November Family Photos!

We got our new family photos in the last nice weekend of the Fall! Whew!

These photos were taken by Marvin Kimble from Kimble Photography. They turned out great and look forward to getting our holiday cards out and our pictures up on the walls!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!

I'm grateful for my husband, my little boy, family, friends, love, knowledge, science, freedom, books, and the Internet! Hope everyone has a fabulous day here in the States and I hope everyone not officially celebrating has a fantastic day of love and hope!

Let's not forget about our dear turkey we're eating...poor little guy.

But may we eat together as friends!!!!

Cheers!

October...Come and Gone

Whew, life is just super crazy. Archie was gone for 3 and 1/2 weeks in September...then October hit and Halloween and sicknesses and homework. It's just been a whirlwind of life! That's great, though, right???

Archie enjoyed Singapore a lot and brought back some fun stuff and good pics.

I spent a night up in the Heber area with my local book club discussing the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Also went to a weekend getaway conference as well the next weekend.

Gabe got two sets of ear infections...not so fun, and is getting over the second one right now. But we were able to enjoy Halloween! Archie is always a pirate and Gabe went from a panda bear to Winnie the Pooh. I also colored my hair black and cut it shoulder length and decided to be a zombie Indian princess...Archie brought me back an Indian dress and other accessories!

Now we're working on getting the VW fixed and registered so it can run for another year!

Due to Gabe's numerous ear infections, we're probably going to have him get ear tubes. We're going in for a consultation tomorrow. I think he'll do so much better with them in and I'm hoping his speech will sky rocket or at least improve a bit more with them in.

We also get two Thanksgivings this year...one with Archie's family and one with mine. Boo yeah!

Gabe also received his first haircut in October...and it's already getting shaggy! His hair grows like Harry Potter's. Gabe also is getting better with words. He says please, bub-bye, more, water (he also signs it), hug, kitty, doggy, book...and others that I can't think of now. The experts say he should have a few more in his vocabulary...but hopefully he'll make it up with the tubes. He loves throwing things and hitting...not so good. So I'm hoping he'll love baseball when he's old enough to start playing! Gotta refocus his energy somehow. He also loves books. He loves looking through them himself and he loves having Archie or I read to him. I hope that continues as well.

Before haircut

After haircut

Bubble fun

A silly Halloween pic I threw together

zombie me and panda

Looking forward to November and the holidays! We also just got our family pictures taken yesterday at the American Fork Amphitheater! I can't wait to get them back. Gabe was a bit on the grumpy side so we had to bribe him halfway through with a sucker...so some of the pics have him sucking on a sucker! Oh well. Such fun memories.

Forgot to put on Gabe as Winnie the Pooh. I'll have to do that next post!

Lake Owyhee aka WannaHockALogee and Other Pics!

We went camping up in Idaho at Lake Owyhee the last weekend in August with Archie's family. It was our first time camping with Gabe! The ride up was semi-eventful...we got a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, but Archie was a trooper in the 100 degree heat and fixed up in no time flat. The downside was we got a lot of extra flies in the car, which was really, really annoying. Every time Gabe was falling asleep one would land on him and he'd freak out and start crying again. So it wasn't the funnest driving.

We took the first exit of Boise and stopped there for the night. The next we had to get a new tire and then we were on our way.

The lake was really pretty, but the first day was really hot and stuffy. I thought Gabe was getting burned really badly and that he was going to get heatstroke. But the kids all cooled down in the mini swimming pool we brought.

It's been awhile since the Crozier clan has gotten together...we had two of Archie's brothers and their families, plus their mom flew in as a surprise so she was able to hang for the weekend as well.

We checked out the lake, waded in the hot springs...which were either too hot and you were getting burned or it was way too cold from the river water getting in. Gabe didn't know what to think so he just stayed in my arms the whole time while Archie and his brothers built up dams and what not.

Each day got a lot colder, which was nice since it was just soo darn hot that first day. We had amazing food from everyone pitching in so we ate like queens and kings. The only thing that was super hard was just Gabe not being used to it. He wouldn't take naps which made him extra grumpy and we had a hard time getting him to sleep at night, but once he was asleep he stayed asleep (well, he always got up at the crack of dawn). So we're hoping next summer he'll have a lot more fun being older. It was fun to get away for a few days, but we were all happy to make it back home and get some actual sleep!

I love eating blue crayons!

This is the closest to a smile I could get from him!

Oh, back to grumpy!

Also, Archie left yesterday for Singapore for three works for work. He's training the peeps down their in their new facility. He arrived a few hours ago at about 1:30 AM their time. It'll be a tough three weeks, but hey, I can't complain too much. He'll bring back some good souvenirs and pics! He also claimed the camera so no pics for a few weeks...Maybe I'll get him to send some via email and post some up here in a week or two!

Mini Update

Just got back from some camping with Archie's family and it was super fun and crazy! Pics to come soon...

But I just have to add a couple of super cute things about Gabe. Yesterday we were getting ready to head out for grocery shopping and I told him that we were going and it was time to go. So I put on his shoes and got the diaper bag all ready...but then I remembered one thing I needed to do before we left. So I was sitting at the kitchen table and the next thing I know Gabe comes over and starts pushing my butt right on out of the chair! He wanted us to get going! It was really funny. He's never done that before. Nothing too big, but hey I'm a first time mommy and things like this are just so cute.

And today we were eating out at Olive Garden...well, Gabe is not a big eater. He basically likes bread, peanut butter, yogurt, and fruit, and milk along with anything really sugary and sweet. So I brought a peanut butter sandwich for him. He ate a couple of bites and then threw it at Archie...such a sweetie. But as my pasta dish came he kept whining at me so I moved the dish more into the middle between the two of us and he picked up the gigantor fork and spoon and started going to town on my pasta! At first he spit it out, but then he was like: "Hmmm, this is actually pretty good. I think I'll have more!" He got it everywhere and all over; it was beautiful. He ate pasta all by himself. Not saying that he'll do it tomorrow, but I'm hopeful now that he'll actually start eating some regular food!!! Yeah for small 'miracles!'

Shapes!

Yes, I'm a total nerd. Gabe, for the first time ever, put all of the shapes back into the big ball! It was such a crowning moment!!!! My big boy is getting so big! It was so amazing to just sit there and watch him dexterously put the star shape in and then the circle, triangle, and finally the pentagon!!!!! I just love watching his mind work and figuring things out.

I bought some sidewalk chalk yesterday and I had so much fun! Gabe made a few squiggly marks, but for the most part, he just wanted to throw the chalk and break it into pieces, or carry them around in his mouth and run away from me! But I drew a beautiful blue flower and a green cat! OK, they weren't beautiful, but they were fun to do.

I hope in time he'll enjoy some artsy things to do...and we'll throw in some science experiments for good measure.

Another July

With trying to finish of my medical transcriptionist  course I've been a bit busy and don't have a lot of time to blog so here's the long overdue update.

We had a great 4th of July with Ty and Cristi my bro. and sis-in-laws and their three kids along with a couple of their friends. We barbecued, played games, and ate lots of not so good things! Gabe had fun running around with his cousins and getting into good clean trouble! I just can't believe how big he is now. He's running all over the place and getting into everything! I wouldn't have it any other way.

He says "dada, mama, kitty" and other stuff too, but we have no idea what those are! Lots of just 'goo-ga-ga'! We love it.

He's still not a big eater, but he still loves his fruit, bread and peanut butter, oh and yogurt. He also loves eating whole apples too. I peel off the skin and he just dives on in! He's also going crazy with the utensils; he loves feeding himself yogurt and apple sauce. He's also pretty good with the fork and getting watermelon on it or his waffle pieces.

It's crazy cuz sometimes I think he'll have a really hard time with something and then he just proves me wrong and dives on in! Like I wasn't sure how he'd do with using utensils (obviously 18-month-olds aren't going to be able to use them all that efficiently), but I thought he'd be mad that I wasn't feeding him anymore. Nope! He loves it! Which is great for me since I don't need to sit there and feed him anymore!

Another funny thing...Gabe's hair. I just can't do a thing with it! I still think he's too young to sit down for a professional cut so I just trim what I can while he's in the tub...now he looks like Little Lord Fauntleroy...so cute, but grows out of control! It's so pretty, though.

We've also spent a ton of time visiting with friends and family over the last month. Almost every weekend has been spent somewhere or us having others over. Gabe has loved it! Gabe got to experience his first outside pool with my friend Autumn and her kids! He loved it.

This last weekend we set up our own outdoor pool and just sat out and soaked in the sun! We even got some of the neighbor kids to come over and enjoy.

It's been a great month and it's always so amazing to watch Gabe learn and grow. He loves books, or at least having Archie and I read them to him! He's got a few favorites. He also enjoys watching The Wiggles and Blue's Clues.

Let's see...Archie is also heading to Singapore next month for his work. He'll be training employees there for two or three weeks. I wish we could all go...

Still plugging through my online course and enjoying life!