Pictures!!!

I have a good friend here in my ward. We've followed each other around from different wards going back to the single days. Anyway, she has started to have fun doing photography. Check out her website here. She was so nice and took Scott's pictures last week and here are a few. She did an AWESOME job! Thanks Jennie!

Valentine's Day!!!

Bring on the MONTH OF LOVE!!!! I LOVE Valentine's Day!
*this is a very long post so I won't feel bad if you don't read it all.

It is my most favorite holiday. I feel like it is such a wonderful holiday. It celebrates LOVE. How can that not be a good holiday? I have always loved Valentine's Day. Most people think I like it because it is the day after my birthday and I get two great days in a row. While that might be true... I love Valentine's Day for what it stands for. Who shouldn't celebrate LOVE? I mean, there are many people out there without it or who would like to receive it and even children who NEED it. I believe it is important to remember that without LOVE no on would be happy... And I'm not just talking about romantic love, I'm talking about every type of love you could think of; motherly love, brotherly love, sisterly love, love for a friend... love for an enemy. I feel like Valentine's Day or even the entire month of February is a wonderful time to celebrate love. That is why I fondly refer to February as the "Month of LOVE".

However, the whole Valentine's experience is AWESOME... isn't it? I mean, who doesn't love the pink, the red, and the purple. Then there are the hearts, the flowers, the candy. It seems to take over the entire grocery store. When you walk down the Valentine candy aisle, doesn't it just make you happy?

I have to admit that being a teacher made Valentine's Day way better. I had students give me some pretty cool things. And who doesn't love the Valentines you get that say, "You're the best TEACHER" or "Number 1 TEACHER". Even if you are a terrible teacher, you still get those. Because we all know that those packages ALL come with a teacher Valentine. Which makes any child feels obligated to give it to his/her teacher. I admit, this year I'm a little saddened that I won't get any of those. But I still intend to make Valentine's Day the BEST holiday for my family. Okay, it might not top the hoopla of Christmas. But in the future, my kids will know that Mom thinks Christmas is awesome but it's still second to Valentine's Day.

Okay, so on to my point. I was thinking today about how much some people dislike Valentine's Day. And I was single for a little longer than the norm in the Mormon culture... but even during my single years, I LOVED Valentine's Day. I even think I had a right to HATE the day. It didn't start out great. I mean, my first real Valetine's Day with a boyfriend, really sucked!! I mean, he didn't get me ANYTHING. Mind you, I was in high school (when you are REALLY dumb) but he could have done something. I mean, come on... Then year, after year, after year, after year, when I was single and sad... so sad, I still loved it.

I made it a tradition to buy those special glazed heart shaped donuts you can get at the bakery on Valentine's Day and share them with all my friends... and of course, the boy(s) I was interested in. However, I was met with a lot of "I hate Valentine's Day" or "It's Single Awareness Day". The latter of the two just made my blood boil. I don't know why. Maybe it goes back to my inner feelings about why February should be called the "Month of LOVE". So I would always say, "Well, here is a little something from me to help you LOVE this special day". I think it helped... a little.

Then the miraculous time came when I actually had a LOVE to celebrate this day with. He does an excellent job by the way. He knows how much I love it and wants to make it just as special as I think it should be. So there you have it... I hope this helps you all (whoever you are) get into the spirit of the "Month of LOVE" because it is just a day away! WAHOOOO!!!!!


*This post was meant to be light-hearted as well as serious. :)

Will He Be a Chef?

So Scott LOVES the drawers in the kitchen. At first I thought it was cute but I'm a little tired of cleaning up all my kitchen tools off the floor. Not to mention that every time I use one, I have to wash it before I can use it.

He is very good at opening the drawers all my himself.

I felt like this picture really captured the moment. :) He's getting so tall, he can now grab things off the kitchen table. Today, he found the graham crackers on the table. I'm going to have to be more careful where I place things.

*In the picture below, I look terrible. I worked out this morning. (amazing, I know) Then Scott woke and and here I am pre-shower. Just thought I should clarify that I haven't let myself completely go yet.

I was trying to get a picture with him and me... or is it him and I? I was never really good in certain parts of grammar. I know, I know, I was a teacher. I just pretended like I knew, then I Googled it.

Okay I just did and here is the answer-
Now, when choosing personal pronoun pairs—in this case, him and I or him and me—–the next thing to keep in mind is that both pronouns must be of the same type; that is, either both must be nominative or both must be objective. Therefore, you can never use him and I together as either a compound subject or object because him is objective and I is nominative. It must be either him and me or he and I.

Anyway, here is the mess I cleaned up just a minute ago. Actually, it was this plus those throw away containers for left overs (that we never seem to throw away) that were in the bottom drawer.

Isn't he a cute boy! That's a Pampered Chef Spatula by the way and I am in love with all my PC kitchen tools!!!

The Christmas Crazies!

December was a month full of DRIVING! We had a lot of fun family time but we also had a lot of time in the car! We drove to Kemmerer three weekends in a row. I'm not sure why things couldn't be consolidated into one but alas we persevered. Two of those weekends it snowed and we wished we had reconsidered the decision to have family fun... Scott is constantly on the move and did not like the car seat at all. So sad!

Here is just a little picture to document our happy times! Our real test came when we drove to Oregon to be with Robbie's family for Christmas. By then Scott was a little better other than a bout of constipation on the way there that made him not so happy. I didn't realize how it had affected him until the drive home when he was WAY happier. We stayed in Oregon for a little over a week and a half. It was so FUN and a nice break from everything.

Christmas morning... Scott couldn't do without his milk. Which by the way, we are completely off bottles and only on the sippy cup. It was a pretty easy transition. Scott is also walking completely on his own. Sorry I didn't update that little detail in my last post. He started walking about a week after his Birthday in November but now he can pick himself off the ground and is getting steadier every day.

Scott didn't quite get the Santa Claus thing this year but I'm sure next year will be more fun.

He did enjoy most of the presents he got though.

We got him a little hat and gloves to keep him warm. But he does not like the gloves so much... see how I am holding his hands, he likes to rip them off as soon as they are on. :)

Santa brought Scott a tunnel.

Here is a picture of some of the cousins after church. They are matched so well that day! Cute Livvy was doing her best to hold Scott. :)

Scott is excellent at brushing his teeth! All I have to do is go over to the drawer in the bathroom, get my toothbrush and start singing the song, "When you wake up in the morning and it's a quarter to one..." He'll come running over wanting to brush his teeth. I've got to start him young if he has my dental (bad) genes! He even does pretty good when I put him in the "knee lock" so I can REALLY brush his teeth.

I love that he has gotten more loving. He'll come running over to me and hug me or lean against me like this picture. I LOVE it! There are times when I think, "Oh, this must be why people want to have more kids." But then church rolls around and that's good enough birth control for me... Did I just write that? (For all of you who have ever dealt with a 12-18 month old know what I'm talking about... Nursery for 12 month olds... come on... why not?) :)

Decorating and stuff...

It's tradition in my family to put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. So we HAD to do it the same this year. We had fun.

Scott LOVES the tree...

Here is my little boy... "one mess after another."

We got Scott an igloo tent for his birthday and he loved it. We had to put it away to make room for the Christmas tree.

Now that Scott is one year old and 20 pounds, he is big enough to sit forward in his car seat. He is so cute. When I am stopped at a stop light, I turn around and smile at him. He gives me a big grin! He loves being a big boy.

Robbie's sister asked us to get her a picture of just Robbie and I for the Gerber family calendar. Surprisingly, when we looked through all of our recent pictures, there was not one of just us. So here it is.

Scott's Birthday

*Disclaimer- I really stink at putting pictures on here. They are not in the right order at all and that really irritates me. But I am not going to redo it. :)

Today is my little guy's Birthday. I don't even want to think about how I felt a year ago today but this day has been a great day! We survived a year. Scott is as funny and rambunctious as ever! He is always on the move and is showing his little personality more and more... some good... some not so good! But we love him. He is also starting to stand all by himself for anywhere from 2-30 seconds. I'm sure walking isn't too far away.

I have recently come to realize why everyone says to enjoy it now because they grow up so fast. Scott has been more loving and affectionate lately and I love it. I love it when he crawls over to me and gives me a hug or leans up against me and sighs. He is so adorable! And I realize that he will not always be this way. There will come a time when he will avoid my hugs and think that I am a crazy lady... which won't be too far from the truth but that is besides the point. So I am going to enjoy every moment I can now. Okay, enough of my rambling thoughts.

Yesterday we invited all our family over to have a party. We rented to clubhouse and had a great time.

This is Scott's piece of the cake that he got to eat. The inspiration for this cake was Scott's little woobie dog that he falls asleep with every night. He always puts an ear in his mouth and sucks on it. Kind of gross if you think about how many times I have to wash this little doggy but that is where the inspiration for his cake came from.

The After picture- please scroll down to see the before. This is where my disclaimer comes in!

During- this kid only wanted the frosting. He hardly touched the cake. I was hoping he would just dive in but not this kid. We even cut it up and tried to feed him some but he was only interested in the frosting! He definitely takes after his mother! It was really funny.

The before picture- all nice and clean

Scott loves dogs and I wanted to start a tradition where I make all my kids a special cake for their birthdays. After several days of prep work and several hours of decorating, I'm not so sure I want to continue this tradition. No, that's not true. It was fun and I learned a lot watching "How to" videos on Youtube.

I made two cakes so I would have enough for everyone.

Scott got lots of fun presents. Thank you everyone.

We ate spaghetti for his Birthday dinner. Scott LOVES spaghetti.

It is so messy... but these days everything is messy during meal times. :)

This was when we first got started eating dinner. Some people in my family tend to be a little late so this is not everyone. But we started without them. :)

It was so fun to be with family. I love being a mom to a one year old. Even though church was not so fun today. It's a give and take, huh? :)

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old time rail journey... delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."

Gordon B. Hinkley