graham is busy

Usually, while I make dinner, Graham has to see what is going on and I can usually only get a few minutes of cooking done before he comes wanting to be held so he can see what I'm doing.  Yesterday, however, I had a whole twenty minutes of uninterrupted dinner-making time before G-man got bored with his activity.  I was talking to Matt on the phone, when I looked down and noticed that not only had Graham found the oats, but got the lid off and dumped the whole container onto his lap.  He was having a pretty good time so I gave him a bowl and a measuring cup to keep him occupied.  Soon, though, the oats were all over the kitchen.

Graham's first taste of cookie dough.

"More, please!"

Last Sunday Graham and Matt were coloring in the living room.  I left the room for a second, and Matt stayed in the living room with Graham.  When I came back I saw this!

We about died laughing.  Matt didn't even notice Graham take his little crayons into the hallway and color on the closet.  He's quick.  The funniest part is that Graham's just too teeny to really know what he did...you can't punish someone who is clueless.  We sat him down next to the artwork and asked him about, thinking maybe he would tell us why he colored on the wall and not the paper (ha ha, not.) and he just looked at it and touched the colors, like he remembered exactly how everything went down.

When we asked him to sit in front of the drawing and say cheese, he gave a pretty good cheeser face.

And here's Graham's black eye.  Learning to walk is hard, and the legs on the patio furniture are even harder, especially when you meet them with your eye.  Poor little guy had a pretty good bonk.

Finally, Graham when to his first little birthday party!  It was way cute.  His friend, Wes, turned one, and Graham had a blast playing with all the other kids in the yard.

are you cold?

Is it cold where you live?  Do you have to wear a coat outside?  Are you tired of wearing boots and wool socks?  Is January a drag?

All you need is a little Arizona sunshine!  For the next few months, you can get some Arizona sunshine risk-free!  We won't charge you for the sunshine at all!  We'll even let you stay at our house and we'll feed you some delicious food (thanks to all the cookbooks I got for Christmas).

No, but seriously, the weather is great here this time of year!  This is what we did last week.

We took Graham golfing.  (Well, to hit a bucket of balls.  But golfing, nonetheless.)  Graham has this little golf set he got from some friends of ours in the ward, and we had to try it out.  It's pretty cute.

Merry Christmas (3 weeks late...)

We had a great Christmas this year!  Matt had a whole week off so we flew to Idaho Falls and spent a few days with my family and a few days with Matt's.  There wasn't a whole lot of snow for a white Christmas, but just enough so we didn't completely miss it.  

Christmas eve we got to spend at my Grandma and Grandpa's house...it's a little different now that the cousins are all older, but it was great to see everyone!

That night Graham left some cookies and milk for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer.  Too bad Santa pooped out on eating those cookies--Mrs. Claus had to do it, even after she brushed her teeth.  : (  

In the morning the cookies were gone!  Don't worry, the bits that were left were promptly gobbled up by G-man.  

Before church Graham sneaked a peak of his stocking...it had some good stuff in it!

"Cheese!"  We love Christmas morning breakfast!

After church we put our jammies back on and opened presents!

Here's Graham and his loot.  Not too shabby. 

Later that week we made our way to the Serafines'.  Graham got the cutest little toy.  It's a lawn mower!  Not only is it just plain cute, but Matt's family owns a lawn mowing business and the card on the front of the mower is the "Mow-it-all" business card.  Hilarious. 

And we got a keyboard!  Woot woot!

I'm realizing I need to take more pictures of everyone else...not just Graham.  : )  We had a great Christmas, though!  Thanks everyone!

stranger danger and other Christmas items

We all think this is entertaining, but let's be real here.  Would you want to sit on a strange old man's lap who was trying to lure you in with candy and promises of shiny, new gifts?  I wouldn't.  Seems kind of creepy, if you ask me.

in memory of...

our dear ford.

This was the car Matt bought right after he came home from his mission.  It was the one and only car we had for the first three years of our marriage.  When we think of the good memories we had with this car, it seems like a great car.  It was actually pretty good.  Maybe not excellent, but pretty stinkin' good.  When we lived in Provo, after we were married, there was something that always needed to be fixed with this poor car.  For a while we went every 9 months on the mark where something would go out or break.  If it wasn't a strut or belt, it was always something like a very important screw that had broken in the steering column.  The steering wheel was nearly falling off.  When it got really cold outside the doors wouldn't latch shut.  I'd be ready for work, in the parking space slamming the door over and over hoping it would latch eventually.  Or it would be something like the ignition locking so the key wouldn't even turn.  Or the gas cap blowing off on the freeway up to Idaho.  I wonder if we could still find that... hmm...  And you might remember this incident...a day that will live in infamy.  More recently, the back windows wouldn't roll up, or down for that matter.  The AZ heat fried the little gears that keep the window up.  But don't get us wrong, we enjoyed this car.  We drove it up to Idaho numerous times, we drove it to California on our honeymoon and a few times after that.  We drove it down here to AZ when we found our house.  Good times.

But...it started giving us trouble.  Serious trouble.  Like dying on the freeway trouble.  Then it was just one thing after another, and we were sick of putting money into a car that was probably almost at the end of its life anyway.  So we bid our dear Ford a sad farewell, and sold it to someone in our ward.  He's a mechanic and seemed really excited to have it for his family.  He was sure he could fix it up and make it run really well, and we let him run with that.  So, goodbye Ford.  We must all move on, I guess.

So... then we moved on and got something a little bigger.  And with a little more gusto than the Ford.  We are anticipating this one to last us for a really long time.  

Isn't she a beaut?  This is a 2008 Nissan Pathfinder.  We love it.  We found it in Scottsdale and it has really low miles and was a very agreeable price.  The best thing about it is it isn't too big, but actually has seating for 7!  Not like we need it, though.  : )  The Nissan isn't any longer than our Camry, so it's not like we're driving a bus, which is nice.  The very back 3rd row is pretty small and somewhat squishy if you are a grown person, but we have it folded down most of the time and then we have a decent amount of storage.  It was great, though, when my family was here because we could all ride in the same car.  Nice.

in other news...

Graham got this little bike for his birthday, and he loves it.  He especially loves it when he gets to ride outside with daddy.  Please disregard the fact that our poor child is wearing mismatching clothes and not wearing shoes.  : )  Ha ha.  But look at that face.  He's having a blast.

Graham also really likes to eat play in the dirt.  Or outside.  If he can get dirty, he's happy.  He was helping Matt wash the car and he couldn't be more content.

And then we have this little bench.  Oftentimes we can find Graham just sitting here like he's waiting for something.  Not sure what, but he loves to just sit here.  He fits just right on this little shelf.  It's pretty funny to see him sitting up there.