Thursday, December 12, 2013

Thankful

This Thanksgiving we were expecting a lot of family to come into town, and we were so excited! There's nothing like having family around for the holidays and it's even more fun introduce a new baby into the mix! We were expecting Brad and Cami to come for Graham's baby blessing, we scheduled it over the break so that family could join. We also asked Jonathan and Ashley to come, and of course they couldn't pass that up and both of them got work off! Yay! And to make this holiday even more fun, Maren and Scott decided to drive up from California too!!! We had almost the entire Smith family together, we just missed Scott and Carisa :( Living so far away is tough, they are out there in North Carolina along with my family in South Carolina and Mississippi. We try and make the best of the time we have with each other when we see them. But we do miss them!

We had a very relaxing and fun Thanksgiving weekend with everyone, and we planned some pretty fun things to do!



Graham meeting Uncle Jonathan for the first time! I just love these pictures, he is so cute with Jonathan! He sure did not like that beard though. Scratchy kisses. Graham scrunched his face every time haha! 


So I can't believe this, but I didn't get any pictures of Thanksgiving day! We had such a fun time, maybe I was too distracted that I didn't pull my camera out at all. 

Kami and Brad came in the day before Thanksgiving, and Steve was able to come home early from work to see them meet Graham for the first time! It was just about the sweetest thing. Cami came in, and right away had Graham in her arms! She had been craving this little guy for so long! And he loved his time with Grandma and Grandpa Smith. After a good long cuddle with Kami, she passed him over to Brad and it was so adorable to see Graham with him. Grandparents have this special love for their grandchildren! It's so amazing to watch them with your own child! Really incredible! Now Dad, your the last one left to see your "Grahamdson". Get it? Haha, can't wait for that day!! 

After we hung out at home for a while, we went to run some errands for dinner the next day. We ended up meeting Joel and Abby at Five Guys to have dinner! I had to feed Graham in the car before I went in with him, so I waited while everyone else got started. I thought it would be a quick dinner for Graham, but disaster struck. He had a HUGE blow out that went all the way up his back and ruined his outfit. I changed him in the car on my lap, and it was very...messy. Thankgoodness little baby poop isn't that bad! Anyway once he was clean I reached inside my bag to grab another outfit, but us silly new parents forgot to put in an extra pair! Soooo I was sitting in my car with an unhappy baby who didn't have any clothes to wear haha. What I ended up doing was wrap him up in his snuggly blanket and we had Five Guys with the family like that. Haha! Just across the street was Target and we bought another little outfit for Graham there. He would have a least a shirt on for when he was in the car seat again! Lesson learned! 

Thankgiving morning, Jonathan and Ashley arrived! We got all ready for the day at Joel and Abby's for dinner. Before we headed over, we stopped by the movie theatre to see a Thanksgiving day movie! It is my families tradition, and it was fun having part of my family in town to do this with! We saw Frozen, and it was hilarious and so cute! I've been singing the songs in my head ever since. Graham slept through the whole movie again :) That's two movies we have been to see with him! He did so good in Catching Fire too. The theatre is loud and I've been surprised that it doesn't bother him. He might jump a few times, but that's it. He just eats and sleeps and is an angel. 

After we went to Joel and Abby's for dinner and it was so delicious! Of course everyone stuffed their faces, I know I did! We had been talking about Black Friday and how crazy it has become. There were a few deals that had caught my interest, but nothing I was serious about until I saw the new iPone 5s on sale at Target.  It was a doorbuster deal and I figured it would sell out really fast, but how often can you get the new iPone on sale?? We were planning on getting me a new iPhone next year since mine is getting slow, but this seemed like a good enough of a deal to get it earlier! I told Steve and we decided that this would be my Christmas gift this year. So Brad, Steve, Jonathan, and Ashley braved the crazy doorbuster mob to get those good deals!! Steve was so excited! This was his first Black Friday experience. He tried to trick me into thinking that he was too far back in line to get the deal, but really he was the first person in the iPhone line!! Turns out he bought the only gold iPhone 5s that was an AT&T phone!! They only had one! Thanks babe!! Oh, sadly his trick didn't work because they had to deactivate my current phone to set the new one up. Sneaky trick ruined! Haha. Merry Christmas to me, I got my present early!! 

The next day Scott and Maren were arriving in the late afternoon, and we planned on spending the evening with the family downtown! It has been so long since I have spent Christmas time in Seattle, all of our old family traditions were coming back to me and it got very nostalgic! We were telling Steve's family about our Christmas traditions, and some of them included some activities downtown. They thought it would be a fun idea to go experience our family traditions for that evening! I was so excited! It brought back so many fond memories as a little girl. 

Our tradition was to go downtown when all the Christmas lights are lit and go on the pretty carousel that sits outside by the mall. I've always remembered it being so big and pretty! We also would walk around and look in the store windows that were all decorated for Christmas with trains and presents! There used to be a FAO Swarts Toy Store, and it was glorious. But they moved a long time ago, so that will stay a fond memory. Going to the Sheraton hotel to look at the beautiful gingerbread houses was always really neat! It was definitely one of my favorite parts of the night! But I think my absolute favorite part of the night was to go over to the mall food court next to the carousel and share McDonalds french fries with my family, while sitting next to the window overlooking the downtown Christmas tree. 

Our plan was to try out some of those old activities! We went down, and it just so happened to be the opening day for everything....and it was sooo packed full of people! I don't think we ever went on the opening day before haha! There was a lot less hustle when we went with my family in the past, but despite the crowds we still had fun recreating old memories! And it was fun!


Can't believe I was here as a grown up with my child! I loved sharing these traditions with Graham. I am sentimental about a lot of things, and this was really neat for me to have him there. And Steve too! 


Im so happy Maren got to meet Graham! She is so cute isn't she?? 


Christmas time with my Steve. I love this man! Graham was tucked away deep in his stroller :) 



Haha yes we are riding the carousel with Graham! Woo hoo! The carousel itself was a let down for me, bummer. It was a different one, it was smaller and a little cheap looking. It didn't ruin the experience for me, I just had to explain to Steve that this was not the same beautiful carousel that it used to be. But everyone in Seattle loves the carousel tradition, and there were a lot of people like us ready to ride it :) 


After our night downtown, we went and got yummy pizza back in Issaquah and played games at Joel and Abby's! I love how we all look tired in this picture, we probably were but nothing stops the Smith family from playing games! :) 


The next day we played games with Maren's family! I honestly haven't had that much fun in a while. I laughed, a lot! We played reverse charades (funnest group game in the world) and as crazy as it was with all the kids, it was hilarious! Girls lost :( Maren and Scott had to leave later in the day to drive back to California and it was too soon! Goodbyes stink. I'm so happy that they could make it here for a little while though, her cute kids are so grown up! 

We played more games that night, and we had Brandon join us from Ellensburg! He was going to be in the prayer circle with Steve to bless Graham, so he made the trip over :) We played another hilarious game with the rest of the family at Joel and Abby's. What a fun day! Steve got his game fix for sure! 

Sunday was a big day for our little family. Graham was going to be blessed at church! We had Brad, Jonathan, Joel, Brandon, join Steve to help bless him. It was so sweet!


We had everyone over at our house for dinner after church, and that meant more mashed potatoes! :)  We just relaxed and enjoyed each others company. Everyone would be leaving the next day so we had to get our fill. 


Awwww! He loves this spot. 



Cute, Grandpa! 


Jonathan thought it would be a good idea to make Grandma Juretiche's (my grandma) famous peanut butter balls. Yes, yes it was a good idea :)


Just hangin' out! 


Trevor stopped by our house for that evening! It was so good seeing him!! I wanted a picture of the guys and Trevor thought a "selfie" would suffice. Observe. 


Come on Trev, you know I need a good picture! And this was the best we got :) Haha these guys are funny! Love you all!



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