Happy Birthday!!!

Here she is having a party in her birthday cake. She thought it was fun to make the mess but she wasn't so sure about eating the cake, and since she is sensitive to lactose we didn't have ice cream. Happy Birthday Sweetie! It's hard to believe that you are one! We sure do love and enjoy you.

First Birthday!!!

We took Gemma to Build-A-Bear for her birthday. She made a bunny and Jade made a Reindeer. It was very fun and she really likes her new bunny, now maybe she will leave my special bunny alone...... somehow even I doubt that :-)

First Haircut

The day before Gemmas first birthday we decided to cut her some bangs. She has so many layers comming in that it looked like her hair was always in her eyes and James said that he thinks bangs are so cute, so I figured that if she has hair like Jade then it will be years before all the layers come in. Jade still has some and we grew out her bangs just this summer. Anyway these are the before and after pictures. Obviously this is the before. :-)

?????

These are just some fun pictures from the last two weeks. Gemma and I have been sick so I didn't take very many.....This is "Tuffy" our kitty , he is under my bed.This is Mark's new kitty he adopted her a few days after we got Tuffy. She is a lilac point Siamese and she is very pretty and sweet. We went up to see his place and to see the cat. She dosen't have a name yet.
This is Gemma and her blankie that she loves very much , she likes to wear it around so I tie a scrunchie around the ends so it stays on.
Gemma and Tuffy

Newest family member

This is our new kitty. We went and adopted him this morning. He dosen't have a name yet, but we are thinking. Anyway I have been talking to James about it for a while and the kids really wanted a pet so we looked online and narrowed it down to 3 then we went down to see them in person and we all liked this little guy, he is 9 weeks old and already nutered. He is a lynx point siamese and we are happy to have him.

Halloween

Jade was a "pirate princess" for Halloween this year and Gemma was a parrot. The first picture was taken very early in the morning ( she has to be there at 7:50 am) on our way to school, so that is why it is a little dark. Then at 12:30 her school had a costume parade and I took Gemma over to watch and then help out with Jade's class party, her teacher was very nice and let Gemma come, and she was a very good girl.
I don't have a picture of Gemma in her costume because she hated it, I think that my mom got a few I will have to check and see. We went trick-or-treating in Grandma Rory's neighborhood, and we had pumpkin shaped pizza for dinner, it was yummy :-)
Jade had a great time trick-or-treating and she got a big bag full of treats. Gemma didn't have as much fun she hated her costume and she didn't care for walking around the neighborhood and she didn't like being in the stroller after dark, and to top it all off she face planted it and got a big bonk right in the middle of her forehead...sheesh what a kid :-)

Tending

We got to tend Jack and Gabriela on Monday the 29th of October. Chris and Jana wanted to go to dinner, so they brought over pizza and root beer floats and the kids of course :-)
We had a good time they were very good and there were no tears. Yay!

funny pictures

Here is James sleeping in MY chair ha-ha, he claimes he was just resting his eyes, but I had turned off the tv and the fish tank, all the lights and took this with a flash. Yeah right just resting :-)
Gemma has recently decided that her "favorite" toy is my special bunny...(it is a build a bear bunny that has a recording of her heartbeat in it, from when I was pregnant with her) She gets it down at every possible chance, and hurry's to give it loves and kisses before I get there :-)

Gemma

Gemma is getting so big, how time flies. She is fully walking now and figuring out running, I took her in to get her shots last Tuesday. It was so sad her little legs were sore and she couldn't walk very well. Normally however she is so happy and busy, she is also starting to talk a bit she say's "Oh WOW!" and when we are in the store she points and say's "wats zat" and today she started calling me " MaMa" I just love it. She waves bye-bye and when I ask her where daddy is she waves bye-bye :-) even if he is right there...
She loves to get into Cisco and Jade's rooms and if they leave their doors open she makes a bee-line for Cisco's room first. :-) And she really does not like it when I tell her "stop it" it makes her cry.This is a cute picture of her walking, the little pooh bear car is from Grandma Anaka and Grandpa Ray, they gave it to her for her birthday. It's not her birthday yet but they were excited and I didn't mind, because they won't be here on her birthday anyway, they are going to Panama.
Gemma is a big girl now.. well she thinks she is... I spent last week painting her crib. Chris and Jana were very kind and let us have it back, I had lent it to them for Jack, thinking that I wouldn't need it because none of the other kids ever slept in one. Gemma however can only sleep in her own bed, it was a dark blue but I wanted to have it be a lighter color. All I can say is that primer is important!! My dad had told me that I only needed to sand it.... the guy at the home depot said the same thing... they were wrong. Anyway I finally got it done over the weekend, with a lot of Cisco's help, and this is a picture of Gemma in it. :-)

Kangaroozoo

We went to Kangaroozoo today with Lori and her kids, on our way I decided to call and invite Chris and Jana, Jana had to work but Chris brought Gabriela. We had a lot of fun Cisco invited his friend Josh to come along too. Gabi had a ball with Jade and Gemma. I had fun taking Gemma down the big slide, she was a little scared at first but she came to love it, so we jumped and went on the slides for a few hours. When we slowed down a little Gemma must have had enough because she threw up.....ick.... She is prone to motion sickness, the poor thing. By then we were all tired and it was time to go, it is a lot of work to climb those things.

October 7, 2007

It was our 9th anniversary yesterday, so we took the kids to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner to celebrate. Usually when we go out for seafood we go to the Market Street, but we wanted to try something different. James, Cisco and I ordered the crab pot. It was a really fun meal, basically it had two kinds of crab, shrimp, sausage, corn and potatoes and it came in a bucket. I didn't take a picture in time. Jade and Gemma had quesidillas, Gemma also shared my corn, she really enjoyed it! Then for dessert we ordered a "Sea Turtle" and we all shared that. It was very tasty, Gemma liked it too, however Jade wasn't too impressed, she did like that there was a play place though.

Who are you???

Joey, Cerissa and Charly came out to our house on Saturday for dinner and to play games. This was cute of Gemma and Charly, they were checking each other out very carefully.

Taking a rest...

This is a special picture because Gemma dosen't usually sleep anywhere but her own bed.

Snow???

Yes, do believe your eyes these are rather large snowflakes that fell for a few hours on Saturday the 29th of September. Jade was so excited to go out and play in it.
Anyway I am very excited that it is October now, October is my favorite month... I love the fall and Halloween and my birthday. Our anniversary is also in October

Quality time

Jade, Gemma, and I went and spent the day with Grandpa and Grandma Hudson on Monday the 24th. We always have a wonderful time with them, in these pictures they were playing with a car. Jade really loves to go and see them, (as do I :-) ) She was really mad when I went the last time while she was in school, So I picked her up from school early and we went to lunch with Grandma to Applebee's, and ran a few errands with her. Then we went back and Jade spent some quality time with Grandpa.

Our garden

These are some of the things we grew in our garden this year , I thought the peppers were pretty and then we had a good time digging up the potatoes. The really funny thing is the pumpkins growing in our front yard, I didn't plant it there, I think that a seed from when we carved pumpkins last year must have fallen and it grew.... we have two pretty good sized ones that can kind of be seen in this picture. We also grew peas, giant sunflowers, onions, and tomatoes. I try to grow a few different things every year.

First Steps

Gemma took her first steps this morning! I couldn't believe it I just held my arms out and she let go of the couch and walked right to me. It was about 5-6 steps. She was so proud of herself, I was proud too :-)
I snapped this picture on her second try, she was doing really good and then she got excited and lost her concentration.
She is only 9 1/2 months old, what a determined girl.
I think my favorite comment about her was what our friend Judy said, she said Gemma is passionate about everything. That is so true.

Dance

Jade started dance last week she is taking ballet and tap, with Ultimate Dance Etc.
She was so excited, she has had to wait a long time for her classes to start because the dance instructor is building a new studio and they took the sumer semester off to try to get it completed before fall semester, they didn't quite make it, the new studio will be open on October 1st. Anyway her classes started on Sept 5th, and she just loves it. She even got a gold star on the 12th.
I didn't want to go all the way back home after dropping Jade off for dance, so Cisco and I were entertaining Gemma in the car while we waited for Jade, I thought this was a cute picture of them playing, Gemma was doing her silly "hiss".

Chris' Birthday

On Sunday it was Chris' birthday so we all went to my mom's house for a get together. I was really excited because Jana said she would show me how to set up this blog. YAY! All of the pictures (before this one and the peek-a-boo one) on here I uploaded with Jana's help... Now I am trying this myself at home.... Seems to be working all right so far :) I even managed to find the pictures, believe me, I wasn't so sure I could. So anyway we were celebrating Chris' birthday and he was holding Jack and Gemma to see if they are close in weight...they are pretty close...

HI!!

I just love this picture of Gemma, we were playing peek-a-boo. You can see the twinkle in her eyes.

The best toy ever!

Gemma loves to play in her car seat, well any car seat will do. This will entertain her for a very long time.

Sweet baby sleeping

I just love how Gemma sleeps. She always has to be on her tummy with her bummie in the air. This is how my brother John-Paul used to sleep when he was tiny.

Giant hail stones...

These are some of the hail stones that fell at our house at the end of August this year. I sent Jade out to pick these up, she was crying " but mom it hurt's" and I said just hurry and grab some. Mean of me I know, but I wanted to take pictures. I was out there with her and it did hurt they were huge, I have never seen them this big before. Jade went out after the storm slowed down and picked up a bowl full to eat.