Buehler? Buehler?

I've felt a complete lack of motivation to update my blog lately (can you tell? It's been a month!). Does anybody even read this thing?

he/she

*he*

1. Sitting in front of the TV, what's on the screen? dirty jobs, history channel, castle, the office, glee

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? blue cheese

3. What's one food he doesn't like? are you kidding?

4. You go out to a restaurant, what does he get to drink? water, root beer, diet pepsi

5. Where did he go to high school? lee davis high school, mechanicsville, va

6. What is one phrase he says all the time? "take it easy!", "no worries"

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? TIES.

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? reuben.

9. What would this person eat everyday if he could? a big, juicy steak.

10. What is his favorite cereal? cinnamon toast crunch.

11. What would he never wear? a bra.

12. What is his favorite sports team? byu cougars.

13. Who is his best friend? me.

14. How many states has he lived in? 6- VA, UT, ID, IN, NM, AZ

15. Does he have any nervous habits? fake laughing,

16. What could he spend hours doing? playing his computer/phone games

17. Who would he vote for? Mitt Romney

18. He is: an awesome tenor, a great daddy and hubby, a teacher, a chef, very kind, PATIENT.

*she*

1. Sitting in front of the TV, what's on the screen? ellen, the biggest loser, the office, glee

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does she get on her salad? ranch.

3. What's one food she doesn't like? mushrooms, peppers,

4. You go out to a restaurant, what does she get to drink? water with lime, lemonade

5. Where did she go to high school? atlee high school, mechanicsville, va

6. What is one phrase she says all the time? {i love you} in sign language.

7. If she was to collect anything, what would it be? shoes, jewelry.

8. What is her favorite type of sandwich? peanut butter and honey.

9. What would this person eat everyday if she could? otter pops

10. What is her favorite cereal? raisin nut bran.

11. What would she never wear? a bikini.

12. What is her favorite sports team? byu cougars.

13. Who is her best friend? my hubs, vi, chelse.

14. How many states has she lived in? 7- VA, IN, NM, AZ, UT, ID, CA.

15. Does she have any nervous habits? biting nails, cracking knuckles.

16. What could she spend hours doing? reading, computer stuff, talking with friends.

17. Who would she vote for? Mitt Romney.

18. She is: a mommy, a wifey, tall, a strawberry-blonde, fair-skinned with freckles, a sister.

i tag: Jess Harwood, Angela Zeyer, Melissa Nielsen, Sue Gilchrist...

and anyone else who reads my blog. :)

*T

time's a flyin'

Holy moly, these past few weeks have FLOWN BY! After a long-awaited arrival, my in-laws flew into Salt Lake on General Conference Sunday. Gabey and I met them at the airport (surprising my mother-in-law), and then joined them in Park City the next day. We didn't plan on staying in Park City, but I-80 ended up being CLOSED that night because 18 stinkin' inches of snow fell. 18 INCHES! It started when I was driving up the canyon to get to Diana's (my MIL's sister), and it didn't stop until later on the next day. Luckily, Diana is a grandma and had a pack'n'play that Gabe could sleep in. It was fun spending the extra time with my extended family, but it was stressful nontheless... I had no idea when I would get outta there! It took Bruce, my father-in-law, an hour to clear a path to my car when I had to leave, but we got off the mountain safely and finally got on the road to head back to Rexburg. Julia, Ross's youngest sister, came with me to help me prepare for the festivities (and to help with Gabe). We were able to get the house cleaned by the time everyone else showed up Wednesday, which was just in time for Ross's senior recital. My mom and Aunt Vilate made a Costco run before heading up to Idaho, which SAVED ME! We ended up having around 30-40 people stay for refreshments after his recital, so I was very happy and VERY grateful to have their help with the food. Thanks Mom and Vilate! As for Ross's recital, he was awesome. He's such a ham (as most of you know), but it made for a very entertaining evening. His voice stayed strong for the whole recital, and he really made me proud. His voice teacher only had good things to say about his performance, and for all of you who know Kris, her compliments mean a lot more than most. She's as professional as they come, so we take what she says to heart. Good job babes!

The day after Ross's recital was another big day, as Ross had a few finals and Catherine (my other sister-in-law) had her recital. Ross and I both sang duets with her, so it was another big night filled with more singing, more friends, and more food. She did a great job, and it was fun to have a Jazzy touch to a recital (which are usually more Classical/Romantic/Baroque). Friday was Ross's last day of finals, and Saturday was graduation! We all joined together for Commencement, and then each college met to celebrate the graduates from each of the different colleges (i.e. College of Performing and Visual Arts, College of Business and Communication, etc). I was so proud as Ross walked across that stage! He had a huge smile across his face, as did I. He has worked so hard and music is NOT an easy degree. Okay, so he technically doesn't graduate until December when he finishes student teaching, but he walked because his entire family would be here and it was his final semester of classes. Either way, it was a great day to celebrate! Here are the pics...

FINALLY! He's got a degree to go along with all that hard work! Good job baby!

Shaking hands with our friend, President Kim B. Clark.

Ross, Alan, Bro.Linford, Brady, and Katelynd. These people are fantastic and SO talented!

Ross and Gabey after the convocation ceremony.




The whole Graham fam (minus Yours Truly... but somebody had to take the picture).




I couldn't help but post this. He's such a goofball!

This next set of pictures is from a FFFN (Fun Formal Family Night) we had with some friends of ours. Brady and Chelse Hodgson are some of our best friends here in the 'Burg, and Chelse had the grand idea that we needed to put our wedding dresses to use one more time. We invited some other good friends, Katelynd and Ben Blake, to join us at the local bowling alley for our FFFN. We got some looks from most of the people there, and a few even asked us if we were just married (which was funny because our babies were with us...). It is NOT easy bowling in a wedding dress, lemme tell ya! My petticoat that fluffs it up underneath is in Utah, so it was kinda droopy and really long. Chelse and I had to be creative when it came to the actual throwing of the bowling ball since we didn't want to rip our dresses, but it was still a lot of fun. Ross wore his tails and Brady bought a groovy cream-and-brown tux from D.I. for $4. I don't know what got more looks that night, the dresses or that tux. We took lots of pictures, and we'll have fun memories to look back on when Chelse and Brady are at Florida State. We love you guys!

Can't you just tell it's a bowling alley by the gorgeous wall in the background?

Chelse and I sportin' the wedding dress 'n' bowling shoes look. Very fashion-forward.

And the tux and multi-colored shoes are quite the statement. Look at that form!

Ross is now out of school and we're packing for our move to Utah on Friday. I wish I had a magic wand or some Mary Poppin magic to get my house in order! Packing is my least favorite past-time, so it's always slow-moving getting things ready to go. I love unpacking though (it's much less A.D.D. for me), so I'm chomping at the bit to settle in down in Alpine! Check back soon for pictures of our new home!

*T

my sweetness

It's taken me just a few months to figure out how to upload more than 5 pics at a time, but now that I've got the hang of it, ya'll have to suffer through my picture overload:) I LOVE this boy. He has stolen my heart time and time again, and his smile makes my day (as I'm sure you'll understand when you see these pictures). I recently read a blog written by a mom I don't know. Her 3rd son was diagnosed with cancer when he was 6 months old. They noticed that he wouldn't move in certain ways, and he always got fussy during tummy time. They found out that he had a tumor growing on his spine, and it had branched out into the nerves around his vertebrae. During the last weeks of his life, all they could do was make him comfortable. They decided to take him home to spend time together as a family, and he gently passed away in their arms soon after. As I read this mom's blog, I cried. Hard. There are days when I get frustrated with my son, especially as he's teething and going through a "mommy" phase. Yet as this mom talked about her baby boy teaching lessons of love and blessing everyone who knew him, I realized that I need to truly cherish this time I have with my son. Once he hits a certain age, he'll never have another "mommy" phase again. He won't let me squeeze his little cheeks or tickle his chubby legs. I won't be able to hold him as he falls asleep in my arms. These are things that I do every day now, and I don't want to take them for granted. He loves his mommy and daddy, and we love him with everything we've got. He gives the best hugs, he's crawling EVERYWHERE, he's got a goofy personality, and his smile is contagious. See for yourself...

He seems worried for some reason... I'm not sure why.

CHUB!

He puts everything in his mouth.

This is Mr.Bedhead. I LOVE this face!

Bonding time for Daddy and Gabey.

Another face I love.

Gabey loves chewing on wrappers. Is this normal?

I don't even know what this face is, but it's funny!

I love Gabriel. He gives me purpose in this life and he helps me to be a better person. I don't take him for granted, and I love being his mommy. He is one of the greatest blessings in my life, and I thank Heavenly Father every day that I have a strong, healthy, goofy son. Life is good:)

*T

Cabo

As you can tell, we're back from Cabo and missing the sunshine. It snowed off and on today here in Rexburg, and the once-visible grass now has a light dusting of the cold white stuff. Thankfully, my skin is holding on to it's sunkissed glow and I'm still feeling my vitamin D boost from the week. Although it got a little chaotic at times with the 3 boys and houseful of people, it was a much needed vacation. Our Idaho winter has been long and cold, and we're REALLY looking forward to springtime! My mom will be making me a picture CD of all the pictures we took during our South of the Border vacay, but here's a little sneak peek for what's to come:

This is Gabe's first pool experience. He absolutely LOVED it!

This was our last night at the house, and I was soaking in as much pool time as possible. Gabe even enjoyed the hot tub!

As soon as I get more pictures, I'll post them. Gabe is now an international traveler AND a crawler! He just up and crawled the day before we left, which was a total shock to me. He'd been rolling around like crazy up until the night we got to Utah, and when he was sitting on the carpet and saw something he wanted to play with, he just started crawling! He sometimes forgets that he's mobile and will get upset if I walk away while he's on the floor (which I think has to do in part with his recent separation anxiety), but he sure is fast once he starts moving! We've already moved a lot of our stuff down to Utah, which has helped us with baby-proofing our house until we move next month. Why must babies grow up so fast?! I don't know if I'm ready for this!

*T

The Biggest Losers

Ok friends, I've been juggling back and forth as to whether or not I should post this, but I need some help. What I'm about to share is very personal, but I think the only people who care about or even read this blog are close friends and family, so I trust you not to be judgemental :)

Back in November, my dad challenged us to become healthier. Between my post-baby weight and being overweight to begin with, my challenge was to lose 45 pounds. Ross experienced some 'sympathetic weight gain' while I was pregnant, and he gained weight during the summer because he was always on the road, so his goal was to lose 47 pounds. My dad provided us with Nutrisystem food, and we have from November 15th until March 13th to not only lose the weight, but to also do a 10K in less than 60 minutes and do a set number of situps and pushups without stopping. I've lost about 27 pounds so far, and Ross is down 32 pounds. We feel great and we're stronger than we have been in a long time, but we're down to the wire. We've actually stopped the Nutrisystem diet because of the higher fat content of the food, and we're cooking our own food. I'm trying to keep my calories below 1400 a day and my fat to 15 grams a day. Luckily, the trainer I'm working with (or rather, the trainer who's killing me 3 times a week) at World Gym introduced me to livestrong.com, and I LOVE this website. I can enter the foods I eat during the day, and it helps to calculate my daily calories, fat, protein, sodium, sugars, etc. It also calculates the calories burned during the day with different exercises. I can burn 340 calories a day just by lugging around my chunk of a baby boy! Anyway, this is where I need your help. Ross and I need ideas for high protein, low fat/low calorie meals and snacks. There's this great place in Idaho Falls called Winco, and we had an entire cart full of tons of fresh produce, whole wheat goodness, chicken breasts, tilapia fillets, and anything else we could get our hands on that was healthy and yummy. Oh yeah, and we got it all for $180:) I don't know what I'll do without Winco! Well friends, this is me BEGGING you to share your recipes. PLEASE. We need ideas! We are in love with our George Foreman grill... all we do is slap on a frozen chicken breast or tilapia fillet with a couple spices and BAM! Healthy, delicious goodness! But seriously, I can be a little more creative than that. Please friends. PLEASE. Our prize for losing the weight and hitting our goals is also very personal, but I will tell you that it will change our lives. We are already making better choices, and we would love for you to help us out by sharing your healthy recipes. We are so grateful for those of you who've supported us in this endeavor. We're working hard to obtain these goals, and I PROMISE to post pictures when we get there! We're gonna look awesome!

Thanks friends.

*T

Daddy Post

I have heard that some people have had trouble looking at the video below. If you go on my Facebook page you can see it in better quality.



follow this link

*Ross