Graham is Seven Months Old!

All of a sudden time is flying!!!  I do feel like I'm doing a pretty good job of truly enjoying Graham each day, but the first few months went much more slowly...

 First things first, Jackson still LOVES being a Big Brother!  He wants to see Graham first thing each morning, and gets excited every time Graham wakes up and comes to see him :)  Graham LOVES his Big Brother just as much, if not more!  He watches everything he does, and is usually entertained!  Graham does not help our cause when we are reminding Jackson to be gentle, because he laughs at just about everything Jackson does.  BOYS!  LOL

 Graham went for his flu booster shot, and I got to weigh him--21 pounds!!!  CRAZINESS!  I checked Jackson's records, and he was around 21 pounds at a YEAR old!  Graham is just about to outgrown his infant seat :(  That will sure make running around a little different...

 Graham started eating sold food this month!  He eats a tub of fruit mixed with about a quarter cup of cereal in the morning and then a tub of veggies mixed with cereal for dinner.  Funny enough, he is not nursing any less!  

 Graham continues to show us his fantastic sense of humor, and we really can't help but be in a good mood when we are playing with him :)  We just love our little family of four!

Meet Sal!

This year, we received our own Elf on the Shelf for the Smith family! 

 He arrived, with this letter from Santa, on December 2nd just after quiet time.  Santa said he noticed our pile of wrapped books under the tree, and he wanted to leave this special one for us to read.  He also explained that he left us our own elf to keep watch and report back to him!

 We immediately read the book Santa left and had to decide what to name our elf.  Jackson chose.  Meet Sal the Elf!

 We counted down the days to Christmas by unwrapping one book each night to read at bedtime.  These are books we already owned.  I just grabbed them out of the Christmas bins before Jackson had a chance to see them and wrapped them up!

Morning #1: Sal in Christmas tree!

Morning #2: Sal conducting storytime for Pez friends!

Morning #3: Sal hanging from mini-blind cord!

Morning #4: Sal hanging from Graham's ceiling fan!

Morning #5: Sal hanging out in Jackson's little Christmas tree!

Morning #6: Sal racing cars!

Morning #7: Sal hanging on to curtains in front room!  We had gone out of town for one night the day before, so Sal was looking to see when we came home :)

Morning #8: Sal in Josh's stocking!

Morning #9: Sal colored a picture in Jackson's coloring book!

Unfortunately, Sal was knocked over TWICE that day!  We felt bad, so we wrote him an apology note and left him a snack (Chex cereal with Nutella and sprinkles on it).

He ate some and crumpled up his note in the process...while we were reading stories before bed on the couch!

Morning #10: Sal taking a bath!  He had to clean up since he got messy the night before ;)

Morning #11: Sal in the fridge...AND he turned our milk into Christmas milk!!!

Morning #12: Sal playing Candy Land with his friends!

Morning #13: Sal peeking out of the cabinet!

During the day, Sal moved all around!  Jackson randomly asked why Sal didn't have a bell (NO idea where this came from!).  When Sal moved to the glass cabinet he had a bell!

Peeking out of a drawer!

Peeking out of another drawer...with a frog!

Sal hanging out on the pantry door!

Sal upside down from the drawer!

Morning #14: Sal watching a movie under the tree!  He hopped all around the day before, so he needed a little R&R :)

Morning #15: Sal in the drink cooler sipping air through a straw!

Morning #16: Sal doing puzzles in Jackson's room!  There was a little puzzle trail of pieces from Jackson's bed to where Sal was sitting :)

Morning #17: Sal on top of the clock!

Morning #18: No Sal!!!  Instead, Santa left a note (and some small snowglobes in Graham and Jackson's stockings) explaining that Sal reported we were heading to Mimi and Bampa's house.  He sent Sal ahead to wait for us!  

Morning #19: Sal in the Christmas tree at Mimi and Bampa's house!!!

Morning #20: Sal spelled his name out of holiday M&Ms!

Morning #21: Sal hanging from Mimi and Bampa's chandelier!

Christmas Eve: Sal snuck over to sit by the presents under the tree before Jackson went to bed :)

On Christmas morning, Santa left another note explaining that he knew Mimi had an accident and wasn't home.  He asked Jackson to help him out by taking her presents to her!  He also explained that Sal went home with him that night, but would come back to our family next Christmas season :)  Jackson had SO much fun with Sal, and I know he will be thrilled when he arrives again next year!

New Year's Day Fun!

On New Year's day, we hung out at Mimi and Bampa's getting packed and trying to leave the house in some sort of order after we totally took over it for 10 days!  In the late afternoon we headed to hang out with Mimi for dinner and a game again.  Jackson got Sequence for Kids, so we took that with us.  It went much quicker than Trouble the night before ;)

Bampa and Graham deciding what card to play :)  They were a good team!

Bampa and Daddy went to pick up Potbelly sandwiches for dinner.  Mimi and Jackson read one of his new books while I walked Graham around to get him to take a nap in the stroller.

I know it was so hard for my mom to not get to hold Graham (and Jackson), so we tried to get him as close to her as possible!

Not an awful attempt at a group picture...

Jackson was rolling a fire truck back and forth with Bampa.  Graham clearly thought this was fantastic!!!  I just love the looks on his face in all of these pictures!

This was the last time we visited with Mimi, and it was SO hard to leave :(  The last few days, we were able to have some really fun visits--I know Jackson enjoyed reading and playing games with Mimi!  It will be nice to look forward to a more "normal" visit soon!

Welcome 2013!

Starting when we welcomed 2009, I have made Jackson a special New Year's Eve hat, and I couldn't wait to make TWO this year!!!  Here is Graham earlier in the day trying his on for size :)

He LOVED it!

Oops!

We headed over to spend the evening with Mimi!  We ordered pizza and played Trouble!  Graham and Bampa were a team for a bit.

Daddy and Jackson were a team, and it took them a ridiculous amount to time to "roll" a 6 (you can only take out a guy when you roll a 6).  At one point Josh started doing silly things when they rolled to change their luck.  Holding their hair finally did it!

Happy guys!

Then they held their chins!

Jackson with his 2013 hat! (I can't believe this is the FIFTH hat I've made him!!!)

This face looks awfully familiar to Jackson's five years ago...

Happy 2013!  We hope all of our friends and family have a wonderful year :)