Happy Blog Anniversary

Well it's the 1 year anniversary of when we started this blog. That is totally crazy to me. One year has just blown right by. The best year I can remember though!

So here's hoping that the next year brings as much joy and peace!

Life lessons

Today was an exhausting day (they all are now that Gabe is getting around so much). Gabe was all over the place, naps didn't happen like they should, and Gabe was VERY opinionated as to what he wanted to eat (and not eat).

At one point I was trying to get something done in my office. Gabe was in playing on the floor right by me, and then in one instant he wasn't anymore. I ran out to see where he had army-crawled off to (he's super fast!) He had started to climb up the stairs. Most of the time he will pull himself up on the bottom stair. But this time he had climbed the bottom stair and was almost done with the 2nd one. He turned around to look at me and looked so proud. So I decided to see how he'd do with the stairs. I positioned myself behind him and let him try to make it up the next one. I was right behind him in case anything happened, but I let him take charge and maneuver up the stairs himself. Well in a very short couple of minutes he had climbed up all 14 stairs - almost flawlessly. I stood behind him each time - just in case there was a stumble. But he did suprisingly well!

Here comes the lesson - or what I hope to teach Gabe (and myself) from this experience someday. There will be times as a mother when the safest and smartest thing will be to pull my child down from the stairs, and occupy him with something different. But there will also be times as a mother when I need to let Gabe experience new things, and be adventureous. These things may be slightly dangerous and even kind of crazy. However, I can stand behind him and support him up each of those steps in case he falls.

So Gabe - know I'll always be just one step behind, and I will always catch you if you fall! I sure do love you punkin!

Messes

Thought I'd share pictures of Gabe's mess from lunch-time today. Don't know what posessed me to give him the bowl of yogurt to eat himself, but he was reaching for it, wanted it - and I gave in.

I didn't even get a good picture of the final result. By that time I too had yogurt all over me, and Cory wasn't around to snap our pictures. The worst was when I was cleaning it all up and I said, "Hold your hands up so I can clean you off" and he did just that - held his hands up. But right after that he started to rub his hands all over in his hair...yogurt and hair - not the best combo.

Well I hope you all have a great weekend.

So stinkin' tired!

I am so stinkin' tired I can't even see straight. Gabe has been getting up in the night the last couple of nights, and deciding that he doesn't need to sleep. He wants to be held, rocked and fed. And he wants all of that from mommy - no daddy for this boy. He's been staying up for around 2 hours each night. Monday night it was from 1-3, and last night from 3:45-5:45. Since I've been getting up and exercising at 6:15 that doesn't leave a lot of extra time for sleep.

On the flip side, he's been taking decent naps. He should - he's probably exhausted too! I guess I just might have to join him this afternoon.

What I'm looking forward to most is this weekend (can you hear the sarcasm?) We have a family reunion - which I am looking forward to seeing family. But we're all staying at the same place, and I can only imagine 50 people being thrilled that Gabe's screaming for those lovely 2 hours at night. I'm thinking we might have to stay somewhere else so the family can get some sleep.

Well I'm off to face the day.....

11 months!

This is probably the last "month birthday" that we'll celebrate with Gabe since he's almost a year old. If anyone has great ideas for 1st birthday parties - I'd love to hear them!

This paper pack is a free download from here.

Edited: I went back and re-read my journaling and realize there is a grammar error...oops.

Big Boy!

4th of July

More Family Reunion Pics

The Merthan and Vonnie Ellis Family. They have 7 children and they were all there with their spouses. Pretty exciting when they live all over the place! We sure love Grandma and Grandpa Ellis - such great people with such great family!

Ellis 1st cousins. I think there are about 50 1st cousins in the family. Not all were there for this reunion - but a bunch were!


Gabe's legs are getting pretty strong. He'll be walking before we know it. Here he is with cousin Logan and Aunt Kori practicing how to stand up. Thanks Aunt Kori and Uncle Chase - Gabe had a GREAT time with you guys!

Gabe and Grandma. Thanks for the fun books Grandma, and for sharing fun treats like strawberries with me!

Gabe has become quite the daddy's boy lately. He fusses and lunges towards him whenever I'm holding him and Cory comes into the room. It's fun to see Gabe get excited for his daddy.

Kim Ellis Family - Ashley's family couldn't be there, but Logan got to come up with Grandma and Grandpa.

Gabe and Grandpa - contrary to how it looks Gabe did enjoy spending time with his grandparents. It's just hard when mom or dad takes a picture and he wants to go to us....

Family Reunion

We got home last night from Cory’s family reunion up in Island Park, Idaho (close to West Yellowstone). There were around 80 people there, and it was fun to see people we haven’t seen in years. It’s amazing how things have changed since the last reunion we went to. The last one we went to there weren’t any great grandkids yet. This reunion I was talking to Grandma Ellis and she said that by the end of the year she’ll have (I think) 23 GREAT-grandkids. WOW! It was great to hear everyone honor Cory’s grandparents (they’re celebrating their 60th anniversary this year). I feel blessed to be a part of that family! Grandma and Grandpa Ellis are some of my very favorite people, and have passed such an amazing heritage onto their children, grandchildren, and now great grandchildren!

The reunion was fun. One of the big events was that they held a "Redneck Rodeo" - using 4-wheelers. I was really apprehensive about it because I have only been on a 4-wheeler a couple of times, and knowing me I was sure that my uncordinated self would get hurt. However - not only did I escape unhurt - Cory's aunt Lynette and I WON our event :). It wasn't a big deal - but it made me smile. Gabe also spent time on the 4-wheelers with Daddy and Uncle Chase. He LOVED them and would scream when we'd take him off. Some of the little cousins had some small (battery powered) toy 4-wheelers and we already talked about getting him one for Christmas. I think he'd love it!

So here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Watch out!

Watch out - Gabe's learned a new trick! On Saturday he pulled himself up next to the coffee table and he's been doing it ever since. He still can’t get himself from a crawling position onto his bum to sit down, but if I sit him by the coffee table, or if he crawls up to me and can pull himself up on my legs or something he can pull right up to the coffee table. Watch out – he’ll be walking soon. (now if he could figure out how to crawl the normal way…..he's still scootching around everywhere!)

He's also developed an obsession with bananas. That is all he wants to eat. He yells "Na-na-na-na" all day, and if he sees a picture of a banana, or sees them sitting on the kitchen counter he gets really worked up. We won't even mention how excited he was to see them at the grocery store. It has made feeding him other foods interesting, but we're still keeping his meals balanced :).

He's also been obsessed with phones. He loves talking on the phone, gets excited when the phone rings, and holds his hand up to his ear and says, "He-ro" (his version of hello) over and over again. It's pretty cute. He especially loves to take Cory and my cell phone and "chat" on it.

Turning 27

I am busy trying to get ready to go to our Ellis Family reunion, and so of course, since my to-do list is a mile long, I thought I'd take a break from it and make a digital scrapbook page. (How better to accomplish the things on your list than to completely ignore them huh?)

So My birthday was a little over a week ago and I created a layout about how I'm getting old :).

Pictures from last weeks post

I tried posting these pictures last week - but they weren't working. So here we'll go again. My guys on Father's Day.

A little side-note. It's so funny, but it seems like our family is always in sync with our clothing choices. We'll get to church on Sunday and look at each other and it seems that more often than not we match or coordinate. The same thing seems to happen almost daily with what Gabe is wearing - almost always the same colors as I have on. It must be subconscious, but it's kind of funny (and really helps with photos and scrapbooking!)

Getting Healthy Group

I posted a while back that I was going to start a "Getting Healthy" group. I slacked and hadn't gotten it set up until today. If you did not get the invite that I sent out through Yahoo Groups, and you're interested in participating with us - email me to let me know.

THANKS!
Joanna

Happy Father's Day!

I wanted to jot down a note to say how thankful I am for Fathers.

• I'm grateful for my Dad who is such an amazing man - so kind, thoughtful, disciplined, spiritual, educated - he's amazing. I am constantly in awe of his willingness to serve others and his love for the gospel! And his love for reading and learning is pretty awesome too. I feel blessed that he wants to share the good things of life with his family, and that he's willing to sacrafice so much for others.
• My Father-in-Law Kim. I really think that Cory's dad is one of the kindest people I know. I never hear him say negative things about anyone. He also taught his children to respect women, work SO hard, and have fun as a family. I am glad he raised Cory to be the person he is, and that he is a part of our lives.
• Grandfathers - I love each of my Grandpa's so much. They all are such big balls of love and I am so lucky that I still have them in my life. I have also loved watching them interact with Gabe and I love to see that connection! It's so neat to see physical characteristcs of each Grandpa in Gabe too - there's something to be said about genetics! Oh - and I'm grateful for Cory's Grandpa Ellis too - he was one of the most welcoming members of the family, even before we were married. Great man!
• And last - but certainly not least - Cory, the daddy of my little guy. I remember being worried about Cory being gentle enough with Gabe when he was little. He just seemed to treat all little kids like grown-ups, and I worried about him with our little bundle of sweetness. How silly I was to be worried! Cory was gentle and loving with him right from the very beginning. The first days of Gabe's life were my favorite to watch Cory - he was such a natural when he held Gabe! His biggest complaint with Gabe when he was little was that Gabe wouldn't snuggle on his chest and fall asleep - Cory really wanted that bonding and it made him sad that his chest wasn't soft enough :). And he talks in a sweet voice to Gabe (another one of my worries), reads him stories, plays ball with him, teachs him that mowing lawns is fun, and takes him outside to do chores with his daddy (Gabe enjoys sitting in the stroller and watching Cory). He's even managed to teach Gabe new words (which aren't always so appropriate.....) The last several months have been amazing to be new parents, and one of the most amazing aspects has been to watch Cory and realize how blessed I am to have him as a husband, and how blessed our children will be to have him as their Daddy! Thank you sweetheart - you're the best!

On a related note - this week Cory was out of town for work. I complained my fair share about not having him around when I felt I needed him to help out. But then yesterday a group of soliders from Cedar City came home after being away in Iraq for the last 18 months. As I drove around town seeing flags, yellow ribbons and banners welcoming them home I realized how blessed I really am to have Cory around as much as he is! He does so much to help me with Gabe, and help around the house - I am so lucky! So when I start to complain in the future I am going to be more careful and remember all of the solider's families who don't have their daddy's (and some mommy's) around for months, and even years at a time - and be grateful for their service and hard work so we can have the freedoms we have today!

So now that I offically have the longest post ever....I hope you all have a very happy Father's day!

Long time no pictures

It's been a while since I've posted pictures - so we'll see if these will work (for some reason when I post pictures on a weekend they never work....maybe blogger is too busy?) These first ones are of Gabe on the day he turned 10 months. We're into the double digits now - WOW! Cory snapped these that night after Gabe got wet with the sprinklers....(see what happens when I leave them for a couple of hours?)

These next pictures are from an incident with a banana (or nana as Gabe calls them). I let him feed himself (which he loves doing). That night he discovered how fun it was to rub food into his hair. This was much to Cory's dismay as Cory has issues with him getting too MESSY (um, isn't he a boy?) Anyway, Gabe was pretty proud of his new do, and I was just grateful that it was bathtime!

And lastly, a couple of Gabe this morning after he woke up. Nothing fancy - just my cute little guy. Cory's been out of town these last couple of days, and we're really glad he's coming home tonight! Just in time for Father's Day tomorrow.

I'm learning

So I'm finally learning a very important mommy lesson. If I have a busy day and need to get 1,372 things done the worst possible thing I can do is to write them down and be organized about what needs to get done.

For some reason on days that I am pretty organized with what needs to be accomplished during Gabe's nap time, and have a detailed list of things that I'll do when he's sleeping are the WORST nap days! Days when I don't have plans, no list, nothing to check off as I go - he sleeps like a dream. I really don't get it.

So what I'm learning is to throw out the lists, get rid of the plans, and just hope that I'll remember the to-do list I have running in my brain.....wish me luck!

wasting time

Ok, I have a pile like 2 feet high of stuff I should be doing while Gabe's taking a nap. Unfortunately - "get on blog" is not one of them.....but alas, here I sit. Avoiding the bills, and work I should be paying attention to...

Here are a couple more pictures from last week. I love how happy Gabe looks in them. He sure loves to swing and be outside!

Fun with cousins

My cousin Rachel and her family recently moved back to the town my parent's live in after being away. I am SO excited about this because now I can see her when we go to visit my family! Rachel and I were really close as we grew up (we're only 3 weeks apart in age), and I'm hoping that we can stay close as we raise our families.

I don't know how 2nd cousins and 2nd cousins once-removed works.....someone will have to explain it to me someday. But since I'm not sure the terminology we'll just refer to Rachel's son Elias as Gabe's cousin.

One afternoon while we were visiting we walked to a local park with our boys and spent some time. It was funny to watch them together. Elias is a bit older, and it was funny to watch Gabe who wanted to play like Eli did. In fact another time when they were together at my grandparent's house they had been playing ball with each other. Eli was done and stood up to walk away. He turned around, looked down at Gabe on the floor and said in a disgusted tone, "Stand up!" He didn't quite get that Gabe wasn't ready to go running after him.

Anyway - it was fun to spend time at the park together. I wish we'd had more time together, and that I had gotten to spend more time with my cousin Liz and her daughter (they came into town the night before we came hom), but I'm sure there will be more chances.

I love ya girls - I'm so lucky to have you as cousins!

(the rest of the pictures will have to be attached in the next post....they're not working)

HOME

Kisses from Grandma's dog - Tanger (a mini-dauschund)

Chilling with Great Grandpa (aka Papa). Papa showed us a picture of himself when he was about Gabe's age, and there is a striking resemblance. He gave us a copy of the picture and it is something we'll treasure!

Gabe loved reading stories like, "The Biggest Bear" with Grandpa. This is one of my favorite memories growing up with my dad, and fun to share with Gabe!

Gabe loved spending time with Aunt Julia, she's so fun with him!

Gabe and Grandma. My mom was so great at picking up things Gabe was saying. She also was really in-tune with what he wanted. She'd tell me, "I think he's ready for a nap". I'd say "No - he just woke up". But sure enough, Grandma knows best - and every time she was right on.

There is something to be said about being HOME. I love visiting family dearly - I really do. But I am really a homebody. I like routine, I like having things in their place, and I like being organized. Being away from home messes up routines, is hard to stay organized - and it feels like I just need to get things put away and in their place. So that being said - I loved spending the week with family - but it's good to be home.

So here are a couple of pictures of Gabe enjoying some of the family we visited with this week. My parents live in my Dad's home town, and we have lots of family there. (I wish I had gotten more pictures!) We got to see my grandparents, 2 Aunts, several of my cousins as well as other fun people. The best part is sharing Gabe with others - so they can enjoy his sweetness as much as we do. In fact, seeing their love and excitement for him makes me even happier that he's a part of my life!

We're alive and new tricks

We just wanted to post that we are alive. Gabe and I are at my parent's house visiting for the week. We haven't been here since December, so it has been good for him to get to see his grandparents and spend some time with them. He has been learning new tricks while we've been here. Some of them:

• Waving like crazy - he's been waving before, but yesterday he waved non-stop. Especially at people at Target.
• Saying dog - well it doesn't necessarily sound like dog to the unsuspecting person, but it's very distinct to us after hearing it about a hundred times.
• Saying Julia - my sister's name is Julia. This is another one that Gabe yells out over and over again, but it sounds nothing like "Julia". He actually yells, "ACH!" But it's always geared towards her.
• Noticing pictures of Jesus - We walked into my parent's house and he saw a picture of the Savior in their entry way. He immediately said, "Jesus". Then over the last several days he says it every time we show him pictures of Jesus around the house. I have showed him lots of paintings of Jesus and said His name, and apparently he has paid attention.
• Pulling himself up - He hasn't mastered this yet, but tonight he tried so hard to pull himself up on the couch. It will be a while - but still a stepping stone.
• Climbing stairs - My parent's have a step going down into their family room, and then back up into the kitchen around the corner. Gabe is very interested in climbing up and down and does it very gracefully. I think it's all because he's enticed by the bowl of dog food in the kitchen....

We're off for a walk, but I did want to check in and say hi. More later - hopefully with pictures to follow.