Halloween Party 5

After leaving my mom and dad's we headed up to Ben's dads house. When we got there, we put Gabbi back in her costume and let her trick or treat one last time. She quickly walked up to the door, Deann's grand kids answered the door. She thought Braden was pretty cool looking with his army hat. He even let her try it on. Nikayla and her played games and it was fun to watch Gabbi interact with both of them. After a while Deann fed us some chili that Nelson had entered into a chili cook off. He won hottest chili. Pretty good. We spent the rest of the night playing with Gabbi and watching the world series. It was a pretty good game. I don't really like to watch sports on T.V. it just doesn't interest me, but I actually enjoyed myself watching it.

Halloween Party 4

Halloween day was on a Saturday this year, which was nice. It left the whole day to visit instead of just the evenings. We spent the morning running some errands and then we went to visit one of Ben's Sargents in his unit. He has done a lot for Ben, both he and his wife. So we took Gabbi to show her off in her costume. When we got there they brought out their trick or treat bucjet and let Gabbi have a hay day. The entire time we were there, every few minutes she would go back to the bucket. She kept searching for the suckers which really surprised me. She hasn't had many suckers before. It was really nice to be able to visit with them. Then we headed to my mom and dads. Gabbi thought it was pretty fun to knock on the door and have Nana answer it. She's

been practinig at the house to knock on doors, but it was a surprise for her

when someone came. When we got there mom had some chili ready for us to have dinner. When Jenny and Brian got there we all sat down to eat. Love mom's chili. After we were done eating we just sat and visited for a while. Then Jeff and Tiffany came. A full house. Right before we had to head out Brandon and Melissa came to see Jeff and Tiffany, so they joined the group. After a few more minutes we then all had to head for the rest of our planned evenings.

Halloween Party 3

Friday the 30th we went to Ben's moms house for Halloween fun. They planned dinner and an activity. What do you think the activity was? It's Halloween, its carving pumpkins. Ben again did all the yucky work, I don't do that. In the pumpkin picture, our pumpkin is the second one from the house. The tall skinny one. Ben likes to carve pumpkins, so he can have at it. It was pretty nice to be there with everyone and just having fun. The kids dressed up from grandma and grandpa, but when it was time to eat, it was time to shed the costumes. But not after a few pictures first. The kids even got little jack o lantern cups. It was funny to watch them want each others cup and not their own. In the end they finally ended up with their original cup.

Halloween Party 2

I know my numbers are a little backwards, but because I didn't have any pictures for this event, I kind of forgot about it. Sorry Jenny. Jenny works at the Bank of Utah and they go all out for Halloween and even allow trick or treaters to come and trick or treat at the bank. They deck out the office and everything. This year Jenny was Sonny and Mike was Cher. They were awesome. They had an Elvis, Madonna, and all sorts of other things. I picked up Jenny's kids and we all headed to the bank. The kids were all dressed up and ready for trick or treating. Gabbi had a blast. They had bowls on pretty much ever desk and she just helped herself. She filled up both hands and put her candy in the bag and then went back again. The bank workers all thought that it was the cutest thing, so they allowed her to come back as many times as she wanted. She made out like a bandit, with so much candy. She quickly got a hang of trick or treating. It was her first official time. She had a blast. When we were all done, Jenny even invited us to their break room for some lunch and goodies that they had at their office party.

Costume

Well I ventured making Gabbi's Halloween costume this year. It looked great, but it was a harder task then I imagined. The skirts wasn't bad at all, but the hat was harder then it looked, but once we put it all together it looked really cute on her and she loved it.

Halloween Party 1

As a tradition Grandma and Grandpa Hall have invited us to their Annual Square Dancing Halloween Party. They belong to the Wild Bunch Square Dancing group and to celebrate Halloween they all invite their grand kids and they have a party. There dancing, trick or treating and a costume contest. Some of the adult costumes were scaring the younger kids. It was funny when Cameron turned and looked at Jenny and said "uh uh, no go in there." Gabbi who can't really talked said it through crying. It was pretty funny. Grandma and Grandpa even dressed up. Grandpa claimed, "that's how we dressed in the good old days." They even had the most grand kids out of the whole bunch. It was great to see all the grand kids dancing with Grandpa. They're better sports then I am, I don't dance. I'm a party popper some times. I was the official picture taker. One of the funniest things was when Gabbi saw a man dressed as a cowboy sitting on a blow up horse. I don't know if she thought it was real, but she went up to him and tried to pet the horse. He was kind enough to pick her up and sit her one the horse. It was pretty funny.

Pumpkins

We do family home evening with Ben's brother, Brian and his wife, Karen. We take turns once a month with dinner and the lesson. So far we have done pretty good and haven't missed a Monday. This month was at Brian and Karen's and the activity was carving pumpkins. It was a blast. Normally I am not a fan of carving pumpkin because I don't like to touch the yucky insides. But Ben scrapped out my pumpkin for me, so it wasn't that bad. I even ventured to use a pattern. It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. I don't have the pictures right now, but I will post them as soon as I get them from Brian and Karen.

Rearrangements

I love to rearrange things, a lot. I like to look at change even though I don't like change. But this is our newest rearrangements and I think we will keep it this way a long while. At lease until we have another child. So here are the before and after photo's of our newest changes.

Downstairs front room: Before

Downstairs play room: After

Downstairs spare room: Before

Downstairs spare room: After

Downstairs play room: Before

Downstairs Office: After

Upstairs sitting room: Before

Upstairs front room: After

Well, I think that is all the changes. Ben is hopeful it won't ever change that much again. It was hard work.

18 month check-up

Well we have finally reached the hump. Gabbi is now 18 months old and can finally go to nursery. I can't wait, I just hope she handles it well. We went to her check-up on Friday and she passed with flying colors. Her doctor says she is developing both physically and mentally, right on track. Here's the stats.

Height: 32 in 62%

Weight: 24 lbs 46%

I was happy to find out that she had a growth spurt. She has been 30% and below ever since she was born. Maybe she won't be so short after all. Who knows. But she is healthy and doing very well. Speaking wise, we can't get her to stop blabbing, but we can tell a few words clearly.

Mama

Nana

Papa

Thank you (pronounced dank you)

M & M

No

Mine

Love you

We are also teaching her some sign language to make life a little simpler. So far she knows:

Thank you

Please

Milk

More

hungry

It has been very nice to be able to really communicate in some way with her.

Jasper

A little while ago, my sister and her husband went on a trip to Florida. While they were gone, we watched their dog Jasper. He is a puppy beagle. It was funny to watch Gabbi with him because she is afraid of him. We would bring him in the house and put him on his leash and Gabbi would make sure she would be out of his reach when walking around. As the week went on, she got a little more daring. She would lay on the floor a few feet away from him, staring at him, if he didn't move she would scoot closer. She would continue to stare and if he didn't move, she again would scoot closer. But as soon as he moved, she got up and ran away.

Heavy Sleeper

Recently we have really worn out Gabbi. Once she falls asleep, she is really asleep. You can move her around and she will pretty much stay asleep. I finally got a picture of some of it. One day Gabbi fell asleep while eating lunch. Ben picked her up very awkwardly and as you can see, she is still sleep.

Games

One of Gabbi's favorite games is ring around the rosie's. She loves to play it with her cousins. After they all fall down, she quickly gets back up and wants to do it again. I just love the laughs.

Simon

Ben's dad and step mom got a new cat not to long ago. He is a half Siamese, and so they call him Simon. He is about 4 months old and a very playful cat. Gabbi had a lot of fun with him. He was really gentle and let her pet and hold him, but that didn't last long when he wanted to play. Needless to say, she only got to hold him once. But she had just as much fun playing with him. She threw his ball so he could chase it and even dragged a paper around that Simon loved to rip apart. It was very cute.