Graham Siblings

I feel like we've been having visitors here every weekend (almost true). I love it! We've been very blessed to have family travel so far to come see us. This last weekend was so much fun. We got to have Mike's sister Stephanie, his brother Nathan, and Nathan's wife Heidi here. Stephanie flew in from Wisconsin and Nathan and Heidi flew in from Boston on Friday morning. They even managed to find flights that arrived within five minutes of eachother. Nice! We kept the weekend pretty low-key which was just perfect. The kids definitely kept us all well-entertained. We played a lot of Hungy Hungry Hippo, had some tea parties, played lots of trains and cars, had some fun story times, and Auntie Heidi even got to join Jeremiah in his Thomas tent!



If you ask the kids though, they'd probably tell you that THIS was the highlight of our time together over the weekend...

Of course, we took our walk to the park down the street. We thought we'd be able to show them some warm Texas weather, but it was surprisingly chilly. We just bundled the kids (and cut our park date short).
Sunday was a fun day. We brought them to our church in Plano, and I think they all really enjoyed it. I always love listening to the choir (with 300 people in the choir, it's hard NOT to like it!) and the 30-person orchestra. What a great way to start the day. This was also the first time we brought the kids in with us instead of having them go to their classrooms. They pretty much sat wide-eyed with jaws open when they first heard the choir. Too cute! After church, we all went to our friend's Kathy and Suresh's house for a lunch (and Vikings vs Cowboys game). Having them near is almost like having family around. They've been long-time friends of my in-laws, so it was an entertaining afternoon for everyone. They put out a big flag in honor of Mike and had a bit of a going-away send-off with a cake topped like an American flag. How sweet. How lucky are we to have them living 15 minutes away!

Nathan and Heidi stayed a couple days later than Stephanie (much thanks to the weather in Boston preventing them from going home). What a great surprise! (Though Nathan would have probably been okay with keeping on schedule with his patients). We thought it was great! The first time Nathan and Heidi left, Jeremiah kept saying "mo may-fin an auntie heidi. No bye bye". Needless to say, he was THRILLED when Mike got their phone call asking us to come back to the airport and pick them up again. I forgot that Heidi was in gymnastics as a child. She was quite a shock to Brooklyn as she showed off her mad gymnastics skills at the park :-).

Mike couldn't let them leave without showing off his amazing line dancing skills (with the help of a nice pair of boots). Before moving here, I would have never imagined Mike doing this (and enjoying it)!

We miss everyone already! Thanks for sacrificing your time and in Stephanie's case, your family (a big THANKS to Kyle!). We really love you guys.

Oma and Opa!

We had a wonderful visit with Oma and Opa. They added on quite a few hours of driving to include us on their trip to Tucson, but a long morning of driving didn't stop them from diving into a good game of Memory with Brooklyn (the minute they walked in the door!) or zooming Jeremiah's cars across the floor with him. (I even caught Jerry side-skipping down the hall with Jeremiah at one point..how fun!).



They got here around 1:00 in the afternoon and stayed until after 7:00pm. It was so much fun! They both got many good snuggles and kisses from all the kids (Opa even took a little nap with Savannah on the couch :-) ), read lots of good books, raced a lot of cars, and had a delicious tea party put on by Brooklyn.


Thanks for driving all that way, Jerry and Joan. We love you!

Anxiously Awaiting Oma and Opa

It's no exaggeration to say that our children really are very happy almost all the time.Today though, they were beyond happy (is that even possible?). All they've been talking about for the past four days is, "how many more minutes 'til Oma and Opa come". They were off the walls (literally!) all morning.They could not stop giggling. Anything I said just put them rolling on the floor with the cutest little gut laugh. They turned random objects into "hats", "telescopes", "hoppers" (anything that allowed them to hop), and ran everywhere. Where did this energy come from and can I please have some??)



It was also a fun day because Savannah used her Bumbo for the first time! Her neck is so strong, she does GREAT in it! I couldn't help but think she looks a lot like Jeremiah at this age, so I had to dig up a picture. He's actually almost 4 months old in this picture, but they are similar in size.

Happy 2 Month Brithday, Savy!

Savannah is two months old today. Wow, time flies. This little girl is all smiles and full of good stories. She holds her head up so well and already prefers to be facing away from me when she's in the Moby. She likes to see everything and everyone around her. What a smart girl! Pacifiers are definitely a thing of the past (though they were hardly a 'thing' at all for her). If she wants soothing, her preference is to snuggle in my arms and take a walk/dance around the house (lucky me!). She has a nice little bald spot on the back of her head, but so far it looks like we won't need to shave the rest of her hair :) (we love you, Hadley!). One of her favorite things (and always has been) is getting patted on the butt. It'll often put her right to sleep.

She had her 2 month well baby check and has really grown (I mean, REALLY!). She's 24.25" tall (putting her just at the 100th percentile) and 13lb 14oz (putting her just below the 100th percentile). I about fell over when I saw those numbers. The Pierson baby genes really did sneak up on her :-).

Holiday with the Pierson's

We were very lucky to have some of my family come visit us over the holidays. My parents, my sister Kiki and her boyfriend Nick drove down New Years Eve from Wisconsin and were able to stay a couple days. How lucky were we! They got here around 7:30pm on New Years Eve, and the kids were ecstatic! Thinking they wouldn't get into town until later, we had planned on not letting the kids stay up, but my family's early arrival was definitely worth keeping them past their bedtime (afterall, it was New Years Eve, right?). With all the driving they had done (and with us just being parents of three), we barely made it to midnight (Sad? Yes. I'm okay with sleeping though).

We like to take our guests to our favorite park, so Friday morning we all walked down the street and had a lot of fun running around for a while. The boys got to play a little football (as Brooklyn and Jeremiah attempted to catch up with them!) and the girls...well...didn't.


We got a few looks from other parents there (whose children were bundled in winter coats, hats, and scarves), but mostly directed at my sister, haha! A true Wisconsin resident who showed up at the park wearing capri sweats, a t-shirt, and flip flops (with her other half wearing shorts and a t-shirt). Hilarious. There was rare a moment that Savannah was not in someones arms. What a loved little girl! All the kids were so loved (and spoiled with way too many gifts!) over the weekend. It just felt so refreshing having family in town. And what a drive for them! After the kids went to bed that night, the adults played The Name Game. Oh my word, I don't remember the last time I've laughed so hard. In fact, I've never seen so many people laughing so hard for so long...ever! Tears (and possibly a mouthful of my water...sorry Mike) everywhere. Saturday morning, I had a piano student, so everyone else went back to the park for part of the morning. Apparently it was a bit chillier out that day. Fortunately, Mike had brought blankets in the stroller and Brooklyn got to wear grandma's coat (so cute!). Kiki brought back all these really adorable pictures and videos of everyone all bundled up. She was able to capture the cutest little story-teller talking about her favorite princess...Ariel. In Auntie Jenna's words, "she's in love with love" already.

I also heard some stories of how the weather created a not-so-happy Jeremiah, but my family jumped at the opportunity for snuggles in the park :-). Sigh...someday we'll see them more often. For now, we like being the hosts for winter 'vacationers'. Thanks for making the trip down, guys! We love you!