NEW YEARS EVE!

New Years Eve was a blast! We went down to my sister Sara's house for a big sleepover, party, fireworks, bon fire, games, food and more. It was awesome. We had a great time. The kids had so much fun staying up half the night, watching movies, eating, playing in the snow and roasting marshmallows. It was so chaotic with 30+ people there, but we all slept over and had a great time. It was definitely a night to remember. We watched the ball drop in New York City and then counted down the last 10 seconds and yelled Happy New Year! McCrea was terrified of all the screaming and fireworks. He wasn't sure what the hell was going on. Anyway good-bye 2008 and welcome 2009. My dad's favorite saying is "I haven't seen you since last year, or I haven't talked to you since last year." We now use this saying back at him, before he can say it to us. It is so cheesy, but we have all started saying it to everyone.



The best and worst of 2008



Best

• Finding out we were going to have a baby boy!


• The birth of our son McCrea Daxten Graham on July 15, 2008.


• Lorelei started young kindergarten and loves it.


• Going on a last family of three trip to SeaWorld and Legoland.


• Going to Utah to have baby shower for my sister and throwing a 70th birthday party for my dad.

Worst

• Recovering from a C-section. It's always a nightmare and something always goes wrong.


• Lorelei waking up 2-3x a night. Finding out she needs her tonsils and adenoids out.


• McCrea being allergic to all the formulas out there and insurance doesn't cover the very expensive formula he is on.


• Cutting over a foot of my beautiful hair to give to locks of love and finding out they don't take chemically treated hair. Is there a way to glue it back on? I'm planning on selling it to the highest bidder.


• Finding a lump in my breast that will have to get removed in the new year.

• Having my tooth pulled preparing for an implant.

This year I'm taking the time for me! I have always put everyone else first, my children, my husband, church, friends, the laundry, the cleaning, the errands and never felt I had time for myself. This year I am committing myself, to loving myself a little more, being more positive and taking care of me. I hate to sound selfish, but isn't it about time? There is the saying, "if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." I am finding that to be true. Mother's have the power to create their atmosphere to be a positive or a negative one. So this year it's about finding myself and being HAPPY no matter what life throws at me. And hopefully it rubs off on the rest of the us.

CHRISTMAS IS HERE!

Packing up to go to Utah!

McCrea's first trip!

We headed up to Utah for Christmas this year. We stayed with my parents at the Molloy Palace. I had to have everything wrapped, packed and ready to go. We left on the 19th and we stayed for over three weeks. We spent the holidays with my 7 siblings, spouses and 13 nieces and nephews. It was chaotic, but fun (depending on who you talk to.) We all enjoyed going to see the lights at Temple Square, seeing our friends, making a traditional German dinner for 30+ people with all my sisters, and enjoying the beautiful snow. Chad got to go snowboarding. He ended up getting frostbite on his big toe, from loss of circulation. He still has lost some feeling in his big toe, but the black is going away.

Temple Square with the family

Christmas Eve

We enjoyed a Christmas Eve celebration! We ate a yummy German dinner, played with the kids, and we had all the kids do the traditional Bible story play. Lorelei was a "princess" shepherd and McCrea was baby Jesus this year. He protested and didn't want to be wrapped in swaddling clothes, but it was so cute. We all had to do a talent for the talent show, this is my mother's favorite tradition. So, Chad found a two string (the other strings were missing) Russian guitar downstairs in my parents closet and picked out the song of Jingle Bells, everyone had a big laugh. And I had Lorelei and McCrea dance to the song "Santa Clause is coming to town." McCrea was in his Santa's outfit, it was so funny as I tried to get him to move this way or that way to the musice, he seemed to enjoy it, even though he didn't have a say in the matter. It was really funny. We then opened gifts from everyone and just hung out, talked and played games.

My little Santa Man!

Mary (Tia) and Baby Jesus (McCrea)
Joseph (Grahm) Mary (Tia) Jesus (McCrea)



Talent Show
Chad playing a Russian guitar he found downstairs with only two strings. He strummed out Jingle Bells. Everyone had a good laugh.
McCrea and Lorelei danced to "Santa Claus is coming to town"

Christmas morning my little family got up before my parents and saw that Santa had been there. Lorelei was so happy to see all the presents. We opened all of our gifts. Lorelei's favorites were Nutcracker barbie, and Tinkerbell DVD and barbies, memaids, human body book. She also loved her new rollerskates. McCrea liked the moving train and all his toys he can suck on and play with. Chad's favorite gift by far was the Wii. He got two of them, one from me and one from his parents, we took back one of them and got the Guitar Hero. Chad has been in heaven every day since. My favorite gifts were a beautiful earrings I got from Greece, a Canon Rebel, and a beautiful picture of the Temple. It was a great Christmas. We spent the rest of the day opening all that stupid packaging, playing games and taking it easy.

Christmas morning

McCrea's first reaction of Christmas morning

He looks very excited!

Lorelei first look at all her presents! She is so excited that Santa came!

We are all ready for the presents!

Playing horsey on our daddy!

Hugs and kisses!

McCrea eating the yummy wrapping paper!

Opening presents is fun to do!

On the 26th we all got babysitters and all the adults in my family went to dinner and a play. We went and saw a play at the Desert Star Playhouse. It was called "The miracle on 42nd street." They do spoofs on different plays. It was fun just being with the adults and not worrying about all our kids. We actually could have a conversation without being interrupted.



We also got to see a few of Chad's friends, before he headed back home. Lorelei, McCrea and I stayed for another two weeks. We enjoyed being with friends and family. I didn't get out and see everyone as much as I would have liked to, but I did enjoy my visit and had a great time. Some of the highlights were shoveling snow, Dinosaur Musuem, Highschool Friends Party, Twilight with my girlfriends, spending a night with my sister at the Marriott without my kids, and going to BodyWorld. It was a lot of fun. I miss everyone already!

CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTER!

Merry Christmas from sunny Arizona, where no one is really Dreaming of a White Christmas. In case you were wondering, no, it has not snowed in Arizona’s East Valley this year. In fact, daily high temperatures have only recently (and reluctantly) dipped into the low 70s. Nevertheless, we have endeavored to catch the Christmas spirit – Teresa participated in Black Friday and we watched the movie, Elf. This year we will be spending Christmas with Teresa’s family in Utah, so the snow should be aplenty.

Lorelei enjoyed her last only-child trip in April. We visited SeaWorld and Legoland in San Diego. Sea World yielded the usual suspects. Lorelei loved feeding the dolphins. At Legoland we were overwhelmed by things made of legos (horses, cars, people, elephants, etc.). Those people have too much time on their hands.

Biggest news of the year: McCrea Daxten Graham (boy), Born July 15, 2008 at 10:49 a.m. He was 7 pounds, 12 ounces and 20¾ inches long.

A fitting Christmas song for the Graham Family is Silent Night. Yep, you read that right. McCrea has been sleeping through the night since he was about a month old. Wait, don’t tear this letter up yet. He balances out the universe by spending most of the day crying (unless he’s being held, eating, sleeping, or bathing). He has had allergy issues with nearly every formula we have tried. We finally settled on a prescription-only formula that seems to work better with his system. Some of his new tricks are grabbing his feet and rolling over. We keep hearing that he’s starting to really look like his sister – something we probably won’t tell him … ever.

Lorelei is up to her usual shenanigans. Now at 5 years of age, she’s a “big girl.” She really loves her baby brother, so much so that he usually ends up crying by the time she’s done with him. Lorelei graduated from preschool. She barely misses the cutoff for kindergarten, so she is in a young kindergarten class for 3 hours a day. This year she has done ballet, tap, hip-hop dance, swimming, tumbling, cheerleading, and Chinese school. Her two “specialties” are swimming and drawing. She continues to dream about becoming a mermaid. If she’s not pretending to be one in the swimming pool or bath tub, she is artistically creating them on paper. She is our little budding artist.

Poor Teresa spent a significant part of the excruciating summer VERY pregnant. She was relieved that her
C-section would be planned this time. Although she had difficulties recovering, she survived. She spends most of her time preparing bottles, changing diapers, wiping up throw-up, doing laundry, washing dishes, mopping floors, wiping counters, dusting, vacuuming, and picking up toys. Then, in the afternoon she does everything else.

Chad is still working at Littler Mendelson, where he is enjoying significant new and exciting challenges practicing corporate migration. He actually likes going to work (no, not because of the Town Crier – aka, McCrea). He loves year-round golfing in Arizona. Most of his weekends are filled with home improvement projects.

Steve is thinking of changing his last name to Graham, as he has continued to reside with us for the past two years. He is still working for Los Cabos Golf Resort. Steve’s sidekick, Harry (rabbit), said goodbye to us in January – he went to heaven, where all good rabbits go.

We’re hoping to get some presents from Santa this year. We think we’ll make the list, unless he checks it twice…

Best Wishes,

Chad, Teresa, Lorelei, & McCrea Graham

FIVE MONTHS OLD!

McCrea is growing up! Already five months old! He is enjoying everything these days. He loves his exersaucer, he jumps up and down, sucks on his toys and spins around. He loves playing with toys, he loves to grab, shake, suck and drop his toys. He loves to grab his feet and suck on them and even rolls back and forth. He loves to give hugs and kisses. It is so cute to see him give a hug, he likes to snuggle his head right up against you and bury his face. His kisses however can be painful. He will grab with both hands the back of your head, grabbing as much hair as he can hold and he opens his mouth wide and pulls your face into his and slobbers you with his kisses. It is so sweet, but depending on the grab he most likely pulls out hair with it. Like I just explained he loves to pull hair. This is his only defense and he uses it well, especially with Lorelei. Anytime he is fed up with Lorelei he knows just what to do. She loves to smother him and play with him, sometimes a little to hard and so after a little while, he gets a hold of her hair and pulls chunks out. Lorelei will probably be bald by the time she is six. He loves his baths, he is taking baths with Lorelei now and loves to splash and kick and get water in his face. He will be a natural fish too. He loves to be outdoors. He loves the parks, going on walks, and being out in nature. He is even a good sport when I need to run errands. He likes to be out and about. McCrea definitely has mommy wrapped around his finger. He is full of smiles, giggles and hugs and kisses. We just love our little man!

CHRISTMAS PARTY AT PHOENIX ZOO!

Having fun at the zoo!

Sittin with Santa! Lorelei and McCrea love Santa!

Santa asking her if she was a good girl this year.

She is looking at her mommy and daddy wondering how

she should reply to that question.

I guess her and Santa worked it out, because she looks

more pleased about it.
Sting Ray Bay!
Lorelei reaching out to touch the Sting Ray!

We went to Phoenix Zoo for Littler Mendelson's work party this year! They decorated the zoo with millions of lights. It was great and very festive. We first met up with all of Chad's co-workers, had dinner and mingled. We also got to see Santa and sit on his lap! Lorelei was confused why Santa wasn't the same Santa we saw the week before. I don't think we had a very good answer for her, but she went a long with it anyway. After that we went and looked at all the lights around the zoo and also went to Sting Ray Bay, where we got to stick our hands in cold water to touch all the sting rays. Lorelei loved this, she thinks they are slimy. She ended up soaking wet by the end, so that was our queue to leave.

THE NUTCRACKER BALLET!

Mommy and Lorelei!
Lorelei and Nana!

For the past three years Nana, Lorelei and I get to go see the Nutcracker Ballet together. It is something we look forward to every year. Nana treats us girls to a wonderful evening and we enjoy watching all the beautiful ballerinas and male dancers too. Lorelei particularly liked the scenes with all the mice. The mouse king and his armies were a hit. Lorelei is now obsessed with mice! Her new hobby is drawing mice on paper, cutting mice out of paper or fabric and Santa even brought her a white stuffed mouse for Christmas! She even got the Barbie Nutcracker DVD. Thank you Nana for taking us yet another year to enjoy the NUTCRACKER! We love this tradition and hope to continue it on throughout the years with you!

"SO, SO, SUCK MY TOE!"

Look what I can do!
Grab!
Insert!

Suck! Repeat!

It sure didn't take long for McCrea to discover he could not only grab his toes, but this could be a new form of food too! It only took days from him grabbing his toes, to forcing them down his throat. McCrea is in love with his feet, especially his big toe! He is constantly figuring out how to get his feet to his mouth. He immediately pulls his socks off and inserts toes! Although, I am not a foot person and would normally think this is just pure disgusting, it couldn't be more cute to see your baby learning and doing new things, even if it is just sucking on toes!

SITTIN' WITH SANTA!

Lorelei anxiously awaiting Santa Clause!
Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Clause!

Telling Santa what she wants for Christmas! She

wanted a "Bratz doll that Rocks!"
Still thinking what else she should ask Santa for!

Lorelei and McCrea sitting on Santa's lap. McCrea

doesn't know what to think about his first experience with

Santa Clause!

Our Family together with Santa and Mrs. Clause!

McCrea, Lorelei and Snappy the Elf!
McCrea is wondering, Where did Santa go?

McCrea enjoying all the action!

We have made it a new tradition to go to T.C. Eggingtons every year to have Tea with Santa. Lorelei couldn't wait to see SANTA! She was so thrilled when she saw him walking up. She wasn't shy at all and ran up and gave him a big hug. While we waited for our turn to sit on Santa's lap they brought us hot cider and a frosted cookie to eat. It was yummy. We got to visit with friends and talk with Snappy the Elf! Of course, this was the highlight of Lorelei's day!