The Adventures of Baby Gabe:

Her newest discovery.... (as I hear her giggling from the other room)

at least it wasn't a full roll... and the fun ended when she tried to eat it

Calling all Cooks

So I feel really burnt out of my recipes lately. We have been eating the same ones over and over....gettin old. I have a pretty good list of all of our favorites and we rotate between them, cause they are easy and fast and I know how to make them. Now I'm just sick of making them, and eating them. I need some new fresh EASY ideas. I've tried the internet, but they all seem too elaborate (at this time in my life) with lots of random ingredients. I feel so stuck.

Come on ladies, I would be so grateful you have no idea. I figured I'd turn to you other mom's for some help. You can relate to cooking with little ones and the tighter budget. So if any of you care to send a recipe or two my way through this or email, I promise I'll love you forever. THANKS!

The big 1-0

10 months! That's double digits. I can't believe how fast she is growing. I have had the chance to hold a bunch of new born babies this week, and I swear Gabe should be among them. Adam says it's weird to tell Gabe to look at the baby, when she used to be the baby people were looking at. Nope not anymore. Our baby girl is working her way to toddlerhood faster than we can keep up. I call this month, the month of her "parlor tricks." She's not walking quite yet, but she has lots of fun new things she can show you. Her personality brightens up our home in the best way. We love you bug, happy ten months!

Her new traits:

- She can show you where her nose is

-She waves ba-bye

-She is a dancing machine, and loves to twist and move. Even at stake conference the girl was all about dancing to "I Believe in Christ"

-She points to everything. She loves to point to something and have you tell her what it is. Especially with pictures, so she now has a new picture book of all your pics, and she is already loving to learn who everyone is. 

-She wants to do everything herself and pushes you or your hand away to get that point across. 

-She throws everything to my greatest horror. That includes her food, so teaching her not to is my biggest challenge right now.

-She is grasping the concept of the word "NO"-but still gets this sly smile before she does it anyway.

-She is pulling herself up on her feet more, crawling over things, and loves to walk holding your hands. I think she could walk with help all day long, she loves it. 

-She is learning some sign language. She can Sign all done, and if she feels like it more and please-she usually just squawks at you still. 

-She says Mom, or MA. Hurray! Some of the other ones are duck, yucky, all done, or done. She tries to say please and bath

-She is a mommy's girl when tired, but wants daddy the rest of the time. She cries if he isn't holding her. She gets sad when he leaves the room or the house. It's simply adorable. She also loves to talk to him on the phone, and constantly points to the phone and says daddy.

-She is so affectionate. She will be playing happily, take a break to crawl over and cuddle you, then continue playing. 

-She has helped Adam and I not munch throughout the day. She has learned that the kitchen is the place to eat, and if you don't bring her along, you hear about it. 

-Some of her favorite foods are scrambled eggs, bananas, chicken, and broccoli. (and gogurt)

-She is trying so hard to communicate and copy what you say, sometimes I swear she says words clear as day. 

-She sticks out her tongue when trying to concentrate on doing something. It's so funny. (she top pic)

-She is the biggest cheese ball and loves to smile. People can't believe how much she smiles. She has recently discovered she likes to be center of attention when people are over too. (once she gets over her initial shyness)

Here are the pics from the last month, they are just random ones around the house:

-Standing up in the crib on her own worried how to get down.

 

-This is her scream-talking down the hall way.

Happy St. Patty's Day

Honestly I think it's a rather silly holiday, but we did all dress in Green to avoid pinching. I don't have a festive outfit for her, but she did have some green. Gabe and Daddy ambushed me this morning, cause my pj's contained no green. She thought it was funny, so I guess our Holiday was festive enough. I hope everyone else remembered so they could avoid unnecessary pinching abuse.

We All Scream for Ice Cream...

And that's exactly what she did if she didn't get more in her mouth fast enough. Today was Gabe's first Ice Cream cone shared with her Daddy. She LOVED it, even down to the soggy cone which she wanted all of too. We were in Walmart and she was getting fussy. (we had been running errands for a while) So Adam disappeared while I was checking out. He returned with a treat and one happy girl. :) Here are some pics we got with Ad's phone. (She would get mad at him when he stopped to take a picture- he wasn't getting it in fast enough)

Our 2nd Child

Our second child turns 2 today. Here is a tribute to our Greta Girl. Yes our dog is getting a birthday tribute. She really is like another part our family. We love having her around. She is the best kind of family dog. From day one she has been such a cuddler. She'll do anything to cuddle with you and show you loves. She can be dead asleep one second and running laps the next, ready to play. She loves mountain biking with Adam or just being in the mountains, playing in the snow, playing in any kind of water from the hose to a lake, and loves new bones/toys. She goes with us everywhere, which is nice, cause it gets us out to be active. What can we say, she's one spoiled girl. She loves Gabe, and doesn't leave her side most of the day. She is so patient with Gabe even if she's getting pinches, pulled, or landed on. She loves her Daddy and freaks out when he comes home. He is her favorite, followed closely by Gabe, then I keep everyone in order. Ha. Here is to 2 fun years with our Greta Girl! Happy B-day Nenners!

"P"

So I was tagged to list my favorite 10 things that start with the letter "P". Here's to you Brit. Here goes nothin.....

1- paperback books

2- photography

3- purple instead of pink :)

4- prophet, yeah that was a good one

5- pillow-talk-HA!

6- pasta

7- pajamas

8- primary

9- pilates

10- picture books

HMMM I tag Judy with the letter "L", Katrina with the letter "C", and Heidi with the letter "F"

Mommy's little helper

It's easy to understand why the simplest tasks/chores take a little longer than you'd like to get accomplished. Her newest thing is "playing" in the laundry. All the whites were in two neat piles two seconds before. I try and keep her entertained by the socks so I can speed through everything else..... you can see how well that works. I figure, at least she's entertained. (it's better than playing with the outlets and cords right?) I tell Adam if he finds our clothes mixed up, he'll know that Gabe helped with the laundry. 

Snow Angels

So the last couple days we've been dumped on by rain. It was kinda refreshing, cause we don't get a lot of rain. Then last night we got a severe winter storm warning for our area. We were going to get dumped on by snow. I was paranoid about Adam doing his paper route. Well all turned out okay, cause we really didn't get a whole lot of anything. I was excited to see Gabe's reaction to the snow being older since the last time she got to play in it. I woke up planning to play in it. In the morning though I was hoping it wouldn't melt by the time she woke from her first nap. The front yard is in the shade most of the day, so we had some snow left. Not much. Gabrielle wasn't too thrilled about sitting, touching, or even looking at the bright snow. She did like to eat it. She got to make her first snow angel too. She did okay laying in it, cause I was standing right above her moving her arms and legs. She thought it was funny. Now my child is a light weight, so she didn't make much of an impression in the little snow that we got. I tried. By the time I got my camera to take a picture, Greta had run throughout it. So here is her picture of her first "snow angel" if you can make it out:

Here is some help from an app on Adam's iphone

While working Adam saw where all of our snow hit, we're guessing Truckee or Tahoe. Can't say I'm sad we didn't get all of this: