Outside on NYE

Eric took the girls out to ride bikes when he got home from work today. I took Graham out to enjoy some fresh air and try out his new Bumbo that he got for Christmas. He seems to like it! Erica insisted on wearing one each of the Dora and Princess knee pads. Natalie was wearing the other 2, but was too busy riding to stop and pose for a pic. Erica on the other hand didn't want much to do with her bike and made sure I got a shot of her modeling them!



We're not doing anything spectacular this year for New Year's Eve. The kids are about to go to bed (Tall is already asleep, but I'm sure he'll wake up in an hour or two... if not I will be amazed). Eric rented a couple movies for us to watch. I'm sure we'll be up til midnight, just because Tall usually eats around 11:00, so we're up anyway. Tomorrow we're going to my mil's for dinner. She always cooks cabbage and black eyed peas (and other stuff that actually tastes good) on New Year's Day. I'm not a fan of either cabbage or black eyed peas, but Eric always makes me eat 1 bite of each. Maybe I'll eat 2 bites tomorrow. We could always use some extra cash and good luck. ;)

I meant to do a 2 month update on Graham when he turned 2 mos, on Christmas Eve and I totally forgot. So a week later...
At 2 months old, Tall:
-wears 3-6 mos. clothes now
-wears a size 1 diaper
-doesn't wear shoes, but the one pair of size 2's we have are still a little too big
-still just drinks his bottle
-spits up all.the.time, and lots - but he's a happy spitter
-sleeps for about 9 hours straight at night
-takes a few naps during the day
-loves to smile and talk to you
-rolled over once, but no one saw it but me, so I'm pretending it didn't happen :)
-still hates riding in the car

Baby Toes

Don't you just love baby toes? I wish I'd have gotten some pics of Graham's feet before now because they're already so big! But they're still precious if I do say so myself. We're in the process of planning Graham's baby dedication, and I wanted to get a cute pic of his toes to put on the invitation. He was not sleeping well, and kept moving everytime I took a pic, so I didn't get any really great ones. But I could just stare at baby feet all day long. Sooooo cute!

Noah's announcement

I took some pics of my newest nephew today and designed his birth announcement. He is such a cutie! I ended up taking Graham over there during Sunday School because he was absolutely inconsolable. He was disrupting the entire church I know. So we skipped out on the service and spent some quality time snuggling at Grandma's. Tomorrow I MUST remember to make his 2 month well baby check up. Considering he turned 2 mos on Christmas Eve, I guess it's time. lol

2008 Slideshow

Here is a little slideshow I made with some of my favorite pics from 2008. Enjoy!

Make a Free Flash Slideshow

Christmas 2008

We had such a great day. I ALWAYS buy waaaaaaaaay too much stuff for my kids. And I knew with #3 here this year, I'd better be good. And I was. The girls each had 5 presents to open from us, and 3 from Santa. Then Graham had 1 from us and 1 from Santa to open, and the rest I just left unwrapped (since he didn't care lol). It was perfect. I will never forget the year when Natalie got tired of opening presents because there were so many! LOL We usually video the opening of presents on our regular camcorder and then I take pics with my digital camera. But we could NOT find the power cord for our camcorder. I have no idea how it got lost, but we looked everywhere we could think of and it was no where to be found. So we had to use our digital camera to take video. So we didn't get any still shots of present opening. And then to top it off, the camera died after only 10 min. (and I had JUST put new batteries in it!), so we didn't get half of it. :( I did get a few pics though after they had opened everything.
Dressing up as Liana and Alexa from Barbie Diamond Castle


just chillin'

Christmas Eve 2008

We had a great day today. We went over to my mil's house for dinner and presents. Dinner was delicious as usual and the kids had sooo much fun opening presents and playing. This picture cracks me up. Sorry it's blurry :(. They started passing out gifts and all the other kids started getting a bunch and Erica hadn't gotten any yet, and she was standing there with her hands on her hips pouting lol.

And here is Graham playing Hulk with his cousin Liam's new toy!

Then we came home and left cookies for Santa...


and then read the Christmas story from the Bible...

And now the kids are all in bed asleep and Santa is working hard assembling toys and filling stockings! I can't wait to see their reaction in the morning!

Say Hello to our little friends!

One of my friends makes these adorable little sock monsters. I ordered one for each of my kids and I just got them today! They are so ugly, they're cute! I just love them. I think I'm going to put them in their stockings. I can't wait to see what they name them. The pink argyle is Natalie's, the solid pink with bow is Erica's, and the blue one is Graham's. I love homemade stuff!

Welcome Baby Noah

I am so proud of Jamie! She and Jovanne welcomed Baby Noah to the world today at 10:31am! He is 7lbs. 8oz. and 20" long. I went to visit them today at the hospital and got one quick pic. Isn't he handsome!


And I just have to post this, because it's so cute. Graham LOVES his swing now. He stares up at his little fishy friends and is content to do so for a good while. It's nice because now I can get a load of dishes done, or get dinner going without him having to be asleep.

Don't kill me Jamie

My sil Jamie is at the hospital right now preparing for her induction first thing in the morning! I wanted to take some belly pics of her today, but she didn't get herself gussied up in time before I had to leave, so I had to sneak some shots of her. This one doesn't show her face, so hopefully she won't hit me too hard if/when she sees it on here lol. But it does show off her purdy baby belly! I love pregnant bellies! Hopefully my next post will be announcing my new nephew!

Mr. Graham

I call Graham, Mr. Graham sometimes and Natalie thinks that's just hilarious. She says that he's a baby, so I can't call him Mr. But he's my sweet little man! I actually didn't take any pictures today. I spent the day going to Wal-Mart (without the kids woohoo!) and then getting us all ready for the family Christmas party (Eric's extended family). The kids had SO much fun there. Their cousins got a big Princess pop up tent from Granma and all the kids had so much fun playing in it, and on it, and under it, and jumping into it, and tearing it down, and throwing it... yeah their boy cousin Liam got to play too LOL. Next year is gonna be sooooo much fun with 8 kids running around. For those of you who need to keep track - Eric's brother Adam and his girlfriend Angie have 4 kids - Katie is 7 (I think) and Brittany is 4 (they're Angie's from before Adam) and then together they have Liam who's almost 3 and Luke who's just a couple weeks old. Then of course there's my 3 hooligans at 5 years, 3 years, and a couple months. Then Eric's sister Jamie is about to her son, Noah, on Monday. So yeah, next Christmas is gonna be a lot of fun around here! I can't wait! I wish I would have gotten some pics of them all playing, but I totally forgot. I'll have to try to remember on Wednesday when we're all together again.

I do have pics to post though. I took these yesterday of my Mr. Graham. I just love that little guy!
"What do you want me to do mom?"


"Pose and smile?"

Nah, I'd rather eat my hand!

1 month old comparison

I just took this pic of Graham today and realized I had similar pics of the girls at the same age, so I had to do a side by side comparison. I think Graham is a good mix of the girls here. Natalie was my little blob, while Erica was my string bean with bug eyes. I think Graham is a little of each.

Natalie's new haircut

Natalie has been asking for awhile now to get her hair cut short again. I told her that after her dance recital, I would let her go get it cut. So we went last night and she got it just like she wanted. You can see it in the pics below. Today was her last dance class for the semester. They danced for half the class, and then had their Christmas party for the second half. Her teachers let Erica audit the class today lol. She had so much fun in there dancing with the big girls. She should be able to start dance next year! :)

Natalie is such a little tomboy. She could not care less about the frilly tutus and tights. Today she wanted to wear her dance shorts and socks with her ballet shoes haha. She's showing Erica the ropes.

O Christmas Tree

I only took 1 picture today. It's of our puny little Christmas tree. I actually LOVE it, but Eric calls it our Charlie Brown tree. We had a decent sized tree already, but it was not a pre-lit, and it was one of those where every.single.branch has to be taken apart and put together every year. I HATED it. I don't even remember buying it, but I know I did the first year we were in our house. I've been begging him every year to let me buy a pre-lit because I absolutely hate putting that thing together and stringing lights. But he's such a scrooge. He hated that I bought a tree at all to begin with, he certainly didn't want me spending *more* money on *another* tree. Well, I found this little 6.5' pre-lit at Wal-Mart for a mere $35! It's not too full, but I couldn't pass that up. Our house is not very big either, and what little space we have is filled with toys. So we really couldn't have anything much bigger anyway. I am so happy with it and I think I'll be even happier next year when it's time to get it out and Eric and I don't end up bickering for a week about "the stupid tree". :D

Natalie put on most of the ornaments, so there are spots that are bare along with some more congested areas. :)

First Blog

I keep saying I'm gonna start blogging, but just never do. This time, I hope I really do! LOL I'd like a place to come everyday where I can update anyone who cares on what we've been up to and the happenings in our lives. I'm no photographer (like some of my friends who do AMAZING work), but I need to try to take more pics of my kids. As I was told would be true, Natalie probably has MILLIONS of pictures of her, Erica has maybe half as many. And well, poor Graham may only know what he looked like as a baby through folklore. So... in an attempt to treasure these precious years on film (well ok, on a digital memory card), I'm planning to do a POTD (picture of the day) everyday (or close to it). So to start things off, here is a pic I took yesterday of our brand new (well, to us) car! We're now the proud owners of a 2002 Honda Odyssey, which we were able to pay cash for! YAY for no car payments!