Easter Egg Hunt #1

Sadie started out her Easter celebrations on Thursday with an Easter Egg Hunt at her daycare. Les was able to go with her so I was happy she had someone there. It was one of those, "feeling guilty for working" days that Les really helped me feel better. He said she did great and had fun. Thanks Les for being there. Definitely a blessing to you not working out of town this week.

Les and Sadie

The wind was terrible on Thursday. 60mph gusts made for some lovely hair-dos.

This is Sadie's cute Easter basket that they made at the daycare.

Keepin it Real- or at least trying to

So I've decided I am going to try to be more real. What does that mean? I think for me it means really sharing who I am (especially with Sadie) and not trying to live up to some unreal expectations I have placed on myself. Yes, I watched Oprah yesterday and it really made me think about why I do some of the things I do and whether it is for me or to try to keep up with what I think I am supposed to be doing. I just think that if I want Sadie to be comfortable with who she is then I probably need to be an example of that for her. So I'm trying...again...Let me start with dinner tonight.

We went out to dinner with Jose since he is going back to Iraq tomorrow. Sadie was doing fine until she decided she wanted out of the highchair. This is something we have been dealing with recently. She starts SCREAMING and throwing a very nice tantrum. Gabe and I are looking at each other and trying to see what our options are. We decide we could-

A: Get her out of the highchair and let her sit with us. We have tried this before and whoever has her can't eat because we are trying to keep her hands out of everything and not let her down which is really what she wants. However, this does keep everyone from staring at us and wonder why we won't do something with our child. or...

B: Let her throw her fit and ignore her. or...

C:Take her outside until she calms down and do it all over again when we try to put her back in the high chair.

So we decide we are going to wait out the tantrum. It seemed like an eternity, but looking back I think it was only about 5 minutes. When she was finished she drank some juice and continued eating. She was blowing kisses and waving at people when as we were leaving. Was that the best decision to make as we probably annoyed quite a few people? I really don't know, but I am hoping it was the best decision for Sadie. My hope is that the next trantum will only last 4 minutes instead of 5 and maybe eventually they will stop. It was interesting to me as I look back on it at how many people I thought were thinking, "That child needs a good spanking" or "If that were my child..." and I have to be honest that I have thought similar things many times before when it wasn't my child, but each child and situation is so different as I am learning everyday. God continue to give me strength and wisdom as this mom thing is not easy!

A Good Start

We have had quite a busy week. It is amazing to me how fast the weeks go. It went so fast this week, I didn't even get any pictures. Sadie started at her new and hopefully final daycare this week. She has done very well and really seems to like it. She cried for about 10 seconds the first day and has gone to her teacher without problems ever since. She even got excited when we pulled into the parking lot on Friday morning. I am so thankful that the transition has gone well and that she likes going. It is so fun to see her playing with other kids, learning new things, and becoming her own person. I'll just keep praying for God to take care of her, protect her, and guide us and we try lead her to Him.

Catching up

Saturday has definitely become our "catch up" day and it seems to be my blogging day too. We have had a good week and are enjoying our Sadie so much. She is at such a great, fun age. She is starting to say lots of words and phrases. I am making her say words now (or at least try) instead of ,"Uh, Uh" whenever she wants something. This week she did a couple funny things. Not only does she look like her daddy, but she also has developed his love for food. We were watching TV one night and she was running around playing. A commercial for Red Lobster came on and she looked at the TV and said, "Mmmmmmm!" Pretty funny. Then tonight at dinner- Gabe had made french onion soup (Yummy!) and Sadie was eating roast beef and peas. (2 of her favorites) We were blowing on our soup to cool it down and she decided she needed to blow on her food too. She picked up the peas one by one and would blow on each one before she put it in her mouth. Gabe and I were cracking up!

We were also excited today because we got to see our Jose. He is home from Iraq for a visit and we were so excited to see him. He hadn't seen Sadie since November so she had changed quite a bit. He even got to see her throw a tantrum! Jose told us that he reads the blog all the way over in Iraq to keeep up with what's going on with us. That's motivation enough for me. It was great to visit with him and his sister Brittany. Jose and Brittany- we are so proud of you, who you have become, and what you are doing! We love you!

Nana, here is the best picture that I got of Sadie last week in the lady bug dress. So cute!

Sadie, Gabe, and Jose. I didn't realize Brittany had ducked out of the picture.

One of Sadie's new fun things to do...take her baby for rides in the laundry basket.

Lovin the weekend!

More Saturday pictures

I realize that this is a lot of pink, but I went a little crazy taking pictures this afternoon. I just haven't been happy with the pictures lately so I started practicing and ended up taking quite a few. A friend has told us that the trick is just to take a whole bunch of pictures and your chances are a lot better that you will get some good ones. So, I'm going to try that philosphy and see what happens. I took so many that the battery died on the camera. Here are a few.

This is Sadie's pose when she wants you take a picture of her.

The Gillespie Garden-Phase 1

We have officially started a garden! We haven't planted anything yet, but we (actually it has been all Gabe) started digging today. I was a little apprehensive because we tend to get excited about projects like this and then nothing happens, but I really think we actually might do it this time. I guess we will see, but so far it is looking good. Sadie really enjoyed being outside for the afternoon and seemed to have a lot of fun.

Here it is...so far...

Can you guess what she is eating?

I was cleaning the kitchen and hadn't heard anythinng for a while. I went out to check and found Sadie sitting behind Gabe. He was digging and she was eating-DIRT!

Just some cute pictures of our sweet girl exploring outside!

Spring Break

We've had a fun time this week being off of work and spending lots of time together. We went to Ruidoso, NM for a few days to hang out and now are just getting stuff done around the house. Just wanted to share some of our pictures.

This is Gabe's favorite picture from our trip. Sadie just enjoyed some yummy pizza and her hair got lots of staic while she was riding in the backpack. She loved it!

Feeding the ducks. Sadie LOVES ducks. She also loves eating the bread. Gabe would give a piece of bread to the ducks and then a piece of bread to Sadie. She also figured out that she likes to run down the hills on the golf course where we were staying. She got going a little too fast once and kind of did a face plant, but she recovered quicly. Just a little scrape on her forehead.

We tried to take a family shot of all three us in our green on St. Patrick's day! Sadie doesn't look too excited.

Swinging at the park.

Sadie loves slides too! She especially liked the tunnel slide at the park. They had pony rides too, but she was not interested at all. Maybe in a couple years.

Reading her clifford book in the car. Doesn't she look so sweet. Just a little while earlier, she got really upset about something (can't remember what) and started screaming! A few minutes later, she threw up all over herself! It was lovely. You would think she would figure out not to get that upset, but on the way home, she got upset again and...threw up again! She has never thrown up when she has gotten upset before and she is perfectly fine after. I'm thinking she got a little car sick too. Hopefully this stage won't last long!

Hanging out at home. Going for a ride in the laundry basket.

We went to see some animals at a petting zoo. She kept her distance, but had a good time.