The Graff Family Blog: life is like a box of chocolates...

You never know what you’re gonna get!

8/17-9/21

video compilation

somebody's in trouble...

Mckinley took a break from coloring for a few days after this happened.

first day of school

these pictures are so cute I think they're my fav I've ever taken in my life 💜

They obviously both chose their own outfits 😂

They were both so excited for school to start! They went to meet the teacher and did so good and were so positive about the whole thing. They both picked out backpacks and what they would wear and we wondered about what they would do leading up to it.

This was us getting her ready on the first day and him waiting for the bus to come to our house. He loves the bus

This was after school. I could tell he was trying to be positive about it and hopeful. When I asked how it was he said “the kids cry and scream.” And when I said did you have fun and did u like your teacher he said yes!

After that it got harder and harder and he was just missing home the whole time he was there so we tried sending him with music, our picture, essential oils, and he had the idea that we could make a forky “because that helped Bonnie when she went to kindergarten and missed home” 😍 (isn’t he so cute and creative?!)

McKinley would come home and want to play school. From what she was saying I could tell her teacher is very nice because she would copy what she says

I loved seeing her say oh I see my friend and then she hangs out the window and says hi! Lol in the car line waiting to unload and go in

For two weeks, I had total kid-free freedom for 2 hours twice a week. And wow 🤩 was it glorious….. fleeting, but glorious while it lasted 😅 I went to the gym and enjoyed leisurely walks, did my errands easily, etc. It was so nice on this walk out from the gym feeling the rain fall on me and listening to my audio book.

Cooper was getting worse and worse and dreading school. I called the charter school and we're still on the waitlist. We tried bribery... and felt crappy about it. This was his bribe for simply making it to Friday and attending school everyday. It was clear nothing educational was being accomplished if the goal is just to get through the 3 hours.

Some mornings dallin and I cried a little with him because it was hard not to because he was so heart broken over it. Hopefully we hid it well...

Finally we decided to pull him out and homeschool. I thought it was so cute the kids holding hands walking home from school on his last day after going for 2 weeks- walking outta there in solidarity. It's as if she's saying "We're here for you bro. We love you. You're going to be just fine."

neighborhood play group

we have loved being a part of a neighborhood play group. Our neighborhood in general is just amazing and everyone in it is so nice. I love bunco and book club and this is another opportunity for my kids to grow up friends with the kids they live by. That was a dream for us when we were building this house I remember saying "what if this is our forever home where the kids grow up with the kids in this neighborhood and they can say we've been friends since we were 3..."

the time I hosted I tried to do a puppet show and that was hilarious lol

instead of doing the craft with everyone else she asked to sit in the high chair and read books lol

homeschool

there have been ups and downs but for the most part we are loving it! He was so happy when I told him I was going to be his teacher. It was so heartwarming ❤️ There was soooooooo much anxiety about it in the beginning that I could not sleep. I thought about it over the summer and it was too overwhelming so that's why we went for public school because I didn't think I could do it. Then after he was going to school we went to church and I overheard some other women talking about homeschool and I was overcome with guilt for some reason. I didn't tell anyone about it because it didn't make sense. My logical side was telling me "everyone goes to public school and is fine so why am I feeling guilty like that's what I should be doing when we don't even know yet- maybe he will love public school!" I remember swearing up and down that I would never homeschool years and years ago. I think it was divine intervention that I ended up having the courage to do this.

I technically bought a "grab n go" curriculum, but I have had to do a lot more research/work than that because in my opinion it has a lot of holes and hasn't fully been working for us. So I'm grateful for it because it's a good fall back option or kind of like a skeleton structure that I can fill in the gaps around it. The biggest resource has been the Utah state standards and using chatgpt to put in the standards and tell it to make a lesson plan that will accomplish that standard. its so cool!

I have loved being so involved and seeing him learn and knowing exactly where he's at with stuff and weaving education into life

I use magnets to remind myself what we need to do each day. weve been doing haircut practice once a week and it's helping him a lot

cooper's plant he took care of until it grew mold lol

turning liquid to solid

chemistry in the bath haha

he put on a puppet show for me it was so cute

He fell asleep mid science lesson lol

the er in his name is the hardest part for him. it's cute to see him try and practice and get better and be proud of himself

date with topher and kara

Valter's was soooo good!

fun times

we went to a cute farm in pg with the blacks and it was so fun! they loved the baby goats

TP farm

We went to 5$ Tuesday and Cooper it was fun!

pic on the left was a wishlist item for Santa

he remembers luna its so cute

cute Tatum!

Michael and sari's house

we had so much fun and it was so cute to see Cooper and mckinley being so good to their kids and sharing and trying new things and stuff.

he made creme brûlée

Rudy's soccer game

it was fun to go watch Rudy play! the kids went off with dallin walking around and climbing trees but I watched lol

quotes

they say the cutest things

we love nature

Jordan river trail

tibble fork

We saw a deer and a baby

backyard

Chillin in the jungle of weeds

They like to spray the hose

sleepy times

So cute 🥰

The pillow case gave his face a design

let the good times roll

Ben and Dallin playing warhammer in the garage

Basement skating and biking naked lol

Costco

Bunco

Read this for book club it was good

Gavin's baseball game

Went to dinner after with the girls

Got a new section of driveway

He wanted to be a bird so we put feathers on tape

Sharing the trike

gymnastics

The first try was insane because they had 8 classes going at once so she ended up in tears

The owner of the gym saw and offered a sensory sensitive class the next day for us to try and it was completely different and so much better because it was just them and one other kid so now they love it

What a difference that makes lol

more park time

my hair

I hate how unpredictable it is trying to get it right. I know what I want it to look like in my head and it doesn’t come out that way. So this is me trying to fade it more

Before and after of dying jt

My mom tried to add highlights and you couldn’t tell at all because it wasn’t light enough dye

rainy day

They were singing and playing it was so cute

They were pretending the sleds were boats

New OT

We love our new OT. It’s so nice to feel like we finally found the right fit for our therapy

"yay roller skates!"

He likes to listen to safety check while he does it. And even if he falls he just says yay roller skates lol and laughs he’s so tough

"knowing I can't count that high..." 🎶

This song makes me cry because it feels so accurate for my life right now I have so much to be thankful for

So this is all the stuff I feel thankful for

On our bike ride he thought the high schoolers practicing football were cool that had thier shirts off so he took his off and they wanted to sit and watch lol so cute

Our old ot was amazing too and we loved her but the policy was once every 2 weeks which wasn’t enough and it was also so far away. But this was him doing a button by himself

Ryan’s bday party was at a farm and it was so fun!

I was proud of how brave they both were. Cooper rode twice and was saying yee haw

She was so happy holding a baby bunny her eyes were watery lol 😆 so cute

Sara has been able to babysit and that’s been a life saver

Dallin took her on a date . All they did was go to iceberg and then he let her eat the ice cream in the front seat of the car and listen to music but she was in heaven