Thanksgiving Festivities

Thumbs up for my first fruit pie- apple raspberry crumb!


Although his face doesn't show it, he is thankful for Daddy! The little stinker was not interested in being photographed. He was all business..aka waiting to be fed.

Thanksgiving crew

da guys

Uncle Matteo is fun!

Thanksgiving was awesome. Everyone we hoped could make it did! The food was fabulous...the ladies out did themselves feeding the masses in style :) We played lots of wii bowling and tennis, cards and board games. On Thanksgiving we had 7 sides to go with the delish 24.4 lb turkey! My mom was pretty sure she'd never seen anyone eat so much meat as Matthew did. So he lived up to his Nulk reputation. Although Wes actually gained the most weight that day. Gabe did great with all the attention and enjoyed eating turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and rolls! He's really starting to enjoy eating table food and prefers to feed himself rather than be spoon fed. I think he was so exhausted by Sunday, that he took almost a 3 hr nap (that never happens anymore) and then slept in till 9:20 this morning! I think he grew too! Everything is going well with us here. We are super excited to be entering December which makes us closer and closer to January!

Michael had a pretty good Thanksgiving too. This was our first thanksgiving apart in 5 yrs... Bummer! But they had lots of turkey and trimmings for the soilders in the mess hall. He's trying to transfer his new platoon leader responsiblities onto a new lt. so he can keep up with all his XO duties. His workload is increasing more and more as they prepare for redeployement back to ft. hood. I hope you all had a great break! I know I'm very thankful for all the support Gabe & I have had from freinds and family this past year. I can't believe were actually making it to the end, in February it felt impossible! But were almost there! Get excited everyone!!

Baby Moses

couch cruising with great grandpa!

the younguns'

The oldies...but goodies too!

my first baby

This past Saturday I had to make an investment in the escape...new tires. I brought my Dad along so I wouldn't be an easy target to get talked into some ridiculously overpriced set...but i still spent a WAD!! I was very taken a back and wept inwardly- tires are expensive ppl! So I officially did my duty this month to help the economy. Anyways, Michael was interested in this process...researched tires, gave me tips etc. So after I bought them Michael excitedly asks (no demands) a picture of the car, which he referred to as "his first baby" (note me nor the dogs are considered). So here you are Michael, a pic of your first baby, and a pic of your actual baby. And the squishes because they miss you too..sort of.. or at least Bella does :) Love you!

P.S. Is this not the cutest baby ever? Try and show me a cuter one! I love it when it's cold and I get to bundle him up in his winter hat and mittens :)
!

Old PLT vs New PLT

Apparently being an XO was not enough work for Michael, so he is now a platoon leader as well! His company was tasked to create a special escort/security platoon, and since they had no one to lead it...Michael stepped up to the task (missions will be split between him and his CO perhaps). Anywho, that's the latest and greatest about Nulkie. He's busy busy busy but he says November has flown by for him which is awesome! I think someone is secretly excited to be outside the wire as well :) For all of you who don't speak army, that means he leaves the forward operating base (aka the FOB) and goes out into varous places around Baghdad. His wife is not so excited however (but I'm still supportive). The good news is, he finally decided to shave off his mustache. I wholly embrace that decision and give it two thumbs up. Here he is with the new platoon versus his first platoon in Bandog. Notice the size difference! He still the biggest guy in each one though. And the best looking, obviously! We love you Michael!! 2 mths wahooo! xoxo

pics

National Collection week for OCC

No mom, i don't wanna eat this gross baby food anymore!!

Look at all my toofers

Here he is, up on all fours "fake" crawling/ ready to go into pouty mode.

My little swimming genius :)

I won't crawl, but I'll swim!

Gabe is a funny little dude. Since about 5 mths or so he's been putting his butt up in the air making up believe it was a sure sign that he'd be a crawler. Oh contrare, my friends. It has been a burning question about Gabe, will he scoot like Mom or crawl like dad? Aka, will he be uncoordinated/slow like mom or super-athletic/high speed like dad (which i know everyone is really secretly thinking)? Well Gabe decided to throw this debate out the window by doing neither. He doesnt crawl, although he gets up on all fours occasionally. He doesnt scoot, although he loves sitting and bouncing. No, he rolls. And i when i say roll, he'll roll across a whole room combined with his little pivot-dragging action he's come up with. So Gabe's decided to move to the beat of his own drum. Although i think he's showing signs of frustration with his mobility. He justs want to try walking all the time- but he can't do it without a couch or help yet because he's enormous and top heavy. But every day he's building those muscles. Anyways, about swimming, the other night I had Gabe in the tub and I was definately in the splash zone. So i moved down away from him to the other end of the tub. He decided to come closer to me, rolled to all fours and then laid flat on his belly in the water. Fear not, there were only a few inches of water in there and he was holding his head up and kicking! What a little genius! So the moral of the story is, not all babies are predictable 'textbook' cases, and Gabe continues to suprise me with new things he learns to do. Basically, meet the next Michaal Phelps (minus the whole pot-smoking incident).

10 Mths old!

Who is the cutest 10 mth around? This guy. He is now in the double digits of mths which Michael says means he's in the "double digits of cute" too :). The exciting thing is were only 2 mths (and some change) from 12...when Daddy's coming home! Yay!!! Currently Gabe LOVES to sofa surf. He'll walk back and forth across the couch like 6 times before he gets tired. He's getting sturdier every day. He can't pull himself up yet so he will lunge at me and whine until i put him next to the couch! He likes to clap his hands, do eensy weensy spider and patty cake, babble (he's now saying "dada" ocassionally and I have witnesses, jump in his jumperoo (which is pretty close to maxing out), be outside, roll across the floor, play with blocks, any type of music ( he bounces along), flipping through the pages of his books. He's eating more and more "people food". Last night i gave him pot roast, mashed potatoes and cooked carrots. He ate like a champ. He has six teeth and two more top teeth cutting right now. He's such a sweet little baby. He's very contemplative- he'll sit and examine a new toy until he's figured everything out. He loves to open and shut doors on some of his toys. He's still napping twice a day (usually) and has a bath every other night. Bath time = splash time. He goes nuts in there! I mainly end up soaked from his fun! Anyways i think that's all the new news about Gabe. He's getting more hair everyday...it's just very blonde. I think he definitly favors his Nulk genes...and his eyes are obviously staying blue at this point. He has the same color blue as his handsome daddy, lucky baby! Were doing well here, just getting veryyy impatient to have Michael home. I know were in the home stretch, but we still have 2 holidays to get through. Michael's doing great in Taji...he super busy with all his XO requirements which is helping the days go fast for him. I took these pics of Gabe this morning, that's why he's still in his jammies. Enjoy!

Our Hero!

Whose our hero? This guy! We love him, miss him and 73 days till he's home.... Most of you wake up every morning and have your breakfast and coffee, go to work, and end each day with your spouse...get to see your loved ones when you feel like it. Michael wakes up everyday working for Sapper company in Iraq. He's had 30 days total with his son! We're excited when we get to see each other on the webcam. I'm not complaining...were blessed to have only a 12 mth tour (those who did 15 mths..wow) and a relatively calm one so far. Happy Veteran's day to all those who serve and have served. Especially to Michael's brother Brian...he did a 15 mth tour during the surge. He's in NTC right now for a month of training. And to Matthew, he'll be commissioned as an army officer this May. Here's some pics of my crazy hubby. He still makes us laugh from halfway around the world!

Fat or Fluffy?

See any resemblance? Poor little Winstyface. The dog is literally afraid of his own shadow. Eating out of his bowl is a feat of courage for this little guy every meal (the clinking of his collar on the bowl scares him). If a pan drops on the floor, forget it. Winsty's outta there like a flash! SO i was talking about Winsty to Michael the other day and accidentally let it slip that he's now 37 lbs. Which may be 6 lbs more than when Michael deployed. So lets just say the reaction was not so good. "What!! He was 31 lbs when i left!! It's bad enough he's scared of me..now he's fat!" So then the conversation proceeded to go where it always goes..."Laurie, we need new dogs. Real dogs!" Ah yes, a "real" dog in Nulkie's mind is a big beastly german shepard. Aka a manly dog. Anyways i tried to argue that Winsty just needs a haircut...i'm sure there are like 5 lbs of puff on this dog right now. I didn't get very far with that, but how can you not love this little guy! He's my very own Eeyore! PS were not getting german shepards...guess who walks them? And the bigger the dog, the bigger the dump. gross.

Are you PT?

And by PT, yes, I do indeed mean potty training. I've decided to go ahead and attempt at conditioning Gabe to the potty. Yes he is only 9 mths old. Yes he can't talk or stand on his own, but he can sit...so but i say the sooner the better! Unfortunately I cannot take credit for this genius idea... it came from The Baby Whisperer- only the most fabulous book of all time. So anyways the whisperer points out hisotical stats (yay) that babies in the 50s were usually all trained by 18mths...now the average is over 2 yrs! Are we as parents getting dumber? Are our children? I would like to argue no, i just think we put off the inevitable. Soooo i've decdied to test out whisperer's theory (she says to start at 9 mths, after each feeding and once in the morning and at night). So far Gabe is doing decent. We've had some fantastic days with lots of cheering and excitement, and days where he sits there and stares at me like why am I sitting on this thing again? Anyways i thought i'd share with everyone. I'll spare you the photo of him on the potty even though it's pretty much the best thing ever. I think I have to restrain myself since poor Gabe needs a little privacy! Now that I've shared my latest endeavour with Gabe you can all keep checking my blog for updates on his performance! Wooo Hoo!

Guess who's growing a mustache...

This guy! I'm pretty sure it's grosser in person. :)

Cowboy Gabe!

I didn't buy Gabe an Halloween costume..I'm not really that into this holiday and Gabe can't even walk yet to ask for candy! So anyways, I improvised to take a few pics. I had just bought the cute cowboy boots and Mike had sent his Cav Stetson home to me...so ta da, Gabe's a lil' cowboy! He didn't enjoy it as much as me and refused to smile! But enjoy anyways, he still looks pretty cute..all ready for Texas! :)

Long Island visit

My mom, Gabe and the dogs and I packed up to head down to long island for a week with my grandparents. We were only a few miles into the trip when the suburban lost all power and coasted to a stop on the side of the road. WE were all fine but perplexed- the suburban had just had a huge work up a few days earlier and seemed to be fine. So anyways we had to call triple A and get a tow and my dad came out too. We quickly transferred everything we could to the Subaru (amazingly everything fit minus the high chair). So my mom and i hit the road about an hour later and made it out there with not other issues. Turns out it was the auto shops fault, they left an alternator wire loose.
We had a great time in Long Island. We took nice walks, admiring the oaks and hickory trees which are just peaking in color down there. Gabe did pretty well minus meal times. The stinker is now starting to rebel at eating baby food..throws a fit every time someone tries to spoon feed him his fruit or veggies. BUT he'll be happy to eat cheerios or cereal or pieces of turkey...! Sooo we think someone wants to move on to table food. Were trying to play hardball and not give him any cheerios until he's eaten some of his regular food. He's starting to take little shuffle steps along the sofa. He moved from one end to the other in Long Island...it's pretty cute. He's very proud of himself!