November/December misc.

Since so many things in the past few months have not been blogged about, here is my attempt to get a few representative pictures up from November and December so I can call myself caught up, and move on with things finally!

My friend Allison came to visit during Thanksgiving Break, and one night we went to dinner with our old friend, Jenny. Gabby accompanied us on our "girls night out" and had the time of her life with Allison and Jenny. She LOOOVED spending time with them, and really, I might as well have not even been there for all she cared. It was adorable. Here we are walking into the restaurant...she wanted both of them to hold her hands.


Gabby went to a Little Mermaid/Pirate party in November for Sophie, a friend from dance class. Since this was her second dress-up party at Kreative Kidz, she now thinks that each party requires a specific character theme and costumes. Each time we go to a birthday party she asks, "Is this gonna be an Ariel party or something else? What the costumes gonna be??" Here is the goofy smile she kept giving me that day:

Finley went too...and the princess theme suited her perfectly!

Two silly girls...and AGAIN with that goofy smile:

One day after dance, Gabby disappeared for a while and I noticed it was a little too quiet. When I went to her room, THIS is what I discovered. She pulled ALL of her Pull-Ups out of the box in the closet and was hard at work, arranging them across the floor. I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture, but she has them totally arranged according to the designs on them.

We went to the Lights at Legacy at the Shops at Legacy for their holiday festivities and tree-lighting. The high point of the afternoon was watching a group of young girls (early teens, I think) perform solos on one of the stages for their dance company. The girls were FABULOUS (especially for their age) and Gabby adored watching them do their routines. Here we are afterwards having dinner at Half Shells:

All the pretty lights!


I am amazed we got not one, but TWO pictures with GENUINE (not CHEESY) smiles!!

Before the end of Thanksgiving Break, I tried to get a cute picture of Gabby in front of our tree to round out the trio I needed for our Christmas cards. As you can see, getting a decent smile out of her is a challenge. Attempt #1:

Attempt #2:

Attempt #3:

Attempt #4:

As you probably know, I went with #4 for the card...cheesy, but still cute. And actually, Attempt #1 is actually just one representative of about 17 similar pictures, where Gabby is smiling so hard her eyes are closed. She didn't understand why I kept asking to take ONE MORE PICTURE so each time I had to show her the preview on my camera to show her that her eyes were still closed.

We went to several birthday parties in December! Erin from daycare turned two, Ava from daycare also turned two (although Gabby had a fever so we had to miss), Brayden turned one (his parents are friends of ours), and Caitlin turned two (her parents are friends from work). We are lucky to know so many great families and to have so many opportunities for Gabby to spend time playing with friends. Here she is at Erin's cupcake decorating party:

In November and December we had some unseasonably warm days, so we spent some time on the trail by the lake in our neighborhood. The trail goes all around the border of our town, and it is a perfect 2.5 mile walk from the entry point in our subdivision down to a little duck pond, and back again. We take the stroller so Gabby doesn't have to walk the whole way (mostly because the round trip would take us 4 to 6 hours) but she LOVES to run and play for as much time as we will let her. Here is the part of the trail that is right down the street from our house:

Feeding the ducks. Gabby learned the difference between "boy ducks" and "girl ducks" and each time she tossed out a piece of cracker, she would watch to see who ate it and then announce, "that boy duck ate my cracker" or "that girl duck ate my cracker"

You can't see them all in this picture, but there are TONS of ducks!

I LOOOOOVE these pictures! The quality isn't great because I took them on my phone, but I love the expressions.

I will admit...I spent a good bit of December feeling stressed and anxious because we seemed to have more holiday parties, birthday parties, and other assorted events than we usually do during the holiday season. I felt like I was spending all of my time either rushing off somewhere, or preparing food to bring to something. While in the midst of everything I felt like I was too busy to stay on top of things, but looking back, I had some really good times this month with some great friends.

I got to go to mutiple work parties and birthday parties, met The Pioneer Woman with Melody and Jennifer (more to come later on that one), went to a cookie exchange at my friend Christina's, a holiday party at my friend/co-worker Mary's house, a graduation party for my friend/co-worker Vonda (while David babysat Gabby AND Olivia...their evening was totally adorable and hilarious), met Melody to see New Moon (and Chalna, I TOTALLY get the Jacob-love now), visited my parents in San Diego for Christmas, had a playdate with Chalna and Colin, and rang in the new year with a bunch of great families at Sean and Christina's house (and yes, our crazy little girl stayed up till MIDNIGHT!!). David and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary (we have been together for TWELVE years now!) as well as Gabby's 3rd birthday. It was a fabulous end to the year, and hopefully 2010 can be just as great!