What a big girl!

Gabriella is such a big girl now I thought I would write a couple of her latest developments. So fun!
1- She has started lining up all of her toys in a row on top of thing including the edge of her bathtub, shelves and magnet toys on the refrigerator. So silly!
2- Apparently she is afraid of nothing and has taken to launching herself off of everything that she is able to climb onto. Usually her favorite is jumping from the coffee table to the couch. We have had a couple of misses but so far that doesnt seem to have bothered her at all.
3- Latest words; Doggy, water, snack, Jessica, Megy (still working on the names of the rest of the family) her signing vocabulary is also getting bigger and bigger. What a smarty pants!
4- She gives the biggest hugs to her dad and I and smiles and grins and is so happy. She also gives us many good kisses and if she cant get a kiss to our lips will kiss our arm or shoulder or whatever she can reach.
5- She has just in the past few weeks decided to start waking up at around 6:30. This makes for a very sleepy mommy but it is also a fun time cause Gabs and I just curl up on the couch and watch her "shows" which include all baby Einsteins, Signing Time, Super Why and Word World. Man I have learned a lot! My spelling is twice as good as it used to be. Its like being in school all over again.

Terrible Two's

Okay so I never knew that the terrible twos actually started way before they were actually two. What has happened to my sweet little girl and who is this squealing, crying, whining monster? She looks like my girl but besides that I barely recognize her. Of course we have our good moments which are basically anytime I am doing exactly what she wants which a mom can only keep up for so long. I know we will make it through this hard time but I highly doubt I will be able to do so with all of my mental faculties intact. Here are some photos that help to remind me that inside my little demon is a sweet fun girl.

Merry Christmas...to me

Well its that time of year again. Here is a little preview of our Christmas card. It was hard to get just the right shot but I think this one of us is pretty amazing..

Poor baby..

Gabriella has had a really rough last week. In that time she has managed to fall down a flight of stairs, fall off a chair and split her lip open, had the flu, split her lip on the coffee table and finally today fell on her face on the sidewalk and split her lip open again. Eegads! Seriously she obviously takes after her mother who is also very accident prone. Every time her lips get cut I get very queasy though thinking about her teeth getting broken. I nearly pass out every time but thankfully to date no broken teeth. I feel so bad for her but she is a trooper and usually gets right back up and keeps on going. Gotta love that little girl. Here are some pics of some happier moments and before the fat lip.

Fun with the girls!

Here are pictures from this weekend with the family. So fun to see everyone! Love you!

Yesterday Jessica and I along with Gabriella went to Richfield to be with Megan when she opened her mission call. Holy cow my sister is going on a mission! That is just so freaking rad. Yes I said rad! She is going to the Mesa Arizona mission where she will be at the temple visitors center. How fabulous is that! We are so excited for her and cant wait to hear about the next 18 months of amazing experiences as Im sure there will be many. It was a fun day with sisters and mom and dad. We all just chatted, ate and chatted some more. All the while of course Gabriella was getting loved to bits. The family was admiring her ability to walk, without holding onto anything, down the stairs. She is a little daredevil and has scared me to death a few times but it seems as if the more challenging something is the more she loves doing it. This afternoon she managed to fall down the entire flight of stairs and hit pretty much everything on the way down. Poor dear has a little bloody lip and was very sad but after about 4 minutes she was good as new and started chasing the dog around. I just wish I could bounce back that fast. She really is amazing and is such a big girl. Very independent and very brave. She will try anything and seems to be completely fearless. She is talking up a storm and has started saying cracker, shoes, please, baby and binky amongst all the other words she already says. She loves to be chased by daddy and will run screaming through the house until he catches her and then laughs so hard.

Today as I was on the computer Gabriella brought out the garbage can from our room and proceded to empty it out, blow her nose on some used tissues (ick) and just had some fun. After she was done she picked all the garbage back up, put it in the garbage can and put the garbage can back in the same spot in our room. I didnt even realize what she had done until I went into the room and saw the garbage can back where it belonged. On top of this I handed her a package to be thrown away and asked her to throw it in the garbage. She went into our room and I just figured she put it somewhere and I would just throw it away later. Low and behold the item was right where it should have been, in the garbage. She is amazing! I am seriously astounded at how smart she is... and also how tidy she is. Hmmm... looks like Ill have some help with the chores soon. We love this little lady of ours.

Fall photoshoot and updates!

So as some of you know when Brian and I were married we were still waiting on my temple sealing cancellation and so had to get married civilly since the process was taking so long. Finally about 4 months ago we received the cancellation and on Friday we were sealed as a family in the St. George Temple. Halleluah! We have been waiting on this for so long and are so grateful and excited to be officially an eternal family. We were joined by our family and some dear friends. Small but perfect for us. Gabriella looked like a little angel! Of course with blessings come trials and that night Gabriella started throwing up after her cousins also had been sick all day and to date Brian, Grandma, Megan, Uncle Jonathon and I have all been sick. Ugh! Brian was up all night last night throwing up and Gabriella is just now starting to feel better. Rough weekend! So grateful for the blessings and we will just ignore the other crappy events. Here are also some family photos we took last week. Thanks uncle Jesse!

Happy Halloween!!

I know its a little early but we got a really great picture of Gabriella that I wanted to share with everyone. Its pretty spooky!

Its been a while..

I am a horrible blogger. I was on a role there for a couple of months and I have just kind of given up for the time being. I will try to revive my earlier excitement but no promises. Gabriella is sleeping and that gives me a break to do some things that I have been putting off. First things first though let me update you on our lives.. um.... uh... Okay so not much is going on. Probably the most exciting thing is that last night my little girl actually slept through the night. This is the first time in quite some time that this has happened. Of course she woke up for the day at 6:30 so I still feel quite exhausted. She had her 15 month doctors appointment which confirmed all of our suspicions. She is tall and skinny. To be more exact she still has yet to hit 21 pounds and is 31 inches tall. This puts her in the 75% for height and the 15% for weight. Crazy eh? Who would have thought? I would follow this entry with pictures but alas my camera is a big steaming pile of ick and I cannot get pictures off my camera onto my computer at this juncture. Honestly I need a new camera. Anyone have any suggestions on a good one?
And can I just say how wonderful Conference was!! I even got to watch some of it thanks to my dear husband entertaining the little one. So nice to sit and listen to inspired leaders. I am filled with hope that maybe I will survive these toddler years after all..

Megs and Gabs

Gabby also got to spend time with her other favorite aunt Megan. Here are some cute pics from their adventures. Also please note picture with Gabriella talking on the phone. She is such a big girl!

New blog post.. finally!

It has been a while since I have posted and I apologize. It has been a couple crazy weeks with Brian starting school and all that fun stuff. Currently Gabriella and I are both sicky poo and are producing enough snot to make any veteran booger wiper queasy. She is walking and climbing like a champ. Last night she managed to squeeze herself into a shelf in our bookcase and climb onto the table. Heck yes I am frightened. It appears that I have a monkey child... ugh. Its all fun and games until she falls off something and breaks something. Lets pray that never happens. Gabriella got to spend some time with her aunt Lindsey this weekend. Here are pics.

First Hair Cut!!

Gabriella just had her first hair cut courtesy of Aunt Jessica. I think she looks lovely but I just cant get over how big she is getting. Here is a before and after picture. (please disregard black eye)

Olympic withdrawals

Ill just come right out and say it "I Love the Olympics". Honestly I have had so much fun watching the last few weeks and I am already quite depressed that it is almost over. I have always been somewhat of an athletic person and there is just something about watching those hard bodies that gets my blood pumping and makes me want to work out and sweat. I will miss you Michael Phelps, Nastia Lukin, May and Walsh, Logan Tom and all those others who have entertained me over the last few weeks.(until 2012)

Black eye and some other memories

Gabriella is officially the recipient of her first black eye. It was quite traumatic and sad but she does indeed have a nice shiner on her. Even though I feel like a horrible parent I felt like I should share this moment and a few others that have happened lately. Mostly there are just some really cute things that she has been doing so I thought I would share. Oh and no I did not give her the black eye. She bent over to pick something up at aunt Jessicas house and smacked her face on the coffee table.
Cute thing #1: Since Gabriella has started walking she likes to challenge herself by walking over large or small rocks and trying out stairs and also walking down steep dirt trails. We have a set of 4 stairs in front of our house that she was determined to learn to walk up and down. The other day she and I were going down the steps and the minute we were down the 4 steps she would turn aroun and try to walk up them. She did this back and forth (with my help) at least a dozen times. I dont know if this means she is just very determined or just really easily entertained. Ill take either.
Cute thing #2: When she wants something she has taken to pointing and twisting her hand back and forth for emphasis. We caught on pretty fast and are pretty good at getting her what she wants. She is a good teacher.
Cute thing #3: Gabriella has this darling little chair that she loves to sit in and in fact her favorite thing is to pile all of her toys or anything that is interesting to her on the chair and then try to sit on top of it all. Its pretty hilarious and in fact at the moment she is sitting on my shoes, a pacifier and a little squeaky dog. Good times!
Cute thing #4: At the sand pit this afternoon Gabriella was playing and throwing dirt around and having a wonderful time on her own. She had wandered to the other side of the sand area and found a little toy car. She immediately turned and looked at me and walked over to me as fast as she could holding the car out in front of her to show me the neat thing she found. She handed it to me and then held her hand out for me to give it back to her so she could play with it. How darling though that she wanted to show me her treasure first. So cute!
Cute thing #5: She loooooves puppy dogs and the minute she sees one or something equally as fuzzy or furry she pants like a dog and points. Its darling and another reminder that she is basically a genius.
Those are just a few of the darling things our little girl has done in the past couple of days that remind me how smart, fun and beautiful she is. Im a lucky mommy! (here are some pics of the black eye.. kinda hard to tell but if you look closely its there)

New Mexico and the Zoo

So we just got back from New Mexico last night for a quick trip to visit Brians family and to go to his sisters baby shower. It was great being there but I gotta tell you the drive was hellish. Virtually the trip from hell. Never ever will I drive farther then two hours away with a small toddler again. If I ever mention that I am taking a road trip please remind me how much it sucks. It was 10 hours of almost constant crying and general fussiness and not just from Gabriella either. I think I contributed a little myself. So while we love to visit family I think from now on we will see if we can fly and if not maybe a motor home so Gabriella can be running laps while we drive. While we are in Albuquerque we took the kids to the zoo which they really enjoyed as did us parents. I havent been to a zoo in ages so it was pretty neat to see all those furry babies. Here are the pics!

Fun with mom in the creek

Megan and I took Gabriella to play in the creek and sand again today and of course she loved it. I think we actually have a couple of pictures of us together thanks so Megan so I will go ahead and post those seeing as they are quite rare. Gabriella is supposedly taking a nap at the moment but I keep hearing her squeal and talk to herself. She keeps up a running dialogue all day long and has become quite impatient and demanding at times but is mostly just darling. Everywhere we go people are just tickled by her and her sweet smile. What a cutie pie! Im just so lucky to have her. Here are the pics.

Beach Volleyballer in the making....

Okay so she didnt actually play any volleyball or do anything besides play in the sand but I could tell that she really wished she could. One day little Gabriella... one day. The sand she is playing in is in this darling little park that I just took her to and all the little kids that you see around her were just playing but they were sweet enough to share with Gabriella and try to coax her into smiling into the camera. It finally worked and I got it on tape so enjoy. They also made some sand piles for her and instead of smashing them as you would assume a small child would she gently poked them with her finger. So funny! Gabriella absolutely loves it outside and squeals and laughs every time she gets to walk around or play in the grass or water in the creek. She cries and is so sad whenever we have to come back inside but since she is usually so tuckered out by the time we get home she does take some mighty good naps. Here are the latest pics and videos.