End of a long week

*First off-Happy Birthday to my nephew Peyton !!

It's the end of a long week at the Graham household. Long because Paul has been in Colorado all week. Boo! We don't like it when Daddy is gone!! Thankfully my Mom has been here to help me which has been great! It's also been an emotional week. The Dad of one of my childhood friends passed away. Things like that quickly remind me how short life is and how blessed and lucky I am.

We've got a busy weekend ahead of us. More updates and pictures to come. But here are some from this past week.

Pulling up on everything!
Carving Pumpkins...hard work

This is Carson's new thing- that's his tongue sticking out under the passy

Jack was very excited to get started

Carson's first trim

His shirt got stuck like this, looked like two big ears!

Playing together...so sweet!

Monday again...and half way through October!

Where do the months keep going? I'm amazed that October is almost gone and Carson is already 7 months old! I still haven't gotten all the pictures off of the camera from our trip to Canada, but I did want to update the blog and posts are no fun without photos!

Paul being silly with Dad.

Carson and Grandpa...is he a Graham or what? Still haven't figured out what to do with Carson's hair. It grows STRAIGHT forward!

Grandma Viv & Carson. He was back to his normal happy self by the end of the week!

This week is yet another busy one! Paul has been working in the yard like crazy trying to get everything cleaned up. He's still got lots of wood to split, but the yard looks much better! And that's a good thing because we're hosting my friend Callie's baby shower at our place this Saturday! Thank God for Mom! She's coming this week to help me and will stay through next week since Paul will be in Colorado for the entire week.

Then next weekend we're going to a halloween party ;-) and then trick or treating on Saturday! Jack is going to be Buzz Light Year and Carson is going to be Woody! The costumes are hysterical, I'll definitely take lots of pictures...but here's a sneak peak because I just can't resist!

He immediately starting posing and saying "To infinity and beyond!"

So, I guess that's it for today. Lots of things coming up so hopefully I can be a little faster with the photos and updates.

We're here...in Lindsay

We arrived yesterday as planned and are enjoying our time with the family and the beautiful colors!

We had planned to leave Birmingham between 3-4 pm on Wedesday but didn't get on the road until around 6pm. Carson has had a fever virus so Paul and I split the workday and he had several things to finish before we could leave. The drive over was fine and Carson slept the entire way which meant he was WIDE awake when we arrived at the hotel. We had a bit of a rough night with him up on the hour, but we are still glad we went over the night before.

the boys at the hotel

Our flight was great! The airport wasn't too busy and our flight was even early! We had a great flight attendant, Joe, and we sat on the front row. (the camera was in the overhead so pics of Carson's first plane ride will have to be taken on the return!)

Finally out of the car!


Beautiful weather & great walk outside

The leaves are just starting to change...the walk was beautiful!

Heading down the road

More to come...

Carson on the move

Just a quick video of Carson on the move.  Little by little he’s exploring more and more. Tonight while I was making dinner I thought he sounded a little closer than normal. As I came through the dining room I saw him sitting near the front door, chasing Frank. This was the first time he has come all the way out of the den!  He will also pull/push up on ANYTHING!  He pushed up on his little drum this week. They call him the dare devil at school.

I took him for his ENT follow up  this morning and they said his ears & the tubes look great!  We also had his hearing retested and he passed with flying colors. Only bad news is that he has a bad case of thrush. Poor thing, we get his ears better and now his mouth hurts. I’m also certain he’s got another tooth (or teeth) coming through. He’s FINALLY sleeping through the night…praise God!

Jack got his hair cut tonight. I always hate to cut his beautiful curls, but as the humidity goes away, it doesn’t curl quite as much and it was very long. We’re going to Cate’s birthday party tomorrow so I’ll try to get some pictures. Next week starts our month of craziness so I’ll be doing good to get posts up!

Another week...

Another week and weekend have flown by! It's been a busy one...here's a recap:

Tuesday morning I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off to get the boys dressed for school pictures. Since it's technically "fall", I had them dressed in cords & jeans even though it was 80 degrees! Jack complained the whole time (probably because he was hot!). I walked in to school and it hit me...pictures aren't until THIS week. Oh well, trial run. *Carson also slept really well.

This weekend we went to a birthday party at "Pump it Up" where Jack got close to a black eye. It's a good boo-boo, but the whole eye didn't turn black thank goodness. We also had several trees cut down in the back yard so it looks very different. Neither of us wanted to cut them down but the two largest trees had a fungus growing in/on them and were getting a little risky. Saturday night we enjoyed a cookout with our friends and all the kids.

Sunday, THE BEST PART...EVERYONE IN THE GRAHAM HOUSEHOLD SLEPT TILL 7:30! IT'S A TRUE MIRACLE!!! If you know anything about our kids (JACK) he NEVER sleeps past 6 or 6:30. The rest of the day has been great. Church, groceries, park, great pot roast and 7 or 8 loads of laundry!

Carson is all over the place crawling and pulling up on us. He's sleeping much better and is such a happy guy unless he's tired or hungry!

Here's our week in pictures:


Jack got Slinky Dog from Toy Story. He loves him. Notice the bump under the eye.

He wrote the letter "J"all by himself!!!

The boys playing together. It's so fun to watch Jack share with Carson and he loves it!

The worst of the trees in the backyard.

What a mess!

Carson in the jump-up, not jumping! :-)

Tubes before Beach

It's taken me all week to get this post up...


Carson's tube procedure went without a hitch! We were getting a little nervous because we arrived at 5:45AM and they said he would be first (6:30) since he was the youngest baby there. 6:30 came and went and Carson was getting a little fussy since he had not eaten since 11:30 the night before. They took him back a few minutes before 7 AM and he was back in the room 15 minutes later. So far so good! He's still not sleeping through the night, but we feel certain we're getting closer now!


We had another wonderful time in Ft. Walton, can't thank the McKay's enough for letting us use the house! Friday Paul and Jack surprised me with a beautiful mum and a cake. Paul and I had a nice dinner out (just the two of us!!) and went for drinks on the bay afterwards. It was wonderful, just what I wanted!

Jack playing in the sand. He LOVES the beach!

Me & my boys with Birthday cake!

Matching pj's...so sweet!

Jack helping Paul with my birthday cake.

Carson, drooling up a storm chewing on Grandma's purse strap!

Carson in his hospital room before tubes.

Carson is getting tubes!

9/16 Update: They were able to get Carson in sooner so he'll actually have the procedure tomorrow (9/17). We'll head to the beach later that day as long as he's feeling well. If he's at all like Jack, he'll be raring to go!

As many of you know sweet little Carson has already endured four ear infections. Well we finally got our referral and met with the Ear, Nose, Throat doctor this morning! They did a tympanogram, hearing test and then we met with a nurse practitioner and the doctor. The tympanogram was completely flat indicating fluid behind the hears…which was not a surprise. They also did a hearing test on him (which isn’t 100% at his age) and the audiologist said he was at the “very low” end of normal. Both the Dr. & Nurser Practitioner said his ears were very “gunky” so…………..he's getting tubes! Yay! Finally! Right now we’re scheduled for next Thursday at 5:45 AM, but nurse/scheduler is going to call if they have something sooner. We’re scheduled to go to the beach Wednesday night through Sunday, but if they can get him in this week, we’ll move our dates around a little.

Although we're happy that there may be an end in sight to all of the antibiotics and ear pain he has had, it is still scary when they have to "go under" anesthesia. I'll send an update later but will ask everyone to keep him in your prayers next Thursday morning (if not before).