The Last Several Weeks...

I am being such a slacker in posting this past month and I need to do better! I have this blog not only so friends and family can see what is going on with our little family, but so that I have a record of what happens throughout the years in our family. I want to get the blog printed and bound at the end of the year.

So here is what we have been up to these past couple weeks...

Gabe has started working at the elementary schools again since the school year started. He is busy like always and I think is enjoying being back to a set working schedule. He is also doing about 6-8 extra hours during the week at the skilled nursing facility where he was working during the Summer, which helps us have a little more leg room with our finances. Thank you Gabe for working soo hard! I love you for it, among all the other reasons I love you! We are hoping that this week is his last week having to drive to Pateluma every Thursday after work to do an hour of therapy for a little child. Its not worth the drive, 1 and a half hours both way during traffic hours, to do one hour of therapy and we don't get reimbursed for the time or mileage it takes to get there and back. So they are working on getting someone else to take over that. Our nights seem to be soo busy until 9pm that there isn't any time for us to sit and relax! Gabe is either doing his side hours or I am at a practice for some singing group, or we are both our running errands. Gabe's birthday was on the 6th and he turned the big 30! We didn't get to do much celebrating or really any gifts because of the busy schedule but this Friday we are going out to dinner and then going to go get a tv that we have been waiting to get for a while! We are sooo excited! No more watching netflix on the computer. And just in time for General Conference! We are stoked!
A couple weeks ago Gabe's boss and the CEO of the company that Gabe works for took all the therapists and their spouses our for dinner at Forbes Island off of pier 39 in San Fran. It was sooooo much fun! I can't remember having that much fun in the city, ever! Best Filet Mignon I have EVER had! It was like butter. I highly recommend this place. You have to take a little boat shuttle to get to it. Such an awesome experience and the best part about expensive dinners and not having to pay for it!

We sat and talked to Gabe's boss, Michael, for quite some time and we found out he actually grew up in his elementary years in Concord! Who would have thought? AND he went to the same elementary school as I did. haha. Small world, huh?

Sydney is as active as ever! She turned 1 1/2 on the 10th and is finally going to Nursery on her own. And boy does she just LOVE it! We take her to class and she just runs off and starts playing. She even has a favorite toy; Elmo! The teachers just love her and she seems to be pretty talkative to the other kids. She also seems to be the one who eats the most snacks! Which doesn't surprise me at all. hehe. She loves snacks. But she is getting taller and thinning out too. The baby fat is going and she looks like an adorable little toddler. Her feet are still, well pretty chubby, that we have to buy a size too big just to get it over her foot. Size 7 in baby sizes. She is also now in 2T clothes mostly and that means we have more clothes to buy now. All her clothes minus a few are all 18 months and are getting toooooo small.
I made a couple posters that I put on Sydney's wall of the alphabet, numbers, and colors. I want to do more with shapes and stuff but Gabe says that might be too much. We'll start with what I have made for now. She loves the letter "D" and knows what it looks like. She also knows A, B, C, and Y. But whenever we walk in the room after one of her naps she stands up and points to D and says "D!". She also can say red and blue and I think she knows what they are.
Her vocabulary has increased soo much. She has said a full sentence, "Hi, my daddy!" and " says, "More please" whenever she wants more. She has become a little attached to her Mama, which I can't complain about, except in the middle of the night if she wakes up she yells, "Mama!!!" Then I have to get up and rock her back to sleep. She loves just being held and resting her head on my shoulder while I or Gabe hum "Silent Night" to her. That has sort of been her nighttime song since she was just a couple months old.

I am doing well. I am 26 weeks and a day along and this little girl keeps me up at night sometimes because of all the kicking. I look soo happy here don't I?

And not to mention my hips just kill me still. I need to go see our friend who is a chiropractor in our ward and get adjusted. I guess the sciatic nerves on both sides are just being pinched all night long so I am constantly tossing and turning. I have been baking again and working on my recipe blog a little. I fixed my cinnamon rolls recipe and this new recipe is delicious!
I have also been working on a recipe box that I can keep in the kitchen so I don't have to keep running back and forth to the computer.

I am also teaching a project at our wards upcoming Super Saturday in October! I am teaching the "Exploding Scrapbook Boxes" which are really cute!






(Hope you don't mind me using the pictures of you guys Brig, they were all the printed ones I could find in my house, along with a couple from my wedding.)
I have been working on the two displays I have out and they are looking more and more like a scrapbook! I don't do much paper scrapbooking so its been a little challenging.
I am also singing this Sunday with two other women and we have been working on that song, as well as the other group I am singing with in November for our Stake conference for when Elder Scott comes and all the rehearsals have been taking up some of my evenings. AND last night I got a calling. I can't say yet but I will probably be sustained this Sunday. I am a little nervous about it, but also kind of excited! I'll let you more about that.

I think that covers a lot of what we have going on here. We have been getting more things put away and we are pretty settled now. I have a lot of boxes that probably need to just be stored in the garage for now, lining the hallway to the garage. And in the next week or two my parents will be staying with us for a little while so we are getting things ready for that and we are glad they are coming to stay with us! Sydney says "Mimi" and "Papa" at least 20 times a day so she is going to have a blast having them here, and so are we!