Taylor's New Hair

Yes, we finally did it. I am still mourning all of Taylor's hair that was on the bathroom floor after we cut it. This is his third haircut and ,yes, he isn't even 11 months old yet. But I think that it turned out pretty well. I gelled it and put some style into it. We'll see how I keep up on it. These are some pictures that we took before church. Just click on a picture to see it enlarged.

Make a Smilebox postcard

Trips...

We have been enjoying the summer with Duane home and been trying to get out of the house as much as possible! This is Duane and Taylor at the arcade. It was fun but I think that half the games had something broken on them.

We stopped and got some Cold Stone. I just thought it was funny that we parked next to a smart car. They are my dream car. Too bad you can only fit two people in them and would probably die if you got in a car accident.

We made another quick trip to California to do some business and see Nana and Papee.

Here is Duane and Taylor at the Shark Reef Exhibit. We just recently found out that it is free for us because Duane is a teacher! That made the experience even more enjoyable.

Even though the color on this was crazy I tried to salvage it because I thought it was such a cute picture of us with the fish. (I don't have any photography experience if you couldn't tell)


Taylor is taking many trips up these days. He has started to climb up onto baskets or the couch. We are waiting for those first solo steps. We bought a little school bus walker that he loves to push around so we will see!

Oregon

Yeah! We visited Oregon for a week at the end of July. Taylor LOVED visiting with everyone and hanging out in his CARS stroller. We visited a Lavender Farm, saw the coast, Duane caught a nice salmon (nothing like fresh salmon..yum), had a couple of parties, and saw Grandpa Tony win 2nd place in the team roping competition at the local rodeo. Overall, it was a fun filled week of WARM weather (Las Vegas temperatures...we just can't escape it) and warm memories. Wow, that was corny :) The trip ended eventfully as our plane was delayed because the airport ran out of fuel. Does that really happen? Apparently, it can and does at a small airport.

Grandpa Tony and Taylor at the coast

Great Grammie Alma and Taylor at their SWEEEEET cabin

This cabin rocks! It is on the other side of their property and doesn't have electricity or cell service. It is so cute and a wonderful retreat from the stresses of life. Old country living. Everyone should have a place like this! (It was also the site of a date Duane took me out on when I first visited Oregon...I think we got attacked by a bat living in the rafters..it was awesome)

Duane inside the cabin

Great grandpa Bob inside the cabin by the wood stove

Enjoying a little fudge refreshment. It was hot!

Grandma Edna and Taylor at the rodeo

Grandpa Tony and Taylor on Romeo (the horse) right before Tony killed in team roping

Utah

In July we got to visit my brother, Chad, and his cute little family in their new house. We had a lot of fun eating marshmallows and lots of other scrumptious food (fresh fruit :), shopping at Park City, and visiting Bridal Veil Falls. They were just finishing their basement and their house looks amazing! Thanks for having us!

Taylor and Brianna enjoying a bath

Ty showing off his diving skills

The Great Outdoors

A couple of weeks ago we went camping! We didn't get to to shoot a bear in the bum (refer to the title of this post) but we did enjoy some great food, even greater company, and cooler weather. We had dutch oven lasagna, PIZZA, peach cobbler, and sausage egg breakfast burritos. All of it was YUMMY.

Our campsite

Daddy and son

Taylor was ready to go home but we had to get a cute picture of him in his Mickey sweatshirt (thank you Grandma Edna!)

Troublemaker

I know what you are thinking... Yes, I just let him (well, encouraged is closer to the truth) eat a cheerio off of the carpet and yes, it probably wasn't very sanitary.

Bump in the Bathtub

Taylor loves to stand up in the bathtub recently but what goes up must come down. He ended up bonking his head on the side and getting a little welt above his left eye. This is him twenty minutes after it happened...happy as a clam while evading my attempts to dress him in his sleeper. What a busy little man!

4th of July Fun

We had such a great time last weekend! We spent the 4th of July in California visiting my family and having an extended family reunion as well. Lots of laughs and staying up late chatting! We got to swim in an amazing rock pool, go to the beach and work on our tans (still working on them), and have a movie date to see Transformers 2 (thanks mom and dad for babysitting). Overall a great time catching up and having some fun.

Haircut and Crawling Video

This boy's hair is out of control. We love it! But the poor boy could hardly see anymore so we had to give him a little cut over his ears and his forehead. He looks so much older to me now. I've also included a video of his crawling antics (already too fast for me!).

Pre-haircut mop

Post-haircut with mommy

post-haircut with daddy

there he goes!

"These things are fun and fun is good!"

Life is good. Dr. Seuss said it better in the title of this post! Summer is upon us and we are enjoying time together as a family and gearing up for some trips and camping as well. This last month we have had a couple of highlights: we bought a new car (new to us), Nissan Murano, at the end of June, Duane finished his first year of teaching, and Taylor is now crawling and standing everywhere. He is turning into a little fireball. We don't mind it so much because he is now sleeping through the night! So here is a couple of random pictures to keep everyone updated.

"I love puffs especially because they can stick to my cheek!"

Taylor is such an eater now.

I think it is all going into this little gut he has started to have recently.

"I should be sleeping but I am playing instead, yep!"

"Hey momma, see what I can do."

"I have four sharp teeth on top. Yes, you should be scared."

"Oh, the carefree summer days after a cool bath."

This is where Taylor has learned many of his recent tricks.

The bathtub has proven to be a great practice field for sitting, crawling, and manuevering in general.

Taylor prefers to be naked and wet most of the time.

He is definitely a water baby!

Snakey..is this a relative of yours?

So I was taking pictures of our lawn to post (see a few posts down) and looked down to see this:

Yes, my friends that is a snake twisting around my flowerbed. It took me quite off guard but I didn't scream (very proud of myself). I just jumped out of my skin and started taking pictures. I mean I had the camera in my hand already. Very fortuitous timing, huh?

At first, I thought it was the Fagan's friend, Snakey. They live about 6-8 houses down from us (on the same side of the street) and the snake could have decided an exodus was in order...but then I saw that it was a bit larger than I remembered Snakey being in the pictures...

Maybe it is Snakey's papa? You be the one to decide. I, for one, am grateful that we had some time together but am not so sad that I haven't seen him since. I guess he didn't like our water-logged sod lawn.

Mother's Day Weekend

We had a great Mother's Day weekend and were lucky to have Grandma Edna and Grandpa Tony visit from Oregon. We had a such a fun time! On Friday, we watched regional preliminaries a.k.a. a track meet. The Basic kids did so well!! My triple jumpers almost made state. They missed it by only one place (you have to be in the top 3 to make it to state...only 9 kids from all of Nevada go to state). Then on Saturday we ate a yummy brunch at the Mirage and then Grandma Edna watched Taylor in the evening so that the rest of us could go see "Mystere" a show by Cirque de Solei. It was amazing to see so many different gymnasts and athletes! We were definitely fans. Then we relaxed on Sunday and enjoyed Taylor time and an outstanding dinner. And yes, I made the cake from scratch!! Vanilla cake with whipped frosting and strawberries. I don't know how I am going to go back to cakes out of the box. Thank you again, Grandma and Grandpa Graham, for coming and sharing such a special time with us!

What we have been up to....

This last month and a half have been busy with our family! Here are a bunch of pictures to catch you up on some Graham happenings!

We had Taylor's 6 month portraits done!

Surfer dude!

We have been sick with a fever. (Mommy just got sick from a snuffy, runny nose too)

Had some visitors during Spring Break (We love you Nana..thanks for the cool sunglasses)

Learned some new tricks...Taylor always greets me in the morning looking out of his crib!

Loved some swimming lessons at the local community center.

started work on our yard...

planted some sod and then started...

watering

and watering

and watered some more...

planted some flowers :)
(my snapdragons are struggling with the heat)



and a couple of fruit trees and..

voila! a yard is born

Lastly but definitely not leastly, hanging out in as little clothes as possible because it has been hot!

(he, he he...actually this is a sneaky smirk boy who rolled over while I was changing his diaper)