Graesser Family Journal http://flying-dreams.com/journal Mike, Kimberly, Peter and Baby Sarah Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:17:01 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Baby Sarah’s Registries http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=458 http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=458#comments Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:17:01 +0000 Kimberly http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=458 I’ve had a few people ask what we need for Baby Sarah so I thought I’d make a few small registries just in case.  We don’t really need much, but every store has different things and people like shopping different places, so here you go:

Amazon & “Universal” List, Target, Buy Buy Baby, Babies R Us

A few . . . → Read More: Baby Sarah’s Registries]]> I’ve had a few people ask what we need for Baby Sarah so I thought I’d make a few small registries just in case.  We don’t really need much, but every store has different things and people like shopping different places, so here you go:

Amazon & “Universal” List, Target, Buy Buy Baby, Babies R Us

A few of my friends will be throwing a shower in early October up here in Dallas too – more details to come.

]]> http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?feed=rss2&p=458 0 Peter learns to share, all about babies and theology http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=444 http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=444#comments Sat, 17 Jul 2010 03:20:00 +0000 Kimberly http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=444 Peter’s been learning all kinds of things lately – most of which involve sharing with our new foster daughter “H”. She’s two months older than Peter and, while they love to play with each other, causes a great deal of friction when it comes to sharing and taking turns. She should only be with us a . . . → Read More: Peter learns to share, all about babies and theology]]> Peter’s been learning all kinds of things lately – most of which involve sharing with our new foster daughter “H”. She’s two months older than Peter and, while they love to play with each other, causes a great deal of friction when it comes to sharing and taking turns. She should only be with us a few more weeks though, so Peter will have the house to himself again soon.

But not for too long! He’ll have to get used the idea that “Baby Sister Sarah” will be leaving Mama’s belly in a few months and living in the house with us. For now he’s content with just letting her kick his hand and kissing my stomach. He knows her name, that she’s a girl and that seems to be about it – but he’ll learn come November!

Peter loves to learn his letters, numbers and words (he’s a sponge!). Along with learning “Jesus Loves Me” and several Hymns, Mike is teaching Peter theology. He’s a great student, as this video below shows!

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

]]> http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?feed=rss2&p=444 2 A boy…and a girl! http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=433 http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=433#comments Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:40:02 +0000 Kimberly http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=433 So we know the boy must be Peter – but who is the girl? Our new baby! We found out on Monday that we’ll be having a little girl. Time to practice braiding hair I guess!

I had a coupon for a free photoshoot for Peter’s birthday, so we got a few two year old photos taken. . . . → Read More: A boy…and a girl!]]> So we know the boy must be Peter – but who is the girl? Our new baby! We found out on Monday that we’ll be having a little girl. Time to practice braiding hair I guess!

I had a coupon for a free photoshoot for Peter’s birthday, so we got a few two year old photos taken. My favorite two are below and you can see the rest here

2YearPhotoShoot1 2YearPhotoShoot4 BabyGirlGraesser2010 BabyGraesserApril2010

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]]> http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?feed=rss2&p=433 2 Peter Turns Two! http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=425 http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=425#comments Mon, 21 Jun 2010 20:19:16 +0000 Kimberly http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=425 Peter’s birthday was Friday and we celebrated on Saturday with family. Mike’s sister Mel was able to make it in town from Wisconsin along with our brother-in-law Dave and their two kids Katelyn (our goddaughter, 3 weeks younger than Peter) and Josiah (only 3 months old). Mike’s Dad (Grandpa) came too and so did my parents . . . → Read More: Peter Turns Two!]]> Peter’s birthday was Friday and we celebrated on Saturday with family. Mike’s sister Mel was able to make it in town from Wisconsin along with our brother-in-law Dave and their two kids Katelyn (our goddaughter, 3 weeks younger than Peter) and Josiah (only 3 months old). Mike’s Dad (Grandpa) came too and so did my parents (Gramma and Paca).

Cookie Monster!!

Peter had a great time and woke up every morning asking if we still had “friends over”. We had fun with a homemade Cookie Monster cake, Sesame Street theme and swimming – and entirely too many toys as presents!

You can see bunches of party photos here and photos from the weekend here.

Peter had his doctor’s appointment today and now weighs 31.88 lbs (87th percentile) and is 37 inches tall (96th percentile). Such a big boy! But it still only gives him a  16.4 BMI – that’s only in the 44th percentile – so he’s nice a lean.

You may have also noticed that the blog has a whole new look to it. I switched to a new blogging system (WordPress) and installed a plugin that allows me to instantly pull photos posted on Facebook to here. So you should be seeing a lot more updates from now on!

]]> http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?feed=rss2&p=425 3 Long due updates! http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=238 http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=238#comments Mon, 31 May 2010 23:16:00 +0000 Kimberly It’s been a long time since I’ve updated here. Mostly because I’ve been doing a lot of our updating on Facebook.

Our biggest news is that Peter will be a big brother! I’m due on November 14th and we should find out if it’s a boy or girl sometime this month.

Peter’s talking and growing every day – . . . → Read More: Long due updates!]]> It’s been a long time since I’ve updated here. Mostly because I’ve been doing a lot of our updating on Facebook.

Our biggest news is that Peter will be a big brother! I’m due on November 14th and we should find out if it’s a boy or girl sometime this month.

Peter’s talking and growing every day – in fact he’ll be two this month, can you believe it?

You can see tons of new photos at the links below:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=182377&id=622007867&l=c173be6de3

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=201103&id=622007867&l=6a28a71ef7

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=205076&id=622007867&l=f0fc9102c3

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=195191&id=622007867&l=bb11cf4c99

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=220977&id=622007867&l=0045a35239

Some of my favorite photos from the past few months are also below:

Due Nov 14!

Kissing the baby

Peter loves to ride on Daddy’s shoulders!

Easter Eggs!

Peter loves to be outside!

Zoo Trip!

Roughriders Baseball game
]]> http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?feed=rss2&p=238 1 Christmas, Family Visits and Photos http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=294 http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=294#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:46:00 +0000 Kimberly Life has been hectic around here the past few weeks. We went to Wisconsin to visit Aunt Mel, Uncle Dave and Cousin Katelyn (and soon-to-be here Cousin Josiah!). Peter decided snow and cold was overrated and preferred to stay inside and play. That was okay though because he entertained Katelyn with his ever-expanding vocabulary.

After that we . . . → Read More: Christmas, Family Visits and Photos]]> Life has been hectic around here the past few weeks. We went to Wisconsin to visit Aunt Mel, Uncle Dave and Cousin Katelyn (and soon-to-be here Cousin Josiah!). Peter decided snow and cold was overrated and preferred to stay inside and play. That was okay though because he entertained Katelyn with his ever-expanding vocabulary.

After that we had two days at home and then headed down to Houston to see Aunt Anne-Marie, Uncle Andrew, Cousins Hannah, Ellie & Benjamin, Uncle Jason, Aunt Brandy and Grandpa Graesser. We had a great family Christmas together and were even joined by Mel, Dave and Katelyn again via the webcam – how fun!

Back in town again we got to spend Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa Johnson. Peter has taken to calling both of them “Paca” for some reason and really enjoyed their visit.

Peter got too many toys, clothes, candy and everything else for Christmas, but he sure isn’t complaining! He seems to enjoy his Elmo and Little People blocks the most, but also loves all the cars and books. You can see all of our photos from December here.

We’ve finished everything for our foster care license and are now just waiting for the paperwork to go through. We may have a kiddo in our home by the end of January – how exciting!

For Mike’s birthday (today!) he wanted us to get family portraits done. Peter did wonderfully and we got some really cute ones. You can see them all here.

As always if you want copies of any photos please let me know and I can send you the larger files. The professional portraits are only for viewing though, but I can buy prints in you’d like!

So cute!

Happy Birthday Mike!

I can’t move my arms! I don’t like snow!
]]> http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?feed=rss2&p=294 1 New Design http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=237 http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=237#comments Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:32:15 +0000 Kimberly If you’re reading this from our blog you’ll notice we have a new design up finally! Peter now only vaguely resembles that little baby that graced the website until today – so I thought it was time for a change! If you’re reading this on facebook or through an rss reader you can go to http://www.flying-dreams.com/journal . . . → Read More: New Design]]> If you’re reading this from our blog you’ll notice we have a new design up finally! Peter now only vaguely resembles that little baby that graced the website until today – so I thought it was time for a change! If you’re reading this on facebook or through an rss reader you can go to http://www.flying-dreams.com/journal to see what I’m talking about.

Life is pretty much the same as usual right now. We’re working diligently to get our license to become foster parents and have our appointment to get fingerprinted on Tuesday. Then we just have inspections and our home study and we’re good to go!

Peter keeps picking up new words but for some reason seems to be dropping the ones he used to know (most noticably “bird-ee”). I’m sure he’ll use them again soon. His favorite word at the moment is “Awh-right!” which he says anytime he likes something or instead of saying “yes”. He’s also figured out “no” but hasn’t used it to disobey…yet. He uses it to answer questions and sometimes uses it AS a question. He’ll go up to something he’s not sure if he can touch or not and look as us and ask “No?” It’s too cute!

Peter and just SOME of his toys.
]]> http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?feed=rss2&p=237 0 State Fair & Halloween! http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=301 http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=301#comments Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:07:25 +0000 Kimberly Peter’s been having lots of fun this month. We went to the State Fair a few weeks ago and he had so much fun at the petting zoo, auto show and eating his corn dog.

He also moved to his big boy bed this month and has been sleeping in it just fine for three weeks. The . . . → Read More: State Fair & Halloween!]]> Peter’s been having lots of fun this month. We went to the State Fair a few weeks ago and he had so much fun at the petting zoo, auto show and eating his corn dog.

He also moved to his big boy bed this month and has been sleeping in it just fine for three weeks. The only “problem” we had was that he woke up the first morning on the floor. In fact he was still happily sleeping next to the bed with his blankets when I found him that morning – hah!

We just got back a little bit ago from trick-or-treating with Peter friends from church (and of course my friends – their moms!). He was a jedi and loved his light saber that made noise (and was $1!). I made his costume myself from scrap fabric – you can’t beat free!

You may notice that I haven’t updated the photo album with any of these pictures yet. I’ve been adding photos to Facebook since my parents (hi Mom & Dad!) finally got an account. It’s so much easier to put them up there and it’s nice because I’ll be able to choose who can see photos and who can’t once we get foster kiddos. We don’t want the kiddos faces to be available on the internet so we’ll only be sharing family photos that include them with certain people. Photos of just us and Peter (and any kiddos we get to adopt!) will remain public.

But for now you can still view ANY photos posted on Facebook by me without needing a Facebook account. Halloween & Pumpkin Photos are here and State Fair photos are here. So leave me a comment here or otherwise let me know what you think about using Facebook only for our photos (with the foster kiddos photos password protected). If it’s too hard for everyone then I’ll edit the “public” photos and add them to our album as well.

But either way, you still get a few cute pictures below!

Peter loved his costume!
Peter at the State Fair!
Yum! Corndogs!
]]> http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?feed=rss2&p=301 0 Almost 16 Months http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=236 http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=236#comments Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:57:38 +0000 Kimberly It’s been so long since I’ve written a post I had to go back and read the last one to remind myself what all has happened! We’ve been keeping busy working on our paperwork to become foster parents and dealing with the same flu everyone else has. But we’re all better now and it’s looking like . . . → Read More: Almost 16 Months]]> It’s been so long since I’ve written a post I had to go back and read the last one to remind myself what all has happened! We’ve been keeping busy working on our paperwork to become foster parents and dealing with the same flu everyone else has. But we’re all better now and it’s looking like we’ll be ready for playmates for Peter in a few months!

Peter’s been learning new things everyday and talks more and more. His favorite word is “boo!” which he runs around the house saying all day long.

He loves to copy all the things we do, whether it’s what we say, cooking, cleaning, typing, brushing our hair, watering plants or my favorite – blowing in the fireplace to stoke the fire. He blows into the fireplace every time he passes by it now – fire or not! He also loves to talk on his play phone like he sees us do and say “ah” when he finishes drinking his water.

His last doctor’s appointment was two weeks ago and he weighed in at 27 lbs and was 33 inches tall. This puts him in the 81% and 85% respectively.

We’ve been working on Peter’s “big boy room” and hope to have it ready for him within a few weeks so he can move before we need his crib for another kiddo. We put shelves along the top of the room and set a train set along it. Whenever Peter goes into the room now he says “Tee Tee!” and points to the shelves so we’ll turn the train on for him. So cute!

A bunch more videos and photos are up at the album, so be sure to check them out. We’ll have even more after Halloween I’m sure – and you’ll be able to see his adorable jedi costume that I’m making then ;)

Peter wrestling with Eeyore on the ground
]]> http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?feed=rss2&p=236 0 Talking! http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=293 http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?p=293#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:25:49 +0000 Kimberly Peter’s vocabulary has expanded so much in the past week it’s amazing! He now says belly button (bel-ie budd), bird (bur-dee), bear (beah), ball (bahl), cat (dat), dog (dawg), horse (hursh), shoe (shu), bath (baf, dance (dansh), boom (oom) and several more that I can’t think of right now. He also seems to know godzilla (zeela) . . . → Read More: Talking!]]> Peter’s vocabulary has expanded so much in the past week it’s amazing! He now says belly button (bel-ie budd), bird (bur-dee), bear (beah), ball (bahl), cat (dat), dog (dawg), horse (hursh), shoe (shu), bath (baf, dance (dansh), boom (oom) and several more that I can’t think of right now. He also seems to know godzilla (zeela) and can tell the difference between him and the King Kong poster we have in our game room – hah! What a silly boy!

He loves to dance and will spin around when certain songs come on and even “sing” along to some of them.

Peter’s officially down to one nap a day usually around 1 in the afternoon. For some reason he’s gotten tired earlier this week and fell asleep in his highchair WHILE STILL CHEWING! We got it on video and have it up on the website. So funny!

We spent the week renovating Peter’s bathroom to remove the carpet and lay down tile in preparation for eventual potty training. Peter loved helping Daddy and even picked up more than half of the tile spacers and put them in the bag by himself! Of course, we got it on video ;)

This morning I asked Peter to say “I love you.” Apparently that’s too complex for him so he just gave me a big hug and kiss instead – how sweet! I wonder if he really knows what the word love means? I like to think so!

Peter loves to point – this captures his personality perfectly. Check out other photos at the photo album.
]]> http://flying-dreams.com/journal/?feed=rss2&p=293 1