and I tried making this valentines treat that I found linked over from this great craft blog that I love. You should really check it out. They have a lot of good idea's if you like making things. I am slightly craft disabled and have hardly ever made something that I saw in a magazine or online that actually ended up looking the way it was supposed to. Surprisingly, these chocolate treats turned out exactly they way they looked online! I was really excited. I was trying them out to see if it was something we could do for mutual and I think it will work great as long as the prep work is all done before mutual and the girls just do the dipping. I would definitely recommend this if activity if you need an idea for mutual.
Not only do they look good, they tasted delicious too!! (not to toot my own horn or anything).Our professional food critic certainly enjoyed one (or three). Here are some random pictures I have taken lately. This is Graham helping me hang up the clothes. I have no idea what I would do without him to carry some of the load of household chores.
The other day after Graham woke up from a nap he was making some hilarious faces and I caught some of them on camera. He cracks me up sometimes. And the one with his ear folded over is one we took after I was feeding him one day. I pulled him up to burp him and his ear was stuck folded. I thought it looked pretty funny and wanted to share it with you all. Enjoy!

Rubber ducky, you're the one

2009-01-29T14:30:00.000-08:00

We figured since Graham likes showers he might like bath's too, so we tried it out, and he loved it. It was really cute. I'm excited for him to be able to sit up in it and splash around a little. I also forgot to put in his information from the dr's office in the last post. He is 16.8 lbs and 26 1/2 inches. He is getting to be a big boy and it is starting to kill my back lugging him around. Anyone interested in buying me a massage?

4 month check up

2009-01-25T14:55:00.000-08:00

Graham had his 4 month check up last week. He got what seemed like 30 shots and screamed his head off until they gave him the sweet oral vaccination. As soon as the sugar hit his tongue his crying stopped and he was fine. I think this could possibly be useful information for future temper tantrums. (how wrong is it that I am pre-planning to give my kid diabetes in order for him to act well behaved?)

Here he is right before the shots. Blissfully oblivious.

In other news, he now fits into the Johnny Jump Up that I bought him a few months ago. He seemed to enjoy it and even stayed in it for over half an hour! I'd like to say that I used that half an hour to clean or do something productive, but I'm fairly sure I ended up watching a re-run of Real Housewives of Orange County. Shameful.I wish I had other interesting news to share with everyone, but everything around our house is fairly boring. I'll try to come up with something in the next few days. Maybe I'll pick a fight with Elliot and let you know how that goes.

Happy 4 months Graham

2009-01-18T17:46:00.001-08:00

Graham turned 4 months old today and he thinks he is pretty cool now.

I am so happyhe is out of the newborn stage where he would just cry and sleep all the time. He is getting a lot easier to take care of and definitely isn't as grumpy as he used to be, although he is still a little bipolar and can go from this:
to this within a matter of seconds:Crazy baby. He will smile at almost anyone who even looks at him which is so cute, and in return, if you don't look at him and give him 100% of your attention, he will scream and cry until you do. He learned very quickly how to get his way in this house. And we are complete suckers for it. We have a very spoiled baby on our hands and I'm pretty sure it is going to stay like that for awhile because seriously, could you say no to this face? We discovered recently that Graham likes showers! So now I can just throw him in the shower with Elliot and he loves it (and I get out of having to give a bath. yeah!)

(I hope I didn't make anyone uncomfortable by showing Elliot's bare shoulder. Trust me, it's nothing you haven't seen before. Average at best.)

So I still haven't figured out how to get Graham to take a nap by himself so I have to hold him for each of his 300 naps a day. Seriously, he can only stay up for about an hour at a time before he is sleepy again (crazy, I know) so every other hour, I am sitting on the couch watching divorce court (which is actually hilarious, I highly recommend it) with him in my arms. I have taken a lot of suggestions from people and tried all of them to no avail. Having him sleep with an article of my clothing that smells like me, laying him on his stomach, putting him in his swing (although we just got a new swing today so tomorrow is the big tester for that one, cross your fingers!) letting him cry it out, putting him down still awake. Anyways, everyday I try something new and on this day, I got him in a deep sleep and then laid him down beside me on the couch on his stomach and piled pillows around him so he would still think he was being held. I have no idea why I thought that two pillows on top of him would feel the same as me holding him but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Anyways, he of course woke up about a minute after I took this picture and I put him back to sleep and watched yet another episode of The Tyra Show (she always ends up sucking me back in with her ridiculously self absorbed comments and that hair! It's different every day! Where does she get the time?)
And this is just a cute picture of Elliot and Graham that I wanted to show off a little. We have some good lookin' men in this house.

My husband and my brother and a little game they like to play

2009-01-15T09:33:00.000-08:00

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2545213974239423944

Ped egg changed my life

2009-01-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

My mother-in-law bought me a Ped Egg last week after having to remove a piece of glass from my heel and being slightly horrified at the grossness that I call my feet. I have tried to tame my callouses before using all kinds of foot scrubbers and lotions, but nothing worked very well and I wasn't really willing to keep up with it every day. But thanks to Ped Egg, I can now have beautiful feet with very little effort!! This thing is really great and I think all of you need to go out and get one right now. All you have to do it rub it on your feet for a few minutes while watching tv (you don't actually have to watch tv for it to work, but it is a little less boring if you have something to watch while doing it) and wha-la! Your feet look terrific. I would put a picture up of my feet on here, but I'm pretty sure I could be making money off of them now so I don't want to go giving them away for free, ya know? You'll just have to trust me on how wonderful they look.

Long overdue

2009-01-07T05:54:00.000-08:00

I meant to do this forever ago, but never got around to it. I just want to say how much I loved my OBGYN who delivered Graham, Dr. Jennifer Williams. She is the best Dr. I have ever been to. Really funny and nice and almost always on time at my appointments (what Dr. is on time to every appointment?). She was just really great and I felt extremely comfortable with her during the entire pregnancy and delivery. I am definitly going to go back to her with my next pregnancy (assuming we will still be living in Georgia). Anyways, the point of this post was to recommend her to anyone reading this who is looking for an OBGYN. Her office is next to Piedmont Hospital so if you are in that area (is there even anyone reading my blog that lives in Georgia?) definitely look her up!

Our Christmas vacation

2009-01-01T10:40:00.000-08:00

I decided it is about time I put up a post about what we have been up to the last few weeks. Christmas was really great. Elliot's entire family was here which was fun....and sometimes really loud. There were 14 people total all in one house!! It made it feel more like Christmas to have lots of family around. We mostly just all hung out and spent time together. We baked some cookies for Santa on Christmas eve. This is Ryder and Linley (Elliot's older sister's kids).Ryder helping Grandma cut the cookies out

Elliot watching all 3 kids. Poor guy. I thought it was really cute but I don't think he agreed. It's weird to think that we could actually have this many kids one day. I'm excited for it, but on the other hand, sometimes just dealing with Graham is hard enough.
The guys all canned flour and sugar. Looking at this picture, you would think they had a lot of fun doing it but I'm not quite sure that was the case.
This was Christmas morning. Don't judge us. As if you looked any better that morning.I'm fairly sure Graham could not have cared less about Christmas. We're counting on next year being a little more exciting for him.Grandma got him a highchair so now he can sit at the table with the rest of us! Although instead of turkey and mashed potatoes, he chose to go the less traditional route of a pacifier. I'm trying to get him to branch out.
Elliot was finally able to get a picture of Graham smiling!! Every time I try he stops smiling and stares blankly at me until the camera is gone. What a bum. Lately he has been smiling pretty much anytime someone looks at him and we have even got him to laugh a few times!! I love it.By the end of the week everyone was really worn out and we all needed a long nap. Which leads me to a topic for a future post of why won't Graham sleep in his crib during nap time??

Merry (late) Christmas!

2008-12-29T18:49:00.000-08:00

I have lots more pictures to post, but they will have to wait for tomorrow cause I just got Graham to sleep and I am going to take advantage of that and go to sleep myself!

I found a better Edward

2008-12-16T07:32:00.001-08:00

This is who I think should have played Edward. He would have been perfect.

Graham's first snowfall

2008-12-16T07:27:00.000-08:00

The morning we left my Parents house, we woke up to it snowing!! We took Graham out in it to see what he thought but he didn't seem to care either way. Maybe next year he will be more excited about it.

All the things we did over Thanksgiving

2008-12-05T11:22:00.000-08:00

We all went to see Christmas lights.

It was about 2 degrees outside so Elliot put Graham inside his coat. I guess he was pretty cozy in there because he fell asleep right away and missed all the lights.
He decided to come out when we got to the part where they hand out free hot cocoa but then pouted and fell back asleep after I told him he couldn't have any. (I couldn't find any mittens or gloves that would fit an infant so I ended up putting socks over his hands and it worked pretty well!)
There was a rousing game of charades. This is Elliot trying to get everyone to guess "Oprah's couch." My brother thought that was a really clever one he thought up.

We played battleship.

Graham tried to join in but couldn't hold his head up long enough to see the board.

There was a baseball game for awhile until no one could stand to be out in the freezing cold anymore.We read a lot of books.Unfortunately, Elliot had a project due right after Thanksgiving so he had to work on that all week.

And I just love this picture of Graham. My brother was giving him an airplane ride and it totally looks like he is trying to make airplane sound effects in this picture. Hilarious.

All the people Graham met

2008-12-04T11:10:00.000-08:00

My parentsHe did really well for my mom in his bath. He has just started enjoying being in the water.

My nieces Kelly and Isabelle

Isabelle especially took a liking to Graham and wanted to play with him anytime he was around. It was really cute. She was also excited about feeding him and changing all his diapers. I should have brought her back home with us!

My sister Britany

My brother Shane

and Elliot's grandparents (who are good friends with my parents and came for Thanksgiving dinner)

The ride there and back

2008-12-04T10:35:00.000-08:00

Well, to mine and Elliot's surprise, Graham actually did really well on our car trip. Not to say that there weren't several times where we got to enjoy this:

But the crying was few and far between for the most part. I am thinking he did so well because of my extraordinary parenting skills. I sat him down before we left and explained to him that the trip would go a lot better if he stayed quiet and slept or read scriptures, or started trying to learn his ABC's (it would be about time, he's almost 3 months old for crying out loud!). I really think I got through to him because he respects me as a parent and wanted to make me proud. He ended up choosing to sleep for most of the 9 hour trip.
There is a part of me that wonders if the baby tylenol had anything to do with it? Nah, I doubt it.

We were about 1/2 hour from my parents house and pretty happy that we had almost made it without incident when Graham started screaming bloody murder. At first, we thought we should just keep going since we were so close, but I couldn't get him to stop and I thought I smelled poo so Elliot pulled over and I pulled him out to change him. Oh wow. There was definitely poo. EVERYWHERE. I had laid him on the carseat with the door open so I could change him and once I opened his onesie up, poo suddenly was on everything. My hands, arms, sweatshirt, his legs, feet, clothes, the blanket. It was crazy. How is it that I can have this baby for 2 1/2 months and the first time he has a major poop blowout has to be in the cramped backseat of our car with the 20 degree wind blowing on his poor little bottom? I had to take all of his clothes off since the poo had contaminated them all so he was totally naked in the freezing cold while I wiped his body off with cold wipes. The way he was screaming, I'm surprised no one called child protective services. Poor little baby. What an awful experience. Luckily for him, we had the camera handy so we can all remember this momentus experience forever.

I think we were all a little traumatized for awhile afterwards.

One month pictures

2008-11-23T14:26:00.000-08:00

So I decided to finally post Graham's one month pictures. So lazy, I know. We went to JC Penney's and I would highly recommend them. You can pretty much find a coupon for them in any parenting magazine or even in a JC Penney store. With the coupon, I got a free 8x10 and then every sheet of pictures after that was only 3.99. So both times I've been, I haven't paid more then about 12.00 for several poses worth of pictures. I love how these pictures turned out. He was crying during almost the entire thing so I'm surprised we ended up with a few good ones. The photographer would blow in his face and it would surprise him and then she would snap a shot. Genius (or possibly kind of mean).

And guess what?? I found some baby pictures of me in some of my stuff and, good news!! Graham does look more like me then I thought (sorry Elliot). Here are the pictures of me (they are terrible copies but it was all I could find) and then a picture of Graham in a similiar pose.Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We leave tomorrow afternoon to head to my parents house. Wish us luck. We will definitely be needing it (along with some serious doses of baby tylenol).

Almost forgot his stats

2008-11-22T19:24:00.000-08:00

In case anyone is interested, here are Graham's stats from his 2 month appt:

12.8 lbs

22.5 inches long

and here's another picture because I just can't help myself:

Shots and highchairs

2008-11-22T18:12:00.000-08:00

On Friday, Graham had his 2 month well check (what does that even mean? Why can't we call it a check-up visit?) I was so worried for him about the shots and how he would respond to them. Here is what he looked like right before we left. I love this picture. How can you resist that double chin?

When we got to the dr's office, the receptionist advised me to put a blanket over Graham so it was completely covering him because there were some sick people in the waiting area and she didn't want the germs getting to Graham. Elliot was holding him so I put the blanket around him and then noticed it looked like he was nursing him! We both couldn't stop laughing about it and luckily I had the camera with me so I got to capture the tender moment.Here's Graham right before getting his shots. Poor little guy. He got really red in the face when he got the first shot and held his breath for a little bit before letting out a loud scream. Surprisingly though, he didn't fuss much more then a few minutes after the whole ordeal. I expected him to carry on and on about it but he seemed to be ok once he was being held again. That is until we put him back into his car seat to go home. Apparently he didn't want to waste his tantrum energy on the shots and was saving up for the moment his little butt hit the car seat. He had definitely saved up enough energy. He screamed bloody murder the entire way home, and of course went back to normal once we were home and took him out of the car. What baby is more upset by a car seat then by two sharp needles being jabbed into his leg? Weirdo. I suppose this is a baby who had a spinal tap at 1 week old. He just may think these vaccine shots are child's play.
In other news, we have discovered sanity saver #2 (the first of course being this). I put Graham in Carson's highchair the other night while I was eating dinner and low and behold he sat quietly in it through the entire dinner!! It was pretty fabulous not having to pass him back and forth while we ate. And then to sweeten the miracle, he fell asleep in it halfway through the meal!! That is the first time I have ever seen him fall asleep on his own without being held. Who knew I could feel such love for a highchair?
I went and saw Twilight on Friday too. I went in thinking it was going to be a fairly cheezy movie that wasn't anywhere near as good as the books (what movie ever is as good as the book?) but that it would be entertaining. I ended up absolutely loving the movie though! I thought it was really great and followed the book really closely. All the characters seemed pretty dead on to what I envisioned them to be when reading the book, and call me a 13 year old girl, but Edward was so dang sexy my heart raced a bit during different parts of the movie.

Car seat trauma

2008-11-20T18:03:00.000-08:00

So as I mentioned in my last post, Graham absolutely detests his car seat. He can be acting perfectly happy and then I'll snap him into it and he goes berserk. Even when I get him completely asleep before putting him in it (thinking I am so clever) he immediately wakes up, surveys the situation for a minute or two and, after realizing he is in the car seat, screams incessantly until the second I take him out (then he acts like nothing happened, the little bum).
On Tuesday, I took him to the mall (which is about 15 minutes away) to get his 2 month pictures taken and he screamed all the way there and all the way back. That 15 minute drive turned into what seemed like 6 hours. On the way back he was screaming so hard and loud, I seriously considered pulling over thinking something was wrong, but decided against it because I didn't want the drive to have to be any longer then necessary. He kept coughing mid-cry because he was choking from crying so hard. As soon as we got home, I took him out and what do you know, complete silence. What a strange little boy.
For the most part, the car seat hatred has not been much more then a slight annoyance when having to drive the short distance to church or to run quick errands, but next week we have decided to put to the test exactly how much he really does dislike that car seat. We are making the 9 hour trek up to Indiana to see my family for Thanksgiving. Oh boy. I have no idea how this is going to go and honestly, I'm a little terrified of what 9 hours of screaming is going to be like. Surely he couldn't actually cry the ENTIRE 9 hours.....right? I've never had the opportunity to see just how long Graham will cry for in the car, but I figure even an adult could only carry on for so long, so a baby must get tired after 1/2 hour? 45 minutes? an hour of screaming? He'll have to get tired eventually. Oh please tell me I am right.
We are going to leave on Monday night as soon as we get him to sleep. A nice hot bath, a bottle of warm formula, and I am hoping we can get him deep enough asleep that it will take a few hours before he realizes we have tricked him into the car seat. The last week, he has been sleeping between 7-9 hours a night (knock on wood that this keeps up) so if I can get him into the car seat after he is asleep and we leave right away, I think we might be able to make it at least 3/4's of the way to my parents house while he is asleep. Let's just pray that this is really the case. My fear is that this is going to turn into a 15 hour car ride from hell and Elliot and I will both be too traumatized to ever take Graham anywhere again.
Does anyone have any advice that could make this experience any easier? Or perhaps some baby narcotics? I would accept either with open arms.
Graham has his 2 month shots tomorrow morning. I am already sad for him. Poor little guy has no idea what is coming his way.

Taming the beast

2008-11-18T15:06:00.000-08:00

Not sure if I've mentioned it before, but Graham is quite temperamental. In face, he can be down right grumpy most of the time. When he was in the NICU, the nurses kept telling me that he had quite a temper but I thought they were being wimpy about him crying sometimes, and since I only saw him about an hour each day, I happened to think his little baby cry was the most adorable sound I had ever heard (oh my short lived naivety). If he is not sleeping or eating, it is a fairly good guess that he is crying. I try bouncing him in my arms, putting him in the swing (this one leads to lots more crying. He in no way appreciates the soothing effect of the swing that every other baby in America seems to absolutely love), using the baby bjorn, taking him for a walk, singing to him, the list is endless and none of it works for very long. Until I found this gem of a baby toy:

I borrowed it from Megan one day to see if it worked and low and behold it does!! He is mezmorized by the flashing star that plays the music and will lay there staring at it for up to 20 minutes at a time. People, do you know what you can do in 20 minutes if you have both hands free and you no longer have to attend to your ears that were previously bleeding from the high decibel screaming?
Oddly enough, since the discovery of this babysitter, Graham has started really mellowing out. I'm not sure if the flashing lights have put him into a permanent trance or what, but I would say for the last week he has been quite calm. I have been able to lay him on the couch and play with him and he has started cooing at me and smiling back sometimes! He is so much fun. Not to say he doesn't still freak out sometimes for what appears to be no reason, but what baby doesn't? (if you were going to say your baby doesn't, don't bother, I have no desire to hear about it).
That being said, he does still ABSOLUTELY hate his car seat and acts like he is being stabbed everytime I try to put him into it. That is a blog for another time though. I have a baby crying in the other room.

Should I be concerned?

2008-11-14T20:06:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday as part of the lesson to my beehives, I told a story about a woman who had lost her husband in a car accident and how painful it was for her, but how she got through it based on her faith. We started discussing how hard it would be for someone to lose their spouse and what kinds of feelings you would have. One of my beehives, wanting to make sure the class really understood what this would be like, raised her hand and said "you guys, remember when Bella lost Edward for awhile in the second book? Can you imagine if he had never come back? That would have been devastating." All the other beehives nodded their heads in understanding and murmured sounds of agreement.

Not quite sure when the Twilight books starting completely taking over our lives.

Rock on!

2008-11-12T12:38:00.000-08:00

YEAH!!!!

2008-11-12T05:09:00.000-08:00

Are we all not so ecstatic that Brady got the boot last night!? I personally did a little victory dance.

Now if only we could convince them to remove one more hindrance to the show....

At 7 months and 7 weeks, they are already destined to be best friends

2008-11-11T12:34:00.000-08:00

Guess it's back to weight watchers

2008-11-11T05:04:00.000-08:00

Since Graham was born, there have been three conversations that I have been lucky enough to take part in:

1) 3 days after giving birth I am walking back to my room in the hospital on the post maternity floor (I don't think that is what it is called, but I can't think of the name of the floor right now) and a nurse passes me and asks "oh, are you having twins?" Seriously? You're a nurse who works on a floor where people stay AFTER THEY HAVE ALREADY HAD THEIR BABIES!! Come on lady. So I politely said that I had already had my baby and no, it was just one baby. She said "oh" and kept on walking. I can't believe I went 9 months with everyone I met asking me if I was having twins, and then gave birth and still had to deal with it. (in slight defense of this lady, I was still HUGE after giving birth, but then that brings me back to the point of what floor we were on.)

2) 3 weeks after Graham was born I was shopping at Burlington Coat Factory (where I used to work) and I was talking to a lady I used to work with and she asked how old he was. I said "3 weeks" and then she said (you're not even going to believe this, but it is absolutely true) "Wow, you had him 3 weeks ago and your stomach hasn't gone down at all?" I was so appalled, I didn't even know how to respond. Who in the world says such a thing?

3) This last one is the worst for me because it just happened 3 days ago. I was at Panda Express buying about 6,000 calories worth of food and the lady working there asked me "So, when are you due?" whoa. I was not expecting that. I had about 1/2 a second to think about my answer and for whatever reason, I spit out "5 months" and smiled while touching my belly. Stupid, I know, but I didn't want to have to deal with making her feel stupid when I said I wasn't pregnant, and I also didn't want to have to walk out of there carrying my fried Chinese food right after someone just told me I was fat enough to be pregnant. At least this way, I could call it a craving :) I realize that I must have some sort of mental problems. Anyways, I started regretting my decision to save this poor girls feelings when she followed my answer of 5 months with "oh, you look further along then that." Oh my gosh. I am never going back to Panda Express again and I would suggest that those of you out there that are my true friends help me in this boycott.

Like father like son

2008-11-06T08:59:00.000-08:00

So here's a little secret. Since I got pregnant, I have been really hoping that I would have a baby that would look just like me, whether it be a boy or girl. I literally wanted it to be the spitting image of me. Not because I think I am a great looking specimen (not that I'm not a fantastic piece of woman, that's just not the reason I wanted our kid to look like me) but because I thought it would be really cool to look at my child and see myself.
Since I was adopted (in case you didn't know, I was adopted when I was 9) I didn't have anyone in my family that looked like me. I do happen to blend into my family quite nicely and you would never suspect I was adopted because we all have the same pale skin and brownish hair, but no one looked JUST like me ya know? Like in those families where all the kids are the spitting image of each other and their parents? (i.e: Elliot's entire family) We also have a friend Kathryn whose little boy looks exactly like her and it is so adorable.
Anyways, so when Graham was born I kind of thought he was starting to look like me when I was a baby and I got pretty excited. I couldn't find any baby pictures of myself so I found some of Elliot's to compare and low and behold...
they look a lot alike. Darn that Elliot. I know they don't look like twins or anything, but there are definitely some strong similarities. The picture of Elliot is from when he is 5 days old (I don't know what kind of monster 5 day old he was but that is what is says on the back of the picture. Seriously, isn't his body pretty huge for a newborn??) and the one of Graham is taken from this morning (he is 7 weeks old today) so it isn't a great comparison. I haven't been able to find anymore of Elliot's baby pictures from when he is little older but if I find them, I will post them on here to see what you all think. I do think it will be pretty cute if Graham ends up looking just like Elliot, but I'll tell you what, if our next child is a girl and she ends up looking like Elliot too, that isn't fair and I will have to consider having the rest of my children with someone who isn't so selfish.

Edit: I just found this picture of Graham at 2 weeks old and thought it might be a better comparison.

For your viewing pleasure

2008-11-05T09:25:00.000-08:00

Graham's blessing

2008-11-02T18:21:00.000-08:00

Graham's blessing was today at church. He looked so cute in his outfit (props to Megan and Debbie for picking that out). We took a few pictures outside the church since the weather was so wonderful. I didn't get any pictures of just Graham and forgot about it until after I had already taken him out of his outfit so I will have to do that another day and post them later.
Graham was not pleased to be woken up for the photo shoot so we decided to join him in his misery. Elliot does a pretty good impression of a screaming infant. hmm.....
After church, Debbie made a fabulous celebration dinner. Here is the wonderful spread (with me looking mildly drunk in the background).Everyone was there to enjoy the festivities. Adam:

Megan:Elliot:
Grandpa, Grandma and Carson:and Grant:

A really great family shot. I love how my head looks 6 times as large as Elliot's.
Unfortunately the guest of honor slept through the whole thing.

Trunk or treat

2008-11-02T18:12:00.000-08:00

Can I borrow your life savings?

2008-10-28T11:22:00.000-07:00

C-section: $12,000

2 week NICU stay: $75,000

Being able to bring this little animal home healthy:

PRICELESS

So we got the hospital bill for Graham and I. Wow. Who do they think they are kidding? For the 2 hour procedure that resulted in a 7 inch scar across my abdomen they charged us 13,000 dollars!! seriously?? You would think for that price they could have at least had the decency to cut off the handfuls of saggy, stretch marked skin that is now called my stomach. Geez. I mean, you were already down there.

Moving on to Graham's bill. Ok, I understand he was in the NICU for 2 weeks, hooked up to all kinds of expensive machines, not to mention plenty of tests were done on him daily, so I was planning for it to be expensive. But 75,000 dollars!?!?!?

I had absolutely no idea it would be anywhere in that vicinity. Crazy. In spite of these outrageous bills, I am really grateful he was born at a hospital that had the tools and staff available to make him better with no lasting side effects.

I am also grateful for Medicaid..... :)

Trying to catch up on blogging

2008-10-23T17:17:00.000-07:00

Tonight I discovered the easiest way to blog (or do anything that requires 2 free hands to be exact).
It's great! I have been sitting at this computer with him tightly mooshed against my chest for over an hour while I catch up on everyone's blogs. I do have my doubts about how much he is enjoying this experience. It doesn't look so comfortable to me and I have to keep going out to the living room to have Elliot make sure Graham is still breathing because I can't see him and I have a fear that his nose is going to be smashed up against me. Paranoid, I know. But mostly this discovery is the greatest thing ever. I can blog and email again! It's good to be back. I'm assuming you all missed me? (Not quite sure who "you all" is referring to, but it makes me feel good to think that there are people out there who have been anxiously waiting for me to post a blog).
Last week Megan and I went to a children's consignment sale. It was great! They had so much stuff there. I got an umbrella stroller for 5 bucks! I also bought 10 Dr. Seuss books for 15 dollars. What a steal. I have been reading one or two of them to Graham each day. To be honest, I am mostly reading them to myself since he either sleeps through them or intently stairs at the ceiling fan the entire time. I can't wait for him to get bigger and be excited about reading books. Although, if he decides to grow up to be more like his dad, video games might be higher up on the excitement list. Is it possible to force your children to like the things you want them to? Either that or I can just keep having kids until one comes out that enjoys my hobbies. Joking......mostly
So, motherhood. It's been pretty good so far. I gotta be honest though, when I was pregnant and imagining having a baby, I mostly day dreamed about doing kid projects and going on walks and playing dress up. Turns out an actual new born baby is a lot more interested in when the next feeding is then making cutsey halloween crafts. Go figure.
I am getting used to doing what he wants to do during the day and have been letting him choose the activities. So far our days are mostly filled with sleeping (can't complain there) and plenty of formula to go around (which in return means there is plenty of formula breath to go around. Care for a whiff?)
I don't have much to compare him to, but Graham seems like a pretty easy going baby. He likes to be held a lot, which happens to work out wonderfully considering we have 3 women in the house who love babies, as well as Elliot who also happens to have taken quite a liking to him.
He doesn't seem to get too crabby as long as I feed him on time and keep his diaper dry. Fairly easy tasks. Getting up in the night to feed him is definitley tiring, but not too bad as long as there is something good on TV at 3:00 am. There have been several times when the tv wasn't interesting enough to keep me awake and I nod off and drop the bottle. Graham is never too pleased by that.

When he is awake he can be so funny! He makes Elliot and I laugh a lot. Sometimes I just stare at him amazed that we made another human being. Isn't it so crazy?

In other news here are a few examples of the joys of living in the basement.Seriously, is this one a baby tarantula? I swear it is and Elliot says it absolutley isn't (and apparently he should know because he had a pet tarantula as a kid. Insane, I know).