A White Christmas in GA

It really did happen! We had a white Christmas in GA this year! That's right folks, it snowed on Christmas for the first time in GA in almost 130 years!

Even though we don't celebrate Christmas and Santa does not come to our house, I have no problem admitting that I LOVE the sites and sounds of Christmas! And, it's probably no surprise to many of you reading that I secretly want a Christmas tree of my own to decorate :-) No joke, I love Christmas time!

I know there is much more meaning to the story of Christmas and that the commercialization is probably what I am drawn to most but to having a white Christmas was just as fun for us as it was anyone else.

I love the snow and growing up in MD we saw PLENTY. So, whenever it snows here I get so excited and I think I was most excited this year for Spencer to experience it.

To be honest, I don't think he really new what to make of it and by the time he had his snow gear on, he could barely move. I think he was more happy to come back in to the warm house and play. Who can blame him, right? Maybe next year he will enjoy it more :-)

Bill, Spencer and I spent most of the day inside the warm house. It was just what we needed. A day to relax and spend time as a family. Christmas evening we braved the roads and went to the Summerfield's for our annual Chinese food dinner. In years past, we have always gone out to eat but now with 3 kids to consider between our two families, take out/delivery was a better choice!

Hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful snow as much as we did! A winter wonderland indeed!

Bye, Bye Gall Bladder

Surprise, I had surgery! Random right? Well it did happen.



On December 13th I had surgery to have my gallbladder removed. In an effort to make 2011 a year of good health I vowed to get all the "issues" I had resolved. One of which was my gallbladder. I knew for a while that I might eventually have to have this surgery and after some final testing it was determined that my gallbladder was just not functioning anymore. Why this happens? Doctors can't tell but it is normally advised to remove it once this is determined. So, rather then dealing with an emergency situation at some random time, I decided to take preventative measures and have the surgery to have my gall bladder removed.





The recovery was slated for 5-10 days. Not too shabby except the recovery included no lifting over 10 pounds. Yes, that meant I could not lift Spencie for almost two weeks. As impossible as this seemed, I knew this surgery was long overdue and I could not put if off any longer.



I am happy to say I am now on day 12 and finally feeling pretty normal again. I still have some discomfort but I am back to lifting my little man and feeling my energy come back more each day.



I could not have gone through this surgery without all the help from my friends and family. You all know who you are. You all took such good care of me and not to mention Bill and Spencer with your delicious meals and babysitting and my get well gifts were so special and really put a smile on my face. We cannot thank you enough for helping us through these two weeks.



I have my follow up visit with the doctor on the 28th so here's to hoping I am fully recovered and to a Healthy and Happy 2011!

Santa Baby 2010

I am afraid to say it but yes, the Baby Brigade found another way to celebrate the holiday season! I must admit, this could have been the cutest way yet. The babies all did a secret santa gift exchange and Kelly and Carter hosted a beautiful afternoon of holiday fun so we could all enjoy.

The party was just a few days after my surgery but thanks to all the help from the girls, Spencer and I were able to hang out for a few hours and join in the fun.

Spencer was the Secret Santa Baby for Isabella and Macey was Spencer's Secret Santa Baby. Spencer got a super fun v-tech helicopter and his very own fisher price camera. He has not stopped playing with either since the day of the party. Thanks Laurie and Macey we love our new toys! And thanks Kelly and Carter for another great celebration.

Baby Brigade Holiday Party

Yes, the Baby Brigade is at it again! We love to celebrate together and thanks to the Mullen Family we had our first annual BB Holiday/White Elephant Party. The babies all had a great time playing and the mommies and daddies all enjoyed a fun white elephant gift exchange. Bill and I came home with a key finder and snowman candle topper! Oh holiday fun, you never get boring :-) I say this every time I write about our baby brigade group but we are so glad to have these families in our lives and look forward to many more celebrations together.

9 Months Old! When did that Happen?

Spencer turned 9 months old on December 3rd. We were still in NY visiting family so it was an extra special celebration.


On Monday, once we were back from NY Spencer had his 9 month check up.

We had a great appointment and we still have a thriving baby boy. Spencer was 27 inches long, 20.1 lbs and his head circumference was 17 inches. He is in the 50th percentile for weight and 20th for height but still growing on his own curve so absolutely no worries in sight :-)

Spencer had a toe stick to check iron levels, and the rest of the Hep B vaccine. We also decided to get the flu shot after much debate. Spencer was a trooper and did great! As far as mommy and daddy, we can now say each well baby appointment gets easier and easier!

Our huge concern on this visit was that Spencie still was not crawling or rolling from his back to his stomach as many of his baby friends do. The doctor assured us that we have nothing to worry about and that he will do it when he is good and ready. As concerned as I still was and as hard is it is not to compare, I vowed that day not to worry about it anymore and to just enjoy my time with Spencer. As I write this post almost three weeks later, he is starting to go from sitting to belly when reaching for toys and pulling up more own his own. He WILL get there! I am confident!

Spencer is meeting many of his other milestones this month. He is:

-banging, waving, and throwing toys

-exploring food with his fingers

-Imitating playtime

- Standing holding onto furniture

-Moving one foot in front of the other while upright

-Imitating the rising and falling sounds of adult conversations

-Saying Da-da, Baba, Ma-ma

-Repeating sounds again and again

-Understanding the meaning of NO (although it makes him cry most times)

Because this post is super delayed I can already say what a fun month this has been ;-) (check back for my 10 month post) I cannot believe Spencer will be 1 year old in just a few short months! I love this age and watching Spencer's little personality shine through. He brings us so much laughter each day. We love you sweet boy!

Empire State of Mind

With Hanukkah in full swing, we packed our bags and headed to Long Island for Bill's (our) Cousin Heidi's wedding. As always, it was too quick of a trip but we got to celebrate with Heidi and Dan and spend Hanukkah with much of our NY family.

This was Spencer's second plane trip and with him being quite a bit older now, I was worried it would not go as smoothly as it did months earlier. He hates to sit for long periods of time and he is much more vocal these days. I was very surprised at how well the flight out went. After his bottle, he settled in for a nap and was out the rest of the flight. Thank Goodness!

We first flew to NJ because Bill had a business meeting there on Thursday. While Daddy went to work, Spencer and I settled into the hotel for the day. The next morning we were up bright and early and headed to NY. We spent most of Friday and Saturday afternoon visiting with family and before we knew it, it was time to get ready for the wedding. Bill's cousins Shana and Michael (cousins from Bills other side of the family) watched Spencer for the evening so we could go to the wedding.

After a night of celebration, drinks, and dancing, we were up early again for a visit to see Uncle Oscar and Aunt Jo and then to Brunch with the rest of the family at Aunt Michele and Uncle Eugene's. Like I said, lots of people to see :-)

We headed to the airport after brunch and settled in for what we thought would be another smooth flight. WRONG! Spencer had a horrible time with the flight home and screamed for most of it. Many of the passengers were so nice to us and even offered to hold him for us so we could relax for a bit (of course we did not take them up on that). The truth is, and I learned it on this flight, there is just nothing you can do in this situation. The more you stress over it, the worse it gets so, we just tried to comfort Spencer as much as we could and then once we landed we vowed not to fly again anytime soon :-) No, seriously, you never can tell. We will fly again but after a whirlwind weekend we were just exhausted.

Thanks again to all our NY family for a fantastic visit and all your help. We love you and miss you already!

Here are some pics from our trip. I will post some of the wedding as soon as I get them (we did not bring our camera).

Happy Hanukkah

Due to all of the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, our GA family celebrated the first night of Hanukkah a few days before the actual 8 day celebration was due to begin. We celebrated our "first" night at Dad and Cheryl's and were joined by Grandma Annie and Hubbell, Uncle Max and Uncle Gary. Our night was filled with yummy potato and sweet potato latkes, beignets, and lots of candles shinning bright.

Spencer loved everything from helping wrap gifts to "playing" (more like chewing) Dreidel to his first candle lighting and opening his very first gifts. I can tell I am going to love each year more and more as the excitement on his face was simply priceless.

Happy Hanukkah 2010

Thanksgving Times Three

If I have said it once, I have said it a million times. We are thankful for so much this year. And to make sure we gave appropriate thanks we celebrated Thanksgiving at three different times :-)

We hosted a Baby Brigade Potluck Thanksgiving dinner for all the families, we celebrated with our Chavurah Group from temple and we of course celebrated with our family here in GA on actual Thanksgiving!

Each event was so special in it's own way and even though we ate a lot of turkey this year, the memories were well worth it. Having Spencer with us this year made Thanksgiving complete and I was so excited to share one of my favorite holidays with him.

Unfortunately, Blogging took a Backseat to Life

******BIG SIGH********

So I new it would happen one of these days and now that I am way behind on one of my favorite new pastimes, it's time to get caught up. It's been nearly three weeks since I last blogged and I feel overwhelmed with how much I have to share. I am pretty sure I picked the worst time of year to fall behind because the last three weeks have been so busy and jammed packed with amazing memories.

The time has flown by and I honestly don't think I am coming up for air for a few more months :-) My post-op (yes, I had surgery) plan is to do a little catching up each day in the hopes of being current by the end of the weekend (now lets see if I can do it). For all of our family and friends who keep up with us, I hope you find the past three weeks as much fun as we have. In the past three weeks we have fought off winter colds, had thanksgiving, Hanukkah AND wedding celebrations, playgroup parties, family birthdays, celebrated Spencer's 9 month birthday, and most recently, my gallbladder surgery.

It feels good to back :-)

Baby It's Cold Outside!

While our family of three has been fighting colds inside for the last week the temperature outside certainly took a plunge too. For the last 2 days we have had some gorgeous but brisk weather! I absolutely love the cooler temps and was sad we did not get out to enjoy it because of the cold Spencer managed to give to both Bill and I. BUT, we did sneak outside today for some fresh air and I of course, I snapped a few quick pictures.

Holiday Card Happiness

How fun is it to get the mail this time of year and be greeted by family and friends holiday cards? We love it and even have a card tree that we display all our cards on. I simply cannot believe it's that time of year again to start thinking about holiday cards but it is very exciting!

Each year about this time we order our holiday cards from Shutterfly. We love to send cards to both our family and friends and since we celebrate Hanukkah we sometimes place 2 separate orders. One for Hanukkah cards for the family and a separate order for Holiday cards for our friends!

I have my eye on a few favorites this year. Take a sneak peak below. No hints though....guess you will have to wait and see what we choose :-)

Here are a couple Holiday Cards I am drawn to:

Sweet Snowflake Holiday

Have a Ball

Shutterfly has such a great selection of Hanukkah cards too this year. Here are a few we have our eye on:


Hanukkah Blue 2010

Hanukkah Dreidel Fun 2010

Hanukkah Plaid Blue

If you have not used shutterfly in the past, try them! If you don't love my favorites check out the entire selection Shutterfly has to offer. We don't just use them for our cards, we use them for easy quick photo printing, photo gifts, and even use there share site for one of the playgroups we are part of. The site is super easy to use and the quality is excellent. I can't wait to see all the beautiful cards start rolling in. Happy Holidays Ya'll!

Did you know that bloggers can get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly? Here's How: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

8 is GREAT!

Spencer turned 8 Months old last Wednesday! Where is the time going?

Spencer you make our world a better place by being part of it. Your smile is contagious and I am still in awe at how much joy and laughter you bring us and how fast you are growing up. We know we take a million pictures of you but the truth is, we would take a million more just to capture every special moment with you.

At 8 Months You (ARE)

-wearing size 12 month clothes

-wearing size 3 diapers (about to switch to size 4)

-still have itty bitty feet and wear size 2 shoes

-Have 8 teeth (5 top and 2 bottom)

-Love to sit and play with your toys

-Hate to be on your stomach and have no interest in crawling

-Roll from belly to back

-Love to stand (of course whole holding onto something)

-Saying Da-da and blabbering TONS!

-Love to scream in happiness

-Flap your arms like you are going to fly when you get excited

-Still eating solids 2-3 times day

-Tried pasta for the first time at LB's

-Using your big boy car seat facing rear

-Holding your own bottle for longer periods at each feeding

-Can pick "puffs" up and put them in your mouth

-Love Mum Mums and just the sight of the wrapper makes you nutty

GHS- The Next Generation

Disclaimer: This post will really make me feel old but in a great way!

Our goal on our trip was to cram in as much visiting with both family and friends as we could. On Monday, we spent the afternoon visiting with Richard and Jill and the boys and Corey and Molly (We missed you Dave and Paige). What a fun time. And my, how times have changed. I can still remember planning my trips home from college and us having a hard time deciding what bar we were going to. Now, it was planning around nap times and eating schedules and school for our little ones!

In the world of Facebook, I have certainly reconnected and kept in touch with many from elementary, middle and high school which is absolutely wonderful, but nothing compares to my "besties" back home. We have been through it all and if my math is correct we have all known each other upwards of 20 years! Wow! That's all I can say. Where has the time gone? Are we really that old?

So many memories with this crew and so excited to make many more as the years go on. Even though our kids may not grow up in the same cities or states, I hope they always enjoy their visits together!

I am so sorry we did not have Paige in this photo.

But here they are, the next generation. I love it!

Happy Birthday Owen

The hardest part about living so far from our family and friends is that we always miss out on fun gatherings and celebrations. We were lucky enough to be in Maryland when two of my oldest, dearest friends son Owen had his 4th Birthday Party at Chuck E Cheeses. Even though Spencer was a bit young to join in all the fun we were SO happy to celebrate with Rich, Jill, Owen, and Kyle. Happy Birthday Owen!

Road Tripin-The Gordons Visit Maryland

We have been back from our Family Road Trip to Maryland for about 2 weeks now but I am just now getting caught up. It was such a wonderful, but quick trip. A big thank you to my sister and brother-in-law Hope and Ron for being such a great hosts and letting us take over their house for the long weekend. Bill and I always love our visits to Maryland but it is even better having Spencer with us! Spencer got to visit with so many special people. Baba, Aunt Hope and Uncle Ron, Aunt Caren, Uncle Max, Cousins Natalie and Ethan, Alyson, Joel, Jason, and Alex and lots of friends too.



Another first for the Gordons! This was our first family road trip and to my surprise it was not bad at all! Spencer was a trooper and I think took advantage of the long car ride to catch up on his sleep :-) We felt bad that he was in his car seat for such long stretches, but it was the most cost effective way to travel this year.



On our trip up, we got a late start so we ended up staying in Durham overnight. We hit the road early the next morning to finish the trip and were in Baltimore before we new it. Coming home was the opposite. We decided to get an early start and travel straight through. Again, not as bad as we thought and we made lots of stops so Spencer could eat and play. We even caught some pics of fun street signs on our travels. My photography skills were not so good going 70+mph but if you look close you may be able to catch some of them :-)

Originally we had panned to travel this particular weekend so that we could all run the Army Ten Miler Race that we do EVERY year but plans changed this year and as most of us were on injured reserved :-) With the race off the schedule, we had more time to visit with family and friends and take advantage of short time in Maryland. Can't wait to plan our next visit!

Trick-OR-Treat

I cannot believe how fast this month flew by. I feel like it was yesterday that I was just posting about all the fun things we had planned to kick off Fall and now, Halloween has come and gone! Craziness.

We celebrated Spencer's first Halloween close to home. Early in the day we enjoyed a family walk, and then a visit to Trey and Katy's for some pre-trick or treat fun. We topped off the night by taking Spencer to 2 houses in our neighborhood so he could "trick or treat". Boy did he know just what to do. He reached into the candy bowl so fast we could barely get a picture :-) His first candy, a Butterfinger! Mommy and Daddy enjoyed it very much :-) I could not help myself but to think ahead to next year and how much fun it will be with Spencer on the move!

We made it back home just in time to catch the whopping 5 groups of kids that came to our house to trick or treat. Hey it's better then the 2 we had last year :-)

I cannot believe Halloween is over but I am happy there is still plenty of Fall Fun to be had.

Happy Halloween From The Gordons!

We have been SUPER busy the past few weeks and cannot wait to post updates on everything we have been up to but for now we just wanted to wish everyone a VERY SAFE & HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Trick or Treat!

Pumpkin Patch Palooza!

I mentioned before how much I love Fall. Well, it's not Fall without the pumpkin patch!

Spencer and I visited a local church with our playgroup last week to check out their selection of pumpkins and to snap a few pictures of the babies with the pumpkins. Not your "traditional" trip to the pumpkin patch but we still got some fun pictures.

Couldn't seem to get a great group shot! It was Nap time ya know!

Just two days later we took our Annual trip to BURTS FARM with the Summerfield's. I think this was our 3rd year going all together and this year we had Spencer to join in the fun! It was a beautiful fall day and we got to Burts very early beating most of the crowds which was wonderful. After the hay ride, shopping in the market, and snapping a million pictures we had a picnic lunch and enjoyed the day! Somehow Burts Farm NEVER gets old! I just love it :-)

It's amazing what a difference a year makes