Bella, Gabe and Josiah

Merry Christmas from Arizona! We're all down in Arizona at my parents house for Christmas. Both of my brothers and their wives flew in also (plus my sister and brother-in-law that live here), so the whole family is here for a few days. It's been a lot of fun to all be here together, even if we only have a few days. Christmas itself was a lot of fun. The kids all got pjs from Gram and Gramps on Christmas Eve, so we ended up with some cute little elves. (Bella didn't really want the matching pjs with the boys...) Is there a better place to sleep on Christmas Eve??? We always have to have a kid picture in front of the tree. Bryson must have been asleep or something, because he missed the picture... Later in the morning, Grandpa Claus and Grandma Claus (Bryson's other grandparents) stopped by with presents. Plus, I finally got my Santa Claus picture! We went for a walk through the wash Christmas afternoon. Facebook reminded me that four years ago our Christmas walk was acro

While Gabe had a great time at his birthday, it clearly wiped him out. He actually fell asleep like this on my lap at church... Bella had her Christmas piano recital. I can't post a video on here, but she played We Three Kings and she did a great job. -------------------------------------- Gabe had his one year appointment this week. He's up to 15lbs and 26in long. It's completely crazy to me that he's quite so big... Anyway, he's still doing the military crawl, but he can go from crawling to sitting and back again without any trouble. When he falls over, he can catch himself with his hand and push himself back up. I'm glad that he's meeting all of these developmental goals, but it's still sad that my baby is growing up so fast...        

On Saturday we had an open house birthday party for Gabe. I figured that was easier than trying to plan things for a specific time, since it was a one-year-old's birthday party and he didn't really care, plus it's a Saturday in December, which is always a bit crazy... Since he's really only an 8-month-old, I wouldn't let him have a cake. Somehow jumping from puréed vegetables to frosting just seemed like a bit much... Instead, Gabe got a half an avocado! I think that the avocado accomplishments basically the same thing... Happy Birthday my sweet little boy. We love you so much! Oh, and in the middle of the birthday party, he pulled himself up on the couch all by himself.  He had to use his mouth to get stood up, but he did it.  Unfortunately, I was in the other room.  Normally I go for the theory of "If Mom didn't see it, it didn't happen", but this time there were six other witnesses, so I couldn't

It's late. I'm sitting by the Christmas tree drinking my lemon tea that I'm hoping will  help my throat finally feel a bit better. Everyone else us in bed, including a very fussy baby who is overtired, overstimulated and out of routine. It's quiet for the first time all day. Rather than going to bed, which I should do, I'm pondering the strange situation I'm in. Tonight we went to Glendale Glitters to look at all of the Christmas lights. It was all done up pretty and we had a lovely evening. We also saw Santa Claus. I've been trying to take the kids to see Santa. (Well, I haven't been trying that hard. I've really been saying "hey, if we run into Santa, that would be fun, but lets not plan around it...") Well, there was a random Santa posing near a motorcycle so we wondered over to see if we could get a picture. We ended up not doing it because it turns out that he was a random guy with a tip jar and that seemed a bit strange. And possibly

It's hard to believe that my baby is 1 now. Facebook keeps popping up pictures from a year ago and it's hard to believe that that tiny little baby who could fit into our hands is now that sweet, adorable, curious ball of energy that we have now. How could this have been a year ago??? --------------------------------- Gabe's actual birthday was a pretty normal day. Bella had a presentation at school and she really wanted Gabe to come ("It's my birthday present to him!"), so he and I went to the presentation. Gram also showed up and surprised Bella. She and Gramps have been in Phoenix, but Gram flew up for Gabe's birthday and Bella's piano recital. In the evening we had a family birthday party. Gabe got to talk to Grammy and Grandpa Jim (I don't have a picture of that...) and he got to facetime with Gramps. Then he got to opem his family presents. He was a bit confused about this whole present thing at first. But he got some help from his big sister

Well, I think it's safe to say that our baby is mobile. I mean, he was mobile before, but this morning he was out of control... Today in the time that it took me to pump, Gabe tried to open the present I'd wrapped for my office Christmas party, shredded a pile of diapers, pulled my diffuser off of the shelf and I had to stop four times to redirect him or take things out of his mouth. It was crazy. He's a little Tasmanian Devil. We definitely have some baby proofing to do...

These moose pictures are getting harder and harder to take. I did manage to get one good one: However, the rest of them look more like this...