Merry Christmas!!

We thought we'd be better stewards of our paper resources, so we're sharing our annual Christmas letter via the blog.

As many of you know, our year usually starts and ends with the Iowa Hawkeyes. 2010 began with a trip to Miami to watch Iowa play in the Orange Bowl. While it was the coldest Orange Bowl on record, we still had a blast at "Kinninck South." We are looking forward to watching the Hawkeyes play in their bowl game in a few days, this time on TV.

Why aren't we making the trek to sunny Arizona for the game, you ask? Well, we added one more Hawkeye to the Hawkeye nation this year! Graham Edward Reece was born on October 26th, and he has taken over! We are having lots of fun, sleeping when we can, and finding out that we can love this little guy more and more each day.

In addition to our expanding family, we have kept busy professionally as well. Jen finished her Master's Degree in Special Education Studies in August, and we both are continuing our work with the Leon County Schools. While we both love our students, we find that our family time has become a much bigger priority.

I am writing this on the evening of Christmas Day. Jen is resting next to me on the couch, and my mom is rocking Graham to sleep in the same chair in which she rocked me years ago. I know that our lives have been forever changed in 2010, and we wouldn't go back for anything.

We wish you a blessed holiday season, no matter how you celebrate. Surround yourself with those you love, and don't take a minute of it for granted! All the best to you and yours in 2011!

Love,
Chris, Jen, and Graham Reece

So Many Santas, So Little Time

Graham here. I've been meaning to get on here and fill you in on how I've been doing, but it seems like I can never get a chance on the computer. Mommy and Daddy finally fell asleep, so I will take a couple of minutes to catch you up. A little while ago, I had a chance to have a very serious talk with Santa about what I wanted for Christmas this year (see pictures). I told him I would really like to see those "grandparent" people I met before. He told me he would see what he could work out.



Santa came through when Grandpa Koch showed up at the Tallahassee airport. Usually Grandma Koch is with him, so I thought that was a little weird. Turns out, Santa had called him to see if he would help Mommy and Daddy drive to Iowa, where all my grandparents live.

So we packed up the car (all the way to the top- I need lots of stuff) and headed out. We drove through Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Illinois, Missouri, and FINALLY Iowa. Turns out, there were more than just my grandparents here. I got to meet aunts, uncles, and cousins, too!

I don't know how much you know about Iowa, but it is COLD! We also got lots of snow while we were here. Between snow showers, I ran into that Santa guy again (see pictures below). I told him that I really liked being the center of attention for all these people, but two days in the car made me SLEEPY! He said that's ok, all the visiting and preparing for Christmas makes him sleepy too!

Road Trip!!

When Graham was born in October, we were so excited to bring Graham to Iowa for his first Christmas, but we wondered if we would be able to do it on our own with a 7 1/2 week old baby. Graham had not yet had any vaccinations, and although I don't think I am your typical paranoid first time parent, I definitely did not like the idea of flying on a plane with all the germs that everyone would bring with them at the holidays (no canceled flights for illnesses this time of year!). Driving seemed a much more feasible option. However, in case you didn't know or hadn't noticed, sleep is a hot commodity in our newborn world. It is also something one we don't get to partake in often or frequently enough to safely drive halfway across the country. We weren't sure what to do.

Fortunately my dad, who is retired and has nothing better to do, volunteered to fly down one way to Tallahassee and help us drive back. He arrived on Wednesday and helped in the preparations (i.e. ogled over Graham non-stop).



Grandpa was supposed to be watching Graham while Mommy was busy packing...Who is watching who?

My Dad also got to visit Everhart and meet many of my friends and take Graham to meet Santa. We were able to get everything packed up and left on Friday around 6. We made it as far as Athens, AL the first night where we stayed in Graham's first hotel!



My first hotel stay, sleeping with mommy



Sleeping with grandpa while daddy loads up the car

We finished the trip on Saturday. Graham was a real trooper and did a GREAT job in the car. He took a "long winters nap" most of the way, and was only really fussy the last 20 miles (but then again we all were). However, we were so happy to note that after 1158.78 miles and 30 hours, we made it!! Let the spoiling, loving, and ogling begin again!




The sun was in my eyes!



My first visit to Mommy's favorite...Quik Trip!



Road trips make me sleepy...are we there yet?!?!

6 weeks of growing!!!

I find it incredibly hard to believe that my baby is already 6 weeks old, and what an amazing 6 weeks it has been! As a family, Chris, Graham, and I are have started to settle into a "routine", and the things that seemed so overwhelming (diapers, feeding, etc.) just weeks ago have become old hat. Graham has fit into the family seamlessly, and we are still just so enamored with him. Chris and I have both commented recently that we could just sit and stare at him for hours! Then again, who couldn't...I mean he is pretty gosh darn cute, right?



Mommy's favorite football outfit!

Graham has grown so much in the past 6 weeks. He is now tipping the scales at a whopping 8.2 lbs, and is at least 20 3/4 inches long. He is long and lanky at this point, and while his newborn clothes finally fit fairly well around the middle, they are starting to get a little short. I am not quite sure how that happened. Looking at Chris and I, no one would guess that our child would be "tall" for his size.



Little hands...

Graham's growth comes as no surprise to us though. He has become a great eater! He is also learning to balance eating and sleeping, as we are going for longer periods between feedings and longer periods of sleep, especially at night. Chris and I have been pleasantly surprised by our "early Christmas presents" the past week when he has slept for 4 1/2 and 5 hour stretches at a time! It is amazing how different one feels after 4 straight hours of uninterrupted sleep. We both felt like we could run a marathon, and then looked back and wondered, how did we do all those late nights and limited sleep sessions in college?



More air guitar practice in the "Rock On" outfit! Thanks Andrea!

Our little man also shows more and more of his personality every day. For the most part, he is pretty laid back. Graham was a real trooper this week as we discovered last Sunday that our heat had gone out. I know what all you Iowans are thinking, who needs heat in Florida anyway? Normally, this would not be a huge deal, but this outage happened to coincide with one of the coldest weeks where lows were in the 20s and highs were only in the 50s. So, Graham and I got to spend some quality time holed up in one of the bedrooms with space heaters blazing. Thank goodness for E & B Heating and Air! They were AWESOME and able to get us heat one day ahead of their initial timeline. Chris and I were so impressed with them (and our landlord), and we learned how quickly things can get done when people find out you have a 6 week old baby in a house with no heat!



Snuggling with Daddy to stay warm!

While Graham did well for the 2 days without heat, it did sort of cramp his style because he loves to explore. He really seems to enjoy moving from room to room and place to place just to see what there is to see. He does really well holding his head up for longer periods and looks all around, taking everything in. One of our new "Black Friday" purchases was a swing with a mobile. Graham LOVES it!! Although he is still doesn't quite weigh enough to keep the swing from moving at an incredibly fast pace on the slowest setting, he enjoys rocking when we push the swing and loves watching the fish mobile.



Chilling in the new swing

Graham definitely has a sense of humor (again no surprise given his paternal background)! He is smiling more and more and it melts my heart every time! I am also in love with all the sounds he makes. Over the past week, Graham has started to make different vocal sounds and will respond with different sounds to Chris and I and our various conversations with him!



View from the back...



And the front...Rock on Lil Dude!

We are so in love with this little guy and are looking forward to our trip to Iowa for the holidays. Graham has lots of relatives still to meet, and we can't wait to show both Grandmas and Grandpas how big he has gotten and how much he has changed in the short time since their visits. How awesome to think that he will just continue to grow and change so much!!



Hanging with Quin during dinner one night!

Spoiling Commences Again!

So my parents came to meet (aka spoil) Graham over Thanksgiving this year. It was so fun to have them visit and for me to watch them be grandparents. Not that I didn't think they would be fabulous, but it was even better than I imagined!



Meeting Grandma Koch...You sort of look like my mommy!



Meeting Grandpa Koch...Check out our matching blues, even our eyes!

For those of you who know my family and their travels, you will be surprised to know that we had a pretty low-key visit. We stayed in Tallahassee the entire time they were here and spent most of the time at home.



"Watching" the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with Grandpa. Like grandpa, like grandson...more like watching our eyelids!



Chilling with Grandpa before dinner

My mom and I did venture out to partake in some of the Black Friday madness, but we didn't visit the "capitalist shrines" as my brother calls them until well after noon! We still managed to get some great deals, which of course translates into lots of new things for Graham!



Snuggling with Grandma...Check out the cool socks she brought me!

And despite the outcome, it was fun to be able to watch the last Hawkeye game of the season as a family!



Grandma, Mommy, and I watching the game!



Grandma, Grandpa, and Graham



Three generations of Hawkeyes!

All in all, we had a great time and can't wait until we venture north in a few weeks to see the grandmas and grandpas and meet all the uncles, aunts, great-grandparents, and cousins. In other words, we are looking forward to letting the spoiling, and cuddling, hugging, kissing, and loving occur all over again!



Mommy's new favorite picture!

Happy One Month Birthday!

Yesterday, Graham celebrated his 1 month birthday! It is amazing to think that he has been here for a whole month already. There are moments where Chris and I wonder how a month could possibly have passed. Time has just seemed to fly by and he has grown so fast! Then, there are those other moments (typically around 3 AM each morning) when we think...has it only been a month?!?! It feels like a lifetime, and Chris and I both struggle to remember what life was like before him. However, when we do manage to bring up such a memory, we immediately realize that we NEVER want to be "just the two of us" again! Graham has brought such immeasurable joy to our lives and has given us a sense of completeness that we never even knew was missing...not too bad for one month of life!

This has definitely been a month of growth! Physically, Graham has grown so much! Although we both struggled with breastfeeding initially, he and I have worked together and with a lot of patience (and love and support from Daddy), we have both gotten the hang of feeding, and Graham is typically a great eater! He was 5 lbs. 13 oz when he was born, but as of Thanksgiving, weighed almost 7 lbs.! He now has a few more outfits that actually fit (or at least come closer to fitting), and there are a few of my favorites that I know he will outgrow soon!



One of my favorite outfits..."I Love my Moomy!"

Graham still loves to snuggle and loves his tummy time. He is amazing everyone at his ability to move his head from side to side and hold it up for short periods at a time. He will prop himself up on his elbows and look from side to side too! (We call it the periscope!) Graham is even showing the beginning of an ability to roll from side to side. I put him in his bassinet the other night, and like always, he instinctively moved from his back to his right side. I walked away for a minute, and when I came back, he was laying on his left side. I watched for a while and by kicking his legs, he returned to his back and then just kept going back to his right side. Chris and I know we could be in trouble if he starts rolling this early!



Snuggling with Mommy!



Tummy time on the Monkey Rug!!



Practicing "baby sit-ups" with Mommy and Daddy!

Graham has definitely started to show-off his personality as of late! Although he still loves his sleep, he is awake and alert for longer periods of time. He makes great eye contact, tracks lots of different sights and sounds, and loves to sing and play paddy-cake games with mommy! Graham is also a little jokester. He has started smiling and will even make a "giggling/cooing sound" when he is really happy! We have noticed a little dimple on his right cheek and think it comes from Daddy's side of the family.



Not to live in complete denial, we have also discovered a dimple on the left side of his chin that only comes out when Graham is decidedly NOT happy. When he is upset, he straightens out both his legs and arms, and it looks as though he is "standing" on mommy or daddy. I guess he just putting his foot down and making his feelings known.



Fortunately, these periods are not too common and he is generally a happy baby, loving life and taking it all in!



Sleeping angel!



Auditioning to be the next "E-Trade" baby?!?



Watching the Iowa/Minnesota game...He can't bear to look!



Still cheering the Hawkeyes!

Happy Thanksgiving

This year, we have discovered an entirely new meaning of Thanksgiving! We are so thankful to have been blessed with a happy, healthy baby boy. We are thankful for family and friends who have showered Graham with love and us with support. We are thankful for hugs, snuggles, baby kisses, giggles, smiles, squeaks, coos and cries, and even sleepless nights! We hope that you and yours are able to celebrate with thanks for the even the littlest things in your life as well!



The scales of Thanksgiving...Graham 6.8 lbs., the turkey 7.4!



First Thanksgiving with Mommy



Football socks for football day!




What do you mean I can't have turkey?!?!?!



Sleeping at the table!



Tryptophan?!?!