'Twas the night before Christmas...

Here's Gwen in her new pajamas from Nana and Papa- thank you! In these pictures, she's picking the "apple" (or as she says "a-dool") from the Christmas tree. :)

Success- Gwen sits down to hug her prize.

Cindy Lou Who

Here are some early pictures of our Cindy Lou, er, Gwendolyn. :)

Playtime with Reagan

Here are Gwen and Reagan chatting about their busy day...

Okay, they must have been reading the wrong blog...

Cash Advance Loans

Gwen turns one!

I can't believe it's been a year since our sweet Gwendolyn was born. She has changed so much! On Thursday we had a little family birthday party for her. We didn't think she'd have any problem getting into her cake, and we were not disappointed! Here are some cute pictures from her birthday...

Here comes the cake...

Family pic with Papa, Nana, Aunt Kim and cousins Madison, Conlan and Talmage.

Now it's time for presents...

Happy Birthday, Gwen!

A little bit of this and that...

Caught in the act! Here's Gwen having a great time playing in the kitchen...

And here she is enjoying the coziness of the laundry basket!

We went to our ward Christmas party last week, so I decided to dress Gwen up in a festive outfit. Here's our family picture.

And here's our little cutie hamming it up for the camera...

It's bathtime!

I got tired of looking at the Japanese game show guy everytime I opened up our blog, so I decided to download a video of Gwen. This is what happens when we turn the water on for her baths...

You can't hear her on the video, but she's squealing as she's hurrying down the hallway. :) She's our little water baby!

Human Tetris II

This is a very funny Japanese game show that was featured on the Ellen DeGeneres Show... I laughed so hard that I decided to share it with all of you. You won't feel smarter after watching this, but you should feel relaxed and grateful that you're not participating!

A Note from Beau

Most of you already know about this, but I thought I'd go ahead and post it just in case.

A Note from Beau...

When I lost my job at the Burn Unit 18 months ago, Shellie and I had considered going into the military then, but it just didn't feel right. This time around, things have changed.

I will report to Fort Jackson (the same as my younger brother Elliot) for Basic Training in the Army Reserves. I will be reporting on January 3rd(also the same as Elliot). We are going to have to work hard to stay out of trouble together. Elliot is an E4 and I am an E3 .

In the third week of March, after Elliot and I graduate from Basic, I will be reporting to Fort Bragg for AIT (where my older brother Jason is stationed, and his family stays). My MOS is 38B, Civil Affairs Specialist. In a nutshell, Civil Affairs is the "good will ambassador" of the Army. We organize humanitarian efforts all over the world (like building schools in war torn Iraq and Afghanistan) For more click on the link http://www.soc.mil/usacapoc/capoc_default.htm

After 13 weeks in Fayetteville, NC, I will go home for a week, then it's off to Airborne school for three weeks at Fort Benning in Columbus, GA.

I was disappointed that I didn't get my choice of Combat Medic, but things work the way they do for a reason. If I did get that MOS I would be going to Basic at Fort Leonard Wood, Misery, I meant Missouri. (in the dead of winter) and AIT would be in Texas (too far for Shellie or I to drive when I get weekends off). Plus my training officer already mentioned the likelihood of sending me to medic school in the future so I can support our unit in that capacity as well.

The end all goal of this is to use the Army Reserves to a) pay off my student loans, b) pay me (rather well) to go to school and finish my bachelors degree. While in school I am going to attend the Reserve Officer Training Course (yes, I'll be an ROTC geek) and when I graduate from college, I'll take a commission in the (become an officer, no longer an enlisted man)

Feel free to call or write with any support or questions.

Dancing Queen

It was difficult, but I finally caught Gwen dancing when I had the camera ready. Here's our little cutie in action. (Just try to ignore my annoying sing-song mommy voice... You parents understand what it's like trying to get your child to do something cute when you actually want them to!) And yes, she gets her moves from me... :)

Tagged

Now I'm supposed to share 7 interesting facts about myself, so I'll give it a shot:

1. I'm an English language/grammar nerd- although I'm sure you can't tell when you read my blog. I can't stand when I see advertisements with purposeful misspellings (Ex: "Kleeners" and "Nite"). I also love knowing the origins of words and I actually liked my English classes in college. I was going to be an English Major before I decided to become a Radiology Tech.

2. I am also an All My Children soap opera watcher (along with my sister, Kim). I know it's ridiculous, but for some reason I just can't pull myself away from the drama-packed lives of the Erica Cane and Jack Montgomery clan!

3. I can draw. Or at least, I try to draw. My favorite subject, although difficult, is portraits. I hope to take more art classes one day just for fun.

4. I don't scrapbook. This is my scrapbook. I've never even bought one. I'd probably buy one of those digital photo books online before I'd actually make my own. That's not to say that I don't admire other people's scrapbooks- I just don't think I'm that creative.

5. I'm a night owl. I wish I could change it, but I just seem to get a second wind around 8pm when I should be winding down. I end up going to bed late most nights, even when I have to get up early the next day.

6. I have never been skiing on water or snow before, and I'm okay with that. I know, I know- I'm missing out. Maybe I'll get around to it one day.

7. I twirl my hair when I'm bored, tired, or concentrating. My family has teased me since I was little about this, and even though I've been threatened with eventual baldness, the habit has remained. Beau thinks it's funny and will twirl my hair for me sometimes-but it just doesn't have the same effect. :)


Okay, now that you know more than you probably wanted to know about me, I'm tagging Leigh, Sarah and Jenny! You're it!

Sweater weather

So, now it's November and definitely getting colder. The leaves on our dogwood have changed to a nice red color, and we can hear the wind whipping through the branches like it did today. Thank goodness for indoor heating- and it's not even truly cold yet! We went to Mark and Gaby Brucker's 40th birthday "Hoe Down." We took the opportunity to dress up our little country girl. It was a fun party and it was nice to see all of our Brucker family.

Our country girl

Nana and Gwen

Kim and Talmage

Thad and Madison taking a square-dancing break.

Gwen babbles all the time now. She says "mama", "dada", "baby" and "kitty." And when she wakes up in the morning, she says "Hi-yee" with a big smile on her face. We love it. Now she loves the sound of pots banging together and anything that rattles. She'll also dance if you ask her to- she's already a ham. :) Mealtime is also lots of fun- our independent girl wants to do it by herself. I don't think we'll be buying babyfood much longer.

I can do it by myself, thank you!

Stalking the sleeping kitty...

The day after...

So, Halloween has come and gone. We took Gwen to the church Chili Cook-off, and dressed her up. It was fun to see everyone else and their kids dressed up, too. And it's always fun to eat good food. :) She had enough energy for us to get through dinner and then ran out of steam before we could take her to the carnival activities. Since she's not old enough to eat most of the candy she would have received, I don't think she minded very much. On Halloween we dressed her up again just to visit our backyard neighbor, who was glad to see her cute costume. We had to wade through the endless sea of kids and parents making their way down our street just to get to her. At least this year we were prepared and didn't run out of candy. Hope you all had a great holiday!

Here's our little pumpkin family- Beau even included the cat.

And here's our Busy Bee at the ward Chili Cook-Off...

Here we are on Halloween-Aren't our scrub costumes creative? :) And doesn't Gwen look thrilled to be in her bee costume again? Luckily she wasn't in it for very long and her excitement picked up once we put her in her stroller to walk around the corner. She couldn't stop looking at all of the other kids and their costumes.

Nana with Conlan, Talmage and Madison.

Gwen got so excited when she saw Conlan- her real life teddy bear!

"It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!"

So, it's been a very busy month. At least it's my favorite time of year- when the air cools and the leaves start to change. My birthday was on the 22nd and we celebrated with a little family dinner at my parents house on the 21st.

That's Kim with Gwen, Madison holding Talmage, me, and Conlan.

Gwen also went to her first playdate- which was interesting... The other 10 month old, Kelan, seemed to have the same idea she did, and after acknowledging each other, they pretty much played by themselves. Hopefully, it will go better next time when she's a little older. :)

Last week we took Gwen to pick out pumpkins, which was a lot of fun. She wanted to touch everything and couldn't stop looking at all of the people walking in and out of the patch. We finally carved our pumpkins (and a watermelon) tonight for FHE, so I'll have pictures of those next time. :)

Look at that toothy grin!

What a cutie (if I do say so myself)!