6 Days 'Til Gabe is 3!

Yawn. 8:14 pm and I am beat! The morning started off with my alarm at 5:20. I rubbed my bleary eyes and went downstairs for an English muffin and some coffee to load me up for a nice morning run. By 6:05, I was on the road with a lady from church who invited me to run with her. One hour, 4 min. and 6.5 miles later, I was back on the road to change my clothes, rinse the sweat off my face and head over to Waid Park, where Ryan and I were helping register folks for the Pigg River Ramble. Not sure why registration started at 7:30 when the canoe race didn't start until 10:45, but it was fun chatting with everyone and getting involved. It poured down rain at one point which was kind of discouraging, but it cleared up pretty quick.

Our canoe launched at 11:14 and 2 hours later plus a dump at The Ledge and one other spill (both my fault--I am NOT a great canoer!) we finished at Lynch Park. We have sore necks and shoulders and backs (and I learned many a life lesson on leading (I'm not great at it)/following (not great at that, either)/trying to navigate only to find out Ryan was steering from the back (kinda made me mad)/and even if we passed Bryan & 4-year-old Andrew AND Ray and 8-year-old Jake, we still didn't really win anything. Hmmm. But we did pass them.

Enough about today...
This next week is going to be here and gone before I can take a breath! Ryan has an open house at his office on Thursday, Gabe's birthday is Friday, and we leave for Colorado on Saturday, so I want time to speed up and slow down all at once. I can't wait to see my family, but I am really excited about Gabe's birthday simply because he is so excited to be 3. Here is how a conversation with him goes these days:

Anyone: How old are you?
Gabe: I'm two. My birthday is May 15th. Then I'll be 3! I'm going to have cupcakes. Then, the day after my birthday, we're going to fly {he cups his hand into a tiny plane shape and zooms it through the air} to Grandpa Dave's house. On a big, big plane. And we're going to go very, very fast!

We are all very excited to go, but not before we eat cupcakes!

Other things to get excited about...
-Sleeping with the windows open.
-Spring thunderstorms.
-Getting on a workout routine again.
-Running the BolderBoulder with my brothers and sister-in-law.
-Mestizo's CD release party the day we get to CO.
-My hammock.

Belated Congrats

I don't know where the days have gone, but tomorrow will be one week since Noah proposed to Rachel. We got to be there for the big event. She said yes, of course! And we had a great weekend hanging out with everyone in northern VA. It will be fun having a sister-in-law on this side of the country!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Who knows if they'll fit me, but thanks to my favorite brother in the whole wide world, I had money to spend at Anthropologie (my favorite store, remember?). This pair of really cool checked pants with the snazzy buttons is my much debated-over purchase. Thanks, Mike!

"I'm a speed-racer!"

Gabe has been talking about his race for a week now! He had so much fun at the Chug For the Jug last Saturday. There was a Kid's Fun Race to kick things off, and Gabe was the youngest to run. All of the kids ran up the street in downtown Rocky Mount. Gabe got halfway there with Ryan running along the sidewalk next to him, when he bit the dust. It looked like a bad fall from where we were standing at the start/finish line, and Ryan ran over to him to pick him up. They chatted for a second, then Gabe took off and started running again! Everyone clapped and cheered for him. He got last place, but definitely earned the title of Speed Racer, like he has been telling anyone who will listen.
He got to do the 4-mile walk in the jogging stroller after that. Ryan pushed him and Noah, George, Tori and Rachel all speed-walked through town together. Ryan and Gabe came in fourth out of all the walkers! Jon and I ran the 4 miles together. We had fun and Jon did a great job. He and I had run the course earlier in the week and it was quite a switch for Jon because he had only ever run on the treadmill. The hills added a challenge, but he really did well in the race. He even let me cross the finish line 2/10ths of a second in front of him!
Here is some proof that we all finished...

"We go bowling because we just go bowling!" -Gabe

We needed to get some practice in for the last two weeks of our bowling league...George, Rachel, and Noah were there, too, but I wasn't too thorough in my picture-taking. Gabe had to stretch out before his game, mostly because all of the guys were busy stretching out their 4-mile walk induced sore muscles.

More From Easter...

The previous post started malfunctioning on me before I could add these last three pics from Easter. We had a great time up at the farm. We got to see a lot of family, eat tons of great food and enjoy a nice hike down to the creek. Gabe got a kick out of seeing Alice ride her horse through the water (he didn't want it to get too close, though!). Here is a photo of the Easter crowd, a family picture, and the one of Gabe in the hat has gone down as my favorite picture of him to date. He really wanted to be a cowboy in that moment!

Easter In Pictures

Gabe's 1st of 3 Easter Egg hunts...It was hilarious to see how excited he was! He was almost shaking when they said "Go!" They didn't even put candy in the eggs, but he still had fun opening them all up. And we got a doughnut afterwards, so can you beat that?? This one was put on by Trinity Mission Health and Rehab Center, so there were a lot of elderly people watching all of the kids. Gabe and I want to go back and check out the fish tanks and visit with some of the folks living there. He really loves having conversations with people, no matter what their age, so I think a lot of people would get a kick out of chatting with him.


Hunt #2 was at the library during Story Hour. Miss Joyce made Jellybean Soup and Gabe found a bunch more eggs. These actually had candy in them...


We saved the best for last...there were 15,000 eggs scattered throughout Waid Park and Gabe snagged his fair share of them. He had so much fun opening them all up and dumping out the stickers, tattoos, erasers, bracelets and candies. They kept him busy for a couple of days afterward. We ran into some buddies there, too!

Weekend Update with...

It's hard to believe that it is Friday already! This week has flown by and been packed full. We headed up to northern VA Monday afternoon without Gabe, which was kinda nice. I always dread keeping him occupied at NIH while Ryan is getting CT scans and we're waiting forever for doctors. Tori was more than happy to keep him at the lake so that we had one less thing to think about. We stopped in to see Grandma Barb and Grandpa Herman and they were sad that Gabe wasn't with us, but we'll make it up to them--we'll be up there for Easter this Sunday!
We got some great quality time in with Noah and Rachel, and aside from blood tests, peeing in a jug, CT scans, waiting 4 hours to see the doctor and lots of rush-hour traffic, we had a really nice trip. We had lunch at P.F. Changs and I got some time in at Wegman's and even the mall, so it was a well-rounded visit to Maryland. The best news is that Ryan's kidneys look fine--he doesn't have to get them checked again for a year. Now we just have to get through the neurology tests in June to make sure his brain and spine look good.
This weekend is looking pretty busy already...Ryan had off today because the market closes on Good Friday. We were on our local cable station this morning putting a plug in for some community events coming up. It was a lot of fun! We didn't get to watch it yet, so we'll try to tune in tonight to see how we look on t.v. Gabe attended his second Easter Egg Hunt at the library after that. I'll load up the pictures this weekend...we'll be dying some eggs, too--probably with our friends Tom and Bryan, who should be here any time now. They'll be here until tomorrow night and then Sunday after church we'll be heading up to Front Royal for a big Easter dinner with lots of family. We are looking forward to it!

Spring is in...

Yes, spring is in the air. The chilly, rainy days have far outnumbered the sunny ones so far. The daffodils are prolific and yellow. The swing in our yard has held a tiny bum any time there has been a touch of warmth in the air. The birds start their singing early every morning even when it is pouring rain, like it was today. Spring has arrived, forgiving the winter for its cold harshness and redeeming it with fresh smells, green grass, new buds and the promise of blue skies. I am thankful that it is here. Fall used to be my favorite season, but I think that spring has moved in to take its place. Spring is the promise of things to come. It is about new life. And Easter makes it about redemption. How grateful I am that Jesus paid the ultimate price for a sinner like me and gave me the opportunity to have new life.

I am glad that my birthday falls in the spring, as well. I can start my 28th year with the blooming grape hyacinths and the first warm breezes of 2009. It was actually sunny and kind of warm on my birthday this year. I had a very special day carefully planned out by Ryan. I assumed that we would be spending some of my birthday cash in Roanoke and hanging out, but was very surprised when we headed south on 220 and ended up in Greensboro. We stopped for ice cream at a place called Yum Yum's and made a few other fun stops along the way. Our final destination, however, was the new Anthropologie store there! It happens to be my favorite store (here is the link if you are curious...www.anthropologie.com) We wandered the store for a long time and Gabe helped me try on a bunch of dresses and the cutest pair of pants. (Sorry I forgot to text you a picture, Tiff!) It was a memorable birthday, for sure.

Some updates...
-Ryan has check-ups in Maryland next week--please pray for good results.
-Gabe can't get enough of his jets and airplanes and helicopter. He is flying something at almost any given time of the day.
-Lasternight is still a word in his vocabulary. He also pronounces airport "orport"; Bear is a pilot and Duck is his co-pilot; he'd love to have a whole bag of jellybeans in the tupperware container of his choice; a box full of packing peanuts has produced many bowls of popcorn for him and I while we all watch AFV; and last but not least, he thinks that we don't need to pray for our food if it isn't hot!

We finally got snow! Gabe loved it...until his hands got too cold!

Haircut!

I know the market is horrible, but does anyone want to buy some stock?

Catch-Up!

Wow, I think I might be in a time warp...Every time I kept thinking I needed to update the blog, it felt like it had only been a few days. Then I realized maybe a week had passed, but I had plenty of good excuses as to why I didn't get to it in a week. Now, it's been about two whole weeks and I am shocked at how fast this year has already gone. I really have been busy, though! Somebody just told me that I am the most travelingest person they know...

Last week Gabe and I were down in SC with the Keigley's for a few days. Gabe learned how to paint his toenails, we got to see a little dinosaur hatch, we went to see a fun train layout, and we had our own Japanese steakhouse night. We enjoyed ourselves very much and although we are sad that the Keigleys live far away, it is fun to have out-of-town friends to visit!

As soon as we got back from SC, Mike called to tell me he and a friend that he works with would be coming to visit Tuesday through Thursday of last week. It worked out well because Ryan's birthday was on Wednesday, so they were able to celebrate with us. Ryan's 29th was nice, but pretty low-key, maybe we'll save up the excitement for the big 3-0 next year!

I got another surprise phone call last week! My dad was flying to DC for work and was able to extend his trip if I was able to drive up and meet him. Gabe and I made the quick decision that it would be a fun opportunity for some good Dad/Grandpa time and we headed up Monday afternoon. We got to see some more trains, went to the new Air and Space Museum by Dulles Airport, had lunch with my cousins, went to the American History Museum in DC, and hung out with Noah and Rachel. Gabe really enjoyed Grandpa Dave (he called him Grandpa Davie twice, but I doubt it will stick ;) and I had fun getting some one-on-one with my Daddy. I'm trying to get out to Colorado in March and I can't wait for Gabe to see my Dad's trains then. He will be beside himself!

On our way back from DC Gabe and I stopped in at the farm to see Ryan's grandparents. We had a nice lunch with them and I think Gabe could have hung out there all day! It was such a beautiful day--I really just wanted to hike around in the woods and jump through creeks and enjoy the sunshine. Maybe this spring we'll have the opportunity. I know Gabe would love it!

Now, it is Friday morning and I am gearing up for the weekend. Mike and Abby will be getting here tonight sometime and Noah and Rachel are heading this way tomorrow morning. I'm not sure what is in store for the holiday weekend, but I'll update you next week! Really!

Oh yeah, and my camera is 'a wittle bit sick' (that is what Gabe would say everytime he coughed last week...'Mom, I'm a wittle bit sick') so I don't have many pictures to document our recent travels. Riley sent me some of Gabe and his nail-painting adventures and Tori sent me one of us on Ryan's birthday, so I'll get those posted!

Particular Little Gabe

The other night I asked Gabe what he wanted to eat for dinner. We happened to be on the tail end of a 4 hour drive home from Northern VA, so Taco Bell was our restaurant of choice that night. Gabe said..."Not Taco Beelll," with that little whiny emphasis on the 'Bell' that kids somehow learn. I asked him what he wanted instead and he thought for a second before giving a little click of his tongue and listing his menu of choice: "I just want some peppers, and cucumbers and cheese and pretzels and pepperonis and marshmallows." Sooo, I told him that sounded great but we'd just go to Taco Bell first. He must have been hungrier than he thought, because as soon as we pulled through to order, he sounded desperately anxious for a taco of some sort. He got a soft taco and ate half of it before the lettuce started grossing him out (it's funny how I can tell what he is thinking...but really, I can!) and he told me that he would just eat the rest of it at home and watch t.v. Yup. The man has a plan.
Anyway, we got home and I offered him the other half of his taco, which I already knew he would decline. Then, being the sweetly spoiled only-child that he happens to be, I proceeded to cut up some peppers and cheese and line them up on a plate with some pretzels and pepperoni. I set them down at his place at the table and he climbed up into his chair to eat. He looked at his plate, then looked up at me with a happy smile (like I had read his mind or something ;) and he said "Thanks for this dinner, Mom." He then ate each course with such care and enjoyment. First the peppers, then the cheese, then each and every pretzel before polishing off all 6 pieces of pepperoni. Wanna know what dessert was? 10 mini marsmallows. And he shared 3 with me. What a sweetie!

HaHa!

For all of you naysayers out there...Lookie-here! Leigh is posting again, just for you! And on the tail-end of a crazy weekend, too. January has been jam-packed, and there are still a couple of weeks left in the month. Our weekend was great, though -- full of more visitors and another buddy for Gabe to play with.
Our friends Chris and Shila came down from Northern VA Friday night with their son, who is a few months younger than Gabe. They stayed with us through last night, and we were sad to see them go! Gabe and Braeden got along great and us adults got along all right, too. To complete the party, our friend Bryan came down with his girlfriend, Sarah, and they stayed at the lake with George, Tori and Noah, who also came down for the weekend. We played games, cooked, watched football and reminisced a bit. The group of us used to hang out pretty often when we lived up that way, so it us always nice to be together again.
I'm going to add a couple of pictures tonight and then head to bed so that I can get up to run in the morning. I am training with my friend Lindsey for another half-marathon in March and we need to get on top of things pretty quickly because March will be here in no time! As of now I'm not sure that I will be running the race, but I am excited to train for it either way.
Weelll, I'm going to get to those pictures and then say good night for now!

A few pictures...(would be more, but I'm having issues and getting frustrated!)

Two Weeks into 2009...

Ok, ok. So the New Year hasn't started out so fresh in the world of Leigh's blog. I am going to state right here right now that I pledge to update the blog, no matter what, once a week from here on out. Wow. That's quite a statement coming from me...But you just wait! You'll get sick and tired of hearing about the mundane and normalcy that is our lives right now. No surgeries to talk about, not even any headaches to report on...What else is there?? I guess we'll soon find out.
That is slightly sarcastic considering that we did have 15 people at our house over Christmas. That is not a normal occurrence, but it was a great one! I think I am still in denial that the holidays are already over and everyone is back at their own houses using their own showers and cooking in their own kitchens. It was crazy around here, but in such a nice way...
Erin, Mark and the kids, as well as Mike, got in Tuesday afternoon, the day before Christmas, after many hours of driving and sightseeing on the way. Christmas Eve and Day were spent with them and Ryan's family. Gabe had a blast opening his many gifts--we had to keep reminding him to keep opening them. There were just so many and so many fun things to play with! He had so much fun with his cousins, too. They all played together really well and I think Gabe felt kind of lost when they left.
Everyone else came in Christmas Day night, so we had our gift exchange on Friday and just enjoyed being together. It was not easy trying to figure out what 15 different people wanted to do and coordinate the whens and hows of it all, but we managed to squeeze in some sightseeing, lots of card-playing, family pictures, a girl's night, some movies, fishing, and even some home projects (the joys of having a handy dad...). I got to run with both my brother, Chris, and his wife, Tiffany, which was really special for me. We also celebrated Chris's 25th birthday, which was Jan. 2nd.
By Jan. 3rd, the house had been empty of my family for about about 5 hours, when Noah and Rachel came to spend the night. It helped to prolong the emptiness of the house for a little bit longer...I guess we didn't have to worry about that too much, though, because Jon moved in to our basement Tuesday night and brought his girlfriend and two of her friends with him (their apartment wasn't quite ready for them). They stayed through Saturday morning, and now I have a couple of days to change the sheets and wash the towels again before some more friends arrive this weekend! Chris, Shila and their son will be here for an after Christmas/New Years gathering with our old gang from Northern VA. Bryan, his girlfriend, Tom, and Noah and Rachel will all be at George and Tori's for the weekend.
Wow, I guess that was a really sarcastic comment about how mundane our lives are...Things don't get boring for long around here. When they do slow down for a bit, it is so out of the ordinary that something seems wrong. It sure makes me wonder what 2009 has in store for us. Hopefully a very uneventful and very healthy year!
All right...time for some pictures and then I'll leave you until next week. Have a great one!

Oh My! It's Almost Christmas!

Sooooo. It's been over a month since I posted last. I have been slacking. I apologize to all of our loyal blog followers that have lost any hope of me ever adding more pictures or giving a fresh update on our lives. I'm really not sure where the time has gone, but I'll try to remember...
Let's see. I think we left off in November, before the holiday season even began. Well, to kick things off, my friend Lindsey and I had been training since September for a half-marathon, which was on the 22nd. It was amazing! It took the whole week after for it to sink in that I had actually run 13.1 miles. I had such a great crowd there to support and cheer me on, which made it that much more fun. I'm pretty sure I was the only one there with a tailgate party in my honor -- our friend Donovan had a heated tent set up and a grill on the back of his truck which produced some amazing hamburgers. The Keigley's were also in town from SC, so they braved the cold (it only got up to 42 degrees!) with all of the kids to come and watch me run. I'm not sure if Tori and Jon came for me or the burgers (Just kidding!!!) and Ryan and Gabe were sure impressed that Mommy ran so far.
After that crazy morning, we had our annual leaf-raking party. I'll post a few pictures of it, but you have to actually see our yard and the massive quantities of leaves our trees produce before you can appreciate why we need to invite people over to help us rake and blow leaves all day. Luckily we have some steadfast friends who keep coming back year after year to join in the fun. Maybe it's the chili I promise everyone afterward that makes it not so bad...?
Next came Thanksgiving, which was great! We went up to Ryan's grandparent's house in Front Royal. There was plenty of hunting, plenty of food, lots of great family time (Ryan's parents and brothers were there, his aunts, uncle and cousins, George's cousins...) a smattering of shopping, some running (Aunt Theresa and I had to run off some of our pie) and I got in some practice speaking Spanish. A friend from Spain has been in NYC for a couple of months, so he came down for the weekend. All in all, we had a lot of fun and got in some relaxation to boot.
Time has flown by since then, and I was pretty shocked the other day to see that it was already December 10th. What happened? Now Christmas is less than two weeks away and we have every day until then booked up! My bro Mike got to hang out with us a couple of days this week. Tori and I are going to do some shopping tonight in Roanoke. I need to make some cookies today for a cookie exchange party tomorrow, we have to clear out our little room in the basement so that Jon can move in after Christmas, and Ryan and I are leaving Sunday to spend a couple of days in New York City with Jaime (our friend from Spain). I've never been there before, and I really can't wait to go, especially right before Christmas. Gabe is going to stay with George and Tori, and will end up being there for the whole week, because Ryan's check-up's at NIH are on Thursday and Friday of next week and we'll just head straight there after NY. It is going to be tough to be without Gabe for that long!
I am about to jump out of my skin waiting for Christmas to get here this year! I know it will here and over with way too fast, but my family will be arriving Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and I am so excited to see everyone and have all of them here at our house. It will be crowded and crazy, but I can't wait! OK, that is going to be all for now, and I'll put up some picture albums as well. Ideally, I'll get around to posting before Christmas, but just in case, I'll wish everyone a Merry Christmas right now! Until later...

Oh Deer...

And the house feels empty again! Ryan, our brother-in-law Mark, and our friend Josh went hunting up in Front Royal this past weekend. Mark and Josh both got deer, which means a full freezer for us because they can't take them back to Colorado with them. Their hunting trip ended Saturday morning and they came here to Rocky Mount. It was great to hang out with them in the midst of cutting up meat and making some great buffalo wings! Gabe really loved both Mark and Josh -- it was great to see them interact with him and he loves anyone who will sit and play trains with him...
Mike has some extra time off this week because of Veteran's Day, so he got here Friday night and gets to stay until Wednesday. We'll head to our neighborhood Applebee's tomorrow to get a free meal for him being in a Marine. We are very proud of him and his desire to serve our country. In the midst of all of this political craziness, may God still bless America!
Ryan is slowly but surely recovering. His neck gets sore pretty quickly if he overdoes it, and he is still getting headaches pretty often.
Gabe is learning so much these days! He just got home from the movie store with Ryan and Mike, and he got his little bag of popcorn. He showed it to me and said "I got popcorn lasternight!"
Here are some other cute things he does...
-Instead of asking what someone did, he asks what they 'dood.'
-Somehow he knows the word Saturday, so he'll put it in a sentence acting like he knows what it is.
-When we swing outside, he has me pull him as far back as I can, then he turns around to kiss me before I let him go. He calls it "kiss me and I go."
-When he sings his ABC's, he says "Now my know my ABC's."
I'll put up some more pictures...

Where does time go??

Ryan went back to work this week, even though he is really not feeling much better. He is still very tired all the time, but hopefully he is recovering some stamina. We had a great time with Erin and Henry in town, and it was sure nice that Mike and Abby could come up for a couple of days, too. The house seems empty now...