Christmas!

Gabrielle got a veterinarian dress up outfit, which is a big hit so far. If around during this play time be sure to watch out for random "shots" from her and be prepared to have her listen to your heart. Some of her other favorite gifts include Ariel and Eric wedding boat from Auntie Molly and Uncle Danny, wooden play food from Baba and Nene, Snow White the movie from Aunt Robyn and the doll from Aunt Michelle. New jewels and musical princess jewelry box were the excitement of the day when we let her open it early from the Ross cousins. The clothes she got from all her Aunties are a huge hit, she has been changing her clothes during the day and even in the middle of the night into new jammies just because! Elliot had a fever during the night of Christmas Eve, so he was not as happy as usual in the morning. He was more interested in trying to eat the wrapping paper and less into the actual presents... the blocks will probably be good for chewing on- he is quite the chomper. Working on tooth #5 at the moment, and I have the bite marks to prove it (yes, my nail is dented with teeth marks from trying to use the finger brush on him last night!).
We couldn't decide what to have for Christmas Eve dinner, being just the 4 of us and not wanting to do anything to fancy or time consuming my sis suggested pizza. It was a fantastic idea, and we all got our favorite toppings; Clay had ham and pineapple, plus a little red onion. Gabby had pepperoni with LOTS of olives and I made a "white" pizza with artichoke hearts, mushrooms, yellow pepper, olives and a sprinkling of onion.
Gabby loved putting it all together herself!
Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I didn't get as many good pictures or videos as I hoped. I will try to get a video of Elliot taking STEPS! Yes on the 22nd he took 4 steps by himself and ever since then takes 1-3 every now and then! I am trying to recover from the stomach bug and body ache that hit the other night.... lets hope no one else gets it!

Christmas Eve!

December

Oh, the things we find to keep ourselves entertained on frigid winter days! This is Clay's ID arm band holder. Gabby and I both were laughing when she put it on. I didn't take any pictures of her fashionable underwear hats/masks she put on while I folded laundry tonight.
Yum, Gabby wanted to bake today (what else is new, she is so my daughter. When bored, bake!) so we had our first attempt at making almond roca. Not the traditional kind like Auntie Carm made, but the easy kind where you use saltine crackers. It is good, a bit too sugary but good.I bought a gingerbread kit, too lazy to do the real deal. I started it but quickly got put on cranky boy duty. Gabby and Clay made it, and it turned out perfect!
Grandpa and his lovies! These kids adore him, and it is pretty mutual I think. Right before bed the night before he flew home, I realized I hadn't taken any pictures- how did that happen?

Elliot's favorite thing to do, crawl down the hallway with whoever will do it with him!
You would expect the sibling of GABBY to be quiet since she is so loud (when would they get the opportunity to talk) but this is not the case. Elliot is a talker too, he competes with her already to be heard! They do love to make music and sing together too!
Elliot has begun standing up all the time. He does it totally on his own, and gets very excited about it. We do too! he lasts up to about 10 seconds before he plops down- but then he pops right back up it seems. Other new things E is up to, when I say "drum!" he pats his hands on whatever he is in front of- the toilet lid while I brush my teeth, the couch, the rubbermaid full of Christmas decor (now used as a gate to keep him in the living room). When we play music on his Mozart Music Cube (very cool toy) he conducts! Gabby started saying it "look he's conducting!" and yes he does. It may be more of an excitement thing and a semi clap but we like to think he is a musical genius!

Gabby is very much into Christmas. She loves to touch the ornaments on the tree, and is learning to sing a few songs, and she got to open one present last night and that was VERY exciting. Today she asked if she could tear into another- nope, not until Christmas. I am very happy to report that she is into the true spirit of the holiday, she adores our Nativity scenes. She kisses them all and talks about them. I remembered about her felt nativity people that Clay's Aunt Maxine made for us and got them out for her to play with (they were not in the Christmas stuff, because they were out after everything was put away). She knows who everyone is, and still calls Mary "the Mother Mild." She talks about Great Grandpa Bill being in the nativity, because he is in Heaven with them. We have been doing lots of talking and discussions about Heaven since GG Bill passed away, I am amazed at what she knows and remembers and figures out. We had a teary talk yesterday about her Uncle Scott, and she knew exactly who he was and his name ("Scott, not Spock" in her own words, as she is very into Captain Kirk and Spock after watching Star Trek with Clay) and that she was so sad she didn't know him. I cry just thinking about it, but I am SO thankful and feel blessed that both Elliot and Gabrielle have many wonderful Aunts and Uncles that they know and love! Along with Grandparents and friends too! Even though we live so far away, I am truly thankful for the close relationships my family and I share with all of you!

Roar!

Stop, pajama time!

I got really into crafting a few days, my obsession was freezer paper stenciling. This is the shirt I made for Elliot. Gabby promptly spilled spaghetti sauce on her bird shirt I made her.

The kids in their coordinating Santa jammies, I tried to get a nice picture, but neither child would cooperate with my wants that night.

My beautiful girl!
Grandpa is here visiting, YEAH! Notice Elliot using a bottle to drink water! Grandpa is a great sport and the kids climb all over him. Elliot is teething right now (AGAIN!) and will crawl right up to you and bite your knee, or holding him he attacks your shoulder!

Clayton is off at school again this week, due home tomorrow. The weather is wonky, 32* one day and then 70* (yes yesterday it was that warm out, in December!) and poured down rain. Today it is 53* with blue sky and sunshine, but a frigid wind. We walked Trashmore today (one of the 10 people there) and I put the rain guard on the stroller to keep the wind from freezing the kids.... it worked because Elliot took a wonderful nap.

Things to do in the Fall....

Not only is it all of a sudden fall here, but it is almost Thanksgiving and the end of November! Time has a way of sneaking up on you sometimes, and it has been one of those times for us. Since the fall weather hit us, we have been finding new things to do to keep us occupied.

You can put on all your favorite things and hold a tea party.

Use your membership at the botanical gardens, be practically the only ones there. Walk around for 2+ hours on a wonderful crisp day, visiting the statue garden.

Play in the children's World of Wonder Garden and pretend to be a squirrel hiding in a teepee.

Drive out to your favorite beach and fishing pier to see the giant barge that broke free during our first official Nor'Easter (well since we have lived here). It was stuck in the sand for almost a week! Oh and it was carrying containers of hazardous chemicals, yes we still went to see it (along with thousands of others on the first day after the storm). They compared the storm to Hurricane Isabelle in 2003, we got 70 mph winds and 8" of rain.

You can also hang out and be cute, chew on shoes, stand up and try to be a big boy at all times! Notice in the big smiley picture the rash on his face, hives??? only when he woke up from naps and went away 30 minutes later. Only happened 1 day. He also now has two top teeth cut through- right now bothering him and waking him up frequently : (

Try new food. So far on the list, rice cereal, green peas and sweet potatoes. Not a huge fan of any. He really wants big people food and will try to grab it off your plate!

Run around the house using your 'wife beater' tank as a bandit mask, and think it is hilarious!

Watch Aristocats and then pretend to play the cats! Gabby was Marie, I bought the ear- hair clips at Japan Disneyland. Yes,we went out in public like that! Elliot had to have whiskers too.

Mountain of Trash!

My new necklace! The pearl is not really on G's disc, just next to it. E loves tugging on it.Impossible to get both kids to look at me and smile at the same time!
Mr Cutie Pie!
Notice the guy in mid-air?


This past week while Clayton was working evenings I started taking the kids to Mt Trashmore almost nightly. It truly is a mountain made of trash. It is a former dump that they did all sorts of stuff to and made it a park, complete with what Gabby and I call Trash Lake. There are two big hills (mountains) there. The larger one is pretty big, and atop it you can usually find people flying kites. There are many other things you can do up there, like sit and watch the freeway, or look at all the people walking around the bigger trash lake (where they have the regular playground). The other side is where you usually find us, now that I am brave enough to take both kids there alone. This is where the CASTLE Park is, it is an entire wood playground and looks like a castle. The passageways are quite narrow, it is after all a kid area- so I have to squeeze in some spots since me + Elliot in the ergo carrier are a bit too wide to fit everywhere. BUT if I don't play on it, you loose your child since there is so many little paths and kids there. Yesterday in particular there were a million and two kids there, I guess that is what people do on a Sunday evening when it is 70* out in November (should have known when both parking lots were FULL). Our newer favorite thing to do is climb the smaller mountain (on the castle side) and sit in the grass and watch the skateboarders and bikers. There are two skate areas, one with lots of ramps and the other which is a HUGE, ummm don't know what you call it a half pipe maybe?

Today we were headed there, Elliot fell asleep finally after not much sleep due to Dr check up and 3 shots. Gabby fell asleep too! Clayton and I could not believe it, she is not the napping kind these days. She was upset that we didn't go, but we were not going to wake her, and the park now closes at 5pm. The kids and I were there when they announced it closing the other night, move your car before we close the gate... Gabby and I had a big talk about it and I was trying to explain why we have to leave, things like eat dinner, can't play in the dark there it is dangerous. She made up that if we got stuck there we would have to eat wood chips for dinner.

Funny story, when we were there last week there were two men running on the hill and they both laid down in the grass to rest. These were hard core runners, doing some sort of training I think. Little Ms Gabby sees them lay down and lays right next to the man from Ghana, and puts her hands behind her head just like him! He noticed her quickly and thought it was quite funny, then tried to have her run with him but she told him she had a mom and dad to run with!

Thankful.

Gabby teaching Elliot to crawl, and yes these kids are always naked it seems!
So alike these two! Making pizza together, with flour EVERYWHERE!
Yesterday I was thrown a few curve balls, but made it through without any problems! Elliot has been waking up lots during the past few nights, I say teething but for how many months can I use that as an excuse? He woke up right before Clay got home from work at midnight, then thought it was great fun to climb and kiss on Clayton once he came to bed. He was happy and wide awake at this point, which means it was almost 2am before he went back to sleep! Big sister woke up early at 6:45am which means I was tired! Gabby went to get her tooth brush from her bathroom and returns asking me what made her floor wet? Overnight her toilet flooded the bathroom! We cleaned it up a bit and then called maintenance to deal with it. I guess in addition to the clog some flap or seal in the tank was broken and kept the water flowing into the bowl. I let Clay go back to bed since he didn't get much sleep either, and he had to work. I took the kids to get our weekly supply of fruit and veggies. Get the kids buckled in after Trader Joe's and the van won't start! AHHHHHHH! Gabby munched on carrots, Elliot was fussy so I held him while asking people in the parking lot if they had jumper cables (note to self, buy some!) Finally a kind man with his two boys jumped the van and I was on my way home. I got a bit of a short nap with both kids as Clay left for work. We had a good evening of playing at the park, reading a million stories and playing pretend. I am Walter, G is Danny.... it is her new favorite book Zathura by Chris Van Allsburg, it is Jumanji continued but in Space!

Elliot has become a singer, especially when he is being put to sleep (I much rather him sing than scream!) It is so sweet to hear him trying to figure out what noises he can make with his mouth. Last night I said "Momma, Daddy, Gabby" and he would laugh and smile each time I said Gabby or sissy. He even sounded like he tried to say Gabby "Ga-ba."

I walked early this morning with the kids to the store to treat Gabby to a donut, she was SO excited about it. This is only donut #3 in her life, but that memory of hers won't let her forget about them! Clayton has taken my battery to the auto store to get a new one and buy us a set of jumper cables, oh I love having a handy husband who takes such good care of us. And on a happy note, we paid off the van this week- lets just hope this battery snafu isn't an indication of problems to come.

Halloween!

The pumpkin G decorated at our playgroup. I did the glasses, she did the rest- alone!

Our own Ariel the little Mermaid, complete with Red hair she LOVED!
I wasn't very good about taking or getting the right pictures this holiday... may have something to do with Elliot having an ear infection, teething and being extra fussy at times. Gabby has also decided that going to bed is a battle, but we are working on it.

We carved pumpkins, and the night we picked to do it wasn't a bright idea on our part. No nap, after Clay's championship flag football game (yes they won!), late and all of those things together don't work. Gabby insisted she wanted Ariel carved in her little pumpkin. I printed out a stencil (yes they have pumpkin stencils for EVERYTHING!) and Clay being a super dad carved it out for his little princess. No picture, my camera was in the car and then the pumpkin oozed all over the table and got thrown out.

Elliot has started standing! Well he pulls himself up to standing. He is now officially 6 months old and eager to do everything, except sleep and eat baby food (big kid food he wants it seems). He uses toys, furniture, G's bike, the crib.... EVERYTHING can be used to hang on to while he stands up! This is much more work for me, I worry about him falling and getting hurt, plus things like the bike are not good and sturdy and he could very well pull it down on himself. He loves to do it though! Every time I put him in his crib I go back in to find him standing there smiling.

Last week on a particularly fussy morning he refused to nap. I put him in his crib and he was quiet for a few minutes. I got dressed, find the bedroom door of the kids room closed. I open it and see Gabby standing on her trundle, face to the crib, singing lullabies (with made up words) to Elliot who is kneeling on the other side, face right to hers! It was the sweetest thing.

No real pictures of Elliot on halloween. I tried on the costume he was going to wear, G's old cheetah one. First it was a bit too small, second it was 80* out on Halloween (what? yes it was) and he would have roasted in it. For our short trick or treat outing he was a cowboy.. with a crooked eyeliner mustache. Gabby was so anxious for trick or treating, all day she said "it is so hard to wait!" Her purse full of candy was just the right amount plus she said she had plenty to share, we didn't want to get a ton- for none of us need it.

Today she woke up and asked me if Santa was coming?!?!! NO more Christmas talk or movies until at least Thanksgiving!

Punkins!

Yesterday we headed out of the house early, car loaded with snacks and clothes. Richmond was our meeting spot, half way for us and our friends. The Reed family are good friends from our Japan days, though we haven't seen them for over 3 years! We ate a nice lunch together, then made our way to the pumpkin patch near by. It was the coldest day yet, there was rain on our drive up and it rained the past three days. Long sleeves, plus jackets (first real time this year too) and rain boots on we made our way to the big field scattered with pumpkins. The pumpkin patch was not the ideal but it really didn't matter since the main goal of the day was visiting with friends! Elliot slept in the Ergo so it was not easy for me to take that many pictures, plus I am just not adjusted to the cold! We now have gone from using A/C to having the heat on.

6 years!

G's new line "without you or me there wouldn't be a family!"
Best buddies in their carseats.
Do you see those SHARP teeth?
Big guy trying out the swings.
E's first solo slide!
Blast Off!
Today Clayton and I are celebrating 6 years of marriage! It has been wonderful so far, and we are looking forward to so many more years to come. We have an amazing family, are so happy! Thank You Clayton for being the love of my life and providing me with so much!