Max & Kaylee

max's good friend, pullar came with him again this weekend. and pullar's girlfriend, amy, was in town to visit. so we had some guests, which was a lot of fun. friday evening, the guys got in after dinner, we hung out and played a bunch of games. saturday we awoke to snow and we ventured a mile down the road to the coffeeshop (we were some of the only customers she had that day!). we also had some neighbors and relatives over saturday afternoon (they braved the snow!!) for enchiladas. it was nice to sit around, chat and eat together! sunday we slept in (since there was no church!) and putzed around the house and the backyard.

i posted some pictures from the weekend. kathy and david have a lot of fun games in their basement, so we decided to take some "staged" photos with L. she is such a little trooper and half the time she posed all on her own! whew! all the thought trains in my brain just crashed against a very large wall! i am tired! i am off to join my daughter in dreamland...

L, "playing" pinball.

watching an ocean video in the morning while mama gets ready.

we made it in for gma mary's visitation on tuesday evening. the funeral was wednesday morning, followed by a luncheon and then family hang-out time. it was really good to see my parents and my aunts, uncles and cousins; to be able to have some quality time and so that they could all meet our L. we left thursday early afternoon to head back to charlotte. our trip definitely shortened the week up! friday rolled around and we had laundry and other miscellaneous stuff to get taken care of before maxwell came into town.

friday morning, max had been scheduled to get his last two wisdom teeth out, so his buddy mark drove back with him (which was a good thing since max was a little loopy from the drugs, lol). we had a good time, watched a movie friday night. saturday, i woke up with a terribly sad, upset stomach. ended up staying in bed all morning, while max and mark took L out to the coffeeshop and to do a few other things. i think max really enjoyed having L all to himself! whenever he has been in town, we are always together, trying to spend as much time together as possible, but since i was sick, he got to be solely in charge of her, which was a first for him! i was feeling a little better by the afternoon, so we all snuggled in for a movie (L watched too, ha ha!) and then mark had to head back to base. max gave L a bath, we played a few games, then passed out by 930! his sore mouth and my sad stomach made quite a silly pair!

sunday was a much better day. we all slept in, played with L, ran errands, hit up the coffeeshop and then max made his way back to base. it ended up being a decent weekend, in spite of crummy physical stuff! i posted pictures from the weekend and from today, down below the chicago pics. L is getting so big (ok, to me she is big! i know, i know, she'll only get bigger...) and is holding her head up so well. so it was time for her bumbo! which she likes and is super cute in! it is this hard foam seat thing that you sit them in and it helps them learn how to sit up. it's pretty cool!

this week holds more....thank-you notes...gosh, i feel like i am always saying that. i made a good dent in them today, so will keep trucking along on them in the next few days. it's crazy to think that i have only three more weekends with max before he deploys and we come back to MN. it's getting closer and closer and becoming all that more real. he and i have lots on our list to talk through/work on in the next few weekends, as well as just spend some good quality time together! i guess i get so excited about each upcoming weekend, that i tend to not get so caught up in his leaving...although i know it is going to hit me hard soon. i'll have to deal with that when it comes, relying on a Strength that is not my own, cause i sure as heck couldn't do life on my own!

the DeGraff siblings.

daddy and L

ms. L hangs out in her bouncy seat a lot. i think she's getting a little too big!

family picture!

saturday, our tourist type trip, we went to the biltmore mansion, which is the largest family home in the united states. it was built by a vanderbilt and is on lots of gorgeous land. we toured the house, walked around part of the grounds and drove through a chunk of the estate. it is nestled in the foothills of the mountains and is truly beautiful! by the time we got back saturday evening, we were all wiped and fell into bed.

sunday, max, L and i went to church in the morning (ms. L was a rockstar there!), then we got some errands done and went out to lunch at a burger joint....they have amazing sweet potato fries there! putzed around in the afternoon and then watched a movie with kathy and david in the evening. today was a good day. it was great to have another day with max! we went to the coffee house this morning, then ran errands, worked on lunch, made hummus and hung out before max had to head back to base for the week.

normally it would be at this point that i would say something about how i still have a thousand thank-you notes to write and that is what my plan is for this week. however, my grandma mary passed away on saturday. i know...last tuesday, gma birdie passed away, and then less than a week later, my grandma mary... so, L and i are going to hop on a flight to chicago tomorrow morning, so that we can be present for the visitation and funeral. i have been doing laundry and packing so that we can be ready to go in the morning. we will be there for two days, returning to charlotte on thursday late afternoon. then one more night and max will be back again for the weekend. crazy! this week will fly by! i'll keep y'all posted on how our mini-trip goes and how ms. L does with the flights, the travel and all the new people she will meet!

i am in the process of posting more pictures. some from last week and some from this weekend. i will also post more to facebook, as i can get more pictures on there much easier than on here.

oh! i forgot! the title for today! so on saturday night, on our way back to charlotte from the biltmore (it is about 2 hours away from charlotte, in asheville, north carolina), we stopped to get dinner at pei wei, an asian restaurant. they had fortune cookies in baskets by the drink dispensers. max, feeling a little crazy (i think we had him cooped up in the car too long, or something), took handfuls of fortune cookies and shoved them into his pockets. this thoroughly embarressed me, as i felt that he should have only taken one. seeing as how i reacted to this, he proceeded to go back for more. not only that, but aunt kathy also went back for a handful, which she threw into ms. L's carseat. needless to say, we had a bunch of fortune cookies with us on our way home. not only that, but as i was getting ms. L ready for bed, maxwell decided to hide all the fortune cookies that he had, in various places throughout my room. now everytime, i go to get a sock or pick out a onesie, or do my hair, i find a fortune cookie stuck in the midst. it makes me smile. silly husband.

anyways, i decided i could still update y'all on the current situation and fill y'all in on our week here. the weather has been steadily rising and today i even walked without my scarf and jacket, i got so warm. the funny thing about being a minnesotan and coming to visit NC is, that people think you are crazy. i think the weather has been very nice. sunny, in the 30's and 40's. some days slightly windy, but nothing like fargo, mind you! well, here in NC, many people feel that 30 degree weather is very cold. i think of how when i was in college, people would be walking around in sandals and shorts once it hit about 30 or 40 every spring! lol! i get a kick out of this!

enough of my rambling. our week has been good. my main goal has been the mountain of thank-you's that is still...well, a mountain of thank-you's! i have been sidetracked numerous times, and still have many thank-you's to do, although i did get the first round into the mail on tuesday! ms. L and i have been walking with great-aunt kathy and great-uncle david at least once a day, sometimes twice a day. and ms. L has spent many hours playing on her floormat or in her bouncy seat or with her mama :)

she is doing really well. her hair is growing, which i find quite humorous. it tends to stick straight up right now and i laugh at her! it's cute! she loves to smile, coo and laugh at us and at her toys. she has started grabbing ahold of her rattle and waving it around. i don't think she really knows she is doing it, but she does keep a hold of it and ends up entertaining herself! she can hold her head up quite well and likes to be sitting up (with our support), looking around, although she is still not a fan of tummy time. she does ok for the first few minutes, but then gets frustrated and starts crying. i just keep working on it with her. she'll get better!! there were two nights this week that she slept all the way through the night! i put her to bed in between 8 and 9 and she slept until around 8! but then it was back to sleeping from 8ish to 6ish, eating, going back to sleep for another 2 or 3 hours. i can't complain really! she is a great sleeper.

this week i have also been working on getting her to take structured naps during the day. she normally ends up falling asleep for awhile while we are out on our walk (she LOVES the baby bjorn, by the way!) in the morning. then she will sometimes take an hour and a half to two hour nap in the afternoon. but sometimes she refuses to sleep, so working on that! and also working on teaching her to soothe herself to sleep, instead of rocking her all the time. it's meant some tears, but she usually calms down within five minutes and is out in no time. and last night, she didn't even fuss when i put her in her bed!

ok, now that i've probably bored you all with her little life! tomorrow is friday and that means max comes here! because it is a holiday weekend, they get off around noon, which means he will be here for dinner time! and he won't have to leave until monday, since they have monday off! woot! oh! i forgot. grandma birdie (max's grandma) passed away on tuesday of this week. she went through a lot in the last few months and last few years and although she will be deeply missed, we are glad she is out of pain. i really loved that woman! she sure did have sass! grandma birdie will be missed indeed! i will post the picture i got of ms. L with her. i can hardly believe that ms. L was grandma birdie's 23 (23!!!!!!) great-grandchild! cool, huh?

hope y'all are doing well. it's crazy to say, but i miss MN! i will be glad to see it in february! until then, i will enjoy my time here in NC and with my wonderful husband!

i posted some photos from our trip down to nc, a few of L from the last week and one of max and i from this weekend. enjoy!

weekend number one of max coming to visit!!