Birthday

The birthday party: the obligitory (Sp?) cake in the face picture
The cupcakes I made for the party:

This is the roof of a restaraunt we like downtown called Gators Croc and Roc. You can just make out the famous ball from the Dallas skyline to the right of Gabe's head. We ate there for lunch on Wednesday.

Yesterday was about 80 degrees so we enjoyed spending some time outside.

This is Gabe on his new playset. He LOVES the slide and is fearless going down whichever way he happens to be facing.

Climbing up the slide with a little help from momma

Big grin!

More to come!

Gabe video

Hooray for Gabe!

My dad wanted to see some pictures taken with our new camera today. I told him that Gabe hadn't done anything "picture-worthy" in the last couple of days. Well, that all changed tonight. For some reason, Gabe decided tonight that he was going to clap. And clap he did, for quite awhile. However, new camera and all, we were unable to get a very good picture of this. Nonethless, here he is in all his glory.

And another beautiful smile for your enjoyment. Aint he the cutest? (if you view this picture larger, please ignore the snot wiped all over his face) He is currently in his bed crying (at 8:10PM). He usually goes to bed good, so I'm not sure what's up tonight. I know he's not feeling really great. Hopefully he'll settle down soon. He had a pretty good day playing with the big boys.

Gabe's favorite things

Well, this will be the last batch of pictures with our old camera. May it rest in peace. I got so frustrated sometimes with it because it would not take the picture when I wanted it to. Maybe the light wasn't right, or it wasn't focused properly, but my theory is that it was just out to get me. For instance - take this first picture. Prior to these pictures, Gabe was actually laying his head on the cat's back. OK - now this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Linus actually allowed this for the entire time it took me to get the camera, put the battery in and turn it on. I pushed the button to take the picture and what happened? IT WOULD NOT TAKE. And of course then Gabe moved. Sigh... Gotta love the look of annoyance on Linus' face.

Here is the 11 month picture of Gabe with his elephant. The only way I could get him to hold still was to give him the remote control. He did NOT want to sit for this picture.

His latest craze for whatever reason is sitting in the sink. He LOVES to sit in the sink while brushing his teeth. This was actually prior to his bath (hence the nakedness - sorry Gabe). I just thought this was too funny not to share.

And finally, just a cute picture of Gabe in his camo pants and some new shoes. We need to get a better shirt to pair with these pants, but this one did nicely

Nathan and I got to go out tonight. We had a new babysitter from the seminary and Gabe did great! We are looking forward to a busy month with seminary and some fun times with friends. Gabe's birthday is coming up and several grandparents will be coming. He will also be getting dedicated at church. We're so grateful for the blessings of family and friends!

The latest ice storm hits our little tree (and every other tree in the neighborhood.) This is from a couple of weeks ago, but I'm a little behind on posting pictures

Hopefully this is as close to a "winter wonderland" as we will get this year!

Here are just a couple of pictures from our recent trip to KY. We had some time to kill on the way to dinner and then the airport, so we decided to put Gabe's hand on a plate. He wasn't sure what to make of the blue stuff getting painted on his hand!

He did pretty well! He tried to curl up his fingers, but luckily it didn't do much damage to the overall look.

Here is Nathan and our nephew Jake. I thought this was a pretty good picture of both of them.

Cousins Katie, Jake, and Gabe. Not a great picture, but I didn't want to leave Katie out. =

A few pictures from our recent trip to the zoo. Gabe liked the penguins and they were cooperating quite nicely by coming up close to the glass.

Gabe seemed slightly afraid of all of these animal statues, so he would not sit on it by himself. So here we are together!

Trip to the zoo

New year, first trip to the zoo! Well, this was his first trip to the Dallas Zoo anyway. He had been to the Cincinnati Zoo and the Fort Worth Zoo. We were the first ones of the year to buy anything from the gift shop! (his hat). He didn't have a hat that was big enough and we were trying to keep his ears covered up. It's nice that he is big enough now to really enjoy the animals. It was a little cool (45/50 degrees) while we were there, but not too bad. The bigger he gets, the more he'll enjoy it!

Dec. 26th and 27th

Present from Uncle Matt (above)

Present from Aunt Abby (above)

Present from Ryan and Michael Graham (the boys that I nanny for)

Gabe always wants to go outside! Look at that face!

OK, Gabe...we'll go outside

My baby is 10 months old today! Look at those long legs! Where did those come from?