Ready for Hawaii

Gabby was so excited to go to Hawaii she put on her beach shoes, hat, and got her bucket. She said she needed her purse for the beach, too.

Welcome Maggie Leigh!

Jennifer and David welcomed Maggie Leigh at 9am this morning. She's only 6lbs and 18 1/2 inches, but she is 5 weeks early. Baby and mom are doing great. She's a little doll!

Gabby and David decided that is would be fun to make "snow angels" in the hospital room.

Christmas 2007

Gabby had a fabulous Christmas and got more than enough presents.

Gabby opened one present on Christmas Eve from Grandma and Grandpa DeVaux. It was cooking supplies. She was really excited to have an oven mitt and apron. I made her wait until the next day to make cookies.

Gabby's pile of presents from Santa

Gabby had a hard time going to sleep and an even harder time waking up. Nick forced her out of bed at 8:30. She was really excited about the Tootsie Roll Pops in her stocking.

Gabby in her new Sleeping Beauty costume.

Gabby with all her presents.

Christmas 2006

I was getting my video camera ready for tomorrow and I realized that I had some video from last year(yes, I definitely need to video more!). So I hope this posts ok. I can't believe how much Gabby has changed in a year. We spent Christmas with all the DeVauxs. Notice that in the background Madison is still opening gifts and everyone else has been done for a while. Merry Christmas!

Gabby & David

Gabby loves having David over to play. He came over on Thursday while Jenny was at the hospital (she's fine and home).

They enjoyed a bath together. David thought it was really funny to dump water on Gabby. Gabby didn't like it so much.

David stayed late, so I loaned him some of Gabby's jammies. These were the least girly that I could find. He's holding dresses for the dolls he was playing with. I'm not sure how soon David will be allowed back!

I think he looked kind of cute in Gabby's jammies.

Happy Birthday David! David's party was today. Gabby was gracious enough to assist David in opening his presents and blowing out his candles. It was a fun party and David got tons of great gifts.

Gabby Loves Her Bath!

Gabby will spend up to an hour every day in the bath (some days she'll take 2). There is a very intricate set of rules involving all her ducks. Normally, Green Ducky and Blue Ducky are not allowed in the tub (I haven't figured out what they did to be banished, but she throws them out and yells at them if I try to sneak them in). The pink duck is Mamma Duck and the big yellow duck is Daddy Duck. The duck with swim goggles is Super Ducky. There are baby ducks that are often in time out. Super Ducky does a lot of rescuing. It's pretty funny to listen to her go through all the duck drama.

On this day, she made a train out of her letters for all the animals. I can only assume that Green and Blue Ducky were allowed on the train since it was technically not in the tub.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

We got our Christmas tree last week and Gabby loved decorating it. She would put the ornaments in a couple of spots.

Christmas makes me a little crazy sometimes, too!

It snowed about 6 inches on Saturday. Gabby enjoyed throwing snowballs at me while I shoveled the walk and driveway(that is some hard work to do!)

I love this outfit on Gabby. I just got her the boots. For some reason, she wears the hat with this outfit. She won't any other hats, but she loves this one.

Gabby's Gingerbread House

I bought a gingerbread house kit (I am no where near brave enough to attempt to make one from scratch) and Gabby and I have been working on it. The roof won't quite stay on so we've had to prop it up with bowls. Gabby loves putting the candy on it. It's a continual work in progress.

Chuck E. Cheese

While the men were at the BYU/Utah game on Saturday, we went to Chuck E. Cheese. Gabby was very excited to go and had a blast with her cousins.

This "ride" didn't work but Gabby liked sitting in the chair to take a rest every now and then

Savannah, Kaitlyn, and Gabby going for a spin

Grandma Carla and Gabby

Kaitlyn, Savannah, and Gabby tried to do a lot together, but they didn't always quite fit

Gabby's Portraits

Gabby had her portraits done on Saturday. She was pretty cooperative and we got some good shots.

This is Gabby with her own artwork. She'd colored pictures for Jenny and David and brought them along.

This is Gabby's "silly face."


You wouldn't believe what it took to get her to put her hands like that and keep her legs crossed. Wonder of wonders, she actually smiled nicely after all the wrestling.

This one was my favorite

For some reason she always looks angry when she smells a flower.

I've been tagged!

Marji tagged me.
A. Each player has to list 6 facts/habits about themselves
B. At the end of the post, the player tags 3 people and posts their names

1. I sleep late most mornings. Gabby gets up between 7 and 8 and comes to my bed. I put on a show for her and snuggle with her for up to an hour and doze off. I justify it by knowing that I won't do this forever and by giving myself a hard work out at the gym each morning. If I try to get up, Gabby does get upset so it's really at her insistence. Some days, she gets angry if I'm out of my jammies too early and demands that I put them back on and lay with her.

2. I read a lot, usually a book a week. I also go through the entire paper each day (I even glance through the obits). I read a little bit of everything bookwise. Since I've got an mp3 player on my phone, I listen to a lot of books now. I listen to books while I lift weights and clean the house. If I'm not running on the treadmill(i.e. using the elliptical, bike, or stair climber) I actually read while I do my cardio. This really helps pass the time but it's too hard while I run.

3. I LOVE talk radio. When I'm not listening to a book, it's because I'm listening to Rush and Dr. Laura and sometimes Glenn Beck. Some days, I listen for 6 hours straight while I'm doing stuff around the house and always if I'm in my car.

4. I take scalding hot showers. I don't know if it's from so many years of tepid showers growing up and never being the first in, but I have to have my showers super hot. If I feel the water cool at all, I adjust the heat. The scalding water just always feel like such a luxury.

5. My worst habit is nail-biting. I fell off the wagon about a year ago or so. They're even too short to get fake nails on. Gabby even stops me from biting them and says, "Mommy, don't do dat!". That's what Nick says to me, too. I hate how my hands look with short nails, but it sure is hard to quit! I don't even realize I'm doing it half the time.

6. I love buying new make up and playing with it. I scour the clearance racks any time I'm at any store looking for the good deals. I usually can't wait for the next day to try it out. If it's a new lipstick, I have to put it on as soon as I get to the car. I'm the biggest sucker for make up on clearance, even if it's a color I don't like, it'll be fun just to try.

I tag Jenny, Marcie, and Oscar (y'all are the only other bloggers I know that Marji didn't tag ;) )

SUPER GABBY!

We had our Ward Halloween Party on Saturday. Gabby fell in love with this costume at the store. We put it on in the store and it has only come off for her church clothes (that was under duress of course). She's been sleeping in it and refuses to wear anything else. She "flies" around all day being Super Gabby.

Our Trip to the Big Island

Nick miraculously had 8 days off in a row so we decided to make the most of them and head to the Big Island of Hawaii. It was very different from the other islands but we really enjoyed our time there.

This is on top of Mauna Loa (14,000 ft thus the coats). There are several telescopes on the peak

Hawaii has the most active volcano in the world. We took a 4 mile hike in to see the volcano. Those aren't clouds, that's the steam billowing out of the volcano. We really wanted to see some lava, but it's not accessible right now.

This was the "trail" to the volcano. It was pretty rough and wound straight through the rain forest. It was technically closed, but we went anyway. It was really fun treking through the jungle.

Hawaii has several black sand beaches. This is one we visited.

We spent a day touring the Volcano National Park. That's a crater behind us caused from an explosion in the 1800's.

We stayed in a condo in Kona. This was our view. One of the few beaches was just to the left of our condo, we spent most of our time there.

We went scuba diving one morning. The waters off Kona are supposed to be some of the best since no rivers flow in the ocean on that side. We did 2 hour long dives at about 40 feet. We saw a lot of sea life.

The Kona Temple

This is me on top of Mauna Loa, we were higher than the clouds!

October with Gabby

Gabby and "Jack"

I carved a jack-o-lantern last week and he has become Gabby's new best friend. She worries about him being cold outside on our porch. She has to give Jack a kiss whenever we leave and a kiss when we return. She's really quite twitter-pated with him.

Gabby is my little helper in the kitchen. She helped make cookies. She adds the ingredients and has to be the one to turn on the mixer.

Of course, she also has to test to make sure the cookies are ok.

Madison and Gabby--BFF

Gabby and Madison were so happy to spend some time together and so sad when they had to separate. Gabby keeps asking when we're going back on the airplane so we can go to Maddy's house. Maddy took good care of Gabby while we were there.

Madison made sure Gabby was good and clean.

Madison then did Gabby's hair

Snow White and Tinkerbell

Dallas and the Twins

Gabb and Maddy found a cool place to hang out

Me and pretty Kaylee

Me and handsome Matthew

Sister Pic!

This was the best shot I could get of the kids, they were to excited to be together to be still!