Bella, Gabe and Josiah

We've had lots of Easter fun in the last few days. Gram and Gramps came home last weekend, so we invited them over to decorate Easter eggs. I'm really glad that Gram was there to help with Gabe as he was pretty sure that the easiest way to get to eggs out was with his hands and he didn't have the patience to wait until the eggs turned pretty colors... He also cracked most of them because he didn't understand the word "gentle"...    

Last week I learned about a fundraiser for one of the elementary school classes that involved playing with bunnies. I decided that this was definitely something that Gabe needed to do. He was super excited too, and spent all morning talking about "Play bunnies." He was not disappointed!    Even though he was most excited about the bunnies, the chicks were definitely his favorite. He really liked to hold them, although he would jump whenever they moved, dropping them. Luckily he was sitting on the floor, so the chicks didn't have very far to fall. It was pretty adorable and totally worth my $5 donation.

The other day, we were getting ready for school and Gabe said "Talk on phone."  I said okay and asked him who he would like to talk on the phone to.  "Auntie Laurie.  Auntie Laurie talk phone Gabey." So, we called Auntie Laurie and they had a lovely chat for a few minutes. The funny part of this is that Gabe hasn't seen Laurie since July.  That seems like a long time for him to remember anyone at all.  Also, the other day he was reading one of his books from the Imagination Library and he say a picture of Dolly Parton.  I asked him who that was and he yelled "Auntie Laurie!"  Um, what? This morning Gabe was playing with his Thomas the Train bouncy ball.  I asked him who was on the ball and he said "Thomas Train!"  I pointed to another train and he said "Percy Choo Choo!"  I pointed to the last one and he yelled "Auntie Laurie!" I think he's just confused.  We may need to go visit Auntie Laurie to straighten him

We had some appointments up north, so we decided to make a family weekend trip out of it. This was a memorable trip for several ways, but the first was that it was Gabe's first time in his own seat on the airplane. He was super excited about this and kept saying "Goin airplane. Goin venture!" The flight attendants weren't sure that he was big enough for his own seat, but he is actually 2 now, no matter how tiny he is. We stayed with Uncle Tim, who Gabe kept calling Gramps. I don't think he minded at all... We went out to visit some of Pat's high school friends and we got to go ice fishing and snowmachining on the lake. Gabe was terrified of the snow machine. He was all excited about it, but as soon as we got on he started sobbing "owie snowmachine!" Even now, four days later, he's still talking about "owie snowmachine", although now he adds that the snowmachine "scare me" and "don't like it." On Sunday we hit up

Some snipits from our weekend... We're staying with Uncle Tim for the weekend. Poor Gabe can't really tell Uncle Tim and Gramps apart, so he keeps calling Uncle Tim Gramps. We pull into the house and he shouts "yay Gamps!" "This is Uncle Tim's house." "Yay Uncle Tim!" Uncle Tim really doesn't mind... The first morning we were here, Uncle Tim showed Gabe a spider on the windowsill. Gabe was so excited that every morning he checks the windowsills for the "little bug." Last night in the car, Gabe was feeling lovey-dovey. He kept saying "I love you Mommy. I love you Daddy. I love you Mommy. I love you Daddy. I love you Bella." It was adorable! Gabe and I were wandering around the mall waiting for Pat and Bella when Gabe suddenly said "Mommy bathroom potty." I said "really? You want to go potty in the bathroom?" "Yes." Um, okay. I guess the first time I take you to go potty on the toilet can be i

Pat's been out of town for the last few days, so it's just been the kids and I at home. Yesterday morning we didn't have  anything going on, so I told them both that we could do something fun and asked what they'd like to do. Gabe threw his hands in the air and yelled "FRED MEYER!!!" Ironically enough, that's what Bella picked also. I decided that we needed to do something other than just going shopping, so we stopped by the park to play. It was 36 degrees and snowing, so clearly it was a great day at the park. On the other hand, we had the park to ourselves!   We had an ice cream social at church last night. Gabe doesn't generate eat a whole lot of sugar, but I wasn't going to deprive the kid of an ice cream party. He thought it was wonderful. Pat got home today, but apparently the timezones caught up with him because he ended up falling asleep on the couch. Gabe and I weren't exactly quiet while we were playing, but he was the one who decided

Happy Birthday Bella! I can't believe that she's 12. She was 4 when Pat and I started dating and now she's 12. How does life go so fast???