2 in a month? WHAT?!

This past weekend I went to Denver/Arvada, Colorado for my Great Uncle Bill’s funeral.  For those of you who don’t know, I lived in Denver from the age of 4-7.  When we lived out there, we had my dad’s sister’s family, my mom’s aunt’s family, and my dad’s uncle, aunt and their kids (the Gerber crew).  We have always been extremely close with them, and it was a real loss for all of us and his family. 

Every year when we go to Denver we go visit Bill and Armella and they have always been so good to me, Moni and the kids.  Besides the fact that I had lost someone I was extremely fond of, this was my first time since the kids were born I had spent more than a day away from them AND Moni at the same time.  It was a tough weekend, but when my family loses someone we CELEBRATE their life.  It seems odd to say, but some of the most fun times in our family seem to be funerals.  We spent the entire weekend doing a lot of crying and a lot of laughing and it was wonderful seeing some of my family that I don’t get to see very often.

Probably the funniest part of the weekend for me was the fact that I had as much fun with the kids while I was there as I did with the adults.  It became the running joke with everyone that I don’t know how to interact with adults anymore and all of the kids there seemed to gravitate towards me.

As for the kids and Moni they had a fun weekend too.  One of our close family friends, Mandy, got married this past Saturday.  From all of the stories I heard, the kids were the life of the party.  Laine had a dance circle around him as he was getting jiggy.  Forrest even joined Laine in the circle.  Pius said to Mandy, “Your dress is very pretty and I would like to dance with you.”  Even our little Beaner joined the dance craze.  While they were there, Aunt Lainie was helping Monica with the kids and I called her to see if I could talk with the kids.  I had an entire phone conversation with Pius.

Me:  “Hi Pius.  What are you doing?”

Pius:  “I’m at Mandy’s wedding with Ryno.”

Me:  “Are you having fun?”

Pius:  “Yea.”

Me:  “Are you going to pick up some chicks?”

Pius:  “Yea.  I’m going to dance with two girls.”

Me:  (Laughing so hard and wishing I was there).

The next day, Moni took them over to her parents’ house so they could play with some of their cousins and go to the park.  Monica said they all had a blast and when I got home that evening they were happy to see me, but a little grumpy as they had just went their second day in a row without a nap.

Anyways, that’s about all that has been going  on with us.  See you later.  I promise pictures next week.

Love,

Billy, Moni and the P,F,D,L Flyers

Dusting off the cobwebs…Holy Moly, we posted!!!

Ok.  It’s been a long while since we’ve posted and I apologize.  A lot has happened since September 10th of 2010.  The kids have turned 3, Moni has settled into her new job at Via Christi-St. Teresa and I have written a book.  I hope that gives me a little leeway and hopefully friends and family have been able to keep up with us through my Facebook updates, word of mouth or we’ve been lucky enough to run into some of you.

As for the subject of our blog (the kids) they have continued to grow and amaze us with the things they have learned…

Group shot of the “5” Graf kids.

Pius has been growing so big and I think he tries to be the happiest toddler in the world.  He is the quickest to get over being pissed off or sad about something.  All of us Graf men are currently getting over a bout with the flu, but one thing I noticed about Pius when he was sick was he still always looked for a reason to smile.  He loved all of the attention he got while he was sick and still did his best to make his parents, visitors, or siblings smile…even while lying on the couch.

Pi-Pi hamming it up.

Forrest is still the biggest of our brood.  He also has an incredible memory.  He holds onto everything that comes out of peoples’ mouths.  Forrest was sick the longest and I took him to the doctor yesterday.  Doc told us we would just have to keep drinking liquids and tough it out.  Forrest said, “I’ll be a tough nugget, Doc.”  What was so funny about that was that I’ve told all of the kids to be tough nuggets….like twice ever.  He held onto that saying, and used it in perfect context.  The doctor and I got a pretty good laugh out of that.

Check me out…Fo-Fo be smokin!

Danna has taken the princess title to an entirely new level.  She has started to come out of her shell socially and I see improvements with her cognitive skills everyday.  She reminds me a little of Forrest in that she will hang onto everything we say.  She says phrases out of nowhere that we may have used once ever.  Danna is also really starting to get a kick out of her brothers.  She loves to play “running” with them and tag.  Danna has some major issues with sharing however.  It is Danna’s thought process that every book, toy and other thing in the house is hers if she wants it.  I know it gets frustrating for the boys that she is so selfish with things but they do a great job with her.

The little girl’s fascination with balloons is frightening.

Laine is quite the Laine.  It is hilarious to me how he can be so night and day.  Laine can be the sweetest boy of all time and then turn on a dime and be a COMPLETE jerk.  Laine’s newest thing is looking at me, pointing and yelling at me.  The Tabasco put an end to that pretty quickly, but sometimes he still falls into a rage with anyone when he doesn’t get what he wants.  His overall attitude is getting better though, and I hope this means he is starting to grow up.

Laine and Champ are as thick as thieves.

Monica recently turned the big 30.  I surprised her by getting most of her quad-mama buddies and their husbands here to celebrate.  It was one of the best weekends we’ve had in forever.  The girls, of course, all knew each other and were ready to have fun.  The incredible thing was us dudes hit it off as well as the girls did a couple of years ago.  We were instantly great friends.  It was great for Moni to see her ladies again and for me, it was a lot of fun to put faces to names and meet most of them for the first time.  Monica continues to work her butt off at Via and she is really enjoying her new workplace.

Before Moni and I got to Nick and Paula’s barn.  The whole group ready to surprise.

The lovely ladies.

Back (L-R):  Jenn, Sandra, Jaclyn, Moni, Gen, Kami, Mari

Front (L-R):  Heather, Beth, Casey, Amy-Jo, Suz, Charity

As for me, I’m getting over being sick for the first time in as long as I can remember.  I honestly have been pretty lucky with my health, but this last weekend SUCKED royally.  Fever, cough and achiness knocked me on my butt.  I recently finished a book about the first three years of the kids and our lives together.  There is a publisher who might be publishing after I beef up media contacts, book signing/seminar locales and submit a final copy.  I’ve been extremely happy with how well it has gone up to this point.  Hopefully I will have a book I will be pushing for you all to buy sometime soon.

Anyways, that is just a small sample of what’s been going on in our world.  I’m going to try to turn this back into a weekly chore.

With love,

Billy, Moni, Pius, Forrest, Danna, and Laine