Connor, Lindsey, Graham and Audrey

Audrey Girl

2012-01-11T19:46:00.000-08:00

I have realized over my last few posts that Audrey is surprisingly underrepresented in our blog. This is not because she is loved any less or because she is not photogenic. Audrey is usually just hanging out watching Graham have all the fun or sleeping, just like a perfect baby should. So, just so Audrey does not think she is not loved as much as her older brother, I decided to devote one post just to her in all her adorable and happy and perfect glory.

Denver Zoo

2012-01-11T19:22:00.000-08:00

As you can tell, we decided to make the most of Connor's time off and spend as much time away from the awful place that is Ithaca in the winter. After our trip to Canada, we headed down to Denver for a 2 week visit with my family. We took advantage of Denver's beautiful, sunny, 50 degree day and took a trip to the zoo. It was truly the perfect zoo trip. The zoo was empty! Most of the time we were the only people looking at an exhibit. What made it even better was the fact that most of the animals were out and active, and we even got to catch a few feedings. We were free to let the kiddos run around and stare at any animal for as long as their little hearts desired. I think we probably spent a good 15 minutes with the tigers at the end of the day. Graham and his cousin, Karly, were in heaven and had many adorable and hilarious conversations about the animals and other various things throughout the day.

The train might have been Graham's favorite part of the zoo.

As you can see we had both the train and carousel all to ourselves.

Waterton

2012-01-11T18:56:00.000-08:00

After our wonderful and warm trip to Honduras, we headed north to enjoy a week with Connor's family in Canada. We spent an enjoyable night in one of Connor's favorite places, Waterton. It was a short trip, but just enough time to explore the town square and take a scenic drive up to Cameron Lake. Each time we stopped, Graham insisted on getting out of the truck to explore with Connor, but it didn't take long for him to start begging to get back in and out of the cold. Here are a few snapshots from our short visit.

Christmas in Ithaca

2012-01-11T18:40:00.000-08:00

Because we were travelling for the holidays, we decided to have our own little Christmas morning in Ithaca a week or so early. This is the first year that I really feel that Graham actually gets what is going on and I did not want to miss out on the experience of watching him walk out of his room to find that Santa Claus had been there to fill his stocking and leave him a few good presents. Graham had the chance to sit on Santa's knee and made sure to tell him that he wanted a firetruck. He repeated this request to both me and Connor numerous times leading up to Christmas.

In our search for the perfect present, we found this cozy coupe firetruck at an incredible price and knew that Graham would love it. When Graham walked out of his room on Christmas morning to find the truck waiting for him by the tree, he did not know what to think. He just kind of looked at us and back at the truck as he slowly walked over to it to get a closer look. When he finally realized that Santa had brought the truck for him, he was completely delighted and spent the next 15 minutes getting acquainted with the workings of his new firetruck.

Audrey was happy to watch Graham open and play with his presents while she tasted as much of the packaging and wrapping paper that she could get her hands on.

She also loved her glow worm that lights up and plays music when squeezed.

And we have all received many thorough check ups from the best, Dr. Graham.

MacLennan Family Holiday 2011

2012-01-01T00:30:00.000-08:00

This year we were so fortunate to get to spend our holidays with Connor's family on the beautiful island of Roatan. We spent an incredible 9 days on the island and then ventured over to the mainland of Honduras to spend a couple of days in the jungles of La Ceiba. The whole experience (minus the bugs and the ferry boat back to Roatan) was amazing! I have so much to say but not enough time to put it all down right now, but I am so excited about the pictures that I just have to share them! So, for now, here is the Roatan experience in pictures, the hope is that more words will come later.

Looking back at these pictures has really made me realize how much fun and adventure we were able to experience in just a week and a half.

There was plenty of cousin bonding,

and boats,

lots of swimming,

and maybe too much sand.

Audrey was our perfect baby and was adored by all. She was happy to play in the water or take naps on the beach. Really she was just there to smile at everyone as we went about our business of having a good time.

The views from our small resort in La Cieba were incredible!

We could not have asked for a better atmosphere to spend our last days in Honduras.

The entire trip was incredible, we hiked, we white water rafted, we rode dune buggies, we scuba dived and snorkeled, we played with dolphins, we did a zip line canopy tour through the jungle, and just enjoyed an all around good time with family.

Thank you Cameron and Cathy for such a great experience! And thank you Joel for the incredible pictures!

The Widow's Weekend

2011-11-13T11:47:00.001-08:00

This weekend Connor had to ditch us for a school related real estate conference in Austin. It was going to be the first time I was on my own with two kids (scary)...unless you consider last weekend while he was preparing for the competition and did not make it home most nights until 1:30 am. That weekend might have actually been worse because he was here but could not really do anything to help out, at least this weekend he was just gone and I couldn't hope that maybe he would come home early to hang out with us. Anyway, this weekend went surprisingly well (thank you Bob the Builder, Winnie the Pooh and Jungle Book DVDs). There were a couple of other weekend widowed wives so we joined forces to make the best of a long weekend. Friday night we planned a girls night which I have decided cannot really be called girls night when there are kids involved. It was more like a night where the moms ate lots of deliciously bad for us food while the kids were supposed to be watching a movie, but in reality mostly just ran wild in the apartment. And we were okay with that because we had things to talk about, important things like food and black Friday shopping trips, and our wild kids, and all kinds of other various important topics. It was great.

Saturday I combined forces with Courtney (who was also widowed this weekend) and her cute boys. We enjoyed a morning in the park with picnic lunches. And after naps and downtime we had movie time and dinner back at our apartment. Graham is so happy to have a new little buddy to follow him around doing crazy boy stuff. Here are a few pictures from our Saturday adventures.

Rip is about 6 months younger than Graham so he follows Graham around and learns the ways of the wild man.

Graham and Rip watched The Jungle Book together. As you can see, the slight violence at the end was a little concerning to Rip...Graham loved it.

Cute little Chet LOVES Audrey. Seriously. Whenever Audrey is within his reach he is right there in her face trying to smother her with his love and if she is out of reach then he is standing at the feet of whoever is holding her. Even though he can be a little rough, I think Audrey loves him too.

Audrey can always sense that there is danger lurking just behind her.

Unfortunately these are the only pictures that I have to show from our weekend...it is hard to balance keeping two kids safe and happy while remembering to take pictures. We had a great weekend even if we had to be without Connor for a few days. Thanks to all who helped me to make it through without losing my mind!

In Other Graham News

2011-11-03T20:12:00.000-07:00

I feel like I probably post a lot about Graham lately...ok, I have posted a lot about Graham since he was born. But really he makes me laugh so much everyday and I don't want to forget these funny little things that make up our lives right now.

The other day Audrey was laying on the floor and was getting bored so she started fussing. I moved her to the Bumbo to try to help her mood for a few more minutes but she was still not very happy. Graham, noticing Audrey's bad mood, decides to step in and help out. He walks over to Audrey, looks at her and says, "oh, Audrey sad?" "you need a pumpkin?" "okay, here you go Audrey." He then hands her one of our mini pumpkins and informs me that she is not sad anymore, and she wasn't. I think she was too busy wondering why in the world she was holding a pumpkin.

One of Graham's recent obsessions is the elephant march in the movie, "The Jungle Book." He has the entire 6 minute you tube segment memorized. He spends a great deal of his life marching from one place to the next shouting off random commands that are made by the colonel in the video. During playgroups he encourages other kids to march with him and instructs them in the ways of drilling. And if we want him to walk somewhere he might not want to go we can usually get him to do it if we distract him by telling him to march. We knew the obsession was for real when one day while I was sitting on a bench just minding my own business and Graham came up behind me and gave me a little swat on my bum and commanded me to "dress up that line." Yes, that is an exact quote and reenactment from the video. After getting over the shock of being hit with a stick and reminding Graham not to hit people, I could not help but laugh at what his crazy brain comes up with.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-03T19:50:00.000-07:00

Halloween just keeps getting better and better at our house as Graham becomes more aware of what it is all about. I spent a lot of time going back and forth with his costume choice but finally settled on pirate because it was really easy and because he loves swords and sword fighting and obviously loves the "rrr mateys" (his pirate patch). Please take note of his extensive weapons arsenal. My parents brought him a pirate kit when they were here for a visit so he had to bring everything along. He had a pirate hook, dagger, sword, gun and as if that was not enough he also had to find a stick worthy of a pirate fight.

So happy to be holding a sword and hook.

Audrey was a little peacock.

We chose a peacock for Audrey because she tends to be a very vocal baby and often lets off loud squaks that kind of resemble peacock noises. Graham always makes sure to let me know when Audrey is being noisy like an "eepock." Although I think her costume turned out super cute and was very easy as well, I don't think I thought through this one completely because it did not make for easy transportation. It was also extremely cold at our Branch Halloween party and we had to keep her bundled up in her little fleece suit so we were not even able to show the costume off.

She is such a happy and smiley baby...

...and here is the reason she was smiling. She LOVES getting any attention from her brother.

The Branch Halloween Party was so much fun despite the cold temperatures. We ate delicious soup and drank hot chocolate and stayed warm by the fire.

There was a local band playing music in the background which made for a fun atmosphere and Graham loved it; he recruited both of his girlfriends to join him on the dance floor.

Connor took Graham out for trick or treating in our apartment complex and he accumulated a good stash of candy, which is obviously very exciting for a 2 year old. But the best part of the night was when a firetruck pulled into the parking lot with lights flashing and everything. I guess the firemen go around to the neighborhoods and pass out candy from their firetruck. A firetruck, with lights, that gives you candy...I am pretty sure Graham could have died happy after experiencing this, you could hear him shrieking across the complex, "a firetruck, a firetruck! look mom, a firetruck." It was awesome. And that concludes our fun and festive Halloween weekend.

10/23/11 Audrey's Blessing

2011-10-23T13:41:00.000-07:00

Today was Audrey's blessing day. We are so lucky to have this beautiful little girl in our home.

The blessing dress has been a source of a little stress in my life. I have been torn between using just a basic, nice Sunday dress or going with the typical LDS blessing gown. I was constantly searching online for the perfect dress that would be pretty and special but not over the top and was also affordable. Finally, while discussing ideas with my mom we decided that in order to achieve my vision that we would have to make the dress...and by we, I mean my mom. I will give myself credit for the design because I had a dress in mind that I wanted and luckily through many phone calls and emails back and forth, my mom was able to execute the perfect dress. I am so glad that I followed my gut and went this route because now we have a dress to hopefully pass down any and all future girls that join our family.

10/14/11 Syracuse Zoo

2011-10-14T19:01:00.000-07:00

We took advantage of a morning of some sun and no rain to visit the Syracuse Zoo (and please take note of the words morning and some sun, because really we only saw a little sun and the no rain only lasted until 1:00 pm and then it began to downpour and hasn't really stopped since then). But we will take what we can get, we still had a great time at the zoo and even treated ourselves to Chipotle after...so worth it.

10/13/11

2011-10-14T18:51:00.000-07:00

Since I got such a positive response from Graham's "happy tapping with Elmo", I thought I would share a few of his more recent Grahamisms.

I have been sick this last week with a terrible sore throat so I have been keeping my cough drops at arms reach. The other day I had two sitting on the coffee table when Graham woke up from his nap. Graham studied them for a minute and here is our conversation that followed:
G: mommies medicine?
M: yes because I am sick
G: oh, ok. I give them to you?
M: ok
G: ok mommy, sit down right here
open your mouth mom, I put them in for you
M: thank you
G: (putting his arm on my shoulder and looking at me seriously) ok mommy, make you feel better

There are times when this little boy just melts my heart.

Here is a conversation between Connor and Graham while driving in the car
C: Hey Graham, am I your best friend?
G: Ummmm, no.
C: Why not? What do I need to do to be your best friend?
G: Give me treats

And another conversation had by me and Graham in the car. We often take Connor to school and on our way to the campus we drive over a couple of bridges and Graham usually is pretty excited about it. This is the conversation that just followed going over a bridge.
G: Mommy, bridge
M: Yeah Graham, we just drove over a bridge
G: No mommy, briddggeeeh (that is him really trying to sound it out with an emphasis on the end)
M: Yes, a bridge, did we just drive on the bridge?
G; No, briddggeeeeeh
M: Ok (this is the only way to respond when you don't know exactly what he is trying to tell you, but he never goes for it, he just gets frustrated and continues to repeat the word)
G: briddggeeeeeh
this went on for about half of our drive home while I searched my brain for any idea as to what he was trying to tell me and finally Graham figured out how to communicate what he was trying to say
G: mommy, bridgeeeeeh, pretty girl
M: oh Bridget (Bridget is the daughter of one of my friends and Graham has maybe seen her twice in his life)
G: yeah, Bridget, I like her, my friend

I guess in the short time Graham spent with her she really made an impression. He has since talked about her two more times after driving across bridges. So Mekelle, if you are reading this, I guess we really need to work on getting these two kiddos together again.

Our conversation this morning:
M: Graham do you want to dress up in a costume for Halloween? Do you want to dress up like a pirate or a cowboy like Woody?
G: no, a child of God cowboy

Any ideas on how to make that one happen?

Graham continues to enjoy learning about names, especially when he can put a middle or last name to names of friends or family members. We often hear him repeating Audrey's name,
"Audrey Ewizabeh Clennan Audrey Girl"
I just love that he calls her his Audrey girl.

As we were preparing for our trip to Philadelphia Connor sat down with Graham to tell him about some of the things we were going to do and see on our trip. Graham must have misunderstood something in the conversation because while I was packing he kept asking, "ok mom, ready to go? ready to go on a rocket ship?" I think he asked me this 3 or 4 times that afternoon and each time I would remind him that we were going on a trip in the car, not a rocket ship. He didn't bring it up for the rest of the day or during our drive, but he had not forgotten. The next morning as soon as his little eyes popped open, he looked over at us and said, "ok, I'm awake, time to go on a rocket ship." The poor kid must have been totally disappointed in our trip to Philadelphia.

And finally, these are pretty typical daily conversations had by me and Graham:
G: mom, time to go outside?
M: no, it is raining, we can't play outside today (because it does rain in Ithaca like every day)
G: no, mom, its not raining, its a nice, sunny day.

M: ok Graham, 5 more minutes of playing and then we are going to eat lunch and take a nap
G: no mom, I not take a nap, its not dark, the sun is up, look mom, its sunny!

And just because I think that one of the cutest things ever is a little boy in his pajamas, playing with his train set, here are a few pics of the little man.

10/12/11 Happy Tapping With Elmo

2011-10-12T21:04:00.000-07:00

Last year for Christmas my mom gave all of the cousins these cute elmo slippers to go with all of the their matching pajamas. They were a little big on Graham at the time so he didn't like wearing them for long and after a couple of weeks in his closet, they were forgotten. He recently rediscovered the slippers and has a new found love for them, especially since he has recently become obsessed with the song and video, "happy tapping with elmo." He has determined that the slippers must be worn anytime the video is played. So for all of your enjoyment, here is a little happy tapping with elmo...

10/7 - 10/10 Philadelphia

2011-10-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

This weekend we took advantage of Cornell's fall break to do some more of our east coast exploring. My brother and his wife and 7 month old little boy are living just outside of Philadelphia while he is doing an internship at Johnson&Johnson. We figured we could kill 2 birds with one stone, getting the chance to hang out with them and exploring a new city. Again we scored a killer deal naming our own price on priceline and were able to stay in a nice hotel right in the downtown area. We were within walking distance of most of the historical sites as well as the Reading Terminal and other downtown attractions...like really delicious food. Some of our adventures this weekend included:

- Walking around the Independence Hall area, checking out the buildings and sites but never actually making it in to take the tour...probably would have been a waste with a 2 year old anyway.
- Making our own Philly Cheesesteak challenge to determine whether Pat's or Geno's had the best sandwich. Connor ordered 2 from Pat's, one whiz with (that is cheese whiz with onions) and one with onions and Provolone cheese. Travis headed to Geno's to pick up two as well, the same combo as ordered by Connor. After sampling from each, it was determined that Pat's whiz with was the winner by far even though we did prefer the bread on the Geno's sandwiches.
- Running the Rocky steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I find it pretty interesting that amid all of the historical and significant statues surrounding the museum, the most crowded and photographed statue was probably Rocky. Awesome.
- We intended to take a tour of the Eastern State Penitentiary but arrived just a little too late because during the Halloween season it becomes the setting for "Terror Behind the Walls" just one of the scariest haunted houses ever. Take a look at a few pictures of this old jail and tell me it would not be one crazy scary haunted house. We decided to take a stroll around the outside since we could not go in and we were just freaked out by some of the characters roaming the entrance, their makeup and costumes were incredible and gave us the chills.
- Enjoying a short time exploring the huge Smith Memorial Playground and Playhouse located in Fairmount Park.
- Eating more delicious food at the incredible Reading Terminal. We ate the suggested Dinic's Italian pulled pork sandwich with greens and provolone, it was a delicious sandwich. We followed up with dessert from the Flying Monkey, where we were told it was a must to get the pumple, a pumpkin pie baked in chocolate cake, and apple pie baked in vanilla cake all put together into one big cake and covered with amazing buttercream frosting. Wow. (Did I mention that we are doing a Biggest Loser competition with some family members...this is not going to be a good week for a weigh in, Jillian would be so disappointed in me.)
- Watching Graham feed and chase the pigeons around the parks.
- Finally rewarding Graham for being such a trooper, we took him to the Please Touch Museum, which was incredible and I wish we could have had more time to really enjoy all of the different exhibits.

Here are a few pics from our adventures. There will be more to come once I can have a few minutes with Connor's IPhone.

Here is a little side story to the grocery shopping: Graham loved shopping at the little grocery store, probably because he thought he was actually going to get to eat his purchases once he was done. He was quite frustrated when we told him that we needed to put the groceries back. But he reluctantly followed me as we put the food back where it belonged. At one point he grabbed a loaf of bread and the box of Teddy Grahams and I assumed he was taking them back and I thought Connor was going to be watching him. I continued putting away a few more things and then looked over to Connor to ask where Graham was and Connor had no idea. I searched the store while Connor went to check the surrounding areas. My heart was pounding as I searched through all of the kids to try to catch a glimpse of Graham. He wasn't in the store so I started to look out to the rest of the museum, I thought I saw a little flash of his red shorts go by in the distance so I ran over to where I thought I saw him. Just as I ran over I saw a door to one of the classrooms shutting. I looked in the window to see Graham pulling up a seat at one of the tables and sitting down with his recently purchased bread and crackers to enjoy a little snack. Once I knew he was safe I could not help but laugh at the mind of this funny boy. It all made perfect sense to him, he had food, he wanted to eat it so obviously the next step was to find a table. If he only knew what he had just put his parents through when they realized neither of them knew where he was.

How cute is this Alice in Wonderland Tea Party?! They even had dress up clothes for the kids to put on for the party.

Oh yeah, Audrey was there too, just doing what she does best, hanging out, taking naps in the stroller, being perfect.

And as promised here are the pictures recovered from Connor's phone:

Graham enjoyed eating the delicious food just as much as we did

the pumple

Pat's Philly Cheesesteak

He ran those steps like a little Rocky champ

We thought this was worthy of a picture...especially since it was taken on an IPhone...we were walking past the apple store and saw this little memorial to Steve Jobs, complete with flowers and half eaten apples laid on the ground.

10/5/11 Audrey 3 months

2011-10-12T19:34:00.000-07:00

This little cutie is 3 months old.

We were finally able to get her into a pediatrician for her 2 month check up on her 3 month date. The poor little girl had to get 3 shots, but luckily she had her big brother there to cheer her on and tell her that it was going to be okay. Graham was so concerned for her, he had to stand right behind me and watch closely as the nurse hurt his poor little Audrey girl.

I know you have all been waiting for the big numbers so here they are:

Height: 23.75 inches (66th %)

Weight: 12.34 lbs (53rd %)

I thought for sure that she was going to weigh more and be more in the 75th percentile but we will take what we can get and be grateful that she is not following the trend of her less than 10th % brother.

At 3 months:

Audrey can roll both ways, stomach to back is definitely more common and we are not sure if it really counts because she just basically puts her big head down to one side and the rest of her body just follows.

She smiles and talks all the time. She has such a calm and sweet personality and she loves when people give her attention.

She has her daddy wrapped around her finger. He does not stop talking about how cute and perfect his little girl is. When she is sad, she sticks out her little bottom lip and it starts trembling and it completely melts her daddies heart...I am pretty sure she will learn that this could be the key to getting anything she wants from him.

She continues to sleep like a champ, we are up to 7 hour stretches at night.

She is constantly looking around the room to figure out what kind of mischief her big brother is getting into. This is probably why she is rolling over so soon because she is constantly twisting and turning and contorting her body so that she can get a better look at what her brother is doing.

Her hair is really starting to come in and if you look closely at the pictures it is kind of starting to stick up as well...there may be part of Connor in her after all.

(don't mind Graham in the background, he is just using his toy hammer to do some minor repairs on his bike...with his pants off)

10/3/11

2011-10-04T04:12:00.000-07:00

Graham has decided he is going to push all of his limits when it comes to bedtime. He goes through these 2 week or so phases where he will go straight to bed after the normal bedtime routine of reading books, saying prayers and singing a few songs and then once we feel like he has finally become the amazing sleeper that we have always dreamed of he decides to put us to the test. We do everything the same as far as his bedtime routine goes but then as soon as we get up to leave he begins his incredible stall techniques. First he has to have a drink of water and then he claims he is poopy and needs a diaper change or that he has to go pee pee in his potty. Then he tries to suck us in by asking us questions or telling us stories. When we have finally shut all of these down, he bring out the "mommy, sing a song, rub my back." This would not be so terrible except that one song is never enough, and neither is two or three songs, he just wants you to stay in the room with him while he tries to sucker you back into conversation about lions, or friends, or his many owies, or anything that crazy little brain of his can come up with.

Last night we held strong and finally felt like we had won the battle, even if it meant that poor little Graham fell asleep like this

laying by the door, trying to come up with a good enough excuse for us to come back into his room.

And then 4:00 am rolled around and there was Graham, awake in our bed and when he didn't go back to sleep until 5:45, we realized that we are still losing the battle.

9/29/11

2011-09-30T15:13:00.000-07:00

Today we chose to get out of the rain and head to the movies. Graham and Norah had their first date watching Lion King 3D while dining on a fine selection of goldfish, m&m's and capri suns. They were really into the first half of the movie, maybe too into it. Anytime Graham saw a character that excited him he would loudly shout, "Norah, its Pumbaa, Norah, Pumbaa, Pumbaa, Norah." I am sure the 4 other people in the theater were either very entertained or annoyed at the 2 year old commentary, I thought it was pretty cute.

While taking these pictures we jokingly told them to pose for their first date picture. When Connor came home that evening and asked Graham about his day Graham told him about his "first day with Norah."

9/28/11

2011-09-28T18:27:00.000-07:00

There are times when I think it is a blessing that Graham is still alive and that we have not had to spend any time with him in the ER thus far.

This past week was a real injury overload for the poor kid. He suffered a fat lip due to a fall on our apartment complexes safety hazard metal playground equipment. He skinned his knee falling on the rocks he was jumping across in our favorite neighborhood park. And then there is this lovely goose egg that is the result of him running out of our apartment too fast, tripping and banging his head on the cement. We didn't even discover the massive bump until about halfway through our church meetings on Sunday.

The final icing on the cake was a bad reaction to a mosquito bite that became infected and caused his poor little foot to swell to about twice its normal size, blister and become red and hot. Luckily the doctor prescribed some antibiotics and we are seeing marked improvement already. The poor kid could not fit a shoe over his fat foot so he spent our morning running errands with just one shoe on, I cannot tell you how many people stopped to tell me that he was missing a shoe.

9/26/11

2011-09-26T17:28:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the paint and coloring book grandma! Graham spent a good 30 minutes with his paints while I was able to do dinner prep. He kept repeating my instructions to himself while he worked and also made sure to name all of the colors on the palette before selecting the one he was going to use.

9/24/11

2011-09-26T17:19:00.000-07:00

Little Audrey is getting so strong, she was such a floppy little ragdoll newborn that we thought she was never going to hold her head up. Now she is a little tummy time champ and has even rolled over from her stomach to back a few times. It won't be long before she is on her hands and knees trying to catch up with Graham or get away from him, we aren't quite sure which it is going to be...

9/17/11

2011-09-26T17:06:00.000-07:00

I might just be a little behind on my posting...

Today was super rainy and gloomy and we were stuck inside all day. I decided it might be fun to set up the tent and have a little party inside. Graham loved it...for about 15 minutes and then he was bored and ready to find something to dump out or mess up.

Graham has recently taken an interest in these little sticky notes. He makes his way around the apartment with them, marking all things that he might feel is of some worth. Apparently Audrey made the cut.

9/14/11

2011-09-14T11:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got a phone call from Connor around 2:00, he was done with classes and did not have any major homework assignments to complete so he thought he would come home and spend a few hours with us. We decided to take a quick trip over to Grisamore Farms to pick the last of the seasons blueberries and apples. It was so nice to have a sunny afternoon to get out and enjoy the beauty of upstate NY. Graham's first task once out of the car was, of course, to find a big stick to carry around and swing at various blueberry bushes. Next, he sampled blueberries from as many bushes as possible while saying, "mmm, mom, I hungry." I really did forget how much I loved the late summer and fall in Ithaca, we intend to enjoy this season to the fullest, cramming all of the good in before the long, grey winter sets in.

We were not very prepared because we left the house without a bucket for the blueberries. Lucky for us, Graham's fireman hat was in the car and served as the perfect container for our pickings.

9/13/11

2011-09-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

Can I just say that I love having a girl because I love that I get to dress her in the cutest little outfits?!

And I still love her when she doesn't want to cooperate with our little photo shoot sessions.

9/12/11

2011-09-13T11:54:00.000-07:00

I love that Graham loves his little sister so much. He has to make sure she gets plenty of cuddles and hugs all day long. And I especially love that she loves him back even though he can be a little rough, she just smiles during all of it.

I got the camera out to take the picture of Graham and Audrey but once Graham was done I had to snap a few of the little girl because she was having such a photogenic moment. I don't know if you can tell from the pictures but this girl has the longest and most perfect eyelashes.

9/10/11

2011-09-12T05:22:00.000-07:00

Friday night we were able to ditch the kids with some friends (thank you so much Bryan and Lindsey) for a little birthday celebration dinner date night. Connor spends some of his time at school with students in Cornell's hotel management program. These people spend a lot of time checking out the local cuisine so they can give recommendations for all of the food hot spots. Lucky for us they knew of a few great places around Ithaca and Connor has been dying to check them out.

Our choice for this Friday night was The Hazelnut Kitchen and it did not disappoint. The restaurant chefs/owners focus on using local farm fresh and seasonal ingredients to create their delicious dishes. The food really was incredible and we would highly recommend that anyone in the area check it out. My favorites of the meal was the late summer yellow squash soup with sunflower seed sage pesto, the white bean-basil puree from Connor's farmhouse plate, and my grilled angus hanger steak. Connor has not stopped talking about his pickled green beans and the polenta served with his lamb shank. We both agreed that the lavender pot de creme served with a shortbread butter cookie was amazing. We were so impressed that before leaving the restaurant we were already trying to figure out the next time that we will have a good excuse to go back.

9/2/11 &9/5/11

2011-09-07T19:06:00.000-07:00

Yes, I realize these posts are all over the place, I am just getting around to documenting the last few days and I didn't really think through the order of my posting.

9/2/11

The Cornell Branch Opening Social

Graham had a blast running around with his two favorite girls while we took the chance to enjoy chatting with old and new friends. It was a beautiful Ithaca evening.

They decided to help themselves to the freshly picked apples.

Did you happen to notice that Graham and Ellie swapped shoes. This has become a regular occurrence since we have been back in Ithaca. As long as both parties seem to be okay with the swap, we just go with it. And it works out nicely with Norah since she just chooses to ditch the shoes completely.

9/5/11

Graham was watching one of his favorite cowboy and horse movies this morning. About halfway through the movie he decided he needed his gun, boots and cowboy hat.

9/7/11

2011-09-07T18:23:00.000-07:00

The worst part about living in our apartment complex is not having laundry in our apartment and the management charging an outrageous amount to use the machines in our building. But the best part about living here is being so close to so many great friends and scheduling laundromat playdates with them.

Can you tell that it was raining today? It was not just a nice little rain shower either, it was a consistent downpour all day long. And yes I did laundry on my birthday in the middle of a downpour. It wasn't the greatest start to my day, but I got to finish it off with an afternoon nap, movie time cuddle with the kids, a little Justin Bieber dance party with Graham, Thai food delivered for dinner (courtesy of my wonderful husband), and banana cream pie for dessert with friends. It turned out to be a pretty great day!

9/3/11

2011-09-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

Saturday we enjoyed a beautiful day hiking in Watkins Glen state park with friends. Of course I did not bring my camera so these were not taken by me, but I thought I would at least share a couple pictures of the beauty we got to experience. We really are incredibly blessed to be spending these 2 years in such a beautiful area. We are trying to take in as much of the beauty right now so that we can remember that at one point we did like Ithaca despite all of the complaining we do during the long and very cold winters.

Just joking about not having pictures, our friends emailed us a couple of pictures that they took while we were hiking.

9/1/11

2011-09-01T10:27:00.001-07:00

Audrey is 2 months old! Where did the time go? I somehow missed the one month mark in all the crazy of balancing life with 2 kids and preparing to move back across the country. She has not been to the doctor for her 2 month check up so we do not have the stats, but we can tell that she will most likely not be in the low 10th percentile weights like her brother. She is getting the chunky rubberband legs and arms that I could only dream about before.

At 2 months we are already so in love with our sweet little girl. She really has been an incredible baby and I am grateful every day that she is such a calm and happy baby.

A few things we love about Audrey at 2 months:
- she has been smiling for a couple of weeks and she will smile and anyone who gives her any attention, especially her big brother.
- she is trying so hard to talk, she opens up her mouth and starts kicking her legs just trying to force something out and just this week we think she has finally started to figure it out.
- she only wakes up once in the middle of the night to eat
- she loves to just lay on the ground and kick her legs while watching the rest of us go about our daily business, she is especially happy when she gets to watch Graham and his friends playing
- she takes great naps during the day without being held
- she is extremely patient with her big brother who likes to help her roll over and lay next to her in her swing or car seat, and lay on top of her, and pat her, and touch her face, and kiss her when she is sleeping and I could go on and on...

We are so happy to have our beautiful little Audrey in our home!

8/31/11

2011-09-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

Today a new number was discovered in our household, the great number "twelebenteen." It fits somewhere between the numbers "tweleben" and nineteen.

8/30/11

2011-08-30T17:32:00.001-07:00

Today was another day full of entertaining Graham material. I am sure that I will not have this many pictures to share every other day, but I have to take advantage while I can.

Graham has started stealing Audrey's headbands, he calls them his "arrr mateys" and uses them as a pirate eye patch.

Today Graham was cruising around the apartment on his tricycle wearing Connor's snowboarding helmet, he had to be safe.

He felt like he needed to wear the helmet on our drive to playgroup as well.

I fought the whole pink thing before Audrey was born and I tried to buy clothes in a lot of different colors, but as soon as I tried this pink shirt on her I fell in love and realized our little Audrey might just be our pretty in pink girl.
Graham had to get in on the photo op.

Tonight Audrey joined in on bedtime stories. There is nothing better than laying in bed with my 2 kiddos while Graham reads us a few stories.

8/29/11

2011-08-29T17:51:00.000-07:00

Today Graham did a little make up. I had my make up box sitting on the floor of my bedroom and Graham saw it and said, "cmon mom, it's time to do make up." He was pretty proud of his lipstick application.

I left Audrey alone in Graham's room for a few seconds while I ran to throw out a dirty diaper, I came back in to find Graham reading to her. It was a pleasant surprise considering I usually come back in to find him lying on top of her or patting her just a little too roughly. I am so glad that he loves his sister.

Tonight one of Graham's bedtime stories was about friends. In the middle of the book Graham stopped and looked up at us and said, "I like my friends, Tucker and Norah." We are so lucky to be surrounded by so many good friends in Ithaca. Graham is constantly talking about all of his different nursery friends and loves it when he gets to play with any of them. Sometimes when we start talking about his friends he mentions Thomas, who is his cousin. We talk about Thomas a lot and skype with him quite often but unfortunately we have not seen him in more than a year. We are glad that he at least still considers him a friend even though he probably cannot even remember actually playing with him.

2011-08-28T12:08:00.000-07:00

These past few weeks as Connor and I have been discussing our goals and our new ambitions for this upcoming school year, I have been thinking a lot about our blog and a possible new direction that I want to go with it. I recently came across a General Conference address that I remember having quite an impact on me at the time I heard it and now as I read it again, I felt like I needed to take some sort of action regarding the counsel that it contained. It was a talk given by Henry B. Eyring entitled, "O Remember, Remember". The main point of his talk was to encourage all to look at our lives a little more closely so that we may find ways that God blesses our lives and gives answers to our prayers. As I read these words I felt the urge to find a way in which I might be able to record the sweet little moments each day that remind our family that we are blessed by a loving Heavenly Father. Henry B. Eyring said,
"I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?” As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done."

While driving back to Ithaca, I talked with Connor about this idea and decided that I wanted our blog to be a daily (hopefully) journal of these little moments. I know that I probably won't be perfect and cover every day and I don't know that I will always have a specific moment where I have seen evidence of God in my life, but hopefully I will have a more complete record of the little moments that we share with our family each day so that I will have a constant reminder of the blessing it is to have our little family and to share the small daily things that just make me smile.

And now since I have been a slacker all summer long, here are a few pictures of my two favorite blessings.

Graham loves his little sister and she thinks he is pretty great too...

even though he may love her a little too much most of the time.

Audrey is one happy little baby. She has been smiling for weeks and we love it.

Graham decided Jake needed some sprinkles, I don't know what he is thinking most of the time.

We were definitely blessed to be near family this summer and Graham loved all of the time he spent with his cousins.

Check out that bod, Graham was definitely blessed with a killer physique.

We still continue to love listening to the funny things that come out of Graham's mouth and today was just packed with quality material. Here are a few choice Graham moments from today.

While walking into church today Graham immediately started looking for his friends and asking, "where are my kids?" "mommy, where did my kids go?"

After the closing song at church Graham looked at Connor and basically shouted, "yay, we did it!" And then during the prayer continued saying, "dad, we did it" "we made it dad"

Graham was acting a little crazy this afternoon so Connor said to me, "he has really lost his brain." Graham then looked up at Connor and asked, "I lost my brain, dad?" Connor replied with a "yes" to which Graham responded, "oh, ok" and then continued on with whatever he was doing.

Connor's favorite Graham saying is one that we don't quite understand. We don't know where it came from but one day Graham started saying "sockadee". It is like the word that covers all things good in Graham's life. Usually it is heard as Graham is running around like a wild man and just shouts out a random, "sock a DEE" or possibly after he has thrown or caught a ball. The best was when I was putting him to bed one night and rubbing his back and Graham says to me, "ahh sockadee" in the cutest little voice.

Audrey's Birth Story

2011-07-03T14:20:00.000-07:00

Remember Graham's story...how it was like reading a novel because it was such a long and crazy labor experience. Audrey's story on the other hand is pretty short and sweet, but I still wanted to have the details and my feelings recorded for the future. (And now after writing it out and rereading it, I realize that somehow I made this story even longer than Graham's)

June 22, 2011

I will start here because this was my 39 week appointment where I received the bad news that things were not looking great for a VBAC. Basically, even though I had been having quite consistent contractions, things were not progressing. We went ahead and scheduled a c section for the next Thursday, but had high hopes that I would still go into labor before that date. I left the appointment very discouraged, realizing that even though I thought I would be okay with having a c-section, that I really wanted to have the experience of going into labor on my own and having this baby normally. I spent the next week doing everything I could to get this labor going, my mom and I were determined to walk this baby out of me. But even after a week of contractions and so many thoughts and prayers on my behalf, this baby did not come out on her own.

June 30, 2011

I woke up at 5:00 am this morning partly because of nerves and excitement, but also because I had to start fasting at 6:00 am and I wanted to eat a decent breakfast to get me through the day. Because my c-section was not scheduled until 2:00 pm, I was able to take my time getting ready for the day and could spend some quality time with Connor and Graham. We took our last morning walk as a family of three and then just had some low key hang out time at home. Together we put Graham down for his nap and tried to explain to him that when he woke up we would be at the hospital with his new baby sister.

I did not take a lot of pregnancy pictures this time around but thought that I should at least capture the last moments of this pregnancy. This is it, the last belly shot taken right before we walked out the door to go to the hospital. I just wish it had not come out so blurry.

This is about the time when the nerves kicked in, I had not felt much before this point but then the reality of everything that was about to happen in the next few hours really kicked in. I was going to go through a major surgery in just a few hours and I was also going to become a mother of 2...

Connor and I checked into the hospital at 12 to begin prepping me for the surgery. This first hour I felt pretty good, talking to the nurses and filling out all of the necessary paperwork and then I kind of lost it for a few minutes, I was hungry and nervous and being prepped with an IV and drugs and I was still having fairly strong contractions just about every 10 minutes, I tried to hold it together while the anesthesiologist talked to me about pain management but I was having a hard time focusing. I think he could tell because he just kept reminding me to focus on myself and keeping myself relaxed and calm, he was awesome and really helped me to keep it together for the last 30 minutes before the surgery.

Finally we were ready to go and I walked into the operating room, it was so strange to walk in and sit on the operating table while calmly chatting with my nurses and doctor while considering my last experience of being rushed into a crazy room filled with all kinds of doctors and nurses rushing to prep for the surgery. Connor had to wait outside while they gave me the spinal block and finished prepping me for surgery. I was so happy to have Connor back by my side to hold my hand and talk me through the next hour.

And here are the last moments before the surgery actually began. I am not really sure how to describe what I was feeling at this point...sick from the spinal block, nervous about what pain I was going to feel during the surgery, excited that in a few short minutes I was going to meet my baby girl.

The surgery went completely smoothly and perfectly. I loved my doctor, she was just so low key and relaxed and made the whole process just that much easier to handle. The spinal block was horrible and wonderful at the same time, it made me a little nauseous but I felt much less of the pressure of the tugging and pulling than I had felt with Graham. And before I knew it, at 2:33 pm, Audrey was making her way into the world. Connor had a little more courage this time around and was able to muster up enough courage to take some pictures of the actual arrival.

I was brought to tears when they finally brought her around the curtain and I was able to see her for just a few short seconds, she was purple and wrinkly but so perfect. Connor went across the room to be with her and cut the umbilical cord and take pictures while I shouted across the room to him questions about what she looked like and how much she weighed and any information he could give me while I waited to see her again. I was shocked when just about 20 minutes later I was stitched up and ready to go to the recovery room along with Connor and Audrey.

The next hour was incredible, getting to know our new baby girl. Audrey was so calm the entire time, we were in shock that she just quietly took everything in. We were worried that this calm demeanor would not last long, but for the most part it has. Audrey has been a pretty incredible addition to our family, she does not get upset very easily, although she hates having her diaper changed when she feels like she should be eating. She is an incredible eater, really this whole nursing thing could not have gone easier with her. She puts up extremely well with her big brother holding her and patting her and kissing her and trying to lay next to her whenever he can. And our nights have been pretty great as well, she is pretty consistently sleeping between 3-4 hours between feedings at night and after she is done eating she goes right back to sleep, it is incredible! We are so in love with our precious little girl and cannot wait to see what the future holds for her and our little family of 4.

And just for your enjoyment, here are a few more pictures of our beautiful little Audrey.

Audrey Elizabeth MacLennan has joined the Fam!

2011-06-30T18:10:00.000-07:00

We've officially grown from 3 to 4! Audrey is a beautiful little baby girl that weighed in at 7 lbs 3 ounces and measured out at 19 3/4 inches. Lindsey and Audrey are both doing great. Here are a few pictures of our little girl, and we'll post a more informative blog later on.

Graham-isms

2011-06-23T12:06:00.000-07:00

This last month, Grahams speech has really taken off and we are amazed every day by the things that come out of this crazy kids mouth. He is like a little sponge taking in everything that he hears, and then it comes out at the most random and amusing times. We are constantly laughing at this funny little boy. So for your enjoyment, here are a few of our favorite, "Graham-isms".

There was about 1 week this summer when Graham decided that he would wake up with the sun and was getting out of bed between 5:45 and 6:15...not okay when you are used to a kid who wakes up at 8. The first day he did this we told him it was too early to get up and he needed more sleep and he was taken back to his bed, where he stayed for maybe another 20 minutes. The next day Graham was 2 steps ahead of us, knowing that we would tell him he needed to go back to bed, he made sure we knew that he felt he didn't. After shutting the door to his bedroom, we could hear him walking up the stairs saying, "Oh, good sleep, good sleep. Graham good sleep." Connor went out to ask if he needed to go back to bed and he just said, "no dad, good sleep." So for the next week, we suffered waking up at 6am because who can argue with a toddler who has decided he has had a "good sleep."

The other day, Graham and I were out with my mom running errands and we were cutting it close getting back home before Graham's naptime. He was starting to lose his cool in the car and began to whine. I asked him to be a good boy and told him to not use his whiney voice. He pulled himself together for a little bit, but then lost it again. He started to whine and then caught himself, and said, "oh sorry mom, Graham cry." This little cycle was repeated about 5 more times as we finished our drive home, each time with the same apology, "oh sorry mom, Graham cry." My mom and I were dying.

While driving home from our hike the other day, my brother's daughter, Karly, began to complain about a toe injury she had just discovered. She kept saying something about her "owie toe" and "bite." From the back of our car we hear Graham say to Karly, "bite on toe, Karly Jane?" (her middle name is Jane but we very rarely call her by her full name, Graham caught on to the couple of times we have called her that and so that is what he now calls her). Karly responded yes to Graham's question and he then said in the cutest little voice, "oh, I sorry, Karly Jane."

We visited the Air Force Academy campus last week knowing that Graham would be in heaven seeing the planes that they have on display. We were right and as soon as we drove up to the first one Graham was saying, "Graham out, see airplane. Oh wow, airplane, Graham see airplane." Once we were out of the car Graham was amazed at how close he could get to the huge airplane and ran around telling everyone. "I fly away, I fly away."

He has decided recently to call Connor by his name rather than call him dad or daddy.

Occasionally he can be heard calling me "babe" instead of mom and my grandma "honey" instead of grandma.

Because he calls Karly, "Karly Jane," I think he has decided that he can put Jane on the end of most people's names. We often hear him saying, "momma Jane", "papa Jane", and "grandma Jane."

The most commonly used Graham phrases are, "I ride it," "I drive it," or "I climb it."

And I could go on and on... this little boy never ceases to entertain.

Colorado Fun

2011-06-23T10:05:00.000-07:00

Connor has been bugging me to update our blog for the last month and I have had good intentions to do it, but then I realized that the majority of our pictures are on my camera and my cord to get them from my camera to the computer is still in our desk back in Ithaca, NY. Luckily my parents have taken a few pictures to record some of our recent adventures around Denver.

We have been out on quite a few beautiful Colorado hikes. On one of these hikes we had the 3 cousins (all 2 years old) racing each other up a fairly long uphill climb which included a pretty steep set of stairs. Connor was on a mission to train Graham to be a tough little guy and he did not get any help getting up the mountain. The last stretch of the hike was about 100 yards of pavement to the car where we encouraged all the kids to race to the finish. At about 75 yards, Graham lost all steam and dropped to his knees, he attempted to crawl the rest of the way and that is when I finally had pity on the little man and carried him to the finish.

I am not too fond of this picture of my 39 week large and swollen body, but I figured I should probably document the fact that I was in fact out hiking at 39 weeks pregnant and felt pretty good doing it...until I had to get out of bed in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and could barely pull my stiff and sore body out of bed.

Yesterday, after receiving disappointing news at my Dr. appt, we made a quick decision to get out of the house and take Graham to the zoo (if you can't tell, I am determined to hike/walk this baby out of me before my scheduled c-section date). It was a great afternoon even if it didn't result in me going into labor last night.

Just Call Me "Slick"

2011-05-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

The other day I was being a very attentive mother, checking my emails and daily blogs while Graham was roaming the house entertaining himself. After a few minutes of a very quiet Graham (always a bad sign) I decided to venture out and check up on him.

And this is where I found him

Right in the middle of his very own special beauty treatment

He had to make sure all exposed skin was properly greased

And of course he had to make sure his hair was properly coated

So after I finally put down the camera, Graham was put into a bath where he had to go through his mom's special beauty routine (this one was definitely not as fun as the first), which included:

- the initial degreasing comb through to remove most of the excess clumps of vaseline

- the first shampoo with baby shampoo (totally worthless...at this point I called my mom for advice)

- the next shampoo using a regular shampoo (again worthless...at this point I consulted the internet)

-the second degreasing comb through took place out of the bath while Graham was watching Lion King to keep him distracted

-back to the bath for another round of treatment

- a cornstarch/shampoo combination wash (we are starting to get somewhere)

- a repeat of the cornstarch/shampoo wash

- out of the bath to examine our progress...things are starting to look up, but there is still a significant amount of grease still in the kids hair...lets just say that once his hair was combed and parted, it was not moving anywhere...and this is about the time he adopted the nickname, "Slick"

- round 3 of treatment begins during his bedtime bath routine

- the big guns are brought out with a Dawn dish soap wash

-repeated with a laundry detergent wash

- at this point he is resembling more a dirty rock star than a 60's slickster

-we finished treatment the next night with 2 Dawn dish soap washes and he was grease free!

I think that had I known how difficult it was going to be to get Vaseline out of hair, I definitely would have not taken the time to get out the camera and document this Graham moment...but now that it is over and Graham is degreased, I guess I am glad I have pictures so I can look back and laugh at the whole thing.

Ice Cream

2011-04-26T11:46:00.000-07:00

The other day after returning from running some errands, Graham requested that I get him some ice cream. But before I could get it for him I ran back to my bedroom to set down my purse and take off my shoes and put a few things away. When I came into the kitchen this is where I found Graham...

He was not going to let me forget that he needed some ice cream.

And just in case I didn't know where it was, he made sure to point it out for me.

Easter Fun

2011-04-26T10:41:00.001-07:00

The pictures that I actually took of our Easter activities are really pretty pathetic. I am just not great at remembering to bring out my camera and capture all of the great moments that we experience. But I figure I should at least pull out what I do have so I can document a few of the memories that we made this year.

A week before Easter we hosted a fun little Easter Egg decorating party with a few of Graham's play buddies. It was obviously crazy trying to keep the egg dying under control with a bunch of 2 year olds trying to get their hands in everything...maybe that is why I didn't get a chance to take a lot of great pictures. I think the hit of the party for the kids was dipping their rice krispies treat eggs in chocolate and then decorating them with sprinkles. Thanks Kehau!

This is my sad attempt at trying to get a picture of Graham in his Sunday Easter clothes as we were running out the door on our way to church. I feel excused though because our church begins at 9:00 am so we are already pressed for time, I was teaching the Gospel Doctrine class and was running around making sure I had everything for my lesson, and Graham as always was anxious to get out the door and did not want to be bothered with taking pictures.

The Easter Bunny didn't stop by our house until after church and Graham's nap time. Graham enjoyed a quick little Easter Egg hunt around our apartment and then got to check out his basket of goodies. This year the Easter Bunny brought him a Bambi DVD, Play Doh and of course a chocolate bunny and jelly beans.

He had to make sure to test out the "chockit" before anything else.

Later we enjoyed a delicious Easter dinner with our good friends, The Sheranians. Kristen of course was well prepared and took a lot of pictures of the feast, which included Ham, twice baked potatoes, asparagus wrapped in bacon, salad and the delicious lemon and coconut cake made by Kristen. We are so happy that they were willing to come over and share the holiday with us.

Shoes

2011-04-18T18:35:00.000-07:00

Graham has recently taken a strong interest in picking out and putting on his own shoes. We were getting ready to go out for a play group the other day so I told Graham to go get his shoes. He picked out the 2 shoes that he could put on by himself and came proudly running out of his room to show off. Unfortunately, there were just a few problems...

It probably took me a good 10 minutes to convince him to put on a matching shoe on the right foot, I had to completely surrender the fight to try to put on the pair of shoes that matched his outfit. He has also recently insisted that he wear his snow boots with everything. It is a pretty interesting experience trying to get a decently dressed Graham out of the house everyday.

2 Years

2011-04-11T17:15:00.000-07:00

The 2 Year Stats:
Height: 34 inches, 43rd percentile
Weight: 24 lbs, 14.6 oz, 14th percentile
Head: 94th percentile (I don't have the exact measurement)

The stats are pretty consistent with what they have always been. He is still our lean little man with a huge head. Even though the little guy can pack away the food, he never stops moving so it is not surprising that he is so skinny.

At 2 years here are a few things that Graham loves:
- animals, especially horses and dogs
- playing outside, he wakes up from his nap and immediately asks to go out or on a walk
- playing with friends, he knows all of his friends by name and often requests a play date with them
- buses, trucks, cars, boats, airplanes, but at the moment buses are his favorite (he makes sure to point out every bus that we pass while on the road
- music, he is actually quite picky about his music, while we are in the car he often makes requests to hear a specific song and if the song that I have chosen does not satisfy him, he will tell me "no, no" until I change it

Some Graham favorites are:
Food - chicken, cucumbers, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, eggs, ham, and hot dogs
Movies - Black Beauty, Toy Story, Elmo's World (specifically The Wild Wild West, with horses), Cars and Finding Nemo
Toys - balls, airplanes, barn with animals, Connor's longboard, and any bike, tricycle or cozy coupe that he can get his hands on when we are outside
Books - The Little Blue Truck; Moo, Baa, La La La; Slide and Find: Trucks; The Big Red Barn; and The Mitten

Some of our favorite Graham phrases:
- "dere did it doe?" - where did it go
- "wha happen?" - what happened
- "mumble, mumble, mumble, truck"
- "mumble, mumble, mumble, bus"
- "mumble, mumble, mumble, okay" - we wish we could translate these for you but we have no idea what he is saying...my sister would compare Graham's jibberish to the minions on the movie, Despicable Me
- "uh, oh, mess"
- "mease, mease, mease, mease, mease" - please over and over until he gets what he wants
- "ohhhh, airplane" or "wowww, airplane" - as he points out any and all airplanes that fly by
- "oh, hi mom" - my personal favorite because he says it just about every time I go in to get him out of bed in the morning or after a nap

We love this little boy!

Happy Birthday Graham

2011-04-07T18:04:00.001-07:00

Our little man is already 2! I cannot believe how fast my little boy is growing up. To celebrate his second birthday, we threw Graham a little cowboy party since his main love in life at the moment is horses. He was so happy to wake up in the morning and come out to his "birthday neigh" as he affectionately called the horse cutout taped on the wall. He was thrilled with his "cupcake neighs" and all of the balloons. He kept jumping around the apartment repeating, "birthday, birthday, birthday..." We invited a group of Graham's friends and parents to come over and enjoy a delicious cowboy brunch and a few fun activities.

I love my cowboys!

The "birthday neigh"

The food was delicious. The menu included bacon, sausage, eggs, cinnamon rolls, blueberry muffins, fresh fruit and cupcakes.

It was pretty tight quarters in our little apartment, but we had a nice enough day to take the party outside for a few games.

Connor organized a fun little cowboy relay and we also had a mini chicken egg hunt.

It was a wonderful day celebrating with all of our friends. Graham was so happy to be the birthday boy and have all of the attention focused on him for a day. Thanks to all who came and celebrated with us! We are so lucky to have such great friends here in Ithaca!

Spring Break 2011

2011-03-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

One really great thing about Connor being in school right now is the fact that he gets a Spring Break...one whole week where he isn't required to do anything (ok maybe he still had homework but he didn't have class). We had to take advantage of this week of freedom to get out of cold and dreary Ithaca. We had gone back and forth about what we were going to do for about a month and had almost decided we were just going to take it easy around here. But then after talking with a friend about their plans to go to Orlando and then finding a great deal on flights and a hotel and then checking the weather forecasts for Orlando (85 degrees all week) and Ithaca (30 and snowing), we jumped on board.

But actually before going to Florida, we were lucky enough to have my little sister come out for a long weekend. We showed her a good time in Ithaca and then headed out to NYC for a weekend of sightseeing. While in the city we did a lot of shopping...I think we went into at least 6 different H&M's, walked through Times Square, went out to Battery Park and checked out the Statue of Liberty, walked past ground zero, ate delicious NYC pizza and shakes from the Shake Shack...mmm, and the highlight of the trip was Connor watching Graham while Kim and I went out to see Wicked...it was so great!

We were lucky enough to stay in a great hotel right on the corner of 34th and Herald Square...we were right across from the big Macy's and this was the view from our hotel room window.

Pretty great, right? Unfortunately I did not take any other pictures of the trip, but needless to say we did have a great time. Thanks for visiting Kimmy!

And now, in no particular order are a few pics from our wonderfully warm week in Florida.

We are packed and ready to go!

I mentioned earlier that some of our friends were going to Orlando as well so we joined forces and got to enjoy the trip together. It was so nice that Graham was able to share his first Disney World experience with one of his good buddies.

Graham was really putting all he had into trying to get that sword out

Probably his favorite ride...or at least the only one where he cried when he had to get off.

So excited to see the flying elephants...unfortunately he fell asleep in my arms while we were waiting in line. He was still kind of out of it when we woke him up once we got on so he didn't get to quite fully enjoy the Dumbo experience.

The cute boys in their Mickey ears!

Toy Story Mania! It was such a fun ride and waiting in line wasn't too bad either, we had Mr. Potato Head to keep us entertained while we waited. Graham loved it!

So tired after a full day of Disney

The Animal Kingdom had a little petting zoo where little goats and sheep ran around while the kids had the chance to pet and brush them. Graham was so hilarious to watch because he was so excited to brush them, but they kept walking away when he came near. So Graham just walked around, brush in one hand, motioning with the other for the sheep to come over to him while also repeatedly saying "maa, maa" (his noise for sheep) to get their attention. Here he is trying to entice one of the goats to come over to him.

He was so happy when the goats stayed still long enough for him to brush them.

And finally after a couple of long, busy days, we took it easy by the pool to soak up some of the wonderful Florida sun!

We had such a great time and were so happy that we were able to share it with good friends! Graham was in heaven because the whole trip was filled with everything that he loves, airplanes, trains, buses, boats, animals, swimming and some things he didn't know he loved, like flying elephants and spinning teacups.

Future Blackmail?

2011-03-11T13:41:00.001-08:00

He thought it was a whistle...

and was quite pleased with his new toy...

he walked around happily blowing his whistle all morning.

In other Graham adventures...he is learning how to dress himself. This morning was not as successful as others have been.

Snow Day!

2011-03-07T11:20:00.001-08:00

Will this winter never end?!? I must admit that I have always been a fan of living in a place with four seasons. I do generally enjoy the winter, especially in a place where I have the ability to enjoy winter sports. But this Ithaca winter is killing me! We have not seen our yard since before we left for Christmas break...that was sometime around the middle of December. Apparently this winter has been worse than normal, I hope so considering it has snowed at least twice a week, probably more, since we came back in January. We have had snow building up (and never melting) for 2 months. Towards the end of last week we were starting to believe the end was in sight, a couple of days with temperatures above freezing, a fairly warm rain on Saturday, the snow was melting, we could see patches of grass...spring was coming! Sunday morning we woke up to a nice drizzle, Connor commented that the snow was almost gone...we got ready for church in good spirits and then opened our door to leave and disaster! It was snowing again! It snowed all day yesterday and all last night and we woke up to 15 more inches of snow on the ground! Bah!!!!

But when life gives you more snow...what do you do? You bundle up in your snow clothes and make the best of it. I don't think Graham was complaining that he got to enjoy a morning playing in the snow. And I am not complaining now that he is totally worn out and taking a marathon afternoon nap. And Connor was pretty pleased that all of his classes were canceled and he got to enjoy a slow Monday morning at home with pancakes and hot chocolate.

It was kind of a pain to dig out our car, but Graham was more than willing to help his dad take on the challenge.

Lets just pray that this snow melts a lot faster than before...

The Artist

2011-02-23T16:59:00.000-08:00

I have had these pictures sitting on my camera for awhile and every time I see them I can't help but smile. I always get a big kick out of watching Graham coloring or doing anything artistic. He becomes very focused and purses his little lips in complete concentration.

These lips just kill me...I love it!

And now he can kick back and relax and enjoy his masterpiece! (ignore the mismatched pajamas...and the fact that he is still wearing his Halloween bat pajamas, he loves his bats!)

Our Valentines Day Surprise

2011-02-14T09:46:00.000-08:00

Today we had the perfect Valentines Day gift of all...we had an ultrasound appointment to take a look at our little one. We were happy to hear that everything is developing normally and at this point we have a healthy baby. This little one was a little more shy than Graham and decided to make it more of a challenge to determine the gender. After a lot of poking and prodding and trying to get the little one to give us a peek, we were given a fairly certain but not 100% guarantee that we are expecting a....girl! I don't know how I feel about this no guarantee thing, but we did check her out from a bunch of different views and there was no sign of anything to say she was a boy. Connor is in shock and I am totally thrilled and Graham really has no idea how this little girl is going to turn his world upside down in a few more months. Enjoy a few of the pictures from the ultrasound. I have never been a huge fan of the alien looking 3D images, but these were the only pictures that were given to us so I will just be happy that I have at least something to show for our happy Valentine's Day.

She is such a cute little alien

She has those legs closed up nice and tight.

Fun in Colorado

2011-01-24T12:49:00.000-08:00

Here is a little glimpse of the good times we had in Colorado this past month. Graham was so happy to have a whole month to play with his cousins, Karly and Adi. We spent the month eating good food, taking walks to the park, sledding, shopping, going to both the Museum of Nature and Science and the Wildlife Museum, enjoying a rodeo at the National Western Stock Show (most definitely the highlight for Graham), exploring Colorado Springs and the Garden of the Gods, and just enjoying the company of family.

Graham and Adi waiting for "papa" (grandpa) to come home from work

A little wrestlemania in the pack and play

enjoying Adi's favorite movie, "beast" (Beauty and the Beast)

During our last week in Denver we were beginning to run out of activities to occupy the kiddos and we thought it might be worthwhile to check out the National Western Stock Show. After all Graham loves animals, especially horses and cows. We were lucky enough to discover the matinee rodeos so we were able to take the kiddos without keeping them up past their bedtime. I was pretty sure Graham was going to enjoy the rodeo, but wasn't convinced it would keep his attention long enough to keep him in a seat for a long period of time. We didn't have to worry long because as soon as we got to our seats and Graham saw the horses, his attention was captured. If you spend any time with Graham you will quickly find that "wow" and "wowie!" are staple phrases in his vocabulary. There were many "wowies" thrown out during the course of the rodeo along many loud neighs which included a very dramatic throw back of his head. Graham might have been more entertaining to the people around us than the actual rodeo.

After the rodeo, we spent some time wandering the stock show and happened upon the children's ranchland...Graham's heaven. We were able to look at calves, sheep, pigs, chickens, roosters, and bunnies. These were all very interesting to Graham but not as interesting as the pony merry go round. We have never heard Graham say the word "ride" before and we didn't even know he knew what the word meant, but as soon as he saw the ponies and all of the other kids climbing on the ponies for a ride, we realized he knew. We decided to check the price for a ticket to ride and found that a very short ride on a pony cost $6...ridiculous! So we set out to distract Graham with the other animals, but Graham wouldn't have it. He always went running back to the ponies, pointing at them and repeating, "ride, ride, sit, ride, mease (please), ride, sit, mease, ride, ride, ride..." Finally, my parents who couldn't say no to this, decided that seeing the joy on Graham's face getting to ride a pony was worth the $6...that is what grandparents are for, right? So Graham got to ride his pony, and he loved it, and we even got to hear a few more "wowies" to end our stock show experience.

And that concluded our wonderful visit in Colorado. We left the beautiful sunny skies of Denver and mild 50 degree weather to come home to this...

...the gray skies of Ithaca, temperatures staying well below 30 degrees F for the past week. We even were fortunate enough to get back to our car covered in 1 foot of snow with a flat tire. Welcome back to real life! But really we are excited to get back to our home and routine and all of the good friends we have missed over the past month.

Family Pictures

2011-01-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

While we were in Denver, we were lucky enough to meet up with my talented friend Bethany to take some family pictures. We are so happy with the way they turned out. Thank you Bethany! Feel free to check out some of the favs on her photography blog.

A New Year and a New Adventure

2011-01-06T20:29:00.000-08:00

This New Year kind of flew by without me taking much time to think over the New Year and my possible New Year resolutions for the upcoming year. While I am still thinking over the things that I want to focus on this year to be a better person, I thought I might share a few of the things I am looking forward to this year.

1. Getting through the rest of the cold and dark winter in Ithaca (lets hope Spring comes early). Keeping a toddler occupied indoors can get old really, really fast.

2. Continuing to explore the East Coast. There has been discussion of trips to Boston, Maine, Niagara Falls, maybe a trip to NYC with my mom and sister over spring break...

3. Graham will turn 2 and we will get to experience the joys of the terrible 2's! Maybe I am not looking forward to that aspect, but I still look forward to watching our little bundle of energy learning and growing each day.

4. Hopefully a great internship for Connor over the summer. It would be great if we had the chance to spend the summer having an adventure away from Ithaca, but maybe not too far from Ithaca because we will also be having another adventure...

5. Baby MacLennan #2 is due June 27th! It could be the worst timing for us, but we are completely thrilled and know that we will just have to tackle the timing complications as they come. We are so excited for Graham to be a big brother, especially after watching how completely infatuated he is with his new baby cousin, Harper. He is constantly looking for the "baby" and takes every opportunity to make sure she is adequately covered by her blanket, her pacifier is in her mouth, and that she gets enough hugs and kisses. It is completely adorable. I am almost 16 weeks along now and we are looking forward to week 20 when we get to find out if Graham will have a brother or sister. Connor is rooting for another boy (cheaper and more practical) and I am undecided. I would love to have a girl, but I would also love for Graham to have a little brother to be his little buddy. This morning we decided to ask Graham whether he was going to have a little brother or a sister. He looked at us, thought for a second and then very plainly said brother. So there you have it, according to Graham it is going to be a boy, we will just have to see...

Christmas 2010

2011-01-06T20:05:00.000-08:00

I have been avoiding updating the blog because there is so much I could write about that it just seems overwhelming. So for now I will just post a few Christmas photos because I need to start somewhere.

Christmas Festivities

2010-12-13T08:30:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday we enjoyed a wonderful evening celebrating the holidays with our church branch members. We ate delicious food and enjoyed wonderful entertainment. Part of this wonderful entertainment included a Nativity put on by the nursery age children (all of them being pretty close to Graham in age). It was hilarious to see all of them dressed in their costumes and then to watch as the parents (me included) tried to organize the toddlers into a decent Nativity scene. Later in the evening Santa arrived and each of the kids were able to take turns getting a picture on Santa's knee and the parents had the opportunity to take that cherished picture of their child screaming in terror as they are forced onto the lap of a strange man in a red suit. Needless to say, it was a pretty great evening.

Graham played the part of Joseph

Play Time!

2010-12-01T18:47:00.000-08:00

The cupboard underneath the sink has become a favorite for play time lately. And this afternoon, when Norah stopped by to show off her new haircut, was not an exception. I think these two played here happily for a good part of the afternoon.

Family Movie Night

2010-12-01T18:43:00.001-08:00

This kid really knows how to kick back and enjoy a good movie. There is nothing better than cuddling in bed with some popcorn and a good family movie. I think we could make this a weekly ritual.

Stuck

2010-12-01T17:58:00.000-08:00

The day after I wrote the post about Graham's need for the word "stuck" in his limited vocabulary, Graham found himself in a couple of those interesting situations that required its use.

"Mommy...stuck."

I don't know why, but during breakfast Graham felt the need to stand up and get into his highchair backwards. I don't think it turned out quite as great as he probably had imagined.

He just couldn't seem to figure out how to get back out... "mommy, stuck..."

And later, he decided the ottoman might just be the best place to sit and listen to his bedtime stories.

Here he is still feeling pretty good about his decision.

Beginning to realize that this might not have been his greatest idea.

And finally just totally frustrated that I am laughing at him and taking pictures instead of helping him get out.

Oh Graham

2010-11-18T16:45:00.000-08:00

Some of the things I find Graham doing during the day just make me laugh and wonder what in the world is going through that little head of his.

I have mentioned his fascination with the toilet before...it kills me. But I had to laugh and snap a picture when I found him sitting on the toilet trying to use it just like mom and dad. Maybe it is time to start potty training...

I realized after taking this picture that it really doesn't look like anything funny or exciting, but here is the story behind it. I was sitting in the living room checking email and blogs while Graham was entertaining himself alone in the kitchen. When I finally took a break to check on him (and after hearing chairs being rearranged) this is how I found him. He found the syrup in the cupboard and decided for some reason he needed it (my only guess is that maybe it looks like juice) and then proceeded to push a chair to his high chair and climb in with his syrup.

Graham has recently developed a great love for bikes. He is constantly trying to climb on any and every bike that he finds outside. Usually Connor's bike is kept out of the way with limited Graham accessibility but on this particular day I was doing some rearranging and had the bike out in the open. Graham took this as his opportunity to get some quality bike time in. While I was busy cleaning and doing my organizing, Graham mastered the bike. Yes, he climbed up there all by himself. I still am not quite sure how, but he did it and was pretty proud of himself too.

The other day a friend was asking if Graham was talking at all and so I started throwing out the common toddler first words that Graham uses...mommy, daddy, no, milk, juice, cheese, up, out, stuck...that is when my friend stopped and questioned "stuck". Seems like a random word in such a limited vocabulary. I had to explain that Graham is often finding himself in interesting situations, on top of his dresser, on pantry shelves, in between his crib and the wall, on the bathroom counter, on top of bikes...I could go on. He finds himself "stuck" quite often, I guess he heard me asking him so many times, "are you stuck?" that he found the word useful to get mom to help him out of some tricky situations. Crazy boy!

Bat Graham!

2010-11-01T06:02:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, as I was trying to figure out what Graham should be for Halloween, Graham just so happened to be wearing his halloween bat pajamas and I found myself singing the batman theme song and ending it with "Bat Graham"...and that is when it hit me, that Graham would be the perfect little bat for Halloween. So let me introduce you to our very own Bat Graham.

It took a little bit of convincing to get Graham to keep the costume on. He hated it the first time he tried it on and kept ripping it off. I must admit that I was feeling a little stressed that the costume that I had spent many hours on was not even going to be worn. But after seeing his friends dressed up and learning that people give you candy while you are dressed up, he quickly warmed up to the bat costume. We were originally just planning on enjoying the Halloween festivities at our Branch party on Friday night, but after learning of a Trick or Treat trail hosted by the Cornell fraternities and sororities, we quickly jumped on board and enjoyed a cold afternoon of trick or treating with some friends. There is nothing like a bunch of adoring 20 year old girls to boost a toddlers self esteem.

Graham and Lincoln(James Bond) catching on to the trick or treating

Graham was quite amazed that two of his favorite things were joined into one person, his good buddy Norah was dressed as Elmo and she looked adorable!

And of course, Graham could not help but love watching his stash of candy grow larger after visiting each house.

Washington D.C.

2010-10-19T18:01:00.000-07:00

We were lucky enough to have a semi paid vacation to DC because Connor's real estate program was required to attend a conference in DC on Wed - Fri. Obviously that meant that Connor didn't really get to enjoy exploring the sites as much as Graham and I, but he was able to meet up with us in the evenings to enjoy a little sight seeing. Our hotel was conveniently located just outside of the National Mall area. We were able to access all of the sites with either a 10 minute walk or a short ride on the metro. I had never used a metro system before this trip (I know, it is pretty sad), so I was a little nervous to be venturing out alone with Graham in a new city, but I faced my fears and found the experience to be much less intimidating than I had imagined it to be. By the end of the week I felt completely confident that I could get us anywhere we needed to go in the DC area.

While Connor attended his conference, Graham and I spent our days exploring the Natural History Museum, the Air and Space Museum, and the Zoo. We also made a special trip to Ikea to buy some things for our home (the shopping in Ithaca is pretty sad). Connor was able to join us to check out some of the memorials and Georgetown. We spent Saturday morning checking out the Georgetown area, eating a great breakfast, and waiting in line to try out the delicious Georgetown cupcakes. Connor wasn't convinced the wait would be worth it, but I am pretty sure he was pleased when he ate his coconut cupcake. They were really good cupcakes.

Here are a few pictures to highlight our visit.

Graham really loved the planes in the air and space museum. There is just something so adorable about a little boy stopping in his tracks to point up at the airplanes flying overhead. In this case they were all over the ceiling so there were many more of these adorable airplane discovering moments.

I was not originally planning on visiting the Air and Space Museum. I was hoping to spend more time outside exploring the sites, but a rainy day forced us to find entertainment inside and I am actually really glad that it did. Graham was even lucky enough to make it out with a couple souvenir toy airplanes...I was forced into the gift shop to find an umbrella for our trip home and felt like it only made sense that Graham's first toy airplanes were purchased at the Air and Space Museum.

These were taken after we made it back to our hotel from the Air and Space Museum. It was raining much harder than I had anticipated and even with my newly purchased umbrella and a very short walk to and from the metro, Graham and I got completely soaked. Poor kid. We were supposed to meet Connor for lunch but had to cancel so we could go back and dry off in the hotel.
Instead we had to settle for leftover pizza in bed.

We were finally able to meet up with Connor later that afternoon. We enjoyed a nice walk around the Washington and Lincoln Monuments.
This kid can't pass up an airplane spotting moment.

In the midst of all the incredible buildings and scenery, Graham's favorite part of the Washington Monument was jumping on the drains. Its the little things...right?

I think the zoo was probably Graham's favorite event of the week. He not only had the freedom to run around outside, but he was also able to see all of his favorite animals.

I am not usually one to just take a picture of just an animal but I had never seen a panda bear in real life and this one came so close to us, and it was pretty much impossible to get Graham to stand still long enough to be in the picture too...so I gave in a took the picture. They really are beautiful animals. I also did this knowing that Connor would for sure make fun of me because I love wild life so much and on trips I am always the one getting excited about spotting some animal or another, but whatever. It isn't like I am one of those people at the zoo with their really expensive cameras waiting in anticipation to get the perfect shot of all of the animals. I always wonder what these people do with all of their pictures of animals...in cages...at the zoo. I feel silly with just my one picture of my panda bear, but that also might have something to do with the poor quality of the picture taken with my crappy camera. Anyway, long explanation for just one picture...

And that about wraps up our week in pictures. I don't have any pictures from the Natural History Museum because I didn't have my camera on me, but I am really wishing I did. Instead I will just have to share the memories in words without any pictures for your enjoyment.

Memory #1: For any of you who have been to the Natural History Museum, you might remember the huge elephant right in the middle of the entrance. I had decided to let Graham out of his stroller to explore the museum. Once he was free, he ran right over to the elephant, stopped just far enough away to get a good look and sat down right in the middle of the floor, and he sat there for almost a minute just taking it all in.

Memory #2: After feeling like he had adequate time with the elephant, we took off for the mammal room. We walked in the door and Graham was off, ready to check out the animals up close. He must have thought he was going to be able to get a lot closer than the museum had planned, because in running to check out his first animal, he ran right into the glass cage protecting the animals. Poor kid, his head hitting the glass made a pretty loud thud, but I think his pride was hurt more than he was. He just turned back to me rubbing his head, needing a quick hug and was off to more carefully check out the rest of the animals. There were quite a few people in this area, along with me who got a pretty good laugh at Graham's expense.

And there it is, our wonderful week of adventure on the east coast.

New York

2010-10-17T18:57:00.000-07:00

This past week Connor did not have classes on Monday and Tuesday due to Fall Break. We decided to take advantage of this nice little break to do a little east coast exploring. On Monday morning we took off for NYC. We enjoyed the beautiful drive through NY and felt great until hitting New Jersey and getting a little lost on our way into the city. We eventually got back on track and made our way to our hotel in Times Square. We were lucky enough to score a great deal on Priceline and got a great hotel literally not even 1 block away from Times Square. We parked and unloaded and headed out to explore. We spent the evening walking down 5th Ave and through Times Square, eating NY pizza and cheesecake and just enjoying the sights. We made a special trip to FAO Schwartz just so Graham could enjoy playing on the Big Piano.

Tuesday we ventured out to more of the sights, we checked out the Rockefeller Center, the temple, Grand Central station, but spent the majority of our time exploring central park. Graham was able to ride the carousel and play on one of the many playgrounds. After enjoying the morning in Manhattan we got back on the road to head over to Brooklyn and Queens to take a trip down Connor's mission memory lane. I was amazed at how in just driving a few miles outside of the city it could feel like we were in a completely different country. I was lucky to have Connor's experienced navigation and knowledge of the best Columbian bakeries and Chinese food.

The best part of the day was getting the opportunity to spend the afternoon with one of the families that Connor baptized, the Espana family. What an incredible family! They were so happy to have us over and provided us with a delicious dinner. Their 3 year old son, "Kike" (Enrique) was so nice to Graham and so willingly let him play with his trains. Graham loved their daughter Michy and she was nice enough to chase him around and keep him out of trouble and their other daughter Ally was nice enough to play the guitar to keep Graham entertained. It was incredible to hear them talk about their conversion to the church and hear about the blessings they have received because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to meet them and look forward to hopefully spending more time with them while we are in New York.

And that about wraps up our time in the City, our adventure continues with the rest of the week in Washington DC...to be continued.

Iron Kettle Farm

2010-10-17T18:22:00.000-07:00

Are you ready for a MacLennan blog overload. I am playing catch up from last Saturday and since then we have had a lot of fun! First we will start with our fun adventure last Saturday. We got together with some of our friends and enjoyed a beautiful fall day at Iron Kettle Farm.

I was so surprised to see how much this little farm had to offer. The kiddos were kept entertained by the train play area, the train ride, the petting zoo, the tractor ride and pumpkin picking. The adults were of course entertained by the cute kiddos, the corn maze, and the delicious pumpkin donuts.

This train was hands down Graham's favorite part of the day. I don't think he would have gotten off if we didn't make him. He was so excited riding the train that he quite frequently jumped up in excitement (the old man driving the train was quite upset by this and had to keep yelling at Graham to sit down). Graham's new friends can be seen in the picture above, Norah is sitting next to him and Lincoln is right behind them.

In our short time in Ithaca, Graham has grown quite an attachment to Norah or "Nonah" as Graham calls her. Norah is obviously adorable and she is just the type of girl for Graham. She has no problem keeping up with crazy Graham and is all about living a life full of adventure. They made an excellent team picking out pumpkins together.

Thanks for such a fun day guys! And thanks to Lindsey and Hillary for providing me with the pictures!

Hello Fall!

2010-10-04T19:22:00.000-07:00

Fall has made its appearance in Ithaca and I am so happy to welcome it. Fall is by far my favorite season. I love everything about it, the beautiful colors, leaves crunching under your feet, the crisp air (perfect jacket and sweater weather!), Halloween, pumpkins (pumpkin cookies, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread...all things pumpkin), apple cider, fall scented candles, even enjoying college football with Connor. I look forward to fall all year long and I am so excited to be able to experience it in such a beautiful place. Our front yard is already covered in leaves and after conference on Sunday we decided it was time for Graham to experience the simple joy of playing in piles of fall leaves. We think he liked it.

18 Months

2010-09-29T09:23:00.000-07:00

On the 27th Graham officially became an 18 month old toddler...he is not our little baby anymore! Even though I loved the baby stage, I might be loving this stage even more. I think I say that every 3 or so months...I guess I just love every new stage that we get to experience with our fun little guy. But this stage is especially fun, Graham is learning new things everyday, his vocabulary is expanding...slowly, but he picks up on a couple of new words each week. He is testing out his independence and trying to do things for himself. And I really love that he is really starting to understand me and follow directions. Like for instance, after he has thrown half of his meal on the floor, I take him out of his chair and ask him to pick up his mess. He then proceeds to pick up his "yuck" and take it to the trash. I love it! I don't think anything he has done has ever made me happier!

I do not have his 18 month stats quite yet, because we are still exploring our options in picking out his next pediatrician. I would imagine they are going to be fairly consistent with the rest, with his weight hanging somewhere around the 5th to 10th percentile...the kid is going to need to pack on the pounds if he is going to live up to his dad's athletic aspirations for him.

Things we love about Graham at 18 months:
(I thought I would switch it up and add a few pictures to show Graham doing what he does best at this stage in his life)

-Graham is completely obsessed with animals. We read him animal books every night before bedtime. If there is a dog in his line of sight, nothing can distract him from watching it or running over to pet it. While he has not mastered a large vocabulary, he has mastered quite an extensive number of animal sounds; some of these include a horse (his recent favorite), pig, sheep, monkey, tiger, lion, bear, alligator, dinosaur (yes, the last 5 are all the same Rarrr), bird, snake, dog, and cat (my favorite...his meow sounds a lot like OWWie). We have attempted to get these sounds on video for all to enjoy, but he usually ends up getting distracted by the camera before we can record anything of value.

This picture was taken at an apple farm after we spent the morning picking apples with friends. None of us had noticed this goat across the road, but Graham did. He started pointing excitedly and insisted we walk over to say hi.

- Graham has always loved the dishwasher, but until recently it was more about just climbing on top of it. Now he has learned he can help mom put away the dishes. He feels quite important when he gets the chance to help put away the silverware.

-He loves shoes! He finds it his responsibility to find shoes for anyone with bare feet. Often when I am getting dressed in the morning he takes it upon himself to pick out a pair of shoes for me...they may or may not actually be the same shoe. He also finds it quite fun to test out mom and dad's shoes every once and awhile.

He loves brushing his teeth....

...so much that he is often found climbing on the bathroom counter to find his toothbrush. (I find this quite dangerous so unfortunately for Graham the bathroom door stays locked during the day)

He also loves toilets...another reason why the bathroom door is locked. I have walked into the bathroom to find that Graham has emptied our entire trash can into the toilet and has tried to flush the contents numerous times.

He loves to read. He is happy just reading to himself or cuddling and letting mom or dad read to him before bedtime.

He loves Elmo...or "E" as Graham calls him. While Graham was sick last week, "E" was requested at least 3-5 times a day. He usually is limited to one Elmo's World a day and that is quite often while I am showering or fixing dinner. I find it quite adorable that he lays down to enjoy his show.

As always there is so much that Graham loves or we love about Graham and I could go on forever talking about him. We feel so blessed to have such a happy, energetic, loving, and adorable little boy in our home. I have loved the companionship of my little buddy over these last few weeks in New York. It melts my heart when my little boy comes up and grabs my hand so that he can tag along while I am cleaning the house, or climbs into my lap with a book in hand for story time, or just decides to run over and give me a hug and kiss just because he feels like it. We love our little Graham and find so much joy in watching our little boy grow up.

Bad Hair Day

2010-09-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

Last week Graham came down with a bug, running a fever and just feeling pretty yucky. It definitely took its toll on his sleep and his mood. He quite often woke up early from his restless naps still tired and grouchy. The restless naps also took a major toll on his beautiful curly locks of hair. I couldn't resist capturing Graham's first bad hair day.

Our Little Artist

2010-09-15T10:09:00.000-07:00

Graham has recently taken great interest to my makeup and makeup brushes. He is always trying to dip the brushes into something so he can do a little body painting. After a few days of seeing his sad little face when he is not allowed to dip the brushes into anything colorful, I decided maybe it is time we experiment with painting. He was so happy when we found a box of fingerpaints and paintbrushes at Target. He held the box tightly as examined all the colors with a huge smile on his face. Today after breakfast, it was time for Graham's first painting experience. He was in complete heaven. He obviously put way too much paint on his brush, and painted everywhere but on the paper, and made just a huge mess, but he was so happy! I forgot to take pictures of the painter in action...probably because I was too caught up in containing the mess, but here are a few pictures from our fun morning.

The painting studio

Graham's first works of art

He was quite concerned about the mess all over his body, I was quite concerned with all of the blue fingerprints I was finding all over my walls

Painting and a bath all in one morning...could life get any better?!

I love this happy little boy! This cute smiling face makes up for the paint explosion on the kitchen floor and each fingerprint I had to wipe off of our walls. Graham's artwork is already proudly displayed on our refrigerator and I am looking forward to many more covering it up.

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-06T18:52:00.001-07:00

Last week we discussed some pretty grand plans for the weekend like taking a trip down to NYC or Philadelphia and then we thought about it and realized we were not ready to pack and get back in the car for a long drive quite yet. And we still have so much to see and do around here that we decided to make plans for a fun weekend a little closer to home.

Saturday:
We drove up to check out Palmyra and the church history sites in the area. Unfortunately we forgot our camera, I took a few pics on the cell phone but have not figured out how to get them off and on to my computer and I am sure they are not really great quality anyway. We are so excited that we have so much church history within an hour or so drive from us. It was pretty incredible to walk up the Hill Cumorah and through the sacred grove. The Palmyra temple is in a pretty incredible location, looking right over Joseph Smith's family farm and the sacred grove. I can't wait until we get the opportunity to go inside, I hear that it is beautiful!

Graham did not love being in the car, but he was a little trooper and stayed in pretty good spirits. He was so happy to run around the Smith farm, climb the fences, and shake a few trees. He had to be taken outside during the tour of the Smith home because he was pretty insistent on sneaking into the roped off areas to play with the historic home furniture and decor...the sister missionary, who was our tour guide, was just a little bit crotchety and gave Graham the major stank eye...that was Connor's cue to head back out the front door with Graham and into the open space.

The Palmyra temple (photo courtesy of the church website)

We ended a great day with a BYU game BBQ, hosted by the family of one of Connor's classmates in his real estate program. Go Cougars!

Sunday:
The usual church, afternoon nap, delicious Sunday dinner, and game night with some of our new friends.

Monday:
We made plans with some other friends to check out some of the gorges that Ithaca is known for. We started with a nice hike to the Buttermilk falls, it was a beautiful trail that followed the side of the gorge. We are pretty excited to check it out again in the fall once the leaves start changing colors.

We finished our day by stopping at the Ithaca falls, right above the Cornell campus, and taking a short walk to the base. We were pretty amazed that these huge falls are right in the city and so close the the Cornell campus. Thanks Emily and Elliot for scouting out the areas to check out and providing us with great company. We are pretty sure today you were able to win over Graham's love and approval...he shouldn't burst into tears the next time you get into our car.

Spaghetti Night!

2010-09-01T17:59:00.001-07:00

Tonight we had spaghetti for dinner. I think that besides hot dogs, spaghetti is probably Graham's favorite meal...can you tell?

He insisted on ripping off his bib and for some reason he decided it should go on his head...I don't know...he is one crazy little boy!

On a different note I just thought I would share Graham's sweet side. As Connor and I were just putting Graham to bed and saying family prayers, Graham decided right in the middle of Connor praying that he needed to give him a kiss...so he did and then he kissed me and then Connor and then me, and Connor...and on for about 5 or so kisses for each of us. It doesn't happen often, but when it does Graham makes sure to do it right! I love this little boy!

The Days Without Our Stuff - Day 3 and 4

2010-08-20T21:19:00.000-07:00

Day 3 (sorry, no pictures or great adventures, but still a good day)

We went to a play group at a great park with some of our neighbors and Graham was able to meet a bunch of new friends. He mostly just wanted to hang out with the big kids but they didn't really appreciate him tagging along. I kept overhearing them trying to tell him to go away or to get out of their way, poor kid. After a bonk on the head as the result of him swinging like a little monkey on one of the playground bars, we headed home for nap time. A 3 hour nap and lunch left us just enough time to take a drive to Ithaca Falls, we would have actually had time to walk out and take pictures if I hadn't gotten lost on my way... and we had to pick up Connor from campus so after a quick drive by we were on our way. Connor just so happened to be waiting in a part of the campus with a bridge over a gorge and another set of falls. We gladly found a parking spot and took a short walk to these falls where Graham was happy to drop/throw a few rocks into the water.

Day 4

I had great hopes for today. I found information about this great little nature center that has a wildlife center (with newly hatched peafowls, I don't know what they are, but I am sure Graham would have loved them), a butterfly house, tons of trails to explore, and this is what sold me...a six story tree house that you can climb up to look over the tops of all the trees.

So, I had my day all planned out. Graham woke up early so he was going to need an early nap and the place didn't open until 10. We took a short walk around the apartment and played outside this morning and we were all set to head out after naptime and lunch. Everything so far was going perfect, we left at 1 so we had plenty of time even if I did get lost.

And this is where it all went downhill. I was 15 minutes outside of town when I got a phone call from Connor. Our movers called and were going to drop off our stuff tomorrow, great...except they have to be paid in cash...and we don't have that much cash...and there are no Wells Fargo banks in Itacha to easily get that cash from... I was pulling into the parking lot when Connor calls in a panic to convince me to go back to Ithaca, find a bank, open up an account, transfer money from our Wells Fargo account, and get the cash. I, not very willingly, gave in and turned around to drive through horrible traffic (where I made multiple wrong turns) to find the bank. I then sat for 15 minutes in the bank (with Graham) waiting for a personal banker to help me and then I am told it could be another 20-30 before he will be ready to help me. Bahhh! I was really not happy at this point. We walked across the street to KMart, where I bought Graham a set of cars and fruit snacks to keep him distracted while I set up our account. And so I set up our account and chased Graham around the bank, and deposited money and chased Graham around the bank some more...and then there was no way the check was going to clear soon enough to get the cash....ahhh! Whatever. It was a horrible afternoon, but we eventually found a way to get the cash so we are going to be 0k...as long as the movers don't try to sucker more money out of us tomorrow morning, which they might because Connor is going to be gone at orientation all day and I will be here alone to deal with the movers and I am a real sucker and I might just do anything to get my stuff and I am sure they know this so they are going to use it against me!

I will keep you posted on how it all plays out tomorrow morning.

But my day did eventually get better when we were able to sit outside and chat with some neighbors while Graham played with his new friends. I really do think I am going to like living here.

The Days Until Our Stuff Arrives - Day #2

2010-08-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

Today was Connor's first real day of orientation so Graham and I were on our own. I was a little nervous about dropping Connor off on campus and being able to navigate my way back to the apartment...Ithaca may not be a very large city but the roads are very hilly and windy and covered by a lot of trees. It is a little intimidating, but at least it is beautiful. I was able to make it home without a problem and so I began to plan out the day.

First on our to do list was to check out the neighborhood. Our apartment complex backs up to a nice little park and open space area and there is a great little path for a morning stroll through the neighborhood. Graham enjoyed saying hi to all of the dogs passing by and made sure to point out all of the squirrels and birds along the way.

While Graham napped I spent some time on the internet looking for an afternoon adventure. I was happy to find that there is a lot to do in Ithaca. There are multiple berry and apple farms, farmers markets, parks, miles of forest and city trails. There is an awesome science center for kids, storytime in the park, a children's garden, swimming pools, and all of Ithaca's beautiful gorges and waterfalls.

After nap and lunch, we were off to check out the Cayuga Waterfront Trail and the Children's Garden. We only covered a short amount of the 2 mile trail, but the scenery was beautiful and Graham loved our detours to the parks and the Children's garden along the trail.

We hung out with Gaia, the giant turtle

Played in the sandbox

and explored the troll's garden house.

I love this Graham face. It is his completely happy to be exploring and climbing face. It is the face he makes as he uses his new favorite word(s), "wow" or "wowie" and heads off to check things out.
I would have to say it was a pretty successful day and I am excited to see what Ithaca has in store for us tomorrow.

The Days Until Our Stuff Arrives - Day #1

2010-08-17T13:31:00.000-07:00

After a wonderful month of playing, enjoying family and friends and putting a lot of miles put on our car, we have arrived in Ithaca, New York. However, the moving company has not arrived with our stuff. This makes settling in just a little bit difficult, but luckily we were smart enough to at least bring an air mattress and Graham's pack and play and a few other items to help us get through the couple of days...or weeks until our stuff arrives. Connor talked to the moving company today and they gave us the best case scenario where our stuff would arrive in 2-4 days and the worst in 10. I talked with Connor's sister Kristy just the other day about our situation (the same thing happened to her recently) and she helped me to see the silver lining...I wasn't sure there was one, but I think her advice is perfect. Since we do not have our stuff and our apartment is boring and empty and we don't have to unpack boxes yet, we get to take the time to get out and explore Ithaca right away. I have decided to blog each day about all the things we get to go out and do while we wait for our stuff to arrive. I hope I don't run out of things to do before our stuff gets here...

So here is Day #1:

Today was a run errands and stock our apartment with our needs kind of day. We went to Target, Best Buy, the grocery store, and spent a short amount of time driving through the Cornell campus. We also were able to meet quite a few of our neighbors, many of them fellow BYU graduates with many little playmates for Graham.

Anyway, I decided that before I start blogging about all of my new adventures that I should devote my Day #1 to our week in Denver.

This week was all about showing Connor what Denver has to offer (so that when he finishes school he might be motivated to search a little harder for jobs in the Denver area). We spent time at the Denver Zoo, hiking in Estes Park, taking a trip down memory lane in Arvada, swimming, playing at the park, and we finished off the week walking down 16th Street Mall and going to a Rockies game. Not bad for just 5 days in Denver. Here are a few pictures from our week.

Graham also had his first haircut. Here is the before...

During...
and after...looking so good he had to go for the blue steel. Thanks Paiger!

Lake Living

2010-08-06T10:33:00.000-07:00

Before heading out to New York and beginning real life again, we decided we should spend a month enjoying family and friends. We packed up and left our home in Oregon and have spent the last month living it up with the MacLennans at their cabin in Montana and home in Canada. Here is a little picture post to sum up our adventures.

This picture could basically sum up Graham's experience at the lake...ROCKS! He probably spent a good hour each morning and afternoon throwing rocks into the lake.

The traditional MacLennan 3 days

Ultimate tubing

Party on the dock

The football game Connor is awesome!

Unfortunately these pictures only show a fraction of the fun that we have had while up here. Some of our other adventures include:

4th of July fireworks on the lake
river rafting in Montana
Magrath Days parade and petting zoo (Graham absolutely loved both)
hiking and biking in beautiful Waterton
Graham's first tube ride behind the boat
and lots of wakeboarding, skiing, surfing and swimming at the cabin

We have had such a great time and it is hard to believe that our month has come to an end. We leave Canada on Sunday for a quick week in Denver to cram in some fun with the Frakes family. Hopefully there will be more pictures to come!

Happy Fathers Day!

2010-06-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

We love you!

A Quick Roadtrip

2010-05-19T13:49:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we decided to take off on Friday afternoon and head to Spokane to celebrate my brother's graduation from Gonzaga Law School. Sitting through a graduation ceremony with a 1 year old is pretty much insanity...Graham can't even make it through sacrament meeting, I don't know what we were thinking trying to make it through at least 2 hours of graduation. Here are a few pics from our adventures.

Trying to keep the kiddos entertained outside after the endless hours of graduation

We decided to head up to Couer D'alene to take a short hike and wander around the shops.

Graham was in total boy heaven throwing rocks into the lake with his dad.

A Short Update

2010-04-25T19:46:00.000-07:00

I am sure you are all thinking I don't update my blog enough, right? And surely I don't write enough about Graham...ok, whatever, I am totally obsessed with my child. I like him. He makes me laugh. And Connor and I find him to be a great source of entertainment. So here is another post mainly devoted to the stories of Graham.

This last week Graham has taken a strong interest in feeding himself. Of course he has been feeding himself finger foods for a few months now and has that down solid. He has now decided he needs to be in control of the silverware. As I try to spoon in messy foods like yogurt, applesauce, oatmeal, etc.,Graham reaches out and tries to take control of the spoon. He has done really well under my direction with actually being able to get some food into his mouth and feels quite a sense of accomplishment when the spoon actually makes it into his mouth. One morning Graham insisted that he helped feeding. I became tired of the tug of war with the spoon and finally gave in to see what would come of him taking complete control of his feeding. These pictures will show just why I determined, Graham is not quite ready for completely independent feeding...I am pretty sure he only tried using the spoon once before throwing it onto the floor and finding a more "efficient" way to get the food in his mouth.

Poor little guy got a nasty case of pink eye this week. So horrible! This morning his left eye was glued completely shut. He ran around for a good 10-15 minutes with the use of only one eye before we pinned him down and pried it open for him.

This afternoon we took a little Sunday stroll right outside of our neighborhood. Yes, all of this farmland is within walking distance of our apartment. There is a huge property with a big herd of sheep that we were hoping to show Graham, but no luck, the sheep were not out. We were a little bummed but not for long because just up the road we saw these horses. They were even nice enough to walk right over to the fence so Graham could check them out.

And last Friday we were lucky enough to get the chance to check out the Tulip Festival with some friends.
Poor Graham was confined to the stroller for the majority of our visit. Partly because the ground was pretty muddy and very uneven, making wobbly toddler steps a pretty risky endeavor, but also because Connor just happened to mention that it wouldn't be hard for him to imagine Graham trying to rip apart the beautiful tulips (the tulips that have been clearly marked by signs every 10 feet that are not meant to be walked through or picked or even touched)...I could just picture all of the dirty eyes that would be directed at me and my wild child as he tore through a row of tulips. Instead I got looks of adoration with my child safely strapped in, admiring the tulips from a safe distance. He was not happy to be stuck in the stroller.

The Adventures of Graham

2010-04-14T11:25:00.001-07:00

Here are a few pictures of the around the house adventures that Graham fills his day (and mine) with.

There is always something new to climb...

different places to take a seat...

small spaces to squeeze into...

or something in the pantry to dump out and spread around the floor.

I love this kid! He sure knows how to make our daily life exciting!

Oh and in other Graham news, he is teething again...which is to be expected at a year. What is unexpected about it is that we might expect that next to his 4 front teeth (2 top and 2 bottom) we would see new teeth coming in, we aren't. Graham has decided he needs his molars first! So he has 4 teeth in the front huge gaps and molars...awesome!

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T22:57:00.000-07:00

Graham had his first visit from the Easter Bunny. This holiday was right up Graham's alley; he loves carrying around anything with a handle and also putting things into buckets, so the easter egg hunt was a perfect activity for Graham. He also enjoyed his first taste of jelly beans and M&M's (as you can see from the drool in picture #2).

New Socks

2010-04-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

Graham has been in need of new socks for a long time. I am pretty sure that all the socks he owns are for a 3-6 month old. Needless to say, they were pretty small and tight on his feet and legs. He was in luck when we just so happened to be in Old Navy and we were able to get 5 pair for $5 dollars or something like that. Totally great, except the sizing is so ridiculous, the socks are sized for a kid 12-24 months. Am I crazy or is this a pretty big range for a kid? Anyway, now Graham has a full drawer of great socks...they just look like this on him...
We are bringing back the 80's with the sweet leg warmers. I guess if you look on the bright side, Graham won't need to wear pants, because who needs pants when you have socks that cover your entire leg.

The 12 Month Stats

2010-03-30T16:18:00.000-07:00

Weight: 19 lbs 10 oz - 9th %
Height: 30 in - 58th %
Head: 48.7 cm - we weren't given a % for this one

Again, on the small side as far as weight goes, but he is growing. We really felt like he was chunking up quite a bit the last month, but we had a slight setback last week. Last Monday Graham came down with a stomach bug and spent the next 4 days throwing up or pooping out just about everything he ate. It was a long week of lots of laundry and forcing down pedialyte, weakened formula, and soda crackers only to have it come right back out. Graham was such a trooper and made a full recovery in time to celebrate his birthday on Saturday.

Some of the things we love about Graham at 1 year:

- He loves to dance! When Graham hears any type of a beat, he can't help but shake that little booty of his. While bouncing along to the music, he gets his arms waving like crazy and throws in an occasional round of clapping and foot stomping.

- One of his favorite games is to be chased around the house. He laughs hysterically and gets a crazed look in his eye. Most of the time he gets too excited and has a hard time getting his little legs to go as fast as he would like. The best is watching him try to turn, he still hasn't mastered the concept so his turn radius is pretty wide.

- He is our little daredevil and has had a few close encounters taking a tumbles off of many surfaces. He has been caught by his feet numerous times as he lunges off the edge of our bed. The other day he climbed on top of our ottoman but couldn't figure out how to get down (I spend a good portion of my day either putting him back down or trying to show him how to crawl down backwards...it hasn't sunk in yet). Anyway, he sat there on the edge of the ottoman, let his feet swing a little bit to test out his distance from the ground, thought about it for another little bit and then decided to go for it, he pushed himself off the ottoman, landed on his feet but then fell backwards. He didn't cry but just layed on the ground for a little bit wondering how he ended up there. Connor and I are so entertained by these moments in our lives.

- He loves being outside and especially taking walks to the park. He loves it when there are other kids around and usually spends his time trying to do whatever they are doing. If there are no kids around then he usually occupies himself with trying to find the tastiest wood chip.

- Connor loves wrestling with him. Graham has no fear and will just laugh as Connor tosses him around bumps him with the pillows.

- He has become obsessed with belly buttons, "the bee bo". If Connor is laying on the ground, Graham will run up to him, lift up his shirt and stick his finger in his belly button, all while screaming and giggling. While his cousin, Adrienne, was visiting they had bath time together and Graham could not keep his little finger away from her belly button. Poor little Adrienne left bath time with a very red little belly button.

- He loves playing catch and is learning how to "throw" the ball back to us. Usually the ball ends up going the opposite direction or he just stretches out his hands as far as they can go, lets the ball drop and hopes that it will roll the rest of they way to us.

- He has been giving the best little hugs lately. When I am sitting on the ground he walks right up to me and wraps his little arms around my neck and just lays against me for a second. I love it! There really is nothing better than this.

- There are so many things that we love about Graham that I could go on and on and on. Graham has been such a blessing in our lives. He is such an energetic boy and is just so full of life and personality. He charms just about everyone he meets with his incredible smile. We are so excited to see what he has in store for us these next 12 months. I can almost guarantee that it will not be boring.

Happy Birthday to Graham!

2010-03-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the little man turned 1! Does anyone else have a hard time believing that we are the parents of a 1 year old?! He is not our little baby anymore, he is an active and independent toddler. We celebrated the big day by inviting a few of Graham's favorite buddies over for some fun and food. Connor did an excellent job on the BBQ and kept the adults happy with his burgers
while the kids helped Graham check out his new birthday loot. Unfortunately we didn't get any
pics of the kiddos playing, but here are a few pics of the birthday boy enjoying his special day.

Ever Heard of It...

2010-03-24T09:42:00.001-07:00

If I was more tech savvy I would have figured out how to post the actual video on the blog, but since I am not, you will just have to click the link to watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBUz4RnoWSM

This is our official announcement (a few months late in coming, but we had to wait until Connor made the announcement at work before we could shout it out to the world). We are going to Cornell! Well, Connor is going to Cornell, Graham and I are just along for the ride. Connor was accepted into their Master of Professional Studies in Real Estate and begins classes on August 26.

For those of you who don't know much about Cornell (other than Andy Bernard and his a capella group, Here Comes Treble, and lets not forget the NCAA tournament and Cornell's place in the Sweet 16, GO BIG RED!), Cornell is located in Ithaca, NY and we have heard it is a beautiful area with lots of Gorges to hike to and explore.

We are really excited to have an east coast experience and hope to have enough time and money to explore the area. We are hoping to take a lot of weekend trips to check out NYC, Palmyra, Boston, Montreal, Vermont... and I could go on and on.

I don't want to get too sappy, but I just thought I would say that I am really proud of Connor. I really never had any doubt that he could do this. I am completely amazed in his ability, especially because he didn't even make the decision to go back to school until the fall of last year. He amazingly took just a couple of months to study hard for the GMAT, and another couple to get his applications in order and that was it, he did it and was accepted. I know he was stressing the entire time, but for some reason I wasn't (which is totally not normal for me), it is like I feel like Connor has these superhuman abilities and he can do whatever he decides to do. We both feel very blessed to have this opportunity. After much fasting and prayer, we feel extremely at peace with the decision and like this is where the Lord wants us to be for the next two years. We are sad to leave the friendships we have made in Portland but we look forward to the new adventures that await us in New York.

We also will welcome any advice from those who have moved across the country...I don't think we quite know what to expect with this kind of a move.

Give Me a Cookie!

2010-03-01T23:26:00.000-08:00

Graham had his first Oreo cookie yesterday.

He loved it!

We felt like once he was done he might have resembled a crazed, dirty, homeless man with a few days of facial hair growth.

Sun in Oregon

2010-03-01T10:39:00.000-08:00

It is true! We have been so lucky these past few weeks to have an unusual amount of sun in February. This weekend was beautiful and we took advantage by spending time exploring the parks in our neighborhood. Graham was so happy to get out of the house and have the chance to run around and explore the great outdoors.

A Fun Weekend

2010-02-17T10:15:00.001-08:00

This weekend we were lucky enough to convince my brother, Jordan, his wife, Paige and their little one, Adrienne to make the drive from Spokane to visit with us. We spent the weekend eating good food, checking out the sights of Portland, and watching the little munchkins get reacquainted (Graham was so happy to wake up every morning and see that Adrienne was ready to play with him).

Saturday we decided to introduce Jordan and Paige to the goodness of Five Guys, not exactly a food native to Portland, but still delicious and worth checking out wherever you are. After filling up on burgers and fries we thought we might head downtown to walk off our meal at Powell's books. For those of you who have never heard of Powell's, it is a bookstore in downtown Portland that has nine rooms on four different floors that cover an entire block. It is huge! We loved exploring the kid section and picking out a few classic Dr. Seuss books for the little ones. Connor found used copies of both The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn that had to have been printed in the early to mid 1900s that were in great shape. I think we left the store with 5 books and only spent about $25, not too bad. After Powell's we wandered around Anthropologie, West Elm, and Lululemon just because it is fun to think that one day when we have money we could spend it at places like these. After returning home and taking a short rest, Jordan and Paige were nice enough to prepare us Jordan's mission specialty, paella. It was incredible!

Sunday we presented the kids with a couple of small Valentine's day gifts, and each other with some delicious chocolates. Connor gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a cute scarf. After church and naps for everyone, we stuffed ourselves again, this time with fondue. Mmm, I love fondue! Later, Paige managed to beat us all in a game of Mexican Train Dominoes...Paige, could it be that you were only playing with 12 tiles while we all had 15?

I was so happy that Connor did not have to work on Monday, the day off allowed him to lead us on another adventure around Portland. This time we headed off to an area of Portland called the Hawthorne district. I found this description of Hawthorne online and decided it probably did a better job of describing the experience of Hawthorne better than I could.

Undoubtedly, Hawthorne is one of the most unique, and most popular areas in Southeast Portland. The area is known for its wonderful restored Old Portland homes, liberal residents, and fun and funky feel. The street is lined with unique restaurants and shops, and has a definite Portland-local flair.

There are a lot of words you could use to describe the locals who live in the Hawthorne District; activist, environmentalist, educated, opinionated, hippie, hipster, Gen X-er, entrepreneur...and more. However you choose to describe it, though, this neighborhood is fun, friendly, and worth a visit.

We checked out the area, walking down to the Waffle Window and eating an interesting but tasty Bacon, Brie, and Basil waffle. On our way back to the cars, we stopped at the Por Que No Taqueria to grab a late lunch. Their fish tacos with pineapple were fantastic.

Graham loved the food...

Adrienne did not.

Our next destination was Multnomah Falls where we had planned on taking a hike, but had to settle on just a short walk to the different viewing areas to allow Jordan and Paige to get on the road before it was too late.

It was such a great weekend! Thanks for visiting guys!

A little of everything

2010-02-11T10:32:00.000-08:00

I have a bunch of pictures that have been sitting on my camera for a couple of weeks and thought maybe I should post a few for your enjoyment.

we spent an afternoon at the zoo

Graham has learned how to climb on another piece of furniture in our apartment

He has also discovered how much fun it can be to spread his food all over himself and his highchair

and as a result of the previous, Graham often gets a morning bath along with his routine nightly one, but he is not complaining

and I get to find little treasures as I open up my cupboards when it is time to prepare dinner