10 months and cookies

10 months old and as always as cute as can be :) Neal loves to tell us that his is "so big." (he does this by raising his arms above his head when you ask him "how big are you?)


To help mark 10 months Neal got his third tooth and started to walk - not walk on his own but with the help of his little walker/wagon he can get around quite well. He looks so much older when he is "walking". It is funny to watch him concentrate on walking and then look up with excitement to get our approval of his accomplishment. I am sure he will soon be walking on his own.




Though we already have our little tree up we are going to go up to Palmer for the annual Gates family tree trek and participate (without getting a tree). You can't have a tree trek without coffee, family and of course Christmas cookies. Aunt Katy came over yesterday and we had a day of baking some of our most favorite treats to share with everyone at the tree trek. We had so much fun and Neal was so excited to wake up from his morning nap and find Aunt Katy in the house. We made Crescent Dainties, Mint Brownies and Creamy Peanut Butter Delights.



Neal mostly wanted to hang out in the kitchen with Katy and I the whole afternoon. I guess he knew exactly what we were baking and wanted to be as close to the goodness as possible. He did get to taste test some of the icing for us and helped me with the dishes later that afternoon.



Now I sure hope we can refrain from eating all those delicious treats until the tree trek this weekend.

Enjoying the Snow

We got a nice fresh layer of snow and decided to venture out on the back deck and take some pictures in it. We got Neal all bundled up in his snow outfit and headed outside. It was a beautiful sunny day out however, like always it was FREEZING. Neal was a great sport out there but after about 10 minutes we were all ready to head back inside and get warm. We managed to get Yawkey out there for a few minutes but he quickly darted back to the door for the warmth of the house. Here are the few outdoor winter pictures that we got:





Also I want to note that I have been blogging quite a lot lately and just want you all to know that this is probably not going to be a habit. It just so happens that with Tyler's new camera we have been taking lots more pictures (if that's even possible). They turn out so great every time that I just have to share them. So all that to say enjoy the plethora of blogging for now 'cause I am sure it is bound to slow down at some point :)

Daily happenings ...

Our days seems to fill up faster and faster each week. During the holiday season this seems to be true even more with the shopping, get togethers, decorating and birthdays. So when we aren't busy running around doing errands, or going places what do we do with our time? Here is a little glimps of what Neal likes to do at home...

Rolling the basketball back and forth

Crawling all over the house - mostly chasing the puppy

Playing with the xbox controller

Playing guitar and singing with Daddy

Playing peak-a-boo behind the bedroom door


The other week some friends and I all took the kids to an indoor playground/coffee shop called Arctic Playgroundz. It was a lot of fun for the kids and we got to enjoy a nice cup of coffee while visiting and watching the kids play together.




We also have had a lot of fun as a family getting together with friends for any reason. We even got to take Neal to his first birthday party for his friend Jonathan.


Though Neal mostly wanted to eat the whole time (there was lots of yummy food to try) he did find some time to play. Him and Jonathan love to interact with each other. While they were playing they found that they had party hats on and after finding the string on his hat this is what happened:



I laughed when I saw the pictures. I didn't know that I had snapped a picture right as he snapped himself with the hat string. Though it was a startling/slightly uncomfortable moment for Neal he quickly recovered and enjoyed the rest of the party.

We have such a wonderful group of friends here. I have loved experiencing the joys and trails of motherhood with these ladies as we all became new moms together. What a fun time we have - and the kids are really starting to interact with one another and sometime even recognize each other which is a lot of fun.

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I have been so excited for the Christmas season to arrive and it is finally here. I always look forward to this time of year but have anticipated it even more this year since we get to experience it with Neal for the first time. I pulled out all the Christmas boxes and stared decorating a few days after Thanksgiving. Neal was very interested in everything that was in the boxes. The boxes have never been unpacked so quickly :)



His favorite discovery was the little jingle bells that he found and played with for the next 30 minutes.




We have the garland up on the mantle and stairs and Neal loves to look at the lights. This year I purchased a small 4 foot fake tree that we set up in the living room. Since we will be in Seattle this year for Christmas I decided that a small fake tree would work best. We will use this small tree on the years that we are out of town for Christmas so we can enjoy a tree for a little while and don't have to worry about taking it down before we leave.

When I pulled out the tree and set it up Neal was so interested in all the lights and ornaments it was impossible for him to ignore. He eagerly crawled over to the table and pulled himself up on his feet to admire the lights and touch any and all ornaments that he could reach. After I let him explore the tree for a bit Tyler and I decided that we best move the tree to a higher location so he can't pull it down on top of himself - Having a small tree up high has ended up being a perfect tree for Christmas this year with a curious, crawling infant.



Though there are a lot of decorations that Neal is not allowed to play with I do have a fun little wooden nativity set in front of the fireplace that is for Neal to play with. He loves the colorful figures and the two little sheep. His favorite thing to do is crawl over to them and swipe his arm across all of them making them topple over. He gets the biggest grin on his face as he hears them clatter to the ground.


There have been a few new decorations added to our home this year - only this year I have actually made them all. First Neal needed a stocking. I looked for a long time to find a cute little stocking and then found one that I really liked however, it was out of stock. After looking at it for awhile online I decided that I could easily make the same stocking and so I did. I love how it turned out and am excited to fill it with lots of fun toys.


I also have been wanting a Christmas tree skirt for the past 5 years. My in-laws all have beautiful quilted tree skirts and I have been meaning to make one for several years but have never found the time. This year I decided I needed to get started. I was on a friends blog and she had posted a picture of a patchwork tree skirt she made and I loved how it turned out, so I decided to do the same for our small little tree this year. I had lots of random scraps of Christmas fabric so here is what I put together for our little tree.


I will be making a larger skirt for our full size tree, that we will get most years, and using the log cabin quilt skirt pattern from my mother-in-law. I did purchase some fun Christmas fabric online and am looking forward to using this collection of fabric for either a large tree skirt or a nice festive Christmas quilt.


I am really excited about this fabric collection and can't wait to see how the tree skirt or quilt will look once put together. I'll have to post some pictures in the future when the project is finished.

Happy Holidays everyone!!


(don't you just love the excitement and joy that radiates from this little guys face - Christmas is just that exciting to him already)

Thanksgiving 2010

Well I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a great time out in Palmer with Tyler's family. Though we were missing some of the family there were still lots of us to celebrate the holiday. We had about 21 people for dinner and enough food to feed twice that many. It is always so fun to get together with family and friends and share a meal and Thanksgiving has to be one of my favorite holidays (besides Christmas of course).




Since this is our first year with a kid I have been thinking about what type of traditions we will want to start for the holidays with our family. I don't have many ideas yet but one tradition that we have is Thanksgiving morning cinnamon rolls. I thought this was a tradition until the night before Thanksgiving I told Tyler that I didn't think we were going to have cinnamon rolls in the morning 'cause I had just gotten over the stomach flu and wasn't in the mood for baking. Tyler responded, "What? We've never had cinnamon rolls on Thanksgiving morning." I laughed and couldn't believe that the last 5 years of Thanksgiving cinnamon rolls was not remembered. So, in order to make it a true tradition (one that Tyler will now hopefully remember) I got up and made some cinnamon rolls for the morning. Yes, they were delicious and the perfect start to our Thanksgiving. Neal even got to try a small bite and one bite was not enough for him :)



This was Neal's first Thanksgiving and unfortunately he didn't really get to enjoy any of the Thanksgiving food. Neal has been sick (stomach flu) the past few days so eating a Thanksgiving meal on a recovering tummy was not going to work for him. But that didn't stop him from having a great time with the family and sitting at the table with all of us enjoying his saltine crackers and juice. I did end up giving him a little bread dipped in gravy and he devoured it like it was candy.




I think he is really going to like Thanksgiving next year 'cause I can't think of one dish that we had that he wouldn't love. Sadly I think he paid for that delightful gravy on the way home. We left the house and not more then a mile down the road Neal threw up in his car seat...poor guy. Thankfully we were close enough that we turned around and were able to go back and clean him all up at GiGi's house. It was a much nicer drive home with a clean baby, car and car seat. He seems to be doing good today but we are sticking with the saltine crackers and juice for now :)

New toy for Mom and Dad

So Tyler just purchased a new Camera for his company. It is a Canon EOS 7D and takes video and still shots. This type of camera is used by "the professionals" and was even used to film an episode of our favorite show "House" (so it's a great video production camera). I was pretty impressed that a hand held camera could take such good video. The best part about this is that I get to use the camera at home when it is not needed at the office. I am so excited to learn how to use this camera and all the different features and things that it can do. We have been playing around with it the last few days and have already been really impressed with the photos we have gotten. These are some of our favorite ones:







Now remember these have not been altered or anything so they could be even better but I am so excited about how they turned out without any real knowledge on how to do photography. Needless to say this is only the beginning of our soon to increase photo skills. I am looking forward to great "professional" looking photos right from home in the future. Oh and here is a sample of a video...again better ones to come as we learn more. (quality of the video went down a little when we changed the formate for posting but it's still cute)



I think I should look into some good photography and photo shop tutorials online - or maybe someone I know could show me a few pointers...know anyone you could suggest?