I'm a Bella

Okay, for all you Twilight Fans this is kind of fun. I saw this on someone elses blog and had to try it. I turned out to be a Bella. John took the quiz and his results showed that he is a Jasper. Which character are you? Who do you think your spouse would be?

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!


Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

Cheap Gas

I filled my car up with gas yesterday for $2.05 a gallon!
It feels like the dropping gas prices are the only good thing coming out of the messy economy right now.

Cousins

I just found this video of Gabe, Adyson, Zoe & Alex playing at Ryan & Kellianne's wedding. It's cute to see all of them playing together . . . well, until Gabe kicks Adyson in the head. He was such a beast that night! I wish we could all be together more often!

10 Things I Love About Gabe Right Now

1. Talking: He has started to say so many things and he's always amazing me with the things he says. One of my favorite things right now is when he calls me "honey." He'll often exclaim, "Awwwwww, Huuuuney!" It wasn't until he started saying it that I realized how often I call both him and John "honey."
2. Pretending: He is starting to pretend more and more. Right now the game we are playing is "eating cake." Gabe will get a spatula out of the kitchen, scoop up a slice of cake out from underneath the kitchen rug, then bring it to John or I to eat.
3. Church: He's a handful at church right now . . . no, correct that, he's always been . . . but, we have gotten a few good laughs out of it lately. He loves to lead the music in sacrament meeting and clap when the singing is over. A couple weeks ago John was saying the prayer in sacrament meeting and Gabe happily yelled, "Daddy! Daddy!" throughout the prayer. He does the same thing when John sings in the choir or helps out with a baby blessing. Notice a pattern? We're working on the whole being quiet in church thing. He also loves nursery! Last week, the instant amen was said for the closing prayer Gabe started jumping up and down shouting, "Nursery! Nursery!" I love that he loves nursery!
4. Books: He is still a little boy that loves to be read to. He's also started reading books to us, which is very entertaining. His favorite books still involve tractors, dirt, cars or airplanes. And he finishes a book by saying, "amen."
5. Outside: Gabe would be outside all day long if I let him. He loves playing at the park, going for walks, etc. Today it's been raining all day so I've had to find some activities to keep him busy. Note the finger painting pictures from today!
6. Imitating: He's into imitating almost anything John or I do. Wearing hats, carrying purses, putting on makeup, shaving, cooking, doing laundry, etc. (Just yesterday he started the washing machine all by himself.) However, a couple of days ago John and I realized it wasn't just us he's imitating, but things he sees on TV as well. We watched "A Christmas Story" last Sunday. You know the movie about Ralphy and the Red Rider BB gun? Remember the part where the mom tries to get the younger brother to eat his dinner? The kid won't eat so she has him pretend to be a piggy and eat his food like a pig by putting his face right in the food and snarfing it up. So Gabe totally dug into his lasagna the other night just like a little piggy! Wow! It's amazing the things they see and remember!
7. Hugs & Kisses: Gabe gives the best hugs and kisses! Who wouldn't love that?
8.  Nap time & Bedtime:  Gabe takes a pretty good nap everyday and doesn't complain about going down very often.  He also goes to bed so easily as long as we stick to his schedule.  As much as I love the dear boy, I cherish nap time and bedtime so I can have a little time to myself.  Speaking of that, he just woke up from his nap, so this post is now going to be titled: 8 Things I love about Gabe!

Pumpkins or "Punkins" as Gabe would say

I've been talking to Gabe about Halloween lately. We've been practicing saying "Trick or Treat," spotting pumpkins, etc. So last night for Family Night we took Gabe to the pumpkin patch to buy our pumpkins. He was so excited that he was going to get a pumpkin! (He keeps trying to take pumpkins off other people's porches.) So we get to the pumpkin patch and it had just closed! We drove down the street to another one and it was closed too. Bummer! No pumpkins for Family Night. John was home from work this morning so we went and got our pumpkins bright and early. Gabe had a ball running around all the pumkins, kicking them, and knocking them over. When we got home he didn't want to leave his pumpkin outside on the porch, he wanted to take it inside and eat it. Well, that wasn't happening. All our pumpkins, including Gabes, are on our front porch anxiously awaiting the day their guts will be scraped out with a spoon.

French Onion Soup

I tried this recipe for dinner last night and it was so yummy! Even John really liked it and he doesn't like French Onion Soup.

2 tbs butter
5 medium red onions, thinly sliced
3 cans (14 oz) chicken broth (6 cups)
1 can (14 oz) beef broth (2 cups)
1/4 cup grape juice
1 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
salt
black pepper

1. Melt butter in large pot over med-high heat. Add the onions and 1/2 tsp salt. Stir to coat the onions thoroughly with butter.
2. Cook, stirring frequently, until onions are reduced and syrupy, 20-30 minutes. The bottom of the pot will be coated with a brown crust. Adjust your heat to make sure this is browned and not burned.
3. Sitr in the chicken and beef broths, grape juice, parsley, thyme and bay leaf. Scrape the bottom of the pot to loosen all the yummy brown bits. Simmer 20 minutes.
4. Stir in balsalmic vinegar and season with salt and pepper if needed.
5. Serve topped with croutons and lots of cheese. If your bowls are oven safe place them under the broiler for 5 minutes to melt and crisp the cheese for a nice finish.

Family Pictures

The other day I attempted to get family pictures of John, Gabe and myself. What an ordeal!
We all got dressed in our color coordinated clothes and the warning was given - "Don't Get Dirty!" So naturally John gave Gabe a cup of orange juice without a lid on it. I hurried and swapped it for a sippy cup so we didn't end up with OJ on his clothes. So we swap the cups and I kid you not on his first drink from the sippy cup he gags and coughs OJ all over his outfit. Okay, no biggy he's two let's just spot his shirt and get the pictures taken before anything else happens. Well somehow John ended up with cherry Crystal Light on his shirt! So he runs to the laundry room to treat the stain and came out a couple minutes later with a wet spot on his shirt saying, "See, it'll be fine. I used that little pen thingy to treat it." I started to laugh because the only "pen thing" we have in the laundry room is a bleach pen. So he totally bleached his blue shirt! So much for color coordinated outfits . . . oh well.
Our next problem was we were taking pictures in between conference sessions so we were on a two hour time limit. So we couldn't deal with clothing issues any longer, we had to get out the door and get the pictures taken. We got the the State Park where I wanted to have our pictures taken and everyone else in Ohio was there too. No biggy, just ironic that every other time we've been there the place has been deserted and today we were tripping over people as we walked down the trail. The place I wanted to take pictures I remembered being just a short walk from the parking lot . . . my memory was a little off because I think we walked for almost a mile before just picking a different spot. So now we were all nice and sweaty, Gabe was screaming because he just wanted to play in the river, and John was freaking out because I made us leave the trail and go down by the river for our pictures despite all of the stay on the trail signs. Anyway, I just don't think the stars were correctly aligned that day for us. We took a few pictures, none of which turned out great, and then decided to just bag it and try again another day. John and I were getting frustrated with each other, Gabe was not happy being forced to sit still, and we wanted to get back home to listen to conference, so we had to just say oh well. Here's some of the pictures we did take and hopefully soon we'll have some better pics to share.

Scary Story

I'm starting to think some of Gabe's toys are possessed by demons that think it's funny to scare me. Here's my freaky toy stories.

Case #1: One night John was working late so I was home alone. Gabe was in bed, the house was silent, all the lights were off, doors locked and I was sitting in the front room at the computer when from the kitchen I hear a woman's voice say, "Won't you come play with me?" I freaked out! Someone was in our house! I jumped up and turned on all the lights I could expecting to see someone standing in the kitchen, but no one was there! No, it turned out to be Gabe's toy car that sings songs, recites the alphabet, and apparently now gets lonely late at night in the dark! Freaky little car. While Gabe was playing with the hose this summer he started hosing down the freaky car. At first I stopped him, thinking if you get the car wet . . . it won't work anymore. So, naturally I let him continue to hose down the car. Pretty soon it was making sick computer gurgling garbled death noises and then it quit making noise all together . . . Ding, dong the witch is dead! About a day later, it started talking again.

Case #2: A few months ago John and I were both awoken from a dead sleep by the tune "Here we go Luby Loo, Here we go luby lye, Here we go Luby Loo, all on a Saturday night." We both sat straight up in bed because we knew exactly where that music was coming from! It was one of Gabe's toy cars again. The thing that freaked us out about this car is the fact that it is motion activated. Meaning SOMEONE has to walk past it in order for it to make noise! So we get up and do a search of the house trying to find the car and trying to find whatever made it go off . . . okay, okay, John searched the house, while I stayed where scardy cats stay, in bed. Alas, the search resulted in nothing, not even the car. Hmmmm. Mysterious.
(We found the car the next morning in our closet.)

Case #3: Last night at the lovely hour of 3AM I was again awoken by the sound of one of Gabe's toys! What's going on with the toys in our house??? This time it was his fire truck. Weee wooo weee wooo wee wooo. John slept through this one. Well, he slept through it until I woke him up to search the house! Again, nothing. Just demonic toys. Did I mention you have to push a button to make the fire truck make that noise? Does anyone else ever get freaked out by their kids toys or is it just me?