It All Started with a Little Skittle...

 Corbin's First birthday was the theme, "Where the Wild Things Are".  It was perfect.  The people who love Corbin most were there surrounding him.  He seemed to enjoy tasting cake, playing with his pinata, opening gifts, and crawling around chasing Gabby every where.  It was so much fun watching Corbin and Gabby enjoying the entire event. I can't believe this sweet boy has blessed us for an entire year. We love you Corbin. Happy birthday!

This Thanksgiving reminded me very much of a few Thanksgivings Michael and I had early in our relationship.  I remember one Thanksgiving when he was working on a rig and wasn't supposed to get to come home at all, but he managed to be given a few hours to sneak away and come and celebrate with his family. It had been weeks since I had seen him so it was the best of gifts to spend even just a short amount of time with him. This year we have been blessed with Michael having a job (which is saying at lot for the oil industry at the moment).  However  with the growth of his company over the last few months there has been growth in his responsibilities.  Michael has been traveling, but always manages at least one day a week home with us. Gabby and I miss him very much because some days when he is home he arrives here after Gabby is asleep and before she awakes. Gigi consoling the girls after a little 'tiff'.  Blakeleigh was standing in front of Gigi te

Halloween this year was a whirlwind.  I had plans. Big plans, but life happens and plans change. Gabby had early release on Wednesday and Thursday this week.  We had every moment scheduled, but our schedule changed. We were blessed to have Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Sharon come for a surprise visit.  I wasn't getting much sleep and so I wasn't 100%. Wednesday Gabby spent the day with Mommy visiting with Aunt Sharon and Grandma and Grandpa once out of school. On Thursday, we still managed to spend one day with Aunt Sharon and even take her to the airport after Mommy got off of work.  Then we went to Uncle Mark's new apartment and picked up some clothes for him (Gabby is in LOVE and wants to move in immediately).  Then the fun began.  She got to  paint a black cat for Halloween and then got a Gigi's cupcake (eating nothing but the frosting).  Somehow she later convinced me to take her to the farmer's market for perusing, then some cartwheels in a field, and finally

Gabby has been wanting to be a Girl Scout for about two years now.  Finally, this year she is a Daisy.  She has had two meetings so far and she's loved both of them.  Gabby is lucky enough to have three troop leaders who were in Girl Scouts almost their entire school career.  Gabby and the kids love the troop and seem to really be becoming friends.  I love how passionate she is about her troop.  Today they received their vests and the patches and pins with their troop information.  She has been trying to wear it to school. I informed her it's only for Daisy related stuff. Today they got to dress up in their Halloween costumes, play leap frog, practice the Pledge of Allegiance, do a craft, read books and laugh with friends.  She is already learning independence and it's great to see her flourish in friendships.  

This weekend we went to Grandma and Papa's lake house and it was quite eventful.  Gabby adores the lake house and begs to go there constantly.  Once there is mention of the lake house there is no backing out, so even though Daddy drove over 2000 miles for work during the week (traveling every single day of the week) we agreed to go. This weekend Daddy got off of work a little early on Friday and then the three of us headed to the lake house where Aunt Ellen, Grandma, and Papa were waiting for us.  We arrived around 9:30 and stayed up until 11:00 visiting with Gabby snuggling with Aunt Ellen the entire time.  When we awoke the next morning Gabby was so excited.  She just wanted to play outside, so her and Papa rode in the golf cart and visited with family.   We had a lot to squeeze in in one day.  We took some Halloween photos, celebrated Mom's belated birthday, fished, made s'mores, played in the tree house, and took a boat ride.  Gabby stated that her