Bear Lake

Sorry that this post has taken so long for me to get loaded. It has a ton of pictures from our camping trip and we have been busy at home.

Gabbie playing with her dads matching hat...

eating an orange for the first time...

sitting up by myself...

everyone munching before dinner....

Missie and Justin enjoying the lake...

Nate and Gabbie playing the guitar...

Gabs and mom watching the water...

playing in the really cold water...

watching everyone else freeze in the lake...

experimenting with my hat...

playing...

Gabbie decided to sit down in the water so we are checking out the damage...

Gabs finally fell asleep after we went for a walk...

Grandpa drying off...

Missie and Justin enjoying time together with their girls playing in the foreground...how cute!

giving up on the water...it was just way too cold.

Kyle made into a mermaid...

Gabbie saying hello to daddy...

cleaning off daddy's mouth after Gabbie gave him some dirt to eat...

the start of burying...

eating some pancakes...yum!

Grandpa and Lydia playing in the water...

Daddy cleaning himself off after being buried...

Gabbie and Mommy's first boat ride...

Missie and her cute little girls on their first boat ride...

Gabs and Mommy...

Daddy is so excited for me to go on the boat...

Uncle Nate or Jake on the banana...

Kyle and Aunt Nan after they had fallen off...

Daddy driving the boat...

We had a ton of fun camping with the Christensen family. Gabbie had many 'firsts' on this trip. We can't wait to go camping with our Campbell family at the beginning of August.

Lagoon

This past week we got to go camping with Kyle's family. We started off the trip by stopping at Lagoon for the day. It was just me and Gabs since Kyle had to work, but he was able to come join us at night.

This is Gabbie and Kyle in the pool at the complex. She looks so cute in her blue swimsuit.
Don't they look alike?

While at Lagoon, Gabs and I needed to take a break so we found this quiet secluded place and just sat down to relax. It was very peaceful. Here we are playing with the camera during that time.
I went on this ride with Kyle's brother Nathan earlier in the day and as soon as it stopped, I told him that was one ride he would have to ride by himself if he wanted to ride it again. My stomach just couldn't handle the continual drops. Here everyone is riding it and I'm watching.
Kim and RaeAnna were on one side pretending they were going to throw up as there side went down...if you notice towards the bottom of the picture, Jake (kyle's little brother) is sitting all by himself.

Jake chilling by himself. He literally flew off the ride and ran down the path to get on again for this ride with everyone else. And Anita, Lydia and Nate all sat on the opposite side in the second row. Lydia was so proud that she rode all the rides in the park with her hands up in the air.

Gabbie playing with her Aunt Lydia and her lion toy. Uncle Jake and Gabbie in the motor home on the way to Lagoon.

Aunt Lydia and Cousin Millie

Uncle Jake, Cousin Maddie, Aunt Missie, and Cousin Millie riding a way cool ride.

Gabs on her first ride around the carousel.

It was fun to spend the day with the family at Lagoon. I can't wait till Gabs is big enough to be able to ride some stuff. Next time we will definitely have to make sure Kyle can come with us. It's not as fun without him.

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.