Toddler Christmas

We had such a nice Christmas with our family. Since I've been such a bad blogger, I thought maybe I'd better give a Christmas recap! We spent Christmas Eve with Greg's parents, his brothers and their families. It was such a nice day. It's tradition to spend Christmas Eve with the Herrmans and Christmas day with my family. On Christmas Eve, we always have fondue with the Herrman family. Before Greg and I got together, I'd never had fondue! It's such a fun tradition, and I like that it's reserved for one time a year. It's always something to look forward to (as well as Mome's meatballs!)

Gabe got a lot of really great presents (our house suddenly got a lot smaller). It's always a joy to see him excited about something. He was very good with his cousins, even though he had a bit of a cold. We ended the evening with a reading of the Christmas story - the birth of our Savior. I love that Greg's parents have included that in Christmas Eve... I love to watch the kids watch Mary read it. All of the kids really listened... except for Gabe! He was playing with the Fisher Price Manger set (he was still in the same story!) and at just the right time, he pressed the angel to make the music play. It was cool.

We spent Christmas morning together opening gifts and stockings. Gabe's mom didn't have anything to open this year though... WHY? Was I on the naughty list?? No, quite the opposite! Santa surprised me a couple of days before Christmas with a Canon 40D! SO, I was taken care of for presents this year for sure! We got Gabe an easel as his big gift, the movie The Incredibles, a Toy Story magnet book, a couple of shirts, and a few other things. We read the letter that Santa wrote back to Gabe and checked out the cookie plate (sure enough, Santa had eaten the cookies!)

We also got Gabe this adorable train set from Ikea. He loved it. After opening gifts at home, we went up to my folks' house for the traditional breakfast casserole. It is so yummy! This year, my sister's fiance's parents were able to join us as well! They are such nice people. My other sister, Lindsey's, boyfriend Matt was there as well. We had a great time playing cards and joking around. Then, we spent some time opening gifts, and again, we all got a lot of really nice things. Mom spent a lot of time this year making our Christmas a sentimental one. She made us each a Christmas recipe book, a quilt, and she wrote out a mother's journal for us to share. The sentimental stuff is right up my alley... I love all of the thought that goes into making gifts like that.

Then, around 4:00, my mom's side of the family and Greg's parents came over so the cousins could see each other. We had a pretty good time with them as well. We played the traditional White Elephant game to Christmas trivia questions. Then, Gabe and I stayed the night and Greg came back to take care of Jinxi.

It was such a nice holiday. I am reminded so often of how very blessed Greg and I are. It is so uncommon that 2 families can share Christmas together so peacefully. I hear stories all of the time about terrible in laws or families in turmoil. I am so fortunate to have amazing in laws and a great family. It's exciting to see Jenny's fiance's family fitting in so well too. They are such kind people and it makes me happy that Jenny will have a great family life too. They just adore her, and as her big sister, well, I have to say that's all I can hope for!

I hope all of you readers (maybe like one or two of you?? :) ) are sticking with me! I promise to be more faithful in blogging in 2009! My friend Grant and I are going to attempt the Flickr 365 project of taking 1 photo every day for a year. Hopefully we can keep up with it! I think that will inspire me to blog more!

Getting Ready for Christmas

Gabers is starting to get ready for Christmas. It's been a little difficult keeping him out of the other kids' presents! He saw a Nemo gift I got for my cousin's daughter, Hailey, and he about flipped out! I actually may give it to him instead since I got her some AWESOME kitchen stuff from Ikea and Pottery Barn. She'll probably enjoy that more than Nemo.

It's been really hard not to buy Gabe everything under the sun! You just see all this stuff and you want to buy it all! I went a Pottery Barn store this week and it was like torture! :)

I'm so excited to spend this Christmas with my little family.

Here's one attempt at a Christmas Card picture for my Mom & Dad. Gabe didn't want to get his picture taken!

Christmas Recap

My apologies for not blogging sooner! It has been a busy busy busy last couple of weeks. We had Gabey's first Christmas and it was just wonderful. Other than him having a cold and later a fever, it couldn't have been better. Instead of the nickname "Baby Mo" from Papa Noisy, his nickname should be "Baby Bow"! He wanted ALL of the bows off of everyone's presents! See below:

Gabe also got to hang out with his second cousin, Hailey (Mommy's cousin Steph's baby). The two of them played well together. It was so cute to see Hailey talking!

Our Christmas Family Photo taken at the Farm:

The Cousins at Nana & Papa's house:

Every year, Nana has "Santa" (a good friend of the family - sshhh...) come out to the house to bring the kids some presents that she had picked up. This year all of the kids got books. Gabe was scared of Santa, so I had to hold him in order to get close! It is so cool that Greg's mom does this. I love that the kids will always remember Santa coming to visit them early on Christmas Eve.

Gabe did A LOT of walking on Christmas Eve as well as at my parents' house. It was so adorable! Here, Daddy is helping him get to a present:



Gabe was getting really tired from his cold, but we had to read the Christmas story. This is another thing I love about Christmas Eve. We used to attend the Christmas Eve service at our local church. We no longer attend that church, but one of the things we really miss is having a place close by to go to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Jesus. So, now we try and do something each year, whether it's reading the Christmas story, reading the Nativity from the Bible, etc... I am so glad we are allowing this special time.



Finally, here is a picture of the Baby's First Christmas ornament I bought Gabe and the handprint ornament we made with him. Hanging those ornaments on the tree will always be a special moment for me in future years.

My greatest Christmas blessing this year has been being Gabe's Mom.

2007 has been a wonderful year. Blessings you to and your families for a wonderful 2008.

The Stinker Chronicles

Look at this little stinker! It's becoming more and more difficult to get good photos of this little guy! He knows when he sees the camera and video camera that Momma's on a mission. Ain't he cute though?

I'm so looking forward to Christmas. I'm going to take a lot of pictures this year! I'm running out of photos for the blog, so I'd better get crackin'!

From all of us here at Gabe's Mom, Merry Christmas!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town...

Ok, I'm a dork. I just realized something... This is our first year as Santa Claus! What a weird thing. I mean, I'm used to MY parents being Santa. What do we need to do? Get up at 1:00 am? Stay up until 11:00? Do we eat all of the cookies and drink all of the milk? Do we disguise our handwriting on the note back from Santa? Oh My! I guess we'll figure it out like all those parents from the past who have tricked their kids! At least we kinda have a practice year to get it figured out! Gabe's so little, he won't remember if we don't get it exactly right the first time...

I can't believe we're Santa. I know one thing... Mrs. Claus gets the cookies!!

Another moment brought to you by Gabe's Mom... One of "those" special moments you just can't wait for when waiting to have a child. To all of you moms out there who are waiting for a child this Christmas, believe me, it's worth every moment and when your dreams finally come true, you'll say that you'd wait all over again. I spent many Christmases waiting for a child. Believe me, you will have your Christmas miracle some day. This year, I've got mine.

Traditions

Ok, so I know wrapping presents isn't really a tradition specific to our family, but it was one of "those moments" you wait for when desiring to become a parent. We didn't have power yesterday because some of the electrical in our house was being fixed - or torn out - long story... So, we decided to wrap presents! It was too fun.

The little boy who won't wear a hat, sat around with a green bow on his head the entire time.

Yes, little Gabey, you are a gift!!!

So, this special moment prompted me to name some of our family traditions:

Greg's Family

• Christmas Cookies & Baking Day
• National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation must be viewed on Thanksgiving
• Kirby Kisses
• Christmas Eve - our designated time to celebrate Christmas together
• Fondue
• Celebrating Nana's birthday at Jay & Missy's Christmas day - unfortunately Greg and I don't ever make it to this ... we have my family's side's Christmas then.

Bri's Family

• Breakfast Casserole
• Staying the night Christmas Eve - although now that we have our family, we will stay at home and spend Christmas morning with Gabe under our own tree
• White Elephant Gift Games
• Grandma Chambers' pink jello & Aunt Margaret's Mona's Ravioli

To think that Gabe is going to grow up with these memories just warms my heart. I am so happy that he has three families (ours and his birth family) that love him so much. Speaking of his birth family, we will be getting together in January to celebrate Christmas and Gabe's first birthday. According to the arrangement we made, visits were to occur every 3 months and one phone call per month for the first year. Because we enjoy spending time together, we've decided to just keep that arrangement as long as it continues to work out for both families.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I'm so glad that we've decided to have an open adoption. I think about Gabe's birthmom every single day. I do. I always wonder, "what is she doing right now?" "Is she missing him right now?" I feel so much better knowing that she's doing ok. I don't think I could bear not knowing what happened to the special, brave woman who allowed us to be her child's parents.

Well, "somebody" just woke up from his nap. I'd better go get the little boy that puts a smile on my face every single day.

Gabe's Mom on Flickr!

Yes, yes it's true... I have finally gotten a Flickr account! Oooooh, Gabe's Mom LOVES Flickr. Please check it out! I will be periodically adding photos there.

My favorite thing about Flickr? You can search for photos you'd like to see... Type in Christmas tree and BAM! You have 8,937 (I made that # up) results of Christmas tree photos!

My least favorite thing about Flickr? I spend WAY too much time on this site. There are so many wonderful pictures to look at! If you need pose ideas, they're on there. If you need instructions on how to take a certain kind of photo that you find, I've seen that too!

So, go, explore Flickr!!

Oh yeah... This blog is about Gabe...:

Ok, so a co-worker of mine bought Gabe this absolutely adorable, soft robe when he was born and he's just now fitting into it. So, I thought I'd get some cute, after bathtime pics of the little guy. He was not having it. Every time I tried to get a picture, he'd pull at the robe to take it off, start crawling away, or just put his back to me... as you can see from this photo. I guess he's reached the age where I can't pose him anymore! Dang! I'm going to have to improve on my action shots if I'm going to keep up with a soon to be toddler!

He's just too cute. I love this little man.

Baking Day

Yesterday was our 2nd Annual baking day at my in laws' house. We had a lot of fun! Sugar cookies were decorated, Kirby kisses, Magic Bars, Muffins, Thumbprints, and more were made. Gabe played with his dad and uncles while the girls were busy cooking away in the kitchen. We had a great time and I am already looking forward to next year!

Uncle Jeff was wearing a Santa hat, so I tried to put it on Gabe to get a picture. It was tough. He kept taking the hat off. But, I got this one and I'm thrilled with it! Its just one of those moments. I think this picture will always be one of my favorites. I love this little guy more and more everyday. Today he has just been so much fun. He's got such a wonderful personality.

Well, I should go now... gotta get back to cleaning while this little one is taking his nap.

Little Snowflake

Yep, that he is... one of a kind. Ok, probably shouldn't have done this, but I took the baby - 10 1/2 month old baby - out in the snow for pictures! Ummm...yes, I have a problem! My only defense: I love photography and I love this little guy! The only way I'm going to get better at photography and at Photoshop is to keep practicing, right?

Here, Gabe is cautiously checking out this stuff called snow while Daddy is holding him steady. Just recently, he has started standing without holding on to any support. Last night he stood for like 10 seconds! It was amazing and weird at the same time! I couldn't believe he was actually standing! I'm so used to seeing him attached to something else, holding on for dear life.

I talked with Gabe's birth mom last night and we're going to try and get together for another visit in January to celebrate Christmas and Gabe's birthday. It was so nice to talk with her. We talked for nearly 25 minutes and it was great to catch up.

Well, I'd better go... my baby has NOT been napping well lately. He rubs his eyes and he's so tired, but none of the "no fail" get baby to sleep methods are working. It's been really frustrating. I know he's tired, but he won't give in. To much to do and too much to see!

Christmastime & New Tricks

When we got married, we received a boxed ornament set from one of our dear friends. We have made it a tradition that every year we put this entire box of ornaments on the tree. At first when I saw them, I honestly thought they were a little gawdy. But then, after putting them on the tree the first year, I knew they had to go up every year. I love them.

This ornament features one of our favorite singers, The Chairman of the Board, Mr. Frank Sinatra. Greg and I love his music, so we have started collecting these ornaments. Each one of them plays a different Sinatra tune. This one happens to play my favorite..."Fly Me to the Moon".

And this year, we are adding a new ornament to the tree... Baby's first Christmas. By far, my favorite. This precious ornament was a gift from my parents. I absolutely love it. Merry Christmas, dear little one.

Why a picture of my baby's cute little piggies?? Well, my curious, smart little one has learned a new trick... get ready for it... Here it is:
He likes to play with the CD player! His favorite thing to do is turn the volume all the way up and then sit and wait for me to turn it down. Then, he turns it up again, and I turn it down.... This has become quite the game. Sure, I could put it up, but it keeps him entertained while I'm busy blogging...

I can't wait to spend the holidays with this little bugger... He's truly changed my life and brought so much joy into it.