Merry Christmas

Isa & Gabs got to open one gift early because they wanted to wear their new Christmas dresses to church on Sunday. Gabriela looked at her dress after she got it on and said, "mama, I'm a princess!" We even tried curling her hair and it turned out pretty cute.

We quickly realized that these dresses are going to have to be washed by themselves because after getting up from their car seats, we saw so much glitter!! They left a trail wherever they were seated in church :)

Christmas Eve we read the Nativity story in Luke and then the kids were able to open presents from Danny's side of the family. After that they went to bed by 8:30pm. Who knows what time they actually fell asleep though! :) Then on Christmas morning the kids woke up at 6am, only an hour earlier than usual, and got to open their stockings, Santa gifts, and presents from my side of the family.

Gabriela got a new baby doll, swing/highchair, and bassinet. She was sooo excited!

Gabriela had been eyeing this doll in the stores for the last couple of months, so she was totally excited to finally have one for herself.

Isa got a bunch of Littlest Pet Shop toys & some to share with Gabs. They both love the little animals and playing together.

Isa & Gabs also got Calico Critters. Gabriela doesn't really take interest in anything labeled "2+" on it; she likes all the toys that Isa has, so they got combined gifts.

Bren had a Star Wars & Transformers Christmas and spent all morning building and playing.

They did a good job of including each other in their new toys and taking turns playing with "the boys" stuff and "the girls" stuff.

After Gabriela went down for her nap, (3.5 hours-YAY!) Bren, Isa, & Danny played Heroscape (Danny's Christmas present) and I took a much needed nap! I am quickly winding down and am SO ready to be done with this pregnancy. Two more weeks to go...

We love you all and thank you for your warm wishes & cards, and hope you all have a wonderful Christmas & New Year!

Sleeping Beauty...

Potty training has been a roller coaster; she has great days, and then has not so great days. Luckily she has never had an accident in public (I guess she likes public toilets cuz they're different?! yuk)

However, it has presented us with a new problem. You can see she completely disrobed and threw her pj's and pull-up over the crib and onto the floor and then grabbed panties from her dresser drawer which is next to her crib and put those on. The problem is she freezes! We have our thermostat set at 64 while we sleep, so we have to make sure we check on her before we go to bed. This has happened a couple of times and it drives me crazy! She does it after Isa falls asleep, so we won't know what she's doing. Now she has switched to stripping first thing in the morning. She's the first to wake up and stands in her crib and yells over to Isa, "ISA-BEL! wake up!!" If there's no response, she plays in her crib and takes off her clothes.

Sadly, Gabs is taking after Brendan and is weaning herself from taking naps in the afternoon. I can usually get her to sleep 3 days out of a week, but the rest is becoming "quiet time". I've decided that I need quiet time more than she does, so she still goes to her crib from 1-3pm whether she sleeps or not.

I had high hopes that she would be more like Isa and take naps up through Kindergarten. Especially because she is SO active and I'm going to have a new baby in less than 7 weeks. Argh!

This was a cute picture because, like I had mentioned before, she doesn't fall asleep anywhere except her crib. The kids had thrashed her room playing, so Bren & Isa were cleaning up and to make it go faster, I took her out and put on the movie "Spirit" for her (it's her all time favorite-she loves horses!). I asked her if she wanted her soft bunny blanket and she said, "yes, i tired" and leaned over on the couch pillow. I couldn't believe she admitted it herself! Whenever we ask her (and it's obvious she is) she always says, "no, i not tired, i fine". I brought out her blanket, she snuggled in, and watched the movie with the lights out. Ten minutes later she was out!

Crazy (27 degree) Campout!!

So the young men invited the young women on a Mountain Bike Campout which sounded like a lot of fun. We were all set to go and then the weather forcast came in and said that a cold front was coming through that weekend and the low that night would be 27 degrees!!!

Danny & the kids were planning to come along bc we wanted to squeeze in one more camping adventure before it got too cold, but after hearing the weather report, Danny was very hesitant! His concern was legitimate though bc he was worried about Gabriela & me not sleeping well. After buying another 20 degree rated sleeping bag, pulling out all our snow gear from Utah, every blanket & padding that we own, and some deal making, we were all set to go!

Isa & Bren had a blast roasting marshmallows over the fire for s'mores, drinking hot chocolate, and just running around.

Bedtime made us nervous bc Gabs is used to being swaddled and put in her crib and goes to sleep on her own. She has never been able to cuddle with someone in their bed and fall asleep that way. We decided to skip her nap that day hoping that she would just drop at some point. At 9pm she was so cranky over everything that we decided it was bedtime.

She ended up doing ok after a LOT of tossing and turning and peeking at our faces to see if we were still awake :) When she finally fell asleep (around 10:30pm) she was on my arm, so I was unable to move around during the night. Being 7 mo. pregnant, I have to flip from side to side all night because my hips get sore, but was unable to that night. Needless to say, I couldn't fall asleep very well. In fact, I didn't get to fall asleep until after 2:45am when she woke up crying and went back to sleep in Danny's arms.

Bren & Isa decided to share a sleeping bag for added warmth and they slept great. We all wore about 3-4 layers of clothing and wore hats and gloves as well, so we all actually stayed pretty comfortable. Gabriela kept taking off her hat while she slept, which drove me crazy and kept me awake.

When it was time to break down camp, the girls got to help Danny squish all the air out of the tent and they thought it was the best game!

Despite waking up to insanely cold weather we all had a good time and it made for a great story. Gabriela talked about it for days "I sleep in tent! outside!" When we got home and got everything put away, we ate lunch and everyone took a much needed LONG nap! We can't wait until Spring and we can do it again!!

Happy Halloween!!

Last week I had my follow up sonogram to see if placenta previa was still an issue and to see if the cyst was still in the brain or had dissolved. Everything checked out just fine and she's beautiful and healthy!

We got some images in 4D and it was awesome to see her moving around. The sonographer printed out a few for me to take home bc no one came with me to the appointment and she figured they'd want to see how she'd grown. She was quite shy at first, but after some "jiggling" we got her to move her hand away from her face!

You can still see her finger tips against her cheek; she looked like she was sleeping. We still haven't come up with any names, so I'm hoping sometime before the baby's born it will just come to me!

Only 10 weeks left to go...

Gabriela has had a week or so of "prep" time for Halloween. We just barely put up decorations and started explaining that witches, pumpkins, ghosts, bats, costumes, & candy are all part of Halloween. The Halloween section at Target really helped put it all together! :) Gabs was SO excited to have her very own pumpkin!

It's our annual procrastination carving celebration...we always end up carving the pumpkins right before we trick or treat. Gabriela was fascinated and wanted to draw her pumpkin face too, so we gave her a light highlighter so we could keep her busy while the others carved.

Gabriela was so funny when she looked inside the pumpkin and saw the seeds and stuff. She was wide-eyed and very inquisitive. As Danny pulled it all out and put it in the bowl, Gabriela got up really close to examine it, smelled it, and said, "ewww papa!"

Here the pumpkins are carved and ready to be put out front. The kids were very proud of their pumpkins!

In fact, when it was time to go trick-or-treating, Gabriela just wanted to sit on our front lawn and look at the pumpkins-she didn't want to get in the car :)

Our last stop was our friend's house (Matt & Sarah) and everyone loaded up on candy again. (They were our first stop as well!) They got a decent amount of candy, about a half-basket full from one neighborhood, and we called it quits (I didn't want anymore candy in the house :)

We had a trunk-or-treat at church last Friday and almost was rid of the candy from that. I ended up giving away goody bags to the young women on Sunday to empty out our candy bags!

Bren & Isa were really good about donating their candy, realizing that it's fun to have a treat once in a while, but bottom line is it's not an every day healthy snack.

Gabriela surprised us and was quite the trooper-she walked around for an hour without complaining! and she kept up-sometimes even ran!!

After two houses or so, she quickly figured out that she had to say "trick-or-treat" to get candy and "thank you" when she was done. She even added "bye! happy halloween!" as she left each house.

I have never seen her so happy & giddy. She loved looking around the neighborhood at the other kids' costumes, the house decorations, and lights. Needless to say, everyone, especially Gabriela, had a blast.

Birthday Girl Turns 2

Gabriela has exploded this month with developmental milestones. She knows her basic colors and shapes and then sorts things by color, shape, and size. She also knows a few letters of the alphabet and is talking all the time!

Our latest project is potty training. We've been at it for 3 weeks now and she does well as long as I get her to a toilet every couple hours. Only twice has she told me that she has to go and both times were in a store and she made it! All the other times I have to ask her and then she'll say "yes" or "no, i fine".

Last Sunday we had a few friends over for dinner to celebrate Gabriela's birthday, so she got a cupcake and a present from her friend Porter (who she calls "po-po"). Later that night we heard her singing "happy birthday to you, to me, happy birthday to you, to me" over and over. It was pretty cute.

Gabs loves her puzzle and has been playing with it everyday for the past week. She'll ask me "mama come play puzzle me" and really that means I just sit and watch while she does it.

Since Monday night was her actual birthday we had to do a little something again! So, we sang to her and then she got to blow out birthday candles again, eat another cupcake, and open up our present-pj's and books. She was so excited this time because she knew what was coming and sang with us! :) I think she understands what birthday's are now: song, candles, cake, & presents.

I can't believe how fast time goes. She's getting so big and more and more independent. It seems like yesterday she was a newborn in a sling while I would help out in Isa's kindergarten class.

We're excited for her to be getting older though because she can do so much more. Unfortunately, it means she's scaling more things and climbing out of every seat belt possible (high chair, jogging stroller, car seat). I feel like we're going to squeeze the breath out of her if I make them any tighter!

She's also figured out how to take apart the child-proof door knobs, open all the doors, and sometimes lock herself in! Argh, somedays I'm just tired, but thankfully she still takes 3 hours naps so I can too!!

School is back in session

Gabriela loves baths and can't hardly wait to jump in. I started filling it up and walked away and saw her tear down the hall at the sound of running water. I grabbed my camera because I wasn't sure if she could resist watching the bath fill and not get in without anyone watching.

So, when she thought I wasn't looking, she felt the water, climbed in, and then saw me. Oh well, she was happy and in one place, so I let her play for a while.

Bren & Isa started 4th & 2nd grade this year and were so excited to get back to school. Although, I have to admit I might have been happier :)

They have great teachers and love the school they're at and are off to a great start. Gabriela understands our daily routine and loves to say "bye brendan, bye isa" and "good day school" as they exit the car. When we pick them up, it's the same thing, "hi brendan, hi isa" then "all done school".

Just this last week she started saying "ela school?" as we're driving away. (I think it stemmed from the back-to-school night we had last week and she actually put together what they do when we drop them off and now she wants to go) I'll say "no, you're not going to school right now, we're going to go home and play", then she'll respond with "ela sad, ela go school" in a very sad voice, huge body sigh, the whole works-I have to be careful not to laugh!

Gabriela still requires constant watch. Just when I think she may be mellowing out, it really just means she's learned to get into mischief quietly.

I was putting laundry away recently and came back to find her on the computer with my welcome screen upside down & flipped vertically!! I had to tilt my head to the side to try and scroll the mouse to where it needed to be for me to log in. I was hoping that it was just the welcome screen that was messed up, but nope! Everything was crazy.

It took me forever to try and scroll around, because if I needed it to go to the right, it would go to the left, and if I needed it to go up, it would go down. Argh!

Finally I figured it out under Properties and couldn't believe she had managed what she did.
Since school started, Gabriela has joined a couple of playgroups and has a routine of her own starting at 10am each day. We have "music makers" on Mondays and "play group at the park" on Fridays. Then on Tue, Wed, & Thu we go on our walk. By the time those activities are done, it's time to go home and make lunch, have reading time, and then (my favorite) nap time!

Thankfully with school starting back up, her naps have returned to 2-3 hours. So, she usually wakes up just in time to go get the kids from school and occasionally I'll have to wake her up.

[She loves horses and this is one of her two favorite things, the other is the swing-can you tell??]

Her favorite things to do is go swimming and to play at the park. I don't have any swimming pictures, but I should, because she is an awesome swimmer. A little too brave though.

She loves to jump in and swim to me, as well as push off the steps and swim out to me, even if I'm not close enough or ready. She can only go so far, but totally has the system down.
She can also float on her back by herself for 7 seconds!! She's also figured out how to hold on to a noodle by herself and now she is all over the pool-no boundaries. She loves it!

I am still in awe some days that this kid is just so different from Bren & Isa. It continues to amaze me what she is capable of and I'm now a little scared that "baby Sammy" (gabs named her that last week) might be just like her! 16 weeks to go...

Good news

Not much has happened since I last wrote. We are all doing well and axiously awaiting school to start (next week for Danny & two weeks for the kids).

Gabriela is starting to mellow out just a bit. Still our fiesty-no fear-crazy kid, but I'm not wanting to pull out my hair every day anymore :)

I was pleasantly surprised last week to find that Gabriela was in her room reading one of her favorite books to her baby. (Whenever I don't hear anything from her for more than 5 minutes, it's usually not a good sign)

Last Saturday we went to Wrightsville Beach with all the youth in our ward and had a blast. Gabriela thought that the ocean was a giant pool and was sooo excited! She was proving to be too brave, so we let the waves knock her down a couple of times to try and instill some fear in her and it kind of worked. She stayed on the beach playing with the sand for a long time and then kept asking me out to take her deep so we could jump the waves. She loved it!

Today we had an ultrasound and the baby was very active, but kept the legs closed until the very end, making us very anxious! Turns out we're having another girl. We are all excited that the baby is very healthy-all organs looked perfectly formed. It took a long time to measure everything and get a good look though, because this baby is so active! Looks like Gabriela will have a partner in crime :)

Brendan was disappointed until we pointed out that he would always have his own room and no younger sibling to mess up all his toys (his one pet peeve about Gabriela!).

Now it's time to play the name game. I like to think of names, but am in no rush and usually wait until the end and Danny wants to start thinking of names now, so, that doesn't go over very well :) Oh well.

21 weeks to go...

July

This month is going by so fast! I had another sonogram on the 2nd and we got some good shots of the baby at 12 weeks. This is a profile of the baby, with the head at the left, laying on his back, waving his hand at the camera. We got some nice clear shots of the baby and we know for sure that there are five fingers on the one hand! And, no, we don't know the gender of the baby yet, but I'd rather use "he" than "it" :)

I've hit 14 weeks now, and past the first trimester, yay! 26 more weeks to go...

We've had Cris & Liss here all summer and then David came up to visit toward the end of June, so we decided to take them all up to DC and show them the Mall. We were nervous that it would be super hot & crowded (we went on a Saturday), but it was only 72 for a high and we found close, free parking! We also got to see Steph & Chris in Baltimore for 30 minutes the night before (they let us stay in one of the company apartments). So we sort of had our own little family reunion on the east coast :)

The officer on the horse told Cris & Isa where to stand and then walked his horse around behind them and put the horse's nose right on Cris's shoulder. Gabriela was looking at me for the picture, but then heard the horse, turned around, and was nose to nose with the horse! It was too funny. She is obsessed with horses, so it didn't scare her at all, just surprised her.

We celebrated the 4th at our friend's house, and Matt decided to entertain the kids while the rest of us cleaned up-nice timing :)

Bren loved riding on the bike, and Isa did too-but was a little worried about stopping.

Gabriela just enjoyed sitting on the bike and looking at the buttons and handles.

Later the whole neighborhood came out to light fireworks (both legal and mostly illegal) and turned out to be the best show we had seen in years!

On the 10th, Isa had her adenoids & tonsils taken out, and the operation went as smooth as it could go! We even had a friend from our church, who is a resident, assist in the operation.

This last week, Isa said, has been really boring for her: playing games, reading books, watching movies, all while being glued to the couch. She's feeling good and doing really well, but we don't want her to over do it, so I'm keeping her down. Brendan's been a big help keeping Gabriela away from mauling Isa :)

Well, that's all for now. It's been nice having a quiet moment - the girls are napping and everyone else is at church. A rare treat!