Christmas at the Gillespie's

We decided that we were going to celebrate Christmas at home this year. It is difficult to be far away from family on holidays, but it was fun to celebrate just the three of us on Christmas morning. Sadie is still too young to really know what’s going on, but she had fun ripping paper and looking at new things. I am just so thankful for my family and for the blessing of celebrating Christmas with them. Thanks for the presents Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, and Big Daddy. Sadie loved them! Gabe and I have always felt that we do not want Sadie to think that Christmas is about getting what she wants, but that it is a time for us to celebrate Jesus’ birth and the joy of giving and sharing with others. And where does Santa Claus fit into that, well I haven’t quite figured that out yet, but I have at least another year until she really knows what’s going on.

We had a great time eating breakfast together and opening some gifts. Gabe cooked for about 2 hours and then we went to the Les and Jenny's for lunch. We had a great time. Sadie was pretty tired by the time everything was over and we just ended the day watching movies.

Editor's note: My pictures loaded in random order for some reason :)

Sadie and Daddy, enjoying some black cherry pie.

Gabe got me some very comfortable slippers. So sweet!

Sadie with her farm animals from Grandma and Grandpa. She is also sporting her new P.J.'s.

She loves her Dr. Seus books from Nana and Big Daddy.

Sadie and Daddy with the cookies for Santa Claus!

Christmas Cookies!

So we did get to decorate our Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve which made me feel a little bit better about doing some “Christmas things” for Sadie. Thanks so much to Gabe for staying up late with me baking and getting them done. We had so many cookies by the time we used up all the dough and Sadie only made it through decorating 3. She is on the move these days. She also preferred eating the icing to decorating the cookies. Go figure! (Emily, I thought of you when Sadie started digging into the icing-the two of you would get along well!)

Here's our icing eater.

Here's Gabe, helpling me bake. Isn't he the best?

It looks like Sadie is decorating, but really she's just going for the icing.

Yummy!

Here are her masterpieces. A Christmas tree, bell, and frog. I know the frog isn't really Christmas, but she really likes frogs so we bought the cookie cutter.

Christmas Fun!

So, I have wanted to do some fun Christmas things with Sadie this year. Well, nothing has quite turned out the way I had planned. We have tried to do a couple of things, but have ended up at home playing Christmas music and watching Sadie dance and point at the tree. We did make it to Santa Land, but it was really cold, Sadie isn’t really into talking to Santa yet, and none of the pictures turned out. Oh Well! We had fun trying and it really has become funny that we end up just driving home and hanging out! We are planning on making cookies on Christmas Eve for Santa so hopefully we’ll have some pictures of that. We did take a few pictures of Sadie dressed up for church in a Christmas dress! At least she will know we tried!

Christmas boxes!

Grandma and Grandpa sent a Christmas package today. Sadie had so much fun with the box and Styrofoam I had to take few pictures.

Here Comes Santa Claus!

We are excited about celebrating Christmas with Sadie especially since she is a little older. We put the tree up this week and she gets so excited when she sees it. A friend of mine told me to teach her to, “touch with one finger.” It seems to work really well because she can’t really hurt much with one finger, but she still gets to touch the tree. It’s really cute to watch her touch the different ornaments. I’m glad we got the decorations up and will get to enjoy them for a couple weeks. More to come of our holiday celebrations!

Sadie is so excited about the tree! She points to it and says, "Da! Da!"

Here she is touching with one finger!

The stockings were hung...

Here it is- The Gillespie Christmas tree-2008

Thanksgiving 2008

For Thanksgiving every year we go to Ruidoso, NM with the Riley’s and the Rhoades. This is our 6th year to go. We always have a good time and do a lot of relaxing. We cooked a big Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. We also played Dan’s Wii. (I think that’s how you spell it. Not really sure.) It was a lot of fun. It was more fun to watch people than to play at times. Gabe was really funny on the ski jump. Sadie had a good time with the ducks on the lake and running around on the golf course. There were also deer that would come right up to the condos. Every year we also do a run. Big surprise, I know. Rusty picks the course every year and we have a lot of fun. Sadie got sick part of the way through so we had a fussy baby that wasn’t sleeping good towards the end. I got pretty stressed and we were exhausted by the time we got home, but we had a good time and made some memories. Everyone was so patient and loving with Sadie and we again were so blessed to be with some of our favorite people.

Sadie's waiting patiently for dinner.

Getting a look at the deer

Ready to run!

We always eat lunch at Cafe Rio on Friday afternoon. It's a great local pizza place.

Everyone watching and playing the Wii

Gabe on the ski jump. He really got into it!

Her's a picture of our feast.

Shopping in Ruidoso. This is one of our favorite stores. We call it the pink house. They have lots of hot drinks and snacks that are great to taste and get you in the mood for the holidays.

Sadie LOVED the ducks. She would sit and watch them for a long time. She learned to throw the bread by the end. It didn't go very far, but she would get really excited.

Our annual 10 miles!

We are a running family and when we had Sadie we decided she would just come along with us. We have a great jogging stroller and she loves to be outside. Every year, a friend of ours puts together a fun 10 mile run where we all get together and she how far we can go. We haven’t been running any long distances lately so it was a little difficult, but we made it. This was the 19th year for Doug to organize this. It is different people every year and a lot of fun. Doug brings some of his old T-shirts and has old trophies that he hands out to the winning male and female. If you win, you have to give the trophy back at the race the next year. It was a great time!

I realized that once again most of the pictures are of Sadie. I’m really trying to take some pictures of other people too!

Sadie was the cutest water girl ever!

Hanging out at the finish line, learning to drive with Daddy!

Some of the brave runners. Don't they look great. Doug, our race director, is in yellow.

Me and Sadie at the starting line!

Les and Sadie in their running gear!

Guess who's walking?

Sadie is walking! Just a quick video of her new talent. She is all over the place now and is very fast. We can just look up and she’s off!

Weeeeeeee!

I just wanted to post these fun pictures of Sadie at the park. We went looking for swings and found this slide instead that she loved. She really likes being outside and loves watching birds! She points and them and squeals. We think she might have said "Birdie" a couple of times, but it's not real clear yet.

Halloween

For Halloween we went to a Trunk or Treat. Sadie was a pumpkin. I thought she was super cute. We went with Rachel, Kris, and Lincoln and had a great time. Sadie and Lincoln enjoyed being in the wagon. Lincoln loved taking the candy out of one bag and putting it into the other. He would also try to give the candy from his bag to the people instead of taking it from them. What a sweet boy! Sadie had fun too. She hung on to her M&M’s and didn‘t want to let go. The Trunk or Treat was a great way for us to enjoy Halloween, but it wasn’t too much. Enjoy our pictures.

Happy Halloween!

Tarzan and the Pumpkin! Too cute!

Here's Sadie. Enjoying the ride.



Sadie and Lincoln. "Trick or Treat!"

Daddy with the Pumpkin, starting to get tired.

One pooped pumpkin!

Birthday Weekend #2

So last weekend was another birthday celebration. Gabe's parents, Nana and Big Daddy, came to visit. We also had a party with some friends on Sunday afternoon. My friend, Jenny, helped me make some cute rubber duckie cakes that I have to say turned out better than I expected. Thanks Jenny for all your help!!! The party turned out to be very nice. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends here that are family to us. I do not know how I would have made it through the past year without the encouragement and help from everyone. We also just feel so blessed that Sadie is able to have such wonderful examples of loving, caring Christian people.

Now a little about Sadie. I just have to say that she has been such a blessing to our lives. She is just a joy to be around and her smile makes me smile no matter what I feel like. She is saying Mama and Dada. She also can sign, "All Done" and she just started "Please." She also will say "All Done," but it is more like "AAAHHH DAAAA." She will say "Hi" when she is waving too! The whole year has been amazing and I love seeing her grow and change. I try everyday to make sure she knows that we love her and that she is a special little girl. I look forward to the future and to being able to share more memories with her. I pray that God will continue to guide us and help me as I try to nuture her and lead her to Him.

I can't say enough how amazed I have been at how God works and the way that he continues to work in me and increase my faith. Since we decided to start trying to have children it has been a journey and I sure did not know what I was in for at the beginning, but I wouldn't go back for anything. I always had those fears of not knowing what to do with a baby and I was remembering being in the hospital when Sadie was born. I remember that she was crying one morning and I just looked at Gabe. He said, "Just sing to her." I told him that I didn't know what to sing and he said that it didn't matter becasue I was her Mama. After a few tears, I remember making a conscience choice at that time to do something that didn't come "natural" to me, but that I knew was what I needed to do. I just started singing. As I was rocking Sadie this week before she went to bed and making up some silly song about her, I just smiled in amazement at not just how much Sadie has changed in the past year, but how much I have changed too. (Also, how thankful I am for Gabe and the truth that he has to speak to me quite often!) I use to hear people say all the time that God is good and I would agree, but I really belive that I needed some more experiences in my life to learn and know more what that means. Having Sadie has shown me over and over that I am so not in control and that I can not do things on my own, but if I will ask, Wow! Amazing things can happen! I love you sweet girl and Happy Birthday!!!!

I think Sadie liked the tissue paper more than the presents.

She loved her first birthday cake!

Sadie, Daddy, and Mama blowing out the candle.

I thought the cakes turned out pretty cute. The party was a rubber duckie theme, just in case you couldn't tell.

Here we are, all ready to party!

Sadie and Linclon. Just hangin out.