My boys

This boy loves his daddy.... Every morning before daddy goes off to work, Gabe makes it very apparent that Daddy will be missed. He scampers behind daddy all the way to the door, and  whimpers as the door opens. Once the door is shut and Dad is outside, Gabe yells out his name in a sad voice, and smashes his sweet little face up to the glass in the door and watches him leave. Any time during the day that daddy's ring tone sounds, Gabe excitedly exclaims- Dadda! Dadda! and waves frantically at the phone telling him HIIIIIIIII. But I think his most favorite time of day is around 545 when daddy gets home and Gabe gets daddy all to himself. His face lights up and he runs to daddy with arms open wide and waits to be scooped up. Then they wrestle til dinner time and just get to hang out with each other until bed time.
I love watching these two boys play. It quite possibly could be one of my favorite pastimes. Oh boy, how I love these men in my life. And to think- What a lucky girl I am- I get to have another one in my life here in a short little bit!

Walks

Gabe and I go for walks pretty regularly, we walk around the block once or sometimes twice if we are feelin extra dicy. The cold weather has put a little damper on things and given us a bit of cabin fever, however we decided, one day we would not let a little freezing temperature slow us down. Gabe lets me know whenever he is ready, he goes and gets his shoes, his hat, coat and gloves and hands em to me. we bundle up and head out. Sidenote- one of the best things about being a mother is that I get to experience and enjoy each and every little moment with this precious little child. Ever since I can remember, G will find one - and only one token (ususally a leaf, a pine cone or a twig)on our walks and hands it to me as a present.  One day we were out and I asked him if we could get a present for daddy and this is how it all went down

Saturday

Saturday Gabe got to spend some time with his lil buddy Cooper. My BF of like 12 or 13 years had a little boy 4 weeks before me.... (we totally planned it). No I'm not serious, and yes I am kidding. And now they are just so cute to watch play with each other. I am pretty sure if Coops mom and I had met at this age.... this is what we would look like.... except in girl form. Not sure why this is the only pic I have of them together that day but oh well....

Gabe loves to make his hands look all black and make sure the wheels are working right...
But after a great day of hangin with his pal- G got to go hang out with Grandma.
She loves to wear this kid out, and play dress up.... this is what I walked in to find when I was done doing my grannies hair. Cute right?

The Chubbas is One!

12 months

Don't worry..... I already know I'm the worlds worst cropper/collage maker. It is amazing to see how much he has changed in one year. Usually doctors will classify babies as "healthy" if they have tripled their birth weight by 1 year. This little giblet has quadrupled his! He is a whopping 24 pounds (70th% for his age) and has also grown 11 inches (99th% for his age)! Can you imagine what you would look like if you grew 11 inches and quadrupled your weight?? yikes.

Wow. Time really does fly by as you get older . It seems like just yesterday but no- its really been one year ago today (June 24th), we welcomed this little guy into our lives. We are soo grateful he is ours, he is healthy and as happy as he is. He is the most pleasant, sweet, kissable, fun, goofy, tender little man you will ever meet. One thing that never ceases to amaze me about him is that he is so easy going, he just rolls with it. Any where we go I am always getting stopped by people telling me/him how handsome, cute, and friendly he is. Costco is his favorite store not only does he thoroughly enjoy the taste tests but, older women and men are always googling over him. He eats this right up and always flashes his sweet smile and will chatter right back with them.
He has started crawling and walking all in the same month, has 7- almost 9 teeth, jabbers all day long, says momma, dadda, gaga (gramma) b-bah and  gu-gah!( grampa)always emphatically hence the exclamation, and he says Dog, he loves dogs, especially his big stuffed one- but also tries to call a few other things dog or "gog"

We had family and a few close friends come over for a barbecue. I made some cute little animal cupcakes- lions, tigers and monkeys.

Gabe's cake was a monkey and he loved it.

We dont give him sweets hardly- but when he gets something he likes he says "mmmmmm". As you can see in the collage, he was patiently waiting and when it came he squeeled with delight. I had to put his finger in it and let him try some before he knew it was alright. Then he dug in and THOROUGHLY enjoyed and endulged himself. As he was eating he he kept saying it over and over, I think the cake was a hit :) He got a few awesome gifts from adoring aunties and uncles and Grandparents. Thank you all so much!
Gabey- Happy 1st Birthday! We love you so much.
I love this picture of his cheesy smile. He has been doin this alot lately.

Sorry about the random pic but what good is a post without a picture? We went to the lake and he was sort of "excited" for this picture.

So, its been what? A whole whopping 2 weeks since the Chubs has been mobile without his "car" aka Crawling. Ya- on sunday he took his first 3 steps! He has been practicing a lot ever since. Somehow I knew that he was going to make the transition pretty quickly, I guess I wasn't thinking it would happen that fast. Well on to another chapter with this one I s'pose. This little guy is growin up way to fast, But I just love him so much more every day! He cut another tooth today which makes a total of 7. We are starting the transition to Vitamin D milk. I can't believe I am admitting this but I love the stuff, it tastes divine, on the other hand my figure doesn't like it so much- So I guess G gets the whole gallon to himself. He loves it too... He gets his good taste from his mother ;)
And what the heck- speaking of time flying- This one- next week is having a birthday- his first one to be in fact... Ya. Crazy. I know.

I never thought this day would come

Finally! at 11 months, 2weeks old, the Chubbas has finally learned how to crawl! I was beginning to think that he would just go straight to walking just like his daddy did, since he has been cruising along furniture for the last month. But alas! He can officially crawl- and I'm not talkin  just scooting backwards, and not doing his funny little one leg leading one leg behind bum scoot act. All fours where they should be. I am so so happy for this little guy, he's been strugglin for a while, and I attribute it to me being the noticing how every other baby has been at LEAST army crawling since 7 months,worried and over analyzing mother that I am. He was just simply showing me a bit of his personality- He will do everything he Needs to.... when HE is ready. And I can live with that :)

Zoo

This little guy was exited for somethin. Maybe it was the creamie I was letting him have licks of. Maybe it was that he knew he was going somewhere fun. I don't know. Friday we got to go to the Hogle Zoo for the first time, well actually it was G's first time. The weather decided to hold up for longer than 20 seconds so we decided to seize the day! My awesome cousin works at the Hogle Zoo and was able to help us out in getting a season zoo pass.

Did you know that an Elephants trunk has over 40,000 muscles in its trunk? and that it weighs about 300 pounds? yikes- I would hate to be swung at or bumped with that crazy thing!

Did you know that G only likes to sit in his stroller for about half the time?

Did you know that the Giraffe standing behind my boys is actually scratching his face on the door frame?

I love my little monkey, in case you were wondering, he wanted to climb up this creepy lookin monkey rather than sit in his lap.

Here is our little monkey family. I think we measure up quite nicely - don't you?

Its funny how much more fascinating the Zoo is for me now, I used to just want to bounce around and see all the animals, but now I find myself reading all the facts about the animals and could just sit and observe their every movement, every detail about their bodies. More "did you knows" to come as we venture to the base of immigration canyon more this year. It was so awesome.

I cant wait to go back, with friends and family on many more occasions this year! I know G will love going back as well. He had a ball. Thank you so much Anna!

Another tooth!

So, I know this isn't a very good picture, but Gabe cut another tooth! We've been waiting for this one  to come in, only, this one wasn't quite ready I don't think. This morning he had a battle with the windowsill and lost. He also got his first fat lip.

Tubes

The last couple months poor little bubbalubba has had back to back ear infections. Despite it all- he has been such a happy little kid. After the last ear infection I asked the Dr. if tubes would be an option so this lil guy didn't have to be sick all the time. So he referred me to an ENT and they got him all scheduled. Barely a week later we were headed up to Primary Childrens.

Gabey has always been a good sleeper, right from the get-go. He would sleep from 6 pm til 7 am. But the last couple months since he has been sick and in pain a lot, we had developed a lot of bad habits. Ie. waking up in the middle of the night crying, and instead of putting himself back to sleep, we would go in and rock him and feed him, he would wake up at 5- 6 am and we would just start our day from there etc. yuck. (tuck this info back for later)

Well, the morning of surgery comes along and he decided at 3 am its time to start the day (we didnt have to leave until 5:30) That made for a very long day considering I had to go to work right after we got him home.

So this is us at 6 am in the waiting room getting ready for the surgery. I think he's rethinking his idea of 3 am was maybe a tad too early. Don't you?

He was so sweet and gave his signature flirty little smiles and babbles to all the nurses

Can I just say how much I love PCMC? They are so awesome. The anesthesiologist was so cute with G as he brought him back for surgery. He just wisked him out of my arms and showed G the lights and bounced out  of sight. Within 15 minutes we were called back to the Recovery area, His surgery went extremely fast and well. The Dr. said it was a way good thing we got him in for tubes, and that he will be able to hear a lot better now. Which is great since he entering the speech learning part of his life. Another plus- he will not have to be sick anymore!

Well the day he was home from the hospital was a little rough, he was out of it and cranky because of the anesthesia.

I knew that once he got feeling better we were going to have to get him back into his old routine, which would probably call for another dose of CIO- (cry it out) which I was definitely not looking forward to. Especially living with the In-laws, and his bedroom directly below theirs- it would be hard. So we talked about it and decided to wait a few days til he was fully recovered and Joanne was out of town. Well, my little prince apparently knew what we had talked about and didn't want to do it either, so he has gotten back into his normal schedule! Thank heavens. I was defintely not looking forward to doing CIO, AGAIN. Anyway, Chalubs is now feeling so much better and you can totally tell that he can hear better. He now says momma and dadda (most the time on cue unless he is ignoring you) and is responding almost immediately. We sure love this little guy and are so grateful he is healthy and happy.

A New Chapter?

I moved this weekend with the beebs, Steve did not. Back up. Let me clarify, Steve moved us- I somewhat helped, and G spent the day being waited on hand and foot (literally) by Gramma. Steve is living in our place until the semester ends. So last night I spent my first of 21 nights alone. It was cold and it was kinda lonely. Only 20 more to go. Hopefully less if you dont count the weekends and Mr S comes to spend them with me :) Anyway, I got everything moved in and somewhat settled. We get our storage unit next week so I can get some of this clutter taken care of but so far- it is great. I think this will be a great place for us for the next year or so. Today was my last day of mommy freedom I guess you could call it. I am starting my job tomorrow. I went for a run and ran some errands.... all things I will be able to do once I start working- but on a different time table I suppose. Thoughts....

• Excited- one because it is a new chapter in our lives, two because it means we are that much closer to being in a career- we meaning Steve, and me being his sidekick who takes care of stuff at home. And three because I get to be around (sick as they may be) people,- dont get me wrong, I absolutely love being with my little sidekick 24/7, but this will mean getting more social interaction and feeling like I am helping others.


• Nervous- I get anxiety leaving the little one for 2 hours. Not sure how I will adjust to leaving for 5 hours at a time. Maybe I will just tell myself its better than 8 right?!


• Grateful - for the wonderful women who are giving up so much of their lives to help us out, to be able to spend time with their grandson and grateful they will be able to have a strong bond and relationship with this little guy. He is one to know- seriously, I am so lucky to not only know this kid but to have such a strong relationship and bond with him. He is my favorite part of the day. And I am grateful I will be able to share that with these fabulous ladies.

One happy boy

What's better than a poopie onesie? none at all.... I LOVE this little belly. I came to get him out of his crib from his nap- and he was just (as always) one happy little guy.

9 months

my big boy playin the piano

and standin up next to the couch. He loves to drum the couch, or anything he is holding on to while standing.

such a happy boy
Chubbas is 9 months old! I cant believe how time has been flying and how much he is growing!!! Today we went to his 9 month check up and he's a growin. G is now 22 lbs which puts him in the 70 percentile and 29 inches long which puts him in the 80th percentile his noggin is however still in the 90th percentile
He is pretty dang healthy and all - except the doctor thought his tummy looked and felt a bit distended and his coloring was a bit yellow so Mr. Bubbas had to get his blood drawn. He was so brave and didnt even cry when the needle when in. But when the poor nurse missed he started to cry. This is how he was after tho

such a brave little man!
I took another picture of him at home, and he is basically telling me in this picture-"mom will you stop takin pictures and just take this stinkin thing off my arm? it's givin me muffin top."

Happy Tuesday!

for those of you who dont have facebook. thought you might enjoy this. He was laughing at me for no reason so I ran and got the camera and he continued to do so. Excuse the loud breathing in the background, I'm trying to laugh quietly. For some reason He gets sad and has the funniest expression on his face and just makes me giggle.

Park

This past week was decent weather. Scratch that- it was amazing weather. So G got to have his first experience at a park! Multiple times

he was so funny about his sunglasses. he tried to take them off at first- but then he realized they were helping him not have to have the sun in his eyes and he wore them until we took them off him to take some pictures. what a little stud man.

needless to say- he loved the park. Im sure we will be making many more memories and spending LOTS more time at the park as the weather decides to be nice to us for more than 5 seconds.

Tender Mercies

When I was younger and had baby siblings, as each one would come along we tried something with each one. With each sibling the same reaction would happen. More than a decade later and 5 kids (that I can personally remember) - this time using my own seed- the same thing happened.

This boy makes my heart happy. He is so amazing it just blows my mind. I had the sweetest moment with him tonight. This is my favorite time with him-As I was putting him to bed, I sang him primary songs like usual while he drinks his bottle. He will normally just stare in to my eyes, sometimes it seems to be straight to my soul and, on occasion, he will stroke my face. Tonight, when I was done and he was done drinking, I pulled down his picture of Christ off the shelf and let him hold it. I asked him,"Do you know who this is?" He immediately spit out his bink and started jabbering away, then went silent and let the picture rest on his forehead for a few moments. He then carefully touched His face and started to talk excitedly again. I sat and enjoyed the moment with him, and began to think how wonderful it would be to remember His face that way. To remember Him the way that babies get to. It is such a testimony to me that He lives. How could that not be! When it was time to lay little G down, I ran and grabbed my camera and gave him the picture again. It was too precious not to capture. Who knows how much longer he has until the veil isn't quite so thin?

There is really something so soothing, so calming and so celestial about babies. I can't believe what a blessing it is to have this sweet little man in my life. I don't think he will ever be able to fully comprehend how he has changed me, He has strengthened me. I am so grateful for the tender mercies that Heavenly Father allows us to have, to show us that He is aware of us, that He loves us and He CARES about us. Life is just downright hard right now. I think for not just us but for everybody... But you know what? We'll get through it, just like always, we'll all be happy in the end, just like always. Everything always tends to turn out right in the end. But what a perfect time for this sweet and blessed moment, to give me that little bit of umph that I need in my life right now. I love you G. Always and Forever.

Carseat

This little chub has grown out of his carrier car seat. His head pokes out of the top and his feet dangle off the bottom, and his shoulders have to squish in. Can you believe that he went from this tiny little thing to such a chunk in just 7 months! Anyway- so we decided it was time to get him a new car seat that would actually fit him. I think he will like this one. I cant believe he is growing so stinkin fast! And I just have to gloat a little bit about the steal I got on this. This car seat normally goes for near 200 dollars. Since this one had different colors (last seasons colors to be precise) they took a good 30 dollars off so they could just get rid of them.... I also happened to have a wonderful coupon which made the grand total 128! 72 dollars off? yes. I think we'll take it.

The Bubbers

THE BUBBERS

this little guy loves to take baths. i cant wait for the summer when we can go swimming!

as for a little update-

teeth:2 sharp little razors in the bottom region

crawling: not a chance... however he is scooting and rolling around all over now... the scooting is on his back however. i wonder if he will learn to crab walk instead of crawl. dont know why the kid has such a loathsome attitude toward his tum tum

eating: like a little piglet. gettin the hang of the sippy

loves puffs, bananas, carrots paper, fingers,books etc.

hates green beans, peas- really anything that is green

health: mostly good- just cant seem to kick this cough- poor little tyke :(

sleep: still from 6pm-7:00am AWESOME!

stats: has recently passed up his chunk a monk cousin who is 6 weeks older than him- magster he is now officially 1 full pound heavier than her. seriously - who'd a thought this would happen

activities: loves to clap say mama and dada- well in a round about way- its more like mummmmammmmaaa dadadadadadada, squeal for attention. loves to jump in his jumpy jump
knows the sign language for food...

Sick Baby :(

this pic is pretty old

G got to have a sleepover with grammy this weekend and LOVED it. He sure loves the people in his life- and is such a content little man, anywhere we go. I love when my mom gets to spend time with Gabe. It always cracks me up because no matter how many "extra" outfits I pack for him, he always is wearing something I have never seen before. My mom is the shopping queen when it comes to her little mister, so he is a very well dressed boy- she has a whole section of her closet dedicated to G.I love this little man so much. This past few days he has been one sick little puppy. My mom has been so awesome-calling me often checking in on him and giving me advice. She offered to take him one night this weekend so that i could get some decent rest which was amazing and very much needed. I am so grateful for her willingness to always help out and be so kind. He sure loves his Grammy -whenever he goes to her house he just lights up. I love having him there because he is the center of everyones universe at that house- he gets taken really good care of- has attention 100% of the time and knows that he is completely and utterly loved. Since he has been sick- it breaks my heart to hear him cough and have trouble breathing. he has been pretty dang happy for feeling so miserable, but when it just gets too hard to bear- he will look up at me and just give a little whimper-as if to tell me he just doesnt like to feel this way- can you make it better please? makes me want to cry. however one thing i do love- is that he is extra snuggly. i love this little man so much and am so happy to have him in my life.

F.Y.E. (for your enjoyment)

This boy makes my heart smile.

and tonight i gave him a hair cut. stay tuned for pics :)

The Latest

What we have been up to:
Last week my brother and sister in law got to take their dream vacation to Paris where Trent served his mission. How awesome would that be?! One day maybe Steve and I will be able to make it over to Japan. Anyway, They left their 2 boys home, So Steve and I volunteered to babysit for them for part of their trip. So between the grandparents and us, it was a very busy week. We got the boys for 3 days- which was a lot of fun, but man I was ready to hit the sack at 9 pm every night! Then on sunday we got news that Steves grandma was not doing so well, and ended up going to her funeral on friday. It was a very nice service, and was So fun to hear all the stories of the life she lived. It was also great to be able to spend lots of time getting to know and meet a lot of steve's relatives i still hadnt met.
Saturday we had our best friends Dal and Beck come over for some yummy dinner and played a little Wii Fit. The balance games on that thing are hilarious to watch! Just ask Beck.
Sunday we got to go to Trent and Cristi's and celebrate Benny's first birthday. He is such a cute little guy and am so glad we are so close to this sweet little family.
Yesterday- I spent the day making neighborhood goodies to give for Christmas which was fun.
All of our Christmas shopping is done and they are all wrapped, and all of our Christmas gifts have been given out to our neighborhood friends. the only thing i need to do now- is send out our dang Christmas Cards. they should come in tomorrow so i can hopefully get them out by thursday! BAH next year maybe i can be more on top of things in that department.
Steve and I are currently addicted to Prison Break. We are almost done with the first season and are sitting at the edge of our seats! Every time we start it- we have to watch another,another and another...and another. Then at some point we decide that one of us has to be responsible and we have to go to bed. Usually that person isnt me. I just get SO into it! Have you ever been into a season series like this? I tend to get into them fairly easy. ie- lost. 24, gilmore girls, biggest loser now prison break! ah sometimes i wish i had a life so i could use that as an excuse to say im not addicted to tv series. oh well. who cares. but let me just tell you- i wont watch them on tv, i would die. so i wait for them to come out on dvd or netflix instant view ;) love love love it!
Anyway- Time is flying by! Seriously yesterday Gabe was 3 months old...i blinked and 4 and 5 months were gone. In a week and a half he will be 6 months old!!!! I cant even believe it. He is so much fun to be with- and lights up the room. He loves to play the tickle game and will laugh even before you touch him. He is loving to eat rice cereal, sweet potatoes and squash. Grampa Hale keeps trying to get him started on his favorites: cheese, diet coke and sausage or pepperoni. but i think those will have to come later... the diet coke- WAY later. I'm kind of a nazi about letting him eat things too early. Anyway- he is loving to play with his toes, loves practicing sitting up, Loves to snuggle in bed with mommy in the mornings, and daddy on the weekends. He makes us so incredibly happy. Sometimes I worry that he isnt doing things as fast as other babies his age- but i have learned not stress out about it. he will get things - honestly who cares if he doesnt learn to crawl or start walking exactly when other babies do. it doesnt say anything about his intelligence when he starts doing things that other babies may or may not be doing. I am so grateful for this little man. He is so good to me- i am so grateful he sleeps 13 hours every night, grateful he still will snuggle with me, grateful he is so happy,grateful he is mine, and grateful i am here to be able to raise him and enjoy his sweetness.
Here are a few pictures of my little G

He doesnt agree with his shirt. and doesnt think its funny either.

The other night I walked in his room to kiss him before I went to sleep and found him like this

and this


I made this aviation beanie for him the other night- and somehow I'm thinkin aviation will not be in the cards for him when he gets older. actually he is just terrified that this hat makes him look like he has girl bangs- i love to get pictures of him smiling, but i think later in his life he will look back at these pictures of his sad face and just giggle cuz he is just so stinkin cute.