I AM:

When I was in high school, one of my teachers had us write a paper entitled "50 Things About Me". I've been thinking about that list lately, and feeling the need to update it! So here you go, happy reading :)

1. I am a Mommy

2. I am a Wife
3. I am a Daughter of Heavenly Father

*this picture is of me - does Gabby look like me? :)


4. I am an Organizational Neat Freak :)
5. I am a dang good cook when I take the time!
6. I am musical
7. I am a dancer, be it a good one or not - my fav is Salsa!
8. I am multi-lingual (English, Spanish, and Korean)
9. I am funny! At least, Gabby thinks so :)
10. I am smart - I graduated 3rd in my high school class.



11. I am an avid reader
12. I am a frugal shopper :)
13. I am a thorough researcher
14. I am a resident manager
15. I am still a music teacher at heart
16. I am a Heritage Maker
17. I am a sewer
18. I am a sometimes-quilter

19. I am a cuddler
20. I am a tree-climber
21. I am easily entertained by movies
22. I am a Joss Whedon fan (SO excited for Dollhouse, Season 2!)
23. I am a Twilight-series fan!
24. I am a picky speller-and-grammar-person. If you find an error in one of my blogs, please tell me so I can correct it - but know that I'll be mortified :)
25. I am a total wuss when it comes to scary movies. Joss Whedon is as scary as I can take.
26. I am a pianist.
27. I am a vocalist, be it Jazz or Classical.



28. I am fond of walking
29. I am a board-games lover
30. I am an Optimist
31. I am a hard-worker
32. I am a huge admirer of Ice Cream.
33. I am in love with my hubby :)



34. I am an e-mail and FB addict!
35. I am a hopeful home-owner for someday.
36. I am an aspiring guitarist
37. I am from a crazy, mixed-up family
38. I am a world traveller (AKA Army Brat)



39. I am Creative
40. I am a fast typer (90wpm-ish) whether Paul admits it or not :)
41. I am a "details person".
42. I am learning to relax
43. I am no longer an owner of a watch.



44. I am sassier than I take the time to be
45. I am healthy.
46. I am happy.
47. I am learning and growing.
48. I am a part of a wonderful, eternal family.
49. I am making my life the way I want it to be.
50. I am ME

Repenting and Biting my Tongue

This post started off as a "yay" but I have to repent and tell the rest of it that I forgot about until bedtime - for the last week or so, Gabby has been AWFUL at going to sleep. As in, she'll fall asleep nursing (a terrible habit, I know... any advice on how to break it?) and then as soon as I put her in her crib, she starts crying. So then I pat her tummy, calm her down for a minute, and then leave (because when we did sleep training months ago, we soothed, left, and let her cry it out, went back 10 mins later and did it again until she fell asleep on her own) but NOW if we let her cry, it turns into shrieking and screaming and choking and all of the dramatics. So I nurse her again. And pat her again. And hold her hand and shhh her until she falls asleep. And the last week or so, it's been a few HOURS getting this child to fall asleep. What do I do???

Back to the "yay" parts of it:

Gabby started crawling last week, and she's still slow and hesitant, but she's on her way!

I'm back to my pre-prego weight :) I'm not gonna share what it is, cuz... it's not my IDEAL weight, but I'm closer than I was! 9 months up, 9 months down, it's true!

Paul and I were looking at the milestones for baby growth and development a few nights ago, thinking about what Gabby IS doing and WILL be doing, and according to BabyCenter, the average baby begins learning to turn the pages of a book at about 16 months. We felt like quite the proud parents, since Gabby already does this :D

Maybe she's too smart for us. She obviously KNOWS that if she screams enough, I'll nurse her some more. But the kid is growing TEETH now... that changes a lot of things for me. I feel at a loss! Help!

9 months old (aka 3/4 of a year!!!)

Today, Gabby turned 9 months old. I'm not sure where the time has gone, but she's getting big!

At 9 months old, Gabriella:
~ weighs about 19lbs
~ started crawling just a few days ago
~ still only rolls leading with her right arm (as in, from her back, rolls to the left. From her tummy, rolls to the right)
~ can go from sitting to laying/rolling and back up to sitting. And is sometimes sitting when I go to get her from her crib!
~ has 2 teeth (bottom center) and 3 more on the way (we think - the two on either side of the bottom center two, and the top right center one)
~ loves to sit on the floor and kick the floor with her heels
~ loves to clap her hands together, and loves it when you clap back at her!
~ loves anything technology

~ will eat just about any pureed veggie, will feed herself peas, nutrios, shredded cheese, LOVES yogurt, cut up cucumber and bell peppers, cooked pasta... she's well on her way to eating most anything.
~ loves her sippy cup, still is a boob&water girl
~ HATES having her face (nose/mouth/whatever) wiped with a cloth, and will fight it with squirms and arm-flailing, and some whining.
~ Does "the lean" - a few weeks ago at church, we were sitting on the back bench and Gabby was doing "the lean". When we looked over, 5 adults were all doing "the lean" back at her! What a leader... :) We've caught her "leaning" to look sideways at the cat, and she will lean back and forth during meals in her high chair!
~ loves books, can turn the pages of her board books by herself
~ has so many fun faces

~ is super-fascinated by the television, and if it's on and you get between her and IT, she will LEAN around you to see better.
~ loves her dollies, and when you make them squeak, she lights up every time
~ loves her piano (a xylophone with keys)
~ has a nice new rug to play on, but more often than not will scoot OFF of the rug and onto the bare hardwood to pound her heels on the floor and do her "martial arts" yell. I'm certain our neighbors below really enjoy it.

All in all, she's a ton of fun and we're glad we have her :)

Updates and Videos!

First, Gabby is REALLY close to crawling. As in, she'll get on her hands and knees, and do "The Rock". And we used to let her play on a blanket on our living room floor, but lately, she's been moving around so much that the blanket ends up bunched up on the floor, and Gabby ends up sliding around on the floor. Which seemed frustrating, since there was no friction for her to crawl with. So we got a new rug. It's really soft :)


Here is Sleeping Beauty just waking up from her nap at Gwamma's house! I was trying to get a picture of her sleeping, cuz she was all curled up on her side and it was really cute, but the camera woke her up, so I got this instead. Don't worry - she'd already been sleeping for almost 3 hours, it was definitely time for her to wake up, anyway! :D


And my favorite: Lately, our Princess has been making this face :) Isn't she a hoot? It's been pretty warm in our top-floor apt, so she's been going topless. :)


And Gabby's newest love: Running!

She's always been a strong stander, holding her own weight, and then a few months ago, if you just held her an inch or so above the floor, she'd pump her legs (especially when we said "runrunrun!!!", she loved that!). And when we first started out with trying to help her walk, it was "now lift your foot, move it forward, there you go!" but now see what she does!!

And I know I'll be doing her 9-month update next week (really? 9 months?!?) but a few new things: Gabby LOVES yogurt. and feeding herself. She doesn't like purees anymore, she wants cut up cucumbers and peppers and peas, etc. Also, she's gone from saying "blah blah blah" to "nananananananana" and "dadadadadada" and today, she said "Momma". I'm sure of it.

And speaking of birthdays (sorta) our niece, Caitlyn, turned 1 year old this last week! Which is crazy, cuz she's only 3 months older than Gabby, and it's so weird to watch her walking around and being a whole year old... I'm so excited to see these two little girls get to be friends as they grow up together :)

As for us... Paul's registered for his CMA entrance exam! And things are looking up in the job-hunting department, so we're very hopeful that some things will be changing in our household soon!

Me... I've been busy with Heritage Makers and Resident Managing, on top of being a Mommy :) I finished reading Wuthering Heights (loved it) and am now reading Mansfield Park (loving it) and also reading "French Women for All Seasons" by the same author of "French Women Don't Get Fat" - loved it... you're probably noticing a pattern, but I'm pretty easy to please - I generally just like reading :D

We've been contemplating getting rid of our cable service, since we don't use it. Except that when we called Shaw, they won't let us: in order to get the RM deal, the cable is the main component. After that, we can add stuff for really cheap, but the cable's gotta stay. So when we move from here, the cable will disappear, and I don't think we'll miss it. But in the meantime, we still have access to all of the junk shows and movies and sports for our "free time" :D

Freakin' Awesome Day :)

So I've been working at the Heritage Maker's Booth at Stampede, and we had a surprise visit from Sharon Murdoch, the co-founder of the entire company! The company who was spotlighted on Oprah last year, the company who was on Good Morning America this week, the company who is making headlines with Direct Selling magazines across the continent... Talk about a busy woman!

This sweet woman had given me a huge smile and genuine hug before she even learned my name, but then got *that* much more excited about meeting me when she learned my name.

Yeah. So she's "heard about me", and knew my name, knew my recent accomplishments, and was excited to meet me! She called me a "firecracker" :) How awesome is that?!? Yup, my head swelled a little bit on my shoulders :)

check out my business website

July 1 and 4, etc!

We've been a little busy here! lots of stuff going on, I won't bore you with most of it, but some of the highlights are here:

Family photo shoot with the Spackmans - here is our little family - you can see the rest at www.jewelimage.ca

Canada Day - was pretty uneventful, but Gwamma had bought Gabby a fun Canada Day Shirt so we went and hung out with the grandparents and avoided the tenants in our building for a holiday :) Plus, we were evicting somebody, so it felt nice to get away from it all for a few hours. Here are some pictures of Canada Day:I totally missed out on the 4th of July, envious of all of you who got to see fireworks south of the border... Thought about getting Gabby a USA-flat shirt, so that all of her nationalities could be represented, but didn't have time and also was informed that finding a shirt like that would be tricky up here in the land of ice. (yes, that's me wearing a hoodie in July in Canada!)

Happy Summer, Y'all!