Links!

Ok, so I finally figured out how to add links to other blogs (see left sidebar). Now, I just need to figure out how to format the font for "Links," and I'll be all set!

Muscles

The other night while we were making dinner, Dan taught Gabe how to show his "muscles," and they were also working on catching a ball. This one really makes me laugh! :-)

Saying No

I know it won't always be so cute when Gabe says "no," but at the moment we think it's pretty cute. Here's a short video of him at the Children's Museum saying "no."

Time For Another Haircut!

Family Fun Day

As you can see, I am catching up on some posts! Last Friday Dan took the day off for a Family Fun Day. :-) We get free membership to the Children's Museum at Navy Pier through my work, so we went down early and had breakfast at McD's and them went to the Museum. I was really impressed - it's like a toddler playland where everything can be touched and played with, etc. I would highly recommend it! After that we went to the humane society to look at the doggies and "meows" (Gabe's word for kitties). Then home for nap and to the Brookfield Zoo in the afternoon. It was raining at the Zoo, but not too hard and we still had a good time. Here are some pics from our big day.

My Adorable Nephew

Here are some more pics of our morning at the park the weekend before last. Aren't these pics of Henry adorable?

My Seester Has a Blog

You can visit at www.rebeccalynn22.blogspot.com. I finally talked her into it. I also need to figure out how to add links to my blog!

Please Pray for Payton

My friend Heather's little girl, Payton, is in desparate need of a miracle. Please pray for her, especially this evening and through the night, as they decide if she is able to be a candidate for a heart transplant. If not, they have been told that she cannot survive other than on life support - she is currently on a heart/lung machine after another heart surgery earlier this week. We know, however, that God is capable of miracles, and we entrust baby Payton to Him tonight.

You can read more about Payton at www.aaronandheatherjones.blogspot.com.

It's raining...in the living room?

OK, so I am clearly on a video kick now that I have figured out how easy it is (you don't even have to wait anymore)! This is a video of what happened to us last weekend. We woke up Friday morning and came downstairs to find an odd wet spot on the rug. It wasn't a huge spot, but I know it wasn't a spill from Gabe or anything because we had just come downstairs together. After a couple of seconds we realized where the water had come from....the CEILING! We looked up and the ceiling was dripping water and was pretty bowed like it was holding a ton of water. If you've ever seen the movie "Money Pit," I had visions of the bath tub falling through the ceiling and shattering on the floor. Dan had read in one of his home improvement books that it's best to poke a small hole to allow the water to drain, which is what you will see in this video. Yikes! We immediately figured we'd be gutting the bathroom and starting the renovation last weekend since it's something we're planning on anyway, but we decided to figure out what the problem was first, which involved cutting a HOLE in the living room ceiling. It turns out the bath tub drain was leaking - the seal was totally gone. So, Dan ended up cutting the old pipe and replacing the entire drain assembly, which ended up being only about a $30 fix. Now, we just have to replace the ceiling! Oh the charm of an older home!

Elmo

Here's another video of Gabe and his new best friend, Elmo.

Counting and Animal Sounds

Here's a video of Gabe showing his counting skills (sorry, it's just a black screen for a second or two). He has learned to say "two" after you say one. He's also getting better with letters, especially "b" and some other made up letters, which you will hear in this video! At the end, he does some of his favorite animal sounds. It's crazy how quickly they learn things at this age! Now that we're back on Google Video (thanks for motivating me, Christina) I'll try to post some more of he videos we've taken recently.

Reunion Pics

At long last, here are some pics from the reunion. I actually didn't get that many, so if anyone else has some they'd like to share, that would be great! These are my best girlfriends and their husbands, and my friend Carla that I grew up with (do I look a little pale?). As you can see, everyone looks just lovely!

Cookie Monster

Speaking of Cookie Monster, Gabe has now learned to say (and point out) Elmo and Big Bird. He learned that over the weekend at Grandpa Tim and Grandma Sandi's after playing with their Sesame Street radio. We have some Sesame Street placemats, so he'll point to them and say "Elmo" or "Bi Bu."

Dismissed!

Dan's tickets were dismissed in court today because the cop didn't show. Yay and thank the Lord! I think he's going to write about it in more detail on his blog (www.dsghogan.blogspot.com). Thanks to everyone for their prayers!

Say a prayer...

Dan goes to traffic court tomorrow at 11 a.m. for his tickets. We'll let you know how things turn out!

Anne's New Baby

My friend Anne called tonight to tell me her second baby girl was born at 2 a.m. this morning - four weeks early! She was very healthy - 6 lbs. and I think 12 oz. and 20.5 inches long. Her name is Mikayla Anne. She was born only 4.5 hours after Anne went into labor and only 2 hours after she got to the hospital!

Congrats Matt and Anne! Can't wait to meet her!

Better Nigh-Nighs & Naps

For a while now Gabe has been waking up sometime during the middle of the night or early morning and we've been bringing him into our bed to sleep - he konks right out as soon as he's in bed with us. Clearly, we may have started a bad habit and I have been really stressing about how to break it. On Monday night, I woke up early morning and was surprised that he was still sleeping...in his crib. And the real kicker was that he kept sleeping...in his crib...until 7:30 a.m.! I even got up, took a shower and got dressed before he woke up - I don't know if I've ever done that before! Then, last night he slept again through the night in his crib, but this time only until 5:30, but then he dozed with us again until about 7. So, maybe there's a light at the end of the tunnel afterall! His naps have been pretty consistently around 2 hours - close to 2 1/2 on Monday, so those are getting better, too. Still just one, which we have pushed back to somewhere around 11:30 usually. Things are smoothing out, but he still fights once in a while. Tonight, though, Dan read him a couple books on our bed and then I laid with him for a while on the bed and he was really playful and smiley and then I took him in his room and just swayed for a couple minutes and he was out. It was nice to have some time where I felt like I wasn't fighting to get him down, so I'm feeling optimistic.

It's been a while!

I know I haven't posted in a while...I've actually been having trouble posting pictures from Dan's computer (where they're all saved). Hopefully we'll get that figured out soon so I can post some pics of the big 10-year reunion last weekend! In the meantime, I'll post some things that don't require pics. :-)