Being scared is funny!

Dad scaring Gabe...

Blowing Bubbles??

The last few days Gabriel has started this sort of bubble blowing thing that we think is really funny. Enjoy!

It's Wet Here

It has rained SO much here.... They postponed the first day of school and EVERYONE has water problems. They even had to evacuate the nursing home. Fort Dodge, 16 miles south of here, was on the national news tonight. It is quite a mess! I think we are up around 15 inches since Friday. We have emptied our rain gauge many times....

Fortunately we have only a very minor water issue (a known problem) where some water collects by the garage. The former owner came by yesterday and hooked up this handy sump pump for us..... solved all of our water problems! Our "problems" consisted of water puddles in the garage.

This new camera of mine takes nice close-ups!

Holding my sleeping baby is the BEST!!

This is Gabriel's new daycare provider, Dawn. His first day was on Tuesday and I think he showed Dawn how loud he can cry...

Home Tour

This is for those of you who haven't been to our new house yet. Sorry it's such a short walk through but this is my third try at getting a video of the house that I can post here... If there's an area you want to see more of just let me know and I can do a video of that specific area.

Friends Share

Today Gabriel shared his blanket and toys with his friend Maci.


Heck, they even played together.

Maci is so easy and gentle around Gabe.

6 Years Later...

As of today we have been married six years! It's hard to believe that much time has gone by - or not when you consider all that we've done in that amount of time. Regardless it is a celebration today - of love, family, and God's blessing of marriage! We will go out to eat in our new community as a family and spend the evening together.

The pictures on this post were taken with my new digital camera that I got for an anniversary present. It is much improved over the old one!

The picture frame for Aaron's hunting picture was his anniversary present from Gabe. We had it personalized from a dealer on e-bay.
Unfortunately the "deer" that is engraved on here is not the kind I thought it would be. Oh well, it still looks nice in the garage!

Project Progress:
Here is the progress on our staining projects. Aaron has done all the work and it looks great! Now they just need their finishing coats and hardware installed. We'll keep you updated...





Yummy toys -- everything goes in the mouth!

So Sleepy!

Pretty Pointer Profiles....

Maci watches out the window for her buddy Rowdy to come home

Adventures at Adventureland

Yesterday we chaperoned our junior LYC on a trip to Adventureland amusement park in Altoona. We had a surprisingly great group of kids and a very fun day at the park. There were about 30 kids, 6 adults, 1 baby and 4 cars.




This was Gabriel's first amusement park ride. Unfortunately I'm having trouble uploading the video of this one. I barely fit in the car!

This is just prior to staring the Splash Over ride.. The gal I'm sitting by is the one that talked me into going on the ride. There's a video of this posted -- I highly recommend checking it out!

This is Gabe's third ride at the park. Again I barely fit into this dragon and it took me about half the ride to figure out how to make the dragon go up in the air like all the other kids were doing.

Adventureland Ferris Wheel

Gabriel's first ferris wheel ride at Adventureland in Altoona, Iowa...

Splash Over

I am 3rd from the left on this CRAZY ride at Adventureland. It really was a fun ride even though it looks pretty scary.

NOT BROKEN!

So I thought I broke my toe on Saturday night... and it pretty much looked like I did (see below). But the x-rays and the doctor say it's not broken! That's a good thing...



Here's my little crawler who is going to be starting daycare next week. I'm going back to work - retail of all things - and part-time. I am actually quite excited at the prospect of learning the retail side of things and it will be a great way to meet people in our new community.

Learning To Crawl

Tonight Gabriel impressed us with his first real attempts at crawling! Pretty cute...

Dog Days

Our pups have been enjoying their huge yard by running around like crazy and helping us "fertilize".

Rowdy enjoying a dip in their pool today.

Maci is not quite as ambitious about the pool as Rowdy but she still enjoys it!

Close...

Closer...

Closest!!! Cute!

Projects

Yesterday we made a *quick* trip to St. Louis to pick up some furniture. We were able to hit a few of our favorite stops (REI, Cabelas) and see some friends. We were also treated to a number of lovely St. Louis traffic jams!

This dresser is the reason we made the trip. It is for Gabriel's room and will be stained to match his crib. It has some cool hardware to attach once it's stained.

And because we made such a long trip to purchase the dresser the company gave us a "deal" on this bookcase. This will also go in Gabe's room to house his many books, stuffed animals, and other odds and ends. Gabriel officially has the nicest furniture in the house!

This is one of Aaron's projects... It's a desk he got free that was in bad need of being refinished. He sanded it down and will stain it. The plan is then to use it for his fly-tying bench.
We'll post photos of the finished projects.... whenever they are done!

Army crawl

A little sampling of how Gabriel is moving around now. He also gets up on all fours and rocks a little. It probably won't be long until he's crawling around the house! We better get busy baby-proofing...

Sunday afternoon nap

Everyone likes a nap on Sunday afternoons...

Swinger!

Here are some photos of Gabe swinging today. It's a bit shocking that I have figured out how to post video -- and it wasn't even hard!

First Swing Ride

Gabe got his first ride in his new swing today after church. Aaron did a great job of setting it up in the front atrium where Gabe can swing day or night, rain or shine, cold or hot!!!

Gabriel's Favorite Things

Gabe has a few activities that he particularly enjoys. The first is smiling and laughing. His dad is the BEST at making him laugh.


He also enjoys falling over and moving around after falling over. We suspect that he is going to be crawling very soon.

One of his ultimate favorites is holding onto board books and chewing on board books!

I can't read to him unless he has a book in his hands too.

If I don't give him a book to hold he tries to pull the one I'm reading out of my hands.

Then when I don't give it to him he gets mad and screams, and there isn't much point in reading to a screaming baby.

And finally Gabriel likes to take naps. He took about four of them today.

SIX MONTHS!

Gabriel's 6 month birthday was yesterday. It's hard to believe 6 months have gone by since he was born....

We had visitors for the big day. Grandma & Grandpa Flatau, Aunties Emily and Jill, and Grand Auntie Nancy stopped in on their way back from California to help Gabe celebrate.

Gabe's vital statistics as of today, 8-1-07 are as follows:
Weight = 17 lbs. 1 oz. (50th percentile)
Height = 29 inches (95th percentile)
Head Circumference = 17.25 inches (50th percentile)

Happy to be playing!

Sadie has made herself quite comfortable in Iowa

Ummm I don't think this needs an explanation or label.

Gabe showing auntie Jill how he can laugh

The church sign. I'm glad they added the T onto the end of
Aaron's title!

Aaron at work in his new office.

The crew in San Diego

For those who are interested, our new table. This has been a long time coming and we have been enjoying it very much!

We can almost always calm Gabe down by going for a walk around the neighborhood. It's pretty much the thing to do here in the evenings. All the cool kids go for walks and talk to their neighbors!

Gabe got a "Bob the Builder" ice cream cake from the Dairy Queen. It said "Happy Birthday Gabriel 6 Months". He even got to eat a little of the cake.

Me & my boy - one of my favorite cuddle times is holding a clean baby in his hooded towel!

Gabe is showing how he can eat peas. Yuck.

Auntie Jill was a pro at helping with Gabe's bath in the sink!

This looks like an innocent enough picture, right? Truth be told we were trying to capture Gabriel in his attempts to take a poop. It's really funny complete with red face, watery eyes and audible grunting.