Graham turns 2 years old!

On July 19 our little man turned two years old!  While this post is a little late we celebrated Graham's birthday with one of his favorite people, Mickey Mouse!  On his birthday we had a small family birthday celebration complete with all things Mickey.  

Here are some of the highlights from his day....

I have been wanting to make a tissue paper garland for some time and thought that Graham's birthday would be the perfect time.  As you can see we used red, black, white, and yellow to accent our theme.  The garland took quite a while to make, but I am really happy with how it turned out!

Inside we had our sweets table complete with Mickey Oreos and pretzels.  

I also made a number two with some of our favorite highlights from Graham's last year!

Because the theme was Mickey Mouse's backyard BBQ we of course had to serve BBQ food.  We had  pulled BBQ chicken sandwiches, coleslaw, salad, fruit, baked beans, and homemade macaroni and cheese.  While I love cooking I continue to remind myself after the fact that ordering pizza would be so much easier next time:)!

Graham had a lot of help opening his presents!

And then a slightly overwhelmed birthday boy!

( I ordered his shirt from here and couldn't have been more please with how it turned out.  Definitely was the icing on the cake)

So while the highlight of the day was celebrating our little man turning two I could help but reflect on the past two years, specifically this past year.

Graham-

You have changed so much this past year.  You learned to walk, you learned to climb, and before we knew it you were running and pushing everything not pinned down across the street, sidewalk, and through the house.  You said your first word which has quickly become a vocabulary full of thoughts and opinions.  You cut your first tooth and now have a full mouth full.  You love all things trucks and Mickey Mouse.  You watch everyone and everything closely but have zero hesitation to jumping in and trying to do everything all by yourself.  

Graham, you love your brother "Eccie" and "Esley" so much but don't want either of them to slow you down a bit, or restrain you at all!  

You are opinionated and independent, yet also want to make sure that Mommy and Daddy are always close by.

We love watching you discover something new whether it be a new word, a new ability, or just noticing an ant walk across your feet.  

While you are beyond stubborn and strong willed, you can be such a cuddle bug.   Your smile is contagious.  will stop all you are doing to sit down and look at pictures or read a book. Just like your brother, you have your favorite five or six books and know every page that comes next complete with the sound effects. 

 Mommy and Daddy can't get enough of your silliness and curiosity to learn and discover.  We often tell you that we had no idea we could be so lucky to have a little guy like you!  You have been the answer to all of our prayers and the exclamation point to our family.  We feel incredibly lucky that God chose us to be your parents.  We cannot wait to watch you continue to reach "up up sky"!  

 Happy 2nd birthday Graham!

 We LOVE Boom Boom!!!!

Our 4th of July

It's hard to believe that the holiday has come and gone.  We certainly had our share of fireworks, fun, friends, family, and festivities!  

We started off the weekend on Thursday with attending fireworks at one of the local country clubs wer.  Graham enjoyed it so much he slept through every boom:)!

While Gregg worked on the 4'th, he was able to get home early enough to enjoy some lake time before we headed over to a family friend's party.  OMG between the bounce house, dunk tank, and baseball match, Reece had a blast.  Again Graham slept through most of the party:)!  Did I mention that there was Oberon keg and amazing BBQ?!?!

 Later that night we decided to head back home to enjoy the amazing fireworks show on our lake.  

We even managed a little time for sparklers of our own before Reece and I headed out on the lake.  Gregg and Graham, yep they opted out and headed to bed!

 Reece and I agreed that this may have been the best firework display we have seen on our lake yet.  As Reece said, "I didn't even know where to look because there were so many fireworks everywhere!"

Saturday was family day with my sister, brother in law and kids.  We spent most of the day on the boat.  When we made it back to shore the guys took the kids kayaking while us girls BBQ.  We had a slight mishap as there was a small fire on the grille resulting in char boiled steak kabobs.  Lucky we had enough other food that all it caused was some a few stressful moments and a good story to share !  

Sunday was going to be a quiet and relaxing family day, however, the sun came out and as we have learned about living on the lake especially in the summer time, to do lists can wait we have more playing to do.  AND it's always more fun with buddies.

I have to admit, I'm pretty spent.  The house is a disaster, laundry is piled high and we need groceries.  However, in terms of living in the moment and making summer memories, this weekend I think we have accomplished that!  

4th of July is another holiday that reminds me how incredibly blessed we are to have amazing friends and family.

A New Landscape

Since we purchased our home we have been trying to slowly but surely make some home improvements.  One thing we knew needed attention and fairly quickly was the front yard.  

While we wanted to redo the landscape for curb appeal it was also a need because of a major drainage issue.  Our house sits below road level and being on the lake we have a very high water table, especially in the Spring.  Needless to say, our front room has taken the brunt of most of those issues.  So the plan was to rip everything out, install drainage around the house and replant a landscape which would allow for more water absorption instead of simply running water:)!  So for the past month or so this little project has been all consuming of any free time we have.

Like all projects it has been much more than we originally planned with a few more things still to be added .  But for now we are pretty settled on taking a break and enjoying the lake for the next several weeks and will finish things up later in the summer.  

The before...

 The process of beginning to cut out some of the sod.

The view from the road

Everything is pulled, we have a clean slate and ekkkk... 

One of the perks being married to a turf guy:)!!

The finished product...

Our plan is still to take up the sidewalk and replace with slate stepping stones.  We also hope to find outdoor lights we can both agree on at some point but for now we are loving the improvement !

Along the front of the house we planted limelight hydrangeas.  I cannot wait to see them with a bloom hopefully soon.

This area below has  purple rhododendrons in the back with white azaleas in front of them.   We also added shutters to the left window.  We are hoping to eventually add a white trim to the middle window but as Gregg told me "that was not in the landscaping plan", so it will have to wait for now!

Along the road side we planted various hosta, and a climbing clematis near the mailbox.  We removed one of the large trees along the street and replaced it with another purple rhododendron accented by more white azaleas.  All our neighbors think we should remove the lilac tree as well, but I am not convinced yet.  

After removing a large bush near the mailbox we realized that we needed more texture so built a small rock display with various sedum.  There is also an ornamental grass the the center focal point behind the mailbox.

We  transplanted several ferns to a small shaded section on the far side of the street.  Our hope is that they will bounce back but are not all that happy with their new home right now, so this section may have to change.  

Everything was finished with a top coat of black mulch.  It certainly added the finishing touch we were looking for.

Graham is 23 months old!

How can it be that in less than a month  this little man will be 2 years old!  Graham has grown and changed a lot since our last update.  His personality, well yes he has quite the personality.

Graham here are some of the highlights of the past few months...

Likes:

Graham you love all things trucks and tractors.  You have even started emulating the sound of each with the back up beeps and chhhh for dumping!  You are a big fan of Minnie Mouse.  Whether we are in the grocery store or you spy her on television, you never miss a Minnie sighting.  You LOVE to be outside.  It is always a battle to get inside even in the rain.  

Your personality:

You are very independent.  You want to try to do everything yourself, whether it be putting your shoes on, putting a straw into "box" (juice box), or climbing up the play structure by yourself.  You are almost 2 going on 8.  You don't understand nor think you can't do anything your brother does and you certainly are not intimated to try.  You are incredibly silly.  You love to try to find ways to make us laugh whether you put together a chain of words which sound silly together or just being goofy.  

You are opinionated! Wow you know what you want and will be sure that anyone else around also knows.  Often times this has to do with not sharing with your brother or being the center of attention.  Thank goodness Reece is so incredibly patient with you.

 Your diet:

For the most part you are a really good eater.  Graham you will pretty much eat anything from veggies, meat and fruit to donuts.  If your brother is eating it, you will DEFINITELY want whatever he is eating.  Some of your favorite food lately include yogurt, blueberries, peas, pickles, ham sandwiches or anything which you can "dip".  Just like your bother, you have a cup of chocolate milk every morning.  

Sleep:

We are still on the fence between one nap and two.  For the most part you take a morning nap around 10 am and sleep until around 12:30 ish each day.  Some days you will take a late afternoon nap but if not you go to be by 7 pm and sleep until sometime between 6 and 7 in the morning.  You are easy to put to sleep as long as you have your baby and binki.  Then we read you a book.  If Daddy is home, you insist on him putting you to bed:)!  You are quite the Daddy's boy needless to say.

Words:

You language has exploded in the past month or so.  We think that has helped with fewer meltdowns because for the most part you can really communicate what you want.  You are putting together two words now and sometimes even three.  It seems like everyday you have a new word.  For instance yesterday you said "unbuckle ease" when we were dropping Reece off at camp.  You don't discriminate between trucks and tractors, they are all trucks with the exception of some being Big trucks or like Dada truck!  Everything in the lake that looks like a duck is a geese, even Donald Duck has become Donald Geese.  The list goes on and on.  Its really fun to listen and watch you learn something new everyday.  You are such a little sponge.  

The fine print:

Its a good thing you are so darn cute because being completely honest you have a few not so nice things we are trying to work out.  You hit:((  and you hit hard.  When you don't get your way, look out for the full arm swing.  We immediately remove you from the situation whether a time out of leaving the location we are in followed with major tears.  So it is clear you understand that hitting is not ok!  Also you do not like to share, especially with Reece.  You do not want Mommy or Dada sitting next to Reece and you want everything he has.  It is a good thing he absolutely adores you and is incredibly patient with your antics.  

Graham, 

It's so hard to believe that it has been almost two years since we first met you.  We love your curiosity, your passion, your blue eyes, your sillies, and every ounce of who you are!  

We love you,

Mommy, Dada, Eecie, and Esley