I CAN NOT believe my baby is a year and a half old!! Time is FLYING and it’s so crazy! I love every single day we get with our little G man.

Here are some of my favorite things about Graham right now:

He is OBSESSED with vacuuming. Every night after dinner, without fail he will grab his little toy vacuum. He follows me around while I vacuum and will even run to the closet where we keep the real vacuum and make me get it out to help him!
He is TERRIFIED of other kids. If they even come close to him he will freak out and start to cry. Once he gets used to other kids he’s more OK with them, but it seriously is so heartbreaking.
He loves to jabber constantly, and has a ton of real words thrown in there like NO, more, cookie, ball, duck, please, car, cheese, baby, dog, cat, a million animal sounds, purple, yellow, blue, and a bunch more.
He is obsessed with music and will dance around, drum, or try and sing along.
He loves running around being chased or chasing us, squealing and yelling the whole time.
We have the best time walking to get our mail every day.
He LOVES Daniel Tiger and will say GRR when he wants to watch it.
He claps for himself after every single thing he does.
He loves coloring, reading, playing any instrument, and helping me.
He loves holding my hand and it’s the best thing ever.
He is obsessed with throwing a ball to someone at point-blank range.
He’s extremely cautious and observant but it’s so sweet to see.
He loves shopping with me, walking through the racks and copying me as I look at the clothes.

In the 1.5 years he’s been in our family he has taught me so much about myself, my capacity to love, and more. I can’t imagine my life without him.

We went to Cedar City over the weekend to be with my sister as she went through the temple. It was really special and I’m so proud of her, and super excited for her to go to Brazil in a few months on her mission!

We had a fantastic Halloween as Bert, Mary Poppins, and a dancing penguin! Randy even bought a kazoo and played the cute little song from the movie whenever Graham waddled around. We only went to a few houses but Graham LOVES candy and is super in to Halloween already!

We ate soup, went up to our neighbors and had hot chocolate and Graham was TERRIFIED of the little girls that were there. He got to wear his costume to music class and even got to trick or treat at Target! It was seriously a great Halloween! Randy said multiple times that this costume was his favorite that we’ve done, so I’m not sure how to top it next year!

We also welcomed our sweet niece Allison into the world on the 30th! Congrats to Ben and Kim!!

We had a great Halloween

We’ve had a fun few weeks, I’ve been lucky to get to go on some adventures with friends and some fun dates! Randy is seriously the best person ever to make sure I always get the things that I need, from time to work, to treats, to days of relaxation!

I had a blast going to Afternoon Tea at the Grand America with Courtney one of my very best friends. It was DELICIOUS and sooo fun to go and drink tea and just chat. She’s seriously amazing.

Randy and I also got to go to a Jazz game which was SO awesome. We got to sit courtside during the warmup which was SO cool and then we had great seats and loved watching a great game.

Randy has been SO busy with school and studying for the CPA, but we’ve made some time for some fun fall activities. Drives up the canyon, walks in the leaves, and a visit to the pumpkin patch are just a few of the things we’ve been doing.

Graham LOVED playing in the big plastic ghost at the pumpkin patch. He also was obsessed with going down the big slide. He gets a little temper-tantrumy when we stop doing things he likes and we are def trying to work on that hahaha!

He loves playing with his little pumpkin he picked out, is obsessed with pumpkin waffles and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies which makes me so proud, and is super good to wear all the cute jackets I make him wear.

He’s also started a little music class and is just in awe of all the other kids. He’s really unsure about participating, but he loves staring at the other kids and makes me sings the songs again and again and again when we get home. It’s adorable!

Randy and I also went to The Rocket Summer concert the day after we got home from DC. Bryce always puts on an AMAZING show and we had a blast. We’ve gone to TRS every year since we’ve been married and it’s always a really fun, great time.

We’re just having a great fall over here. Happy October!

A few months ago we knew Randy would be having his fall break in October, and with the upcoming CPA and then starting his accounting job, we knew we wanted to go on a family trip while we had the chance!

So we booked tickets to the next U.S. city we were wanting to see, Washington D.C.!!

We had SO much fun in D.C. and I still can’t believe how much we got done, all the yummy food we ate, and more.

Day 1: Got to the airport and Graham ran around making everyone smile. We got on the plane and saw a friend from Kaysville also heading to DC. Graham was great on the flight and watched a show, ate snacks, played with stickers. We had a short layover in Minneapolis where Randy saw the Prince store and was so excited! Grabbed McDonald’s for lunch and had to bring it on the plane because our layover was so short. Graham napped a little and was really great on the second plane ride too. He watched shows and colored and was so well behaved!
When we landed in D.C. we took a taxi to our hotel which was on the Wharf and was soooo beautiful! We saw the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial on our way to the hotel.
We went to grab a lobster roll at a food truck and a Milk Bar cookie, then off to bed!

Day 2: We woke up at 8 and had hotel breakfast. Graham loved the donuts! We figured out the local shuttle to the National Mall and had a blast walking around. We saw the Washington Monument, MLK, WWI AND WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and Lincoln memorials/monuments. Randy and I came around the corner and you can just see Lincoln sitting in the monument, and we both teared up. Korea and MLK also made me very teary. When we walked to Vietnam there was a high school class there walking by in silence and that was cool to see. We went up town to eat lunch at Le Diplomate, grabbed a Shake Shack concrete while we waited and had a delicious lunch. Randy had duck and I had mussels. We had an amazing dessert! We went back to the Mall and Graham fell asleep while we were at the Holocaust museum. It was amazing but so sad and hard. We went back to the hotel and walked around the wharf, grabbed some Shake Shack for dinner and then had a lonnnnnng night where G didn’t want to sleep!

Day 3: We woke up very early after not a ton of sleep to go to the White House. Hopped in a taxi and met up with Dallin in front of the White House and he took our stroller and backpack. We went through security and someone in front of us tried to bring in a razor blade! It was hilarious. We got into the White House and it was so amazing. Secret service said the rooms we were in are used all the time. We took pictures and had a blast. We got our stuff back from Dallin and had a delicious breakfast with him at Founding Farmers. We went to the Air and Space Museum and Graham loved playing with the buttons and seeing the planes. He was getting tired so we went to the National Gallery of Art while he slept. We saw some of our very favorite painters and it was perfect. We went back to hotel to rest for a few minutes and then it was off to the Capitol tour. The tour guide was great and told us all these fun stories about the building, statues, and more. After the tour we went to Chinatown area to have dinner. We went back to the National Mall and met up with my dad! It was a blast to hang out and to see the mall at night.
Got to the hotel and put G down, went and got Ben and Jerry’s for a treat!

Day 4: Randy woke up and went for a bike ride around the National Mall, and we he got back we had breakfast in the hotel. We got a taxi and went to Arlington National Cemetery. We loved seeing the changing of the guard and a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
We saw the graves of all the Kennedy family, Martin Ginsburg, Thurgood Marshall, and President Taft. We took the metro to Georgetown and had lunch at an Italian restaurant called Il Canale. Delicious pasta and pizza! We taste tested Baked and Wired, Laudre macaroons, Olivia Macaroons. We shopped the expensive stores and walked up to Georgetown. Tried to take a water taxi but we missed it by just a few minutes which was a bummer! We went to Hanks Oysters for dinner and had oysters and clams and lobster. Ben and Jerry’s for dessert and wandering around the wharf which was a blast.

Day 5: We had a slow morning and had hotel breakfast. We went to the Washington Monument gift shop, then grabbed a snack and waited for the Museum of Natural History to open. G LOVED the giant elephant and the animals, buttons, and everything. We loved the gems and jewelry.  We then went to The Hamilton which was so swanky and fun and delicious!!!! We shopped for a little bit in downtown, saw fords theater and the IRS and a few other buildings.
We walked to the National Portrait Gallery which was beautiful. We loved the presidential portraits and the In Mid Sentence photos. The suffrage and civil war photos were also amazing. We went to grab some gelato from Dolcezza which was super yummy.
We went to the museum of American History and saw the 1st lady dresses which were sooo beautiful. Saw the actual flag that was the inspiration for the Star Spangled Banner which was breathtaking. The George Washington by Horatio Greenbourgh was really cool. The ruby slippers and Captain America shield was cool. Met up with Dallin at Nandos and had a delicious dinner. We had to have Ben and Jerry’s dessert again to eat our feelings with how sad we were to leave D.C.

We decorated for fall this week and I’m so excited! Fall is my favorite time of the year and I’m so stoked to have sweater weather with Graham.

We went and saw Downton Abbey and had a delicious sushi dinner and it was a blast!! The movie was SOOOO good and perfect if you like the show. Love spending time with my fam!

Fall means these DELICIOUS pumpkin cookies and time with friends.

We had fun at Ashley’s wedding, until we took away Grahams popcorn and then he was NOT happy.
Right now Graham is obsessed with popcorn, stickers, drumming, his music class, saying AHH after taking a drink, magazines, pictures of Jesus, anything with buttons or makes sounds, Fish Crackers, RAMEN NOODLES (like his dad!), reading books, music and dancing, and I’m wildly obsessed with him.

This sweet young man in our ward loves playing with Graham during Sacrament Meeting. It just made me think that if Christ were in our sacrament meetings, he would be with the kids. Making sure they felt loved and seen. So my worship doesn’t have to mean silence and stillness. I can find Christ anytime.

GAH I love fall clothes on my baby!

We had to say goodbye to Clint this week and it was SO sad. Graham and Clint have such a sweet little relationship and it’s going to be so hard to be apart! But Indonesia is so lucky to have him there, and I know he’s going to have the best time.

Graham has been getting sick and it’s been a really rough week, but it’s also been so fun!

New bike riding technique I guess.

YUMMIEST ZUCCHINI BREAD EVER

We headed up the canyon for a bonfire with friends and had the BEST time. Graham loved the fire and the outdoors and we just had a blast.