Christmas activities

Im finally getting around to posting about our fabulous christmas! We had a really great time. We got to stay home this year because my parents and my sister and brother in law came down to see us and Ben and Lacy. They all stayed for about a week and we had so much fun doing puzzles, watching movies, playing games and shopping. We went up to temple square one night which turned out to be pretty hectic and crazy, but the lights were really pretty. On Christmas Eve we went down to Alpine to see the Navitity at Jon's parents ward and then we went to see some christmas lights. One of the houses we saw was so amazing and even had santa outside handing out candy canes. We had 2 cars and me and Jon were in the first car without Makella, so we told Santa her name and what she wanted for christmas. So when they drove up with Makella, she was SO excited that she got to see Santa and that he knew who she was. It was so perfect for Christmas Eve. Then we went to my house and made some struesalschnekin (?) It is this German pastry that Ben learned to make on his mission and has kinda become a family tradition. You can pretty much put whatever you want on them, so it is fun for everyone to make their own. Plus, they are soo good! My favorite one this year was the Cherry with Chocolate chips and coconut...mmm so good and is fun to say!
We also had Christmas morning at my house and Makella was really excited to see all the presents. We all got really spoiled this year and I got some great stuff! Im so grateful for my family and friends and how generous everyone was. It was really a wonderful christmas and I was sad to see everyone go.
Also while everyone was here, we decided to have Noah's blessing. We just did it in our apartment a couple days before christmas. It was so neat to have everyone there. Jon's parents, brother and grandma all came, plus one of his good friends from college, cameron. It was a great night and Jon gave him a wonderful and beautiful blessing. Im excited to see Noah grow up to be a wonderful man and to see all the things he will accomplish. He is a wonderful little boy! There was just too many pictures to try and post on here, so I made a slideshow with some of the pictures!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Very Merry Christmas!

We are having such a fabulous time this month! Christmas time is the best time of year and Makella is at such a fun age to enjoy it. I decided that for my advent calendar (I dont have one), I would make this:



















Its not fully put together in this picture, but you get the idea. There was a candy cane for each day and a different Christmas activity for the day until Christmas. It took some preparation, but it has been so much fun for both of us and really helped get me in the Christmas spirit.
As a child, my family always got a real tree for Christmas. It was always a huge deal to go pick out our tree and decorate it. We also would switch off who would get to put the star on the tree. Last year we werent able to get a real tree and so I was Really looking forward to it this year. Well, we made it to the tree lot and realized that they were just too expensive and decided we should probably use the money for gifts for Ella and what not. So we borrowed a tree from Jon's mom. It turned out beautiful and Im grateful to have it, but it loses some of the fun of it when you have to pull the tree out of the box and shape it yourself! But, oh well! Maybe next year! Here is our pretty tree!:























Another thing I always loved growing up was the christmas village we had. My brothers got ceramic houses and painted them. I always thought they were so cool! So we I got married that was one of the first things I got at christmas. Its not a very big set right now, but I hope to expand it as our home/living space expands. So here is my wonderful village!:


















I love to have Christmas decorations up. It just makes everything feel so much more cozy for some reason. The only thing I dont have yet is a nativity. Someday Ill get a nice one!
Here are some pictures of just a few of the things me and Makella have done this month!























We made popcorn snowmen, bead ornaments for the tree, decorated cookies, saw santa, painted our hair clips, picked out a christmas story,played in the snow and delivered treats to some of her friends. Those are just a few of the fun things we have been doing! Its a fun tradition that I hope to keep up in the years to come!

In other news, Noah has reached 2 1/2 months! We had his 2 month appointment and he is a big boy! He weighed in at 13 lbs 8 oz and 24.5 inches long. Quite the big boy! He smiles all the time and will coo back to you when you talk to him. He eats pretty much all the time and hasnt really fully grasped how great it is to sleep yet. But we are working on it! He loves to sit up and look at things and loves to stand up and bounce even more. He has chubby cheeks, chubby thighs a big belly and we love him!










I hope everyone is having as good of a Christmas season as we are! Merry Christmas!

Here is just a little video of Noah. Its nothing special, but he is cute so I thought I would post it :)

One month old!

Little Noah has made it to one month old! Yay! He is such a wonderful boy and I just love everything about him! His is quite the little chunk and at a little over weeks was weighing in at over 10 pounds! He continues to grow and is so cute! We are definitely still working on the sleeping thing at night, but I blame a lot of that on our crazy month that we had. He is not a very sound sleeper and fills our nights with his "manly grunts". He is super cuddly and really does not cry that much! He is much more awake and aware these days. He is pretty strong and is quite good at holding his head up, so when we try and put him down for tummy time, he just settles in and goes to sleep. I guess he feels like thats something he doesnt need to work on. His favorite place to sleep is on my stomach and he loves to listen to his dad sing to him. He is my little man and I wouldnt change a single thing. Even when Im exhausted and in pain, he can still make me smile! Here are some pictures of my little boy!

October

Here is an update on how are month has gone! Complete and loaded with lots of pictures for your viewing pleasure! I could probably separate these into like 3 different posts, but Im not going to. So here we go. Of course the month started out wonderfully, with this little guy entering our lives! He's wonderful!















I had my mom and sister in town for awhile and it was so awesome to have them here. My sister was a huge help and is always really fun to have around! My mom was also a lifesaver throughout the first couple of weeks. I couldn't have done it without them and I kinda wish they were still here! :)
After they left we were able to go to Angie's wedding up in Boise which was beautiful and perfect! Angie did such a good job and looked amazing! We are so happy for them. Right before I went up there I got an abcess in my tooth and so for her wedding I was in tons of pain and my face swelled up pretty bad and I was not very fun to look at! I had some antibiotics to try and kill it all which helped a lot for about a week and then this happened again!:




















It wasnt quite as bad as the first time but was just as painful and ugly. (I've never had such horrible pain before!) So I finally was able to figure it all out. The abcess was in a tooth that I had already gotten a root canal on about a year ago. I found out that when they did the root canal, they left some roots at the bottom and didnt clean it all the out. So that is where the infection came from. So when we talked to the dentist, they said they would fix it for me for free! It was such a blessing because it would have cost 1000 dollars to get it fixed! Oh, and in between all that we got hit with the flu, yes, we are pretty sure it was the swine flu and Jon and Makella both struggled through it. But they survived and my and Noah were somehow able to make it through that without much more than a cough. Woo hoo!
So finally with all the our tooth pain and sickness gone, we tried to enjoy the last 2 days of October. Here is what we did!:













































We had a pretty good Halloween this year. We just had a Halloween party at my brother Ben's house, which was super fun! We weren't planning on dressing up because we hadn't really had time to even give it a thought. So the last 10 minutes before we left, we scrambled to make up a couple of costumes. Jon was the traditional ghost but pulled it off so well :) And all I had was a trash bag, so I transformed myself into a raisin...Yeah, we are creative :) Makella definetaly outdressed us all though. She was an Indian Princess this year and was so cute! I found a cute indian costume and made some moccasins that turned out so cute! She had the braids and all. It was great! Noah pretty much slept through it all but we still managed to get him dressed like a monkey. They were both cute and Makella had a great time trick or treating and also had a great time at the halloween party! Here are some pictures of our night.















The ghost and the indian making their way through the neighborhood!














A quick family picture! (no fat face! Woo hoo!)















At Ben and lacy's party, showing off her beatiful hair and headband!















We played a game and had to wrap them up as mummies as fast as possible. Jon was our mummy. Unfortunetaly the other team one. Great mummies!















And of course our little monkey sleeping through it all :)

Thats our month in a nutshell, Ive left out a lot of the really painful details because it has all just become many many tiring and painful memories all rolled together. Let's just say we are both incredibly happy to be done with October and are hoping for a Wonderful thanksgiving and Christmas season!

Noah Kenyon Graff!

Our day started bright and early at 5 in the morning when the hospital called me and told me to be there by 6:10. So I had some time to get ready and then we were off to have a baby :) I still wasnt having any pains or contractions or anything, so it was nice. We had such a nice room with an amazing view of all the mountains and Utah lake and everything. It was great!
They started me on the pitocin at about 8:30-9. But not before my "wonderful" nurse tried twice (unsuccessfully) to get an IV in me. She literally Dug around in my wrist first and it somehow "popped" out and there was blood everywhere and then she tried again on the back of my hand and again Dug around for the longest time. I just about lost it. I was as white as a ghost and thought I was gonna pass out. I guess we know where Makella gets it from! After that fiasco she got another nurse to come in who was able to get it on the first try with little pain. Finally! So anyways, Off we go!
After I was all hooked up, it said I was already having contractions, but I couldnt feel anything. I didnt start to feel much until they broke my water about an hour later. I got my epidural at around 12:30 and then at around 3 I was ready to push!




















Noah Kenyon graff was born at 3:24 and we love him so much! He is a perfect little bundle!















Makella loves her little brother so much and the first time she saw him was such a wonderful moment. She loved him and gave him kisses. She was ready to be the mom and has been kinda bossy about it! We feel so blessed that everything went so well and that we now have this wonderful little addition to our family! Thank you for all the support and love we get from our friends and family. Finally, here are some pictures of our little Noah!














































Just for a little amusement. This is what Jon was doing when they broke my water. The doctor came and Wendy tried hard to wake him up, when she told him the doctor was here, he just said, "Tell him Hi". Which he doesnt remember saying at all. Ive never known anyone who can sleep like that on a recliner! We all had a pretty good laugh. :)

haircuts and goodbyes

This week, to pass the the time while waiting for this baby to come, I decided to take Makella and get her hair cut. It was getting so long and I loved it, but it was all uneven and not looking too cute. Plus, Im trying to grow out her bangs and just needed to fix it all. I think that it turned out so cute! I forgot to get a good before picture, but here are the results:

She did really good in while she get getting it cut. At first she wasnt too thrilled about the cape thing they put around her, but they had someone there who talked to her and she did so good! She was so excited about her "princess haircut"!

We have also been really busy getting ready for this baby. I am getting induced tomorrow morning! Yikes! So we have been trying to organize and get everything ready. We sold one of our couches and were able to get a really nice ricking chair! I was so excited! But also one of the things that we realized needed to go was my rats. :( We have talked about it for awhile, but I keep putting it off because I really didnt want to get rid of them. I just love having some kind of pet around. They just make me happy and when I dont have something the house seem empty somehow. I know Im a little weird, but thats just how I am. Anyways, so I finally posted them online and someone called that same day. They went to a little nine year old boy for his birthday and it sounded like it was a really good family, which made me feel better. Maybe its being pregnant and hormonal, but I just about lost it when they came to get them! So anyways, my rats are gone and I know in the long run it is for the best, they will get a lot more attention than i could give them. Ill be fine :) Here are a couple pictures of Hoobie and Mr. Munson!































Now I just have to focus on what comes next! My sister is coming into town today and Im so excited to have her here and appreciate her willing to come help. My mom is coming tomorrow and So will this little boy! I cant believe it! I am so ready for our new little adventure!

Fear of Blood and needles!

I am exactly one week away from my due date and no signs of baby yet! Im ok with that though. I am ready to not be pregnant, but a week is not that long, so I will patiently wait :)

Today, makella did something she has never done before, she just about passed out! It was the weirdest thing ever! We had a WIC appointment and it was our first time so they had to weigh and measure and do all that stuff. They also had to prick her finger to check her iron levels. I was anticipating crying because she Always does when people try and do weird things to her. So I got her all ready and they pricked her finger and she didnt even cry! She watched the whole thing without a peep! It only took like 20 seconds and it was only like 2 drops of blood, but she seemed interested. Then they put a band aid on and that was that. So I set her on the ground to play and the next thing I know, she is white as a ghost and falling over. I was quick enough to catch her before she hit the ground! It was so weird and then she started crying and wouldnt stop for a good long while. They tried giving her juice and crackers and stuff, but she wouldnt take it. After about 15 minutes, she was still a little pale, but pretty much back to normal.
I think Ive seen signs of her weakness to blood, but never really thought much about it. Whenever she has gotten hurt or has been bleeding, Ive noticed her get pale, but it never got this bad. I guess we will just have to be careful with her around blood and needles!

Final Concusion - She probably will not be a doctor!