Decisions decisions

This morning graham and I braved the gloomy weather and walked to my parents house. My parents were just getting ready to go to yuba city to go to a movie so my dad was in his room getting ready . My dad eventually comes out and we notice right away that Graham and my dad match. How cute. They are already best buds.

We haven't really been up to much. Preston has been working lots and had a coffee tasting thing today at Starbucks in order to get his black apron to be a Coffee Master. 

We are looking forward to Brooks & Andrea and the kids coming down in a couple of weeks. We haven't seen then since Tyler and Michele's wedding at the beginning of June. Too long. 

We are also excited to get our family pictures done by our good friend Kayla on October 19th! This will be the first time we will have our pictures done since before Graham's birth. So exciting. Now we just have to pick out the perfect outfits for all of us ;) 

In other news Preston and I have decided not to celebrate Halloween with Graham (and all other future children). I'm not going to write about all the reasons why cause it would be too long but we have decided that is what is best for our family. We will still go to the pumpkin farm though :) Just no dressing up , trick or treating, or candy. 

Still trying to decide about doing the Santa thing. We still have a few months to decide and he is so young now that he won't remember this Christmas anyways. 

Having children is tough. You have to make really tough decisions that honestly didn't cross my mind before having Graham. 

Sorry there aren't very many pictures in this post. I just got a new phone so I don't have that many pictures on this phone yet. 

I just have to add these pictures of Alice. She was blessed today and I was so excited when I got these pictures. She looked absolutely beautiful. 

What we've been up to

Last night we went on our nightly walk to Starbucks. Graham did pretty good but on the way back he started to get fussy so we decided to pick him up and carry him the rest of the way home. I held him first then Preston did. When Preston had him I looked over and saw the sweetest thing ever. Graham was laying against him. Graham never does that. He is always so intersted in what is going on around him. Needless to say, Preston enjoyed the snuggles ;) 

Before our walk I decided to go try out my parents new treadmill. I haven't worked out in probably a month because the Mosquitos have been horrible but Preston watched Graham so I was able to go run. It told Preston I wanted to try and run 4 miles. He kind of chuckled and said I would probably get to 2 since I really haven't been running a lot lately. Well....I went over to my parents with determination. When I got to mile 3 I almost stopped but I persevered and texting Preston this picture made it all worth it hahahaha 

I also went and ran 4 more miles this morning before Grahams nap. He loves watching me...it's cute. I also pinned a 30 day Ab and a 30 day squat challenge that I am going to do as well. 

It's tough being so cute;)

Watching Preston do homework. Preston knows Graham is down there and I am right there with him too. 

I put the hat they put on him right after he was born and oh my goodness he has grown so much hahahaha.

Rain

I love that it is raining today. It is such a nice change from the hot weather. The only down side is Graham and I can't go on our walks. I am trying to figure out other ways to entertain him because he gets bored very easily and likes to constantly go,go,go. Today while he was napping I went and got myself a soy pumpkin spice latte half decaf. I haven't tried any caffeine yet so hopefully it goes well with Graham and he isn't up all night. 

First picture taken with my iPad. He is getting so big. 

Morning walks

I love that it is starting to feel like fall. Graham especially loves it because that means more walks. We usually go on about 3 walks a day. One in the morning before his nap, in the late afternoon, and after dinner with daddy ;) 

Graham got to wear his fox hat that his Auntie Annie and Uncle Brooks got him. I can't wait to dress him in the onesie that matches! :)

We also went to Costa Vida (our favorite) but it is very hard to eat with a 5 month old. He is trying to grab everything. I can't blame him though ;) 

He loves chewing on wet wash cloths. Especially the ones Grandma crochets ;) 

He was playing on the floor and it got quiet so I looked down at him and he was on his side smiling at me. CUTEST THING EVER!

We also take his blue bear everywhere we go now. 

He is just oh so cute! He rolls all over the place! 

Graham's new carseat

Preston put Graham's new car seat in the car last night. I am not going to lie it makes me sad. I want to keep him little. So far he seems to like it. We haven't gone anywhere too far just to the gas station and Preston picked us up at my parents house after he got off work. Graham and I walked there and it got too hot to walk back. I reaaaaly hope he likes it. He was just starting to like his other one so lets pray he is okay with this one. 

I am pretty sure Preston and I have the most beautiful baby boy ever. (aside from our very handsome nephews ;) 

Graham's new outfit for fall!! 

Also last night while eating dinner graham was in his high chair and he reached both hands out to me to pick him up. Cutest thing ever. And this morning he was in his jumper he did the same thing to Preston. 

Lunch dates and Target trips

On Thursday Graham and I wanted to get out of the house so we went with my mom to get her nails done... I know that very soon Graham will not enjoy going with a bunch of girls to a nail salon and that is perfectly a-okay with me, but for now he will tag along ;) Its fun to get out of the house for a couple hours and I am pretty sure Graham likes all the attention he gets from all the girls in the salon.

Hanging out in the car before my mom's appointment. Can I just say I am so glad she doesn't have a job, aside from working at my dad's office a couple times a week. Graham and I would be so bored without her because we don't have a car to go anywhere. ;) We don't see her EVERYDAY because she has her own life and her own friends but the days we do get to hang out it is always fun. 

On Friday Graham, my mom and I had a lunch date with Jess and her mom Vivian at the Sandwich Spot in Yuba City. We all love the Sandwich Spot and Jess and her mom had never tried it. I had this brilliant idea that since Graham sits in out high chair at home just fine that he would be fine to sit in one at the restaurant. So, I brought my high chair cover but it was a major fail. He is still way too small for one. It made for eating and visiting more difficult. My mom held Graham while I ate and then I held Graham and bounced him because he doesn't like when we sit down and hold him.

After lunch my mom and I went to Target. I purposely left my wallet in the car (you're welcome Preston hahaha Just kidding, I have more self control than that... really!) But I still had to go and look at the clothes for Graham. Graham came across this hat and wanted to try it on because it looked like the hats his daddy wears. 

Then I went and looked at the car seats because it will be any day now that Graham will be grown out of his infant car seat, and carrying him in that car seat is almost impossible because he is so heavy. I had wanted the Britax Marathon convertible car seat and I always go look at it when I am in Target. When I saw it yesterday IT WAS ON SALE. Oh gosh what do I do now! Well, I did what any good wife would do and texted Preston with excitement but I did not purchase it. My mom got what she needed to at Target and we headed home. When we got home Preston was sent on his lunch *perfect timing* and he asked me to look on the internet to see if there was a better deal out there. There wasn't. I looked online at target.com and they were all sold out online. Panic set in.. this was a really good deal and we need one anyways so I called the Target store in Yuba City and asked if they could hold one for me and they couldn't because it was a sale item. DARN! So Preston got off work and said we could go get one (what a good guy!). So Graham upgraded to a big boy car seat yesterday. We still have to put it in the car so he hasn't tried it out yet. Hopefully he likes it! 

On our way to Target. He likes playing with the package of wipes. ;)

Also at Target we ran into Kayla and her family! It was really good seeing them and having them meet our little guy!! Kayla, we are SOOOOO excited for our Photo Session in October! :)

By the time we got in the car to go home Graham had HAD it! He was so tired! I was so proud of him because he was SUCH a good boy all day! He was crying and crying and crying. So I started to sing to him. The song that I sang is a song that usually calms him down but this time it put him to sleep. It melted my heart. It is a song that I always heard my mom singing randomly as a kid when she was being silly. 

 It goes:

"Smile and the world smiles with you sing a song. Don't be weary just be cheery all day long. Whenever your trials, your troubles and your cares seem to be more than you can really bare, just smile and the world smiles with you sing a song."

Needless to say Graham loves that song ;)

When we pulled in our driveway we saw something REALLY creepy!!!

The brake lights and head lights were on!! No one was home, it was so incredibly creepy lol. Preston looked around and couldn't find anything so he was thinking it was probably one of the neighbor cats that got under there and messed with the wiring. Who knows. 

5 months old

How is it that my little man is 5 months old. Just ONE month shy of being a half a year old! Time flies! 

Graham is getting to be so much fun (not that he wasn't before) but he is really starting to like to play and interact more. He LOVES rolling over and can sit up by himself for little periods of time. He loves going on walks which is nice because it is a nice way to break up our day and give us something to do. We both get a little stir crazy being inside all day. He also enjoys sitting in his high chair while we are in the kitchen. He loves when we read him books. He is most happy a couple minutes after he wakes up in the morning. It takes him a couple minutes to wake up though so before that he is a little cranky (umm that's from Preston!) lol. Whenever I walk out of his sight he cries. He has to know where I am at all times.  

I just love him so much!!!

Skyping Danielle

So as you know Preston's sister Danielle recently went off to school in Chicago. This girl has been all over.. She lived in Santa Barbara for a little over 2 years, studied abroad in London for 4 months and now is finishing her degree at an incredible Art Institute in Chicago. If you are friends with her on Facebook she makes college look pretty dang fun! 

We haven't talked to Dani (besides texting) since she left a couple weeks ago so last night Preston finally set up our Skype account and we got to talk to her and actually see her. It was fun. Preston and I felt really old because we couldn't figure out how to add a contact on Skype so we could talk to her but as you can see we finally figured it out. 

Some oldies.

These were taken July 2010 in Santa Barbara.

He makes me happy. Thats all :) 

Facebook

Today's post will not be your typical Graham post. I will be talking about something that I have a love/hate relationship with. As of lately its mostly a hate relationship though. It is about Facebook. I first got Facebook back in 2007 before it was really popular. Everyone was still pretty hooked on Myspace.

After a year or so of having a Facebook I finally got used to it and knew how to use and I started liking it.  I will admit that I used to update my status constantly and upload tons of pictures, including 'selfies' which now I am rather embarrassed about. But I was young ... I was naive and I am sure I annoyed many people. But I lived and I learned and I don't do that anymore.

Before I had Graham I would go through phases of getting really tired of Facebook and deactivating my account for periods of time to give myself a break. One time I even deleted all my pictures, and all my friends at an attempt to give it up completely. But I eventually gave in once again and came crawling back requesting all my friends again and uploading pictures.

Also before I had Graham I didn't really use my Facebook to do anything other than get on and look to see what people were up to. I didn't really upload a lot of pictures and definitely didn't update my status. Now I admit I do upload a lot of pictures of my son and every time I do I regret it afterwards. It is so hard to break the habit but I am trying. Which is why I started this blog.

A quote one of my Facebook friends posted the other day:

"We live in an age where we feel guilt whenever we have to cut someone off but the reality is that some relationships do need to die, some people do need to be un-followed and de-friended. We aren’t meant to be this tethered to the people in our past. The Internet mandates that we don’t burn bridges and keep everyone around like relics but those expectations are unrealistic and unhealthy. Simply put, we don’t need to know what everyone else is up to. We’re allowed to be choosy about who we surround ourselves with online and in real life, even if it might hurt people’s feelings."-Thought Catalog

I couldn't agree more with this quote. I don't think we were meant to be so connected to the people in our past, the people we don't have personal relationships with. I don't need or really want to know what  someone I went to high school with or haven't seen in years is doing.. what he/she had for lunch, etc. I don't need to know the restaurants people go to, or where they are vacationing or a picture of your new car. For once I would like to go somewhere and not think/feel like "Oh I should take a picture of where I am and what I am doing to put on Facebook for everyone to see" I just want to live in the moment. I am tired of living through Facebook! (I do like to see what certain people are up to, people who I have relationships with) 

How freeing it would be to un-friend those people who really aren't putting any value into your life, or maybe those people who are clearly showing off/constantly bragging on Facebook. I am definitely not saying I haven't fallen prey to any of the above things because I have. Facebook makes it easy. 

I think Facebook also makes relationships too easy. I already know what so and so is up to so I really don't have to make an effort in my relationship with them. 

So you ask why I just don't deactivate my Facebook yet once again?? Well, I like to see what my family is up to that don't live near me or that I don't see a lot. (Andrea you should start a blog :) 

I started this blog in hopes that I could get out of Facebook. I made this blog private because I like to know who is reading my stuff, and I also only want people to read it who really want to and who really care about what we are up to. 

I do know that everyone will not have the same views as me about Facebook and that is completely okay. Some people think it is great to be connected to everyone and that is great.. but it isn't me and I will always have this constant battle in my head of "to delete it or not to delete it." 

If you made it to the end of this post thank you for reading my little rant of the day! :)

Also if you are reading this and we are friends on Facebook please don't think that I don't like to see what you guys are up to because everyone that reads this blog I enjoy having as my friend on facebook. Just wanted to put that out there ;)