Weekend

Well, we had another busy weekend. Mike and I attended Bethesda's Date Night on Friday and dropped Graham off at the church for child care. We had dinner at Cracker Barrel with the Giere's and then came back to the church for a marriage dvd we watched with the other couples. Saturday morning we celebrated Trenton's 3rd birthday at North Richland Hill's Church of Christ's Play scape...wow that place is huge. We got to see lots of other little ones and a few more mutual friends too. We got Graham home just in time for a nap and then off to another birthday party held at the Little Gym. It was a party for Gabby a little girl in his Mother's Day Out class. We met some of the other parents in Graham's class which was really nice. There were 2 other little red heads there besides Graham. We went to Marti Williams' Sunday school class on couples in the Bible which has been really enlightening and then Stephen Evans shared in church about what was new with LOLI since they just got back from Costa Rica. Last night we had our home group over for our study again so we had a busy Sunday.

Story Time Experience

Decided I'd really like to have more outings with Graham on the days that I'm home with him. So we went to Haltom City's Public Library yesterday morning for their weekly scheduled Toddler Story time. We found the library easily and it's fairly close to the house. We walked into the library and we were directed to a side room where we immediately heard the Olympic Theme song music. The event for the day was toddler & preschool olympics. I was disappointed since we came for a story, but it was a creative idea. So there were about 5 library attendants at the same number of 'event stations'. There was a miniature trampoline stations, some colored plastic spoons and matching eggs for the kids to walk and balance them at the same time, and a few other similar stations. Graham played a little bit at each one and we stayed for about 30 minutes and then took off. So I'm happy we went and tried it out. Another mom told us about a story time at the Hurst Library on Mondays that we may try out too.

So Thankful for our Health

Yesterday when I got home from work (around 2:30)- Mike and Graham were both on the floor watching 'The Letter Factory' when I got home. Mike had picked Graham up from Mother's Day Out in time for him to come home and nap instead of attempting to nap at school. I immediately could tell something wasn't right with Graham. He looked red-eyed and puffy-faced...pretty much exhausted. He had a pretty big melt down during gym time at school that day and his teacher really had to work to calm him down....she said it was so strange since this hasn't happened in months for him. She couldn't figure out why he was so upset and neither could Mike and I when he got home. Mike said he got pretty hysterical when he put him down for his nap. He wouldn't eat any snacks...not even his favorites so we knew he wasn't feeling well. I layed him back down for a nap and he did fall asleep and get some rest for about 2 hours. When he woke up, he didn't act like he felt good again and was pretty teary. Thankfully after we prayed over him and gave him some motrin (which he just wouldn't take earlier) he seemed to liven up and act like his old self. He ate dinner and all seemed well! He did wake up in the middle of the night pretty upset. I sat in there with him for a few minutes until he went back to sleep, but didn't hear another peep from him after that. Mike said they are both having a good day together. I feel so greatful for good health and nothing serious troubling our little family.

It's really all about the Cars...

Mike made it home safe and sound yesterday from Oklahoma and we had all core Life Group friends over last night for our 'Wild At Heart' study. It's nice that we are getting back into a routine with our meetings again. I've missed having everyone over consistently.
So the newest things with Graham are that he loves cars...really any of them. I opened a Hotwheels Ferrari package set with 5 cars in them the other day for the first time and he played with them forever. Cars are really the most consistent toy that he has been favoring lately. It's pretty cool to watch how much he loves them. One of his new favorite books is 'Green Eggs and Ham'. I think he really enjoys the rhyming involved. This is his first Dr Seuss book that he has been focused on. It's such a fun book to read too. There is also a wonderful and educational dvd that he really enjoys...'Letter Factory' by Leap Frog. It teaches little ones not only their letters, but also the sound each one of them make. Thanks Wendy for the tip and Trenton for the birthday gift!

Weekend Stuff

Mike and I drove to Addison Friday night to celebrate our friend, Jennifer's 30th birthday at Manny's Tex Mex restaurant. It was a pretty easy drive and we enjoyed getting out visiting with some old & new friends. Once again, we are thankful we have Nancy & Norman to volunteer to watch our little man so often. He was safe and sound at home the whole time.
Mike left for Oklahoma Saturday morning while Graham and I went to a little friend's 2nd Birthday party. It was off the Trinity Trail by the river too. We caught a 5 mile miniature train ride while we were there. It was a great idea for a party and something I'd love to do again when the weather is warmer and maybe for a play date or just with Mike and Graham. That part of Fort Worth is so cool to me anyway...it's right by the zoo and the Botanical Gardens too.

This week was full of lots of coughing and one really runny nose. My coughing has been at times out of control the last few days and Graham is just now getting over a serious runny nose. He missed school on Tuesday because of it. Today has been much better. We've only wiped his nose a few times so that's been a big improvement. Thankfully Mike seems to be better from the few small symptoms he had with congestion...which is just in time. He leaves for Oklahoma with the rest of the 'Way in the Wilderness' leaders tomorrow morning. He will be back Sunday afternoon just in time to facilitate our small group meeting at our house. In the mean time, Graham and I plan on attending a train-themed 2 year old birthday party tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will hold up so we can enjoy the 45 minute miniature train ride that is planned. I'm really curious how he will like that. I'm hoping it won't be too cold and I don't think we have rain in the forecast any more. I wish Mike were wish us because outings like that seem to be easier with the two of us, but we will make do and have a nice time together.
Funny thing Graham has been doing lately is saying 'OK' in place of 'Yes' when we ask him a question. Example: 'Graham do you want some milk?' or 'Is that sandwich yummy?' Both are answered with a big 'OK!' It cracks Mike and I up...

Valentine's Day Extended Weekend

So just an update- Graham and Mike headed off to MDO on Thursday morning, but turned around because the traffic was too bad on the roads. So we all stayed home and watched it snow literally all day long. I think we ended up with 12 inches of beautiful snow by the end of the day! Mike did pick up our neighbor's little boy, Trenton, from his MDO that afternoon. Brandon and Alicia had their perfectly healthy twins that afternoon and we got to spend a little bit of time with Trenton because of it. Friday was another snowed in day where we didn't go anywhere, but around the neighborhood to enjoy the snow. This amount of snow could be a once in a lifetime occurence for us! Mike took me out to see 'The Princess and the Frog' on Saturday night as our early Valentine's Day date. We both really enjoyed that cute little movie, but wouldn't recommend it to young children. The 'magic man' in the movie was too scary with his evil voodoo magic. Graham was unusually cranky on Sunday after church...not sure if it's his teeth coming in or not, but we did go have dinner -just the three of us at a fun mexican restaurant on the other side of Fort Worth. We enjoyed our weekend with lots of togetherness!

Snow

It is so breathtakingly beautiful outside right now. The snow is still falling and our neighborhood is covered in sheets of white. Surprisingly Fort Worth, Keller, and Saginaw ISD's haven't closed yet. Often I have made the drive in sheets of ice on the highways to make it to work, but decided I didn't want to drive in the snow today. The weather man is reporting snow for most of the day and I just didn't feel good about going in to work if it will be snowing all day long. Mike has been outside several times already just enjoying the scenery. Graham may learn a new word today 'Snow' when he gets up and sees it everywhere this morning. Today his class is supposed to have a Valentine's Day party with ice cream sundaes and Valentine card exchanges. I'm still waiting to see if he will make it up there today.

OKLAHOMA!

Mike and I are involved in a Friday night Home Group that meets twice a month. The leaders, Howard & Myrna Olsen, invited a few couples from this group to join them on two night get away last weekend to Beaver's Bend, Oklahoma. My immediate reaction was 'No' since Mike and I've never taken a trip just the three of us together (unless you count our family visits) much less with a group of friends. I've been very fearful of unknown situations when it comes to stepping out and trying new things with Graham. I have gotten comfortable with the way things are because I can basically predict our daily routines together and that feels great to me! The more we entertained the thought of going on the 4 hour drive there and staying with four other couples in one big cabin, the more fearful it became. Myrna encouraged us to come and so we both decided to push through that fear...strongly understanding that that was a tool that satan was using to paralyze us. So we went and it really couldn't have gone any better! It seriously was a great weekend and Graham did fabulous! He slept in the room with Mike and I and it turned out to be just fine. The attached picture is of us hiking along a trail in the nearby park.

The Latest on Graham

Graham had his 2 year check up appointment yesterday and everything went great. He had his last vaccine for a while –the second part of his hepatitis A vaccine. He is 33 pounds and 37 inches tall. His height and weight are in the 97th percentile for his age and his head circumference is still measuring out as average. He is our big boy and we love it that way. Today at MDO they had ‘Pajamas and Pizza Day’ so they can learn about the letter ‘P’. I sent birthday cookies with him so he could have his last 2nd birthday celebration with his 8 classmates. He was trying to get a little bit of a cold with runny nose and coughing, so I’m hoping his day went well and that he was feeling better. Thursday is ‘Blue Day’ at MDO. Lately we’ve been trying to get him to say ‘Please’ without being prompted by us first. He will always repeat us, but won’t say it first a lot of times. So we’ve been asking him ‘what do we say?’ when he wants something and is trying to express it. He in return will say ‘Say’ first then we remind him of ‘Please’. Repetition is key- so ‘they’ tell me.

More Party Fun!

Last night, Heidi and I celebrated turning 30 together. Being the wonderful husbands they are, Mike and Danny had planned on doing this for us before my surprise birthday was planned last weekend. We went to the Italian Inn in Fort Worth for dinner with mutual friends. It turned out to be a very lively, unique, and fun place for the party. We walked in and there was a waiter singing at the piano and tap dancing...wow! I really enjoyed that Mike went through the trouble of planning something so nice for us. I'm usually the one who is the party planner! So I've officially celebrated my birthday for a week now and enjoyed lots of wonderful family, friends, and cake too! I'm blessed and I'm looking forward to this year.

Dinner Tears

So Graham likes to eat and he likes to eat a lot…my best friend, Beki, watched him eat at dinner Saturday night and referred to him as eating like a ‘truck driver’. I think she’s pretty right on. The problem is not that he eats a lot, but that he tends to eat way to fast. He shoves food in his mouth as soon as it hits his plate. Whatever is on his plate goes immediately in the mouth…there is not spacing out bites. He will put too much in his mouth and might start crying because he can’t chew it all. If we take the food away though, he will start crying because he thinks he won’t get anymore. I don’t know where this little mind set came from since he has never done without food. It reminds me of orphans in movies who eat so fast because they don’t know where their next meal is coming from. I am sure it’s a phase, but hopefully it will end soon! Last night dinner was full of a lot of tears. He had a long day traveling too though without a nap, so maybe that was part of the melt down too.

Birthday Weekend!

So this weekend was action-packed! Mom and Dad made it to our house late Friday night right before bed time. Graham’s second birthday party was at the inflatable bounce party warehouse in Keller, Let’s Jump on Saturday morning. He had a great turn out of family and younger friends. It really was a great time! Chick Fil A catering seemed to work out well for lunch and he got lots of presents and ate some yummy cake too! After the party we went back to our house with Mom & Dad, Ms Betty, and the Elledges. It was so nice to have Beki, Casey, & Annabelle in town for the party. We had some time to visit with them back at our house for a few hours before they left to take Annabelle to their hotel for a nap. We scheduled to meet Beki, Casey, and Annabelle for an early dinner at Zio’s Italian Kitchen at 5:00pm. We got there before they arrived and our waitress walked us to the back of the restaurant…where a ton of my friends and family were there to surprise me with a Happy 30th Birthday party! I was definitely in surprised! The evening was fun and will always be remembered. I was completely wiped out after that day though…so very very tired. Sunday morning – Mom & Dad & Ms Betty left to go back home. We actually made it to church that morning- a little late, but we made it! I am blessed!

A 2 Year Old?!!

Graham is having his 2nd Birthday party this Saturday morning and it is exciting around our house! I’ll be honest- I’m trying to make sure things all turn out ‘perfectly’, but I’m also trying to let go of some of the control of it all too. Otherwise it will consume my mind and that is something I’m working on in my life anyway! We have invited some family and a few of his ‘little’ friends to a jump house that he has taken advantage of this year. It has been a life saver to take him there to play when we needed a reason to get out of the house. It should be fun…the biggest decisions left are: food and balloons J I’m also crossing my fingers that his party favors (cutest little soaps!) get here today or tomorrow!
Every day this week has been busy with organizing, cleaning, and building new things. Last Friday we had our new bed and dining room table (and chairs) delivered to our house. Every day since has kept Mike especially busy with building up and tearing down things to make room for new things. We sold our old glass topped Pier 1 dining room table on ebay finally so it was great to get that out of the house. Mike put together Graham’s train table and train set last night since there is room for it in the dining room now. Our old bed is currently disassembled in our ‘office area’ awaiting us to make a decision on what to do with all the parts. More than likely the mattress and box springs will have to be stored in our garage temporarily…which will require more organizing! I’ve been impressed with all the little projects Mike has gotten done in the house this week- fixing the alarm systems and building a shelf to hold our DVR system above our tv- just to name a few.
Leigh and the kids will be here tomorrow so I’ll be hitting the grocery store to stock up on some necessities for their stay and maybe I’ll find some time to make some homemade bread.
This weekend will be busy and fun too! I’m looking forward to seeing the family!

Playdate

I realized while I was giving Graham a bath at the end of the day that the day had been absolutely wonderful! Alicia and Trenton came over to play for a little while and have lunch (pb&js!) with us. The weather was nice so the boys were able to enjoy running around in the back yard. Trenton found Graham's green snake and it became one of his favorite toys at our house and Graham played in the dirt...all was well. They did really well together and it was nice to have Alicia over to visit. Graham took a good nap and then we played with Daddy when he got back up. He ate a ton for dinner and we took a bath and then back to bed!

Babysitting Diaries Contd...

So an update on our next date night- we put Graham to bed before our babysitter arrived on Friday night. I wanted my mind to be put at ease before we left for the night which is almost was. Unfortunately it wasn’t as easy as I had anticipated. Graham had a harder time falling asleep and was trying to climb/fall out of his crib. I’ve never seen him be so brave before while I was watching him on our baby monitor. He was wide awake so we stayed for a little while longer in hopes that he would settle down. Once we decided it was okay for us to leave, we noticed a burning smell on our stairs. Mike searched around for it and found that our door bell had stuck when Chanel rang it and the plastic door bell box was overheating. Seriously thank the Lord that He showed us that before we left….that could have been a problem! We had a very nice time with our friends once we arrived at Buca di Beppo in Grapevine! I finally met Jenny’s boyfriend, Joel and it was always great to see the Hiltons and the Reeds made it from out of town! Love my girl friends!

Oh and we plan on using Chanel again for New Year's Eve!

Babysitting Diaries

Mike has really wanted to have a date night for a while now and we finally set one up! One day while Graham and I were out walking on the other side of our neighborhood I met a young girl and her mom. The 15 year old daugher babysits so we arranged for her to stay at our house for a few hours while we went to see the new movie'The Blind Side'. All she really had to do was put Graham to bed and then sit and watch t.v. She was so sweet and really enjoyed seeing Graham when she came over so I showed her how to take him up to his room and put him to bed and then we left the house. We got home after the movie around 10:30 and Chennel told me that he had only been asleep for about 30 minutes. My immediate reaction was 'what?!?' First of all, most of you know that Graham is in bed by 7:30 each night and asleep by 8, so 10pm is late for our Bud. She told me that he kept trying to escape his crib and that was it. I walked upstairs and noticed she had left his light on and that his floor fan that is used for white noise was turned to heat and blasting out on high. Graham was snoring with his head buried under his bumper to shut out the light from his face. He didn't hear me come in his room and rearrange things back to normal. I surely thought I had told her to turn off his light before putting him to bed, but maybe I didn't. Either way his light was on and I understand why he had a hard time going to sleep. Yes, I was irritated at first thinking, 'who doesn't turn off the light?', but Mike settled me down and helped me see that it really wasn't a big deal. Funny thing is - we are going to use her again to babysit on Friday the 18th! Let you know how it goes!!

Been a While...

We've had a lot going on since my last post!

• Graham got the first round of the H1N1 vaccine.


• Mike's step-dad, Kenny, passed away the Friday before Thanksgiving after a long battle with Alzheimer's...so we were in & out of Tyler with family for a few days...especially Mike. That's been crazy in itself.


• Worked in the church nursery with the babies.
  


• All 3 of us got bit by the yucky stomach bug right after that and before we headed to Shreveport for Thanksgiving...which we may or may not have given to the majority of our family (even though we thought we were well!)


• I slept in the same room with Graham for the first time when we were at Mom & Dad's house because he was having a hard time sleeping away from home.


• Had our Thanksgiving meal at my parents house which I believe is the first time we've done that since we've been married.
  


• Got my Christmas cards completed and partially mailed.
  


• Had dinner with my best friend, Beki and her family in Shreveport. It has been a very long time since I've seen her last!


• Booked Graham's 2nd birthday party which isn't until January!

Wow, that was a lot of stuff! It's officially cold here now and our daily walks with Graham and his red wagon are fewer and far between. I'm trying to come up with things to entertain all of us while we are cozy indoors. It isn't easy! He is definitely into everything now and trying to push more boundaries with us. He is so curious and inquisitive! I love that part about him though. He's saying a few more words, "black, kick, cool, cracker" - these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
Today, I'll be cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning...and then re-organizing a few things in the house because we are having my sweet friend, Alicia's babies' shower at my house in the morning. I am excited to celebrate the upcoming arrival of her precious babies- Cameron and Sophia. They truly are sweet miracle gifts from God that bring a smile to my face even though I've not met them yet.
Oh and Mike and I are planning a date for Saturday night! That is always huge for us!

Happenings

Had a great Friday night hanging out with our friends, the Kinards at Uncle Julio's in Fort Worth. They are sweet friends that are dear to us which we don't get to see all that often. They have 2 adorable littles- Olivia and Alex. Thankfully Widad and I are planning a shower for a friend of ours so we will be able to do that together.

Mike participated in his 3rd Annual Mud Run on Saturday. He hadn't prepared this year like he has the past 2 years, but he finished with a personal best time! He had a blast and Graham was my little trooper out there! He held on tightly to his wagon while I ran around trying to catch a few shots of Mike in the mud. No blisters for Mike's feet this year too! Bad boots is one of the toughest battles people face out there, so that was praise report. Afterwards Mike wasn't feeling well and we finally decided he got a little dehydrated, but it didn't last too long thankfully.

Today my little Bud has been very busy! He received his H1N1 vaccine this morning and then headed off to Mother's Day Out. He is wearing his Christmas shirt because they are taking pictures today. Hopefully a few of those came out well! Can't believe it's already time for that! I'm trying to make a dent in my Christmas shopping so I won't have to think about it for too much longer I hope. I love internet shopping! I'm happy it's available since running around to the malls is not my idea of fun these days!

We finally made a decision about Thanksgiving plans...we are heading to spend the weekend at my parent's house. It will be nice to have lunch with Memaw especially and it will be Brynn's first Thanksgiving too. My cousin Carley will also be in town which is nice since she won't be able to get off for Christmas this year.

Harvest Weekend

Mike and I dressed our little monkey on Friday night and took him to Lakewood Country Church's Harvest Festival. My Mama was able to make it in town just in time to go along with us. The church did a really nice job with the event and there were tons of kids there. Graham experienced his first 'pony ride' with Neena! He really did enjoy everything there...just running around listening to the live music, watching boys ride their skate boards, and mostly just watch other kids. He played a few games with the help of Daddy, but overall we enjoyed it and will go back next year. Mike left to go camping in Mineral Wells on Saturday so Mama, Graham, and I enjoyed our day together. We ran to Babies and Toy's R Us for a few things and had a little lunch at Which Wich. It was nice having her in town to just spend time with her. The Sprowls came over with Trenton, the frog, and we took some pictures and walked around to a few houses on our street to 'Trick or Treet' with them. Afterwards, Mom and I just passed out candy until it was all gone at our house.