Happy Halloween!

Wasn't he the cutest Toodah ever? I wanted to make sure I got this down... This is how Gabe sang trick or treat:

"Twicked or Tweet, smell my feet, give me somefing good to eat. If you not, I don't care, I'll pull my underwear down!"

He learned this from his buddy Will last year, and this year he started singing it again. It was so funny! We had a great Halloween. Gabe and his friend, McCarthy (my BFF's grandson), went trick or treating together. We drove them around in the suburban, or as I like to call the "super ban". We had a really great time. It was another one of those moments where I just stopped for a minute and remembered a time when I wondered if I'd ever be doing this. If I'd ever hear a child say, "C'mon, Mom! Let's go to diss house!" My heart was warmed so much by this excited little guy tonight.

After trick or treating, we headed over to Poke's house for the 6th Annual Hurloween. Gabe and I stayed for supper and visited for a bit, and Daddy stayed to hang out with the guys. Gabe had a busy day today, so he pretty much crashed as soon as his head hit the pillow. Hurloween was fun... I had a really nice compliment from Poke about my photography. We love Poke and Cari. They are great friends and it's nice to know we've got an ongoing get together each year with such great people.

Well, I have to say, shocked... two posts in two days?! Wowza!

Oh, and.......... we're leaving for Disney in 7 days!!!!!!!!

If you're a friend of Gabe's Dad... you're a friend of Gabe's.

This is Gabe with Greg's friend Nolan (aka Buddha). Everytime Gabe see's Nolan, he yells, "Buddha!!!". It is SO cute. Gabe LOVES Greg's friends. He feels like big stuff when he's around them. He's even more fearless and daring. I love watching him with Greg and his friends. What a blessing that they all love him so much too. I am so looking forward to watching him grow up in their shadows... well, it'll be interesting! :)

2 Part Post - Jinx & Kicking

Jinx & Gabe. They are quite the pair. This is a very rare photo opportunity here. Normally, if Jinxi is laying down on the couch or chair, Gabe is right up in her face either trying to kiss her, tease her with a pretzel or cookie, or trying to get her to kiss him. He loves to antagonize this dog. Most of the time, Jinxi is pretty cool about it and just gets up from her comfy spot on the couch and flops down somewhere else. This morning though, Gabe and Jinxi were actually watching The Lion King together.

I love the look on Jinxi's face here - it's almost like, "If I can't beat him, I might as well join him". Either that or, "Not Lion King... Again...".

Poor dog. I know I've mentioned this before, but she used to be the baby. She used to get all the snuggle time in the world. Now, it just seems like she lays low until 8:00, and as soon as Gabe's in bed, she's up on my lap. I love this ol' dog. She's been a great member of the family.

Tomorrow night, Gabe's birth family is coming over for our Christmas/Gabe's Birthday visit. I'm very excited to see them. Gabe is too! Tonight before bed, we looked at the photo of all of us in his room and pointed everyone out. I didn't even have to remind him of their names... he did a great job. I also asked him who was coming over tomorrow and he gave their names! It was so cute... He said, "No kick M. & J.". He's on this kick lately (pun intended!) of telling us who he's not going to kick. Today, he told me "No kick church". A lot of times, when I'm on the way home from work, I'll call to talk to him and Greg. Here's how the conversation goes:

Gabe: Hi Mommy!
Me: Hi Buddy, how was your day?
Gabe: Baby no kick Will.
Me: No, we don't kick our friends.
Gabe: Baby no kick Patrick.

And on and on... I swear we go through Abbas and Papas, the babysitter, just about everybody he knows. I guess it's good that he knows he shouldn't kick... Sometimes he'll say, "Baby kick Will" or whoever. We just remind him not to kick anybody... and then we do it all over again multiple times a day!

Playtime

Today, we watched Gabe's friend Will for a few hours. Usually, when Gabe sees Will, he's with Greg doing Daddy/Son stuff, so I don't get to see them play together. It was too cute to watch them play. Will acts just like a big brother to Gabe and loves on him when Gabe gets mad about sharing toys. I got out the camera to try and get the two of them in a couple of pictures. They were hamming it up.

You Been Farmin' Long?

This has to be one of my all time favorite pictures. I love love love that Caleb's Mommy wanted to come out to the farm with us to take photos of the boys. They were SO photogenic (for toddlers!!) and we got some AMAZING pictures. I am absolutely thrilled with how they turned out. This season has been one that I've been waiting for. From the time Gabe was really little, I knew he was going to be into trucks and tractors - he's always been a true boy. So, I knew when he was old enough to be walking and talking, that harvest was going to be a fun one. And it sure has been. Thursday night, we surprised Papa and stopped by the field to ride a couple of rounds in the combine. Gabe didn't want to leave! Then, Friday, we took Caleb and Darci out to the farm to get some pictures. Here are a few more:

Hey, Papa's down here... maybe if we keep walking, we can hitch a ride back in the combine!

See, Caleb, when I'm bigger, I'm going to be a farmer like my Papa.

Couldn't resist trying to get a picture of the boys' feet in overalls. I was hoping to get one with them walking in the grass, but that didn't work out so well. I'm happy with this one! And, it's gotten the most Flickr views! That's kinda cool! If you want to see even more of these pics, you can visit my Flickr photos here.

Darci and I are so blessed to have these two awesome boys. These boys were prayed for together. Darci felt Caleb move for the first time on the day we brought Gabe home from the hospital. When Darci held Gabe for the first time, Caleb kicked. God has truly blessed us with having boys that can grow up together.

Gabe's Mom is Still Here!

Ugh... I have not been a very good blogger, have I? I'm still here... In the past 2 weeks, I've had the following things going on:


A hubby on a camping trip.
A wedding.
A Gabers with a cold.
Planning, preparation, and attending of the first annual Momma Getaway.
A jam-packed work schedule (our new girl resigned).
Getting garage sale items ready.



So, yeah... it's been a pretty busy time for me! Anyway, on to the Gabers! I hope the picture at the top has given you a clue about the post. When Gabe was just a baby - a very teenie-tiny baby - my friend Tami and I went garage-saling (Nah! Not US!) and found this awesome Radio Flyer bike for Gabe. We've had it put up in the garage and we finally took it down this past week to see if he would like it. He really wasn't too interested when he found out he had to work at it a bit and Daddy wasn't going to keep pushing him! He hopped off and returned back to the "cauk" (sidewalk chalk) he was playing with. I had not gotten my camera out yet, so we persuaded him with a juice box to get back on so I could capture this on my camera. Ah, the powers of parental persuasion... If only it always worked! Would you like to see that picture? I thought you might...He's so cute, isn't he? This weekend, I held the first annual (possibly semiannual!) Momma Getaway weekend. My fellow Momma friends and I headed to a nearby church camp to rent out a cabin-like building to scrapbook, sew, talk, eat, and sleep as much as we wanted for the weekend. It was so much fun. I was able to share the weekend with 5 of my dearest friends. They are just the best. We had games and prizes, we had a couple of really late nights (3:00 am!), and we had a blast. I love these ladies so much. God has truly blessed me with some amazing friendships - I am so fortunate that my closest friends could all be in the same place for the weekend. You can read more about it on my other blog Greg's Wife if you are interested. Speaking of which, I'd better go so I can update that blog... it's been even longer since I've posted to that one!

Gabe's Friends

Our friends Craig and Darci were so generous and invited all of us to their family's cottage on the lake this last weekend. There were 4 babies there! All between the ages of 9 months to 16 months. Gabe had a great time with his friends. All of the kids were so good. Considering 3 of them were in a new place, they were fantastic. Gabe went on boat rides, played with new toys, and got to hang out with his buddy Jack:

A few times, Jack would say, "Hey, how about I take Gabe for a walk?" This gave me and Gabe's dad a chance to just sit down and relax and not have to worry about chasing after a toddler. I'm just so proud of how well Gabe behaved. I think we only had one little temper tantrum and it wasn't even a bad one. He did great on the car ride too.

I'm so happy that Gabe is going to grow up with this great support system of friends that we have in our lives. We've kept our small group going now for a few years and it is truly a joy to spend time together. We even get to see Jeremy & Opal, our former youth pastor and his wife, when we go to the cottage. It's awesome how we can just pick up from where we left off in talking with them.

I love all of these friends not just because of the fun we have with them, or the Bible studies we share, or the fellowship time we have, or the meals we share together. I love all of these friends because of how they love my son so much. It's so great to see someone love your child. It's a wonderful feeling. Afterall, Gabe is the bomb. He's an awesome kid and it's cool when other people see it too.

We love these guys!

Gabe's Mom had another photo shoot tonight! It was too fun. These guys were all over the place!

This one's a little saturated, but I ran out of time tonight... and out of creativity...

Oh, yeah... and Gabe loves 'em too... - Gabe & the Bug

It's An Original.

Ok, definitely one of my favorite pics of Gabe. One of my best friends, Tami Lyons made this adorable Cars-Cars blanket and pillow for Gabe. He LOVES it.

We have a funny story about this awesome blanket. When we were on the plane heading to Arizona, Greg was sitting next to a guy that noticed Gabe's blanket and an interesting conversation took place:

Guy: "Wow, that blanket is so cute. My son loves Cars. Where did you find it?"

Greg (eagerly giving a sarcastic response): "Oh, well, they're really hard to find. It's a local artist in Illinois. She's really pricey. She does a great job, but she's in high demand."

Guy: "Oh." (sulking a wee bit...) "Well, what's the name? Could I maybe get one?"

Greg (loving every minute of this): "Well, it's a Tamilyon's original. There's only one like it."

Guy: "Oh".

It was just so funny. Greg couldn't resist calling Tami to tell her that he had totally talked her up to this guy. Tami, it is an original... you da' bomb-diggity. Gabe loves it and we all love you!

Weekend Recap

It's kinda been a yucky weekend at Gabe's house. Gabe's Mom had to take Gabe's Dad to the ER Friday night because he had fever of 105.4 degrees. We found out that he has influenza and there's not much the doctor could really do for him. We just have to wait it out. Gabe has a cold right now, but thankfully he hasn't had any fevers. I feel fine, but I've been taking Tamiflu just to ward off the bug. Gabe's Dad has been really sick. Poor thing has been a trouper. Yesterday, my sister came home to the family farm to visit for a while. She hadn't seen Gabe since his birthday, so she wanted to hang out with him for a bit. We had a really nice time. Thankfully (I guess you could say...) Mom and Jenny have been exposed to the flu several times this year because they're both nurses, so we didn't have to worry about passing anything to them. Unfortunately, we did have to miss Gabe's cousin, Braden's birthday party. We didn't want to risk any kids getting what Greg has. I'm sure the parents don't want that either! Today, we just kinda bummed around and watched TV. Greg's getting better, but doing just a bit seems to wear him out quickly. I took this picture of Gabe Saturday morning. I'm getting ready to send Nick & Jordan a care package of baby things. Well, Gabe might be a little attached... I told him that we need to share... Maybe he's just sending his soon-to-be buddy a big hug to go with the baby stuff!

Products of a Busy Weekend

1. Scrapped. A LOT. It was a great time. I arrived at Marya's at 2:00 in the afternoon and I left at 10:30. She is too fun to scrap with - had a blast.

2. Found out that Greg and I are TOO old to go to the bars. Lindsey turned 21 and we thought we'd at least to go the first bar with the "kids" and we found out very soon that we are not very cool. We ended up playing electronic Baggo - yes, we really are that lame.

3. Shot my first engagement session of photos! I had a blast. I'm not a professional by any means, but DANG was it fun. Immediately when we got home, I started playing with all of the photoshop actions I have. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Oh, it was so much fun. I was so honored that they asked me to do it. They actually asked me to do their wedding too! I had to turn them down. There is just NO way I'm ready for that. I always said I just wanted to do this for fun, and I really don't think a wedding would be that fun for me...I know I would stress out - Big Time. But, man, what an honor to be asked. Someone trusting you with one of the most precious days of their life! WOW! I am going to be making their save the dates too.

Gabe sure is doing well. He got to meet a couple of dogs with Dad today while I was taking pictures... those poor pups are probably worn out tonight! He kept chasing them and trying to give them a kiss. One of them was a greyhound. Can you imagine!?

Gabe's learned how to sign "more", he's learning to say his prayers (folding his hands), and we're working on getting rid of the bottle. He can show you he's one and he also can tell you what a monster (or a lion) says! Rarrrrr! My little boy is growing ... too quickly!

For Grant...

Here you go, Uncle Grant. Gabe's Mom is updating...

Daddy let Gabe try some of his delicious apple... Gabe was hooked! He got ticked when Greg took it away!

Daddy and Gabe are reading a book here. I love this picture of my two boys. Gabe just loves his Daddy.

Daddy, we miss you and hope you have a safe trip! Uncle Grant, are you happy now?? :)

It was a Very Good Year

2007. It was a fantastic year.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Gabey Baby was born and adopted into our family
• The Gabe's Mom blog began
• Greg & I went on a cruise (while on the cruise we found out we'd be parents!)
• Greg got a promotion
• Gabe's Mom has developed a passion for photography
• Gabe's first friend Caleb was born
• The Lord answered many prayers for us - healthy family, friends, food on the table, a roof over our heads, and far too many more to list
• We had a wonderful year with our families and friends
• We had 3 great visits with Gabe's birth mom
• We bought a new home

I could go on and on about the wonderful things that happened this year. I can only pray that 2008 is just as wonderful and that our lives are just as blessed. Greg and I were talking today and we said we just couldn't believe how great things were going for us here lately. We have a lovely home, a healthy, happy child, and wonderful friends and family. I know I go on and on about our blessings, but I really feel we need to celebrate them everyday. We need to cherish them every moment.

Before becoming parents, Greg and I went through many times of pain and suffering. We endured seeing the result of a house fire at our family's farm, we waited with worry throughout my brother and sister's healing after the accident, we experienced the loss of family members and friends, we went through years of infertility; we've had a long, painful road. But finally, we feel like we're enjoying life. We're experiencing huge blessings. I know, through all of that pain there were daily blessings too. None of them outweighed the pain though. Now, we are a family. We are whole and complete. We really feel joy. Joy. What a wonderful feeling. So, I guess that's why I'm not afraid to remind myself (and others!) of it every day. I know bad times will come again some day, but right now, I'm enjoying joy.

Here are some joyFULL moments from New Years:

Gabe and his friend, Caleb - trying to wear the hats from Tami

Gabe "helping" Caleb take his hat off

I'm finally able to use my collection of Winterberry dishes... we had a wonderful New Year's Eve with friends, food, & games.

Happy New Year with the Harlands

Happy New Year from Gabe's Mom! We hope this year brings you many blessings!