Recent Activities

The past week or so has been really nice. As much as I enjoyed all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, its nice to get back to doing our normal weekly activities. Some of which include:

• Bible Class. Graham and I start a new bible class next Tuesday. He will no longer be in the nursery (*tear*) but will be in his own actual class.
• Play Group. I am SO THANKFUL for my play group and all my stay-at-home mom friends. We have decided to make our get-togethers a weekly event. What would we do without you??
• Grocery Shopping. I'm trying really hard to plan well so that I only have to do this once a week and then have plenty of food for all 3 of us all week. Its not as easy as it sounds!
• Speech Therapy. Graham and I both love his therapist. His sessions with her just seem like play time for him.
• Church/Small Group. We are so blessed to be a part of our church family! We moved from one campus to another closer one about 6 months ago, and soon we'll be starting a new small group with our new campus. Very excited to make some new friends.

There have been some other exciting events around here. On Friday night we drove up to Frisco to see my brother coach his basketball team. He is the freshman team coach. I LOVE basketball (having played in HS) and really enjoyed seeing Jon in action (so proud!). Graham enjoyed playing on his own little jungle-gym - the bleachers. Chad is teaching an evening class at DBU and his first class is tonight. He was off of work yesterday and we went with him to see his classroom - fun!

Here are a few fun pics I took recently when my mom and brother Britt came and spent a day with us. As you can see, Graham likes to play outside, no matter how cold it may be!

Books lately

I want to try to be better about sharing a bit about all the books I read. In case you don't know, I LOVE to read and read a lot. Here's what I've finished lately:

Catching Fire and Mockingjay are the two sequels to The Hunger Games. They are both very exciting and interesting and they both took me only a few days to read. However, neither one is quite as enthralling as The Hunger Games. Mockingjay did get a little slow at parts. I've heard a lot of people express disappointment in how Mockingjay ended, but I liked the ending and felt very satisfied.

Those two books I read for fun. The next two I read for information (which I don't do often enough). I'm pretty motivated though, because this parenting thing is hard work, I want to do a good job!

The Toddler Transition went along with a parenting class we took at church for parents of children 18-36 mo. This book was full of practical, helpful information. I know I'll be referring to it often! (In case no one's told you - raising and disciplining a toddler is HARD work.)

Bringing up Boys is actually the first book I've read by Dr. Dobson. I can tell he did a lot of research in preparation for this book, it is full of various studies and stats. A lot of them, I think, are there to scare the pants off of parents raising boys, and it works! It brought to mind a lot of things we haven't thought about yet. The book's main focus is in teaching boys how to become successful men through example and instruction. I definitely feel like a better informed parent after reading this!

Beautiful Christmas Gift

Wow! 4 blog posts in 3 days...that must be a record for me!

For Christmas this year, my immediate family and I decided to draw names for gifts so that we wouldn't all have to buy so many. My dad drew my name, and I received this beautiful hand-stamped pendant necklace:

I LOVE IT! I wear it every day. What a sweet, thoughtful gift! It was made by a very dear friend of mine, Karen Baskett. Karen is the wife of my former youth minister Mike Baskett (who married Chad and I SEVEN years ago). Karen is a woman of many talents. Click here to check out her etsy shop: Jewelry By Karen. She has been making jewelry for a long time, and has great taste! Thanks, Karen! Thanks, Dad!

A Boy and His Dog

I always anticipated and expected that Graham would like having a dog and play with her, but I don't know that I expected him to LOVE dogs so much, especially our dog, Razz. They love playing together! On the bed, on the couch, outside, wherever. I love it!

Christmas Cheer

I mentioned in an earlier post that I didn't take many pictures this Christmas. Sometimes you're just having too much fun to remember! I did take some though, mostly Christmas morning. Graham was so excited to get his new table and chairs. He also got a new plate, cup, and utensils which he ate his Christmas breakfast with. He got lots of other new toys that he loves. There are a couple of pics of Graham with Razz. They sure do like hanging out these days! Graham thinks Razz is hilarious. I apologize to family who wasn't with us this Christmas for not taking many pics. We missed you all!

Salt-Dough Handprints

Graham has a friend named Jaxon who is very special to us. He is 6 weeks younger than Graham. Being so close in age, they have a lot in common. Before Christmas, I invited Jaxon and his mommy Tara over to make salt-dough handprints to give away as gifts. The boys had a blast. We pulled chairs up to my island to make their handprints and they really liked standing up tall and playing with the dough. They each got to hold their own spatula and they really liked that too. These 2 are such wonderful friends to us! I think a play dough play date is in order soon, don't you think Tara? :)