Grahamy Graham

Here's a video of me trying to get Graham to roll over on camera. He doesn't do it, but he does squeal a few times...and he's cute!

Graham's Dedication

Today was Graham's Dedication at church. Baby dedication is when the parents commit, in the presence of the congregation, to raise the child in a Christian home and to nurture the child's spiritual development. In turn, the church commits to support the parents in this task. Randy and I consider the spiritual lives of our children to be extremely important so this was a very special day for us and for Graham.

The day started out well. Graham slept a solid 7 1/2 hours after his midnight feeding, so we were all fairly well rested. He woke up, ate, played a bit, and then took a nap. At that time Jack woke up. He was sweet and cooperative as we all ate breakfast and got ready for church. We even managed to get out the door on time, wearing new clothes, which had even been ironed! I was pretty excited!

As we sat down in the reserved pews, I just prayed that Graham would be his happy, calm self throughout the dedication. When Marty invited us to the front of the sanctuary, Randy carried Graham and I held Jack's hand. Then, it began. Jack started to whine that he wanted to be carried. Seeing as an outburst would not be good at that time, I obliged and picked up my giant three year old boy. As we took our places and Marty began speaking about the meaning of the dedication, Jack began to whine again. When I whispered that he needed to be quiet and listen to Mr. Marty, his whining became louder...and louder...and louder. I prayed for relief. FINALLY Marty finished his prayer and made a quick joke about having a new member to the choir and I was able to get out of that sanctuary! I must say, I haven't been that embarrassed in a long time! I am told he wasn't loud enough to distract anyone and some people didn't hear him at all. So that's good. And given the fact that he is a great kiddo who is such an awesome big brother, I suppose he had to give in to the terrible threes at some point. But, the timing was not great for me! I didn't get to hear much of what Marty said. I guess I should go back and watch the video. And I guess next time I need to pray for BOTH kids!

After church, we had lunch at our house with family and we all got to enjoy being with the boys. It was a nice way to celebrate Graham's day! He is such a sweet boy and I can't wait to watch him grow up and develop his relationship with Christ.

Chapstick

Jack really likes Chapstick. He knows where I keep it (one in the nightstand, one in the bathroom, one in the car, etc) and likes to use it a couple of times a day. Well, yesterday I went into his room and saw this:



Crazy boy!

Cute, Sweet, Cuddly Boys

I'm so blessed to have these boys! Just look at them!

Graham and Aunt Hayley

Hayley and Nick came to visit this weekend! It was so nice to spend time with them. Unfortunately, we all failed in the picture taking department. Here is my only picture from the weekend:

bumGenius Baby

When Jack was nearly a year old, I became interested in cloth diapering. Many of my friends were using cloth and they just loved the savings and the fact that cloth is so much gentler on baby's skin. I was skeptical at first but was convinced when I saw the modern version of cloth diapers. They are so simple to use and once you have your system down, it really isn't very messy either. Of course there is more laundry, but for me that beats more trips to the store and money spent on disposables.

Anyway, for some reason the cloth diapers caused Jack to have a diaper rash after awhile and nothing worked for him except to put him back into disposables. I think that's pretty rare, as most kids with diaper rash actually do better in cloth. Leave it to Jack to be different! Needless to say, I did not get as much use out of my bumGenius diapers as I would have liked.

But now there's Graham! He does really well in the cloth and so far we haven't had any leaks at all. We were having lots of leaks with the disposables. So we're saving money. And the bonus is that they're really cute!

Bathing Beauties

Yay for Summer!

Okay, I know it's not summer yet, but I felt like we got a taste of it this weekend. What gorgeous weather! Randy and I woke up on Saturday morning and decided it would be a crime not to spend the day outside. So we called our friends, Jeff and Molly, to see if they might want to meet at the park and let the kids play. Jack just loves playing with their daughter, Lydia, so the two of them had quite a time while the daddies stayed nearby. Molly and I took care of the babies (she has 8 month old twin boys).

That afternoon, my neighbor Tiffany and I hung out outside, while Jack and her little guy Parker played. It was so nice to chat and enjoy the sun.

Then, Sunday evening, Jack and I met up with the family at P.F. Chang's to celebrate Daniel's birthday. Randy wasn't feeling well so he stayed home with Graham, who needed to sleep anyway. It was nice for me to have some time with Jack, as usually when we split up, I'm with Graham.

Here are some pics from the weekend:

Jack's 3 Year Check-Up

Two months after his third birthday, Jack was finally able to have his well visit with Dr. Albiek this past Friday. Up until that point, we kept having to reschedule because he was sick! Anyway, Dr. A says he looks great. He weighs 37 pounds and is 39 inches tall, both 90%. Dr. A was very impressed with his speech (luckily Jack chose not to use his funny voice while we were there). And the best news of all- no shots this time!

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter weekend! On Friday night, Randy, Jack, and I dyed Easter eggs. It was Jack's first time to do this and he just loved it. He is very independent and therefore did not accept much help, so we ended up with 9 cracked eggs out of 10. Oh, well! They still looked cute and he was really proud of them!













Saturday morning, we headed to BB and Grandad's house so that Jack and Graham could get their Easter baskets and hunt eggs. Mumo, Cody, and Uncle Daniel joined us. Jack loved the fact that he got cookies and candy, of course, but he especially loved that his eggs had pennies in them. He ran right upstairs to his piggy bank to "deposit" them!

On Saturday night, we went to Easter service at church. Jack decided he wanted to come to "big church" with Mommy and Daddy so we let him try it and he just did wonderfully! He was so well behaved and it was really special for me to see him taking in all the worship. We've been talking quite about about the Easter story over the past few weeks and although he (obviously) doesn't understand it fully, he does have some knowledge and he correlated that with the service. I'm so proud of him!











Finally, on Sunday, we headed to Gigi and Papa's house. We had a great time visiting with Randy's mom's side of the family and his Grandma Biggs. Jack always enjoys seeing his cousins, Parker and Ty, and this trip was no exception. The boys hunted eggs, played in the sand box, and shot water guns with Uncle Kenny. Mavis, Emily, Gigi, Granny, Grandma, Graham, and I enjoyed sitting on the porch enjoying the nice weather!

Jack Puts Baby to Bed

Jack and I have a very strict routine for bedtime. It's not strict because Mommy says so; it's strict because Jack is very particular and insists on doing things the same way each time. Anyway, every night after bath and pajamas, we read exactly three books. Then Jack goes and gives Daddy and Graham their good night kisses and hugs. Then I climb in bed with him and we say our prayer and sing exactly two songs (always the same two songs, I might add!) Then I give him kisses and hugs and leave the room. I've told him before that when he naps, it is my rest time as well. He takes this to mean that I spend all of nap time sleeping on the couch (as you'll see in the video)! This routine has been the same for months now, and even though I try to change up the songs now and then, he usually won't have it. Anyway, here is a video of Jack putting his baby to bed. I think it's cute that he recreates our little ritual!

Milestones

Graham hit some major milestones in the past week. First, he laughed out loud for the first time last Friday (at 9 weeks old). Then on Sunday, he slept 10 hours straight (woohoo for Mommy)! And today, at 10 weeks old exactly, he rolled over from back to tummy three times in a row! I'm so amazed at how fast my little guy is growing up. Every day brings something new.