"School Project!"

Blake had a "school project" to take pictures with his pets and bring them to share with his classmates. So, Blake and I walked around the ranch this weekend snapping pics with all of his animals.

This is Molly - Blake's dog! Well, actually it's his grandparents dog and since we live next door we are calling her our dog too! Molly is the closest thing to a pet dog we are getting for a long time.

Krenek Tap (we use to live off Krenek Tap Road) was our indoor cat until we had allergy boy! Now he lives outside and absolutely loves it! At times we will find him looking into the house through the side window reminiscing of the days indoor!
This is Blake's cat (actually my in-laws cat too) Sue or Suzy! She is a sweet cat always letting Blake hug on her!
Then there are the cows! You are probably thinking cows as a pet? Well, yes because we have had some of the cows so long that they have become part of our family.
We can't forget about our crazy donkey, Uno. There is really not much to say about Uno except he is your typical donkey!

Our goats, Sparkle and Speckles, we got because I was going through a phase where I thought I wanted a dog! Billy was not in agreement with the whole dog thing, and he is pretty aware of my weird phases I go through at times!

He was okay with us getting a couple of goats and if you have ever been to our place the goats are great entertainment!

Not pictured are two of our cats, Calie and Socks.

That's a lot of pets for a 4, soon to be 5, year old!

Bring on February!

To say the least the month of January for the Graff household has been nothing but EVENTFUL! On top of stomach viruses, ER visit, I also lost my last and only grandpa on January 10th. Some days it's hard to imagine that he's not a phone call away. He left my grandmother who he had been married to for 63 years. The saddest thing I had ever seen as she sat at his funeral with her head hanging telling me how bad her heart hurts. Epigmenio Arredondo did leave a legacy of 6 daughter, 17 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren. The priest said it the best at his burial mass, "He was a simple man that did not require much. He was happy with the simple things in life." Paw Paw was never rich, never drove fancy cars, never had expensive clothes, did not have a huge house.

Yet, he was the happiest man on Earth.

I'm gonna miss him sitting in his blue chair, his plaid shirt and brown pants and the way he spoke to me like I was his only grandchild. The way he squeezed my hand to let me know he loved me! I will miss his amazing WWII stories!

I was honored to be your granddaughter! I can only pray that I can raise my two boys to be just like you!

I love you Paw Paw A!

On to my little Chase Bug! Chase had another reaction to something- not sure what it was, but something that caused hives! So another ER visit for my sweet, allergy boy!

This past weekend my Maw Maw came to visit! We sat outside for a couple hours on Saturday watching the boys play and sharing stories about Paw Paw!


Chase is now big enough to accompany Blake on his John Deere gator! I think Blake is excited to finally have someone that can fit in the gator with him!



MawMaw seem to be doing very well considering it has only been two weeks since Paw Paw passed away.
Blake was very sweet all weekend to MawMaw. Giving her lots of hugs and telling her, "I'm going to take of you." Even my allergy boy gave her a nice, sweet hug all on his own!

Memorial Weekend

When MawMaw arrived at the ranch she had a present for me-this cute little baby! She told me it reminded her of one my babies (Blake & Chase) when they were infants!

I think it's amazing that with 6 daughter, 17 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren that she can make us feel special individually!

OHHHH....BLAKE!

This evening we went out to eat at the Olive Garden. As we were loading up in the car Blake was taking his sweet little time just a talking away. Since, I still have him in a five point harness car seat I was standing in the freezing cold waiting on him to get in so I could buckle him.

Finally, I lost my patience and said, "Blake, no more talking till you get in and get buckled." Blake replies, "Mom, God gave us a mouth to talk, so I'm going to talk."

I guess you can see how this conversation went.....

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Blake's Christmas Program

This morning Blake had his Christmas program at his preschool. They sang a few songs and recited a couple of bible quotes.

Look how big he is!

He did such a great job!

I made reindeer food for Blake's classmates. Now you are probably thinking I had these made a couple days before. Well.....no!



Around 7:00 p.m. the night before I sent Billy to look for the baby food jars.



Chase decided to have a double ear infection, so it took me twice as long to get him to sleep. Then I decided since I finished reading "Twilight" that I needed to watch the movie.



So about 11 p.m. I finally started and about 2 a.m. I crawled in bed. Then 2:15 a.m. my little Chaser decided he was not feeling well and needed me to stay up and rock him all night.


Sick baby = 0 hours of sleep,
Trying to figure out how to make my reindeer food project successful =4 hours of frustration,

14 little 4 yr old's ready for the reindeer on Christmas Eve and a night of holding my baby.....

PRICELESS!