Some Firsts for Gabe

It seems like when your kid is growing up you look forward to milestones, and any time they get to experience things for the first time. It's probably my favorite thing, seeing that reaction to something new and exciting. Sometimes now that's she's older I have to stop and realize there are still so many things new to her. I've taken some pictures of a few lately.


Playing outside with Daddy is always an adventure. This was her first time seeing a worm. It was fascinating to her, but she wasn't about to touch it.


When we put Gabe to bed she plays in her crib for a bit before she finally settles down. We end up finding her in some funny positions after she konks out. Adam peeked in on her the other night and she was trying to do somersaults in her crib. :)



Gabe got to try pop rocks for the first time. She thought it was the greatest thing ever.





Everyday when Daddy gets home from work, he takes her to the front yard to show her all of our flowers coming up. She loves it and gets really excited to see them everyday.

Dinner Conversation at Our House

What's Gabe laughing at you might wonder....

Where did she learn that word is so funny.......

Probably from the Daddy laughing with her would be my guess. This is how dinner conversation at our house goes, not always appropriate and not sure how it got started, but amusing to Gabe non the less.

I'm sorry if anyone is offended by our lack of manners.... :)

Our recent visitors

We just had a fun filled weekend with Gabe's Nana and Papa. Then on top of that she got a quick visit from Aunt Trina and Uncle Steve on their way to San Fransico. Our girl was in heaven. All those people to boss around and play with. She was pretty good at convincing them to do whatever she wanted too. She was one happy spoiled girl. We shopped, played, ate, and showed them some sites. We always enjoy the visit, and loved having everyone here to hang out. Thanks for cooking us some great meals Judy, and thanks for the sushi adventure Mike! I think this is the first morning Gabe woke up not asking for everyone. She sure loves you all, as do we! :)

HAPPY ST. PATTY's ALL!

Again not my favorite holiday, but I loved it as a kid and I look forward to making it a big deal for my kids. When I was a kid, we set traps for leprechauns, and they always left some candy, and gold behind (glittered pennies). We loved it. I remember keeping the gold forever, cause one didn't come across leprechaun gold everyday.

When Gabe is older I'd like to make things fun like that. Gabe and I got up and dressed in Green gear. We have called Daddy about three times to threaten him with pinches when he gets home, cause he's not wearing green. She helped make these fun sticker/pins that we got to wear. Then I randomly decided to make sugar cookies with her and color them green. She likes to help in the kitchen a lot, and I always let her sit on the counter and help. This was her first time with cookies. She was excited. When she saw the frosting she about lost it, she was jumping out of her chair with excitement. Here are some pictures of our green adventure. I feel lucky I get to spend my day with my sweet girl. Hope everyone else is having a pinchless day. :)



Ready to help make some cookies.

She loved the rolling out part



This is usually how I found her-trying to eat all the dough


We did a puzzle while we waited for the cookies to cool



Stopping to sample the frosting on the cookies

This is her end result-notice the bites out of all the cookies

Around the House

We've taken a few park outings with the warm weather coming and going, and even a bike ride together the other day. Most of the rest is still indoors. Here's the latest.

She now makes requests when playing with Play doh-no surprise it was a frog


I'm sure she learned that look from her Dad

I left my camera with these two, and got a fun surprise of some cute, silly pictures

We got Gabe a new skirt. She has never been into dresses too much, but all of a sudden she thinks they are so fun. She had me put her skirt on and wore it over her pants all day. I couldn't get it off her. The best part was the dancing show she put on for me in front of the mirror.


Cinderella joined in on the fun

Some Recent Observations

I love disney movies, and nursery rhymes/fairy tales like anyone. I have been watching and reading a lot of them with Gabe lately. I have noticed that a lot of those stories are pretty messed up. Maybe they always have been and I just noticed being older? I know of some of them I had a different version growing up. When was the last time you looked closely at these stories? Adam said to me the other day, "Why are these classics, and who wrote them?" It made me look harder at things in all these stories. Here are a few of my examples:

-In the little red riding hood, you can get eaten by an animal and survive if someone chops open the belly to get you out. Doesn't that seem morbid? In my book he eats both Red and her Grandma. In the original doesn't the grandma die?

-In the three little pigs book I have for Gabe, at each house the wolf eats the pig inside. When I was growing up they escaped to the third little pig's house made of brick and they all survived. Guess not?

-Goldilocks makes it seems okay to walk into a random house in random woods and eat and do whatever you want.

-In the little mermaid it kinda teaches to defy your parents and you can get what you want

- In Cinderella she touches mice all day long and then makes her family food. That one I think they kinda deserve though. Ha.

-Adam is sure the nursery rhyme of Heckity Peckity my black hen, has some hidden meaning behind it.

-101 Dalmatians she wants to kill puppies the whole movie.

-Robin Hood it's okay to steal if you are helping people

-In Sleeping Beauty I never understood why she didn't stay with her parents until she was 16, then have someone watch her all that day. The bad witch said it wouldn't be until her 16th birthday that she pricked her finger, why not stay at home?

-Have you watched Snow White lately? Her voice is horrible. HA. When she hits those high notes, I cringe. She also is the fairest one in the land, and I don't think she's that pretty of a princess. Sorry kinda mean I know.

Now I still love them, I'm not saying we won't watch or read them. I think it's interesting to notice how movies, stories, or certain books seem so different when you're older. Especially when you try to explain them to a kid. When your kid asks, "Who's that? What are they doing?" and you get to say, "She's naughty, and a bad guy. She wants to hurt all those puppies." It's kinda eye opening. They still are classics, and what kid could grow up without them? I just wonder how certain things became so well known when they are kinda random.

Happy Early Mornings

My child is a morning person. She always has been despite our efforts to change it. We've tried keeping her up later, and all that jazz. (Numerous times) On trips when she gets no sleep she still wakes up at the crack of dawn. Don't ask me where it came from, cause neither Adam and I love the mornings. It's hard to be annoyed getting up between 5:30-6:30 (If I'm lucky), because Gabe is SOOO happy. She calls out for me in the morning, "Momma! Mom!" I walk half asleep into her room, She gives me me this huge cheese and says. "Hi Momma!" She then begins to ramble about all of her toys she sees and tells me, "Daddy na nigh, SHHH!" We have to talk about how Daddy is home, but is asleep so we should be quiet. We sometimes play this game where she won't get out of her crib until she has been tickled like crazy. She tells me," Daddy happies. Momma happies. Froggy happies. Cookies happies." etc. (She tells me all the things that make her happy-every morning it changes. It always begins with Daddy and cookies usually end up in there.) She is ready to go from the moment she wakes up. She wants to play with toys, read books, watch a show, and eat some food. So we play, and cuddle and watch shows and munch. She loves it when it is time to wake up Daddy so she can jump on him and have him tickle her. So even though I'm not a morning person, Gabe makes it worth it. I love spending time with her, and she makes the early rising worth it.

Same old same old

Everything around here is pretty much the same as it has been. In Primary I once again am having to find more teachers for two classes in a small ward, where my options are limited. I feel bad for these kids. Some of them have a really hard time with teachers changing all the time. Just when I think that everything is going smooth, I get to start over. Ha. I decided that I'm going to start working on my program early. I know it sounds silly, cause it's not until October, but summer is always so busy. Last year writing it out ended up being more stressful than I planned. I figured that if I have it done in the spring while things are slow, then I can enjoy my summer. Less stress for me and my councilors, that's a good thing.

Our ward instead of having big combined ward parties, they split everyone up into smaller groups every quarter. They have different host families to have certain assigned members over to their house for a meal and a game. Then they rotate everyone for the next quarter, and ask different people to host. We actually like it. I kinda forces you to talk and meet people that you wouldn't normally talk to at a big ward party. We were asked to host this quarter. We hosted last year in the summer, and that was easy cause it was warm enough to go outside. We also had mostly young couples. This time we have a few big families coming to our little house. We also probably won't be able to pull off going outside. I need a good fun game we can play with primary aged kids and adults combined. If anyone has ideas let me know. The food part is always easy to figure out, so we got that all worked out. We are having it this Friday.

Gabe is doing well. She has adjusted from our trip to Utah and is our happy girl again. She always struggles the week we get home. She is kinda throwing these fun new tantrums that we are having to figure out. Ah toddlerhood, it's always keeping us on our toes. She is talking up a storm and is trying to repeat everything we say and do. She is finally adjusted to nursery! Hurray! Sunday she went all by herself and didn't look back. Cross your fingers, hopefully it continues. She is getting very into baby dolls and carries them around everywhere. It's adorable. She tries to feed them and share everything with them. She loves having her finger nails painted and showing them off to everyone. She's getting into some girlie phases that are kinda fun to see.
Anyway like I said, not much. Just giving an update. I can't believe that it's already March! It throws me off. Hope everyone is doing well!

Our unexpected visit

For those of you who didn't hear, We made a trip to Utah this weekend for my grandpa's funeral. As hard as it was, I have to say that I am so grateful for the knowledge we have of the gospel. I'm so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ, and the Atonement. I'm grateful for the plan of salvation, and that we can return and live with our Father in Heaven. I know that our families are eternal and that my Grandpa is happy and healthy (which he hadn't been for a while) where he is now. I look forward to seeing him again and giving him a big hug.

It wasn't the ideal situation for family getting together, but I really was grateful for all the family that we got to see and visit with. I'm grateful for all the friends and family that were there to support my grandma and our family. I'm grateful for all those people being able to know my awesome grandpa. My dad and Aunts did a wonderful job speaking about him, and I enjoyed each talk. Even though the grandkids song wasn't what we expected, I'm sure Grandma and Grandpa both loved it. :) My grandpa was a wonderful man and saw beauty in everyone and everything. I remember walking with him and having him pointing out things that most people wouldn't even take the time to notice. We would hold your hand and give you love squeezes. You never had to question that he loved you, cause he always told you. When you were hurt, he'd spit on the wound and tell you, "You're okay. Germans are tuff." He loved to sing and I always remember singing with him. I remember, "She'll Be Comin Round the Mountain", (he had the best actions for it) and "You are my Sunshine" as my favorites. He was a wonderful poet, and I have special memories of ones he wrote for me. I remember he went to a poetry reading group and they would all give feedback and analyze your poems. He told me they loved my poem he wrote for me. I told him they better, cause I didn't want anything changed about it. I would always try to take time to sit with him and ask him about life and growing up. I loved listening to his stories and memories. I'm grateful I had him as my Grandpa, and that I got to know him as a person. We all will miss him and love him lots.

Even though it was a funeral, we all enjoyed reminiscing about Grandpa, and talking to one another. I saw cousins I haven't seen in years, some second cousins I honestly couldn't remember the names of, and lots of awesome Aunts and Uncles. I figured I'd post some pictures of the family. So here you go all. If anyone wants a copy of the pictures, Dad and Janene have them on their computer, and I don't mind emailing some or mailing you a cd. I just need addresses. I took a ton of pictures for Grandma, so there is a bunch.





GRRRR guys


Not bad hansens, not bad at all

Sig toasting the camera. Ha.



And Cassie is obviously a lot taller than I remember, either that or I'm shrinking


This one is for Cassie and Katie






The kids Saturday night unwinding, playing together: