All I Want For Christmas Is You

... and maybe a new camera. Our little Rowan has been with us for a week now, but our camera went AWOL before we were able to post some pictures. Gladly, we finally found the camera - hopelessly mangled under the rocker recliner - and were able to upload his pictures despite it's damaged condition. Here are a few that turned out (Tomy helped substantially with the picture taking :) from Thursday afternoon as Tomy and Hazel finally met their long awaited baby brother in the flesh.

That last picture makes me giggle since Rowan is such a sweet, happy boy. He likes to smile when he's dreaming and has even laughed twice in his sleep. He is also quite enamored of his siblings. Hazel gets right in his face and says, "smoodgie-woodgie, smoodgie-woodgie!" It drives me crazy, but Rowy doesn't seem to mind. He's also very alert and curious. He thinks watching the sunshine coming through the window and the fire dancing in the fireplace is especially interesting.

So in closing, Dear Santa, I know I said that I only wanted a healthy baby boy for Christmas and the model I received is top of the line and in perfect condition, but I think I've been especially good this year and would really, really, really like a new camera to take more pictures of said healthy baby boy.  Thank you, and enjoy the cookies - Levi made sure the kids didn't help too much in the making.

Sincerely,
Saddie

Five!

It's official! As of 4:30 AM, garbage day, we're a family of five! Welcome to our oddyssey little brother!

My Little Big Girl

My little Hazel has finally found her moment to potty train. We've made several attempts at this phase of growing up, but it looks like it's gonna stick this time. Our key to success? Gum. She really loves gum.

This is Hazel whirling, twirling to show off her new blingity-bling she earned for not having an accident. We've had it sitting on the bathroom counter for the past YEAR, waiting for this magic day.

She and Tomy felt it was imperative to pair her birthday tiara with her new sparkly pink accoutrements. It seems appropriate since her summertime answer to whether she was ready to go potty in the toilet was that she would be when she turned "this many" (three fingers) and voila!

So three cheers for a three year old who has upgraded to panties. Hip hip HOORAY! Hip hip HOORAY! HIP HIP HOORAY!

Finished

Lasterday, I put the finishing touches on Rowan's afghan. I'm pretty much in love with it, so I had to show it off.

I'm not a great crocheter, nor am I patient enough to read patterns. What I can do is keep a decently steady stitch, that's why I LOVE this pattern. I picked it up back in the student teaching days from a lady crocheting washcloths at a faculty meeting. One just chains how wide she'd like her afghan, reinforces that chain with a row of single stitches, and then proceeds to single 1, chain 1, single 1, chain 1 etc. back the width of the blanket. The rest of the blanket is made with the same single 1, chain 1 pattern inserting the single crochet in the space left by the chain crochet. Crocheting in the space makes the blanket fly by since you're not trying to catch the front loop or the back loop. It also makes the blanket nice and stretchy.

Seriously, I love how this kind of blanket feels. It's soft and dense, but loose and drape-y. It's been perfect for my babies (and me too ;)

Of course, Tomy, as my first boy, got a blue blanket. I barely finished crocheting it a block from LDS Hospital as we finally went to pick him up from the NICU. Sure, I could've finished it BEFORE he was born. I had plenty of time to waste while on bed rest, but oi! I was just too depressed, uncomfortable, crazy to manage it. Besides, who wants to snuggle up a baby in a blanket made with craziness? Ugh, no!

Hazel's blanket was made from two delightfully shimmery pinks. I felt my little girl required some sparkle! I loved wrapping her up in her very feminine blanky. So, as I was finishing Rowan's blanket, I took the opportunity to pull Hazel's blanket out of the mending pile - it had a little hole that needed some attention before it decided to unravel - and I realized that I had never gotten around to sewing the ends in. Ha! I've used it how many times without completely finishing it? Silly. Needless to say, it's finished now.

The kids helped me pick out colors for Rowan's blanket. Aren't they so bright and beautiful?! They make me happy. Levi likes how it turned out because it reminds him of candy corns. I like that it made a pattern: my first has 1 color, my second has 2 colors, and my third has 3 colors. Oh the joy of patterns!





Speaking of patterns and finishing, I can't help but mention the Cardinals who were so kind to finish the post season in a gloriously victorious manner. That means they were World Series champs both the year Tomy was born and the year Rowan will be born.  Levi thinks we should have more boys. :)




A final note on finishing is a very tardy one on my husbands amazing feat of endurance. He finished the St. George marathon in 4 hours 28 minutes! Such an accomplishment boggles my mind. It was hard enough for me to wait in the sunshine for a few hours. Needless to say, I'm very proud of and astounded by him. Unfortunately, this is all I got in the way of pictures from the big event though Hazel makes one cute masseuse. I'm just glad my SIL Rayn took a lot more and that she's a much better photographer than I. You can see more pics on her blog.

It Was... Halloween!

Halloween is ever and always a much anticipated holiday around the Gubler residence. Besides being the handsome husband's birthday, it is a night (make that season) where goodies abound and one can be whatever one imagines.

This year, Tomy wins first prize for imagination. He was a cococrow - a pokemon that he made up all by himself. His costume was based on a very simple pattern, but that did not keep him from making things complicated. He threatened to cancel the holiday twice: first when shopping for brown fleece that somehow wasn't chocolatey brown enough (yeah, I still don't know what that was about - at least the inexpensive felt magically fit his preconceived notions of cococrowiness) and second when he tried his hat on for the first time and it looked like a penguin (he was pretty devastated though I promised that I wasn't finished yet) . Luckily, when all was said and done, you couldn't have found a happier boy. He wanted to wear the costume everyday and would flap about the house whenever occasion and his mother would permit. That alone made the holiday a super success.

Since Tomy was a pokemon, Hazel opted to be Pikachu. It makes me laugh that the two of them keep wanting to have coordinating costumes; it's so sweet. Her hat turned out exceptionally cute, if I do say so myself, and the results made me smile. Hazel's convincing "thunderbolt attack" also put a grin on my face - that girl holds nothin' back.

Tomy was putting the pressure on Levi and I to be pokemon trainers, but we just weren't gonna go there. Instead we went with an Avatar: The Last Airbender theme. Earlier in the year Tomy wanted to be Prince Zuko and Hazel wanted to be Toph - they both have some sweet bending moves - but then they met pokemon and well... that was that. Anywho, Levi went as Sokka and I went as the Painted Lady.

Levi's costume - pretty nice. It was handy that his hair was already shaved from the marathon. (He was a bit sad that he didn't have a crazy sharp boomerang thingy. It does rather complete the ensemble doesn't it?) My costume - uh well... what can you expect when I make my own costume the last minute and then ditch most of it because I'm already too hot packing around Gubler Baby #3? I've decided that I'm just gonna be satisfied with the fabulous costume in my head. I mean really! The Painted Lady! How perfectly Halloween-y is her costume? Spooky!

Baby Rowan managed to foil a couple other costume ops as well. The ladies on my mom's side of the family had a "witches lunch out" at the Pasta Factory (yum!) and I went to tell a story at my Auntie Marvene's bedtime story assembly. Both were very fun and excellent chances to bust out a new look, but due to both the clothing claustrophobia and largeness of girth, my many attempted costumes were left in a huge pile on the bed. Oh well, there's always next year :) Mostly, I look forward to seeing what costumes my little ones will decide on with Rowan in the mix. Intriguing! 


BTW The title of today's post is brought to you by a little known and horribly scripted Halloween story that was found at the end of a Halloween CD I had many a year ago. It was long, tedious, and required much mental effort to sit through, but it was all worth it (um... no) to hear that final, suspense-filled line "it was... HALLOWEEN!" (Insert some maniacal laughter and dramatic organ music.)

All Aboard!

If you haven't already, mark your calendars for Monday, September 19th! Yes it's pirate party time again! The plan is to meet at Park Discovery in Cedar City for dinner, fun, and games. We'll be digging for buried treasure in the sand pits, putting on a piratical revue in the amphitheater, and possibly having a mighty battle if everyone brings water guns etc. Dinner will consist of a six foot Subway sandwich or two (ha! we'll be eating the plank instead of walking it) plus assorted potluck sides. I think we'll start playing at 5PM, eat at 6PM, then put on the show after dinner. I'll post again when our plans are more concrete. Until then... ARGH!

A-Camping We Will Go

This past weekend found us camping in the wonderfully cool hills near Panaca. Levi actually had a weekend off (!) so we packed up my parents' tent trailer and headed for a weekend adventure. We got there after dark and set up camp between rain showers. The next day we drove out to tour Lehman's Caves and to see how the pine nut crop was faring this season. This all made for a LOT of driving, but we entertained ourselves listening to Swiss Family Robinson and eating jerky. It must have been the perfect trip, because we returned with only a few minutes left of the story. And so it was that we returned to the hotness of home.

I LOVED the 50 degree pleasantness of the caves - oh the joy of feeling cold! The kids loved earning their cave badges - ooh ahh!

Hazel spent most of her time digging in the mud. Really - who needs a spa?

Tomy stayed occupied building me a treehouse. It was masterfully done.

Trigger Happy

I let the kids loose with the camera the other day - six hundred plus pictures later...

 

 

Ha ha. Don't you wish you could've taken that many pictures as a kid? I remember my friend Pamela getting a new camera for her birthday that had the awkward flash stick attachment thingy with it. So you got 24 exposures per roll of film and 8 flashes per stick and it was way out of your youthful budget to buy more or to develop whatever randomness you had captured. And how were you really supposed to deal with the film issue? It's not like you could swap out your 200 film for the 800 film on the fly because you went to a ball game - you're whole roll would be exposed and/or wasted. So much for "practice makes perfect."

Yeah, you gotta love digital!

Lost

Hazel managed to lose her voice the other day and since it's so amusing to me to hear her talk, I recorded this for my own amusement.

What can I say? I'm easily entertained. But isn't just the cutest? And how about that wild hair? We'll just say it's full of character.

As a side note - I just ordered slipcovers for the hideous sofas seen in the background. I am a happy woman! :)

You Know You're Getting a Baby Belly When...

... you swing a door open and it bumps into your belly - repeatedly.
... you unthinkingly turn sideways to squeeze through a narrow space only to get stuck.
... you quickly spot a spill ON your belly, but only notice the smudge UNDER your belly when you pass a mirror.
... you go to smooch the hubby and he's farther away than you remember.
... you try... and fail to put a child on your hip.
... you "bend" to pick something up and find you've spread your legs in a very unladylike fashion to make room for the belly.
... you find the waistband on your slip has migrated from your waist to your rib cage.
... people stop awkwardly asking if you're expecting and start asking when you're due.

Genetics

 Levi: Hey Tomy, who do you take after?
Tomy: Mom.
Levi: You take after Mom?
Tomy: Yep, I chase her 'round and 'round.

Peeking!

Wednesday found us at our 20 week ultrasound where we discovered a number of things about our newest Gublet. First of all, he's most definitely a he. Second, he's got some LONG legs (see 2nd pic). Thirdly, it is a little bizarre (in a fun kind of way) to watch the baby jumping on the screen while feeling the corresponding kick in my belly.

Tomy is in seventh heaven over not only getting a baby, but a baby BROTHER! A happier child you'll never meet. Dec. 5th can't get here fast enough for him! I asked Tomy what he thought Rowan (yeah, we're thinking Rowan Ptolemy) would like for Christmas. He said the baby would like a rocket... it's a good thing we have a few months to work on that idea - YIKES!

On Our Way: Road Trip Part 1

The kids and I spent the month of June visiting my sister in Missouri. We had lots of fun there - but that's only part of the story. We had to get there first.
 

Day 1: We drove and drove and drove and drove some more (insert numerous potty breaks for Pregnant Lady and Potty Emergency Boy.)

In Fruita, CO we saw signs for a dinosaur museum, but they closed 10 minutes before we got there. At least we got to see this awesome Vanosaurus.

A big thrill for the munchkins was staying in hotels! Evidently hotels are on the same level as Christmas in terms of pure excitement. "Look Mom, there's a bed! There's a fridge! There's a tub! It's like Jean Nebada!" Here are the kids at our first stop in Dillon, CO.

Day 2: We didn't drive too far because we had plans to go on the Georgetown Loop Train and the Natural History Museum.

The kids loved the train. They could hear its whistle as we pulled into the station and they kept urging us to hurry so we wouldn't miss it - we had half an hour before departure :) On the way up the loop Tomy made us sit in a covered cabin so we wouldn't fall to our deaths, but he relaxed a bit so that on the way down we sat in an open cabin and could take in the amazing sights. It was unexpected and fun to feel a light spray from the steam whistle.

The museum was everything Tomy hoped it would be - dinosaur bones GALORE! You'll notice that they were both MUCH too excited seeing what was next at the dinosaur exhibit to hold still for a picture. They also had fun in the astronomy lab - but they did NOT like the planetarium show.

We stayed that night in Stratton, CO - it seemed appropriate :). We were all exhausted and driving with the kids was turning into a nightmare, but they weren't too tired to do a few doggie-paddled laps in the pool with Grandma. Needless to say, the kids slept like rocks that night.

Day 3: We made it! After a marathon driving day we pulled into Shay's house late Saturday night. We were all car crazy and wiped out, but once again, it didn't stop the kids from playing full board with the cousins (especially Trace) for a few more hours. If I hadn't insisted around midnight that it was time for bed, they would've kept on playing 'til they dropped in their tracks!