It's Party Time!

Gwen's first Birthday

was an exciting day for all of us (probably for us more than her since she seemed a little confused by it all). Her and Grandpa played with the balloons before the party. We went out to eat with the Reasers and the local Chinese restaurant and went to Mom and Dads afterwards for the party. She looked at us very puzzled when we all stood around her and sang. What was that thing with fire? Why was everyone looking at her? Even the cake, she couldn't understand why she could just play with it with her fingers and why was it ok to stick her whole face into it.

Gwen didn't eat much of the cake and then we opened presents.

She got a doll that crawls and giggles and when won't stop kissing it. And she got a bucket of blocks and she loved the container more than anything!

Gwen's walking

Since the last video was so popular We are putting up a new one. Gwen is starting to take her first steps. She's a little wobbly but she's getting better every day.

Snowed In

Dear Family and Friends,

I guess everyone is having a white Christmas. We are practicly snowed in today. We recieved a foot of snow lastnight and today and my work was cancelled. Ben has been shoveling snow all day but
I think he is actually enjoying it! He cleared off the driveway twice and just cleared a path for the dog in the back yard.

We sat Gwen in the snow just for a few seconds for a picture. She wasn't sure at first but the decided to wave back.

We just took a video of Gwen and were really excited about it. We thought that we would post it for everyone to see. So here it is...

We miss and love you all- Merry Christmas

Virgin Bloggers

So here is our first blog...

We love looking at everyone elses blog, so we thought that this would be a great way for family and friends to keep up with us and Gwen. Little Gwenie is growing so fast that we can hardly believe it! This family picture is of her at three months old but we wanted a nice family pic and it's the only one as of now.

Fall has definitely started. This is our favorite time of year, especially Benny. He loves Halloween and all the costumes and carving pumpkins. He did an awesome one this year. What do you think?

My sister Susie was here in October and we carved pumpkins with her and my brother Bill's family. Here is the one Susie and I did. It weighs 55lbs!!!

We all had colds on Halloween night so we stayed in and passed out treats. We just took pictures of Gwen in her Halloween costume so that we would have pictures for her scrapbook and also so everyone can see how cute she is! We put on the adorable black high heels that Aunt Laura sent and they just barely squeezed on.

Gwen is crawling like crazy and races me to Lola's dog food bowl. She so badly wants to eat it and I have to put it up. Her newest thing is pulling herself up to stand, while holding on. She does this at the back sliding glass window even without anything to hold on to. Once she stands she is so proud of her achievement that she shouts and yells and bangs. She's quite a noisy little one!

We are really excited to hear back from the Portland Fire Department about Benny's interview. We are really proud of how hard he has worked and how fare he has gotten in the interview process. He had to climb up an 85 foot ladder and up 5 flights of stairs with a hose! But most of all I was really impressed with how much he trained and worked out in order to prepare. We will know by Nov. 17th.

The End

Stay tuned, we have alot of catching up to do!