All Things Christmas

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!
Well another year almost gone.
First and foremost...I never posted anything about our Thanksgiving and I wanted to say that I am SO thankful...

For my family

great friends
health
a roof over our heads
food to eat
happiness
the greatest gift, God's Son
freedom
and so so much more.

This month started off with my company holiday party at The Riverplace Hotel.

It was a very nice hotel. We arrived and mingled a little and then sat down with Randy and Bobbie. They had a slide show going of this years events and at one part they showed all the 2007 babies (there were A LOT) and Gabe was the cutest one out of the bunch (not biased whatsoever). The food was good, the program was good although long...we had our first retirement of the company and they weren't sure how to present it so that took a long time. After the speeches were made, the gifts given out (which NO I didn't win anything. I never do) and the food was eaten, Bryan and I left to get Gabe at my moms. It was a fun little night out together, but I wanted to get home.

Sunday, Sunday
We had baby dedication on Sunday the 2nd. This was so much fun as Gabe was getting dedicated and with his cousin Jaden and with Marcia's little Mia and Kate's little Lily. 2nd service Gabe had fallen asleep right before and it was hilarious when Pastor was holding him up. Here are some Pictures of the event (By Teresa thank you)


This has been such a fun time being Gabe's 1st Christmas! Teresa got a very fancy camera for her birthday and I asked if she would be willing to also take our family Christmas picture. So her and Kambrie came over that evening and took a bunch of pictures.

Here's the one we went with. (I'm sure that most of you have already seen it)

I ended up leaving work early on Monday the 3rd. My mom had Gabe and she had fallen down the stairs and hurt herself really bad. She couldn't even really walk. Thankfully she wasn't holding Jaden or Gabe and she is fine. She ended up going to the Dr's and nothing horrible happened, thank God, she was just going to be really sore for a while.

Bryan had the JR High Christmas party on the 5th and then he had the rest of the month off...well Wednesday nights anyway.

Gabe had his first haircut on the 8th. His hair was driving me bonkers. He was starting to look like a miniature Donald Trump with a comb over and on one of the sides a piece of hair would stick out and I could not get it to stay down. His hair was also growing over his ears too. SO I buzzed it. YUP I did...and may I say he looks DANG cute! I am hoping that it will grow back a little more even?

That evening I went to our Young Marrieds Christmas party over at Randy's and Bobbie's by myself. Not cause I wanted too, but cause Bryan had two major finals the next week and Gabe had still been napping when I left. The party was fun! We all stood around talking and eating and just enjoying one another. We played a white elephant gift exchange and then people started leaving. Teresa and I helped Bobbie clean up and ended up staying till around 10 I think.

O' Christmas Tree, O' Christmas Tree
That Sunday we went to church and then quickly went home to change and then back out again. We met up at my parents and we went to Vancouver and had lunch at Red Robin. As we were eating we noticed that it was snowing outside and it didn't stop the rest of the night. We went to the tree farm that Nathan and Julie had gone to in past years and we picked out our trees. The farm was big and actually really busy. They had animals and a little barn that you could go into and get hot coco or hot cider and they had a little store too. After we got the trees and paid for them we ended up on a small adventure (like my family ALWAYS does). We ended up getting lost and we had to back track to find our way out of Vancouver.

We had the Montavilla Staff Christmas party on the 13th and Friday we picked up Gabe from my moms, chatted for a little bit and went home. We made dinner and Bryan left around eight to hang out with Dan since they were in town that weekend. Gabe and I hung out and played. He is so cute...he takes everything out of his toy basket one by one, puts each one in his mouth for a second or 2 and moves on to the next. He is going to crawl any day now. He's getting up on his knees and rocks back and fourth. He just needs to get over his leg and take off. I gave him a bath and rocked him to sleep. After I put him down for the night I worked on some laundry and getting my pictures organized. Bryan got home around one and I was actually still awake.

I got up around 8:30 the next morning. Gabe slept till nine. I got some more laundry done and picked up the house. I need to do some deep cleaning ASAP! At around 11:30 we left to do some errands. We went to TRU and picked up some presents for Gabe and Jaden. We went to 2 banks, the post office, two other stores and then Safeway. When we got home we unpacked and while I fed Gabe Bryan made us lunch. At around 5ish we left to meet my family at their house to head downtown. It's a tradition that we've done since I was little. We got really good parking spots right next to each other and we went straight to Macy's to see Santa. We weren't sure what the line would be like so we wanted to do that first. Everything looked way different than I remembered and no monorail...well they had a memorial for it and the boy's got to sit in it. AH memories. Funny thing is I remember always having to ride it alone when I was little. I was too big when my sisters were riding it. Gabe and Jaden liked looking around at everything. When it was our turn to see Santa, Gabe went first. His eye's got really big and he was touching his beard. He was SO serious...no smiles at all.

We added Jaden so that both boy's were together. It was SO cute.

We took Gabe away so that they could get Jaden alone with Santa. They did pretty good if I do say so myself. I think that in one of my pictures with Santa I was crying because I thought my mom was going to leave me, but she actually was just walking back to take a picture. We walked to the mall and ate dinner there in the food court area and then shopped around. Jaden had fun on Grandpa's shoulders hitting him on the head and he also said "HI" to all the bald men in the mall. Grandpa's bald so he gets excited cause they're like Grandpa. hehe Me and Gabe played hide and seek in American Eagle and had all the workers in stiches because he was laughing so hard. We left the mall, got some Starbucks and went to see the HUGE Christmas tree in Pioneer Square.

When we got home we all went straight to bed. Although SO much fun, the night was very exhausting.
Sunday we went to church and then we came home and just puttered around. I made a salad and we all went to Dave and Kate's for dinner. Gabe had a ton of fun hanging out with the girls and it was nice getting to hang out with friends.



The 21st was my last day of work for the rest of the year. YEA! I go back on the 2nd and I have a feeling it will be hard. I have SO enjoyed this time off with Gabe. I miss him SO much when I am away from him. :o( I actually worked from home that day too. My mom ended up having to go into work so I drove to work, got some work to take home and then made sure my area was cleaned up and shut down for the week.
We went to Peacock Lane with Nate, Teresa, Kambrie, Dave and Linda. It was a really chilly night out and we had an adventure kind of night with them (just like our family adventures). Dave and Linda had locked themselves out of the house and Patrick was on his way to get them in so we waited for them. We walked to the little mart and stayed in there for a while as it was warm in there and Nate and T got coffee. Gabe was So tired by the end and come to find out he absolutely HATES the stroller that I was using. It is my moms and a lot smaller than ours, so we borrowed it. My mom told me afterwards that Gabe hates that stroller. I guess she has tried to use it other times and he has thrown a fit. I think just being tired and then having to be in a stroller he hates pushed him over the edge. It was fun over all though!

Christmas Eve Bryan and I just got things ready, He wrapped my gifts and I wrapped more of Gabe's and others. Bryan's parents came over around five and we had pizza and salad for dinner and opened gifts. They got Gabe the Laugh & Learn Puppy and he absolutely loved it. He was laughing at it and just having a great time. They left around 7ish and we headed over to my parents to open our Christmas Pj's . We didn't stay the night. We went home around 10 I think and went to bed. The next morning we got over to my parents around 8:30 and we started opening gifts. It took us forever. The boy's got a lot of stuff. They had fun but weren't really interested in opening the gifts. They just wanted to see what each other was getting. Jaden wanted to play with Gabe's new toy's and Gabe wanted to play with Jaden's new toy's. I love this time of year and I just LOVE that it was Gabe's first Christmas. I look forward to many more.

Christmas Eve Jammies

Christmas Day

Couple funnies...
At night I put Gabe to bed and most of the time he doesn't have his bink in his mouth. A lot of times he'll wake up in the middle of the night and just want his bink and we'll have to go into his room and plug it in and he'll go right back to sleep. Yes, he is obsessed with his bink. Well, Kate told me to put some in his crib and because he knows how to put it in his mouth he'll find one and put it in himself. It's been funny a few nights he'll go to bed with one bink in his mouth and then wake up with a different one.

On Christmas Gabe became a poser. Every time he knew the camera was pointed at him he would stop what he was doing and look up with the cheesiest grin on his face. He's been doing that ever since. We have a lot of pictures of him posing for the camera. SO CUTE!

Have a great New Year everyone!

Guy's it's hard work jumping

Gabe (6 months)

I picked up Gabe's pictures on Thursday.
Look how much he's changed in just 3 months.

The longest blog entry EVER

Hello blog, how have you been? I haven't seen you in a while. I hope you don't feel too dejected...

Can’t believe that I got this far behind. Life is very different now that I have Gabe. I am in NO way complaining that Gabe is in my life. I love him SO SO much and I thank God every day for giving me this bundle of joy. That’s just the thing though. I can’t get enough of him. I have not taken any time to update my blog. I can’t get online at work and I don’t have any desire to get on the computer at home in the evenings when I was on one all day and when I can spend time with Gabe. SO that’s where I’ve been and that’s why I haven’t posted in forever!

Sep 28th and 29th
One thing that we Roger’s spent 4 weeks being is SICK! The last weekend in September we got invited to go to Prineville and we stayed overnight at Dan and Deb’s place out there. Deb’s had warned me before that Dan and the kid’s were getting over colds. I thought about it but didn’t think it would be a big deal. WRONG! I ended up getting a sore throat that Tuesday and it hit me head on Thursday night. I ended up taking Friday and Monday off and Gabe started getting it that weekend and Bryan got it that next week. I don’t think that I’ve had a cold this bad in a long time. I mean it’s almost lasted a month…for me and Gabe anyway. Bryan only had it for 4 or 5 day’s JERK. ;o) I think that Gabe's cough has finally gone away. YEA!! His Dr. said that sometimes coughs can linger for 2-3 months with infants. UGH
Our time in prinville was fun though. Their house is MASSIVE!



They told us to pack warm because it was getting cold in the evenings. When we drove over the mountain on the way there, it was snowing a lot and there was snow all over the ground. It was so pretty because the area that we were driving through had snow on all the trees with bright yellows, reds and orange leaves. I wish that I would have gotten a picture now that I’m thinking back on it. We got there around 7 I think? We unloaded the car and it was VERY cold out there. But it was ok because we walked into an oven when we went through the front door. I think that Bryan and I are weirdO’s or something because we have a fan on in our room and sometimes even the window open in the winter and we never really have the heat past 68. Sometimes if we get cold we build a fire which warms up the house but it never seems like it is as hot as it was in their house. I could barely breathe. I opened the window a snatch in our room and even had a fan on. I was still stuffed up. None of us got much sleep that night. Bryan stayed up hanging out with Dan till 2:30am and when he came to bed he woke Gabe up. I think that we got up at around 9. Well we were already up but we went downstairs. Deb’s just had a variety of things for breakfast. Cereal, toast, fruit, yogurt and oj. Then we cleaned up and sat around talking. Deb’s was holding Gabe, patting his bum and he fell asleep. The kids were watching a movie and I’m not sure what Dan and Bryan were doing. Something on the computer I think. When everyone was ready and dressed we went on a walk. It was cold, but it was nice out and the sun was out. Their puppy Nator came with us. He’s 6 months and just a big, beautiful, loving pup. We went in one of their smaller homes that wasn't finished yet and then we looked at one of their bigger homes. We couldn’t go in but we looked through the windows. I would love to live in it. {{{YEA RIGHT}}} It’s SO expensive and in the middle of no where. They were nice though. We walked back and it was lunch time. Deb’s made these amazing Tomato, cheese and pesto Panini’s. They were to die for. After lunch Bryan and Dan went up to play Halo 3, the kids, Gabe and I went up and watched. I put Gabe down for a nap and should have taken one myself with getting no sleep the night before but I couldn’t for some reason. Deb’s cleaned up and joined us a little bit later. Gabe ended up waking up screaming at the top of his lungs. That has never happened before. He usually talks or wines a little first. I don’t think he knew where he was so he freaked out. We watched the guy’s play and then we went out to ride the ATV’s. Deb’s stayed at the house with Gabe. It was fun. Dan took us up the hill to show us how much land they have and the view is amazing up there. He did a jump with Madison and she ended up hitting her mouth on the speed dial thing. It looked worse then it was though. She was a trooper, freaked out a little bit, but not really. We drove back…well Dan flew back with Madison and we went a little slower with Ethan. When we got there she was all cleaned up and a-ok so Bryan and I went on a ride together. That was fun. He told me that he was proud of me because I rode one myself. I thought that was kind of funny because although I am pretty cautious and don’t really do things that could kill me…I do like to do those kind of things. Be somewhat dangerous. The little jumps that don’t really even get me off the ground. Hehe
When we got back dinner was ready. She made Ham, homemade scalloped potatoes and green beans. Mmmmmm We all ate together and chatted, Madison actually didn’t have any at that moment. She was scared that she might hurt her lip. We packed up and left around 7 something I think. I was expecting to sleep the whole way home but I couldn’t fall asleep for some reason??? Overall the time there was fun, but I don’t like being sick and how long this sickness held onto us.







Oct 6th
OUR 6th ANNIVERSARY!
Guess how we spent it. On the couch all day…well Gabe and I did. We were sick sick sick and so Bryan and I decided to postpone our anniversary dinner date for later. We still haven’t gone out yet. LAME anniversary huh?!

We missed Nathan’s birthday party. (His b-day is Oct 7th) So on Tuesday the 9th we dropped off his card and gift and went home.

Oct 12th and 13th
We had planned our annual pumpkin patch trip for the 13th and I had totally forgot that I had paid for Women of Faith tickets and that was on the 12th and 13th. I love going to this conference, but was way bummed that we were missing going to the pumpkin patch with our friends.

Gabe was really sick this weekend. Let me tell ya even though this kid did not feel well at all he slept through the night (with the exception of a few nights) and was just overall a happy baby.
Gabe and I stayed home from church again. WHEN WILL THIS SICKNESS END!?

Bryan got a job on Oct 17th. 2 weeks prior to that he had interviewed for three other positions and had been waiting to hear about those. Bryan picked up an application for a PT job at Multnomah Bible College about a month ago and just held onto it at home for a while. He finally finished it up and turned it in wondering if he should be applying for it since it was only PT. He was called and had an interview and ended up not going to it or calling to cancel it. BAD HUH?! That was right smack during Bryan’s sick days and Gabe was very sick as well. I had called him that afternoon and said “please tell me you called and canceled your interview and rescheduled?” NOPE He called them and explained and Robert (Bryan’s now boss) said that he did like what he saw on the application and in his portfolio so he would make another appointment for an interview. Bryan had that interview on the 17th. He ended up really messing up on a question they asked him…an easy one at that and he got all sweaty and red. He called me after the interview and said there is NO WAY they are going to hire me after not showing up to the interview the first time and totally messing up in the 2nd interview. They weren’t supposed to get back to him until the next week, but they ended up calling him the same night and offering him the job. Bryan and I talked about it and prayed. Bryan really thinks that this is the direction he should go at this time. With everything that was against him and just the fact that he had the application for a month before applying. I didn’t really feel like it wouldn’t be a good idea. I didn’t have any nagging feelings about it. I am scared that we won’t be able to make it with him only working PT. One of the plus sides though is that we don’t have to put Gabe in daycare. My mom watches Gabe Monday’s and Friday’s. Bryan works a 10 hour day on Monday and a 5 hour day on Friday. My sister watches Gabe on Tuesday’s, Bryan does another 10 hour day and then Bryan has Wednesday and Thursday off and watches Gabe. I wish somehow this was all reversed though. That Bryan had the FT job and I had the PT job and could be home with Gabe those 2 day’s.
Guess we’ll see how this works out?! Here's some pics of Daddy and Gabe on their days together.

Gabe looks so tired here


Gabe fell asleep like this on daddy's lap



Where's Gabe?



Gabe says "I'm Coo' Yo!" wearing daddy's new headphones


Oct 22nd
This was probably the worst Monday I have had in a long time. I woke up, took a shower and got ready. I had to be at the dentist by 8 to get 5 fillings {{{gasp}}}. Some of them were replacements of ones that I already had, but good grief. I felt like a pin cushion after it was all said and done AND I ended up getting 6 because one was cracked that he didn’t notice before. UGH
When I left there I drove back home. I was going to meet Bryan at Gabe’s 6 month appt., but when I drove by I noticed he was still home so I picked up Gabe and left for the appt. and Bryan left for his first day at the new job. Mistake #1 I decided to take Gabe on my own to his appt. and let me tell you I am a HUGE wimp when it comes to Gabe getting his shots. I don’t know why I didn’t have Bryan come with me. I need him to be there for support for me. We got there and I took Gabe out of his car seat and we went in. Mistake #2 I left his bink in the car. I didn’t think it would be a big deal because I thought he’d be fine. Nope. He was fussy the whole time and I didn’t have a spare bink in the diaper bag. On a good note Gabe is doing so well.

6 Months
Weight – 18 pounds 9 ounces (60%)
Height – 27 (75%)

She showed me where he was on the chart and said that if he had been born on his due date that he would be in the 95% on everything so I think that he’s growing well and is a healthy little guy.

A few things Gabe has been doing:

-Plays with his hands and feet. He’s found his feet. He loves grabbing them.
-Recognizes own name
-Turns toward new sounds
-Drags objects toward himself
-Rolls over in both directions
-Sits without support
-Turns toward sounds and voices
-Imitates sounds
-He reaches and grab’s objects and transfers them from one hand to the other
-He gives kisses.
-If you put your hands out to see if he wants to come to you he’ll reach for you.

We also talked about starting solids and giving him a sippy cup with water. I’m excited for this, but I’m not at the same time. He is growing up WAY too fast.



I am totally thankful that I have such an amazing job at MulvannyG2, but I so wish that I could have my dream job…a MOM! Gabe got his shots and oh holy cow that is SO hard for me. I held back tears and just held him and then put his pants on. He cried the whole way out to the car and as I was putting him in his seat. He fell right to sleep and I cried the whole way to my moms. I was ticked that I had to rush to my mom’s, drop Gabe off and hurry and get to work by noon. I wanted to just be with Gabe and be the one to comfort him after going through that. It breaks my heart to see him in so much pain. Sniff
I ended up pretty much on the verge of tears the rest of the day.

Oct 26th, 27th and 28th
Bryan had a Jr high retreat to lead this weekend. It was actually a Jr high and Sr high retreat combined. They went to Trout Creek again just like they did last year at this time. Bryan ended up picking me up at work around 4 on Friday and we drove to my moms. Gabe was down for his afternoon nap and so my mom and Bryan left. Mom had to be there to help with all the administrative stuff and get them out of there. I stayed at my moms till Gabe woke up and she got back (she ended up taking my car) and then Gabe and I went home. My plan was to feed and hang out with Gabe till he went to bed and then get caught up on some reading in some blogs and then update my own. That’s not exactly how it turned out. Well first off…Gabe rarely ever stays awake in the car. He ALWAYS falls asleep. He had just woken up from an hour nap at my moms and he had fallen asleep again on the way home. I think that he gets worn out at Grandma’s house. Playing with all of Jaden’s toy’s and playing with Jaden. It’s tiring. Gabe doesn’t want to miss anything. They go down at the same time and wake up at the same time. I decided not to move him. So he was fast asleep in his car seat in the car and I ran around the house picking things up. I kept the door open to the garage and I kept checking on him probably every five minutes. I did some laundry and folded up some of Gabe’s laundry. I made bottles, cleaned and sanitized em. I fed Calie, let her out and just gave her some lovin and then probably around 8:30 Gabe woke up. I changed his diaper and put his PJ’s on and then I fed him and we just rocked in the rocker. He was very snuggly which I love. When he did go down for the night I was going to get on the computer to do my stuff, but thought I would lay down for a minute first. That wasn’t really smart. Next thing I knew it was 6am. So much for sticking to the plan. Must have been tired.
Saturday morning Oct 27th
(JADEN’S FIRST BIRTHDAY!!) I can't believe how fast this year went. I feel like it was just yesterday we were going to Emmanuel to see tiny little Jaden and now he's such a big boy!






I met some girls from our young marrieds class for coffee and prayer time at 7am. Gabe did pretty good and he flirted with them. hehe Mia did good as well. She just kept talking whenever Moo would talk. It was the funniest thing. After I left the coffee place I drove over to my parents house. It was 2 minutes away and I wanted to wish Jaden a Happy Birthday! We ended up going to Coffee's On in Troutdale (Julie, Nathan and my mom went there the morning Julie was admitted and had Jaden) I ended up getting a water since I'd already gotten a coffee and we sat for a while. I almost fell asleep. Gabe was sleeping in his car seat and I was feeling so tired. I shut my eye's and just listened to their conversation and all the sudden I thought what if I fell asleep and they left me here. Why I would think that is beyond me?? HA I sat up and said "Don't leave me here!" and they all laughed at me. Gabe and I went home for a while before Jaden's party. I made some puppychow (yummy chocolate peanut butter treat), got Jaden's gift ready and played with Gabe. I wanted to get a nap in, but it didn't work out. We ended up heading to the party around 4ish. It was so much fun! He had a blast and smiled the whole time. Julie's friend Christina came and we all just had a good time with Jaden.




Bryan ended up calling right before I was going to head home and said that he was coming home from the retreat. They were playing dodge ball and someone threw the ball and he tried to dodge it and it ended up hitting him in the crotch and knocking him off the ground, up in the air and he landed on his arm. We weren't sure if anything had broken and we're hoping that nothing damaging happened because we decided not to go in to the dr's. It seems to be healing ok. Kind of a bummer that he had to leave the retreat too. Overall I think he had a good time despite getting hurt.

OK what is it with Monday’s? GOOD grief. Apparently they are going to be my day’s of H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks because I got maybe 1 hour of sleep on Monday Oct 28th. That made the rest of my day awful. I could barely stay awake at work, I didn't feel good and I think there was just some issues at work as well.

Oct 31st
HALLOWEEN

I worked of course. We had a fun day though. The whole office went bowling and had lunch there. I was on the team who actually won the prize for lowest score. HA I think I maybe go bowling once a year if that. Most of the office dressed up. I didn't put much thought into my costume. I just wore my dad's hockey jersey and was a hockey player. Maybe next year I will put more thought into it? There were some fun costumes.
We ended up going over to my parents that evening. Gabe was a tiger!





Last weekend we were invited to Kambrie's 3rd Birthday Party! We had a ton of fun! Gabe slept almost the whole time.



We don't have much going on this weekend which I'm OK with. Bryan has a JR high video game all-nighter tonight and so he'll probably sleep all day tomorrow. I just plan on hanging out with Gabe and getting some things done around the house. Maybe if Bryan's up to it we could go out Saturday evening for "our anniversary"???