Ahhh Gwen such a silly little girl. Kim and Megan Frost were kind enough to show us around some Austin shopping centers today. But before heading home we stopped for lunch at Chipolte. Here is Gwen showing us a trick while laughing at her own clever self. That's our girl. It appears that not even two surprise shots can keep this kid down. ( p.s. Only a week until we see our friends and family in Utah)
Today we went to the doctor and we had some surprises. First, Gwen is 21.9 pounds. Actually a lot less than I thought. But she has a normal sized head...that is good news. We were told that there were no shots for the 9 month check up however when we arrived we decided to get our flu shots, but that was not the end of the shots for Gwen. Apparently the shots in Utah are different than they are here so they added another one to the left leg. After the stabbings in the legs she was pretty shaken up, but she quickly composed herself and we were off to tend to the rest of our errands. Note the mis-matched band-aids again.( grrrr)
You may look at this picture and see a little coffee table, but Gwen sees a tunnel and she will attack. In this bottom pic she is trying to sit up under the table, however she is too big and her head keeps bonking the top. Oh well just another day in the life of Gwen. This just makes me think that I need to get plastic furniture...maybe I should just have a big jungle gym in our living room.
I was pulling up some info on James' office computer and I had Gwen on the floor by my feet. the next thing I know she is kicking something and whining like she is stuck...so I looked over my shoulder and this is what I found. A crazy little girl stuck in the corner. She just kept kicking the wall. So I pulled her out and she flipped right back around and started back under. It appears that we have an explorer.
Today we celebrated Thanksgiving with Mike, Kim and Megan Frost. We had a lot of food and it was a ton of fun. We had a little twist on the turkey though, BBQ style. Kim made a lot of really yummy food including a fantastic cranberry slush drink. Thanks for all your hard work Kim. And good news the apple pie turned out great!! So I guess that I will need to vamp up my kitchen supplies for next year. We ate and ate and ate some more. And there were still leftovers. All in all I would say that it was a great holiday.
Well here it is ladies and gentlemen, my very first attempt at an apple pie. Looks pretty good right? Well you should smell it then. It smells so good, it is just like being at home and having dinner with my family. I have to say that in the beginning I really thought that I had blown the whole thing, but a quick phone call to my mom and all was well. So the top picture is the finished product and the bottom two are the before's. We will see if it tastes as good as it smells and looks tomorrow, but if it does I guess that I will need to purchase my own rolling pin. Mom thanks for the recipe and the help. I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. And to the travelers, please be careful.
We had the chance to watch Brooklyn for a little bit and it is so much fun to have both the girls doing the same things and interested in toys and playing with friends. So here we have a classic case of how each one of them plays. Brooklyn goes straing for the remote, and Gwen goes straight for her, she wants to have baby Brooklyn for a toy. We had a great time playing and we are glad to have some friends here, that goes for both Gwen and myself.
This past Sunday we were getting ready to attend Russell's Birthday dinner, and just before we left I thought that it would be a good idea to change Gwen, well she had a really bad diaper rash and it was so sad to change her because she would just cry and fight to get away. This was the case as we were preparing to leave. So we wrestled with her and finally got the diaper and the cream on, so as I was cleaning up James was holding her and she was still crying a bit, so we gave her, a baby's best friend...Sadie, and she fell asleep clutching on to her little friend. This is why she has no pants on. She fell asleep and we decided to just slip her into the car seat instead of risking an awakening while just putting on a pair of pants. I would like to give a big thanks to Doug and Anna for giving little Sadie to me at my baby shower. I named her Sadie because she looks exactly like James' dog that died just a few short years ago. Gwen loves her little pup Sadie, and when she hears the name she immediatly looks around for her Sadie. Talk about a good trick.
Our poor little Gwen has allergies and this morining she was falling asleep in her booster seat from the medicine she takes. I laid her down and she pulled the covers over her and snuggled right in to a nice little nap. Don't we all wish that it was so easy to fall asleep? I know that I do. I didn't even have a chance to take off the cowgirl bib. Oh well sleep tight.
On Friday the 10th Tannie popped by for a little visit. While she was here she offered to take me to a little park nearby. But this ment that we were going to have to attempt to fit all the kids in the car...well here is the proof that it worked. The car seats were packed in like sardines but each was belted in and safe and sound. All thanks to the Trooper. So we went to a fun little park and Gwen slept practically the whole time and Austin ran around like crazy. ( I hope that it is just a boy thing). Then we went to lunch. It was so nice to get out and about in the day. Thanks for packing us around Tannie.
Here we are at Central Market for the lunch bunch and we happen to be sitting in a nicely shaded area outside, but it also happens that there are a lot of birds flying and walking around waiting for your leftovers, so you know what that means...bird POOP!!! And we saw our fair share of it. Poor Brooklyn got hit twice, one of those times hitting Summer as well, Gwen felt the splatter of one that hit on her little arm rest. And that was only the beginning. Gwen has stolen my straw here and she is trying to use it like a cell phone, probably to call for help. As soon as we got up to leave the table was swarmed by crazy birds. So just a little warning for those of you who want to eat outside at CM, Beware of the birds. But the food is great and the weather was perfect, the kids were good and we really did have a lovely time, it was just a little crazy at times when we were targets for the bird poop.
Kim and I were able to take a little adventure to feed the ducks and here we have one stepping into our trap now.
This little hut is floating in the lake and it has a whole bunch of turtles floating on it. I do believe that it is a nesting/resting area for the ducks, but today the turtles have won.
Here is Megan feeding the ducks and Kim is protecting her from the geese that are a little too close for comfort, basically they can streatch out and eat you, or me.
Here Gwen has decided that the ducks are not nearly as hungry as she is and so she ate all the bread that she was going to share. At least the ducks were not eating the crumbs off of her.
Here we are at a little fountain and Megan is getting ready to climb in, she already has one shoe off. Gwen is a little startled by the loudness of the water, but it didn't stop her from taking in the view. Afterwards we went to a little place called Amy's Ice cream and had a scoop and some free toppings, thanks to our trusty movie man James Barlow. They have a movie quote on a board and if you guess is then you recieve free toppings, I had junior mints, Kim had strawberries. One quick call to the movie master and we were in great shape. After ice cream
This is a little game of peek-a-boo Kim. Gwen is sitting on a large cow and she needed some help in the balancing department so it was Kim to the rescue. Just in time for these lovely shots. Kim Frost invited Gwen and I to feed the ducks with her and Megan today, and who could turn down feeding the ducks? Certainly not me. So we went to the Arboritum and had a great little stroll around the shopping center while we were there, but we did find those little ducks and we fed them a lot.
I put the pictures on backwards...so make sure to look at them from the bottom up then all of the photos will make sense. So here is the story of the day. It was a sunny and warm Halloween (84 degrees) for the trick-o-treaters in Austin, TX this year. Tannie and Dan had invited us over for pizza and to see this really decked out neighborhood near them. Gwen and I waited all day for James to get home so that we could venture out into the spooky scene. In the bottom pic we are changing her into the chicken costume and she is eating the feet...tastes like chicken. When we arrive at the Smith's we were waiting to take Austin out for some candy, and look who arrived, a little ducky. This ducky is on the move these days and she was about to show Gwen all about it. So eventually we saw the street, we did a little trick-o-treating, and we attempted at the end to do one more picture... nobody was sitting still and so you have this little pic, where all the parents are holding down the kids. But it was a good adventure and we will see what happens next year.
Gwen has a little friend that hides in the tub. It is so funny to see her talk and wave at her own little reflection. She gets so excited to see a mirror, or anything that refelcts her. So shown here are some action pictures of a little conversation going on between Gwen and her reflection...Peaches.