bringing up bebe - 10 months

10 months has passed by since Gabe was born and it really doesn't feel possible. I remember the days of last May and caring for Luna. I don't remember anything specific about Gabe but I do remember that I was huge. I look up at our crabapple tree in bloom and I remember how she would sit under it and just take it all in. It is a nice memory during a hard time. We saw some puppies at the farmers market and I didn't feel compelled to get one. I still need time I think. Time will be good. Time will give me more chances to play with my kids and keep my life together. Just like I did this weekend.

Gabe is moving ahead as a 10 month old and is wild and crazy. He is a happy baby and is getting his third tooth (super slow with teething). He loves to explore and destroy and yell (in a good way). He and his sister have made underneath the table the wild fort and will go in there together and bang on things and play. Frannie is doing great as a big sister. We try to find safe places to keep Gabe and the swing works well for a little bit. He has blisters on the tops of his fingers from army crawling on the carpet at school and is now subject to any bandages we have lying around. Sorry Gabe, but we have a lot of Hello Kitty bandades....you'll have to get used to things like that.

Mossyoak Jedi

Heading into the wild fort

Go Frannie-she is actually running and paying attention!!!

Mothers Day also passed over the weekend and my little family really pulled through for me! no fighting and crying!!! Frannie was on good behavior and so was Lou. We went to the farmers market, Frannies soccer game, to the archie bray mothers day event, and worked around the house. We wanted to get out and hike or enjoy the sunny weather away from the house but we have work to be done before we get it painted. Hubs and I really do well with projects now that we have remodeled an entire house!! Hope all the moms out there were able to take some time to reflect on their little ones and what it means to be a mom. Mothers day is my new official favorite holiday.

Exhausted but happy

Big Brother Murf

Getting Out

sick sick sick
lets just say that people around here have been sick. I have a sinus infection and am feeling whole again. Gabe is getting top teeth and the poor thing feels anything like himself. Frannie is super sassy and difficult and acting like a 4-year old. Lou, he is sick too. sick sick sick sick.

amidst the sickness we took a trip to Missoula over the weekend. With me having a head full of mucus I barely packed what we needed (no baby carrier, no camera, no heavy baby jacket) and we pulled through and arrived in one piece. Gabe was in my arms the entire time b/c hotels arent baby proof and neither are rockin cities like Missoula. It was great to get out and away and get a new perspective on life this spring. Lou was in a training the entire time so I enlisted the help of my friend Aubrey to act as a sanity control device. We managed to arrive in MIssoula the same time as a brewfest, college rodeo, first day of the farmers market and the International Wildlife Film Festival Parade. It was a busy town and I have to admit that on our last day I opted for ice cream from the big dipper for lunch. I needed it...

When we got home, I let Gabe get some energy out. He really let it all out. He had fun ripping apart the cubbard and the toy box. Frannie enjoyed spending time at home again and probably needed some alone time. It was fun but traveling with an infant and preschooler is not a way to get over a cold!

IT IS ON!!

Squirel watch

If Frannie was a chicken she would be a Buff Orpington. They have the same color eyes and plummage and both can be cuddlers

Tilda

assessing the contents of the cubbard

dismantling the cubbard and preparing it for fort transformation

The ultimate goal! Baby hide-out

Kickin it

Frannie has made it to the big time-she is now officially driving our saturday schedule. Saturday mornings are no longer about enjoying time together and heading out to garage sales. This spring we will be heading to the soccer field. Francesca didn't realy understand the whole stealing the ball and scoring a goal thing. She liked watching the other kids run into each other and get hit in the face with a ball. She was okay not being the leader and taking the hits. She did have fun and feel pretty special. That is all I had hoped for...

We had a phenomenal weather weekend and the kiddos were enjoying time outside and splashing in the dog/kid pool. Today is in the 80's and I am in tears. What happened to our spring??Wait, next week it will be back-thats how spring works here: summer temps one day and winter snows the next. Gotta love Montana!

when was that?

Life has been a blur. It seems like there is nothing to do to hold the time down and keep things simple these days. April in Montana just EXPLODES with activities both at home and work. Between those two things I hope to eek out some time with the family but on most days that sounds impossible.

So, when was Easter? don't remember. Sure am glad that I managed to take a few photos. We stayed home and did'nt seek out easter egg hunts or people. We just stayed put. It was a beautiful day and we spent time together outside and enjoyed the holiday with each other. Gabe and Frannie (and Murf) all had fun looking for treats from the Easter bunny and basking in the sun we had. Murf probably found the most eggs but he has an unfair advantage-that nose! We talked the house faerie to tell the gnomes to tell the Easter Bunny (all gnomes are friends with rabbits) that Frannie was good and to not forget to leave things for her. She knows that the house faerie watches over her and that if she sucks her thumb, she gets knots in her hair. She knows that the faeries and gnomes are friends and can help her. She is at a magical imagination level and we are letting it explode. Murf also has supernatural powers too but we wont go into that today...



Excitement before the hunt...




First easter egg hunt



The egg hunt expert is on standby incase that egg falls or breaks. Dont worry, in the end is graciously given a few



Murf finds this egg first



Frannie swoops in



Murf has given up on eggs and has moved onto squirrels...





More egg hunt fun




Easter hunt picture



enjoying the outside time



wishing that he could just go-

  


Swinging at 9 months



Gabes "space ship"



Danger-Danger Gabe has found the stairs



...and up he goes

Honey and Tilda are growing like weeds and enjoy getting out and about in the yard when the sun shines. We hope that they can joing Ju-Ju soon and I think that she would like that too. We introduced them thru the pen and she was very noisy when the kids left. We might be expaning the pen to accomodate this big girls too.


Honey and Tilda on their recess break



Frannie Farmer and her girls-she loves every minute of it

Frannie has started to make her bed (and Gabes) in the morning (on her own) and is starting to be a little helper (we had a rough spot for a while where listening and helping didnt exist). Gabe is teething (top teeth) and trying to get into as much danger as possible. Frannie has given him a new nick name of 'googly-bear'. Frannie is also into the Titanic this week and more and more into soccer. Her first game is saturday-GO LOBSTERS!! more to come on that.

Hopefully, life will slow down as summer approaches and we wont be feeling run over all the time and can keep up with life.Summers are a great time to be in Montana.