Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a wonderful time with family and friends!

Ma Ma Ma...

Yesterday we found out that Gabi can say Ma ma! It is SO cute...She mimics it back to you and now she is saying it all the time. That and sometimes Ba ba, we call her bottle her ba ba. So cute!

Gabi's first trip to the Zoo

Our ward's mom's group went to the Zoo today! It was Gabi's first time to see all the animals. She seemed to have a good time and was really talkative.

Gabi and the Grinch

It was a tradition of Jack's family to take a picture with Santa. We never had that tradition so we compromised by getting Gabi a pic with the Grinch!

My life as a mom...

So it has been a little over a week since I have been a full time mom. Intersting I must say. It feels like I have just called in sick for a week, and that I will be going back to work any day now. (crazy I know..)

Gabi has become very attached, I think she feels I am going to leave her for a few hours like I used to do so I could go to work. Hopefully she will settle down. The other day I found that Tellytubbies were on TV. Gabi was fussy and so I put her in her swing to watch. She loved it. She almost watched the entire show. I was pretty shocked. Which brings me to this question. How much TV is too much TV for a kid?

In our house it seems like the TV is on ALL THE TIME. Especially when we are home. It is a constant background noise. I don't like that and would like it on only when we have shows that we want to watch. I would rather have music playing or a book on tape. Jack says that he needs to have the TV on when he gets home to relax and he likes to watch right before he goes to sleep. (That is a post for another day though)

What are your views on TV and kids or just TV in general?

My last day at work...

Today was my last day at work. I would have worked there 2 year come this Jan. It was a wonderful place to work and I loved all the people I was able to get to know and interact with. Here are a couple pics of some good times, borrowed from people's cameras and some of my own...

Thanksgiving

This year was our year to spend with Jack's family. We bought our tickets to fly back in July or something...a long time ago! It was a stretch to buy them but I am SO happy we did! An hour and a half beats driving 10 + hours any day!

Gabi's first plane ride!

She was a great little traveler.

This was a really cool shot...too bad my camera couldn't capture its splendor...

Announcing...teeth...

Gabi has two teeth that somehow appeared overnight at about 5 months...seriously that is what it seemed like....no teething symptoms whatsoever. We affectionally call them her "teethers" or "toothies." She is now trying to bite everything...and we try not to let her. I don't want to be the mom who gets the call from the preschool...

"Ma'am, you need to come and pick up your child.

Why is she sick?

No, she bit a child...and won't let go."

Ok...all joking aside. I really don't want her to think biting is an okay thing.

If Gabi is anything like her mom we are in trouble...I got thrown out of the preschool sand box for a day for throwing sand..I know, some of you are shocked.

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.