Home again, and glad!

This Christmas season has been crazy busy for us but very fun and full of new memories! Graham, my mom and I had a wonderful trip to Searcy to visit my grandparents. I even got to visit with my Uncle Mick, Aunt Jill, and their boys who I don't get to see very often. The car trip was rough (as it usually is for us!) but it was definitely worth all the family time. Everyone just fell in love with Graham, and he warmed up to everyone and did all his tricks. We got home the Thursday before Christmas.

Later that week Graham developed a case of hand, foot, and mouth disease. Aside from a bad rash and being fussy it really wasn't too bad. He's almost all better now. Saturday we had our usual Christmas Eve bash at my other grandparents' house in Azle. Have I ever mentioned how much I love playing games with my dad's side of the family??? We also had a fun gift exchange.

We spent Christmas morning at home just the three of us. Graham got a new play table and chairs from Santa, which he LOVES and ate his Christmas breakfast at. We headed out to Kaufman later that day to hang out with my parents and brothers. It was such a blessing to us to get to spend a few days with them. Graham got a lot of cool toys from family - thanks everyone!

And now we're back home. As much as we've had a great time, it really is nice to be back home! The next few days will consist of grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, and getting Graham back on his usual schedule. There's no place like home! What a blessing.

I was bad and didn't take many pictures over the holiday, but I will post the ones I did take soon. Goodnight!

Merry Christmas!

It really is the most wonderful time of the year. Yesterday we celebrated Chad's 30th birthday - yes - 30! His mom and my family came over and spent all day Saturday with us. We played games and ended the day with a delicious dinner at Ruth's Chris. Tomorrow Graham and I will be headed to Searcy, Arkansas with my mom to visit my Grandparents for a few days. We're leaving Chad and Razz behind...but don't worry, we'll be back just in time for Chad's Christmas break from work. I am LOVING all this family time.

Bragging

I hate to brag....but....well this is my blog and I can brag on my son if I want to!

Graham has been a little behind in the verbalization department. He has been receiving speech therapy through ECI. His therapist comes to our house twice a month. Instead of teaching Graham words, she has been focusing on teaching him sounds using fun toys. It was slow going at first. Graham did not understand that he is supposed to imitate and repeat the sounds. The last time she came he repeated only 4 sounds (better than 0)! Since then I have been working with him diligently and he is finally starting to get the idea of repeating me. Today when she came he repeated 14 sounds! Awesome improvement in 2 weeks! And at the end of the session he looked at a picture of Santa and repeated me when I said, "ho ho ho." Progress! I was very pleased. He can also say 5 or 6 simple words.

Here's Graham with his current FAVORITE toy: a car from the grocery store.

Happy boy in the morning. With his car.

Learning to touch the Christmas tree and ornaments gently.

Playing outside with Razz - one of his favorite things to do (when the weather permits!)

Uncle Jon

Graham has three uncles: my brothers Jon and Britt and Chad's brother-in-law Matt. He doesn't get to see any of his uncles all that often. Matt and Heidi live in Chicago, Britt lives in Searcy, Arkansas, and although Jon lives fairly close (Frisco), he is a high school teacher and coach and we all know how busy coaches are! The Tuesday before we left to go to Atlanta for Thanksgiving, Jon came over and spent the afternoon/evening with us. We had a great time! He came with us to run some errands, go to the park, had dinner with us, and we even got to play one of my favorite games - Munchkin. Graham really warmed up to Jon during this visit. Jon tossed him up in the air, wrestled with him, swung him by his arms, and by the end of the night Graham felt so comfortable that he sat happily in his Uncle Jon's lap. I'm terrible about taking pics of G with his relatives, but I did snap a good one that night. Thanks for coming, Uncle Jon!

Thanksgiving Photos

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I stole the idea for this post from my good friend, Jessica (sorry to be copying your posts lately, friend, but you have such good ideas!). You can feel free to copy it from me, I won't mind. :)

THREE NAMES I GO BY:

Katie

Mama

Hun

THREE BEVERAGES I DRINK FREQUENTLY:

Water

Coffee with peppermint mocha creamer...mmmm

Decaffeinated iced tea

THREE THINGS I WOULD LIKE TO LEARN:

How to quilt

How to speak another language...maybe Italian

How to grow things...I really stink at that!

THREE SONGS THAT GET STUCK IN MY HEAD:

All I Want For Christmas is You

Carole of the Bells

Life is a Highway

THREE MOVIES I COULD WATCH AGAIN AND AGAIN:

Little Women

Muppet Christmas Carol

The Fugitive (This is randomly one of my favorite movies)

THREE TV SHOWS OF MY CHILDHOOD:

Sesame Street

Perfect Strangers

Salute Your Shorts

THREE CAREERS I WOULD ENJOY DOING:

Nurse...at least I think I would

Librarian

Speech Therapist

THREE CAREERS I WOULD NOT ENJOY DOING

(but I'm thankful someone else does!):

ANY kind of sales

Anything business

Lawyer

THREE THINGS I AM WEARING RIGHT NOW:

Jeans

Cozy sweater

athletic socks

THREE THINGS I CAN HEAR RIGHT NOW:

Road noise

Graham's noise maker on the monitor (napping)

It's pretty quiet in here...

THREE THINGS TO DO TODAY:

Go to the grocery store

Wash, dry, and fold laundry

Pack sacks for goodwill into my car

Thanksgiving 2011

OK so I am finally sitting down to post about our trip to Atlanta, GA over Thanksgiving. We had such a wonderful trip! Graham did really well on the plane. He was definitely a handful, but we had lots of fun toys and snacks for him and we were able to keep him relatively entertained the whole flight.

The day we arrived, Wednesday, we had Thanksgiving dinner at Chad's mom's house. Some of our closest Atlanta friends and family were also there including Chad's sister Heidi and husband Matt (all the way from Chicago!) and our close friends Josh and Lori Beth (from DC) and their new baby, Liam. I'm afraid I was kind of a baby hog but he was so precious! The food was delicious and we had the most wonderful time.

On Thursday we hung out all day at Chad's dad's house. We got to hang out with Chad's wonderful Granny and some of his aunts and uncles. We talked and laughed and ate and had a great time.

On Friday we spent most of the day resting and recovering. Then when Graham got up from his nap we decided to take him to the Georgia Aquarium. We discovered when we got there that we would have to wait, so we walked across the street to Centennial Park. What a cool park! We played with Graham, watched the fountains, got a snack, and just had a blast. Then we went to the aquarium....boy was it crowded! Despite the crowds, Graham really enjoyed watching all the fish. He learned the sign for fish that day. If you haven't seen it, you really need to try to visit the Georgia Aquarium. It is the largest in the world and its really something to see!

On Saturday we had a delicious breakfast with Chad's dad and his family and then we had some family photos taken. They turned out so good! Pictures to come soon. On Sunday we flew back home. Graham did really well again but by the time we got home we were all three exhausted! Traveling with a toddler is tiring no matter how you slice it. But it was definitely worth it. Thank you to everyone in Atlanta for a very memorable visit!

Since writing the above I have tried twice to upload some of the pictures from our trip. We have a new computer and I can't seen to figure it out right now. Pictures to come soon....I hope.