The Graf's: November 2008

POST CATCH UP

There is a lot to report on and I have had to work a long time to get all these done. There are 9 posts of things that have happened over the last month. ENJOY! sorry they have been long coming.

As we approach the one year mark we are so excited about everything going on. I have decided that being a parent is the coolest thing anyone could ever ask for. I hope that I always feel that way and remember that in spite of the trials to come that hopefully will bring us closer as family.
A few new little things:
Audrey can say Dad-ee. We went up to the cabin a couple days before Charles. He got there while she was still asleep and when she woke up and saw him in bed she gave a little intake of breath and gasped "DAD-EE" oh just melts your heart.

She is now officially standing. She has taken her sweet little time in comparison to other kids we know. But I am ok with that. She has been able to stand for a long time but is pretty much just lazy.

Audrey knows what to do when we say prayers. We didn't even really try to teach her this one. She just started doing it this week all by herself. It is really cute. She makes it about 4 seconds into the prayer.

Grandma taught Audrey where her ears are. If you ask her she can show you.
She also knows where her toes are. She sucks on them to show me when I am changing her diaper.

Rachael Lippmann is relentless in teaching Audrey new things and especially new songs. I am usually mad at her because I have some new annoying kid song stuck in my head pretty much at all times. She has this really awful southern type song that she sings to Audrey and after every phrase she will stop and tell Audrey that it is her turn, upon which Audrey will usually let out a stream of babbles in a sing son voice. SUPER CUTE.

Audrey is fully prepared to be a sunbeam. She will get this big smile on her face when we start to sing it and throw her hand up in the air on the appropriate "beam".

Audrey's first sign that she learned was all done, she now has grasped the sign for more and is using it to pretty much mean, please, food, more, and clapping, they look very similar.

Audrey's favorite game is peekaboo. She loves it when we sneak around the corner and play it with daddy or grandma in the morning. She gets a kick out of it. She can even do it herself. She will throw a blanket or some sort of cloth up as high as her arms will go so it is covering her face and wait for you to say, "where's Audrey" and then pull it down with a reallly cheesy smile.

Audrey has the cutest little piggy tails now. Finally we can put some bows in this girls hair!

Audrey's favorite thing to do is read. She can be super grumpy with no other solutions and we can sit down and read for 10 minutes or more. Pretty much she just likes to flip the pages really fast, so we read each of her books about 5 times.

Audrey has the cheese factor in the bag. She gets this super cute little wrinkle in her nose and shows her top teeth and smiles all big. It makes me laugh every day.

AUDREY'S POOP FACE

AW! LOOK WHAT I KNOW HOW TO DO!

GRANPA'S FAVORITE DAYS

AUDREY'S PRAYER ARMS

Alyssa Edythe Austin

Peter and Jill had their baby girl After being induced and 15 hours of labor Jill still had not prgressed and the baby's head was getting swollen so they ended up doing a c section. She is fine and a nice HEALTHY 9lbs 8oz. They are home now and dealing with all the things that new parentshood brings but doing just great. She looks just like Jill. This is the baby shower open house announcement I made. If anyone knows them and would like to come...please feel free or let me know.

Wedding shots

Rachael and Dan were so awesome to so willingly volunteer to get all gussied up for me in their wedding dress so I could get some shots. They were great little models, (thankyou Dan for being serious about this most of the time) and were willing to truck it out to Red Rock. We got so lucky and picked such an awesome overcast day. Here are some of my favorites.

Ringing in the Christmas Spirit

They had a "little" event at the Town Center mall this week to kind of bring in the start of Christmas. Now, I am not sure if any of you know this....but I am a Christmas FANATIC. So, I deem it appropriate to be able to rush my daughter into the joy! They had Santa come in on his sleigh which we missed because there was a RIDICULOUS amount of traffic and people there. So we just walked around and saw the snow they were making, and the big tree, and some characters dressed up like Christmas things. Audrey was a little overwhelmed by it all. She liked looking around but as soon as we went to take pictures she turned into every little kid that you see bawling on Santas lap totally scared. It was so funny. She only did it when we were trying to take a picture. Not sure what that was all about. It was fun though.

THESE SNOWFLAKES TOTALLY FREAKED HER OUT!

THEY HAVE A "NORMAL ROCKWELL" INSPIRED SANTAS HOUSE. VERY CUTE

RACHAEL WENT WITH US TO RING IN THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT

Veterens Day

Found out Charles didn't have to work so I asked if we could do something fun and get out of the house since it will be starting to get cold soon. I wanted to drive out to red rock or something, Mom had been in the mood for hamburgers lately so this was out compromize. Crocket and barbeque in the park. So fun.

NOT SO SURE ABOUT THESE SWINGS!

AUDREY LOVES LOVES LOVES TO READ BOOKS. SHE RACES THROUGH LIKE A SPEAD READER. I THINK SHE JUST LIKES TO TURN THE PAGES. SO WE USUALLY END UP READING HER ENTIER STACK OF BOOKS 5 TIMES.

AW CUTE DADDY PLAYING WITH ME

SHE DID NOT LOVE THIS IDEA

CROCHET IN EXTRA LONG GRASS IS WAY MORE FUN!

Cabin Trip

After Halloween we hit the road for a much needed cabin trip. Audrey and I drove up with my parent on Wednesday and Charles came up with the Lippmanns on Friday. We drove up along the Cedar Breaks route to our cabin and it was amazing. We hit the top of the mountain at exactly the golden hour of dusk. It looked like it had been foggy or somthing and the trees had just frozen. It was so cool. You know those really fake looking trees they just spray stuff on? That is what it really looked like.
It snowed the last day we were there and it was the perfect opening to winter. It was so great to get away and drink hot cocoa and have a good time.

JUST SOME LANDSCAPES FOR YA

FUN WITH THE LIGHT AND SNOW

THESE TWO....SHEESH

MY CUTE HONEY AT CEDAR BREAKS. IS IT WEIRD THAT I FEEL A LITTLE WEIRD TAKING A PICTURE WITHOUT AUDREY IN IT? HAHA. GUESS THAT MEANS I AM A PROUD MOMMY EH?

HER COMMENT WAS....AW THAT WOULD BE SO CUTE IF THAT GUY DIDN'T HAVE A WEIRD HAT ON HIS HEAD.

ONLY HER DADDY WOULD UNDERSTAND. SHOULD BE SEND THIS IN TO THE FRENCHS PEOPLE?

HMMM. I'M GONNA EAT THOSE ICE-ICLES (how the heck do you spell that?)

TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN WHEN WE DROVE UP

TRUE FROST

AUDREY'S FIRST STARTING TO GRASP HOW TO SAY PRAYERS

DOG PILE GRANDPA

MOMMY....I LOVE ALL THESE BUTTONS

Halloween

we had a blast for Halloween. I spent most of the day making pies...AGAIN!!! why do people make pies from scratch? URG! Then we went to Charles sisters for a mildly low key party and then made it back in time for our trunk r treat. I was pretty excited to go and have Audrey have her first ever halloween experience. So fun. She was pretty in awe of the whole thing, and she did great considering that it was pretty late in the day.
I had this cute little halloween pumkin suit that a friend got us, and then I decided to be a butterfly (easy no motivation last resort costume) and so I thought, how hard can it be to make a catepillar costume. I had some left over fabric from another project. So, I proceeded to make this up. I think it turned out pretty dang cute, other than the fact that she wasn't green. And then Charles ever the comedian decided to be an exterminator. AWFUL right? but equally hilarious. We had a good time.

LOOK AT MY LOOT!

FISHING IS FUN

LETS THROW A FEW BACK...

MY FIRST TRICK OR TREAT

HMMMMM....LOOKS GOOD

San Diego October 16

We headed down to San Diego to visit my very good friend Deveney and Chris that just had a baby. I have had a baby recently as many of you know, so I was all prepared to be such a help and offer so much comfort and whatever she might need. Well, it did not exactly go as planned. Little Paisley was sick that weekend and she really just needed mommy. Come to think of it I was probably more of a hinderance than any help and I didn't even hold her. I felt so bad and we tried not to be a nuisance. We stayed with Chris's family and they were great. Felt like I had known them forever. over all I was highly impressed with how chill Deveney seemed. Newborn phase was very hard for me and I was pretty high strung most of the first two months. Sorry to all those who had to put up with me during that time.
We got to see a lot of fun things. We went straight to the beach as we drove into town, (additional blog follows) we had a ton of really great food there. We got to see downtown, and old downtown with all the fun craft booths and stuff. I really really really wanted to to get some little moccasins for Audrey but at 25 bucks...I just couldn't justify it. We did Charles favorite thing and toured the air craft carrier the Midway. Some guy told us we could take the stroller through because there as an elavator later. Well, I knew I should have listened to my instincts because for the first 10 minutes of the tour Charles and my dad ended up lifting the stroller through each doorway. SILLY! We also went to Balboa Park one day and walked around a little bit. I was so sad because our camera died mid picture of Audrey sitting in this little merry go round where they sit in little bugs. It would have been so cute. So, it was a very fun weekend and the weather was beautiful the whole time. Thanks Deveney for letting us come and bug you. We will have to do it again when Paisley has a hold on the world.

GRANDPA JENSEN