Andrew loves his Uncle Jim.

My favorite time of the year is GAME TIME!!

My favorite thing about getting together with my family is playing games with all the girls. These moments just don't happen enough, but I will never forget all the fun memories.

Christmas was so awesome!!

"Look at this fun toy!"

When we got to my parents house for the Christmas break, my dad had set up this huge blowup castle. Andrew loved it so much. When I first set him in it his eyes got so huge and he had the biggest smile. I was sad I didn't have a camera right then. He looked so excited. I love it because now he can play with balls and they can't roll too far away so he can't get them. This way the balls are all contained around him. And they are balls that he can actually grip to pick up. 

Friday with Grandpa and Grandma Smith.

Last Friday on Dec. 12, Gilbert and I were able to go up to Idaho and visit my Grandparents. We were so excited we got to take them their Christmas present before Christmas and my Grandma her birthday present since it is on Christmas day. They had a movie ready for us to watch that had my Grandpa taping my Grandma on one of their last pack trips. He was so funny in his commentating. Gilbert and I laughed so hard. They were so excited that we were coming they took us out to dinner and we had an awesome time. They were so impressed with how good of a baby Andrew is. They told us that if we ever want to get rid of him they are first on the list. That really surprised me because they have always had a hard time around children. Grandpa couldn't get over all his smiles. Grandpa also told us that he was going to take really good care of his health this winter so he can take us on a ride next summer. I love my grandparents so much. They make us laugh so hard every time we get to go see them.

I was cleaning the kitchen and I left Andrew in the front room to play. He got really quiet and I was wondering what he was doing. I peeked around the corner and found him standing up with the car seat trying to get all his toys out.  I was so surprised because he hadn't ever stood up all by himself yet.  When he heard me peeking on him he fell down so I didn't catch him with the camera but this is all I could get. He is getting so big already. I don't want him to get any bigger. I wish I could just freeze time and keep him as my snuggle boy forever. 

Now he always crawls to the gate and stands up on his tippy toes to peek over. 

Gilbert has gotten me on this really bad habit of sharing a Symphony bar with him every night while he studies for finals. We bought ten of them as christmas presents for friends and now we only have four. The problem is we haven't given any out for christmas gifts yet. Sorry if you don't get a christmas present from me this year, it's because I ate it. hahaha. So when you see me and I look like I gained fifty pounds, I am blaming it all on symphony bars and Gilbert. 

Gilbert took Andrew with him to the bank on Saturday while I went Christmas shopping. When I met up with them Andrew had a lion painted on his face. He looked so cute, but I was not expecting it at all. I guess Gilbert let a lady paint on his face and then donated to some charity. Gilbert is always full of surprises. 

When we got home Gilbert let Andrew suck on a candy cane that still had the wrapper on it, and sure enough when I found out I grabbed it and he had gotten through the wrapper to the actual candy.  He was pretty bummed when I took it from him. For some reason I catch Gilbert always trying to sneak him a little sugar. It's like that will make Andrew like him more, but I am pretty sure it will take a lot more than that. hahahaha!!!

He is getting so big way too fast!

The saddest thing.

Look at how beautiful they were.  Gilbert and I went to St. George for thanksgiving and we didn't know anyone that was staying in town to water my herbs for me. So now they are just about dead.  Well, it was fun while it lasted. I guess I am just not cut out to be a green thumb. 

I made a birthday calendar, but I don't have everyones birthday. So when is your birthday, and everyone in your family? (And I am talking to anyone who looks at my blog. Yes that means YOU!!!)

Family Pictures

My dad came up to Logan and took some family pictures for us. We haven't ever had a family picture taken before so we were really in need. They turned out really good so thanks Dad.

Thanksgiving with the Rowleys

(Sorry, I forgot to get pictures of thanksgiving dinner. This is Friday out with the girls.)




Thanksgiving was a blast this year. We ate at Gilbert's brother Luke's house.  They have a lot of room for the whole Rowley clan.  The food was amazing and my favorite thing for dinner was John's ham. It tasted like candy, and I couldn't stop eating it. Gilbert forgot to fill me on  his mom's famous beet jello with onions in it. It looked so good but when I took a bite I about died! (If you know anything about me, you know I hate nothing more than red beets.) Gilbert had walked into the room just as I took the bite and saw the look on my face. He died laughing and then asked if I had eaten his mom's jello. He thought he had warned me. 

We stayed up all night playing games, and taking hilarious pictures, of which I don't have any copies, and then left and 3 a.m. to go shopping. We got some awesome deals and Gilbert and I are now completely done Christmas shopping. YEAHHHHHH!!! When we got home all the girls went to Teri's house and made birthday calendars. All the girls went out to lunch at Jimmy Johns. It was so good! We went back to Teri's to finish the calendars and then got all dressed up to meet the boys and go to Texas Roadhouse for Luke and Heather's 11th anniversary. We took Andrew and Johnny, and left all the rest of the kids with Grandma Rowley.  Saturday morning around six all the boys went fishing. They all fished more than they caught, but they had a really good time being together. It was Gilbert, Matt, Luke, and John. While they were gone I went back to Teri's and gave her hair extensions. They turned out really good. 

It's Official!

Andrew is crawling everywhere! What do I do now? I can't move fast enough to keep up with him. Just the other night gilbert and I were eating dinner and Andrew was playing in the front room. All of a sudden we heard some clicking on the fridge, and sure enough it was Andrew crawling right into the kitchen. He didn't want to be left out anymore.

He is so excited that he can move wherever he wants that he doesn't even want to stop to drink his bottle anymore. He has now found a way to take it with him, and eat on the way. Now I am always flipping him back onto his back so that he doesn't suck air.

Yeah!!!!!

We were having the hardest time feeding Andrew baby food. Every time we ate dinner he would try so hard to get our food, so we would get him some baby food. He didn't want it. (He is too smart. I wouldn't want that baby food compared to what we were eating either.) If I ever tried to put a spoonful of baby food up to his mouth he would smack it right out of my hand and splatter food everywhere. I called my mom to ask for some suggestions. I think Andrew heard me complaining to Grandma and didn't want her to think anything bad about him, because the very next time I tried to feed him he ate it all perfectly. Now you can't get the spoon to his mouth quick enough. He is always waiting with a wide open mouth. He has loved everything we have tried since the phone call. I guess all it takes sometimes is a phone call to Grandma.

Thank You Cards

I made some fun thank you cards for some people in the ward. I wish I would have had a thank you stamp. It would have been a lot cuter, but here they are. (Saedi where are you when I need you.)

The Perfect Fit!

I have so much fun with this little guy!

They are coming!!

I started growing some herbs about two weeks ago, and they just started to come out. "I can see some green!" I didn't know if they would make it because it said to put them in a really sunny spot, and living in Logan there hasn't been too much sun. I have kept them right in front of our back window and every morning I pull up the blinds and move the pots wherever the sunshine moves throughout the day. I am so excited they lived!

Surprises!

Last friday I went to D.I. too find some decorations for our home. I totally scored this time! Gilbert doesn't ever want me to go there again. Ha Ha! One of the things I found was this black shelf thing that I put in our kitchen. I also got the blocks and basket. The shelf was $2, the blocks were $1 each and the basket was $2. I put it all together and Gilbert said it looked so weird to have it in the kitchen. He said it needed some kind of kitchen tool on it too make it fit and look normal. I laughed and told him no way. This morning I came downstairs and this is what I found..... a can opener placed on top of it. I laughed so hard. I have the funniest husband. He always keeps me laughing! I better fill in the two empty spots, or who knows what I will find there tomorrow.

No stopping him now!

Saturday night Andrew was upstairs playing with some toys in our room while Gilbert and I were downstairs making dinner. I went upstairs to see how he was doing and found him just one more corner away from the top of the stairs. I was scared to death! He had just been at the whole other end of my bedroom. When he saw me he got the biggest smile on his face and I could tell he was so proud of himself. Looks like it is time for us to invest in a gate for the stairs.

any ideas??

Gilbert and I are getting bored. Has anyone seen a good movie lately that they would recommend? We would love to know of some good ones you have seen.

Scrapbooking!!!

These are some cards I made for visiting teaching, and I thought they turned out pretty cute. (Cute things are rare in my life so I get really excited when they happen.)
The flash on my camera made all the colors not so vibrant so I took another one from the side. The flowers are popping up freely and you can see it better in this picture.

Saedi, this one is mostly for you. I went to my up-line's club last night and this is what she had us do. It was so cute and I learned a knew technique, and a really good tip. I know you just got this stamp set, so I wanted to show you what we did with it. It is pretty simple, but I hope you like it! (All the edges are inked if you can't tell.)

I was getting bored and it seemed like all my pages were starting to look the same. So for this one I took plain white paper and went at it with the stamps. I made it my own fly fishing paper. Even the green strips I stamped like crazy. It was a lot of fun and now I am on this kick of making my own paper. (The trees actually pop up but you can't really tell.)

Watch Out........

Here comes Andrew! He gets his eye on something and there is no distracting him. Today he started to get up on his knees every time he rolled over. He gets on his knees and just rocks back and forth.  

This is my little ball player in the making. Andrew and I got to go to Bear Lake in September and visit my parents. Andrew got really bored so my mom thought he might like to play with some tennis balls. She was right! He loved them until he realized they were too big to put in his mouth.