Splish Splash...when can I take a bath?!?!

Graham and 1 month, 1 week.
Graham at 3 months.

Graham definitely got his water bug gene from his mommy! I haven't been around a ton of babies but I have never seen a child LOVES baths like my little fish. You put him in the tub and a smile consumes his entire face and the legs get to kicking. He does this adorable thing with his arms where he looks like he is doing a combination of throwing punches and the chicken dance. I could watch it for hours...and he could do it that long too but he'd turn into a raisin so we usually cut it short at about 20 minutes. Besides, I don't like raisins.

When bath time is over, Graham loves to lay in his changing pad portion of his pack and play and love on his paci (binky). He doesn't really like it often, but after bath time he loves to just lay wrapped in his towel relax with his paci.

Then Daddy and I rub him down with his night time Johnson's lotion and into his jammies he goes. He loves bath night and it's such a great time for us to just slow down and spend time together loving on each other as a family.

Hold Me...

Graham and Maw Maw at 4 weeks old.
Passed out with Daddy at 1 week old. (They played really hard to get this tired)

So Graham LOVES to be held. When I say loves to be held I mean unless he is passed out asleep he has to be in someones arms. Now this is fun and great and I love it but here's a picture for you visual people...holding a newborn while sweeping, cooking, doing laundry, feeding the dog and cat, watching tv...you get the point. Not only does he have this need to be held, but you have to be moving/walking/bouncing/rocking/gliding/waddeling/ANYTHING. But it sure is helping me lose that baby weight!

Oh...and I proudly blame Maw Maw (thats my mom) for this cause when she comes to visit he barely coo's and shes right there picking him up. He's not a bit spoiled...no way...nope....HA! :)

Our "FRAMILY"...thats squishing our friends into our family...

Lindsey and Trevor

Jamie and Chelsea

Danielle, Mark and Danica

Erica and Jon

Nick and Mary Helen

We are so blessed to have such amazing friends who lived Graham before he was even born. Some stood by my side for years while we were hoping to get pregnant and others we met right when we needed them most during the months of preparation for the arrival of our little angel. All of these people (plus many others) have been very involved in Graham's life and we are so thankful for them. :)

I'm in labor...oh no I'm not...

Proud Papa

First Family Photo

The Moment I Fell In Love

Labor for me was not like you see it in the movies. You know, the 'oh it's time, get the bag and meet me in the car NOW' kinda situation. Labor for me was 'hhhmmm, I think I just wet the bed...nope maybe not, yea maybe I did...I guess I'll shower now...hhhmmm, should I wake up Brandon, no I'm not in labor...wow that hurts...maybe I am in labor...(shake Brandon, no response)...no I'm not in labor...oh my gosh, why am I in such pain...(shake Brandon harder)...I think we're about to have a baby...oh no I'm not...yea theres time for you to shower....oh wait I need to be in an ambulance NOW!' As you can see it was very back and forth. This lasted the whole way to Eau Gallie High to write his lesson plan and on to the hospital. Sure enough, my water had broke and I was in full blown labor, I guess I'm just a tough guy (ha ha yea right) and was able to handle the pain differently.

In the hospital at 7 AM, epidural by 9:30 AM, started pushing at 1:40 and had a perfect healthy son by 2:13 PM. God is good.

9 months in 5 minutes!

At about 8 weeks

Just days before he was born.

(Sorry the pics are sideways, I couldn't find an easy way to flip them. Don't worry, your not missing much...either way I was HUGE!!)

Ok...so at this point in this little story I'm pregnant, I've got morning sickness that last 25+ hours a day and I'm getting physically sick so often that I thought I was going to throw up my unborn son. Sorry, kinda gross I know but at least you only have to read about it and you didn't have to be there!

However, I did LOVE the nurses at my docs office because when I would go in and step on that dreaded scale they would always silde the little number thing to the group of numbers LESS than my actual weight. When I would mumble something along the lines of 'gotta bump that thing up' they would make comments like 'wow, looks can be decieving' or 'and I thought I was pretty good at this thing.' LOVE them! ;)

Before it was all said and done, I managed to gain an insane amount of weight which was amazing considering how sick I was the whole time. People say that all pregnancies are different and I sure hope that with the next one I don't feel near as sick as I did with little Graham! They also said that I would forget all the bad stuff...I can't say that I've forgotten but everytime I look at the little guy I know it sure was worth it.

WAKE UP---We're having a baby!!!!

Right after I told my sister...she cried. :)
Us being silly...what's new? Yes, I had to get the one that said 'Pregnant'-none of that guessing stuff for me.

So it wasn't actually till 2 days later, while visiting my mom in Kentucky that we bought the pregnancy test. My sis (also visiting mom) and I ran into a CVS and picked one up and I don't even think B even knew what I was buying. He was definitely shocked the next morning when I came tearing out of the bathroom at 7 AM and jumped on the bed waving the test around and giggling uncontrollably. His response 'What is that thing your holding?'

Needless to say he was excited but didn't want to really really get excited till he knew for sure. See I knew for sure because I couldn't brush my teeth without dying...but he need confirmation so he made me take 3 more tests (all positive). It wasn't until he saw the little heartbeat on the screen at the first ultrasound that he really was convinced that this was happening. :)

I know I'm brushing my teeth...but I NEED to lay down!

We were visiting Tennessee for our good buddy Ted's wedding. It was a wonderful trip to a beautiful place to see one of Brandon's best friends happier than we had ever seen him. We woke up the morning after the wedding (no, there was no drinking involved) and I was brushing my teeth. I got SO dizzy and the hotel room started spinning. I layed down flat on my back, starfish style (that means arms and legs everywhere) with my tooth brush sticking straight out of my mouth. A few minutes later it was either drown in my spit (gross) or drag my lifeless body off the bed. Neither were good options, but I went for the latter. I turned to B and said 'I think we need to out and buy a pregnancy test.' His response was priceless 'Ok, and while we're out...can we get some breakfast?!' Love him.

Play Time!!!!

During the first 3 years of marriage Brandon and I played and we played hard! We went to countless professional and college baseball and football games, frequented Sea World so often they probably know our names, racked up frequent flyer miles traveling to Chicago, KY, MD, and tons of trips to LA. We watched movies, Broadway plays, musicals, rode roller coasters, explored underwater caves, ate picnics and took many self guided kayak tours. We've watched hundreds of baketball games-from high school to NBA and I've enjoyed the transformation of my husband into a passionate coach. You name a zoo or aquarium in FL and I bet we've been there.

But in June of 2009 we cruised the Bahamas on a trip that would forever change our lives. Somewhere between Miami, FL and Atlantas, Nassau we experienced God's most amazing miracle--and I'm not talking about the cruiselines to-die for sour apple martini, although they are SOOOOO good!

Our dream was coming to life...in the form of little Graham.

Oh-and about those martinis...he turned out ok so I guess I didn't drink too many. ;)

Wedding-check, Honeymoon-check, whats next...

Wrigley with a baseball...such a Daddy's boy BIG happy family
We will always miss you my Bella bear. You taught me how to love something so deeply that you lose sight of yourself and I am thankful for that.

Brandon moves in (YAY!!!!) and we begin our life together. Bella (my fur baby of 10 years) gets demoted from bed to dog bed. Ugh. But it's ok because although she was super cuddly, I don't mind replacing her with something much less stinky.




I need something to baby and Bella needs a friend so along comes Sir Wrigley Palmer of Fairhaven a.k.a. Wiggles, Mr. Wrigley, Baby Dog, Num-nuts, Rigatoni, 'Wow, you should put a saddle on that thing'...he answers to them all.




They've brought countless hours of memories and enough belly laughs to give me a six pack--which I will one day find again once this baby weight decides to go away. Although we now have Graham, 'our fur babies' will always be 'our first babies.'

Honeymooning with my Honey

Alright so now that we're all married up it's time for the honeymoon. We decided to go all out on this one. Never in our lives will we ever have the time or money to go to Tahiti (or so our self convincing train of thought went) so why not start this marriage off right, right?! Brandon had never left the country, I had hardly even heard of Tahiti but when that plane landed I knew we had made the best choice EVER!

Here Comes The Bride

6 very short months later we tied the knot. (What does that mean anyway--I don't remember any knots) It was the most amazing day of my life. Not only because I had the love of my life pledging himself forever (in tears--so cute) but I had all of my family and friends there to witness this event. Great, great memories.

Let's begin at the beginning

December 25, 2005 children all over the world were waking up to a living room full of presents. This girl woke up to her 'present' down on one knee requesting her hand for the rest of their lives...she said yes. :)

Welcome!

It has been weighing on my heart lately to start this website so that I can share all of the special moments that we are experiencing with all of you. Every day with Graham is such an amazing blessing and many of you are not here to experience this personally so my hope is to involve you using this website. I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I will enjoy bragging on my precious miracle.