Home!

In the words of our favorite little Latin explorer "We did it... lo hicimos." (for those of you whose children are also addicted to Dora I'm sure you can hear the song in your head as you read those words) Aaron and I have officially moved into a home here in Texas. We are thrilled to no longer be nomads. Moving a few weeks after Em's was born wasn't that big of deal, but moving with Mia and Emma has been interesting. My lovely two year can undo all of my organizing and cleaning in no time flat. So, our home is a work in progress. I have the Jacobs' syndrome of wanting things done yesterday, but I am learning that is no longer possible. My goal is to be completely settled by Valentine's Day. I'll be sure to report.

It was quite a fiasco finding a place to live, but our prayers were definitely answered just in the nick of time. We found a home in a safe neighborhood, clean enough, good ward, close to family and SUPER affordable. It's such a blessing. We went through it and put in our lease offer and got it the next day. Miracle!

Another story...If anybody knows my husband well, you know that he loves to sell things...even if we still need them. That said, he sold nearly all of our furniture before we moved (in addition to too many other items that I could still be a bit bitter about:!) The furniture though, I am so glad he sold because I lucked out big time! There is a store here called The Dump. They sale super nice stuff at affordable prices, and their clearance section had the greatest deals last weekend...I was in heaven. My best deal was the kitchen table we bought...$37! I'll be sure to post pics when everything is in order. Aaron and I did splurge on a nice mattress though and now that Mia is sleeping at least six or more hours at night, I truly have died and gone to heaven!

Speaking of Mia, she is due for an update. I have some pics on my phone that I need to get off and post. She takes the cake for cheeks!

I have too many things to record and no pics to go along with it...so I'll continue this later with pics!

Christmas

We moved to Dallas so close to Christmas that I didn't think I could be ready by the actual day, but somehow I pulled it off.
Christmas Eve we had Sarah and Troy's family over. We had some yummy soup and rolls. (which I was a little worried to serve b/c the day before it was almost 80 degrees, but luckily Texas got snow Christmas Eve, the first time in nearly a century.) With such a small gathering for Christmas I thought it might be a little quiet, but Emma and Caden kept the party going. They love to sing Jingle Bells every time they get together. I have it on video from Christmas Eve when they were super hyper running around yelling it at the top of their lungs. They were sooo excited for Christmas.
We did books and pj's again. I love this cute little tradition. The book this year was another push and listen kind of thing with a ton of Chrsitmas songs. Needless to say, Emma has memorized a lot of Christmas carols and loves to sing them. It's pretty adorable. "Deck da hall wid bow of holly, falalalalalalalala"
After dinner I asked Emma and Caden if they wanted to go open some presents, and of course their answer was yes. So, while I was getting everything ready to do this, Emma and Caden went on their merrily to open presents, right then and there. By the time we noticed they had already begun, they had innocently opened a handful of presents. All I could do was laugh. I was the niave new mom who assumed they knew that they needed to wait for everyone to get there before they could begin. The time had finally come that somebody gave the ok and they were on it. Too funny.
Aaron tried to continue on the Gabbart tradition acting out Luke 2. Mia and Eli(the naef's little boy) were probably the best actors. Emma and Caden were too busy playing around the tree to really care about their parts as a shepherd or sheep. So, Sarah, Troy and I all stood there rather awkwardly as he continued to read the entire nativity. Hopefully it will work out a bit better for him next year.
All in all Christmas Eve was pretty fun, but I sure missed having all of our family around.



This is Christmas morning with Emma sporting her new tutu from Aunt Katie (so adorable) and her bike from Santa Clause. Most of Christmas is on a video (since my camera stuff has been "misplaced" in the move!) Emma was so patient waiting for Daddy to wake up. She sat up at the top of the stairs until she was allowed to come down and see. Mia was asleep upstiars through all of the unwrapping. She and Emma had been up a ton during the night b/c they both got sick. Emma, however, had high spirits all day long. (stocking candy and presents seem to help with winter colds) Christmas day was full of relaxation. Emma, Mia and I all slept for a few hours that afternoon. It was heavenly to get such a nice long nap...it made for a very merry Christmas.
As a final note: Thanks to Aaron who let me do Christmas without complaining too much about all the money I was spending, love ya!

I so wish I had more pics of this little one. She has turned into quite the noise maker herself. Having conversations with Mia are pretty adorable as well. She is just the sweetest thing. Something about being the second child, I don't know if she thinks she has no choice or what, but she is so tolerant of Emma. This morning I caught Emma on her all fours with her nose about 1mm from Mia's face singing so loud. Mia didn't do a thing but sit there and stare back. The past couple of weeks she's had a few nights where she has slept about six hours in a row. I love it!

Yes, my babies love to hold onto that cream in their cheeks. I thought this was a great example of that.

Emma

This is Emma at the pizza parlor with her Dad. Last week all of us took turns getting the stomach flu. The night I got it, Aaron took Emma out on the town. Daddy/daughter dates were looked forward to with great anticipation when I was little, so I am very glad Aaron is continuing this tradition.

I actually got a headband on her! Emma is notorious for having me do her hair, then by the time we get to our destination, she's already wripped it out. She's not great adverstisement for my hair accessories business:)!

Something's wrong when...

My whole family has lost their cookies over the past week (minus Mia, thankfully!)

Getting ready for the day starts about the time I should be making dinner.

My breakfast and lunch consists solely of chocolate chips (this is after the stomach flu:)

In about a week I will have to move out of this house and we still haven't found a place to live.

The hospital called and said Mia's early birth entitles them to another 4K...lovely (hopefully we can convince them otherwise)

Stress level results in a face looking like a case of childhood chicken pox

You're in the middle of something when all of a sudden you hear "I peed mama, I peed." (those are the times when I am grateful for Texas' lack of carpet in a house)

All your kids are crying, you're out of the essentials (milk, diapers) the house could use a bit of cleaning, and yet you still feel like a great parent

I started this post about three days ago and I've forgotten where I was going with this so...Enough's enough. Life is wonderful, can't you tell? The nice thing is, for some reason I feel like these are normal happenings for families, so I know I'm not alone! I hope everyone's 2010 is off to a fantastic start like us:)!!!

On a more serious note, I truly count my blessings. Happy New Year everyone.