October Fest-ivities

...we made our now traditional family trip to the Corn Maze:


Our fearless leader!



Gabe has no time for a family picture, he's seen the exit!



These two are so cute I can hardly stand it!

Don't we all look strangely happy about getting lost in a bunch of corn?



The farm we went to also had a Trike Track with various John Deere trikes and bikes for the "kids" to ride on.


...and this year we got our pumpkins from Grandma and Grandpa's pumpkin farm!  My parents put a pumpkin patch in their lower backyard and got something like 20 pumpkins from it! 

Searching for the perfect pumpkin



Found it!




Gabe picking out Bret's pumpkin - doesn't it look like he's laughing because "Daddy's pumpkin is smaller than mine!" ?



We picked the white pumpkins for mine & Abby's


...and for Halloween, Gabe was a very unhappy elephant.  He did NOT want to wear his costume and whined the whole time I was getting him dressed and ready to go trick-or-treating with Bret.  Abby and I stayed home to pass out candy, and I was attempting to get a few pictures of her in her ballerina skirt when she decided to have a major diaper blowout all over herself and me.  Talk about an eventful evening! 



This is from the day we bought the costume and were trying it on to make sure it fit.  Gabe had the most dramatic slumped over posed the whole time I was trying to get a picture...apparently the idea of having to dress up to get candy is very emotionally taxing for a toddler.



But, of course, once he was back home in his sweats and looking at a pile of candy, all was once again right with the world!

Abby in her skirt when I bought it - didn't get any good pictures on  Halloween.



Baby Gender Reveal Bunko

This is a picture of the hand of my daughter:

Yes, this is the same daughter that is due in about 4 weeks.

Yes, the date at the top of the picture says April 8.

And yes, once again, apparently the ultrasound folks feel the need to label the picture ("HAND") so that I don't think crazy-hormone-induced thoughts like "What IS that thing in there?  A broom?!?  A tail?!?".

This is one of those catch-up posts that I really needed to do a long time ago, especially at the rate I am accumulating new catch-up posts.  Wouldn't it be nice if I was all caught up before the HAND we're expecting on August 25 arrives?  Maybe this will mean that my catch-up posts will be more concise and efficient instead of my usual rambling prose. 

Wait - who are we kidding...what it more likely means is that I will stay up way too late on way too many nights so that I feel caught up on documenting our happenings for the blog book I am one day doing to get printed since I don't really journal anymore since journaling doesn't include pictures and makes my hand cramp up and makes me think grumpy things like "ARGH!  Writing is so SLOW!  I wish I could be typing!".  The sad thing is, I love journals.  I love the excitement that comes with finding a journal with a really cool cover and how all those blank pages are just waiting for deep thoughts and poignant memories to be placed within.  If only I could type into a journal.

What was I saying about more efficiency and less rambling?  Right.  Just as I suspected.

So anyway - we found out in early April that said HAND I am carrying is female, and I had decided that a fun way to share the news with our extended families would be to have a Bunko party with the theme of revealing the baby's gender.  Everyone was to dress in blue or pink to indicate their gender guess, and the winners of the traditional Bunko categories (most wins, most Bunkos, etc.) would win more money if they also guessed the gender right.

Christina and Great Aunt Dode represented their picks in full head-to-toe fabulousness:

And much to my surprise, we actually had a pretty equal number of people guessing each gender. 

The boy Guessers, holding their consolation prize chocolate cigars:

And the girl Guessers, holding their 'you-guessed-it-right' prize chocolate cigars:

If you're saying to yourself "wait a second, that's mother-in-law Mary in BOTH pictures!  I declare foul play!"  then let me reassure you that she was not playing the odds and trying to broaden her chances of winning additional Bunko loot by switching her guess back and forth.  She came representing guesses for both her and my father-in-law.  And besides, she's the grandmother of our little female HAND, so there are special rules in play.  (For the record, and to document on Wayne's behalf, his guess was girl and Mary's was boy, and he was right.  Which I'm sure he didn't tease her about or gloat over being right about like I probably would have smugly done to Bret, because we have only been married for 4 years and my in-laws have been married for 38.  Although, I suspect I will still gloat over guessing things right even when Bret and I have been married that long, because I'm totally non-competitive like that.)

All in all a fun Bunko theme (in my oh-so-not-so-humble opinion). 

And did you notice both Christina and Sara in their regular picture poses?

Auntie Sara's Wedding

by Gabe Totten

This is my Auntie Sara:


We've had some good times together!


Auntie Sara calls me her "sweet boy" and gives me hugs and snuggles.  But then last Thanksgiving I heard her call this guy her "sweet boy" too, and I heard people talking about how they were going to get married.

What?!  Married?!  You mean I have to share my Auntie Sara's hugs and snuggles?  I wasn't so sure how I felt about it.

But then I heard Mommy talking to Auntie Sara and almost-Uncle Jared about how I was going to be in their wedding and I started feeling better about it.  After all, it only seemed fitting that both of Auntie Sara's sweet boys should participate in the wedding.

On the evening of the rehearsal I was feeling good (and looking good if I do say so myself).

I gave the paparazzi (a.k.a. Mommy) a chance to photograph me from different angles, I checked out the structural integrity of the church, I showed off my impressive upper body strength...I even helped an older lady up some stairs:

I felt relaxed and ready for the Big Day. 

The day of the wedding I showed up at the church excited to put my much-practiced walking-down-the-aisle skills on display.

I even spent some time thinking about what words of wisdom to share with the couple about the meaning of marriage.

Before the ceremony, I tried to relax by just getting back to basics and playing a little music to calm my nerves.

Everything was going really well until Mommy put me into a monkey suit.

Auntie Sara didn't have to wear her shoes, why did I??

And then, to make matters even worse, I had to be in a picture with A GIRL.

I found out that I not only have to share Auntie Sara with Uncle Jared, but with THREE OTHER GIRLS that also call her Auntie Sara!

I'm surrounded!

I was NOT HAPPY about this development.

But luckily, Auntie Sara seemed to remember who her #1 sweet boy is:

For the ceremony, I was in a pretty good mood again and as a gentleman, I let the ladies go first and I hung back a little so I could work the crowd and thank folks for coming out.

By the reception, I had loosened my tie, untucked my shirt, and decided to just have a good time.

I borrowed cousin Jason's Blackberry and called a few buddies to brag about how well the wedding had gone.

Toward the end of the reception, I pulled Uncle Jared aside to let him know he'd better treat Auntie Sara right.  Before we talked, I spent a moment seeking guidance from heaven.

Yeah...Uncle Jared's a good guy, even if he does have three nieces and is another "sweet boy" to Auntie Sara.  But I told him:  I'm still gonna keep my eye on him to make sure he stays in line!

More

Recently got some more pictures from Mandy of the November festivities and thought I'd share a few more of my favorites:


Love my boys!



Anna provides proof that pretty much anyone who feeds a baby subconsciously encourages the process by opening their own mouth!

Miriam, on the other hand, is the epitome of complete concentration with her expression (either that or she knew we'd been laughing about Anna the night before!).



This was the night Gabe started walking, and obviously I was REALLY EXCITED about the events transpiring.  Bret looks dignified-excited.  I look maniacal.  Here's hoping no one has a camera trained on me the first time Gabe competes at field day in elementary school!



April Birthdays

Papa T (Bret's dad) turned 60 at the beginning of April!   We decided to spruce up the festivities with some party decorations and while shopping for them, I saw this hat:

...and I decided that we should start a birthday tradition!

Papa T and Meemo - aren't they adorable?!

And another festive onesie for Gabe:

Then Bret's birthday came at the end of April.  A few months ago we borrowed Christina's DVD's of the first five seasons of "The Office" - really funny and we totally got hooked - so in honor of his birthday I made Bret a Dwight-ism birthday banner.

Me:  "Babe, smile"

Me:  "Babe, look at me and smile for real"

Me:  "BABE!!!!"

Me:  "Now was that so hard?"
Bret:  "Yes, actually..."
(We have had similar conversations many, many times over the past 5 years.  How many spouses (mostly men, I suspect) would like to throttle the person who invented the digital camera?)

The Birthday Tradition hat makes a second appearance.  It's possible that the hat will mysteriously disappear after Mary's birthday in July and just as mysteriously reappear in October for Sara and Gabe's birthdays.

After his birthday brunch Bret wanted to go for a hike, so we went up to Barclay Lake and Sara and Jared joined us.

On Bret's actual birthday we repeated last year's activities and bought Bret new running shoes, then went out to dinner for hot wings (Bret's birthday dinner of choice). 

Now, I know what you're thinking.  "Wow - party hats, tennis shoes, and hot wings.  Gabe has a LOT to look forward to."  I figure we're about 10 years away from copying my Great-Grandmother's classic Christmas gift of socks & underwear.  Should be an exciting adolescence for the Gabester.

...And in light of my last post about the Mercer Island Half Marathon, I will leave you with this:  Bret's big birthday gift this year from Gabe and I was a Nike+, which is a transmitter you wear when you run that tracks how far you've gone, your speed per mile, the temperature on Jupiter, the NASDAQ, the relative humidity in France, etc. etc. (obviously I'm being facetious - you can't expect it to track how far you've gone when it's busy with the temperature on Jupiter!).  Anyway, after Bret got his new running shoes, we went to the high school track so he could calibrate it, and I tried again to take pictures using the Continuous Shooting function on my camera that failed me so miserably the day of the Mercer Island Half (or did I fail it?  hmm...).   The results:

 

Look!  Look what I can do!!  Gabe wasn't nearly as excited for me as I wanted him to be.  I think he found my jubilation a bit ridiculous, since obviously there was no picture-taking pressure in this situation...after all, Bret would be coming around the track again in a few minutes!