My Trip to TENNESSEE!!

Gabe and I were able to go back to Tennessee for 8 days a few weeks ago. I will have to say this trip brought up a lot of "firsts" for me which I will explain later. The purpose of the trip....the country music marathon! My brother, his wife, my sister and I signed up to run the half marathon. Training was a bit hard at time especially having a baby but it was able to work out and I was able to accomplish my goal of RUNNING the WHOLE time. It might not have been fast running but I ran the entire time. When i read the description of the course it said mostly flat. I will have to say that was a lie!! It was a lot of hills. I am grateful when I did my training it was going uphill. Not only was it hilly but it was HOT! I didn't really know how hot it was till after I finished the race. I ended up getting heat exhaustion. To make that story short I will just say I ended up being OK. This was my FIRST race ever. I will have to say this race was an amazing experience. Not only were their 35,000 people running the race but there were sure a lot of people cheering on the sides the whole way! It was really nice to have people encouraging you the whole way. It was fun to be able to do it with my family. Here are some pictures from the race. They are out of order but you get the idea.

Waiting for race to start

After the race... at home

After race

The forever long potty line

Waiting to catch the bus

Jen and I

Right before the start ( Could I look more WHITE)

Anyways.... going back to "firsts"... So one night while I was in TN I was driving at night on the back roads. As I was driving I saw a dead opossum on the road (like always.... it is a common occurrence) I thought to myself as i saw it lying there “You know, I have never hit any animal before." No joke, five minutes later THIS ran out in the road and hit me.

YES a DEER... It couldn't have been a little opossum it had to be 50 times the size of it! I gotta be careful what I say! Talk about scary!! Luckily wasn't hurt. It shook me up a bit and I was crying, worried that I killed a deer. I think I was more worried about that than anything else. I do not think he died though. I saw him lift his head after I hit him. Not only did it leave some blood and hair on my door but it also left some costly damage to the car. When I got home, my brother and sister sure got a good laugh in! The trip itself was so nice! I love anytime I am able to see or spend with them. My parent sure enjoyed being able to see Gabe. Here are a few pictures of him I took while we were there.

Off to Arizona

We found out recently that we are going to Arizona. Joe got an internship with Layton Construction, but they did not know where they were going to send us until less than a week ago. Turns out it is Sunny Arizona. Lindsey is very excited because she LOVES the warm weather.
Joe is going to Arizona on Wednesday, and will start his internship on Thursday. Lindsey will stay in Utah with Gabe until Gabe's sixth month doctors appointment, and then she will come down to spend the summer. We are excited and looking forward to having Lindsey stay home with Gabe.

So big, so fast...

I will have to say over this past week and a half Gabe has accomplished quite a bit. It makes me so sad! He is getting big, too fast. Last Tuesday, Joe put Gabe down to play. He ran down stairs to get something and when he came back up Gabe was on his stomach. The next couple of days he started rolling from his back to his tummy more often! Then on Easter Sunday he actually started sitting up really well on his own! THEN today while I was playing with him. He was laughing and I noticed that he has TWO teeth that have already broken through. I swear i just checked 2-3 days ago and they weren't there. He hasn't even been fussy or anything. All I can say is that we sure do have a great baby! He is so happy and good natured. He keeps us smiling. I love waking up and going to his room to see that big smile on his face! Oh how I love my little boy! ( As you can tell our little guy's hair doesn't do much but stick every which way)

Gabe sitting up on his own. We gave that rattle to him for Easter. He really like it!

I just like his smile in this one

Daddy's favorite trick to do with Gabe

WAY TO GO Joe!!

Well over the past couple weeks Joe has had a lot of great things happening for him. The first was that he was voted or picked to be the AGC (Association of General Contractors) club president for school. This is something that Joe really wanted and is very excited about. The second is that Joe was offered an internship with Layton Construction. We were giving up hope for an internship for the summer. He had an interview last week and received and offer on Monday. He is not sure where he will go yet. He was told the possibilities would include Utah, AZ, or CA. I kind of hope it is Utah because it would be a lot easier on us and we wouldn't have to move. Since the internship is paid, I will get to stay home with Gabe which I am VERY excited about! The only bad thing about me not working is we lose our insurance. It's going to be hard to give up paying only 28 bucks a month for full coverage for my whole family. Anywho... I am very excited and proud of Joe! He's worked so hard!

I made this cake for Joe the day he found out he got to be the president of the AGC club.

Daddy and Gabe

4 1/2 months

Well Gabe had his four month check up last week. It went very well considering he had to get a few more shots. He didn't really cry when he got the shots, he just wimpered for a few seconds. That made me greatful. Last time he was not happy he got them. Anyways... The doctor said he looked perfect and was very healthy. At 4.5 months his growth stats:

weight-14 lb 8 oz -->28%

height- 25.75 in-->66%

head- 17 in--> 63%

Needless to say Joe was not happy when I told him this. He says that I am starving our little guy because he dropped from the 63 % to 28% in his weight. For some reason he must want Gabe to be A LOT bigger. I reassured him the doctor said he looked great. That did not ease him at all. He has insisted on feeding Gabe more.

The only down side of the doctor's visit was that he told me to wait till 6 months to start feeding him solid foods. (due to food allergies) We had just started feeding him cereal a few days before. It was quite the experience. Gabe hated it at first and would gag. After a few minutes he started to enjoy it and loved it every time I gave it to him. Any who he doesn't seem to be missing it. It will be interesting to see if he has the same reaction when we start him on it again.

Update

It has been about a month since I have posted anything so I thought that I would give a brief update of what is going on in our lives. As you can see from the previous post we blessed Gabe on the 1st of the month. We were able to spend time with my parents, my brother Josh, Brad and Laura and our new nephew Carter. I was really nice.
The second week in February Joe went to Reno with his school for a construction competition. He really enjoyed it and got a lot of contacts for internships. He is already starting to prepare for next years competition. I have been working and training for my half marathon. Work as been going well and kept me busy. I am a little sad that my skiing session with the patients is done. I hope that I will be able to keep up with it or at least be able to do it more often. I told Joe that I wanted to buy some ski equipment. He said you can buy ski equipment when I can get a gun. I replied with, "That is not even remotely the same!" The conversation went something like this-
Joe: Ski's are just as dangerous.
Me: Whatever!
Joe: Do you know how many people die from skiing accidents every year?
Me: Do you know how many people die from guns!
Joe: They are about even (kinda with smile)
Me: Yeah.... Whatever (laughing)
Anywho....He has been wanting a gun for a long time. I am not really fond of them. I told him maybe when we get out on our own one day. I don't know what it is with guys and guns! As for my running I am about half way there...up to 6 miles. Only 7 more to go and 9 weeks to do it.

The week Joe went to Reno I was able to stay at home with Gabe. I loved very minute of it.
Gabe now is 16 weeks. Is growing fast and is smiling and laughing more and more. He is a joy to have around and keeps Joe and I laughing. He has started to sleep through the night which is great so I am not tired for work the next day. Joe is staying at home with Gabe during the day and staying busy with school at night.
Here are some photos over the past month:

He didn't notice it at first. After a while he kept trying to look at it.

We have been putting him in the jumpin johnny more. He is enjoying it.

Santa's Helper

Went to go get him after is nap. This is how I found him.

Gabe loves the bumbo. He sits in it ALL the time. He even sits in it at the dinner table with us.

Blessing

My brother Brad and his wife had their baby on the 22 of January. My parents and my brother Josh came out to visit. Since they were in town, we finally decided to go ahead and bless Gabe. It was good to be able to have them here. We had quite a few family members and friends at the blessing. Thanks so much for all of you who came. Here are some pictures of him in is blessing outfit. I realize he looks rather large in his blessing outfit but we wanted my parents to be there so that is why we waited.

Gabe and his Uncle Josh

This picture makes me smile every time I see it!

Gabe with my parents

Gabe with Joe's parents

4 generation picture