Disneyland

On the 26th we headed to Disneyland! We had so much fun.  Graham did awesome! He loved the rides we went on, which included Dumbo,  the carousel, small world, casey's train and the storybook boat. It was so fun watching him look around and be so excited and happy.  Loved it.  Most of the really cute pictures are on Josh's phone so I'll have to add those later. Fun day.

Christmas Eve

A tradition of the Gillette family is to walk around the LA temple on Christmas Eve then have treats and hot chocolate.  I love it.  The temple is so pretty.  

Christmas Morning

I just can't stop taking pictures.  It's so fun to get the camera out and capture Graham's little smiles and laughs.  These aren't perfect but they help to capture Graham's first Christmas.  It was so fun watching him get excited about each toy.  I've never seen him crawl so fast to get a new toy! It was so fun. 

Manhattan Beach love

I miss living near the beach.  It is absolutely beautiful.  Although I am glad that Graham does not get the opportunity to eat sand everyday, because apparently he thinks it is worth more than one handful...

I love that Katelyn enjoys Graham.  She loves when he is in the same room and she is so cute with him! She is always making sure he is okay.  So cute! I hope they can always be good friends.

 Love them.

9 months

I love my fun size baby boy.  He is army crawling, kind of.  He has his own way of getting where he wants to go.  Despite his size he is a great eater. The dr said he probably won't be getting teeth for awhile.  Love him.

Thanksgiving and swings

We feel so blessed to be living in Denver.  We love living near grandma and grandpa Mickelsen and Lane and Jerry.  We are grateful that we could spend Thanksgiving with them again this year.  It was wonderful.  Graham loved the sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie.  The food was all amazing.

 On a nice sunny day Graham and I walked a couple blocks to the park.  He got to swing for the first time and he enjoyed it.  We also found out that he likes the stroller much better if he can listen to some music. Thank goodness our stroller has a speaker for him.  And don't worry, not all his pants are this short.  It's hard to dress him since the pants that fit his waist are short and the ones that fit in length fall right off.  At least he is cute no matter what his pants look like.

These are a few of my favorite things...

Not all these pictures are amazing, but they all represent something I love each and every day. 

Sorry for the bare bum, but I love this little body.  He loves to look at the water as it fills the bathtub. 

 One of his parents really wants Graham to be able to crawl.  This is his attempt so far.  He reaches as far as he can and when his arms will stretch no farther, the leg goes up.  He has been pretty successful at getting cheerios this way. I love it every single time. And I am not the one that wants him to crawl.  He is rolling fast enough for me.

 The scowl. He gets mad anytime we feed him food he doesn't like.  The list includes any meat, green beans I have made (he'll eat the jarred ones fine), avocado and cheese.  

 The cutest batman ever.

 The scowl.  again.  This time it was because his cheerio was too far away.  It is in the very left hand corner. 

 Every morning Graham and I have a picnic in the living room. He loves it. 

 When I first put him in the front seat in the cart he held on for dear life.  He did not let go the entire shopping trip. 

Such a sweet little face. 

8 months

 Graham is so much fun.  He still sleeps a lot, but it has been more lately since he hasn't been feeling well.  He got croup this weekend and it was no fun for anyone.  I tried to enjoy holding him every second of the day, but even 13 pounds get heavy after awhile.  We had a lot of snuggle time and I was grateful that he was able to fall asleep in my arms, something he has struggled doing since he was 3 months old.  After getting a steroid  he is doing much better and is able to sleep in his crib and breathe a lot easier.

Before he was really sick we went to Gavin's 3rd birthday party where Graham was able to dress up in his very own batman cape and mask.  He did really well with the cape and he tolerated the mask for a minute or so, then he pulled it down over his eyes, but I thought he looked really cute.  Thanks Chelsea for making him a cape, it is so cute! I stole this picture from her blog but I'll try to get more pictures of him at 8 months when he is feeling better.

This is a picture someone else took of us before Josh's swearing-in. It's not the greatest quality since I took it from their website but I love my little family and I am so grateful for my boys.  They are the best. 

so proud

This month we have done a lot of celebrating.  Josh passed the bar exam!  He did really well on it actually and we are super excited to be done with it.  On Monday the 29th he was sworn in as an attorney that is able to practice in the state of Colorado.  It feels so great to feel done with the whole process (one of the speakers said to not say that because it is never really "done" but I'm going to anyways because it feels pretty good).

I am so proud of Josh.  He has worked so hard in law school and then he studied a ton for the exam and now he is really an attorney.  He really is amazing and he makes me want to be better everyday.  The night he was sworn in I went to a friends house after the ceremony.  When I got home I found a clean house, dishes done and clothes folded and put away.  He had spent all day working and then he came home and served me.  He is truly wonderful.

It is hard to get a picture of someone next to you standing, but here is a picture of Josh taking the Oath. 

 We went out to eat after the ceremony and Graham liked lounging in the high chair sucking on squash.  It was the only way to keep him from screaming. The foot up makes me laugh.

 Is this not the cutest little tiger you ever did see?  He'll even grunt at you like I'm sure baby tigers do.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Pumpkin Patch

Maybe it is silly, but I really wanted a cute picture of Graham in a pumpkin patch.  We headed to pumpkin patch hoping to see lots of pumpkins and maybe some animals.  Well, we had to pay to see the animals so we didn't do that but we did see pumpkins.  I was able to get a few of Graham sitting among the pumpkins and I was very happy.  I was glad it decided not to snow today so we could spend some family time outside. Any day we get to spend the entire day together is wonderful, and unfortunately rare.

 I can't believe how old he looks in this picture.  When did this happen?

 My two favorite boys.  Aren't they so cute?

 He was fascinated with this ugly blow up pumpkin.

Me telling Graham to stop taking off his socks. I try to be a good mom and keep his feet warm but he just doesn't like it.  Oh well, at least he thought we were great parents when we gave him some frozen yogurt.

fall

Being from California I never realized how wonderful a real fall season can be.  I learned about leaves turning yellow and red but I never saw it.  I can now say I love fall.  The cooler weather, the changing leaves, the good food people make, it is all wonderful.  As long as there is no snow on the ground I am going to love it!

Yesterday I snapped a couple of pictures of Graham outside with the beautiful colors.  He was more into eating the leaves then looking at me, but that's okay.

random photos

My computer is being a little weird, and I don't want to lose all my photos so I thought I should post some of the ones that I liked that haven't made it into other posts. These are all random.

He really did cheer for BYU. He did this by himself. Now if only BYU could do better...

 I was in the back doing something when I came out to this cute face.  Josh had put his little taggie over his head and Graham kept it there for a while just playing like it was totally normal. I laugh anytime I remember how serious Graham was about his new little hat.

I realize I probably don't need pictures of Graham everyday, but I probably won't be stopping anytime soon. So deal with it.