the Graham Cracker House

Saying goodbye to family at Christmas time is not so bad when you know you will see them in one month!  Dad had arranged another ski vay-cay on Presidents weekend for anyone ableto come. This time, it was just me, Gavin, and Maddie (out of my siblings).  Aunt Marcelle and her girls were able to come to.  Of course- Gabe loved all the attention from his grandparents!

We stayed at a lovely cabin in Driggs, ID, and skied Sat. and Mon. and Grand Targhee resort in WY.  With a Sunday in between to attend church, take a long walk on the snow covered dirt roads, and play games!

The 4-lift resort earned 4.5 stars.  We had great weather and great snow- contributing largely to why we liked it so much.  I was expecting a resort like Sundance (with only 4 lifts....) but GT is DEFINITELY way above Sundance.  Awesome terrain, but still small and quaint.  Our only complaint is the small lodge, with not really a place to hang out (as in, taking turns with Gabe), and no babies allowed in backpacks on the lift.  Also, we ate lunch outside on the picnic tables which was perfect- but I wonder what we would have done on a  cold day. 

I took Gabe up the magic carpet and down the bunny hill a few times.  He loved it, but he was starting to get heavy. This boy is growing!   Skiing with Marcelles girls was interesting- I think we pushed them to their limits. I guess the Murray's do have a certain "style" of skiing.

some faves:
-gully of mumps
-are we human? or are we snowdancer?
-sacajawea
-1st time down the mountain, through THICK fog = scary!
-eyeball forest, candycane lane, mousehouse, and alleyoops all off the kiddie lift.
-Gavin grinding a log and falling jumping off a rock

Wonderful trip, can't wait to go back someday.  Most important;y:  Gabe got back into normal ("handable") sleeping habits eventually (I know you were wondering). 

loves his bumbo! He loves sitting here to help out in the kitchen

 Gabriel was not very cooperative for his "5 months" photo shoot.  Rolling all over the place- but not quite sitting up on his own.  Good thing he looks cute no matter what!  He loves to grab everything in site and try it out in his mouth. He prefers to roll and twist to move all over the floor.  I came out of the shower last week and he had dumped our bedroom garbage can all over the floor.  Watch out!

love that grin!

hey- come back here!

trying rice cereal.... he is a fan!

Gabe loves watching Daddy's RC car drive around

*I started working part time (2 shifts a week!) instead of full time.  A wonderful change, our family is very happy for this.

Vowing not to back track too much- here is a quick look at the last of 2012:

December was slightly crazy for us.   On the positive side- I knew it would  be full, I knew I would be working full time with a 3 month old baby. I knew Bjorn wouldn't get much work off. I knew I had a lot of night shifts to do. I knew the holidays could be toned down as to not stress out me or our little family.  And I knew at the end of all of it I would be rewarded with a wonderous ski vacation with my family.

With  that in mind I did 85% of my Christmas Shopping while on Maternity leave in the fall, and another 12% the first week of December. I had 1 present to get when it came down to "crunch time" Pretty proud of myself.  I even saved on shipping by bringing all the WA family presents up with me in November.

We kept it low-key and didn't plan any parties.   The only one we attended was our ward party (the first week of December) where we were asked to be Mary, Joseph, and Jesus.  We just stood on stage for part of the play/presentation that talked about them. Gabriel was darling in swaddling white blankets. He just held still and looked around at everyone staring at him.  I felt underdressed as the costume department of this whole shin-dig consisted of: me.  And I wasn't prepared for that.  Wished I had my grandma or moms costume wardrobe to come up with something better. Bjorn was hillarious as he had never actually been on stage EVER in his life.  Of course he did great, but he was quite unnerved by the whole situation. (though he did make the angel laugh onstage).  My other favorite part of the play was the Shepherds.  A family with six kids dressed up as 2 Shepherds (the parents) and 6 shgeep (white t-shirts and jeans, black noses, white/pink ears on headbands

okay. This is getting too long.  time to consolidate.

Other "traditional" december activites consisted of going to Temple square to see the lights, checking out the festival of trees, attending athe creche exhibit in Midway (first time for us! It was pretty awesome!) and gingerbread (graham cracker actually) house decorating at a friends party.

A few pictures to exemplify:

 The week of Christmas was a bit hectic with me working every other night.  Christmas day itself was wonderful.  We celebrated Christmas Eve with some family in Sandy, Utah. I was in charge of activity out the nativity. It was pretty hilarious with a bunch of teenagers and older people (no kids this year). Christmas day Gabriel had slept through the night, and we enjoyed present opening with just the 3 of us.  We video chatted with our families, played with toys, ate food, took a nap, then I worked at the hospital that night.

December in a nutshell!

Gabriel at 4 months!


Let's face it- his 4 moht b-day was just a few days before Christmas, I was still working full time, and the holidays were upon us. I did manage to take a few photos.

 And here's what I remember from his 4 month check-up:

13 pounds 6 ounces

24 ?  or was it 26 inches?  Let's call it an even 25.

Tall and skinny (still).

He can roll over in both directions and hold his head and upper body up well.

love this kid!

the newest member of our family.  Yes.  **Chloe is a car.  Not just any car- a  white Toyota Rav4 (2000) with gray trim.  Bjorn could tell you more about her specifics, but that is all I know and all I am interested in.  Besides the fact that she is cute and small and fun to drive but still feels like she has some power.   Mostly, she reminds me of the toyota truck I drove in high school and brings back good memories.

How we came to own Chloe is all due to Bjorn.  We both knew we would need a new car when baby came (have you RIDDEN in Bjorn's truck?  the death wobble was enough to scare anyone off.  Not to mention it didn't have room for a carseat.....) We quickly got a SAAB after selling the truck a week or two before Gabe's birth.  Neither of us loved it though.  And after it broke down on me twice we were ready to move on. 

Car shopping is number 2 of things I absolutely HATE doing in life.  So I left it all up to Bjorn. I gave him a list of my criteria (4 doors, at least 25 MPG, fit stroller in back, not hideous color.... that's about it) and off he went.  HIS criteria made the search a bit harder (4WD or AWD, and manual transmission a must).  I'll skip the boring parts here and sum it up with "5 car dealerships and 10 hours of shopping/looking/negotiating later- Chloe landed in our lap".  The best part was that I was only present for 2 hours of this shoppping!  While I was at work Bjorn would take little dude, car seat, stroller, diaper bag and all, and drive around to different dealers.  He would test drive a car, feed the baby, make an offer, change a diaper, negotiate... I was pretty impressed.  We were able to trade in our SAAB, pay a little more cash, and the title was ours!  

I love this sporty, trustworthy car already.  I didn't know this is what I wanted, but she perfeclty fits my life style and personality. We  are happy to have Chloe as part of the family. 

**Our Xterra is named Suzi.  Bjorn insists all cars all girls.  We tried out a few names and settled on Chloe pretty quickly. It's much easier to decide car names than baby names! 

fell asleep during tummy time

loves his reflection in the mirror!



sly smile



3 months old!

wearing his Sunday shirt

getting big!  he loves to stand up whenever he can!

Some pictures of Gabriel with his cousins- whom he met for the first time this trip to Washington

photographers (AKA parents) having too much fun!

yes, they wore matching outfits on purpose...

Gabriel's first flight.  2 months old.  From SLC to SEATAC

at the Museum of Flight with Mollika and Dainen (I am carrying D, not G).  This is the "women are awesome and did a lot in the flight industry during WWII exhibit"

The giant ferris wheel- new to the seattle skyline.

 We took one day of our trip to Washington to play tourist in Seattle. We did the Museum of Flight, had a snack there, then drove downtown to the Seattle Aquarium.  Mom and Dad Graham, Mollika, and her baby came with us.  The babies were so good! Between the moby wrap, the stroller, and 5 adults they had all the attention they needed, and let us spend time enjoying the museums.   GrahamParents took us out to dinner on our way home. The babies were close to being done for the day- but they were troopers!

I loved the aquarium. It's right on the ocean, so it just feels so real!  There were a lot of touch tanks.  Even Gabe tried one out!

how many starfish??

Bjorn being eaten by an octupus

Bjorn and Gabriel sail on an orcas back

lion fish

the sea lions were very very cute!

Our family in rainy Seattle! Just outside the aquarium.  It rained just for a few minutes on our walk back to the car- so we could get the full effect of being Seattle Tourists I am sure.