Night 1 - We survived

As you have read already we have had about a month of Gabe waking up every night. The reason might have first been for teething, but I think now it has become a bad habit.

Last week at Gabe's 9 month check up, the doctor, Jani, asked us if we had let him just cry it out. She said that after he gets the 3rd and 4th tooth on the bottom, we should have about a month break before molars. We have to be serious about it though. Stick it out and let him cry himself or calm himself back to sleep. She said he could cry for about 45 minutes to an hour.

So, my plan was to wait until after he got his teeth. However, after being very sleepy these last couple of days, Trever mentioned having Gabe cry it out last night. I don't know if he fully understood what that meant. But we all found out.

Trever has had the week off (mostly) and the thought of trying to get Gabe to sleep through the night while he was home and not needing to be at work at 6:30am did cross my mind. So. Last night, we did it. The first night we survived and I am expecting 2 or 3 more of these nights to get out of the waking up habit. Gabe cried and was m.a.d. mad. But we all survived. Trever and I did get back to sleep and so did Gabe. I think Carson might have woken up for a couple of minutes, but I didn't hear much out of him.

Night 1 - a good amount of crying. Didn't look too rough in the morning, just a tiny puffiness to one eye.

Updates to come.

Aloha!

FYI

You can click on the pictures and collages to view them larger than just the blog view.

CHRISTmas Day

Hope you had a blessed Christmas! You can see how blessed we are here!

BTW, the skin picture of Gabe is one of his 9 month old pictures. ;)

Aloha!

Some of Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we opened gifts with the Coster's. Part of Cole's gift from Garin, Sandra and Kasia were drum symbols. Kasia's step dads old drum symbols, that he used to use when playing with Journey! You can check Steve Smith out here. Pretty neat gift for Cole!



You can see more Christmastime pictures right here.

Christmas Eve.

Trev and Kai doing the move from Kai's Christmas school program.

Mimi reading for Communion.

Gabe ready to dig in!

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas with your family and friends!

Gabe's Appointment

This morning we went to the doctor to get Gabe weighed for his 9 month appointment. He weighs 21.6 lbs. And is 28 inches long.

Carson at just over 9 months weighed 22.6 lbs and was 29.5 inches long!

Since Gabe hasn't been into eating very much at all, I am going to try really hard to be consistent and get more into his body. We are going to work on meat (Venusian right now-which is so good!!!) and molasses.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

Carsonville

Ryan and Cat came by to visit this morning and brought Carson his Christmas gift. A hand made box and block set! Hand painted and everything! I am so impressed with this gift. Way cool!

While they were here, they built some houses and ended up with Carsonville! Gabe gave them the "in the mouth" test and "push around the box" test too.

Thank you so much Ryan and Cat for the very special gift!

Aloha.

A Special Night

Last night we went to our friends house for some pizza and salad. We all had a great time!

Carson played with "the kids" and Gabe was held/played with almost the whole time! It was so fun to see these kids! We became part of each others lives just over 10 years ago. Ben was about 13 months old and just turned 11! Jake was almost 3 and will be 13 next week! Amazing how time skips years at a time! ;)

Thank you, Quast Family, for such a special night!

Aloha.

Pulling Up

Gabe has started to pull himself like mad!!! More often than not, he ends up on his back or on his bottom. He seems like he is in too much of a hurry and not taking it slow enough. Today he pulled himself up in his crib and was patting the wall. And the top left picture of him was taken right before he stood up, pushed the box forward and took steps!

I got a little of him on video pushing the box and walking!!!

I forgot something!

My brother-in-law, Chris, made the news! Check it out!

http://cbs5.com/video/?id=59393@kpix.dayport.com

New Things for the Costers prt 1

Gabe climbed up on the wrapping paper bin while I had it out. Notice anything sticking out in most of the pictures?

This week, my mom, myself, and the boys did a little shopping and Carson joined in on the fun.

He chose the shoes that he wanted to try on. After shopping, I needed to change Gabe's diaper, so while I was doing that Carson thought he would get comfy. After I took a picture of him he said, "let me take a picture of you" to my mom and I.

Yesterday Carson counted backwards from 5 totally out of the blue. Didn't know he could do that?!

This last week I had a headache one day, hurt my leg on a toy another day, and a 3rd something happened that I can't remember right now, but with all of those things one thing was in common. My little man, Carson, prayed for me. It was his idea to do it and we had to hold hands while he prayed. He would say, "Jesus thank you for mom and that her ______ (whatever the need was) doesn't hurt. Jesus name, Amen." I just love my little guy!!!

New things prt 2

We had a visit from Auntie Cat yesterday. She has been traveling around Europe for the last 2 1/2 months and came by yesterday for a little visit. YEAH!

Gabe. This morning I had the laundry basket in the hallway on the floor and went into the living room, came back to find Gabe standing up and holing onto the basket! He ISN'T even 9 MONTHS! We can't start this walking bit so early!!!



I had a little something done to myself this morning.

What do ya think?

And I think that about sums it up!!!

Merry Christmas!

A Different Evening

Carson goes to AWANA on Wednesday nights. Trever takes him, runs some errands, and picks him up. Gabe and I usually stay home and catch up on laundry or other household things. Last night was the celebration of Christmas, Jesus' birth, and I thought it would be fun to go see what they do at AWANA and see the special Jubilee night. On the way there we got to "rock out" to the radio. I sat in the back of the car with the boys and sat there watching Carson and Trever nod there heads to the music. It was a very cute site.

The first activity was to sing a couple of Christmas carols, then Illis (a leader) read the Christmas Story from the Bible with music playing in the background. After that the kids went up to the front to see something special, the greatest gift of all. That was a tiny little Nativity Scene that was in a frame and all lit up. It was very sweet. And yes, Jesus was and is the greatest gift anyone could ever receive.

Then we had to wait for a couple of minutes. Then the big surprise was revealed. The lights were turned out, doors were opened and propped up tables were in front of us with lit candles in cupcakes then spelled out "THANK YOU GOD." It was such a lovely site to see. While everyone enjoyed their cupcakes we watched a slide show of pictures from last years AWANA and listened to more lovely music.

It was a very special night. I am so blessed to be able to be a part of this and have my son go every week and learn about God from a wonderful family.

Thank you all AWANA workers! You are impacting these children's lives.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

MY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND THE REAL REASON FOR CHRISTMAS JOY
Illustrated by Linda Clearwater

What is Christmas? Do you know?
Gifts and food and lots of snow?
Twinkling lights and Christmas tree?
Angels, stars, and family?
Yes, all of that and even more!
So, what is Christmas really for?

The lights that glitter on the tree
Tell us Jesus came to be...

A light for us and so we say,
"This Christmastime and every day
Light our path, dear Lord, we pray."

Angles sparkling in the light
Remind us angles sang that night...

"Good news! God's Son is born today!
Jesus is born! HOORAY! HOORAY!
Sing for joy on Christmas Day!"

The tree that's green when others die
Tell us Jesus came and why...

To give us life, and so we say,
"This Christmastime and every day
Live in us, dear Lord, we pray."

Twinkling atop our tree, the star
Tells us wise men traveled far...

To find the king, and so we say,
"This Christmastime and every day
Be our king, dear Lord, we pray."

The gifts that sit beneath our tree
Tell us God loves you and me...

For Christmas Day is when we sing,
"We welcome you, our newborn king!
Born in a lowly cattle stall,
You're the greatest gift of all!"

This Christmastime and every day,
Thank you, God, for Christmas Day!

"For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son." John 3:16

May you and your family experience the true gift this Christmas Season, Jesus!

We love you and have a very Merry Christmas!

A Question for You

To all the other moms out there: After you have had your kids, have your feet grown?

While I was pregnant with Gabe, Carson and I were on a walk and I wore my Dansko boots and noticed that my left foot was hurting. Since then I have worn my other Dansko shoes that do the same thing. My left toe hits the very front of the shoe. NOT fun! It has made me really sad.

To all future moms, be careful what shoes you buy now, because your feet might grow during your pregnancy!

Aloha.

A Masked Visitor

At about 3:30pm we had a masked visitor climbing around on the fences that are by our house. Just wanted to share the little guy with you!

All through the night

I am happy to report, that last night Gabe slept all through the night. After about 2 weeks of him waking up, I propped up the top part of his mattress. Apparently it worked!

Looking forward to some more great nights of sleep. Oh, and he has started to eat! Liquid (with added milkies) yams and carrots. We are moving forward with our 8 1/2 month old little guy! ;)

Aloha.

Carsons' parties

Carson has had his share of celebrations this year. He is growing so fast, and I have noticed in the last week or so that he is really starting to be a huge talker. I will ask Trever to do something, and he will say, "I can do it, Mom." He is so very sweet and has been very helpful.


This is my favorite picture of him, from all his birthday pictures, taken on 12.5.09. It made me cry when I really looked at it. I guess one of those "mom" moments.


FYI: You can click on the pictures or collages to make them larger.


Here are a lot more pictures of him and his parties and Uncle Garins party that you can look at.

Aloha.

2 bad almost makes 1 good

Gabe has been having a hard time at night lately. He is teething and gets extra mucusy from that and then wakes up and cries which makes it worse. On Friday night we tried to just have him cry it out, but after a period of time, Trever was able to calm him down and get him back to sleep. Saturday night was a whole different story!!!

After he went to bed and slept for 45 minutes, he was up and crying. Neither one of us could get him to calm down so he could breath through his nose. He was very upset. After hours of trying and nothing working, I decided to give him a bath in hopes that the steam would clear things up, so he could breath better. I was sitting there at 12:30am thinking about how I never thought I would be bathing at that time of night. However, I was and it reminded me of the last time I took a bath at 11pm, when I was in labor with Carson on 11.30.06.

The steam and distraction of the bath helped his nose. He ate and was asleep by 1am. My oh my.

Last night we were doing good until 5am. He woke up, ate a little and went back to sleep. He has been such a great sleeper at night, I really hope this waking up stops ASAP!!!


Novembers pictures can be seen here.

Aloha.

Chub in the sink!!!

Last night we went to Grandpa and Mimi's to have a birthday dinner for Uncle Garin and Carson.

While we were there, when we had Gabe in certain parts of the house, he would start to sneeze, and itch his red, puffy eyes. I thought it might be a good idea to just rinse him off before he went to bed. So, instead of doing a bath or shower, I thought I would put him in the sink with the shower on for steam.

I tried to put his legs in the water and cross his feetsies, but he wouldn't keep them like that, therefore 1 straight leg in the water and 1 out. ;0)

Happy Christmas TIME!!!

Sneaky Snowman

We got a little package today in the mail from a friend in Portland. It was our Sneaky Snowman!

Looking forward to starting this fun tradition with Carson and Gabe!

Happy Christmas time!!!

Surprise Party Pictures

Here are a couple of the pictures from my 30th birthday surprise party. There are a couple more of them that aren't posted on my blog, that you can see here.

Aloha.

Weigh In @ 8 months

Carson weighed 22 lbs. and was 28 1/2 inches long at 8 months and 6 days.

Gabe weighs 20.9 lbs. and is 28 1/2 inches long at 8 months and 7 days.

James is here with us today so he trucked it on up to the hospital with us and weighed in at 17.13 lbs. and is 28 3/4 inches long. James is just under 8 1/2 months old.

Aloha.

3 YEARS AGO!

3 years ago, right now, Carson was welcomed into this world.

I am so blessed to have the little 3 year old running around all the time with us. It is hard to remember what it was like without him here. We are so happy to have him in our lives!

Cheers!

Our ThanksGiving Day

Pictured above:

Trever getting ready to prep the turkey.
Carson sleeping under his blankets during his nap.
Pat and Gabe.
My Gramma, Carson and Trever looking at the TV.
Me making the gravy.
My cute boys and I.
Me and the turkey (my 1st turkey that I made).
A picture of my mom taking a picture of me.
Gabe ThanksGiving morning.
Pat working on the ham.

We had tons of food, and great guests for our turkey dinner. Hope you had a wonderful time celebrating how blessed we all are!

Aloha.

Cards

I ordered my free 50 Christmas cards, from seehere.com, which is usually pretty close to the number I send out every year. There was a second code that you could order 50 more cards for free also. They could be the same Christmas cards, a baby announcement, an invitation...

I thought since I send out "thank you" notes through out the year I would make a generic card that has a couple of pictures of us on it also.

I was going to include a picture of it, but decided against it, because some of you will get one in the mail at some point. So there ya go!

Just wanted to share. ;)

Thankful for my Boys

Carson and Mama 11.22.07
Gabe, Carson and Mama 11.26.09

A couple of pictures of me and my cutie-pa-tooties. Gabe is wearing almost the same outfit that Carson wore for his first Thanks4Giving.

More pictures to come of our Thanks4Giving Day!

Aloha.

Real Simple

I just ordered a year subscription of Real Simple for free!

Money Saving Mom has a link to a $5 subscription for RS and a couple of other magazines. The free aspect came in because we had credit from Swag Bucks gift cards.

I love Real Simple! So exciting to get great deals!

Aloha.

8 MONTHS today!!!

11.25.09

My little guy, Gabe, is 8 months today! Amazing how time goes by SO fast!!!

Carson has said a couple of times that Gabe wants to spend time with him in his room. So while Gabe is in his "car" (pictured above), Carson will push him back into his room and they will spend some time together. Such a sweet big brother!

Carson likes to rock in rocking chairs while music is playing or I am vacuuming, so this morning he brought the big rocking chair out of his room and into the kitchen. I had to turn music on and tie my birthday balloons to the arm rests and then he rocked.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanks-for-Giving tomorrow and enjoy all that we have to be thankful for! God bless YOU!

Aloha.

Lamp Shade, Plastic Vase, Cute Guys

This is what happens when the parents leave the room, and there is a broken lamp shade around, oh ya and a little brother that is around too.


Here is my handsome little guy all dressed up to go to Gramma's house.

Here is Gabe (my other handsome guy) and Kathy.

On Sunday we had friends, Deborah and Audrey pay us a visit. Audrey wanted to hold Gabe a little, so she did. Gabe was very interested in her hat. Good thing he put her in her place with his sweatshirt. ;)




Deborah also brought me this plastic vase. It stores flat, you put water in it with the flowers and you are good to go! Kinda crazy, but very cool.



This weekend we got a special delivery. Our wreath! YEAH! It is getting to be Christmas time!


This evening I was cutting up onion to put in the freezer and I had tears running down my cheeks. That was a first for me! I have had burning and watering before, but not like this. It was crazy! I had to have Trever take my glasses off so I could kind of see.

Sorry about the long post. This is what happens when things are too busy to find time to sit on the computer and get everything organized and uploaded.


Aloha.

I FORGOT the potty pic

Don't worry it isn't of anything in the potty, only my sweet baby Carson.




Aloha.

Apron Give-a-way

My cousin, Sivje, is having an apron give-a-way for her 100th post. Check her out! She is pretty dang handy with the sowing machine!!!

Potty, Dancing, and Crawling

This is Carson dancing to music in CARS.

Carson has been potty trained for a while now and has been going poops in his little potty (or in his nap/night time diaper). While I have been cleaning up the last couple times after he goes and sterilizing the little potty, I have been thinking how yucky the little potty really is. So last week when he went in the little potty, I said, "next time you need to go you can use the big potty." He said, "OK." And that was that.

So this afternoon he said he needed to go poops, so I took him to the big potty. He usually asks me to leave, but today he wanted me to stay. After he went, he asked Trever, Rachel (James' mom) and myself if we wanted to see his poops. ;) Kids are just too funny! He went on the big potty, and I didn't have to clean the little potty again. YEAH!

Gabe has been army crawling and doing "downward dog" crawling for a couple weeks now. This afternoon, he did a little more...




Aloha.

Another Birthday celebration

Two of my girlfriends and I have been getting together for birthday lunches on and off for the last several years. We celebrated Gina's 30th last month and celebrated my 30th just today. We will be celebrating Sarah's 29th in March.

It is such a blessing to have some alone time with good girlfriends. Praise the Lord for bringing us together all those years ago!

Here we are at lunch.

Aloha.

The Orange Guy

That is his name. He was a gift from Auntie Debbie to Gabe. I love The Orange Guy and so does Carson and Gabe. Gabe loves to chew on his little antlers. Carson just likes him because he is so cool.

Wouldn't you love to buy one of these little creations for a loved one??? ;)


Aloha!

Up and Running

My husband, Trever, had a web site built over the last couple of months. I just wanted to share it with you, as I am pretty impressed with the work that was done.

If you have any questions about loans, please use the site as a resource. Trever would be more than happy to help you with questions and or a loan. Pass it on to others also!


Thank you! Aloha.

We had a real SURPRISE

In my almost 30 years of life, I have had 3 surprise parties thrown for me (I think, if I am remembering right).

1. November of 2000. My mom threw me one for my 21st birthday at Callahan's with close family friends. My mom got me there by just going for dinner there with another friend.
2. July or August of 2002. My mom, and a couple other friends threw me a surprise bridal shower. Trever and I were supposed to be going lap swimming, so I was wearing my swimsuit and board shorts. It wasn't so bad though, because it was a Hawaiian theme shower.
3. November 9th, 2009 (last night). My husband, Trever, threw me a surprise party for my 30th birthday (which will be on the 17th). He sent out an e-vite to family and friends. He had Panini's and soup catered by a local gal, and even had entertainment for everyone. The one and only Random Sound was there. Carson loved the music and danced the night away!

Yesterday afternoon, Trever, called me from his office and said that the circus was setting up (his office is at the Ashland Old Armory) and he talked to a guy who said we could come back a little after 6:30 to watch them practice. So. That is what I thought we were going to do. Little did I know that when Trev said, "they're to the left," I would have a group of people saying "surprise!" with camera's and video camera's all focused on me! I was very very surprised. I did not expect it at all! Especially just over a week early! Man oh man! Trever and all had me good!

Pictures will come later, as I did not have my camera, and had to use a film camera which we have to have developed.

It was so great to see everyone and hear my nephew's band and eat great food (even though I was full from the dinner I made and eaten). ;)

Aloha.

Free Give-a-way

NurseryLove is having a give-a-way this week.

This lovely plum infinity scarf from BellaUrbana could be your if you enter to win.



Aloha.

Willy

Willy joined our family about a month ago. Mimi took Carson to pick "her" (according to Carson) out at the local pet store. I wasn't too thrilled about the idea for a couple of reasons. 1. I can barely maintain our house and take care of 4 people, I didn't want another item to have to care for (at that moment). 2. We really don't have any room for her (no joke!!!), that is why she is on our kitchen table. 3. My fish that I had in high school always died. One committed suicide and jumped out of his bowl. I know gold fish don't have a long life, but I don't like the death part of them.

When we first got Willy she stayed in one spot at the bottom of the bowl. She would not swim around at all (unless we bumped the table) and barely ate. I really think she was depressed. In the last couple of weeks, she started to swim around lots! And as fish water does it got very yellow. This morning Trever and Carson cleaned the bowl out and she is still happy and swimming up a storm!

And am happy to say that I am happy that Willy is a part of our lives.

Aloha.

African Children's Choir

Last night was the concert of the African Children's Choir. We had a blast! Carson danced in the isle the whole time. He could barely take his eyes off of them! Those kiddlings completely melt my heart. As soon as they got on stage, I got teary eyed. To see them have such JOY and know that they have lost one or both of their parents in Africa is just mind boggling. And to think, that I have it bad sometimes?-paleasse!!!

They are such a true blessing. I look forward to seeing them again next year!

They are singing "Here I am to Worship" in the video.

Aloha.

Commemoration of Occasion

Yesterday was the 7th of November. Might not mean much to most people, but it marks the start of the last 10 days of me being in my 20's. That is right folks, I will be 30 in 9 days!!!

Just this morning I got an email from a friend, that will be in her mid 20's in exactly 3 months when I turn 30, who greeted me by saying, "hello my almost 30 year old friend."

I remember when I was my niece and nephews ages, 30 sounded so old. Now that it is just around the corner and I feel like I am about 18 with a husband and 2 beautiful boys, I don't really see it as old.

I look forward to many many more years to celebrate with family and friends. I just can't believe I will be 30! W.o.W.

Aloha.

Every Year

Tonight marks the night of a visit from the African Children's Choir in Ashland. I have been going to see them for about the last 15 years or so. Today I am overly excited because Carson gets to see them. We saw them last year, but since Carson is older this year and dances to any music he hears on the TV or "dance party" I think he is going to love seeing them.

I am so happy they come to see us Ashland folk annually. They are such a blessing to my heart. If you have the chance to see them at a local church - DO IT!!! They melt my heart!

Aloha.

October Pictures

If you don't get enough pictures of my family on the blog, there are more to see here!!! ;)

ALOHA.

UFF DAH

This morning was our first Christmas Fair of the season. It was at a church in Medford, which we don't normally go to, but they had Norwegian foods, like Lefse and Krumkake, that we wanted to get. The Lefse was $4 for 3 rounds. So, on the way home, I decided that I want to try to make some myself this year. I have said in the past, that if I made it it would be gone as fast as it was being made. But, I think I might try to make it a couple different times so that I can get some in the freezer and save it up for Christmas dinner and gifts.


Carson and I eating our Lefse.


Here I have a mouth full of it...it is something that I can't just keep around and savor, I eat it way to fast!

Happy Christmas time!!!

Aloha.

Crafts and Movies

So this weekend was a touch different for me. I watched 2 movies. 1 of them I watched alone and then with Trever. I also managed to finish knitting this scarf I have been working on the last couple of weeks. When I am knitting a scarf I usually take a break and crochet a hat or scarf because it is so much faster and then go back to the knitting, but I didn't do that this time. I did it from start to finish.



And then I felted a sweater and then made a messenger bag that Carson is modeling for me. Then I crocheted an orange flower to add to it.

It isn't perfect, but it is my first one. I am hoping to make some more in the near future.


I hope to tell you about a craft my friend does...I have a baby that needs to go to bed now though, so I can't do that right now.

Hope everyone is adjusting to the time change - I know it usually takes a little while for me to get used to it!

Aloha.