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.