Rozzie's Day

Lucky me and anyone else who's got to associate with this girl for 9 years!!!!

As Mallory would say, she's on the awesome list. Anyone who knows our family knows that Rozlyn is the best behaved. She always makes us proud. She's smart, kind, a great friend, helpful, creative and just easy to be around.
It was an off year for a party so I had to get creative in making her day awesome and her feel special. We invited a few friends over for a surprise breakfast. I promise it was not a party, just a breakfast. The day started early because she had to be all ready to go at 7:00am. She couldn't sleep the night before because she was so excited!! While I was curling her hair, she had this horrible look on her face, she looked so sad. I asked her what was the matter and she very honestly told me that she was going to throw up. Ahhhhh! This happens to her every once in awhile but still, it was not in the plans, not on her birthday. She had friends coming over, she wanted to go to school and be on the announcements and wear her birthday headband. I had her go lay down while the rest of us did scriptures. Calm Chris assured me that all would be well and we'd just have breakfast with her friends without Roz if she was sick. 10 minutes later Rozlyn came down and was A OK. Charlotte's job was to get the friends outside and sneak them in to the kitchen table. When Rozlyn walked in it was a great surprise!! I made her assure me a million times during breakfast that she was good to go.

I got to eat lunch with these cute girls.

Sadly Mason's lunch doesn't overlap so he missed the 12noon party. Don't feel to bad for him though, he had plenty of donuts and sugar cereal for breakfast and was going to have cake and ice cream for dinner. Not a bad life.

A sweet Rozlyn story: because she's thoughtful and kind, last year for Mother's Day she surprised me with this book!!! (I think we'd looked at it together at a book store once and I must have said it was cute, she stored it in her memory.) When she saw it at her school's book fair she took all of her own money and bought it for me. None of my kids ever buy me anything so it was very thoughtful and secretive and fun!

The book just sat on the shelf until Rozlyn asked me to make her birthday cake from it. Scary. How could I say no, I had to use her book that she bought me with her very own money. She picked out the design she wanted and I gasped. Here is what we came up with. It only resembles the picture, like you could tell I tried.
                                     
She appreciated it and it tasted great, so win win! I also was very sick, very very sick, so super sick her whole birthday week. I felt like supermom trying to pull this birthday off when all I wanted to do was crawl in bed and sleep. Chris is an awesome dad and husband but mom is the one who makes the birthdays happen around here. Rozlyn was 100% worth the effort.

:)

I've got a great husband - a really great husband!!! Last Thursday was a very bad day. The kind of day where there were lots of tears. The not so lucky Chris is the one who always has to be the listening ear. The next morning started out ordinary: scriptures, showers, breakfast, kids scoot off to school. Just a few minutes after they'd left I got a knock at my door. Nobody comes over at 8:00 in the morning, so I had to tip toe to the peek hole to investigate. I saw a big bouquet of flowers and Chris's car in the driveway. I opened the door to the flowers and Chris who told me that he took the day off and was hanging out with me. Then came more tears, lots more, this time they were the happy ones.
There was hanging out, errands with a buddy, yummy lunch and some shoe purchases that followed. Is retirement really 30 years away. I'm kind of in a hurry to get this guy all to myself.
Friday night I left to the Arlington Time Out for Women with a few friends. I came home Saturday night to happy kids and a clean house.
Sunday morning he leaves for his church meetings while I'm still in bed. When I woke up I saw a dress hanging in the closet all pressed and ironed with my new matching shoes underneath all ready to go.
Chris makes my life :).

Easter

(my very springy Easter Mantle)

I love Easter!! A holiday that focus's on Jesus Christ without the commercialism of Christmas, a three day weekend without a booked up busy schedule. Win, win, win, win!!

Our first Easter party was at Mallory's school. I love that she goes to a Christian Preschool so that she gets to celebrate these fun holidays (unlike Public School). She's always looking for an excuse to wear a dress and I thought the Easter Party was the perfect opportunity. The kids were all giving me a hard time about her being over dressed. I told them it was Easter so it was perfect.

I'll admit we over did it. She looked like a little pink Alice in Wonderland while all her pals were in their cotton stretchy shorts and graphic tee's.
Next up was our Good Friday Camporama. We came home, de-smoked ourselves and dyed our Easter Eggs. The weather was beautiful so we got to have the dye outside, always a bonus!
Easter morning looked like like We got one quick pick of them all beautied up before the rain came down. I wonder how many more years I have of Charlotte allowing me to coordinate her outfits with her siblings? I hope not any time soon. I love coordination!
We celebrated our Easter with Chris's family tradition of hoagie subs, picnic style, lunch. We then had a little egg tapping competition, complete with a bracket. Egg tapping = two hard boiled eggs face off, they tap each other until one cracks, the whole egg wins and moves on in the competition. Here is Chris (Chris #2) having a show down with Charlotte (Humphrey). All the eggs were given names for the competition. Chris won the award for the least creative with Chris #1 and Chris #2.
The championship came down to Chris and Roz. Chris was the victor - un creative egg names and all!!! More coordination: These pictures were Easter part 2. One week later. You see these were their Easter outfits. Purchased in advance, on sale and all that good stuff. They were put aside until the special day. The week before I started preparing for Easter and couldn't find them anywhere. I tore this house apart looking. Every hiding spot, drawer, under the bed, attic, it was such a mystery. I finally decided that they got thrown away, sitting in a big bag and looking like garbage. It made me so sad. I thought about no Easter outfits this year but in the end decided to splurge and do it. It wasn't the kids fault and I love Easter outfits. So they got their new duds and looked darling. I went in my closet to put on a necklace. On the necklace hook, tucked away were the Easter clothes - I didn't know whether to be mad or glad. I probably was a little of both. With plans to return them the next day my awesome, awesome, husband told me to keep them and let them all have two new outfits. So here the kids were matching again.
Our church is about 30 seconds away from home. Mason was clothed when he left the building, this is him as he exited the van. It doesn't take long for that guy to get comfortable.

Camporama

Our Good Friday camping lives on. Erwin Park has seen the Grahams over many Good Friday's. This year we almost ventured somewhere new, a little fancier, a little further away, but with many more amenities, including electricity! I felt a little un loyal even looking at other possibilities but then I got so excited just to find out it was all booked up. It turns out most sights were. I guess people other then us really camp in Texas, who knew it was so popular.

So back to Erwin we went. Let the pictures tell the story.

Still relatively clean

"This is the life"

Forest + Friends = Fun

There was a lot of running through the trees on these trails.

Quite possibly the dirtiest hand ever

Corn straight from the skewer

Happy kids eating "Tacos in a Sack" the new favorite camp food of the Graham Fam

More happiness from "Tacos in a Sack"

Best Buds

It's just a facade, although I think a little Stairway to Heaven was about to bust out

Red Rover

Biggest gong or frying pan ever!!!!

Eating one of Chris's pancakes is single-handedly worth all the packing and bugs and bees and bites and burns and scrapes and lack of sleep and smoke smells and laundry that follows camping.

A happy pancake eater and a sad juice spiller (check out her pants and the puddle).

Hopefully we'll get in one more spring campout before the Dallas heat takes over.

A New Chapter

Wow! Big things are happening at the Graham house. As Chris best put it, "There's a lot of sad babysitters throughout Allen, TX now that the Grahams are off the market."
Now that Charlotte is 11 we feel comfortable leaving her home with the kids for a few hours when we're close by.

We put her skills to the test last Friday night and headed to a ward High Priest Sweet 16 party. This is where all the High Priests and spouses meet together with dessert and watch some of the March Madness tournament games. Heaven and heaven. A plate full of dessert and a big screen T.V. full of basketball.
We left Charlotte with Chris's cell phone and texted her throughout the night. These were some of our awesome texts back and forth, and yes, she is awesome. I guess through all these years of awesome babysitters Charlotte picked up on the best ways to do it. We were so happy when we got home and found sleeping kids, a clean house, no babysitter to drive home or check to write.

We have a long going tradition of leaving notes for the kids on their magna doodle's after they're asleep for them to read in the morning. Charlotte did this completely on her own.


Hey yo!, I turned your aquifer (humidifier) on 4 you, - thank you Charlotte -, why you are so welcome

Hey yo' I turned your alarm off 4 u -thank you Charlotte - why your welcome!

A little visit from the shoe fairy, who looks to be more generous than the tooth fairy.

Love Her!!! -and I love that she loves babysitting!

11!

Charlotte's birthday always falls during spring break. That means no school, sleeping in and a week long party. This year her only request was an ice cream cake - she's an easy kid to make happy. Chris was home all day, we opened presents in the morning, went to Olive Garden for lunch and had a movie party at night.

I'm thankful for this girl in so many ways. Here are just 11 of them.

1. She very FUN!! Always up for an adventure - any adventure, my kind of girl.
2. She's a great peacemaker, she always helps with her little brothers and sisters to keep peace.
3. She's very musical, she's doing great at both at the piano and harp. Sometimes when I'm cleaning I'll ask her to play just to have beautiful background music in our house.
4. She's smart!! She's a straight A kid and is very responsible with her schoolwork.
5. She loves family time and being home.
6. She's grateful, she'll always thank me and leave me nice notes.
7. She's very sure of herself, she doesn't notice what others are doing around her or compare herself to others - a true gift!
8. She's very kind to others.
9. Her favorite thing to do is to snuggle up with a good book and read, I love that she loves books so much.
10. She is neither dramatic or emotional - yahoo!!!!!!!
11. She's very teachable - she loves to learn, looking things up on the internet, reading encyclopedias or non-fiction books, She's been our "why" girl from day 1.

I'm savoring these last years of elementary school and primary with her. There are so many big changes coming up so fast. We are going to enjoy 11 before that all happens.

March 21,2012

My day went something like this, from start to finish.
1. 9:00 - Drop off Mallory at school, get in the van to get home and then smell the odd smell and realize it wasn't really my van after all. Awkward.
2. 10:00 At Lowe's, picking up some home improvement items (hooray!) when I ask an employee a question and he responds, you really should send in your husband for me to explain this. Angry
3. Praying for rain all day so that soccer practice can be cancelled. Please, please, please!!!
4. 3:00 pick up Mason from school to his worsening cough. Run him to the Dr. with hopes of getting some meds so we can all (mostly me:-) get sleep tonight. He seems to sleep just fine.
5. I really needed a treat all day and our house had nothing to satisfy.
6. 5:00 - I look out the window to find the most amazing discovery. My sweet, new, garden was growing green things. Hooray! I was so happy at that moment. My only goal after all the labor I put into it was just for something to grow, anything. I immediately took pictures of the life and sent them to Chris. High Point7. 5:30 Load up the kiddos to pick up girls from Activity Days. The key won't go in, our car wasn't going anywhere. Mallory had somehow lodged a pencil in the ignition. Grrrrr. Low Point, maybe even breaking point8. Miss soccer practice because our car is stuck in the garage. Maybe a secret high - see #3
9. A cute husband who comes home early to make everything better. See #2 He is handier than I, I must admit.
9. Breakfast for dinner to make everything better. The syrup almost was a substitute for the treat I'd been craving all day.
10. The bigs clean up dinner while I put the littles to bed. Bless them.
11. 9:00pm The littlest little, aka Mallory, is still not asleep. Charlotte just came down and asked if there was a mute button on her. Why is she always the last one to sleep???
12. Book vacation to Destin, Fl - hello ocean & white sugary sand beach, I can hear you calling my name now! Like, right now! 12. Only a few hours to go until Chris comes back home from a meeting.
Que the music: ............ Mamma told me there'd be days like this........

Open House

Before the kids took off for their big spring break vacation, we went to the school for their Open House. Chris was super dad and came home early so he could be there. Open House is always a little bit scary when you see the kids art work and writing posted on the wall for everyone else to see.
These Marin Luther King look-alikes provided some good laughs. There were some dreams that were really sad and embarrassing like "I have a dream that my brother and sister will like me" "I have a dream that my parents will quit fighting" and some good dreams like "I have a dream that no child will ever be hungry." Mason's dream fell into it's own category, I'm not sure the name of it. His dream was that all the water fountains would be chocolate milk fountains. His dream was probably the most honest and sincere. His artwork was also awesome. The "Guess Who My Parent is Wall" was a little more embarrassing. You read some of these and just hope that when you turn it over it doesn't have your name on it. This was the case for Chris.All I know is that if there was a matching game where all the dads stood by the wall and people had to match them to the descriptions nobody would pick Chris. Mason described him more as a guy who works out on a drilling rig, getting sprayed with oil who has dirt permanently under his finger nails and spends his weekends getting in bar fights.
There is nobody in the world that Mason adores more than his dad.
What are we to do with this crazy guy???? (here he is dressed up as his alias, Mr. Brown, for the Dr. Seuss parade)

Another Sunday

This morning was daylight savings, and we had 9:00am church, and I have to get the kids and me ready by myself, and I had sharing time, and we did it!

I'm staring down future Sundays in my life and I can only see it being easier than today. I also realize how fortunate and blessed I am in my life that a morning like today makes my list of hard things.

FHE classics

Here and then, we'll have a Family Home Evening that will finds itself a spot on the best ever Graham Family FHE list.

Such was the case on Monday night when this guy was put in charge.He had the lesson and he chose modesty. It was his choice and yes it was random. After a somewhat normal lesson he finished with this bold statement. He was very serious and dramatic.
"and one more thing, you should NEVER, NEVER, wear a necklace with a money symbol on it. It makes the poor people feel very sad."
and now we all know. Random - where did he get that from. It might come as a surprise but neither Chris or I have any chains with money symbols on them.$$$$$
(we'd like to thank Dylan, Mason's best friend, for this awesome shot of his Halloween costume)
There then was a follow up activity that he created, we each drew a piece of lead from a mechanical pencil. If you got a short one you went to heaven, if you got a long one, well you weren't so lucky. So after drawing our pieces of lead, we opened our hand and he pointed his finger in our faces telling us all where we would go. Only Charlotte went to heaven, the rest of us weren't so lucky.

This lesson was immediately followed up with a brief lesson from Chris on appropriate times to say "You're going to hell." It didn't ever include yelling at someone while pointing your finger in their face when you said it.

It was the kind of night where after it was all said and done you have to ask yourself - did that just happen.

I fear(look forward to) many more of these awesome FHE nights.

Single Lonely ~ looking for a mate

The Cricut has long been an appreciated piece of equipment in this household. We have everything there was to cut on paper, until this week. The vinyl purchased long ago was broke open and here's what I produced.
Stage 1


















Stage 2


















Stage 3


















Mismatched socks have never made me so happy. Every time I go in the laundry room I get excited. With Mallory in school a few days a week, I'm feeling like the crafty side of me is on the verge of coming back out.

74 Years Young

Last week my dad celebrated another birthday. Every additional year I get to spend with him is the best gift to me. I told him on the phone that day that he's never aged to me. He seems exactly as I remember him as a young girl. He was always present, always, every sporting event, every competition, every party, every family event. He was the last one asleep every day at our house and the first one awake each morning. I have never doubted the amount of love he has for me, or my siblings or my mom. He's just a good guy to the core. I read some letters he wrote home while he was in the Marines, even then the love he had for his siblings and parents was so obvious. It seems like the only time I've ever seen him sad are the times when someone in his family was hurting or suffering. Best. Family. Man. Ever.
I have a million funny stories about him. He's always a good sport. When Chris first met him he felt bad for my dad because of the things his kids would make him do. He has always bent over backwards to help me out. I remember a football trip to St. George for a Saturday night football game. I was torn because my good friends mission farewell was the next morning that I really wanted to be at. The bus wasn't leaving St. George until Sunday morning so there was no way I would have been able to make it. He drove down to the game and then drove me back with him in his car through the night so I could be at my friends mission farewell. He probably thought it was so ridiculous, especially for a dumb boy, but since it was important to me, it was important to him. He came and stayed at my house for a month while I was on bed rest pregnant with Rozlyn. He got Charlotte ready, made our meals, drove Chris back and forth to work and took care of the house. Best. Dad. Ever. Even now when I call I have to hide if I'm feeling sick, if I ever suggest feeling down or not feeling good he'll ask if I need him to come down. I know without a doubt if I ever said yes, he'd be on the next plane to TX, no questions asked.
While he was serving his mission in Riverside, CA he would go on early morning bike rides every day and sometimes call me on a break. Those were some of my favorite phone conversations, it would be 5:30 his time, 7:30 my time, just after the kids had left for school and I was getting things in order at home for the day. I guess I was the lucky recipient because of the time zones, it would have been to early to call anyone else. I love to make fun of him for the time he called on his birthday, at 5:30 his time. I told him if he just would have given me more time I would have called him and wished him a happy birthday but that I usually waited til at least 6am to make those calls. I loved those conversations!
So I guess Happy Birthday isn't as much for him as it is for me. His life honestly is a gift to me. Happy Birthday to me. Celebrating you is as good as it gets!

Serious Catch-Up!!

Chris - Chris is always busy, always, which doesn't make him the happiest because all he dreams of doing is sitting on the couch doing nothing. He's busy at work where he was recently made a V.P. of his company. We proudly display his new, updated business card on our fridge. We are all very proud of him. He's also still busy at church serving in the bishopric. Our bishop shared a story last week about the youths trip repelling. When Chris was on top of the tower ready to come down, they asked if he was scared. He told everyone that repelling had nothing on conducting and that is the truth of how he feels. Along with sitting he couch and doing nothing, he dreams of sitting in the corner of the primary room, playing the piano. He is super dad, I'm surprised his back is holding up from the kids jumping on him each and every night. They love when he gets home. On the same note, he has awesome abs thanks to the workout he gets every morning and night after prayers, when he stays on his knees and they all try to push him over.
Rainie - I'll leave out the obvious: chauffeur, chef, story teller, referee, homework/music tutor, hairdresser, CFO and CEO of GFO (Graham Family Operations). I started going to a morning bootcamp at 5:30am that some ladies from school did. After a few freezing mornings and cancellations from rain I had they awesome(???) idea to invite everyone indoors to our church. Now I have 20++ women counting on me every Mon. Wed. and Fri. to let them in. I don't like commitments and can't wait for the weather to warm up so if I so desire to sleep past 5:00 am I can. I also started playing basketball - and I love it!!! I truly stink, can't make a shot to save my life, but I love the exercise and the laughing. I don't think it's a laughing sport but for whatever reason it gives me the giggles. I go into the gym every week determined to be more serious, I still haven't succeeded. My mind is currently consumed with re-decorating my house. Everything is brown and orange and dark and autumnish and I decided that I need more bright and light in my life, which requires a whole home make over. I will miss the decor for Halloween and Thanksgiving which requires no extra decorating, oh well. These kinds of things are hard to explain to Chris, suggestions??
Charlotte - I don't have a hard time in my life getting older, I've never been sad to be 20, 25, 30, etc. However, Charlotte getting older is a different story. It pains me so much to think that she'll be 11 in a few weeks. Whoa!! When did that all happen? She's doing great at the piano and harp. She just went to the High School yesterday with Chris to pick out her band instrument. After trying them all out, she went for the trumpet - apparently she's a natural. She gets great grades and still loves to read. She's planning on swimming again this summer. She loves babies and is so helpful to have around when I need Mallory to be entertained. She is happy, carefree, free spirited, and makes us all laugh.
Rozlyn - Rozlyn is our best family representative, she never has to be told how to act, she behaves perfectly and makes us all look a little better. That's when she's not at home:) She gets lots of awards at school for everything. She recently competed in her school spelling bee with the other 3rd and 4th graders. She finished 4th - it was really fun and exciting. It's kind of weird to have a smart kid - I can't really relate. She's doing well at the piano and keeping up her social life. Her social calendar is always very full. She started soccer again and her first game is this Saturday - go Storm!
Mason - We are so glad he's in our family. He adds a magical dynamic that no one else can. He loves school. LOVES! He dreams of being a scientist or engineer someday. It's a tough decision because he loves science, but also loves that engineers get free soda and doughnuts at work. We found this out when they had to draw a picture of what they could be if they stayed drug free at school - his was him as an engineer, with a doughnut in one hand and a soda in the other. He talks very fast and has been in speech this year since he's a little difficult to understand. He loves to make math facts for himself and loves maps, especially the United States. He knows most of the states and tell you very important facts about them as well. Mason is also the first member of our family to have a book published - Dingo Trouble, out for release on May 2. There's an author signing that morning and then we can order some. The story of how this came to be is a longer story for another day. One funny thing though is that the advisor at the school who is helping him was putting together his "about the author" blurb on the back. She had to email me because he couldn't clarify if he had 2 or 3 sisters. We keep gently persuading him to try things other then school, science and maps, like sports - he has no interest in any of it - he tells us that they're all to sweaty for him.
Mallory - our energizer bunny that never stops. She's usually the last one asleep and the first one awake. She thinks sleeping is the enemy and fights it with all her might. She goes to school two days a week. She loves (borderline addicted) to the iPhone, iPad and treats in the pantry. She loves music and dancing, she's very dramatic and emotional. That's fun:) She talks like a Vally Girl and makes us laugh. She recently moved in to share a bedroom with Charlotte. So her new name around the house is "Roomate". She has plenty of lovin to give, lots of hugs, lots of kisses, kitty kisses - when she licks you (ewww) and general affection. Sometimes it's more then any of us can handle.
More posts to come, maybe better written and even edited but I'm checking -update the blog- off my list of to-do's now. Done!