Christmas Vacation

I've spent the last 2 Christmases in Utah. I've missed spending them with my family and was so excited to be back home this year. Unfortunately, my whole family wasn't together for the day, but I was glad to be away and be with some of my family. Gabby and I flew into Dallas which worked out great since I had my new niece, Averi Elizabeth to meet.

Gabby was very excited to meet her newest cousin. She loved holding her and sang her original songs as composed by Gabby.

Me, Averi, and Gabby before church

We spent a few days in Arkansas as well. It was great to be back home. My mom is quite the cook. She makes cinnamon bread wreaths every year to give to friends and let Gabby help her out a bit. They are to die for! Gabe and I could barely let my mom get them iced before tearing into them.

This was Gabe's first Christmas since getting home from his mission. He dug out a fun Christmas project from 2000, still a good fit! We had fun hanging out. He laughed at Gabby an awful lot though. I warned him that those traits he makes most fun of will be sure to turn up in his kids some day. Just ask Pam and Jenny!

My dad had me wrap one of Gabe's gifts one evening while Mom and Gabe were out. Dad didn't know where any labels were so he just had me go redneck and use a marker. Gabby was very offended that such a big gift wasn't for her. She found her own marker and tried to rectify the situation.

We drove back to Dallas on Christmas Eve. The weather prior to this picture was so pleasant. We even hit the 60's and I wore shirt sleeves. We even had a fabulous thunderstorm in Hot Springs on Wednesday night. It rained the whole drive down. Just before we made it to the Andersons, it began to snow. In Dallas, Texas. Y'all, my long-term blog followers, know my feelings about snow. I would have preferred that it stay warm, but it was cool to see how excited the kids and my Southern family was for it.

Gabby and I on Christmas Eve. Our family has the tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve before bedtime

Gabby had been worried about Santa finding her Texas. He came through and this was her Santa pile. We slept in this year until about 6am. My family, that is my siblings, have a tradition of getting up at 4am to open gifts. My parents could usually hold us off until 5am by insisting there was a fire going and they be served hot chocolate. I think that was always my favorite time when I was young at Christmas, the early hours of the morning just before the gifts were open. Marji was usually the first up and would wake us up. We'd run to the tree and I loved that feeling of magic from seeing all those gifts. Gabby is still a little young and I had to actually wake her up, but it was still great.

Gabby's main gift was a Nintendo DS. Madison has one and Gabby begs to play it every time she's over there. She was very happy to get the gift. In all honestly, it was a gift to me as well. Flying home was fabulous! She played her DS the whole flight. I actually was able to sleep and read my book. Gabby normally gets very offended if I sleep when we're flying and insists on seeing my eyeballs.

My parents gave me this gorgeous ring. I love it and am glad for some new bling! Still hate my hands though.

Gabby's Jingle Bell Rendition. Not knowing all the words doesn't stop her.

Gabby opening her DS.

We had a fabulous Christmas and I was glad to see my family and have a week off of work.

The Lists

We took Gabby and Madison to visit Santa last week.

Gabby gave Maddy the reindeer antlers a couple of weeks ago. They entertained each other while we waited in line.

I love how big Gabby smiled in this picture. What happened to my baby though? When did she get so grown up?

I had to laugh a the difference in the length of the girls' lists for Santa

Temple Square

Gabby and I went to Temple Square to see the lights on Friday. I didn't make it there with Gabby last year so it had been 2 years since she'd been. Gabby was really excited to go into the all the buildings there.

The North Visitors' Center has the Christus statue. Gabby was very impressed with it and the mural of the skies. Gabby has also taken up posing for her pictures. She wouldn't let me take any until she got her pose just right. We went and watched a showing of Luke 2. Gabby really enjoyed it. The sister missionaries followed it up by saying that they hoped we enjoyed the short movie. Gabby announced her approbation in a loud voice by saying, "That sure was a great movie!"

Gabby and I outside the temple

This was Gabby's favorite tree since it was all red and more cool poses.

Gabby has much cuter hats than this, but she stole this from me. That hat is actually about 8 years old. Her dad gave it to me after a trip to Yellowstone and then liked it so well, he took it over for himself. Gabby has since commandeered it since it is red and her favorite color and won't have anything to do with pink and purple hats. Hard to imagine where she gets her opionated nature from....

Changes....

A lot has happened since the last time I blogged. I'm expecting changes in the next year, how major has yet to be determined. My office is closing July 1, 2010 so I'm in search of a new job. I've actually been really stressed out over the past few months and I couldn't figure out why. I just felt like something was coming that was going to require me to make some changes. Now, that I know what it is, I actually haven't felt as stressed since I feel like it's something I can handle. I hate looking for new jobs, but it's not the worst thing in the world. It's not exactly what I would have chosen to happen, but I'm trying to look at it as an opportunity for better things. We'll see if I can even stay in Salt Lake. It's not the best job market here. I'm trying to explore all my options right now. I feel guided and blessed by the Lord and am honestly surprised that I haven't felt more stressed out about this.

Winter has definitely arrived in Utah. Gabby loves the snow in theory. We spend more time getting bundled up than we actually spend in the snow. I guess she's my child. Gabby doesn't last more than 5 minutes before she's ready to go inside because it's too cold. I never press the point to stay outside.

We had a fun Halloween. Gabby was Daphne form Scooby-Doo. It's her favorite show. We went trick-or-treating with the Baileys, Toregersons, and McCabes. It was a lot of fun. Gabby only likes two kinds of candy, M&Ms and Smartees so all the rest was left for me. It's kind of nice that Gabby won't eat any other candy.

I love her big smile!

I celebrated Thanksgiving with the same crew from Halloween. Gabby spent it with her dad. We had so much good food. I love Thanksgiving and I loved cooking for it. It's been a few years, since I did any cooking for it. I did the turkey, dressing, and a couple of pies. All the food was great and it's nice having a couple of extra days off work. Gabby and I got our tiny tree up and decorated. There is so much that I'm thankful for, but mostly that I'm just happy. Even with my life not being exactly as I'd choose, I'm still happy and feel so blessed.

We've been having further unwelcome adventures with rodents. There is an infestation of mice in the townhomes that we live in. At least on my street. My backyard borders a field and it seems all the field mice have decided to find warmer accommodations for the winter. I discovered our first house guest a few weeks ago while watching tv one evening. I was sitting on my loveseat and look to my right and there is a mouse a foot away on my loveseat with me. I screamed and jumped over my loveseat. I don't know why mice freak me out, but I hate them. I went and bought some sticky traps and hoped that it would find the de-con that Brownie did.

A few days later, I was in bed trying to go to sleep when I hear a rustling in my room. I hoped it was just the trash settling, but the next sound proved that there was a rodent in my room. I worked up the courage to turn on the light and investigate. I cautiously leaned over my trashcan and the nasty critter jumped up just at that point. I screamed because I am a wimpy woman. I then found a book, covered the trashcan and threw it out in the dumpster.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the only mouse that took up residence with me. Gabby spotted them around and her proposal was to capture them and keep them as pets. She even had a discussion with Whitey about it. I emphatically rejected the idea. Three more eventually were given a new home in the dumpster. Two of them came out and died in the open which I was glad they were dead, but I just don't like handling dead things. I seemed to be toughening up and was able to dispose of them without any drama. The third got stuck on a trap.

I hoped that was the end of it. I doubted seeing as most my neighbors caught more than four. The mice really freaked me out and I think I see them all the time. Unfortunately, I found another one in a rarely-opened drawer while I was trying to bake my pies. My built-up toughness had disappeared and I did a lot of squealing and hand wringing getting it out of the drawer. I was mentally giving myself a pat on the back for taking care of it myself as I threw it in the dumpster when a psychotic cat sprung from the dumpster scaring me like nothing else. It took about an hour for my hands to stop shaking. I scare a little too easy!

More Adventures with Gerbils

About 2 weeks ago, Browny and Whitey escaped from their cage. By the way, Gabby renamed the gerbils. They went from Sunny and Michael to Rainbows and Sparkles to Browny and Whitey. The base and bottom of the cage had somehow been detached and I had two gerbils on the loose. I stumbled across Whitey in Gabby's room one morning before work. Gerbils are fast and incredible jumpers. I spent 1o minutes cornering Whitey, Whitey jumping 4 feet in the air, me screaming and jumping just as high before I gave up and went to work.

We had Madison over for a sleepover that night. While the girls were upstairs playing, I heard a scratching of little claws in the intake vent in the kitchen. I got my drill out, took off the vent cover, and found Browny behind the vent. I put my hand in hoping she'd crawl into it and make it easy on me. She bit me instead. I retrieved my collander and herded her into that and took her back to the cage.

Gabby and Madison were quite impressed with my gerbil catching skills and decided they would find Whitey. They were Gabby and Madison, Mystery Detectives. They even came up with a song. They began their search by finding clues of gerbil poop and chewed up paper. Before I knew it, the girls were screaming that Whitey had just run into my bedroom. I grabbed Gabby's butterfly net and the chase was on. The girls scared her from underneath my bed and I captured her with the net. Gabby and Madison, Mystery Detectives, were thrilled with solving their first case.

After these adventures, Browny just didn't seem to be herself. There were a few green pellets in the vent she was trapped in and I was worried that they were poison and Browny had eaten them. Thursday evening, my suspicions were confirmed when I discovered Browny's corpse. I am a big fat wimp about somethings and dead animals is one of them. Gabby was downstairs and I didn't want to bring her attention to the fact that Browny was dead. I was trying to find something to get her out of the cage that was disposable and wouldn't relieve me from any direct contact. I finally found two popsicle sticks and a dryer sheet box. It still wasn't easy as rigor mortis was setting in and I couldn't get a good grip with the sticks. I kept at it and finally got the body in the box and out to the dumpster as quick as I could.

I came back inside and realized I'd left the cage open and Whitey was jumping around the room. The trusty net was still out and I quickly captured her and put her back in the cage. I then went and threw up. That dead gerbil just really grossed me out. They gross me out alive.

So Gabby was oblivious to this adventure and realized a couple of days later that Browny was gone. I explained to her that she died and had eaten some bad stuff. Gabby was very sad that Browny was dead. She wanted a new gerbil. They tell you at the pet store that gerbils do better when they have a friend. Whitey and Browny got along great. They always snuggled and never fought.

We finally made it to Petsmart yesterday. Gabby picked out a cute little black gerbil she creatively named Blacky. We took Blacky home and introduced her to her new home and Whitey. Whitey was not at all pleased. She chased that little gerbil all over the cage. We'd obviously been feeding Whitey well and she was almost twice as big as Blacky. I figured that Whitey was just trying to show it was her cage and they would eventually be able to peacefully live together. Gabby was very amused by their roughhousing.

This video shows that it seems like they could get along ok. They were just sniffing each other out.

This video shows that Whitey isn't taking any crap and that gerbils have surprising jumping abilities.

I could hear the gerbils squeaking and chasing each other most of the evening any time I cam upstairs. Gabby had gone to bed early, but ended up in my bed later on in the evening. I went to check on the gerbils and Blacky was bleeding and barely moving. Her stomach was all bloody. I had no idea that gerbils were so vicious. Whitey tore her up. I found 2 more popsicle sticks and rolled Blacky into the box from Petsmart. Fortunately, Blacky wasn't stiff and I didn't throw up again. She's still in the box outside and I'm going to see what Petsmart return policy is for being tortured by another gerbil.

I explained to Gabby that Blacky was also now dead and it was at the paws of Whitey. Gabby doesn't understand why Whitey was mean to her new friend. Who knew that such little animals would be so much drama? Gabby wants a different kind of animal, something bigger. My reply was a firm and emphatic no! Seriously! What was I thinking?

We'll see how much long Whitey lasts and then I'm done with pets! Given the fight in her, I'm figuring we'll have Whitey for a while.

Angry and Sad Faces

Gabby and I went to the pumpkin patch yesterday. Gabby picked out 2 pumpkins and instructed me on their carving once we got home. She was quite clear that she wanted one with a sad face and one with an angry face. Apparently, jack-o-lanterns can't be happy. We had a fun evening carving the pumpkins and Gabby was pleased with the results.

Gabby wouldn't pose for too many pictures. She was more interested in taking them. She's such a little photographer!

My camera has a 'candle' mode and this was the best shot I could get. I don't have such a steady hand.

Gabby took a dozen pictures of me with the pumpkins. This is my angry face.

My sad face!

What's Goin' On!

I totally lost my blogging mojo! I'm hoping to get it back and keep y'all updated with my oh so exciting life. My life isn't at all exciting but it is flying by. How is it October? Anyway, we've been busy as always. I went to Dallas sans Gabby over Labor Day weekend for birtday and the BYU vs OU game. It was a fabulous weekend away with my some of my family.

Marji made me a delicious Jello cake. How is it possible that I'm 31? I don't think it is possible so I'll continue to stick with 25!

I planned this trip back in April. When we were getting the tickets, we decided to splurge it get good seats. Our expectations were incredibly low for BYU showing up and playing a good game against Oklahoma. I was hoping for just 1 or 2 good quarters. As y'all know, it was a phenomenal game and BYU came away with a major win. We had 8 row seats in the endzone and they were worth every penny. I screamed myself hoarse. Seriously, I could barely talk for 5 days. It was the best game ever! I'm so glad I went. The stadium was amazing as well. I even got on the biggest jumbotron in the world! It was pretty cool. Unfortunately, BYU had to go and lose to stupid Florida State, but they're still ranken and who knows what the rest of the season will bring?

Gabby and Madison are taking a tumbling class together once a week. They started in September and seem to really be enjoying it. Pam and I switch out taking the girls so I have a couple hours free every other Wednesday which has been nice.

Gabby and I went to the circus with Jen and David a couple of weeks ago. It was really great. Gabby loved all the elephants (still her favorite animal), but her favorite act were the dogs with tutus and all their tricks.

I loved the circus, too. It's amazing what people can do and what they can train animals to do.

My parents came to visit us last weekend. The kids were so excited to see their grandparents. Mom even brought some crafts for the kids. It was really great to have them out here.

They also brought tickets to General Conference. I went with Mom and Dad to the Saturday morning session. It's a wonderful experience to be in the conference center. I love how the atmosphere changes when President Monson comes in. All conversation ceases and everyone stands while he takes his seat. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is simply amazing as well. I just love conference and I was just overwhelmed by so many wonderful messages. I'm so grateful for modern prophets and apostles who so powerfully witness and teach of truth and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So that's what's been going on!