Quarter of a Century

I'm 25! The day was fabulous. It was sunny and beautiful out PLUS we got an extra hour of sleep (best birthday present ever!) I love weekend birthdays because I get to be with Bryce and Graham all day long! We enjoyed homemade Cafe Rio for dinner and cake later, all made by Bryce. I enjoyed opening all my cards from family and friends, receiving phone calls and Facebook messages. Sure reminds me how many wonderful people are around me! Thanks everyone for making this "quarter of a century" step a great one!

This was staged in case you can't tell! :)

Cake made with love by Bryce. It's a 2 5 underlined--so crafty! :)

Graham LOVED the cake (after peaches for dinner as you can see). I think he's prepped and ready for his own birthday cake come January. I don't think he is terrified of frosted goods like his cousin Brynn! :)

On Saturday, Bryce took me out for a great date. It was all a surprise (a miracle that he kept it that way for about 2 weeks). He took me to this fancy French Bistro. It was SOOO good! We both had seafood (so us) and had some great desserts!

After dinner, we headed to the theatre and enjoyed A Christmas Carol in IMAX 3D! The IMAX and 3D part were amazing but I have to say, the movie was mediocre. Sorry to break any ones high hopes of it but just a warning, it is SCARY! I wouldn't take anyone under 10 years old. Thought it was a little bit slow and the ghosts were creepy...just my own personal review of it. Despite that, we had a great night out alone. Thanks honey for putting together such a romantic evening out!

Silly Boy

Graham has become so fun since he started crawling! He's pulling himself up on everything. We've had one small encounter with the stairs that didn't even elicit tears (sigh) and a whole lot of fun. Bryce and Graham played the game below for a good half hour--it never got old for any of us.

We're trying to keep up with him and "baby proof" our house. Typically, he loves to get in the fireplace and the dog water. Why is that???

Now that Graham is on all fours, Basil literally thinks he is another dog. She gets down in her play stance and bounces forward and back playing with him and he just laughs and laughs. There has been some competition for toys but I guess he'll learn to share early.

We like to do the "RIDE IT" time where we put Graham on Basil and he thinks it is so funny (Basil not so much). He loves to grab her face and gets so excited to be close to her--it is pretty funny to watch. Needless to say, we're having a good time over here!

P.S. After a ridiculous chain of events, Basil is being spayed and having her eye fixed next Friday. We can't wait to see her sweet normal face again! (You can really see the Cherry Eye in the picture above...sorry, not trying to gross you out!)

Boo!

Halloween has come and gone and I can't believe it! We had a great time celebrating. Having a little one around made it so much fun!

We had a great time carving pumpkin sans patterns. We did our own designs! Graham hung out with us and enjoyed playing with his M&Ms and his spatula! :)

Finished products.

We did go trick or treating to a few of the neighbors. After about five doors, we were done. He held onto his little basket the entire time.

He thoroughly enjoyed digging through his loot and sucking on the wrappers. (see video below)

He did eat pieces of a Milky Way and LOVED it! We try and get our kids hooked on sugar at an early age ;)

Sorry this is turned sideways. We always forget. (Anyone know how to flip it in a basic program like media player or quicktime?)

Trunk or Treat

Our ward had our annual Trunk or Treat last Saturday and it was a blast. I was so impressed at not only how many people dressed up (probably 98%) but how unique each costume was. Our ward rocks! We had a great time having Graham to dress up in his adorable elephant costume (made my grandma)! We tagged along as zookeepers!

The family with our wild elephant!

Check me out! I'm a stud! I love the feet!

Yup!

Our trunk was pretty lame but others were decked out with fog machines, spider webs, music and more! We did have candy--the most important part! Bring on HALLOWEEN!

We Have a Crawler

He figured it out!

We love Grandma

Last week, my mom came to visit us. The time went by so fast and we are really missing her. Graham keeps looking around to see where she is at...thank goodness they are coming back (with Grandpa and Aunt Erin in tow) for Thanksgiving!

Basil LOVED my mom! My mom couldn't get over how big Basil is and how she thinks she is a lap dog! She would just crawl right up on my mom and want to sit! They bonded! Hopefully they'll bring Ellie out (my parents dog) in November.

We put mom to work on Graham's Halloween costume. It was a lot of work (THANKS MOM!) and it is SOOO adorable! He loves it! (pictures to come soon!)

We also tried out homemade caramel apples (real caramel...not the little store bought ones melted). They were delicious...we're finishing the last one tonight.

Delicious!

9 months

My baby is getting so big. Although I blogged about 8-months, I figured 9 months is the normal milestone and might as well put it up here too. Bryce and I did a photoshoot with Graham yesterday afternoon. He is getting more difficult to photograph because he is so distracted by everything around him! Here are the cutest ones!

This one he actually fell against the fence on accident, but I like it the best! Very GQ!

He is changing so much these days.

• He is still on the brink of crawling forward and is moving all around
• When you call his name he immediately looks around for you
• When he hears us say, "no, no" he turns, smiles and shakes his head from left to right
• His fine motor skills are really picking up and he gets things into his mouth way too quickly now
• He loves to say, "BA BA" and I swear I have heard "MA MA" but no "DADA" (much to daddy's dismay)
• He found his squeal and loves to make sure everyone can hear it
• He loves to grab Basil's face and feet
• He loves to be held by anyone anywhere and gets passed around pretty quickly at church
• He will FINALLY eat vegetables again without gagging
• He loves to grab daddy's mouth
• HE IS PUMPED THAT GRANDMA IS COMING INTO TOWN TONIGHT!