When the mood strikes

I have been in such a creative mood lately. I love to scrapbook but haven't done it in awhile...a long while. I miss it, but that's not what my mood has been lately. Lately I want to sew! I've never been a sewer before. My mom has tried for years to teach my but I never wanted to learn. Now I want to sew so bad!!! Too bad I don't have a sewing machine. =) This blog (among others) has been a big inspiration to me: http://thewilkinsinwashington.blogspot.com/2009/09/progress.html
Anyone else feeling creative or is it just me?

Ballerina girl

I know you shouldn't live vicariously through your children (and I promise I'll do my best not to) but I couldn't help but put her into dance. I promised myself if she didn't like it I'd take her out...but she absolutely loves it! Here she is my ballerina girl, a girl after my own heart.

And here she is with her little "polar opposite"...do you know how hard it is to get two almost two year olds to pose? HARD so I didn't even try and this is what I got...mirrror images.

LOVE IT!!!

Nanny would be proud =)

For those of you who knew my Grandmother well you'll understand this post. My brother recently brought me some childhood stuff from my parents house and I was so excited to see these dishes. I have to admit if it had been up to me, these probably would have been long gone! BUT I am so happy that someone (probably Nanny) had the determination to keep them. I washed them while Devin took her nap today and here she sat most of the rest of the day. (I was a bit teary eyed throughout the afternoon.)

Notice the wild nap head hair?

School

Well, school starts tomorrow. I finally took the plunge and registered for some online courses. Two classes for 8 weeks = full time student. This semester is Principles of Management and Business Law I; nothing like easing myself back into it. Hope it all goes well. BS degree here I come.

Rain play

So this morning we were sitting in front of the tv~Devin was watching Handy Manny and I was drinking my coffee, when it started raining. For some reason Devin was determined to go outside. She even got both of our shoes and struggled to put them on us.

Here she is playing in the rain. It was so cute. She was soaked by the time we were done but it was totally worth it. (Good thing she was still in her pj's)

I just love this face!!

First fort

Dave and Devin made their first fort together today. Devin was so stinkin cute! Every time Dave tried to leave the room she followed him around the house yelling his name and pulling him by his hand back to the room. What a wonderful man! It's been a long week for me since he's been working some long hours...they definitely needed some Daddy daughter time. It's been at least 45 minutes and she is still going strong. Every now and then I hear giggles coming from her. It's a good Saturday at the Gabe house.

Sorry Jeremy!!!

I can't believe I forgot to mention that Uncle Jeremy came to visit too!!! We were so excited that Jeremy got to come. He was one of our very first visitors. Here's Devin with Uncle Jeremy...We love you Jeremy.

Lovely weekends

Let me just start by saying I had such big plans for myself this morning. I was going to get up, get Devin fed and ready to go, and then head to the gym, the commissary and then home for lunch and nap. Well, I still haven't gotten Devin dressed, I don't have my grocery list ready, and it's already 9:15 (and now I'm blogging!). Maybe we'll make it before lunch or maybe we'll just wait until after nap time now.

Anyways, back to the subject at hand. We've had a few lovely weekends lately.

Let me start with Pops visit. Dave's Dad came to help us build a fence! I LOVE having a fence! It took awhile but it looks great. Here's Devin with her Pops...Yaya (Dave's mom) came to visit over Easter weekend and we got to take Devin to the zoo for the first time...she thoroughly enjoyed it.

And then this last weekend Oma and Opa (my parents) came and Devin was given an adorable red wagon...

We have thoroughly enjoyed having our families here. The visits never seem to be quite long enough. What a blessing. Oh, and I love being so centrally located between everyone...no more traipsing to the far West coast for a visit (for now anyways).

Reminiscing

I was looking through some pictures today and ran across some of our weekly "girls night" that we had in Washington somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas last year. What a wonderful weekly ritual. Oh how I miss you girls! Have a girls night for me ok?

Progress

I have been ever so painstakingly making progress on the house. Devin's room is pretty much done until we decide on paint colors. Phew! Sorry about the poor picture quality; apparently I am having technical difficulties this afternoon.

Moving Day:

Today:

Notice that she has two valances? Well in our old house we hadall the valance on the top and then we had a half curtain on bottom. Obviously this window is half the size of our old one so we have to wait and get the bottom piece fitted.

When Daddy's do hair...

you get adorable pictures like these:



Just had to share =)

And on a side note...Devin's hair is now long enough to get it up in a ponytail! Not that it stays for long, but it's so grown up.

Mommy Mobile

We finally gave in this weekend and got rid of our two door GTI for a more practical four door. *Sniff* *Sniff* Some of you will appreciate how hard this was for us. If you know Dave, then you also know that the GTI is one of his dream cars. We didn't make this decision lightly...it has been in the making for about 18 months now if not longer.

On one hand I'm so excited! No more climbing in the back and breaking my back to get Devin in her seat. Now I just open the door and voila done. But of course on the other hand we were both sad to see a car that we both loved go. Too bad we can't afford both or we would have arranged it so we could keep them both.

Saturday morning:

Saturday night:

Sarah you are not alone!!!

Our toddler

It can't be denied any longer. Our Devin is a full-fledged toddler. She is so much fun at this age! It's hard to believe that she is almost a year and a half old. Every day with her is a joy...yes, even the trying times. What a blessing she is to us. These beautiful pictures speak for themselves.

Too much

Ok, so I decided it was too much to try and go all the way back to the end of January to catch you up. So here's the short version. Our drive across country went really well. We had no car problems, and Devin did wonderfully! It took us four days to get from Washington to Arkansas. After a couple of weeks of looking we found a house. We finally closed on it a little over a week ago and our now trying to get settled. We like Arkansas so far. I hope we get to stay here for a few years. =)
What our trip was like...

Our new house...

Stay tuned~more to come later

Catching Up

I have so much to catch up on. But not tonight. I'm exhausted and heading to bed. I just wanted to let you know that soon I'll be out here posting away, putting up pictures and hopefully not boring you to tears.

Heavy Heart

Well, I've gone to write this post several times this morning but each time I end up deleting it. I wanted to write about the trivialities of getting up at 4am with a teething baby; but an hour or so after getting up I got some news about a "friendly acquaintance". That's the only way I can think to describe her. Her name is Keisha.

Here are a few details about Keisha. Keisha's husband and mine went to tech school together. She and I were the same age. We were all stationed together in Germany. She and I had a close mutual friend and we hung out on several occasions. The year Dave and I left Germany Keisha and her hubby had their fourth baby.

Keisha passed away on Tuesday. Please remember her family in your prayers. I don't know all the details but her funeral will be next week.

As I look back on this I want to delete it and start all over again. I think it's poorly written and it does her no justice at all. But I'll leave it. Today is not a day for writing eloquently. Today is a day for prayers and a day for holding on extra tight to the ones you love.

I've come to the conclusion...

that my house is just going to be a disaster for the next couple of weeks. We have so much to do to prepare for the movers that I can't even keep up with regular housework. Consider this fair warning! If you come to my house it will be a messy disaster =) Oh well. At least we are purging before we go instead of after we get there.