Hello August!!

I can't believe we are already 10 days into August! Next comes September, a wonderful month for MANY reasons...but to name a few:

~~Fall!! I love the Fall it is my absolute favorite season. I love the cooler weather and spending more time outside, open windows, sweatshirts, falling leaves, fires in the fire pit and yummy candles burning in the house.

~~Both kiddos have birthdays before the end of the year!! Wow how time sure does fly. She is almost 4 and he will be 1. It really doesn't seem quite possible.

~~We are celebrating our 7th anniversary this Fall. It has been a wonderful seven years and I can't wait for the next 50 or so that come our way.

~~Holidays! It always seems that September will start ushering in the holidays. Now I'm not trying to rush into Christmas but I love the feeling in the air when we go to a pumpkin patch, we start to do Christmas shopping, we start thinking about what we will feast on at Thanksgiving, seeing family that we can't see every day, and then bringing in the New Year.

~~And of course the best thing of all this September is...well if you know us you know what it is!!!!!

Maybe,

just maybe I'll actually start blogging again. Hmmm, we'll see how this goes.

This is one of those days

One of those days where I feel I could become a whiney military spouse. One of those days where anything and everything goes wrong because you are home alone. You military wives understand what I'm talking about...Our girl is sick. Not run to the dr or ER sick, just sick. Her tummy is upset which is resulting in multiple pj changes (I think we are on number 5 today), an extra load of laundry, some carpet cleaning and even cleaning the kitchen cabinets. Yuck. When do kids learn to tell you they are going to throw up? Even just two seconds warning would be nice.

Don't get me wrong we have LOTS to be thankful for. We don't need to head to the ER, she doesn't have a fever, and I have a wonderful mom and great friend who will let me call and vent or cry. Things are slowly getting better, and by the end of the day I should be fine.

On second thought...I have to go since I can tell it is time to change her all over again.

Guilty!!

What? This is how I like my bed...all the fluff on the outside. Isn't that how you sleep?

Oh, alright, you dragged it out of me~the truth is I was bored.

Creative

For those of you who read this and have an itch to be creative I totally recommend reading this blog. This lady is amazing and a total inspiration to me. Enjoy!

Passing it on

Seems I have passed on a few things to Devin. I was in the kitchen working on dishes tonight when she came in with tears streaming down both cheeks, a honest-to-goodness frown and her lower lip sticking out. My poor girl was heartbroken. Now mind you, this was not a whine, or a tantrum, or even a hurt cry. This was pure broken heartedness.

What was she heartbroken about you ask? The answer is simple: Penny was stuck in the fire and Bolt was trying to rescue her. If you haven't seen this movie then you probably don't know what I am talking about. Bolt happens to be one of Devin's favorite movies that she watches over, and over, and yes, over again. Every time we get to the end, the tears start and she needs a hug and someone to watch the last 10 minutes with her. Don't worry...Bolt saves the day of course and by the time Rhino is watching Penny being abducted by aliens my girl is all smiles again.

I say I am passing it on since I am the same way. I cry during movies all the time. It doesn't matter if I've seen it once or 150 times...I still cry. I'm so happy I passed it on.

Dance

Devin had her first recital last month and of course she was the cutest little girl out there. Need you ask? Being the proud parents we are we were easily "suckered" into buying the dvd of the whole recital even though we really only wanted about 45 seconds of it, and of course we had to get her pictures done. So here they are! I have to post them since I also paid good money to get the rights to them. Enjoy!! (Can you see my red-headed baby second from the left?)

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.