Richie, Krystal and Graham

it's a chicken wing, it's a machine gun, no... it's GRAHAM

2011-09-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

What does this resemble...

Does it resemble this....

No? No? Are you sure?

look again... cuz Richie seems to confuse the two. What do you think of Graham flavored chicken wings? It's not like eating a Graham Cracker... although we could spread him all over crackers and eat him up that way... (Richie always says that)...

Richie "dips" him in ranch and always chooses his flavor: Honey BBQ, Mango Habanero, and my favorite, Asian Zing and eats him up. Too cute! I love when Richie plays with Graham.

So what does this look like?

What's that?

A machine gun you say??

So you see the resemblance too!?!?!

That's what Richie thinks... he just has to add the sound effects :)

Summer in AZ

2011-07-26T21:32:00.000-07:00

Graham is already 5 months (or on the 21st anyway). Holy cow. I keep meaning to write down all the little things that he keeps doing and when but, I procrastinate/am lazy/busy. One thing I remember for sure though is he rolled back to front for the first time on my birthday! That was a sweet little present! Also Richie and Graham let me sleep in, made me breakfast, and bought me a rose. Later that day we went swimming with Richie's family. Cheryl, Derick, and Lincoln came down to join us. It's always nice to have them around. Overall it was a pretty nice birthday, oh especially the part where Richie got me a gift certificate for a spa. I'm cashing that in this Friday :)

Now... some pictures of our cutie!

First we have to have another picture with Papa holding the small boys again. The best part of this picture is Trevor's amusement (or maybe confusion) with that thing on Papa's face

Yes, Trevor's highlight of the day is still tallying how many times he can swipe at Graham's face in one day.

We've been swimming a few times with Jenn (my sister) and her boys... Graham seems to think that's the best time to nap though. He laid out but not in the sun, his skin still isn't allowed to be touched with sunscreen. No, I didn't know that babies aren't allowed to have sunscreen until 6 months. Thanks for the note Dr. Chaudari. Don't believe it? Check the bottles . . . I seriously had no clue.

He's been working on his scoot. So far he hasn't managed it but I love when his butt goes really high in the air. lol

He still always has those giant hands in his mouth. Sorry Jenn, didn't mean to cut you out.

We've been up to Prescott to visit Cheryl and Derick a few times. Derick built Lincoln this cute sandbox and I loved that Richie took Graham to play in it! Graham is one lucky boy to have such a fun dad!

Lincoln is such a cutie!

Lincoln has this cute little chair that Graham got to sit in like a big boy!
Yes we never have anything of our own. I almost feel like we're roadies. We'll be back in Pittsburgh soon with all our stuff.

Lincoln is so sweet with Graham. He wants to hold him and play with him. This is one of the best shots! They are trying to kiss each other. Well at least Lincoln is trying to kiss Graham. Graham is... well... probably trying to eat. This last weekend we missed the best picture opportunity of Lincoln giving him a hug then what looked like an off attempt of CPR -the abdominal sort.

The 4th of July was also spent in Prescott. We had a lot of fun playing soccer and frisbee on a baseball field waiting for fireworks. This is my handsome husband waiting for the fireworks with a lightning filled sky that forced us to the church before the show.

It was too dark to get any other decent pictures when I finally remembered I should have been taking pictures.

Earlier that day we went to the shooting range. That is until Cheryl and I decided to take the kiddos home for naps. Don't worry, the guys were nice enough to stay and go on without us... they still owe us by the way ;)

Here's Karla, Graham's very soon to be aunt, holding him before we left:

That kid LOVES to eat. Even when he's not hungry, he'll still gladly take a bottle.

The Saturday before the 4th we went to Tucson and went to the zoo (pre-giraffe poisoning) and the Air and Space Museum to hang out with my brother Brandon's family! Once again, I'm terrible at taking pictures during the event. This time we'll blame it on the heat. WOW was it a hot weekend! I did manage to get a picture of cute little Sariah (the ONLY girl cousin) playing with Graham

Graham has been making friends with his cousins this summer but he made 3 friends in one stop when I went to my amazing friend Shauna's to visit. She has triplets!!! They are all so adorable and were nice enough to share their bumbo chair and swing with him.

Never mind my dorky smile. At least Shauna looks good :)
btw... look at the picture on her wall of the 3 boys. It was such a cute shot!

Sidenote... Don't leave your sister and mom at home with your baby when he won't stop crying. They will use all creative measures to entertain him then take pictures of it. Don't worry Graham, I won't post the picture of the bow they put on you! Maybe you can be the Karate Baby for Halloween?

Did we mention that Graham LOVES being outside. As Richie would say, he could have not eaten in 6 hours (which is like not eating in 3 days for us, or in my case, 6 hours) and be tired as heck, but if you take him outside he'll be calm... won't even cry. He is just so well behaved.
Well, the other night Richie went to the golf range, Graham was being a little cranky so we went to hang out and be dad's cheering section. He did a lot better because of us. It wasn't because he got pointers from a Pro at Dick's Sporting Goods... it was all us.

He played for a little bit then just sat there in this exact position forever. What a sweetheart. Then he cried my eardrums out on the way home.

Here's a couple of pictures of Graham to last you a little while:

Hanging out with Grandma, again, with the hand in the mouth. Grandma has been nice enough to come up on Fridays to come help me with the boys. I've been babysitting Trevor and Taylor... Luckily Taylor helps sooo much with the boys!

And... one of his best smiles:

We'll have to get a few shots of his two cute bottom teeth. The first one came in super random on the top right...wierd.

Pittsburgh to Arizona

2011-06-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

Graham is now a little over three months old and I guess I'm used to having him around now. As if life hasn't changed enough with becoming parents, we've moved! Graham was even being good :) mostly...

He has always insisted on being in our arms but while we were packing he actually sat in his new bouncer (Thanks Lora!!) and behaved enough to let us pack and clean.

Next, came the looooooooooooooong car ride to Arizona where Richie has been doing an internship (which he likes and brings us close to family for the summer). We made day 1 a little shorter and stayed with my brother Justin who is serving at Ft. Know. We really enjoyed the stay, tasty food, and getting to meet Janet, his wife, and her daughters. Why didn't I get pictures!!!

Graham did better than expected during the car ride but we bought a bunch of toys for him and MAYBE bent a few traffic rules to make him happy....

Graham LOVES this little guy hanging from his car seat. We have found him just randomly smiling at it. We think it's because he's smiling at him.

One day I was sitting in the back with him pulling the toy down over and over and over again when all of a sudden I felt it catch! I looked down and Graham had grabbed it. It was the first time he grabbed something he wanted and I was so excited! I guess a first of firsts.
Then of course he tried eating it.

He has also rolled onto his side by himself. I looked over from my sister's kitchen and saw him on his side and asked Richie if he laid him down that way. He said no! That means he rolled over!!! Richie told me it was the second time he did it. I couldn't believe Richie wasn't excited and hadn't informed me STAT. Boys....

Finally, Graham got to meet Richie's family. It was so fun getting to see Lincoln again. He's HUGE now!!! He was so cute when he met Graham. He just kept pointing at him and was very gentle.

We thought it would be a lot hotter so me made plans to go to a splash pad in Chandler. Why wouldn't it be hot? It's May in Arizona. It was actually and absolutely beautiful day with some wind. We were surprised the little boys did so well and it wasn't too cold after they got wet. Graham is a champ in the cold. He loves baths so I can't wait to take him to the pool. I just got some cute sun/water gear at the children's place so I'm sure a photo shoot will be in order when we do.

This was how Graham looked most of the time. Cuddled next to daddy (it's a comfy place to be).

My sister has been nice enough to let us stay with her family in Gilbert. It's fun to hang out with them when they come home from work. Here is everyone playing Rock Band with the little boys playing and the floor. Trevor scoots around on the floor. It's crazy to think that by the time we leave Arizona, Graham will be doing the same. We already notice how much bigger he's getting.

As much as we love the idea of the boys playing together, we have to keep the boys separate. Trevor just thinks that Graham is another play toy. He moves and makes noises... just like all the other toys, I can see why he thinks that way.

The nice thing about our situation is that my sister's baby and Graham are so close in age that we didn't have to bring all of our baby stuff. Trevor has been so nice to share with him.

Taylor is the best big brother! My sister said that Taylor thought he was going to have to "babysit another one" when we came down. haha. He's become quite the doting cousin though. He asks if he can hold Graham and he sits with him to watch TV. Graham is always so well behaved when he sits with Taylor.

Graham and Trevor have a few matching items... as is to be expected. They make for some cute pictures.

Bunny ears... timeless classic for eight year olds.

Grahamparents

2011-04-23T20:11:00.000-07:00

My mom and dad came to visit so Graham got to be completely spoiled by his "grahamparents." Yes Richie thinks I'm cheesy, but if you grew up with my dad's jokes you would be too. After we picked them up from the airport we went to Quaker State and Lube.

But we all know it was grandma who got to hold him first . . .

We went to Phipps Conservatory with them as a reprieve from the winter. It was so nice to be in a warm green place and thanks to Groupon it was a bit cheaper.

A couple of days were even nice enough to be outside and even caught a little sunshine on our walk in Frick Park.

We took mom to see inside the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh (kinda their trademark building). Doesn't it look like a scene from Hogwarts?

I had never been inside either but Richie had a class there this last semester and found out that a lot of the classrooms are themed by countries.

This is the Chinese room...

My mom and i were getting ready for the day (probably around 11 AM because that's just how things were with our new baby, one bathroom and 4 adults) and then suddenly we realized the boys were gone. When they came back (hours later) Richie was a proud owner of a Smith and Wesson. Richie couldn't stop playing with it and practicing his "quick draw." Then the boys went to a shooting range to play with the new toy.

While the guys were at the shooting range mom and I did some shooting with the camera at the Frick's family estate/museum. We didn't see any of the signs that said no pictures, but when the guy came to ask us to put our camera away he said, "you had some time to get a few pictures though right?" He didn't seem to care much about that rule. The cars were really cool though, these were some of the more primitive models but there were some really fancy ones too.

We also had Graham blessed while my parents were in town. We especially thank Richie's mom for making his blessing outfit it was soooo cute! Unfortunately he's kind of a big boy and wouldn't fit into the onesie she made so we put him in a plain white onesie we had

Shortly after we started taking pictures he kind of had an accident . . .

. . . and we were all careful when handling him after that. But don't worry Amy! The stain came out in the wash!

Just a few other pictures:

Graham always look so small, but especially when Richie is holding him.

The luv sac was pretty much the only place he would sleep other than in our arms for a while. . .

Introducing Graham Richard Carpenter

2011-03-03T14:46:00.000-08:00

Graham Richard Carpenter

Born 2/21/11 at 10:15 pm

Weighed 9 lbs, 15 oz.

Length 22.5 in.

WARNING: Contains explicit contents

...but we blacked it out.

So we didn't realize that we got this shot until we were looking at the pictures later. I couldn't believe what I saw. Look closely at this picture... you'll see that there appears to be a watery substance suspended in the air above the black ... yes, Richie got a shot of him peeing for the nurses. The second ultrasound we had revealed that we were most definitely having a boy and when he came out the nurses emphasized that we definitely, definitely had a boy. He's apparently not shy. He peed like 3 times while the pediatrician was doing the Apgar assessment!

Any way, Richie was the first one to hold him when the medical staff was done. Graham was soooo good. He was so wide-eyed and quiet. When Richie brought him over to me to see him he just stared at me. Oh gosh was he cute!!!

Richie was so happy holding his little boy. He surprised me during the delivery though. I had asked him previously if he would want to cut the cord and at first he said he would have to think about it. When I asked him again he said no. BUT... when the doctor asked him if he wanted to, he was willing. He didn't get it in one cut though and he asked if that was bad luck or something. In case you were wondering, the doctor said she had never heard of it being bad luck and said that she often had to cut twice.

We were expecting to have a baby with swelling, a funny shaped head, bruises, etc. Somehow, he avoided all that. We think he looks perfect. Richie was extremely pleased that he had hair which was funny because the nurses during the first round of my pushing declared that he was bald. He's also chunky so Richie got his dream baby. So did I :) Although we still don't really know who he looks like.

A woman from our ward stopped by to visit and said, "Oh look at his double chin!" To which I had to say, "Oh he's got more than a double chin." He has what, like four rolls under there??? I love em'! His cheeks are so fun to kiss too. Richie doesn't think they're that chunky... but they are, trust me.

We think he has blue eyes, though they are still kind of dark. He's still a little bit cross-eyed, but we have time to work on that.

Most of my pictures with Graham are pretty bad, but here's some of the least scary of pictures. I had to beat Richie to posting so I could censor them :)

He's only 2 days old here, and many would say that he's too young to actually be smiling and blame it on gas, but let me just pretend it's a smile because he's so cute here!

Here's the not so happy version of Graham, but isn't he still just adorable???

Good thing we have a solution, the binky is great, just as long as he can hold it in. The pediatrician was a bad influence on him and showed him that he can suck on his hand in the absence of a pacifier. Thanks, doc. we've caught him doing it several times now.

It took forever to get him here. We were at the hospital Sunday night, the 20th at 9:30 to start the induction and, as mentioned above, he didn't come until 10:15 the next night. It was almost 24 hours of labor!! (Not to mention that I was overdue...) I was so glad to have a husband like Richie to be there with me. It would have been a lot harder without him. He's going to be an amazing dad too. We're excited to have our little family and look forward to showing him off to family soon. My parents are coming in March and our brother-in-law Derick will also be here (for business, so we'll miss Cheryl and Lincoln). After that we'll be looking forward to May when he'll meet everyone else!

2011-01-30T14:20:00.000-08:00

So, I just keep getting larger and larger but that's almost all that has changed since the last post. However, as I get bigger, Richie will be getting even smaller (according to him... he thinks he's getting a little gut and thinks he has love handles.... has he seen me???)

Richie decided to sign up for the Pittsburgh Marathon in May. He then told me I should do it. I really hate running unless combined with sports or I guess with the one triathlon I did. Even then, I walked pretty much all of that. As it turns out just playing soccer doesn't cut it for your running training hehehe. Needless to say I won't be trying to train for a full or half marathon after a pregnancy of laziness and having a short amount of time to train. Maybe another time Richie!

I'm very excited for Richie to do the marathon though! Last year we could literally stand at our window and watch all the runners go down Negley. It will be fun to look for him. Richie's friend Marcus is thinking of coming to do the Marathon with him and I would love to have Cassidi to keep me and the baby company unless she decides to do it too in which case I'll just have more people to look for and cheer for!

As far as coming back to AZ, looks like the next trip will be at the end of May. Richie's brother is getting married :) We're excited to meet you Karla and congratulations guys!

I'm getting very anxious to not be pregnant any more and meet our little son. It's been way cool though to watch and feel my belly contort when he moves. I'm sure Richie is sick of hearing me say "Feel him, feel him!!!!"

People at work and church have been so generous with baby shower gifts. Our families and friends have also sent us a lot of things. In Richie's words, we've been "hooked up." Thanks everyone for all your gifts. I'm especially amazed at the homemade quilts, burp rags, blankets..... They are so cute and beautiful, that's a talent I lack and we are very appreciative.

Richie keeps taking pictures of me and I keep deleting them because I just look aweful!!!!! Here's one I finally approved enough of to post for those of you who want to see "the belly."

Toronto, Palmyra, and Niagara Falls

2010-10-10T08:48:00.000-07:00

Since Niagara Falls is pretty much half way between Palmyra and Toronto, we decided to camp at a nearby KOA for three nights and drive to a new place every morning. It worked out perfectly.

So we found out that Niagara Falls is actually two different waterfalls: American Falls and Canadian Falls. The Canadian one is way better. We decided to take the Maid of the Mist boat ride to get a closer look. It was totally rad...

Palmyra was the other highlight of our trip. Unfortunately our camera battery died right after we visited the Hill Cumorah, so we didn't get any pictures at the Smith Farm and Sacred Grove.

Toronto was fun, too. We went to a lot of places but didn't go inside because we didn't want to spend the money. We still had a good time riding the subway and other public transportation around to Chinatown, the CN Tower, some huge castle, and a bunch of other places. We ate at Tim Horton's donuts several times, and of course we had to bring back some genuine Canadian maple syrup. Unfortunately I got us stuck at the border for an hour or so on our way back because I tried to bring back some dragonfruit and other fruit we bought in Chinatown, which apparently isn't allowed in the US. "I told you so," Krystal said to me as we were sitting at customs. Sorry hun.

2010, part 1.

2010-10-03T08:59:00.000-07:00

Holy cow, it has been almost a year since we posted anything on our blog! Now that we are having a baby I am sure that will all change.

A few weeks ago we went down to PNC Park with our friends Chan and Jill to see the D-Backs play the Pirates, the two worst teams in baseball. Since we didn't think the baseball alone would entertain us enough, we made sure to get the all-you-can eat seats. Surprisingly, there were like 6 home runs in the game so it was fun all around. After the game they shot fireworks out of a barge on the river, and it was the best fireworks show we had ever seen.

One of the advantages of having these huge rivers right next to us is that we don't have to drive an hour or two to a lake to go wakeboarding, we just have to drive down the street and we are there.

Krystal didn't wakeboard because she was pregnant, so she was there to support me and look pretty. She did a great job :)

These pictures were taken on the robotics floor of the Carnegie Science Center. They also had a robot that could make a basketball shot 100% of the time, and another robot that was impossible to beat at air hockey.

We also found this huge and incredibly detailed model train landscape. Remember when Dad and I used to be into this stuff? Unfortunately it was "night time" in the city so the picture quality isn't very good.

2009-10-27T17:32:00.000-07:00

We actually have a bit to catch up on for posting. We went to Cirque du soliel early in the month, went to D.C. mid-ish month and most recently (and probably Richie's favorite) we invested in a Ping Pong table. I was also finally able to get a job. Actually two. The first is working at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in a Short-Stay Unit. I'll be going to a training and orientation in about two weeks. Also, I'm going to be putting in a little time with a lung cancer research project through the University of Pittsburgh, joined with UPMC (which is still pretty much the same thing). In the mean time I've been babysitting a 21 month old little boy who is super cute and really easy to watch. He loves Richie! In fact, his mom told me that two nights ago he was talking to Richie on the "phone" a.k.a. remote control all night and she had to tell him to tell Richie good night and close his eyes and go to sleep and he did! Richie has watched him for me a couple times on Thursdays when I've been doing interviews and such. Yet, he manages to never have to change a diaper or do any actual babysitting because he naps while he has him.

We can't get over how beautiful the fall is with so many colors!!! The entire drive to D.C. we just kept saying "look at how pretty it is!" Richie said it looked like a bowl of fruit loops because the trees were so many colors. We were so mad that we forgot our camera. I did take some of the trees around where we live and where I babysit

There are so many bridges here and this is the one we take to go to Costco.

Pretty much every street is lined with trees but we both love it when the trees are so big and reach so far that it's like you're driving through a tunnel of trees.

I love getting to see fog in the mornings- and this is the gorgeous panoramic view I get from the house I've been babysitting at.

We also went to a Halloween Party and put together costumes in like... an hour? This is the result

Pitt v. Navy

2009-09-20T19:54:00.000-07:00

We wanted to go to the Pitt game last night but unfortunately couldn't find any tickets. I posted on craigslist hoping someone would have some cheap tickets to get rid of, then miraculously this guy called me up and offered a pair of nice seats for free, along with a parking pass. We had a pretty good time at the game, and made friends with the old people sitting next to us. Krystal says that will be us in 40 years. After the game there was a fireworks show, with a grand finale and everything (not the best you've ever seen but way more exciting than the Globe fireworks show) . Pitt won :)

The Wedding

2009-09-07T17:00:00.001-07:00

This is the first picture of all the Dorathy family (immediate anyway) maybe we'll get one with all the spouses and offspring one day! That will be the coolest picture. The wedding was beautiful and everyone looked fantastic. My dad wore a suit twice in one year. . . that is amazing all in itself. He looked extremely handsome, and when I told him so he said OF COURSE, how do you think you got to look so good. Rebecca had a gorgeous dress and Justin's head was freshly polished. Their two girls were adorable and my nephew Taylor was being chased by all the girls at the reception, it must have been because of all his fat dance moves like the worm. Any way, we were all really glad to be there for it.

Stop in Metropolis

2009-09-07T16:53:00.001-07:00

After the walk, we got into dry clothes and took off for the home of superman. . . METROPOLIS. We went to the gift shop and Superman museum. Richie couldn't wait for lunch and walked around the museum with a huge slab of chocolate cake. Of course I stole some... it was was CHOCOLATE. Yet, even with eating chocolate and bbq we still manage to keep our bodies in the amazing shape their in-skin tight costumes and all :)

Out for a walk. . .

2009-09-07T16:46:00.000-07:00

Before Justin (my oldest brother's wedding) the Dorathy clan went out into the backwoods of Vienna, Illinois. It was a lot of fun but before we got to the dried up waterfall it began to POUR. If we would have continued out hike, we would have had a waterfall to see, but decided to turn back before we were COMPLETELY soaked.

Pittsburgh

2009-08-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

So we moved to Pittsburgh a couple weeks ago and we pretty much love it here. Or maybe it's just getting out of the 115 degree heat that we love so much. Either way, life is good for us and we appreciate the change. The diamondbacks came to town last week so we went across the river and had a pretty good time watching them beat up on the Pirates at PNC park. Thank goodness for our GPS.

Our home is conveniently situated a mile south of the Pittsburgh Zoo.

Fun in Utah

2009-06-17T15:00:00.001-07:00

Last week Krystal and I had some time off so we took a road trip up to Utah to visit some family. The weather was so good we even went to the local golf course to hit some balls, something we hadn't done in years. Krystal said she liked the golf course but the look says otherwise.

Nope, that's not Tiger Woods. It looks just like him, except Tiger wouldn't be wearing jeans. That's definitely the most noticeable difference.

Graduation

2009-06-02T14:31:00.001-07:00

Like I said, it feels fantastic to be graduated. The commencement ceremony a couple weeks ago was hot and ridiculously long but it was memorable and we're glad we went. Obama isn't my favorite but I have to admit he gave a great speech.

first blog post ever

2009-05-14T08:26:00.000-07:00

Man does it feel good to be graduated! Yeah, I'm grateful for the opportunity to get an education, but I forgot how nice life was without tests and homework to worry about all the time. Now it should be nothing but work and the gym until we head to Pittsburgh (probably), then oh man...