Gabe turned 9 today. I did not spend the day in tears like I did when Cole turned 10. Maybe next year. I am sad, however, that the time flies so very quickly. I remember the day he was born as if it were yesterday. He was such a chubby baby! 9 lb 1 oz. As they carried him across the surgery room, his chubby arm flopped over the towel and it looked like I had a toddler! I was nervous because he did not cry. Just opened his eyes and looked around. They laid him near my face so I could see him - even though my arms were strapped down so I could not hold him — and he just laid there and looked at me for the longest time. I think I got to hold him in the surgery room for more time than any of the other boys.

Today, he is still an observant yet quiet kid - until you push him too far. He’s the one who can ride in the car without too many arguments with his brothers (except he is our carsick-easy kid). I love this about him. He can be engrossed in just being outside, or a book, or a movie and is completely content.

Some of my favorite things about Gabe:
1: He lounges. The pic above was at Hermann Park. Everybody else was climbing, running, getting hurt and Gabe was lounging. The arms behind the head is a sure sign of Gabe’s favorite position. He is a laid-back kind of guy. I love this!

2: He loves cold things: ice cream, popsicles. This is my kind of kid. Ayurvedics call this vata, I think (or is it pitta?)…whatever. It’s his area of expertise. He can devour cold things like nobody’s business.

3: He is kind. When I offered to take him alone to see “How to Train Your Dragon” the first words out of his mouth were a soft but surprised, “But I don’t want to go without my brothers.”

4: Gabe is smart. He was his 2nd grade teacher’s favorite student. He continues to do very well in school. He is so imaginative that he has to work on concentrating but watch out when he applies himself, the sky is the limit.

5: He is funny. He has an amazing sense of humor - better than most adults that I know. Gabe has been making us laugh since before he was born. He tried to grab the amnioscentesis needle TWICE as the doctor reinserted it in different pockets of fluid. He could sense a disturbance in the force. It’s no wonder he’s a Star Wars fan. He’s a seriously funny kid - even at 2 weeks old. I was singing in the temple choir for Winter Quarters and had to buy a nice dress (2 weeks post baby!) for the dedication and we were in a nice department store and Don was holding Gabe outside the dressing rooms. He tooted so loud and so often that it sounded - no joke - like an adult. EVERY single woman there thought it was Don and he was trying to pass the blame to Gabe - a 2 week old baby (yeah, right!)…but it really was Gabe. We used to say “Gabriel won’t you blow your horn?” when he was so very tiny. Thankfully he grew out of this stage very quickly.

Gabe is many more things - I could never cover them all - but today, he’s 9. One more year we’ve been lucky to have him in our lives. We love you, kiddo. Love, Mom & Dad

Two quick things:

1) At the dinner table, Cole wanted to go to bed early. I said FINE because his biological clock is changing (puberty and all) and Jackson piped up, “Mom! All the clocks in this house are different!!” Apparently it bothers him that Don puts the bedroom clocks ahead about 15 minutes to stay on time in the mornings, but his timing was impeccable!

2) Benjamin was in our bed going to sleep last night and Don started to doze before the rest of us. He was just starting to snore and Ben sat up and proclaimed, “Dad’s sleeping grouchy!” I had to tell him it was called snoring.

So I thought we had mice or a rather large cockroach spreading the Fruity Pebbles cereal all over the pantry…until I saw the spoon. Even a large cockroach can’t use a spoon! The guilty party was someone who had never had sugar cereal before and certainly took a liking to them. So much for a treat! More shots on our flickr account. The guilty one is holding a football, how cute is that?! How could anyone get mad at that face?!?

Jack is currently our toothless wonder but I created this photograph for a stock photo site today. It was just too cute not to share! It’s from last summer but, good memories. Busy with “real” work this week so I’m not getting much time to blog but, that’s okay, I’ll be back soon. Looking forward to Quilt Market in Houston this weekend so be sure to check back for the news and some fun pics.

My good friend in Kansas called me the other day to see if everything was okay - she knew I was busy because I hadn’t blogged all. week. long. Yes, it’s true. I have been extraordinarily busy which makes it the perfect time to…get sick. We are all feeling under the weather and have been exposed to a cornucopia of diseases so who knows what we might have (strep? swine flu? both have been going around at church and school). There will be much resting today amid the crankiness. Before 9 a.m. I heard the words, “I hate you!” “Nobody loves me!” “Don’t touch me!” which might seem like a regular day around here but usually we can hold off the sharp tongues until tiredness at bedtime. The only good thing about illness is (and it really has been at least 6 months since we’ve been heavy-duty sick - before Don left Omaha in May)…oh…back to the good things…well, I guess it helps one to appreciate being well and…I really can’t think of anything else!

The pics above are from our old collection, somewhere in 2002 just after Jack was born. Don’t Cole and Gabe (and Don?) look so much younger? Where does the time go???

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I’ve been keeping track of the funny things my kids say on here. Well, it’s time to backtrack and add some from years past that we have written on tiny slips of paper and carrying around in wallets and purses F-O-R-E-V-E-R. Here goes!

Backstory: On the way to our OB appointment for Jack in my belly while Gabe was about a year and a half old.

Gabe: “The baby can have my car seat and I’ll get a new one, k?”

No response from us as we are considering his sense of entitlement at such a young age.

Gabe continues: “So, after we hear the heart beat, then they cut you open?”

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Backstory: I was trying to get out of a very young Cole (about 8 or 9) if he really wanted to go hunting with his father. I was nervous and he could tell.

Mom: “So, Cole, do you want to go hunting with your father or do you want to go next year?”

Cole {very long sigh}: “I really want to go hunting, even though I know there’s a 50/50 chance I could die.”

So how cute is this?? I was headed back to the kitchen to finish up dinner dishes and look how cute…she’s such a good dog! The pig and puppy are Jack’s and Ben’s, respectively, but they didn’t mind at all. Daisy needed good company!

I’m too tired to even post a picture though I have a few really good ones of piles of boxes. The boys had an 11 or 12 foot tall fort created with boxes IN THE ENTRYWAY so that we couldn’t even get to the door if we wanted to.

We love this house. It feels like a little bit of heaven. We love the paint colors. We love the layout. I adore the kitchen and master bedroom - it is so big that Cole claims we could cut it in half and give him some extra yard outside! I am a bit afraid to go upstairs and see how the boys have unpacked their things! Back to the kitchen…I’ve been there for 2 days straight…it’s not a gas stove or a double oven (both were on my “must have” list) but I am so happy with what is here. I love the tile and the cabinets. I want to paint the inside of them Martha Stewart bluish green (probably the same color the previous owners used on the wainscoting in the laundry room which is DREAMY). Not only did the previous owners leave us a welcome basket of CHOCOLATE (dark, too!), she labeled all the house color paint cans with the room it was used in AND THE YEAR/DATE it was used…seriously, I wish everybody could buy a house from people as nice as we did. We were extremely blessed to meet them. Our own house “touches” will come in good time…I’m going to just enjoy our family being in a home again for awhile first.

The Zellmers really took good care of their home. The only hitch we’ve run into is our fridge won’t fit in the laundry room. Well, it fits in the slot but there is a windowsill in the way…not sure what we’re going to do about that yet. Our chest freezer was going to be sold but now Don thinks maybe that will fit instead. Let’s see…what else do we love? The kids love the big tub in the master bath. It’s not as big as our old one (nor is it a Jacuzzi) but they were all very pleased and seemed to like it more. I think not being a Jacuzzi is a plus.

The dog is in heaven. She keeps trying to sneak off into the field by our home. I bought a new rug for the kitchen today and she has claimed it.

The movers will need to replace 4 things: 1) Ben’s bunk bed headboard/footboard got lost before they even hit Texas (was never received in the warehouse) and 2) The loaders in Gretna damaged a big dresser on industrial wheels that we used to store the boys’ toys 3) my jogging stroller got damaged, and 4) a miscellaneous box of blankets was lost. Not too shabby for 20,720 lbs of stuff, I think. The only thing that breaks my heart is Ben is sleeping in Alex’s old room on the floor for now until his bed can be replaced. It’s okay, though, he is snuggling in blankets and the carpet is very soft. Hmm…as I type this he is sleeping in my bed. Not good.

I hear sawing upstairs. The older boys have taken my serrated kitchen knife and are building cardboard forts in the playroom. They asked for duct tape about an hour ago while I was preparing a lesson for church and I didn’t put two-and-two together…I’d better go take some pictures and see if anybody is bleeding!

More later when we’re coherent again.

We had a great time at the Mercer Arboretum last weekend. Here are some of the pictures but you can see them all at our flickr account.

Jack’s eyes in this one crack me up!

It’s such a beautiful area that people go there to take just about every kind of picture (choir, wedding, etc.). We stumbled upon a crowd of people with matching shirts, cowboy hats and boots. They looked so neat! Then we saw what they were there for: the most beautiful 15 year old hispanic girl. I guess it’s a tradition. All I know is she was luminous. They had two Hummer limos and it was very ceremonial looking. I snapped a couple of shots because I had just never seen anything like it before!

We have been so time disoriented while not being in school and moving that we lost track of what day it actually was and forgot that Don’s cousin Becky was flying into Houston for a very long layover this past Sunday (she called from the airport while we were getting ready for church). We finally picked her up but I was so sad - I had made dinner for a couple of families in the ward and it took just about every vegetable and good thing we had in the house. I was planning chicken and rice or mac-n-cheese or pb&j for dinner (really) and I was so embarrassed when we had to eat normal just-to-get-by family food. She said she was so sick of rice and beans (she had been traveling internationally) that id didn’t matter. What a sweetheart! We haven’t seen her in about 8 years and she still looks just the same - always beautiful! Thanks for coming to see us, Becky - next time I promise we’ll have better food.

Okay, so I love that clown pic below but after really looking into it they want money and I hate that when you can do just a little research and get the information yourself. So….here is a basic list that I came up with for local Houston things to do for families. It’s easier and free to check out the websites yourself and get the information online. Hope this helps you as much as me - we have lots to do and discover!

Hot Sauce Festival - http://www.houstonhotsauce.com/

The Health Museum - http://www.mhms.org/

Brazos Bend State Park - www.brazosbend.org

Old Town Spring - www.oldtownspring.com

Houston Zoo - www.houstonzoo.com

Downtown Aquarium - http://www.aquariumrestaurants.com/downtownaquariumhouston/flash_content/index.html

Memorial Park Conservancy - http://www.memorialparkconservancy.org/default.aspx?menuitemid=221

288 Lake (formerly Tiki Lake) - www.288lake.net

Blue Bell Creamery - www.bluebell.com

Dewberry Farm - www.dewberryfarm.com

Armand Bayou Nature Center - www.abnc.org

Marq*E Entertainment Center - www.marquehouston.com

Bayou Wildlife Park - www.bayouwildlifepark.com

Miller Outdoor Theatre - www.milleroutdoortheatre.com

Theater Under the Stars - www.tuts.com

Kemah Boardwalk - www.kemahboardwalk.com

City of Houston Parks & Rec - http://www.houstontx.gov/parks/index.html

Mothers of the Woodlands (resourcel list) - http://www.mothersofthewoodlands.com/resources.html

Woodland’s Children Museum - www.woodlandschildrensmuseum.org

Holocaust Museum Houston - http://www.hmh.org/

Houston Travel & Visitors Center/Info - www.visithoustontexas.com

Houston Wilderness - http://www.houstonwilderness.org/default.asp?ID=1

Galveston Island Travel & Tourism - http://www.galveston.com/default.asp

So the kids are bored. Up until now this vacation hasn’t been much of a vacation. Sure, we took a day off to go to Schlitterbahn and we’ve been swimming almost every day but I think the kids are itching to get out and explore their new city. I’ve been trying to research family oriented things to do online and the above pictures link to two of the sources I’ve found. We know nothing will compare to Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo so we’re looking for other substitutes. I’ve been to the children’s museum here and it compares to Omaha but surely there’s something else…we are anxious to try the aquarium as we’ve heard it’s wonderful. Are there any splash parks? I know there are other places out there that only locals know…if you live near Houston (we’re willing to drive!), please email me and let me know what you family enjoys.

Thank you, friends & clients, for the birthday cards in the mail!

Thank you, dear Facebook friends, for taking the time to email me short notes of love and encouragement.

Thank you, dear sister, for bringing over flowers and checking up on me (even if Mom did ask you to do it!). It helps.

Thank you, dear sister, for taking care of Mom & Dad this week and helping me feel better with an overly generous gift card (which will be completely used by me, I promise, I’m not even sharing!).

Thank you, crazy friend, for being so utterly creative and helping me have fun and vent my frustrations at the same time. I am so glad you didn’t get a ticket by that policeman.

Thank you, kids, for always being willing to help and snuggle only sighing mildly when you’re asked to pick up your things for the zillionth time.

Thank you, Don, for bringing home chocolate upon request and letting me sleep in.

Thank you, neighbor and friend, for your listening ear, cooking magazines, and rescuing my child from wandering the neighborhood.

I have been blessed!

Above: The Eymann Siblings in Nebraska. This is a picture of my mother’s mother and her siblings. Back row, left to right: Ollie, Daisy, Violet, Robert, Rose, Lillie Della. Front row: Lottie Ollie Thornton Eymann and Ernest Gottfried Eymann. Photo courtesy of Darlene May Jackson Bartlett’s personal collection.

Above: Lillie Della Eymann, photo courtesy of Darlene May Jackson Bartlett’s personal collection.

Genealogy. Family history. Whatever you call it - I just love it. My grandmother was Lillie Della and my mother tells me wonderful stories about her. She was a caretaker, friend, hard working individual. She was a medical wonder - she helped deliver babies and was the person everybody ran to if they had any problems. I hope to put up a Bartlett and Eymann genealogy website soon. I have so much information that I want to share in hopes of finding more! It is addicting. They say the Holy Ghost goes to bed at midnight but the Spirit of Elijah is just getting up about then…that’s why genealogy seems to include all-nighters doing research on the computer.