March Madness...February Too!

 It's been a crazy month! OK, not really but it sure feels like it! Lots of pics I didn't get up so here we go!

 Lots of chocolate eating!!!

 Gabe got a big pencil from his aunt for his birthday!

 Kleenex fun!

 In February we headed up to Midway for its Ice Castles!

 Had some friends over for book discussions and dancing Wii style!

 Archie built a fort for Gabe in his bedroom.

That's about it. Pictures are worth a thousand words, right?

PS...It looks like a nice day today! Yeah! I hope we can go out and enjoy the sun and warmer weather!!!

Love ing the Weather

....until Gabe starts throwing all the wood chips at the rest of the neighborhood kids...sigh. But then we go back out and all is good again the world.

Today is Archie's birthday and he came home for lunch and we got some Subways and headed over to the park. It was so nice. Gabe just ran around and tried the big slides at last! He is getting braver and braver. Soon he'll be swinging with no fear!

Can't wait for the permanence of the weather to hit...nature walks, hikes...we're going to get one of those stroller trailers for bikes so Gabe can ride along. Yeah!

Also, for one more month, we have story time at the local library that I just discovered...so we're going to do a few of those too.

Gabe is putting so many words together now and learning to really communicate. He keeps telling me "sit" when he wants to read a story or for me to watch him build his blocks.

Just got a new kid's cookbook with Dora and Diego...hopefully Gabe will want to help out and we can have some cooking time together too and maybe he'll actually want to eat something!!!!

February In a Nutshell

Let's see...Gabe turned 2 and we had a lovely birthday party for him at Pirate Island. We managed to be sick for half of the month from Gabe and I, then Archie, and back to Gabe and I...sigh. Gabe also went to his two year checkup. He is still a nail...skinny, tall, and a big head! But the numbers are starting to even out a bit. Still has really large feet, though, like his daddy.

Gabe also has started saying "goodbye, Mommy. Goodbye, Daddy." "Sit!" "Daddy is asleep?" He was just so cute when he said these things.

Archie gave me Turbo Jam for Valentine's Day! I'm having a lot of fun with my new workouts. They're killer but not too killer and they're fun!

GOALS for March:

1. Stay unsick.
2. Eat healthy 6/7 days during the week.
3. Start training for some 5Ks in the Spring and Summer!
4. Cook more at home.
5. Be consistent with my homework.

Time will tell! And yeah for more Spring weather!

Birthdays and Fun and Kitties, Oh My!

I'm such a slacker with this blog...I know. Here are some updates of pics. Gabe had a wonderful birthday! We went to Pirate Island with close family and he had so much fun with his cousins and looking at all the arcade games. Lots of fun with cake too!

Waiting for a table at Cheesecake Factory New Year's Day!

He is just getting so big now. I love seeing him grow and learn. He's getting quite the attitude now. He knows the word go and he has no problems using that on us and pulling us wherever he wants us to go. He's also so great at recognizing many letters and he is starting on numbers. He's walking up the stairs now all by himself.

Add caption

The last couple of weeks have been pretty crazy with all of us getting sick once and then twice! Grrrrr. I cannot wait til Spring!

Frodo's favorite winter spot...

This was sooo funny!

Valentine's Day was also fun. We still had little Gabe with us but we hit a semi-fancy restaurant and dessert and good snuggles. Gabe had fun with his new coloring book of hearts and stickers.

My parents, Archie, his cousins, Katie, Aunt Cristi, and Uncle Ty

We're really excited for summer. We've got some fun vacations planned and Gabe is old enough to start really enjoying the outdoors. We've been so cooped up this winter....we need to get out!!!!!!! I'm going insane....!!!

His cousins Bradley and William

Some funny things with Gabe...when he starts yelling gibberish at us and pointing and basically putting us in our place. He told me one time to get back! I couldn't help but just laugh!!!

Happy Birthday, Gabe!

My little boy is now 2 years old! I can't believe it. He is getting so big. It's been a rough two years but a fulfilling two years. I can't imagine life without him now.

As of today his favorites are:

1. Dora the Explorer.
2. His two stuffed Walmart Tiggers.
3. Milk and chocolate milk.
4. Suckers.
5. Daddy.
6. Kitties
7. My Neighbor Totorro
8. The color red (everything is red to him!)
9. "Reading" his Dora book and his Dr. Seuss books.
10. Throwing anything and everything.

Happy Birthday!!! And here's to another wonderful year together!

January Wrap-up

January started off fabulous! Great holidays and some fun resolutions. I started counting my calories and I did great for a week....then I got sick, Gabe got sick, and I'm still fighting my back pain issues...so I haven't been able to get a lot of sleep and just haven't felt all that well for the past little bit. But I'm still working on my exercise and being positive. I'm getting some physical therapy and I'm going in to see a neurologist soon...so here's hoping my neck and back and stuff get feeling better! I wish I could somehow survive on no sleep. I could get so much more reading in and writing and all that stuff. Oh well....

But I did read six books in my spare time and finished two others from December. We also got a new bed and so far so good.

I have some pics to put up but have been way too lazy to actually get them off the camera! Gabe is growing like crazy and is doing so many fun things. He walks up the stairs and down them all by himself. He's learning more of the alphabet and some numbers. I hope to post some pics by the weekend. We're looking forward to his 2 year birthday next Wednesday! I can't believe how old he is now!

This month I'm hoping to finish off 4-6 books, blog more than once a month here....you know, I'm hoping to actually think of being creative one day!!! Oh, and to keep plugging away at my homework...sigh....Can survival of a month be a goal????

2010 Wrap-Up and Christmas!

Christmas was pretty exciting this year! Gabe got way too much stuff...we had to with hold one gift so we could give it to him for his birthday in February! You just see cute little things/toys here and there and you don't realize how much stuff you get for the wee one when it comes time to wrap stuff and open them up! He still doesn't get the whole countdown to Christmas and the opening of gifts, but he still gets really excited about boxes and wrapping paper and eventually his toys! I try to give us all new PJs for X-mas Eve...he got some cute ones this year. Archie also used his awesome skills in carpentry to make a Gabe a fun little board assortment of things to do. He also made a fake butter bomb to take to work for a little party they had. Yup, he is a genius. The kitties got new cat nip, treats and treats. They don't really enjoy coming out to play anymore with Gabe tormenting them every day so we skipped the new kitty toys this year. We also made sugar cookies and gave them to our neighbors. Sent out holiday cards to friends and family. Attended a couple of parties. Got a new bed that isn't working for us so we are now finding a new one again....sigh. Need to fix the Xbox! But we did get Wii Mario Kart! Way super fun. We were pretty lame for New Year's Eve...we stayed at home and ate junk food! Watched a movie and played Mario Kart. That is how we rang in the New Year.

Oh, can't forget that we got him a Zhu-Zhu pet this year. That is a new favorite! The cats even enjoy that one!

I read a total of 78 books this year! That is a record folks! I reviewed most of them on my book blog Gofita's Pages.

I also really enjoyed in movies this year: (also includes new to me movies whether they came out in 2010 or not) Tangled, Despicable Me, Toy Story 3, How to Train Your Dragon, Easy A, Letter to Juliet, Angela's Ashes, Milk, Date Night, Whip It, and Zombieland. All of them absolutely superb!

TV shows new to me this year that I fell in love with: Burn Notice, Pushing Up Daisies, and Firefly (I know none of these actually came out this last year...new to me, though).

There also were some great songs too, but I am way too lazy to look them up for title and artist....ones I can remember: Coldplays Viva la Vida, Sarah Bareilles King of Anything, Christina Perry Jar of Hearts, Black-eyed Peas, Linkin Park, some others...They Might Be Giants Here Comes Science album.

I also lost a few more pounds! Yeah and am hoping to lose a few more this year.

The fake butter bomb...hope the gov doesn't come after us now!!!

The bear and hearts all have Velcro so he can take them off and on same with the lunch box.

His cute Sponge Bob pjs

Archie got a One Nation Under Grog T-shirt--arrrggh!

Grandma Crozier made him a cute little vest, too!

He got lots of tools!

We got a new Xbox 360 game but now our Xbox is on the fritz :(

Lots of Leap Frog magnet. Loves them!

Archie gave me a blankie for our anniversary and Gabe has commandeered it!

Gabe turns a big two this year. Maybe he'll potty train????? He is saying so many new words now. It seems like it has improved since he had his ear tube surgery in November. But maybe it would've improved with time anyway...but one thing for sure is that he has not been sick since! Yeah!

I'm also going to finish school this year and hopefully find a part-time job...we'll see. I also want to lose a few more pounds, especially the ones I gained over the holidays...sigh. I also am starting to write Gabe little letters every night to let him know what fun things he did or learned each day and share a bit of my thoughts with him. I had this idea after he was born but I've only been doing it about every two or three months...but this year each day! Also want to write in my journal at least weekly, and keep up on my blogs at least weekly as well. Work harder at getting school done and enjoy this year as the best one yet! Happy New Year to everyone! Love you all.