Neener neener neener...

So my family is pretty competitive...extended family included. With my brother Nick involved, EVERYTHING becomes a competition. I, however, am not too competitive...I guess I should be, since I am a "first born" or so "they" say. Anyway, there is this toy that Gabi has with a little ball that lights up when the toy is moved around. Jack got the idea that we should try to see who can get the little ball to stay in the middle. Mom did it, Dad and cousin Daniel did it too. However on 11/11/2007 about 5 min before we left the house to go scout out our Christmas tree I did it in less than 5 seconds. AND I walked it across the room to sit on the shelf where it stays today (and Gabi is no longer allowed to touch it).

So Neener neener neener.

O Christmas tree....

Back in Oct. Jack put us in for a Christmas tree tag. If we drew we would be able to cut down our own christmas tree. We ended up drawing a tag. Hurray!

Or so we thought...

We took advantage of Veteran's Day and went "scouting" for Christmas trees. Jack "knew" exactly where we would be going. 50 miles of bad dirt road later....we probably shouldn't have taken our little sedan up and down those roads....We made it back alive though, and I got SO carsick. Gabi slept the whole way through...the stinker!

This is where we figured out that we were not able to take the "recommended" route. It had already been pretty hairy so far. Since this route was closed we had no choice but to head on and it got MUCH worse!

We saw seven turkeys...we could have snapped a great shot of them all in the dirt road, just milling around...but we forgot to get out the camera until they had started to casually walk up the embankment.

We've come so far....this is where we finally hit pavement again. The road closed sign was at the top of the mountains in the background.

First foods....

These pics were taken on 11/11/2007. Since these pics Gabi greedly eats heaping spoonfuls and is now eating about twice a day. She also will eat it cold and her bottles straight out of the fridge full of cold goats milk...I guess we don't have a picky baby :)

Here I am enjoying my rice cereal!

I think I may have eaten too much....ughhhh

Beginning to crawl...

These pics and the video below were taken on 11/05/2007...

What are you looking at mom?

Whee! I'm flying!

7 tidbits of information you never wanted to know about me…

I am not at my computer with pics right now so I will indulge you people, who have been waiting, so patiently I might add…cough Audrey cough...j/k

So I have been tagged by my friend Audrey (I know it was a while ago!!) to provide little known info about myself…I have been mulling over this for literally weeks….I feel that I am pretty much an open book and quite un-interesting too…but here it goes!

Oh and I have to tag 7 people…so look for your name at the end!

1. I was born at 25 ½ weeks weighing 1lb 14oz. I was given a 1/100 chance of living but apparently I am a fighter…I have to remind myself of that sometimes. I spent 87 days in the hospital and came home. Sorry Mom and Dad that I put you through that much stress as a first born! I now understand a little bit about what you might have been feeling!

2. I play/played 6 instruments. They are in order Violin, Flute, Oboe, English Horn, Voice, and Piano. The last two are debatable, since I am still working on the piano ( a LOT) and I don’t really sing much but have in the past. The Oboe and the English Horn I played in H.S. and LOVED them. Sadly, when I graduated H.S. I had to stop playing because we didn’t own the instruments. I HATE to play in public by myself (something that I am trying to get over) but I will gladly play in a duet, trio, quartet, etc.

3. I LOVE to cook. I don’t care what it is, I love to cook it! Although, I hate to clean up after myself (much to my husbands dismay). I would LOVE my own cooking show…although I am not very original with my recipes, and I don’t think I am creative enough, still it would be fun. I have toyed with the idea of going to cooking school someday…

4. I love organization…if you are reading this and have actually seen my house or grown up with me you will probably need to be resuscitated. Seriously I do! I like a place for everything and everything in its place…or at least I am trying to get there!

5. I am a big time procrastinator….I always leave things till the very very VERY last min. I guess I got it from my Grandma…She had a saying “ If it wasn’t for the last minute, NOTHING would get done.” Yeah, that’s kind of my life…I am working on changing it!

6. I love to play games…board games, card games, video games…the list goes on and on…let’s just say I like to have fun…

7. I have always wanted to have a really NICE dinner party for my friends…you know the kind, it’s always around the holidays, you have to decide if you will go to visit family or go to my party and you decide my party because the food is always TO DIE FOR and the place is decorated fabulously LOL…ahhh someday…

The people I tag are…Liz, Lolly, Beth D., Whitney D., Jen, Marielle, and Chantal

Gabi's first Halloween

Look at me Ma, I'm dancing!

Gabi is all smiles! She loved her tutu!

Hi Momma!

So, what is Halloween?

I am sick...

Well I'm sick. That achy all over, stomach queasy, feel like you have been hit by a truck sick. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal I would just sleep it off...however, I have come to realize being sick takes on a new meaning when you have kids. One being that I am here at work because I have been taking too many sick days for Gabi's many many Dr. appointments! Poor little Gabi just wants to play and for me to love her...:(

SO far Gabi is not sick and I hope to keep it that way. It is hard though to remember not to kiss her!!!!

This weekend was NOT the time to get sick we have a lot going on! Let's hope I feel better tomorrow! :)

Bad things come in threes, don't they?

Last weekend my MIL was in town to visit Gabi. Sunday we were all getting ready for church when out of my hands slipped a 2lb tub of gel that I was using and...BAM! Right on my big toe. Well, since I had gel in my hands I put that in my hair and then proceeded to take care of my now bleeding toe. Here we are now a week later and so far (crosses fingers) the toenail is still attached, it's black and blue, but still attached! Hurray! (Pray for my toenail that it grows back, if it does fall off!) I did go to urgent care the next day because it was hurting more and MIL thought it might be broken. I have never smashed nor broken a body part so I thought I would check it out. No breaks just badly bruised. :)


And for the inquiring minds...here is a picture of the toe the day it got smashed.





Today I was busy making dinner in the morning...why you ask? Because I wouldn't be around to make dinner for Jack this evening. I had planned a lovely appointment to get my haircut by Brooke, Audrey's stylist! Hurray! Anyway, we all know that a majority of men would starve if we didn't feed them...SO I went along making dinner. I was all done and turned off all the burners, or so I thought. ( I had about 3 of the 4 burners on, as I was also making myself breakfast. Perhaps a little too much multi-tasking?)

I took Gabi into our bedroom and put her in the playpen while I showered. As I am showering I get a thought to check on the baby. So I quickly step out of the shower and look over at her playing happily. I go back to showering and then I smell something funny. Leaving the shower running I again step out only to see Gabi still playing happily, but now there is a slight haze in the air in our bedroom. I leave the room and close the bedroom door.

As I look down the hallway I see the living room and kitchen filled with thick gray smoke. There was still visibility but it wasn't too great. Oh crap, I thought. As I go towards the kitchen I see the problem. Apparently one of the burners was still on low and an oven mitt was near enough to it to catch fire and smolder. There were no flames but LOTS and LOTS of smoke. I threw the oven mitt in the backyard on the concrete and ran back to check on Gabi. She had now begun to fuss a bit and I talked to her a bit and then left her again in the bedroom while I opened all the doors and windows to try to get the smoke out. I had to throw some clothes on in the process because I thought I might need to take Gabi to the Dr for possible smoke inhalation. She seemed to be fine and was acting well but I wanted to be sure. I was already getting watery eyes and a bit of a cough from breathing in the smoke. Unfortunately, all the fire training I received in elementary school went out the window and I did not get low to the ground.

The oven mitt I threw outside was STILL smoldering and so I got the hose to drown it. I felt I had to get Gabi out of the house SO I wet a rag and tried to put it over her face as we left the house so she wouldn't breath too much of the smoke that was still in the air near the front door. Once we got outside and had some fresh air she seemed to do better. Luckily, my mom was able to come over and watch the house while I took Gabi to a pediatric urgent care so they could check her oxygen levels. She was fine and got a little bit of oxygen to help push the carbon monoxide that may have been in there out of her little body.

As I type, the house is still airing out. I put some sweet smelling oil on cotton balls and put them in all the vents of our house, and that seems to be getting rid of the smell. Gabi's car seat was in the living room and still smells like smoke. I have put it outside to air out.

It turns out that this house does not have any working smoke detectors, or a fire extinguisher. If it had, this may not have gotten so far out of hand. I guess we need to go shopping.

So that's two.....let's hope there isn't anything else around the corner for me. LOL :)

Gabi's play date...

We had our friends the Mix's over for dinner and a movie. They brought their cute boy Caleb along. Here are some pics of the occasion...

Hey there baby....

We had so much fun together on the mat!

It's official!

Jack found out this past Friday that he passed the bar! Hurray! Looks like all of that studying and worrying paid off! :)