New Couches to Go with Our New Baby

Josh and I bought our first house in April of 2005, and we bought LOTS of new furniture then to fill up our house!  Most of our furniture is still going strong, but after two moves, and LOTS of use, our couches were not holding up so well.  We knew this, but we weren't sure when to pull the trigger and actually buy new couches.  We saw a random ad before Memorial Day, and that really kick-started our shopping.  We found a deal we just couldn't pass up, and shortly after coming home from the hospital with Graham, our new couches were delivered!!!

The new love seat, recliner, and sofa all match, and all but the middle seat on the sofa recline!!!  WOO HOO!!!  Not to worry, but Josh's beloved blue recliner has been relocated to the front room :)

It had bothered me for a while that our coffee table and side tables didn't match, but it was not as noticeable with the old couches.  We decided to move the coffee table out and bring our matching end tables back into the family room (they had been re-purposed around the house before).  The only problem this presented was a lamp between the recliner and the sofa.  We had originally had a table there that had a lamp attached.  That was perfect since a tall, floor lamp was bulkier than I wanted in that space, and a lamp on the table would take up all table space.  After a little investigation, Josh realized the table with the lamp attached really just consisted of a hole drilled through the table for the lamp to sit in.  He quickly turned our end table into a table with a lamp attached!  It's perfect and I LOVE it!!!

Welcome to Graham's Room!

I checked out LOTS of different decorations for Graham's room, but we ended up decorating it almost identically to Jackson's original room since we loved it so much :)

The border we found was a bit different, but they now make awesome matching decals!  I bought a couple packs of the decals to go with the border.  I chose some to frame in plain, wooden frames I painted dark, brown.

And, then we hung some around the closet doorframe!

Graham has yet to sleep in his cute room, but it sure makes me smile each time I walk into it :)

Father's Day 2012

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DADDY!

xoxo

Jackson and Graham!

SO excited to have this little guy to celebrate Josh being a father of TWO!!!

I felt bad that I wasn't in any shape to make the day as special as I usually try to, but Josh was happy to hang out as a family, and then enjoy Emily and Josh's company for dinnertime!  Em and Josh came over to meet Graham, and they brought Jackson the awesome Spiderman toy he is holding above!  He was pumped since Spiderman shoots three different spiderwebs from his hands!

Emily picked out these awesome flip-flops for Graham!  He is definitely all set for the beach this year!

Josh and Em gave Jackson these swords for his birthday, and Jackson couldn't wait to play swords with Uncle Josh!

Itty bitty baby snuggles :)

Enjoying dinner on the deck!  Graham kept us company while we had pork chops, cheesy grilled potatoes, and then lava cakes for dessert!

This little face is so cute popping over shoulders!

Daddy and Jackson :)

First Walks

Sooo, I'm pretty sure we took Graham out for his first walk a day or two after getting home.  However, I kept forgetting to take pictures!  Mind you the camera came with us on each of those first walks, it just didn't get used :/

So, here are pictures of Graham clearly enjoying his "first" walk in the neighborhood ;)  Another reason I love our neighborhood is that we have people that we are truly friends with, not just neighbors, who are happy to see us when we come outside!  Everyone was so anxious for us to get home so they could meet and welcome Graham!  I clearly remember our first little walk with Jackson, but it was really without any pomp and circumstance since we never really got to know any neighbors.  It is a bit overwhelming sometimes if everyone happens to be playing outside when we come out to walk, but it really does make my heart happy to see Jackson's friends so excited to meet his baby brother, and for me to chat with other moms who have become such good friends in the past year!

This picture is of Jackson and Graham ready to take an "adventure" down to 7-11!  Josh took Mimi to the airport in the afternoon, and I successfully got Graham fed and both boys ready to head outside by myself!  I was quite proud of my accomplishment :)

Birthday Gardening :)

My mom and dad gave me two of these cool self-watering flower boxes for my birthday!  I waited for my mom to get into town to go shopping for flowers and to plant in the boxes--she really enjoys gardening, and is pretty good at it too!  We went to Lowe's and picked out flowers, along with some hanging baskets to finish up our landscaping in the front flower bed.  Jackson was an excellent helper in planting the flowers :)

He really liked choosing which flowers to go next.

Getting the flowers out of their holder.

Jackson was equally excited to help Daddy water the flowers since it meant using the hose!

The finished front box.  It is hanging off of the railing on the side of the porch.

An outside view.

The second box is hanging off of the side of the deck.

Our finished front yard all spruced up!  The builder landscaped for us before we moved in, but after living here for a year we wanted to change a few things up.  We swapped out two junipers that flanked the whole house.  They relocated to the back of the side yard on the right side of the house near the basement stairs.  We planted a forsythia bush instead on the left side up front and a butterfly bush on the right side up front.  We left the boxwoods alone.  We kept two azaleas (the healthiest ones since they weren't doing well, overall), and moved the two, seemingly dead ones to the back side yard by the junipers.  These were all things we were crazy about, but we couldn't bear to throw them out.  We just hid them a little...  We added two guacamole hosta and two purple salvia to the front.  The hanging baskets give a little height to the whole area, and we called it done!  I am REALLY pleased with what we decided on and am so grateful to all the manual labor Josh put in planting and re-planting things!  Thanks to him and Mom, I smile even bigger each time I pull up to the house :)

Little Brothers Are Awesome!

Such a tiny little guy!

JUST like Jackson used to sleep on our shoulders!

This picture turned out perfectly: Little Brothers ARE Awesome!  (So are big ones!)

I am definitely soaking up how easy to please Graham is: feed, change, snuggle, repeat.  However, I did forget how time consuming those simple tasks are.  Sometimes I feel like the only quality time I get with Jackson is reading stories before bed!  That works out well, however, since he can either get in his snuggles with Graham while I read, or I can multi-task and read while I feed Graham.

Susie, Joe, and Rachel came over again for lunch and hanging out!  

The socks are hilarious!  

Jackson LOVES sitting with whichever one of us is holding Graham and all snuggling together.  I LOVE that we have a little boy who routinely asks, "Do you wanna snuggle with me?"

What more could a little boy ask for besides Mimi reading stories and holding his baby brother?

Sleeping SO hard!

Have I mentioned exactly how much we are loving having my mom here???  I keep hoping she will just go home to attend Larry and Michelle's wedding shower and give her two-week notice at work and then come back here full-time...  A girl can hope, right?  I LOVE watching her and Jackson together--they have such a sweet relationship.  And, selfishly it's nice having her around to chat, shop, and watch girly things on TV :)  I am dreading her leaving tomorrow...

Graham is doing pretty well.  We have our sleeping arrangements figured out--he is supposed to sleep in the Pack-n-Play on Josh's side of the bed.  He gets up to re-plug Graham with the pacifier and hand him to me when he is ready to eat.  He is able to sleep through just about anything and falls back asleep pretty fast after he performs his "duties." Unfortunately, Graham has been awake with tummy troubles and a need to be held quite a few nights. I wake up when I hear the littlest noise, but apparently I've been sleeping through Graham's fussiness and Josh sitting up for hours holding him RIGHT NEXT TO ME in bed!  Graham seems to be settling into what WE want the sleep routine to be--HA HA!

My mom and I have ventured out with both boys a couple of times, and it has gone well.  It's definitely going to take some getting used to now that we are back to packing a diaper bag, traveling with a stroller, and needing more time to get ready to leave the house.  I'm sure we'll get it all figured out soon!

The Rest of Graham's First Week

We were barely home before it was time to take Graham for his first pediatrician visit!  We went in yesterday morning and saw Dr. Parente.  She said Graham looked great :)  By the time we got home, we were all ready for a nap!

Jackson practicing his new favorite hobby!

Jackson asking me to kiss him while he kissed Graham :)

Susie, Joe, and Rachel came over to visit!  Joe and Rachel loved getting to meet Graham!

Even though she has already met Graham, Susie was not shy about getting in more snuggles :)

Graham trying out Jackson's little blue chair!

I was inside pumping while Jackson napped and Mom was at the grocery store.  I had left Josh on the porch with Graham, and when I came back outside, I found this cute girl with her face painted holding my baby!  It was a funny site :)

Aimee meeting Graham!  He will soon join our weekly walking team :)

We have not seen Tish and Will in so long, and had not met their daughter, Madelyn, yet, and they just happened to be in town this weekend!!!  It worked out perfectly for them to come hang out AND meet Graham!

Graham's first bath--he was NOT a fan!  Jackson does not seem fazed by his crying, and was happy to help us and to help soothe his brother.

Clean and snuggly :)