Playing at our new house

We love our new house so much! Gabbie has been moving all over the place. I'll put her down on her stomach beside me at the computer and then the next time I look down she's on the other side of the room playing with the binders on the bottom shelves of our bookshelves.

On one such day, I look down to find that she had flipped herself over until she could reach the modem cord. Her she is playing with it before I took it away from her.

I cannot get over how much she looks just like her daddy. She is getting so big, so fast.

Just wanted to share this picture that pretty much captures the personality of our little girl...

We are so blessed to have found the apartment that we did. We were sent here for a reason and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to find that out.

Da Da

Just a really quick update about Gabbie....She said her first word this morning as we were getting ready for church. We were playing on the bed and she started to do her 'talking' so I helped her along by saying 'da da' over and over again until she said it herself. It was a great feeling to actually be there for her first word. Kyle didn't believe that she had said it so we kept practicing until he heard her while taking a shower. When we tried to get her to say it with him in the room she got shy and kept turning her head to the side and laughing. She is growing up way too fast!

At her 6 month check-up she weighed 19 pounds and was 29 inches long. She is flipping over like crazy now that we have carpet everywhere instead of hard wood floors. Her new favorite thing to do is flip over onto her back then back to her belly over and over again until she reaches what she wants. Instead of trying to crawl, she will also lay on her back and push her feet into the floor so she scoots across the floor. It's fun to watch.

Our New Home

Everything is unpacked and mostly put away so I took some pictures to show everyone what our new home looks like.

Here is the view from the front room into our living room...

Our kitchen with a ton of cabinet space!!

The open living room, kitchen, dining room area. We love everything being so wide open. It makes life a lot easier.

The view down the hall into our bedroom...

The laundry room is the first room you come to in the hallway. It is really nice because we ended up having enough room to put our freezer. And who doesn't love washer and driers in the unit?
This is Gabbie's bathroom. It is also our guest bathroom.The next room is our office. We set it up so the desk was against one wall and the bookshelves full of our books were on the opposite wall. In between is a huge bay window.

Gabbie's room is next down the hall. It is the perfect size for her. We love being able to have her room full of just her stuff and nothing else. When we were living at the house, there was our stuff plus the owners things so it got a little crowded. Now her room doesn't have to be used for storage!

And our room ....we love having a bathroom right off the master room and a walk-in closet. These are luxuries that we haven't had before so it is really nice. That's the inside of the apartment. I hope you guys enjoyed it. We sure do love our new place!

My New Hobbies

Being home all day, I had to find something to amuse myself while Gabs was taking her naps. I decided to start some scrap booking/card making. Ever since I married Kyle I have wanted to give this 'crafty thing' a try but never had the courage. I could always explain it away with I had too much other stuff to do and not enough time. Well, that excuse doesn't really work anymore. Basically what it comes down to is that I was really intimidated. I have never been really crafty and I was worried that it would be a complete bomb and a waste of time.

However, I took the plunge this week and tried something new. My first project was to create a sort of frame for our Living Christ picture. We had this huge frame that hasn't been used since we bought it a year ago. Kyle thought it would be a good idea to use it for this if only we could do something with it so that there wasn't a ton of empty blank space in it. After he left for school, I got to work and came up with this....

It took a really long time and was very confusing at times but I am pleased with the outcome. I think I did pretty good for my first shot at something new.

The next project was to try my hand at card making. The girls in Kyle's side of the family have this card club they do every month where they make cards and trade them. RaeAnna has asked me to join a few times but I always said I didn't have time. So today when I was bored I decided to give it a chance and see if I totally sucked at it.

I made three cards, kind of using the cards Chelle sent me a while back and ones I've seen from Meshelle as my template, and ended up being pretty impressed. I mean there not anything great but I was happy with the way they turned out.

Maybe I can be a little bit more crafty than I thought. Any advice or encouragement from all you crafty people out there would be greatly appreciated.

Friends

Last Thursday Kyle and I went to lunch with some of my old roommates. We were all pregnant at about the same time. I had Gabbie in December, Meredith had Alyssa in February, and Megan had Claire in May.
Meredith and I have been friends since we were about 14-15 years old. We both got married the same year, only a couple of months apart. When we were younger and still living in Virginia, we planned out what we wanted our futures to be like. The plan was that we would both get married and be pregnant together. We also said something about being neighbors or something like that. Well, most of that has actually turned out the way we planned. Luckily we only live about 20 minutes away from each other (except as I am writing this she texts me and says she might be moving back to VA). Her daughter Alyssa is only 2 months younger than Gabs.

This is Megan. We met when we were roommates at BYU. Her husband Brian was in our ward as well so we are all pretty close and got to go through the relationship beginnings.
Their daughter Claire is so cute. She slept almost the entire time we were there so this is the only picture I have of her.

And here is my goofy daughter Gabriella. Sometimes she reminds me so much of her dad it is crazy. They have so many of the same habits already.

All three of us former roommates with our beautiful daughters.

I'm so glad that I got to live with these girls. They are really amazing. Good luck in your new homes guys. I will miss you.

Family Home Evening

Last week we had the opportunity to go to a park in Provo and enjoy dinner and Family Home Evening together. Kyle taught the lesson on the beauty of the Earth and how we have a responsibility to nourish and take of it. We were really glad to be able to spend this special time together as a family. Monday nights are really special.

Gabbie was playing with her feet and hands the entire time we were eating and having the lesson.

A picture of Kyle during the lesson.
Then we were off to play in the park. It was a first for Gabs because she hasn't really had the chance to be out and playing on the stuff at playgrounds, usually she just watches.

Here she is being very tough and climbing up the wall to get to the slide.

We had fun swinging together. She got really into the ride and at one point she was actually pushing her legs in and out just like me.

Kyle decided to give Gabbie a ride over to the playground right after she had eaten. It was a bouncy ride and she couldn't keep her food down. So she threw it up all over her dad's hair. I couldn't help but laugh, a lot. Kyle had to go dunk his head in the water fountain to try to get the spit up out of his hair. Luckily it was warm enough to do that.

Gabs, with the help of Daddy, climbed up the rock and posed for a few pictures. The wind was blowing a little bit and she kept turning her head the other way. She also really liked the texture of the rock.

A family picture on top of the playground.

We wanted to get a picture of Gabbie 'driving the car but she didn't want to cooperate so instead we have me driving it showing her what to do.

Kyle had more fun than Gabs I believe.

I can't wait to explore the parks around our new apartment. It's really nice to be able to get out and do something like that with the family. We are really lucky to be so close to some pretty cool parks.

Kickball

Every year at the end of the school year, there is a tradition in my school. The faculty must play the oldest kids in the school in a game of kickball. Usually the rules are completely unfair and there is no chance that the teachers can win. So for this year, the rules were changed. Both sides got to kick all the way through there team of 16 or so and no outs were counted. We were excited about these new rules. Now there was a chance. I surprised myself with how well I was able to play. I really thought I was going to be bad. Playing this simple game of kickball made me nostalgic for the days when I used to play softball and get to get down in the dirt after a ball. Those are some good memories.

I'm getting ready for the ball to come or I've already kicked it. I can't tell. Kyle took these pictures because he came to show me moral support.

Right after he got there, I get this pitch that I want to hit really bad, so bad in fact that I completely miss the ball and it rolls past me. It's unfortunate that he wasn't able to catch that in film ;)

Trying to catch the ball or something.

We all got decked out in these flame headbands and put war paint on our faces. We determined to have fun. The rest of the kids from 2-5 were sitting on the hill watching and either cheering on the teachers or the sixth graders. There were numerous times where I overhead the chant "Sixth grade rules, teachers suck!"

Our fearless leader, Kristie Nevins, tracking the score to make sure we knew what was going on.

Gabbie came with Daddy to watch me play. She really enjoyed it because tons of kids came up to her and were trying to play with her. It was really funny because one of my kids looked at her and asked if she was my baby. (they haven't seen her since she was about a month or two old). Then another one told me that he was talking with his mom the other night and told her that he thought chubby babies were the cutest. Then he said "so your baby is really cute!" I couldn't help but laugh.

Some sort of argument was going on. Sixth grade weren't very gracious losers.

I'm running in to home for the final point of the game. We kicked their trash but according to their score, they were tied when we went up for the last inning. So I guess if you look at it that way, I scored the winning run.

Our second grade team: Nicole Busch, Kate Bailey, Leslie Ewell, and me.

Running the bases after an awesome hit.

And one final picture of me decked out in my full gear for the game. I had a lot of fun playing. I pulled something in the last run that I did but after a few days I felt fine and am ready to start my new exercise program come Monday morning. (Moral support and encouragement would do wonders for making me stick to it:) )