18 months

Livy is 18 months and changing so fast I can hardly keep up with her! These pictures were actually taken back at Christmas but I've been saving them specifically for this post. She came up to me one afternoon with her baby doll and a blanket and gave them both to me. I wrapped the baby doll up like a burrito and then laid her on the floor. Livy then brought me her blankie and laid it out on the floor next to the baby doll and then smiled at me and said "see baby" and pointed to the baby. Then she laid there and just waited for me to come wrap her all up too! My burrito baby!

Things Olivia is saying and doing at 18 months:

“hi daddy!”
“no Brady!”
“hi mommy!”
“where daddy” (or brady, or mommy)
“ no wan dis” (I don’t want this)
“wah-weeze” (water)
“drink”
“sleep”
“ah nigh nigh” (go night night)
“halt!” (sticking hand out)
"dirt"

"horseee" (horse)

climbing on top of everything! (including onto the kitchen table!)

taking socks and shoes off every time we get in the car

laughing whenever anyone else laughs

laughing whenever I pick her up after I get out of work

calling every other little baby or child her age "baby....(insert name)"

throwing food on the floor and refusing to be spoon fed anything

loving to play with her brother and tag along with mommy and daddy

be our cute little love bug, giving us kisses and hugs and slobbers!

My Little Rascals

We gave Brady the movie "Little Rascals" for Christmas and he's been asking me if he's my little rascal, to which I say "YES!" Here's my kiddos being my little rascals!

Who needs new toys when you can play with bowls?

This little LEGO boy needs a "get out of jail FREE" card!!! Brady had a grand-old time building an elaborate prison for all of his LEGO people.




And last of all, little Miss Livy created these freaky little potato heads all by herself...

Into the working world I go!

I thought I'd just update everyone really quick and let you all know that my blog may be in a sorry state of distress for a while because I have gone back to work FULL-TIME!!!

My friend Charlotte's husband, Jon (who is also my friend) is a physical therapist and was able to refer me to an opening as a medical transcriptionist/office assistant at his agency. I was thrilled at the chance to put my new skills to use and make some money!!!

I intended to post my New Year's resolutions earlier, but as my week became busier that idea fell by the wayside. One of my top goals for this year is to BE DEBT FREE by 2011!!! So, I am taking a hit for the "GRAF TEAM" and going back to work! I intend on paying every penny that I can towards debt this year and also squeezing every extra second of my now precious time at home to be spent with my husband and kiddos. (Debt free is NOT including our mortgage of course...yeah, wouldn't that be awesome!)

The kids have adjusted well to "working mommy" and I am very, very, very lucky to have two wonderful friends providing daycare to my babies. (THANKS Char and Melody!!!)

I am also issuing a PLEA to all MOTHERS WITH GREAT RECIPES to give me ANY and ALL TRIED & TRUE FAST FAST FAST or CROCKPOT dinner ideas!!! So far this week I was 2:4 in the crockpot division...so we need some definite winners!

(*THANKS*)

Ringing in 2010

CHEERS!!!

Here's to a great 2009!!!

We threw our first party in our new home to celebrate New Year's Eve and had a blast with a few friends. We wish we could have invited ALL of our friends...but I think we'd need a bigger house for that!

(L-R: Jason and Jenny Urry, Charlotte and Jon Gardunia, Ryan and Nicole Wells and us!!!) P.S. Brady took this picture and did a great job! He got everyone in the picture and it wasn't blurry!

We played Apples to Apples, Nertz, watched some comedy and ate some DELICIOUS fondue!!! (I'll do a post about that another time!)

The Kiddos

The kids had their own little party! They ran around like crazy little monsters, ate TONS of goodies, watched some movies (or at least glanced at them every now and then) and drove us all crazy! What else are kids hopped up on sugar supposed to do into the wee hours of the night???

Brady had a blast with his friends: Annie, Colin and Sam (sleeping! He finally crashed!)
Olivia and her baby friends partied for a little while before hitting the hay at around (9:30-10pm) Her little friends were Alivia and Mckay.

Our past year was filled with so many changes and so much fun! We can only imagine what 2010 will hold!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!