New Family Photos

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Some pictures from October

Here are some pictures from October that wouldn't load onto my computer before. Enjoy!!!

With mom and dad. Graham was a monkey and Eric and I had shirts that said "We're Bananas"
He really didn't want to be in the costume...
Ward "trunk or treat" with aunt Holly and Morgan...
He loved the suckers...
He LOVES food and shoves as much in as he can...

and he's really good at sharing... :)
His new coat and snow pants grandma Denise got him. A little big, but they will also work for next year (hopefully).

I am ONE!!!!!!

Well, my little baby is now a toddler. We celebrated his first birthday TWICE (lucky boy); once the week before when we were in Utah and again on his birthday.

Graham and I flew to Utah for one of my best friend's wedding and decided to have a birthday party at my grandma's for my family that is there. We had a dinner for just family and then friends were invited for the cake and ice cream. Graham wasn't sure about the cake at first and didn't really dig into it the way other babies do. He doesn't like to be dirty, so the frosting on his hands wasn't working for him. He just kept looking at me to clean him up. He did eat a little of the cake though.
In the airport...
Yum...

Speaking of the cake, my mom is really into cake decorating lately and wanted Graham's cake to be amazing. So, after her practicing several times before the actual party, we spent an entire day getting this beauty made for Graham to smash up. We also made birthday party hat cupcakes to go along with the cake. The cake was awesome and I really appreciate my mom putting in so much effort to make his party wonderful.
Graham got the giant cupcake to smash...
Graham wasn't too sure about opening the presents and just wanted the toys he had already opened. After much coaxing to get him ripping the paper off, he finally got through all of his gifts and had a blast playing with all of his new toys. I am very grateful that Graham now has some toys that are age appropriate so he isn't so bored with all of our baby toys. Thank you everyone for coming to his Utah party!!
After we flew home and got there really late on Friday night (his birthday was Saturday), we had very little time to get all of his Nebraska party ready. I hadn't bought anything before we left so I had to run to the store and grab everything for a cake, decorations and food. Luckily, my mom and sisters flew home to help me so I had babysitters and cake decorators to get the party rolling.

The week before I flew to Utah, I had spent DAYS making homemade invitations using my Cricut and some borrowed cartridges. We got the mailed right before I went to the airport and prayed everyone would receive them.

We decorated Graham's birthday in a football theme since the Husker game was on that night. Graham is a big fan of football and balls in general so it all worked out perfectly. My mom helped me make a football cake (again, very elaborate but AWESOME) and find decorations to match the theme. I don't know how I would have done his party in so short of time without her help. THANK YOU MOM!!!!

The party mostly consisted of Eric's family (since they are the only people we really know in Nebraska) and some of our friends. We got games and crafts for the cousins so they wouldn't tear up my house and lots of snacks for the adults. Graham got to open presents and play with them all night. He again, didn't really understand how to pull the paper off, so Eric helped him out a lot with that.
A "pin the tail on the donkey" game except they put the football in the field goal. (yes, I know it wasn't a touch down like the posts say but I was in a hurry and didn't think about it.)They got prizes if they got it in the goal...My nephew Henry had it on the opposite wall...

The cake was a hit and Graham got a little more into it this time. He mostly had fun "painting" with the frosting on his highchair tray and getting it all over daddy. He also loves baths so he enjoyed kicking in the tub when we had to clean him off.

Thank you everyone for coming to his parties! We had a blast and really appreciate everyone's love and support for Graham!!

(I have more pictures of his Nebraska party but for some reason, my computer won't load them. I will post them when I figure it out.)

Now for his one year old stats:

Weight: 27lbs 4 oz....................................97%
Height: 32 inches.....................................93%
Head: 19 inches.......................................90%

Overall, Graham is HUGE, measuring the size of an 18 month old, but he is very proportionate for his size. The doctor was, again, very impressed with Graham's progress in the last 3 months and how smart he is. He had to get 4 shots and one finger prick this time. The finger prick was fine for him except he didn't like someone holding his hand and not letting him play with the light switch. The shots, on the other hand, didn't go well. Our regular nurse wasn't there and they were training someone new. I should have said no, but I allowed the practicing nurse to give him his shots. She did a horrible job!!! Graham never really cries when he gets shots but this time, he cried harder than I think I've ever heard him cry. The nurse kept "messing up" when she was lining up the needle, so she would poke him a little, pull it out, and then for it again. Poor Graham was screaming and his little thighs were so bruised. I was not a happy mama but luckily, Graham is a trooper and after a good bottle of milk and lots of snuggles from mom, he settled down and then took a 3 hour nap when we got home. Poor little guy. :(

Graham talks like crazy! He can say so many words and the doctor was very impressed by the clarity of them and the amount that he could say. I'll try to remember them but I might have to add more later if I forget some. He can say, very clearly I might add:

Mom
Dada
Baby
Eye (he can also point to your eye as he is saying it or if you ask
him where your eye is. He can also point to your nose and is learning
mouth but he hasn't picked up on the words for those two yet.)
Ball
Blue
Dog (he also says "woof woof" when we ask him what the dog says.)
Cat (he knows what they look like and that they say "meow" but hasn't gotten
"meow" down perfectly yet. He tries really hard though.)
Light (he points to the light when we ask him where it is and says "light light"
over and over again. It is his favorite word.)
Num Num (for food)
Drink (I'll admit, this one is perfect. He says "dink" but it is so cute!!)
Nana (is banana. Another one that is cute but not perfect)
Car (he also says "beep beep" when he is playing with his cars)
Truck (he says "vroom vroom" while playing with these.)
Cheese (he says this for actual cheese and when we are taking pictures)
No
Yep
"E" (I don't know if he knows what this means but whenever we sing the ABC
song, he gets really excited when we get to E and says it over and over)
Baba (bottle)
Yay (he claps his hands and says "Yay" whenever he does something right.)
Wee (he says this whenever we ride in the stroller--SO CUTE)

I can't believe how old he is. He is starting to climb on EVERYTHING and is getting so independent. He pulls himself to anything he can reach and loves to cruise around the furniture. He no longer want to crawl, he always want to walk. So, Eric and I walk very slowly all throughout our house, holding Graham's hands so we can get to where we are going. He is close to walking on his own. We've had him walk between us and he can take about a step before he starts to stumble. I don't think he has his balance down and he gets really excited and tries running, resulting in him losing balance. I think he'll get it really soon though. He is so smart and picks up on things really quickly.

Graham is such a handfull and gets into everything. He is very curious and wants to know how everything works. He likes pushing buttons, hearing sounds, reading books, watching movies, singing and dancing, playing with all of his toys, climbing the stairs and pointing at different things to find out what they are. He giggles at everything and jabbers constantly.
His new favorite show is Thomas the Train. I tried so hard to keep him away from it because I think it's boring but as soon as I saw how captivated he is by it and how much he loves trains, I couldn't resist...

We absolutely love this little boy. I honestly, have no idea what I would do without him. My life would mean nothing now that I know how amazing being his mother is and having him in my life. My eyes get watery thinking about him being one and officially a toddler but I am so excited to watch him grow and learn and experience all the fun that is to come.

We love you Graham! Happy birthday from mommy and daddy!!!

3 years!

I can't believe it's been 3 years since I was sealed to my best friend. I will never forget that day...

(WARNING: A bit of mushiness is to follow.)

Not being able to sleep because I was so excited and was nervous Eric wouldn't make it to the temple from Orem in time (come to find out, he slept at his brother's in law's house so he wouldn't be late.)

Waking up SUPER early to get ready (after only maybe 4 hours of sleep.) Getting my hair and makeup done and then waiting for my grandma to come drive me to the temple. I was supposed to get there at 9am but my grandma thought I was supposed to be there at 9:30am. She picked me up at 8:45am and then told me she had to run back home for something. After much stress and worry that I wouldn't make it, I got to the temple around 9:15am with a very worried groom sitting in the lobby.

Finally, kneeling across the alter and being sealed to my best friend for time and all eternity. The ceremony was beautiful (even though I forgot the ring so Eric didn't have it for any of the pictures at the Temple), the ring ceremony and luncheon was great and hilarious (since Eric and I didn't know what we were doing for the ring ceremony. Nothing was really planned. :) ), and the reception was beautiful and full of love from our family and friends. We loved our wedding and we love each other.

It's been 3 years and we have grown even closer than ever. We know each other better than anyone else and we love spending as much time together as we can. We have a beautiful child that makes us smile every day, a house to keep us warm, a job to pay the bills, and more love than ever to keep us happy. We love that we are an eternal family and can't wait to spend eternity together.

I love you Eric! Happy anniversary!!

Happy Halloween

We celebrated Graham's first Halloween this year. We had so much fun trunk-or-treating with our ward and passing out the candy to all the kids that came to our house. While I made dinner, Eric and Graham sat on the landing in their costumes, passing out candy to the kids that came. Graham loved every minute of seeing all the kids (he loves kids) and playing with daddy. He loved eating his suckers and playing with the banana on his costume. We had a wonderful Halloween!
Our little monkey. He LOVED the suckers!!

Eric and I had T-shirts that said "We're Bananas" on it. For some reason, the picture wouldn't load to my computer so hopefully we'll get those up soon. We also had pictures of the decorations we put up. Those also didn't load so I will try it again later.

Eric carved the pumpkins this year. He made Graham's look like a monkey, ears and all, and ours had scary faces them. I'm not a fan of cleaning and carving pumpkins but we had to do it for Graham. Eric did the carving and I roasted the pumpkin seeds. YUM!!

11 months

Graham is now 11 months old! 18 days until the big ONE!! We are so excited to watch our little boy grow and develop. He is becoming such a big boy so fast.

He has lost a lot of his baby features and we are starting to see more of what he'll look like as an older boy. He still has his chubby cheeks and only two little teeth on the bottom and is really long and solid. We weighed him on our scale and he was 27lbs! We will know his official weight when we go to the doctor next month. He is wearing 12 month pants and 18-24 month tops. He got his dad's body for sure! Eric is all torso and no legs and I'm all legs, no torso. At least he is tall. We were very happy about that. He still has gray blue eyes and from what we can tell (because he still doesn't have much) his hair is blonde with maybe a touch of red in it. He got Eric's coloring and body (and attitude) with my looks. Looking at my baby pictures, he looks JUST LIKE ME! Literally, he's almost an exact copy. (I'll try to get some pictures up so you can compare them.)
Graham is ALL BOY! He loves to play with any ball he can find and trucks. He will throw the ball back and forth to us and chase it down the hall. He loves anything sports, including a small baseball bat that we got him. He loves to crawl around with that in his hand and turn it over and over in his hands. He loves cars and trucks. He only has a couple of them but loves to push them around. He lays on his belly and pushes them in a line with one little finger, very carefully so they don't fall over. He gets really frustrated when the fall and then continues to make them "crash" by throwing them around until they land upright again. He's too funny.

Graham loves to crawl around. He is still on his belly doing the "army crawl" but I think it is because he knows he is fast doing that and doesn't want to slow himself down. I have seen him get up on his hands and knees and start moving but then he drops down and quickly gets to where he wants to go. He has been starting to walk. We barely have to hold his hands now to get him walking. However, if we don't hold his hands, he won't even budge. He'll just look at us like we're crazy for not holding onto him. Maybe he'll go straight from the army crawl to walking. Walking would be such a relief for me. He is too heavy to carry around everywhere and I would love to set him down to walk by himself. He is starting to crawl up the stairs (something I'm not really ready for) but hasn't figured out how to get up more than a few stairs. He also doesn't know how to get down again so he'll cry until I come and get him.

He loves food! So far, he will eat anything we give him. He doesn't like really mushy things (he must have flashbacks of nasty baby food) but loves to eat anything we have on our plates. He insists on feeding himself most of the time and won't accept anything from our utensils. So, every meal time results in messy hands and food all over the place. The only foods we have found he doesn't like are peaches, beans and anything mushy (ex: mashed potatoes).
Graham figured out how to get his arm out of his shirt during lunch time.
Graham is a jibber jabber. He tells us many stories and "talks" constantly. He has started to say a few recognizable words but mostly just babbles. The few we can recognize are "baby" (he found a picture of a baby and has not stopped saying it since), "Yeah" or "Yes" (it depends on the time that he says it), "dada" and "mama" and "num-num" (meaning he's hungry.) He has started saying "Uh-oh" when he drops something but it's still a little fuzzy and he says "mmmm" when something is good that he eats. I have a feeling he'll be taking a lot really soon.

Graham is so entertaining. He has an awesome imagination already and loves to play. He will duck down behind anything and them pop up to play "peek-a-boo" with us. He loves being tickled and singing really silly songs. He plays really well by himself and entertains himself with his toys or the door stopper. :) He loves to giggle and be cuddled (which mostly turns into climbing all over whoever is holding him. ) He is such a good and BUSY boy. I don't know how we lucked out. I fear our next one is going to be really difficult because he is so easy.


Graham playing with daddy
He loves to swing at the little park down the street from us. He loves being outside and playing.


We are still having problems with Graham sleeping. He still wakes up 2-3 times a night and throws a huge fit when it's bed time. It's really frustrating and something we are still working on so hopefully we can figure it out soon. I think he should be sleeping through the night by now so I'm not sure what is going on with him. I'm just glad he's so good during the day or I think I would lose it from being so tired!

He loves to lay down and watch cartoons with his juice in a sippy cup.
Graham can be frustrating but overall, he is the greatest blessing we've ever received. I am so thankful for him and the joy he brings to our lives. We laugh everyday, we are amazed everyday, and we are so full of love and joy everyday because of this little boy. I don't know what we did to deserve such an amazing life but we are sure thankful we have it.