Moms Do It Too

You know my wife has a collection of photos with me falling asleep with our babies. Well I am here to tell you that moms do it just as much as dads do. Here's the proof...

Kristy's note: [Insert picture of me and my darling baby taking a nap on the couch this evening. I was let's say NOT so cute...Oh wait, I have editing rights to this blog, so instead let's DELETE the scary picture ;) In the spirit of good will however, sleeping picture of Joey, also deleted:)]

Valentine's Play List

I don't feel very talented at the whole gift giving thing. Especially with Joey. Most of what I can think to get him I don't dare because it's electronics or tools or something else I don't know anything about. He's pretty picky about what he wants with that type of thing too, so unless I know exactly what that is, I don't dare just buy it. But I'm trying to get better and come up with thoughtful gifts. So last year I put together a play list for him. A little sappy perhaps, but it IS Valentine's and I ended up really liking the final product. So much so that I made copies of it for several other people too. With the holiday looming I figured maybe some of you could use it ;) Also I am curious to see if you have any you would add to this list. What are your favorite romantic songs? Keep in mind I'm not looking for the classics here for the most part. As much as I love "From this moment on" and "Everything I do..." I can hear them on the radio any given Saturday and am more interested in a song I maybe haven't ever heard before. (That being said, many of these are pretty popular songs....but whatever....)

Let me know your suggestions...I really want to know! Oh, and if you have any fabulous ideas for Valentine's gifts for the hubs for THIS year I'd love those ideas too ;)

Some of these I already had. The others I just bought off of iTunes or Amazon.com.

1 -I'm Yours by Jason Mraz

2 - Lucky by Jason Mraz with Colbit Calliat

*My sister found this song first. I don't know if it was ever released on the radio or not. When I bought these two songs I just bought his whole album because I was getting more than one song off it...I'm not sure I would suggest that. It's alright, but these are really the only two songs I listen to much.

3 - Love Me Tender by Brandi Carlile and Chris Isaak

*This is off the "Elvis:Viva Las Vegas" movie soundtrack. This I would suggest buying for sure. There's TONS of great songs on this track with about half of them sung by Elvis. The rest are remakes like this one. I like remakes because they give great songs a fresh feel.

4 - Can't Help Falling in Love by the A*Teens

*Another Elvis remake, but this is actually off the Lilo and Stitch Soundtrack, which is also fabulous...

5 - Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts

*Can I just say I LOVE these guys?

6 - The Colour of my Love by Celine Dion

*This was our wedding song. Joey is an artist, so the words of the song make me smile. I think it is a great song and can't believe it never made it to the radio...but that also means it was never one of those ginormous Celine Dion songs that was way overplayed :)

7 - Bella's Lullaby (Piano Version) from the Twilight Soundtrack

*Just don't tell him where it's from. If he likes Piano music he'll probably like it

8 - Save the Last Dance for Me by Michael Buble

9 - How Sweet it Is by Michael Buble

*There's probably a lot more by him that would work...I would also suggest his albums

10 - Rainbow Connection by Kermit THE Frog

*This one was just for fun. Yes, I put it on there really :)

11- God Gave me You by Brian White

12 - When you Say Nothing at All by Alison Krauss

13 - I Get a Kick out of You by Frank Sinatra

14 - The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson

*I really like her, but don't know a lot of her stuff yet.

15 - It's A Love Thing by Keith Urban

16 - This Everyday Love by Rascall Flatts

17 - How Deep is Your Love by the BeeGees

Others I might add if I did it again:

I never saw Blue Like That by Shawn Colvin (from the Runaway Bride Soundtrack)

Looking Through Your Eyes by LeAnn Rimes (from the Quest for Camelot Soundtrack)

Best Years of Our Lives by Baha Men (from the Shrek Soundtrack)

You Belong to Me by Jason Wade (also from Shrek)

Better Together by Jack Johnson

See what I mean?

Kelley is so sweet about the baby. She always wants to hold her and love her and haul her around the house. But she's starting to think SHE is her mother...not me ;) A few highlights:

The other day I was in the kitchen and Maren started fussing. She was on the couch. Kelley was right there. I started to go get her when Kelley said "No no mom, don't you worry...I got her."

A few days after that I was changing her clothes or something so she was fussing a little. Kelley firmly tells me: "Give her to me mom, I'll calm her down."

Later that same afternoon I was folding laundry and Kelley comes and sits next to me. She's holding the baby and starts rocking her back and forth telling me "see mom, if you rock your body back and forth like this she calms down."

Do I seem that incompetent to her? It really just makes me laugh actually. Maren has been quite an easy baby so far. If she's fussy she will almost always calm right down if you pick her up. If that doesn't work you probably just need to feed or change her. So it's not like she's fussy much in the first place and then she's easy to make happy. Well, at least Kelley feels confident in her role as big sister.

Quote of the day from Tyler: After feeling his own eyeball - "Touch my little eyeball mom, it's nice!"

Following is a script of a conversation that occurred between Tyler and his cousin Remington, who is just a few months older than him. This happened back in November. They were playing a video game, either Lego Indiana Jones or Lego Batman. I can't remember now what it was. Either way, it's funny to me what little kiddos come up with. They were choosing what characters they were going to be:

Tyler: Do you want to be a girl or a boy?

Remington: I want to be a boy.

Tyler: Girls are cute. Do you want to be a girl?

Remington: No, I want to be a boy

Tyler: Your a boy called Remington?

Remington: Yes.

Later...

Tyler: We're both being girls

Remington: Yeah!

Tyler: I'm going to be a happy girl

Remington: I'm going to be a mad girl

Tyler: I'm going to be a mad girl....

Tyler: We're both being cute girls.

Going Private?

I really don't want to go private, but am thinking I just might have to....dang it! I've just had some visitors from odd places and a few comments that make me nervous. SO...leave me your info and I will send you an invite...

What do YOU think? Is there a real danger to blogging publicly?

Fluffy...

My sister, Kelsha, found this dress for Maren. She brought it over and told us that now she just needed some "fluffy underwear". It made me giggle because if you know Kelsha you know that she HATES pink and although she can definitely be girly and dressy, she's not really the "fluffy" type. Needless to say, she and Grandpa Pete of all people ran out as soon as they could and found her some cute rhumba tights just for this dress. I guess there's a different standard for the tiny ones.

Oh and did you notice she's starting to smile :0)

It is SO exhausting....

[Insert cute picture of Joey and Maren snoozing on the couch. Deleted in exchange for deleting picture of me and Maren snoozing on the couch. :( I actually thought this was a really cute picture, but Joey did have a point that you could see straight up his nose....so off it goes....]

....being a new dad ;)

Mare-Bear...

Anyone that spends time with me and my kids knows I'm constantly coming up with a new nickname. Kelley could be Kelley Belly, Kells-Bells, Baby Doll, Gooseberry...whatever. Tyler's been Ty-Ty, Ty-ters, Monster Boy. The one I like most for Maren so far is Mare-Bear. She is so sweet and such a good baby. I think she might be getting the Reflux that both my other kids had and so she isn't sleeping quite as well, but still is such a doll. She's just so content and easy to love. I'm amazed every time we go through this process. With Kelley I just didn't have a clue what it would be like. With Tyler I wondered how he would fit into our little family. With Maren I was a little unsure I was ready to take this plunge again. But with each one of them I've found them so easy to adore and they just seem to fit right in. Maren has been no different.

I am loving spending so much time with this precious baby. It seems a little easier this time around for some reason to just enjoy where she is at. There's not the anxiousness I've sometimes felt with my older two for her to grow up and get bigger. I feel like even though she's still so tiny, she's already growing too fast and I'm just happy to have her be little for now. One of the daycare kids was so observant when they told me yesterday "You just kiss her all the time!"

Life is good. She is the perfect baby. And with that I'm going to go to bed and get my sleep. It seems like such a shame to waste any time she's actually sleeping at night...although I seem to be able to get so much more done...

This year's "Christmas" Poem

It is a tradition in Joe's family to write a poem every year to go with Christmas Cards. The first few years we were married we actually got them out in Christmas Cards before the holiday, if only just barely. I'm pretty sure there's been a few years lately that were more like New Years poems. Last year he finished the poem on Christmas Eve and I'm pretty sure we just put it up on our blog, nothing else. Well this year Joe actually got it finished a few days before Christmas, but we got busy and now almost two weeks later I'm finally getting to posting it. Joey is the author of this little masterpiece. I think he gets better every year he does it. Hope you enjoy the sum up of our years events!

Hello again all you reading this from far and near,

It's another poem from the DeGraafs you get to hear.

I don't know why so long ago Dad started this rhyme,

But I swear as each year goes by it kicks by behine. (phonetically spelled)

After writing these things for ten years you see,

It's hard to stop, so here we go - please endure with me...

Our family has grown bigger this year that is quite true,

Katie Maren DeGraaf is our newest and has joined our little crew.

She came to us quite quickly just a few short days ago, (December 14)

If she had come any quicker, Kristy would have had her in the snow.*

Tyler turned 4 in November - he has grown a bunch,

He is the sweetest boy, but really packs a punch.

He's really into Batman and playing Lego Indiana Jones,

If we try to get him to do anything else he really wails and moans.

Kelley is in first grade this year, she is learning all she can,

She has found a talent in visual art - just like her old man.

Ballet is her newest thing for now, she's really having a blast.

Looking at our pocketbook I hope that it can last.

Kristy's working on the daycare - next year is number three.

She's so loving with those kids, a better Mom there cannot be.

She's bumped it up again this year with a brand new preschool program,

Twelve hours a day washing, cleaning, teaching and doing everything she can.

(With help from Misty our sister who I really must thank, I don't think Kristy could have dont it without her.)

Joey's still at SUU, the greatest school in the land!

He really loves his coworkers and thinks they're grand.

He spent half the year this year redecorating the yard,

Six tons of dirt he shoveled, seven would've been too hard.

Well we hope this note finds all of you well and with good cheer,

We wish to thank all of those who showed their love to us this year.

Please know of our love for you as we head for Two Thousand Ten,

And if you are passing by please come see us now and then.

With Love -

Maren, Tyler, Kelley, Kristy and Joey

*You can read the whole story and our other adventures on joeykristyandkids.blogspot.com