My Gabby is 7

 This little girl is my angel! All of my children are in there own special way. Gabby turned 7 on Thursday of last week. Usually, in her class, the mom's bring in cupcakes or some sort of treat to celebrate. On our way to school Gabby asked me if I would be coming in that afternoon with cupcakes. (We hadn't really talked about it before) I told her no, I just couldn't do it. (I hadn't been doing very well, more on that later) Without missing a beat she says, "Oh that's OK mom. Actually that is better. I am sick of cupcakes!" I wanted to start crying right then! I thought, I have to get home and make something to take in, but I had been in a lot of pain lately and I couldn't hardly stand. I actually ended up going into the Dr's instead. They sent me to the hospital where I stayed all day. By 7pm the Dr on call (my Dr was out of town...) said they wanted to keep me, but that they wouldn't break my water yet or alleviate the pain I was in. (Pain due to a bone in my pelvis that is separating and won't get better til I have this baby.) So I said no. I was going home to see my birthday girl. They weren't happy with me, but eventually let me go. My poor little girl! I hadn't made her cake, or her special dinner or done anything for her! Luckily the friend that took the kids went and bought a b-day cake and they sang to her. At least the day wasn't a total loss. But when we finally got them home she just hugged me and told me she couldn't wait til the baby gets here. She didn't even care that we had missed her birthday, she was just happy the baby would be coming soon! Honestly, where did she come from?! I feel so lucky and blessed to be her mother! She is so tenderhearted, so kind to everyone. She loves everyone and is always smiling and laughing. She never says anything mean to or about anyone. She has the most positive outlook on life and truly cares for everyone she meets. She is so good to the core, I just thank the Lord she is in my family, she teaches me a lot. Happy Birthday my little Gabby-Girl, you are one of a kind!!

Girl Time

When I asked Gabby what she wanted for her birthday, she said "a party!" I asked her if there was anything else, and she said no she just wanted a party. So, with the end of pregnancy drawing nearer, I decided it would be better to celebrate Gabby's birthday earlier rather then risk either being too exhausted or having a baby and not doing anything all together. Just like with Luke's party, I left it to the last minute to decide when and if I was doing it at all. Her actual birthday is Jan. 26th, so we decided on Friday the 20th. It actually turned out pretty good I think. We did a nail painting, cupcake decorating total girl party. Gabby was in heaven. She kept coming up and hugging me and telling me it was the best day ever! (That made it all worth it right there.) So even though I had woken up at 3 am with a terrible case of either the stomach flu or a gallbladder attack and had been sick all day, I still was able to make cupcakes, frosting and decorate the house in time for 8 little girls to join us at our house. Nate of course was working until 3 minutes before the party, but last minute we decided he would just take Luke out for some father/son bonding time. (Which was a very good idea considering the stressful day he'd had, listening to the craziness of all those girls would have put him over the edge!!) Thankfully a few of the other mothers kindly stayed to help me out knowing that I was not feeling very good. We had a Barbie movie going on while we painted nails to occupy those who had to wait. We somehow got all those nails painted, stickers applies and top coats to finish it off. Then we got the cupcakes out! THAT was entertaining!! They were so silly and then some didn't want to eat their creations!! Opening presents was crazy!! They were all huddled around Gabby and no one even had breathing room, but they didn't want it any other way. One mom made the cutest hopscotch board on canvas and the girls played the rest of the party on that! Gabby's face in that one picture says it all. She was happy and that made it all worth it! I don't do big parties very often, but I am glad I could throw this one together for my sweet Gabby girl!! I can't believe she will be 7 in 3 days!!!

It's about time!!

For about a month now Gabby has had a very loose front tooth. She stopped eating some of her favorite things, or had me start cutting them up, because it hurt to eat them. I kept telling her to just wiggle it and pull it out. Yesterday, as we were getting ready for school, she comes to me with it hanging half out of her mouth. However, try as I might, she would NOT let me get it out. So she went to school with half of the root showing. I thought for sure it would be out when I came to get her. Nope. So after homework was done I told her she was pulling it out or I was. After 1 and 1/2 hours, yes HOURS, in the bathroom she finally got it out!! (You would think this was her first, but it is her THIRD tooth to come out!) She was very proud of herself and I was so relieved I didn't have to see that snaggle tooth any more!

 That is a gross tooth. Good thing it didn't stay around for long. Thankfully the tooth fairy has a trusty assistant that gets up super early and happened to see that the tooth was NOT taken care of yet. Thank goodness!

 That is one proud girl, with a big gap in her mouth! She was worried no one at school was going to recognize her. I just hope someone actually notices that it is gone!!

Hooray for Gabby! (And just in time for her to turn 7 next week!! When did my little girl get so big?!)

Love Bugs

With Valentine's Day coming soon and the baby coming as well I wanted to make sure the kids still felt loved and important to us. I was at the store and saw these cute little mail boxes in red, white and pink. I decided that starting January 14 for a month until V-Day we would have the mail boxes up and the kids would receive something different in it each day. One day may be a note about something I love about them, one day may be candy, one day may be a fun thing we can do together, etc. On Saturday, the first day, they got this little craft to make "Love Bugs". They have asked every second since then when we could make them together. Today being MLK Day they had no school. They were up at 6:45, ate breakfast as soon as they could and were begging to get them out. I had NO idea it was THAT exciting to them! So please forgive the sleepy eyes and the complete bed head, but we made these before the sun was completely up... I do think they are cute and it was fun making them together. Happy Martin Luther King Day!!

Amazed and in awe

I was blessed with some incredible surprises this last week! I wanted to write this amazing post about it, but I just can't seem to get the right words to come out. Sometimes it is easy to feel like you are just slipping through the cracks, to feel overwhelmed, lonely and exhausted. And then people show up that change all that, make you cry and feel like the most important person there is and all of the sudden you find energy and excitement again. Sometimes you feel like everyone else and then wonderful people show you that they care enough to make something just for you. I had surprise visitors and then the most amazing baby shower. These wonderful women made my week, my month... They really made me feel loved and I appreciate them more then they will ever know. All of them. I wish I could write something amazing for them to let them know all that they mean to me, even the ones I have only known for a very short time. They are incredible and I hope they know that. Thank you to my angels this week. I hope you know who you are. If not, then I will have to call you out by name next time.

Celebrate!!

(Grrrr!! I have tried THREE times to post this and every time I write the whole thing then it freezes and deletes the whole thing!! So this is going to be a WAY condensed version. Ug!)

We were surprised and delighted to find out last minute that Nate had Saturday, Sunday AND Monday off for New Year's! It was a great and much needed surprise. I had it in my mind that I wanted fondue for dinner for New Year's Eve but I wanted to share it with someone else. So Kirsten and Ammon were kind enough to indulge this crazy ladies whims!! It was great to be able to get together with them again, especially since Kirsten is having her baby girl on the 24th of this month and then we will be having ours and we likely won't get to see each other super soon!! It is so fun that we have had such parallel experiences in life; when we met all those years ago in the dorms at BYU our freshman year I had no idea just how closely our lives would follow each other! I did however know she was sent from Heaven and that she and I were going to be close friends for life! And now our husband and kids are great friends too, and they are all interested in the same things, from both husband being general surgeons to our sons being oldest and loving all things Lego and Harry Potter etc and the girls loving all things girl! It is so great!

So back to New Years... We had a fantastic dinner, cheese fondue with grilled chicken, boiled red potatoes, blanched veggies and soft french bread! Yum!!! Then fruit, marshmallows, and pretzels for dessert in a creamy caramel fondue and yummy chocolate. It was great, everyone ate til they wanted to pop! Just thinking about it makes me hungry!!

Doesn't she look great?! She is such an amazing mom and wife, I am always in awe of the things she does with and for her family!!

Ammon kindly poured all 11 glasses of sparkling apple cider for the midnight toast! (Yes, we were crazy and let the kids all stay up to watch the ball drop and join in the festivities. Even with 9AM church the next morning.)

However the kids surprised us by getting up and getting dressed and ready with no tears or complaining! We had a great time at church and even captured a few pictures of the cuties all dressed up!!

The husbands thought it would be great to get both prego ladies to stand belly to belly for a shot. We felt silly but obliged.

We love the times we get to hang out together. We had so much fun playing games, making bows, talking, boys playing wii and more wii and more wii.... :), going to see Puss in Boots and doing a little window baby shopping and just hanging out and enjoying each others company! They are so great and I am so thankful to have such wonderful friends only a few short hours away!! Until next time, THANKS Rasmussen's!!

2012

It is hard to believe that it is already 2012. So much happened for us in 2011 and we have more to look forward to in 2012. Nate graduated med school, matched into and started a general surgery residency, we moved to Cleveland, bought our first house, I turned the big 3-0, we had our 10 year anniversary, and we found out we would be welcoming another baby girl into our family. That is just the main things I can think of too!! Now we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of this little girl. We still have some time, but we are getting close and everyone in the house is excited! I have started nesting and I think I am driving everyone crazy with my obsessive need for everyone to clean! But that comes with the territory. I have some fun things to blog, especially our awesome New Years, but I have been so stressed with getting things ready I just haven't had time to get my pictures onto the computer! SO here is to hoping I can get things together before our little one gets here and also Happy 2012 to everyone, we are sure excited for what this new year will bring!!

(Here is a rare couples picture that my wonderful friend Kirsten took of Nate and I on New Years Day. Look at that HUGE belly! Wow, no wonder people keep telling me I look like I am about to pop!)