how could i forget???

GRAHAM IS COMPLETELY POTTY TRAINED!!! I mean, DUH!! Doesn't that picture say it all??

when i was gone to hot springs for my conference in may, mom kept graham for the week and when he came back, he was no longer wearing diapers!! WOOO HOOO!!! he even poops in the toilet now too. and he's been good about waking up at night and using the potty. we are super proud parents!

ummmm. my brain is so fried, i can't even come up with a title

hey hey hey! it's been a long time, huh? once again, i suck at updating our blog. guilty. but i have a good excuse. i've been busy. see. that's my excuse and a dang good one at that.

look at that handsome face! graham will be three on sept. 5th. can you believe it?!?! THREE YEARS OLD!! where has the time gone?

graham is amazing. i don't know how i got so lucky to be his mom. he is always making me laugh. he's the silliest little boy....but also hardheaded and bossy. he got it honest. he amazes me with his intelligence. he also has a smart a$$ mouth. he loves to give hugs and kisses. he loves bubble guppies. and team umizoomi.

so, what has been going on with his since my last post. hmmmmm. well. here goes.

• in april, chad and i went on a long weekend trip to eureka springs and stayed at the crescent hotel. it was AWWWWWEEEESOOOOMMMEEEE!!! we needed that time together. just the two of us. chad has been traveling so much with his job. gone to kansas or missouri for a month. home for a month. gone for a month. home for a month. you get the point.



• i made it through my conference that i plan every year for the Governor and 600+ people. it was a huge success for which i am super proud of.



• i turned 30. whooooo hooooo! and no, there was no big party. no frills. just dinner with my family. just how i wanted it. dang. i am getting old. my birthday's used to be a month long celebration.



• my brother and sister in law came to the u.s. for two weeks. AND I GOT TO MEET MY PRECIOUS PRECIOUS PRECIOUS nephew, aiden. i sure wish they didn't live in s. korea. i miss my nephew so much, it hurts. he's the BEST baby!



• my dad lives in california and he stayed with us for a few days. he got to meet his new grandson and see graham. the last time he saw graham was when he was 2 weeks old. yeah, a visit was lonnnnnnggggg overdue.



• chad's beloved grandmother passed away so we made a trip to Ohio for the funeral. i finally got to meet chad's dad, aunt, cousins. even though it was a sad trip, we had a great time. now, the drive there and back was not so great. graham was not a fan of riding in his carseat for so long. we were on a time crunch so we stopped as little as possible.



• work is draining me. seriously.

well, i'm out. for now. i will post more later along with pictures.

if you read this, will you leave a comment and stroke my ego. please please pretty please??? tell me that you've missed me. ha!

graham's weekend at mimi's

this past weekend, graham and i were supposed to go to two birthday parties but at the last minute i decided to let mimi and poppi keep him. I was soooo exhausted from my week of pure busy-ness at work and at home (I started bootcamp on the 14th...ummmm, WOW is all I can say about that) and I really just needed a break and needed some serious ME time...like seriously serious. that bad.







We met mom in Arkadelphia around 4pm at the Cracker Barrel parking lot...while I was waiting on mom to arrive, SEVEN cop cars flew by with their sirens and lights on...come to find out, a former White Hall cop had taken his ex-wife and her boyfriend hostage on a house boat on an island on Lake DeGray. The former cop ended up killing himself...craziness...anyway...







These are all pictures mom sent me of their weekend...

Graham picking a flower for mimi

taking a spin on the golf cart with Poppi....and this golf cart is BAD NEWS, by the way. Mom called me Saturday afternoon and told me they were in an accident...my heart stopped. completely. graham was being graham and ended up face planting on the floor of the golf cart. Mom told me that he was alright and that his face was a little red...so I was thinking, okay, no big deal, graham is ALWAYS running into something, falling or jumping off of something...he is quite the daredevil. well, that's not the end of the story...you will have to scroll down to see more pictures....

going fishing!!

and then mom sends me this picture Sunday afternoon...Do you see my child's face?!?! that's not just a little red. that is like A LOT OF RED...AND HORRIBLE. I just wanted to cry!!

BUT

GRAHAM CAUGHT HIS FIRST FISH!!! A trout at that! Go GRAHAM!!

but yes, his face looks terrible...and it's all dark and crusty and scabby now.

Ouch. and he face plants AGAIN. I'm seriously going to have to send a bodyguard with graham when he goes to Mimi's. someone that can keep up with that child. he is a mess!!

and what did i do the entire weekend with the house ALL TO MYSELF?!?! Well, I cooked...I cleaned...and cleaned...and cleaned some more...hung out with some friends on the patio...cleaned out closets and switched our fall clothes to spring ones, planted flowers, read lots of trash magazines and watched lots of trash tv...ahhhh, it was FABULOUS!!!

my first trip to Chuck E Cheese's

Yes, MY first trip.

that i can remember.

my brother had a birthday party there when we were kids but i was very little. and then growing up, i had always heard bad things about the place...

but my mom came in town the weekend of the 12th and she's taken graham to CEC's before and she said he loved it.

So, we got up that Saturday morning and Mom and I had our usual morning coffee sitdown...i love our coffee sitdown's. this is where we usually catch up with everything that is going on in our lives....i mean, usually we talk everyday so we don't have much to catch up on but I have been so busy with work lately and since I am doing the "single parent" thing while Chad is gone for work, i am completely exhausted when graham goes to bed and not in the mood to talk on the phone...anyway, i digress.

So we do coffee sitdown and decide to go eat some Vietnamese food...did that...good stuff...but not as good as mom's. duh, of course. Then we head to Chuck E Cheese's and....wait for it...wait...for...it...okay, I seriously had more fun there than Graham. Man, I was all about those games and getting my long string of tickets. I would get totally bummed when only one or two tickets would pop out. grrrrr....ha! Good thing mom was there to chase graham around while i played games! haha!

Graham had a blast too but it was already WAYYYYY past his nap time so we didn't get many smiles out of him.

Okay, this picture right here...the one below the typing was HILARIOUS to me! Graham was all happy riding in the school bus and all of a sudden this lil kid jumps in there with him. Graham looked at him like, "dude, this is MY bus. What are YOU doing here?" too funny! I know it's a little dark. sorry.

YES!!! I got him to smile!!!

I can't wait for Chad to get home so we can all go to CEC as a family...and Chad can chase graham around while i have fun playing games. :)

and the terrible two's is upon us

I should have taken a video of the HORRENDOUS fit he threw instead of just a picture. I have NEVER in my LIFE seen a child throw such a fit. over what, you ask?? I have no clue. usually he is pretty vocal about what he is upset about. nope. would not say one word. instead he screamed and cried. I picked him up from school one day and all was great. until i snapped the last buckle. that must have snapped his temper cause MY OH MY. WOW. and it was the first full day that Chad was gone to Kansas so it was just me and my lovely temperamental child. We live about 4 miles from his daycare and he SCREAMED and threw himself ALL OVER his car seat all the way home..that child...*shaking my head* by the time we got home, he had both of his arms out of the straps and was laying sideways over the arm rest of his car seat. LORD HAVE MERCY.

we pull into the garage and park. child is STILL throwing a fit. So i unbuckle him and he leaps out of his seat and starts throwing any and everything that he could find. at that point, i left the door open and went inside the house. well, that just ticked him off even more so he threw himself on the floor kicking and screaming...and this ENTIRE time...from Daycare to Home, i'm trying to talk to him and asking him what is wrong and what is upsetting him and he won't talk to me. finally, i gave up. and sat on the floor next to him and cried too.

I thought we were going to be so lucky and not have to deal with the dreaded "terrible two's" that everyone talks about but we were definitely not so lucky. it's like, as soon as 2.5 arrived, our child changed.

We have plenty of wonderfully good days...but then when we have bad days...well, they are very trying for me. He is bull headed, strong-willed and if you tell him he can't have something, you better be prepared to duck cause he will throw something. Poor child got it honest because both Chad and I are stubborn and have attitudes and tempers. but even on our worst days, i honestly wouldn't have it any other way. cause we all have bad days, right??

iphone pics

graham wanted to stir my coffee after i "dressed" it. how handsome is he?!?!

sundays are usually graham and daddy days so i went and had lunch and mani and pedi's with my girlfriends and they went on an afternoon stroll around the neighborhood

and then went and got a 50 piece chicken nugget meal from mickey d's.

graham and his friend Emmie

we went to watch a rugby game a couple of weekends ago and graham did not stop running around and playing the entire time...well, except for this time...and we thought he was going to take a nap. yeah right. this lasted 10 seconds....seriously. i want his energy

watching Max & Ruby

being silly with his daddy

graham is going to be such a wonderful big brother

but not yet. ha!

a month or so ago, we kept our friends 8 week old baby boy because his big sister was diagnosed with the flu and we didn't want to take the chance of sweet Cohen getting it. We kept him all day and absolutely LOVED it. Graham was sooooo sweet and was calling him "baby Cohen" and wanted to help me with feeding him and changing him. i cannot wait to have another one. i know graham will be such a huge help.

Meet Our Nephew, Aiden

My brother, Steven and his wife Melissa (Yoon-Hee is her Korean name) had their first baby boy on March 2, 2011. they live in Korea so we weren't able to be there for his birth. He is just absolutely precious though!! I cannot wait for Chad and I to have another baby!

they will be in the states in June and I just cannot WAIT to get my hands all over him!!

where does the time go??

I absolutely cannot believe that graham is 2.5 years old now. these last two and a half years have flown by so fast! i wish i was better at keeping the blog up to date because every time i look at it and try to update, i get overwhelmed and don't even know where to start.

i have got to be better at documenting the things that he says and does cause it's so funny!! I have blogger on my iphone now so I am going to make a real effort at keeping up even though i don't think anyone even looks at our blog anymore. ha!

graham is such a lil entertainer and has such a great personality. he is constantly making me laugh and smile. i wish there were more hours in the day because i just feel like i don't ever get enough time with him. he truly amazes me. he is so smart and is soaking everything up like a sponge.

at 2.5, he is wearing size 10 shoe and 3T. We are so back and forth with pottytraining and it's driving me nuts!! he was doing so good for a while and then just stopped. and it doesn't help that it's not consistant at school. Hopefully he will be pottytrained by the time he goes to kindergarten. ha!

Family Portraits

we had these photos taken in November for our Xmas card by the wonderful Whitney Moore with Luminere Artistry.