Halloween, baby style

As you'll recall, my eggo was preggo last year, so this was Gabe's first official Halloween, not being a fat fairy... We had a ward trunk or treat on Saturday and Nate got out of work right when it started. Since he wouldn't have time to don a costume, we made his work clothes into a costume by dressing Gabe up the same. Nate had made him his very own Wells Fargo name tag so they were both dressed as bankers. Kind of lame sounding, I know. It's like when my dad said he was a banker every year when I was little and I believed him because he was carrying around the video camera "briefcase". Anyway, they looked really cute together and Gabe had his own little pillow case for his 6 pieces of candy he got. It was a lot of fun, but as we got in the car to leave, I said to Nate that this will probably be a lot more fun when we have more kids and they are a little older, because right now, it just looks like we are two parents exploiting our baby to get candy for ourselves..... which ended up being the case. :)

"Gabe" name tag, glasses, blue tie, yellow plaid shirt, and slacks

Matching!

Although, Nate pointed out, he looked more like Harry Potter with the pipe cleaner glasses but.... I think people got the idea.

Football game

On Saturday, we went to NAU's homecoming game. It was really fun even though we are not a very good team... we won but it was like a glorified high school game. We all wore our gold and navy!

Inside the Skydome

Louie the Lumberjack and a tiny Louie underneath

Wearing their matching NAU shirts

Park Day and Pumpkins

Last Thursday was Nate's day off so we decided to go to our favorite park. It is a big beautiful park and Gabe loves it.

Afterwards, we went and picked out our pumpkins. One for me and one for Gabe. Nate didn't want one due to his first experience carving last year.

I'm so excited for Halloween this year! I don't know what I'm going to be but I'm just so excited for Gabe's first Halloween, even though he won't have any clue what is going on. Oh well!

Rocky Point

We just got back from a week in Rocky Point Mexico with Nate's family. His grandpa has a beautiful time share right on the beach and we go once a year. It was so fun seeing Gabriel play with his cousins and they loved playing with him. Hyrum could not leave him alone! And Jimmy can't quite say Baby Gabey so he says Gabey Gabey. We also did family photos one day and they turned out great! Can't wait for next year!

We went to town...

We ate ice cream...

We ate graham crackers...

We colored...

We rode jet skis...

Ate sand...

Loved cousins...

And had a great time!

The beach

Turns out Gabriel is definitely a beach baby.

We couldn't keep him out of the water and sand!

Matching crabby faces

On the back porch

Hanging out with Hyrum

Sitting with Danie

Nate's brother Ben took some really great photos of the family.

This is my FAVORITE. Gabe and Danie

What the...?

I didn't put up his birthday picture! It was so freakin' cute! It was his 6 month birthday and yes, I got him a ice cream cupcake. And then I ate it. Yum.

There are a bunch of random pictures I have to put up. It would be wrong to deprive you of more photos of my darling baby. :)

Nate got a package and Gabriel loved the packing peanuts

Playing football with daddy

Family photo on the Wii: Me, Nate, and Gabe

Cheese!

Future Elder Allen

Gabe and I went to Utah to visit some family and friends. We stayed with my wonderful aunt Sylvia. Gabe got to play with lots of little cousins which was so fun!

Jumping at Sylvias

Gabriel and Logan

Logan is a much faster crawler than Gabe. He followed Logan around everywhere!

Posing for the camera

Going out together

I was doing the dishes at Sylvias and gave Gabe a piece of plain cake to keep him busy. When I turned around, it had exploded! It was everywhere!!

He loved it! Crumbs everywhere!

He loves to stand up next to his crib

Loves his books!

I came into his room after naptime and this is what I found!!! How cute!!

Climbs up his cubbies and pulls all his toys down

Happy Monday!

The Grand Canyon

For Labor day, we went to the Grand Canyon which is only about and hour from Flagstaff. I had never been before so it was really exciting for me. We were doing a large loop to the canyon so the drive there was just gorgeous. The drive back was through Navajo nation so.... not pretty. The canyon was just.... huge! There is no other way to describe it. It looked like it was a painting or a huge photograph or something. I couldn't believe something that big existed. We enjoyed Mather point which is one of the most famous look out areas. Tons of tourists. Then we went to the Grand Canyon general store which is a huge deli/grocery/souvenir/camping store. We had a very good lunch there and walked around the store. Then we started on the drive home along the rim.

This is the Watch tower far away.

This is the Watch tower close up.

Inside the tower

Spiral stairs. 4 floors of winding stairs.

Look down in the center. Me and Gabe

Our park ranger at the general store

Davey and Danny Crockett

Sitting in a big chair for lunch

Roughly 6 months

In three days Gabriel will be 6 months. Half a year! I can't believe it. I've already forgotten how it feels to be pregnant and having to go through all the misery and everything. Nate was saying that God makes women forget about all of that so they'll want to have another one. I agree.

So it seems that he exploded through the major milestones in the 5th month.

-He started crawling. Everywhere. He (luckily) hasn't figured out there are stairs in our house but he likes to just crawl around his room or the living room.

-He eats solid foods. He loves food- probably not a great thing but.... He can't get enough. He wants whatever you are eating. He snatched a sucker out of my hand and sucked on it, as I was eating a peach he grabbed my hand and brought it to his mouth and sucked on it, and Nate, unbeknownst to me, gave him a straw of root beer, which he loved. He loves rice cereal, peaches, applesauce, teething toast, anything in a straw, anything from a cup, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans and doesn't like his carrots. He is really good at picking up his puffs and putting them in his mouth and he can go through a whole teething toast. We tried his sippy cup with water in it yesterday and I think it will take some getting used to. He wasn't too crazy about it.

-He sits up by himself and is dang proud of it. He will be cruising along and turn and push himself up and give you a big smile. Something I'm worried about now is that he will crawl over to me while I'm sitting and pull himself up with me and stand up holding onto my shirt. I am definitely not ready for the pulling up/standing milestone yet!!

-He is a techy baby. He loves the tv remote, cell phones and especially the laptop. Anything with buttons. So we bought him a baby toy phone. He doesn't like it. He wants the real deal.

-He love, love, loves his bath! He will splash water to the other side of the bathroom! But only when daddy bathes him.

-He loves big kids. He likes being with his cousins when they play with him or when our friends kids want to play with him. He is so interested by them.

-He loves Nate's glasses. Those things are off Nate's face before he even has time to react.

-He likes toes. Weird but true. He wants to play with my toes or anyones toes he can reach. But don't touch his. He is SO SO ticklish.

The move has wrecked havoc on his mild personality and has brought out the demon baby underneath. He can now throw tantrums and scream the likes of which I have never seen or heard in all of my child care years! But it has also brought out the big boy who is fun to play with now. All in all, he is a really sweet and very serious baby who knows how to have fun every once and a while. And now, for your viewing pleasure: tons of pictures.

Playing with his Star Wars
Loves his fingers

So dang cute!!

Possibly my favorite picture ever.
Chewing on his teddy bear
Really does love being outside, even if it doesn't look like it!

Fingers again

Please ignore my annoying voice.

First foods

Ode To Yogurt Bites

Ohhhh how I love you... I will never need ice cream/chocolate/cookies/cake again.... drool.

Excuse me while I go get a package from my freezer.

Little Rachel

Our little niece Rachel and nephew Jimmy fell into a pool and drowned on Saturday. They were able to resuciate Jimmy but Rachel had been without air for too long. Saturday was also the one year anniversary of the fatal plane crash taking Nate's uncle Lansing and cousin Dallin. Our families are taking it very hard. In the mist of such a tragedy, it is a comfort to know that Rachel will be welcomed warmly by family in heaven and that we will see them all again. It was so great that we were able to get a picture of Gabriel with his big cousin just a month or two before. He won't remember her, but we can show him the picture and he can see her holding him. She was so sweet when he was in her lap and kept calling him Baby Gabey and talking to him. It is a tender mercy that Jimmy was not taken as well. Our cousin Marie wrote a wonderful post about Rachel and this "refiners fire". Please pray for our brother and sister in law Ben and Anya.