Crawling?

Gabie had a rough time of it last night catching her sister's stomach bug, and today she was still not in the best of moods for picture taking, but as you can see, Eliya is feeling much better :0)










Well, somehow or other we have a moving, sitting up child on our hands. We left Rachel laying on her tummy about a foot away from her toys to see if she would wiggle her way over to them. I was vacuming and Mark was helping Gabie go potty (we're making progress there!) and the next time we paid attention this is what we found...









Since none of us saw exactly what happened and she had quite a few mintues to get to this position, we're not sure what she did, but somehow or other our little one is finding her way around.


Eliya got the honors of putting the angel on top of the tree after we decorated it with ornaments.

Ready for Bed

Playing Together

Rachel and Gabie have had a lot of playing together these past couple of days. Eliya came down with the flu on Monday and is still running a temp tonight - ugh! Gabie's had a fever all day today too, but it just doesn't slow her down at all, other then to get her to take naps again which she had recently given up. Gabie has learned the joy of being the middle child, even if her big sister isn't feeling well, there's still a little sister right there to play with!

For Claudia (and baby Smith)

In honor of your girl...or maybe just the fact that it's Elie's favorite color...there is a PINK christmas tree in the girls' room. Who would've ever thought - a pink tree in my house!

Putting Together (and taking apart) a Puzzle

Tonight we got out the floor puzzle of the manger scene. There aren't too many pieces, but with a 3 year old, 2 year old and 6 month old "helping" it took us quite some time to get it together!


Rachel was content to just try to chew the pieces together.


Gabie didn't quite get the idea of how to get the pieces together, but she tried to get them to fit together, whether they wanted to cooperate or not!


Eliya got the hang of it and if we gave her a little direction she was able to fit in the pieces quite well.


One put together puzzle with 3 proud little helpers gathered round



immediately after the 'completed picture' Rachel turned over and attacked the puzzle!



She then started wiggling around and proceeded to dis-attach every single piece, grinning the whole time!.



Gabie got quite upset with her little sister for taking apart the puzzle, until mom started singing the clean up song and then she immediately helped to put it all away.

Happy Triple Double (or 4)

Gabie celebrates a birthday with two of her closest friends here, Olivia and Neva - they were born about 12 hours apart on 11/25/05 in the same hospital. We had a 'friend' party for them on their birthday and had a very fun day. Even though we started her day off singing with birthday muffins, it still took her awhile to wake up and realize what day it was. And she FINALLY agreed to be 2. We've been arugueing for the past week about how old she's going to be. It would go something like this...
Allison: How old are you going to be Gabie?
Gabie: Four
Allison: No, you're going to be 2.
Gabie: No, 4.
Allison: No, 2.
Gabie: No,4!
Allison, No, Gabie you're only going to be 2.
Gabie: Fine, Thwee.
Allison: This isn't up for discussion, you're 2.
Gabie: Daddy, I be thwee pwease?
Mark: No, gabie you're 2.
Gabie: No, 4.
Aren't 2 (or 4?) year olds fun?!

More Peek-a-boo

Rachel's new favorite game

Dress Up

their new favorite activity...how did I end up with such girly girls?!

Thanksgiving

We are in NE right now and I have lot's of fun pictures, but I forgot the thing to hook the camera up to the computer so they can chat about which pictures to show off, so until we are home again (tomorrow or Saturday) we shall just have to saw Happy Thanksgiving...we are thankful for our families and friends. God bless!

An Early Christmas

On Thursday (thanksgiving) we celebrated Christmas with Nana and Papa since we are going to MN in December this year. Rachel was more interested in playing with Angel then opening presents, but Elie and Gabie had a grand time, especially showing Papa the great snowmen accessories to help them build a snowman with!

Gabie's Early Birthday

We celebrated Gabie's 2nd birthday for the 1st time on Wednesday with Grandma and Grandpa Haase, Nana and Papa and Aunt Pat. She got a Dora ice cream cake and some fun new things. Her favorite was a little hand-held music maker that plays every song that she knows. She loves it!

Our First Snow

Rachel Play

peek-a-boo, I see you!



lovin' that toy kitchen!


all wore out at the end of the day...

Playing Together

I was so excited when Eliya and Gabie were able to start playing together as Gabie got bigger. Not that I wasn't excited this time too with Rachel, but a little sad as well, because it means my little baby is growing up.

Full Up to Here!

Eliya is showing you just how full she is tonight...

Is it a Deer?

On our way home from Sioux Falls on Wednesday I saw at least a 1/2 dozen deer while driving. Everytime I would say "Look girls - there's a deer!" and they never saw them. (which I guess is okay because that means I didn't shmuck them with the car either!) But this morning I called Eliya to come and look out her window. I must've used the same voice as with the deer because she was so excited to "see the deer" and was so disapointed that it was only a bunny rabbit.

The Caterpillar Crawl

Rachel wanted to do some moving around on the kitchen floor so I stripped her down to her diaper and away she went...okay maybe not quite that fast, but she did move about 5 feet in 15 minutes doing what I like to call the caterpillar crawl. She can get up on her knees and move or get up on her hands and move and she can even get up on her hands and knees, but when she tries to move like that at least one end goes ker-splat. It's so cute...but we all know what that means - her 'stay-in-one-place-days' are soon to be over!






Today Rachel went in for her 6 month check-up and shots. She did so great! Hardly shed a tear, wow 2 great doctor experiences in a row! She is growing like a weed...15 1/2 pounds and 28 inches long! Good grief...Gabie was 22 pounds and 33 inches @ her apt. How long will it be before little sister surpasses big sis in size?