Merry Christmas!

It is so good to be home in Alex City, visiting with family, resting, and eating great food!  Gabe has been so entertaining crawling, ooing and ahhing all over the place.  He tried to open one present, but I helped him out with most of them.   He has so many toys and I was beginning to wonder where I was going to put all this stuff.  But, to my suprise, Santa brought me a beautiful toy chest. (will post pic in the future)  Dad is going to stain it to match the nursery furniture.  I am super excited.  I also got a ton of diapers :)  Hopefully I will not have to buy any for a while.  Another one of my favorite gifts.....a crockpot.  I can't wait to use it.  I want to make anything and everything.  Here are a few pics from the day: 

      Stockings for Adam, Gabe, and Me

Opening a gift

    Cute smile to Gran Betty (Great Gran I should say)

High Society

Saturday night, my brother escorted his girlfriend to the Blue and Grey Colonels Ball at the Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery, Al.  He had to wear a tuxedo with coat tails and all.  Here are a few pics from the event.  He had to learn a coregraphed waltz, I am hoping to see a video soon.  Wish I could have been there to witness this.  Fun times.

Madolyn

Adam is in there somewhere

I realize it has been forever since I have posted.  Things have been crazy lately. 
1.  Gabe has been sick, so I haven't had time to do anything- even eat.  Somehow I have lost 8lbs since Thanksgiving. 
2.  I can no longer access the internet from my apartment.  I was kindly using someone else's connection, and now it will not connect any longer.  I am hoping I will get a new neighbor soon who won't take the time to secure it.


I am hoping to catch up on my posts at work over the holidays.  I have no vacation days left, so while everyone else is out enjoying the festivities of Chritsmas and New Years, I will be here staring at my computer screen.

Update:  Gabe is tons better.  He is on his upteen'th antibiotic.  He will be getting tubes January 8th.  I am soo ready.  They wanted to go ahead and do them this week, but since he had bronchilits a few weeks ago, they have to wait 4 weeks.  He took a hearing test, and did not pass.  He has mild to moderate hearing loss- more than likely due to all the fluid in his ears- poor guy.  So he will hear a new world come the 8th.

Gabe is "officially" crawling.  He started this past Saturday night while over at a friend's house for a Christmas shin dig.  Now, he is into everything.  He is so cute though.  If I had internet, I would post a video....:(

It's interesting to me how he wants to play with everything that isn't a "toy". He has all these elaborate, bright and colorful, music playing toys and he goes after the trash bag, the candle, the shoe, the swiffer......oh and he loves to pull himself up on the coffee table and chew on the edges.  (Does it sound like I have a dog?)

I will hopefully post pictures soon.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!  Can you believe Gabe is almost 8 months!?!

Time Flies-  1 week old pic

Thanksgiving

Gabe and I had a great Thanksgiving.  Thursday we went to my mom's side of the family's get together.  Gabe was passed around from one relative to the next the entire day.....He ate up the attention.  Meanwhile I enjoyed my break and indulged myself in two plates of amazing homecooked food.  Everyone told me there was no way I could eat all that, but oh I did.  Months of having no time to eat, and only eating lean cuisines or peanut butter jelly sandwiches make you apprectitae a good cooked meal.  Here are some pics from the day:

Gabe on a haystack

Gabe riding like a champ

Pretty View at the farm

Uncle Adam- ha

Friday, my mom and I went shopping.  We were on our way to Montgomery, but stopped in Prattville at the Bass Pro Shop and ended up going to the Belk nearby- before we knew it, it was dark, so we headed back to Alex City.  This was my first time in a Bass Pro Shop- It was quite an experience.  It smelled of a mountain cottage with a hint of homemade fudge circling through the air.  Gabe enjoyed looking at all the dead stuffed animals on display.  I hope he does not turn out to be a hunter.......  They also had Santa there- and it was free!  So, Gabe met Santa, told him what he wanted for Christmas, and then got his picture taken.

Saturday we visited my dad's side of the family in Tanyard aka- middle of nowhere.  It was here I fell in love with Pineapple Casserole (I actually have some in the oven baking right now).  mmm. mmm.
They set up a nice fall display every year in the front yard, so I of course had to get Gabe's picture with:

It was a great long weekend, but I had little downtime- it seemed we were on the go the whole time.  I wish I still had a week or two break at Christmas like I did when I was in school.....

Oh- and then Sunday, Gabe started getting sick- and that's a whole other post.

Coming Soon.

I have to post this video, because it just makes me laugh......

Oh- and for those of you who receive this via email, I accidentally posted the wrong video in yesterday's post.  So if you are oh so interested, I swaped it out after I realized, so you will have to actually go to my blog to see it.

Password: Sheep


Avocados and Mangos from Alison Holmes on Vimeo.





Check out these cute shoes I got for Gabe!

Gabe in his ThanksGiving Bib (gift from Gran Betty)

Last Sunday I went to visit my dear friend/mentor, Sybil, at her farm.  The weather was perfect and it was so great to catch up with her.  She gave me a prayer calender, titled "The Power of a Praying Parent".  We decided to go ahead and check out what was written for that day, November 15th.  While she read aloud, I couldn't help to feel comforted knowing God is continuoulsy showing me He is with me.

November 15th read:

"Forgiveness is trusting that God is the God of justice He says He is and saying, "Father, I won't hold that person to myself with unforgiveness any more."  It's acknowledging that God knows the truth and allowing Him to be the judge, because He is the only one who knows the whole story."

Put your reading glasses on.........Long Post...........

Gabe is becoming more active each and every day which leaves me no time to blog. 

One of my coworkers/friends found me an exercauser on Craiglist and brought it to my apt on Saturday.  Gabe loves it!  I don't know how I have gone without this.  Now that Gabe is mobile, it is getting very hard to do things for myself- take a shower, laundry, etc...  I have to keep tabs on him at all times or who knows what he will get into to.  So this contraption has helped a ton.  I am so thankful for my friend finding one, they are around 100 dollars new, and are only used for maybe 4 months or so- so I just didn't see the point in buying a brand new one. 

Password: Sheep

Fun Times in the Exercauser from Alison Holmes on Vimeo.





My friend has 2 daughters, a 4 year old and a baby girl born 2 days before Gabe.  She is sooo tiny!  She weighs 12lbs and Gabe weighs 17lbs.  I am so nervous holding her, she is so delicate. Here are some pics-  Her name is Taylor :)

I realize the angle probably makes Gabe's arm bigger than it is, but still....you can tell there is a big difference.

*****************************************************************************

Saturday I went to Old Time Pottery.  It was my first visit and I think I was there for 2 hours!  I found a mirror to hang above my couch for 29.99- such a good deal.  I also got a center piece for my dining room table that I am a little bit obessed with.  See below.  I also bought some Christmas ornaments and now cannot wait to put up my tree.  I have decided to decorate the tree in shades of gold, bronze, and brown with hints of a deep purple.  I can see how I want it to look in my head, but we will see how it turns out. 

I hope to take Gabe to Portrait Innovations this weekend to get Christmas Pictures made.  Be expecting a Christmas Card!

Here are some pics of Gabe that Mom and I took at the BJCC a few weekends ago.  He loved the grass- of course he wanted to eat it.

And I just like this picture......

Today, Gabe managed to ram his head into the corner of a sleeping cot.  It's his first "boo boo"

Hopefully we will not have a black eye tomorrow.

He is stuffing his face with Banana Puffs

A few videos

*Password: Sheep

Boot Scootin Boogy......

Almost There from Alison Holmes on Vimeo.

eating from Alison Holmes on Vimeo.

Here is Gabe trying out banana puffs..... It's a long video, so I don't expect you to watch all.  I know it sounds like he is choking a couple of times, but they dissolve so he's ok.  I think he just wasn't familiar with having something in his mouth like that.  This was taken on the 11th and he now eats them like a champ. 

1st Halloween

Sorry I am just now getting around to posting this- my mind has been very distracted lately.  Gabe has experienced his first Halloween!  Honestly I had more votes for the sock monkey costume, but it just would have been way too big- and I think I was leaning towards the lamb from the beginning.  Everyone who saw him thought he was too cute! We went over to a friend's house and she cooked white chili and pumpkin brownies...mmmmm.  The kids were so excited running around the house counting down till we were done eating so they could trick or treat.  We walked around the neighborhood, letting the kids go from house to house.  I was very proud of Gabe, he was alert the whole time, he even stayed awake playing till after 10 pm that night.  Here are a few pics........  We had a ton of fun and I am thankful Lea and her family invited us over :)

Trick or Treat

Getting so much attention from the boys

  Pierce will not let you refer to Gabe as "baby".  He says, "He's not baby, he's Gabe!"

Getting ready for Winter

6 month pic

I made Halloween cupcakes- Spice Cake with a Butter Cream Cheese Icing

Your choice of grave yard or ghost sprinkles

Oh- and I love my cupcake carrier- ha..lame I know, but people at work were happy

About to take off............

This has happened practically over night. All I know is this weekend he could not do this and look at him! I'm excited yet scared! He is about to be into everything..... I am going to miss my little man, as he takes this first step...I mean, crawl of independence. Sad.....

He isn't crawling yet, but he will push up and rock back and forth- He can hold himself up for a long time, then he just plops back down on the floor. "In order to succeed, try try again" And that- he does.

Gabe watching cartoons

I was doing my own thing while Gabe was getting some tummy time in- Next thing I know he has rolled on his side and is looking up at the television laughing.  I have tried so many things to see what makes him giggle- and it seems Disney's cartoon Phineas and Ferb is the key.

Password: Sheep

6 months- laughing from Alison Holmes on Vimeo.

Gabe Photo Session