Dallas

4th year of medical school is full of rotations-some at home and some away.  In October/November, Matt had a rotation in Dallas, which followed a rotation in Virginia.  We weren't about to be without our Matt for two whole rotations, so we went to Dallas with him.  We're glad we did, because we had a dandy of a time while Matt was in Virginia and we needed another parent to care for children.  Badly.  

Graham turns 2!

We can hardly believe that this little teeny baby is already two.  I don't know where the time went because it seems like we just barley brought him home from the hospital.  This year for Graham's birthday we just stayed home and celebrated with the four of us.  It was perfect, and we think Graham had a pretty good day.  Graham is such a sweet little boy.  He's super curious, very happy, and so fun.  We're so blessed to have him in our family, and are so grateful for his little spirit.  We love you, Graham!  Happy birthday!

Graham takes pictures

Graham has recently learned how to take pictures.  He takes them on our phones and most recently got ahold of the camera and snapped a few shots.  These are some of the pictures he took, which gives us some insight into the point of view of a two-year-old.  My favorite thing about some of these pictures is the little feet that appear in many of them.

buddy walk

Our little buddy, Clara, had a very special day in September.  We all joined her for the Walk for Down Syndrome and we had so much fun!

ice cream truck

Graham gets really excited when he hears certain things outside of our house.  #1: the garbage and recycling trucks.  He loves these most of all.  We must drop whatever we are doing and rush outside to see the truck pick up the "stinky" garbage, and we must do so every time, and for both sides of the street.  The garbage and recycling men must think we're nuts.  #2: ambulances and fire trucks.  "weeooo weeooo weeooo"  and #3: the ice cream truck.  This particular ice cream truck has driven by our house at about 5:00 every afternoon every day for the last 3 and a half years.  It has also played the same song for the last 3 and a half years.  Needless to say, when we hear the little song (and, by the way, Graham hears it well before any of us do) we have to run and find the truck.  We don't always buy ice cream, though, which is probably really annoying to the lady driving the truck, having us run outside to just watch her drive by.  One day, however, we decided to let Graham see what the ice cream truck was all about.  Matt flagged down the truck and got Graham an ice cream. 

little dr. serafine

Graham is a little doctor.  His elephant had an owie.  One day, the string in the elephant's tail came loose so it wouldn't play it's little song anymore.  I told Graham his elephant had an owie and that we needed to fix him.  I picked open a seam, tied a knot in the string to take care of the excess slack, and sewed him back up.  Once he was done with his little surgery, this is what Graham did with his elephant.

Mr. Serafine goes to Washington

While Matt was doing his rotation in Virginia, he had a day off and decided to take advantage of his location.  He headed up to Washington, D.C. for a day and saw as many touristy things he could fit into an afternoon.

pumpkin patch

A few weekends ago the weather was nice and chilly, just like fall should be, and we made our way to a local pumpkin patch.  It was super cute and Graham loved every minute of it.  Mason slept the whole time, but woke up right at the end so we could snap this cute picture of both the boys.  Graham is super silly.  He doesn't like Mason touching him, as you can see here.

a little more halloween

We took the boys out to trick-or-treat on Halloween evening.  Mason got to wear his second costume, a little jersey like Graham's.  They were the cutest little football players I've ever seen.

this one's for you, little buddy

This post is all for Mason.  Mason is just about the cutest little chubby baby ever.  At his two month appointment, we weighed in at 13 lbs!  He was gaining about 2 oz a day...he wasn't starving.  At two months and two weeks, though, we feel like we've finally made it to the point where we can talk about how fussy he was instead of how fussy he is.  But however much Mason lacks in contentedness, he more than makes up for in cuteness.  

Happy Halloween!

Zoo Day

Matt had a few days off before heading to Virginia for an audition rotation, so we took advantage of his time and went to the zoo! 

Graham loved it, as he usually loves everything.  Mason, on the other hand, wasn't so sure.  

Mason's blessing

On September 30th, we blessed Mason.  We had family come from both of our sides, and it was great.  We love having visitors, so having lots was even better!  Thanks to all our family members for making the trip to Arizona for Mason's big day.

outside antics

It's finally starting to cool down outside...and by cool down I mean low 90's.  But today, by a weather miracle, it's only in the 70's, and our A/C hasn't turned on all day!  Horray for having windows open.  But here are some of the things we've been doing outside lately.

all on a friday morning

Here's Mason's story...if you aren't interested in the details, there are a few pictures below.  : )  I'm quickly realizing that there are fewer hours in the day now that we have two little teenies, so I'll get more pictures up as soon as we find some spare time.  Wherever it may be.  : )

hide and seek

Graham's new favorite game is hide and seek.  It's pretty much the cutest thing we've seen, because he hides behind the bushes, and crouches down so he can't bee seen.

family

introducing

Mason Jay Serafine

born August 24, 2012

11:32 am

8lbs 1oz 20 inches

15 days of august have come and gone...

...and we're kind of just sitting around changing oxygen into carbon dioxide.  Well, not really, but it feels that way as we wait and wait for this baby to make its appearance in the world.  I'm already a week over when I had Graham, and the anticipation is killing us.  In the meantime, though, we have a few things we've been working on...

baby shower

it's august already? let's talk about july

6 years (has it really been that many?)

toddler bed

Graham swims

going to San Diego makes us wonder why we live in Arizona.

happy birthday, Matt!

utah

ducks

you know he's done when this happens

summertime ice cream

eating dinner

Graham's not necessarily a bad eater, but sometimes we have to resort to pure silliness to get him to eat his veggies (and sometimes other foods as well).  Enter: the big spoon.

cold showers get old fast

One of the joys of home ownership is that you actually have to take care of your appliances when they break or stop working.  No landlords to call, here.  Bummer.  About a month ago our water heater stopped heating water.  I was the lucky one to discover that there was no hot water after I had already gotten in the shower.  We reset the breaker and it worked again.  Lucky us.  Last week, however, the same thing happened.  No hot water.  We reset the breaker, and nothing.  Bummer x2.  Naturally, neither one of us knows much about water heaters, so we called our dads to help us out.  We got some good advice.  My dad's an electrician, so he helped us figure out it was the heating element, since it was tripping the breaker.  So, we had to drain our water heater.  Our first try was a major fail.  We couldn't get it to drain.  After more phone calls to dads we figured out that there was calcium buildup blocking the drain.  Duh...  So we cleaned it out and drained the water heater.  

fun with dad, fun with mom

This last weekend was a little unusual in that we spent it in different places.  Matt and Graham went north to Camp Verde for the father's and son's camp out.  They had a really good time.

While they were gone, I headed east to Mesa for a book signing.  And I loved every minute of it.  : )

splash pad

A few weeks ago we took our play group to a nearby splash pad.  We thought the kids would love it, seeing as it's getting much warmer here now, but alas, they were all too chicken to actually get wet.  If any of them got wet panic ensued.  So the kids played mostly around the water, instead of in the water.  Maybe one day they will get wet.

dirt!

This boy loves dirt.  Nothing makes him more happy than being able to get dirty, play in the dirt, and even eat dirt.  This last weekend we went camping, and Graham was in heaven.  Dirt everywhere, and nowhere to take a bath.  Perfect.

first haircut

Our boy Graham was getting some long hair.  Especially in the back.  It was nearly a mullet, and was a little uneven.  We decided that Saturday was going to be his first haircut day.  

taking pictures in church

Sometimes the only thing that will keep Graham entertained in church is looking at himself in the camera on Matt's phone.  

zoo day

Last Tuesday we had some zoo passes from the library that we didn't want to go to waste, so we invited the Bushmans to join us on a zoo fieldtrip!  It was Jackson's birthday, too, so it was a zoo day birthday.  We had a pretty good time.  It just so happened to be the hottest day of the week -- figures, it's cool all week and the one day we pick to go, it's hot -- but, it was still a lot of fun.  

secondhand swingset

These pictures were taken Easter morning, so if you notice that Matt and Graham are wearing the same shirt as in other posts, its because it's the same day.  : )  Anyway, our next-door neighbors got a new, bigger, swingset, and brought us their old one.  It's great, and small, which is just right for Graham.  Graham loves it.  Especially the slide.  I have to find some new buckles for the swing, as the ones on there right now are broken and Graham falls out, but it was a pretty good pick-up on our part.  Thanks, neighbors!  

busy, busy, weekends

The last few weeks we've been really busy.  Graham and I headed to Idaho Falls for a week and had a great time.  Because I'm super cool, I only took a few pictures on my phone.  : (  But this last weekend Matt's family came, and it was quite the eventful weekend.  With Easter and Lori's birthday, we stayed pretty busy.  : )  So below are quite a few posts of what we did over the last few weekends.  Enjoy.

anthem outlet train

We started our weekend on Good Friday by going to the Anthem Outlet Malls.  Matt had the day off; the office he is working with right now takes Good Friday off, which made for a really good Friday.  The weather was great and we found some good buys.  Graham and I found some shoes we couldn't resist.  But before we left, Graham needed to ride the train with Grandpa.  He loved it.  And check out those shoes.  Sharks.  Yep, sharks.  Shark shoes.  Pretty funny.  They're water shoes, if you were wondering.  : )

egg hunt

Saturday morning we headed up to Matt's school for the annual Easter Egg hunt.  It was pretty cute.  There were lots of activities and things to keep the kids entertained while we waited for the actual hunt to start.

Graham got a balloon dog.  Pretty sweet.

Matt and Graham participated in a cake walk.  Graham wasn't too sure what was going on, he kept trying to get the papers off the grass.

The reward.  Nice, cupcake, Graham.

Then we spun the wheel for a sweet prize...

a superhero!  Cool!

Graham is a little too small to play on the bouncy houses, he'd more than likely get pummeled by the larger kids.  So we kept our distance and played in the grass instead.

Isn't this funny?  We had to wear our Easter basket on our head while we waited for the hunt to start.  You have to keep both of your hands free, you know?  How else are you supposed to pick up all those eggs?

Everyone had the eggs surrounded.  It was going to be an all-out war.

When it started, Graham was a little more interested in all the other kids and a little less interested in the actual eggs.

This is really quite a terrible picture, I know, but you get an idea of how many kids there were.