Five (That's Right!) Five Months Old!!!

My little Ryder Roo is FIVE months old today! I can't believe how fast time flies. He is such a good little baby. A dream honestly! He is rolling like crazy, back to front and front to back. He LOVES green beans and peas, probably because that's all he's had besides mush and breast milk, but that's beside the point. He gets SOOO mad when the food is gone, it's hilarious, he throws a little fit. He loves to play peek a boo and he is developing the cutest little belly laugh. He loves his bouncer and is discovering the joys of new toys. His current favorite toy is his puppy that Grandma and Grandpa Gatherum brought him from Alaska. His hair is coming back in after he went completely bald, jury is still out as to whether or not we are going to have another tow head, we shall see. He LOVES his big brothers and to my extreme liking, he is a MAJOR MOMMIES BOY!!! Well, I guess I should also mention that he is pretty fond of his daddy too. We sure do love him and can't wait to watch him continue to grow big and strong!

'Tis The Season...

250+ Sugar Cookies baked and delivered
2 dozen jars of candied popcorn filled
100 Christmas Cards Sent
Dozens of gifts bought, wrapped and ready under the tree
An Empty Advent Calandar

YEP, WE ARE READY!
Hope you are too!
Merry Christmas!

Love,
The Gatherum's

On the first day of December...

we opened our door and found a treat, with a note signed by our "SUPER SNEAKY FRIENDS." On the second day of December, we found another surprise, and on the third, fourth, fifth and sixth days...all the way to the twelth day of the month. I should have taken pictures of all the cute things they gave us, but hey, it was early in the morning. EVERY day the gift was there BEFORE 8:00 when Gage goes to school. My kids LOVED it. They took turns to check and see if our "SUPER SNEAKY FRIENDS" had come. It really helped start the holiday season with a BANG at our house. The holidays are hard for me. My mom's birthday is October 1, so between October and the end of December which is my parents wedding anniversary is a tough time, full of reminders that she isn't here. This act of kindness and generosity by our friends, helped to lessen the pain this year. In fact, it inspired me to do the same thing for someone else next year. I have no idea if our "super sneaky friends" read this blog or who they are, but if you do, Thank you. So. Much.

A Great Day...

Thanks Neal, Gage, Boe and yes, even little Ryder for a wonderful Birthday. The four of you make my life great and I love you all!

We start 'em off young...

Catch-up...

Okay, it has been the week from HELL. Well, I guess it hasn't been THAT bad, I mean noone died or ended up in the hospital, so I guess I need to check my perspective. But, we did have to fix both our hottub and our washing machine. Let me tell you, after spending 3 hours in the local laundry mat, it makes me VERY grateful for my trusty whirlpools. Anyways, other then those two things, it's just been crazy busy. But we are having a great Holiday season. Okay, I take it back, it hasn't been the week from HELL, just a typical busy holiday week in the life of the Gatherum's. For those of you wondering, yes, I fell off the wagon. Probably the day I wrote the post about quitting, but I can't help it. It was a stupid idea to stop caffeine during the Christmas season. I think I'll start up my quest to quit, when I start trianing for the Wasatch Back Relay. Yes, I am running the Wasatch Back. What the #@%*## am I thinking? I don't know, but I think it will be a good way to lose the last of the baby fat and hopefully get into great shape just in time to do it all over again and have baby number 4! Hopefully I come out of it alive and you don't hear about the pathetic girl who died somewhere in the Wasatch Mountains. Oh the woes of being me.
We had a great Thanksgiving. We went to my dad and Kim's for dinner. It was great like usual. I ate WAY too much like usual and it was fun having Kaylee back again. Man, I missed her and I am so glad to not be the only Thomas sister in Utah. We went to Neal's sister Allison's house for dessert and a rousing game of Settlers of Catan. So fun. I love Thanksgiving. We got home and packed for our annual Thanksgiving Day Weekend trip to Moab, this year we invited Neal's parents and Darren and Jenn and their kids to come with us. It was great, chaotic, loud and crazy, but fun. When we got home Sunday night, I promptly put up the Christmas decorations. I LOVE Christmas decorations and I love this time of year. I love the sparkly lights and how everyone is a little bit kinder and loving and patient. Let the Season begin! Hope all of you are having a fabulous Holiday!

THREE DAYS...

is how long it's been since I've had caffine. I am not gonna lie. I. AM. DYING. I am tired and I have a headache and I am dragging. I do believe I am addicted to the stuff. I had to literally FORCE myself away from Holiday Oil today. Sad.

Wedding Day...

Tag.
Saw this cute tag on KAMI'S ADORABLE blog and thought I'd play along...

1. Where did you and your husband meet? We met while we were working for the summer during college. We were SO YOUNG! I was 19 and he was 21-CRAZY!

2. How long before you kissed? Ummm, on the SECOND date. BUT, we'd known each other for several months, does that make it better?

3. Who kissed who first? He kissed me! I still remember what I was wearing, where we were, EVERYTHING, it was great.

4. How long from the time you met until you were engaged? How long from the engagement to the wedding? We dated for THREE years before we were married. We started dating in July 1998 and we were married in June 2001! I think that must be some kind of record in Utah! We were engaged for 5 months to the day, we got engaged on January 15 and were married on June 15.

5. How did he propose? He was still going to school in Logan and I went up for the weekend. We went to Lava Hot Springs with some friends and got back to Logan on Sunday night. The next day was Martin Luther King Jr. day and he took me to Hardware Ranch up Logan Canyon and asked me to marry him on the hayride. He had an awful, hideous FAKE ring and tried to trick me into thinking it was real. It was a great day, so much fun and one I will NEVER forget.

6. Did he pick out the ring or did you? We did together after we were engaged. I let him have a lot of say in it though ;)

7. Do you still like the ring? Yes, I love it and I am so glad that I do. For our 5 year anniversary he added a diamond anniversary band to go underneath it and I LOVE it.

8. Where was your wedding and reception? We got married at Gardner Village in the garden and had our reception in the reception center called the Gathering Place. A great place for the GATHERUM's to get married eh? Incidentally, another day that I will never forget was March 30, 2005 when we were sealed together in the LDS temple with our two little boys, Gage and Boe. Crazy how things come full circle.

9. How many bridesmaids did you have and who was your maid of honor? I had six bridesmaids, my three sisters, Neal's little sister, my friend Courtney and friend Melissa.

10. What color were your bridesmaid dresses? Light Purple, it was actually called shimmering plum or something like that.

11. What was your bouquet made of? White roses with some purple and sage green accents and highlights, but mostly white roses.

12. Who gave you away? My dad. I agree with Kami's answer on this one though, since she had to deal with all the stress, my mom did too :).

13. Did you cry during your wedding? Yes. So did Neal. Like a baby! Loved it!

14. What style was your dress? I loved it and still do. Very classic and simple, made of raw silk with very little embroidery or beading.

15. Was your wedding kiss sweet or sexy? Short and sweet.

16. Who caught your bouquet? My friend Melissa practically tackled my sister Kaylee to get it!

17. What flavor was your cake? Oh gosh, it was like 3 layers and each one was a different one. I think the one we cut was carrot/spice cake, it was delicious and I am still sad I didn't get to eat more of it!

18. Did you smash the cake onto each other's faces or feed it to each other nicely?
Heck no! And Neal is lucky he was nice about it. Seriously, I have major issues with people who are mean to each other with the cake. Don't think it sets a very good begginning tone for a marriage!

19. What was "your song" that you danced to at your wedding? When you say nothing at all by Allison Krause, but we had lot's of good music.

20. What did you serve your guests to eat? Oh geez, this was a nightmare. The reception center messed up on our menu. I don't remember what the outcome was except that my mom was a frenzied mess and I was too done at that point to care. I do know we got a hefty refund from the reception center because of their mix-up. I think we had the traditional food...honestly, I don't remember.

21. What did your friends do to decorate your car? We took a limo, thus avoiding the dreaded car situation.

22. What was your favorite wedding gift? Gosh, I don't know. We got a lot of good stuff, my parents pretty much furnished our first apartment. My mom's best friend made us a "wedding" quilt that I still love.

23. What was the worst wedding gift you got? a box of DI stuff from one of my parents WEALTHIEST neighbors, oh geez gotta love Gloria! I am not kidding, it was a box of mismatched "STUFF" I don't know how else to describe it. We were laughing hysterically going through it!

24. Where did you go on your honeymoon? Florida and Grand Bahama Island. It was awesome.

25. Looking back, is there anything you would have changed about your wedding? Oh hell, I wouldn't have stressed near as much and wouldn't have worried about all the little details. So lame because as witnessed in the above question, I don't even remember now what we served. Other then that though, it was a dream of a day. I loved it!

Now I'm breaking all the rules...I am tagging all my blog buddies that want to play this one. Tag...you're it!

Thankful for...

him and the pure love that a child brings into a home. I am thankful for all three of my kids equally, but today is this little guys' 4 month birthday! He is rolling over from back to front and LOVES his exersaucer. He loves to eat and is still a dream baby. We love HIM. Here's to wishing YOU a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving Holiday with your families!

Thankful for...

His birth and all it promises us. This year, more then ever, I am looking forward to the holiday season and the peace and comfort it brings to the world as we remember and celebrate the single most important event in history.

Thankful for...

family. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better one. Wouldn't want to be on this journey without any of these seven. Love you all...

Thankful For...

these four. I don't know what I'd do without them. In these times of economic strife, uncertainly, war, turmoil and sadness, it is easy to forget about ALL THE GOOD that still exists in our world. Love you...

Snow Day...

Here are my two cute little snowmen waiting intently to go play outside in the first snow of the season...Love them!

Family Pics 2008

We got our family pictures done a couple of weekends ago. We went up MillCreek Canyon and don't worry, there was SNOW! It was beautiful though and I love the way they turned out. My friend Jennifer Kamp did them, check her out at www.jenniferkampphotography.blogspot.com, she is really good. Anyways, my oldest two were HYPER and NAUGHTY-ofcourse they were, we needed them to be good right? And Ryder has started doing this thing where he WON'T smile when the camera is on him. He will be cooing and smiling and then you put the camera up there and bam, the smile's gone. Oh well, even with the shoddy subjects she had to work with Jenn did a great job! Here is a sampling...

Man I'm Cute...

Just had to post a couple of these pics of Ryder. What a little chubs. Love him. Ryder is sitting up pretty good on his own these days, he is laughing, talking and totally interacting with us. He also learned a new trick this week and can now hold up his own bottle-YAY Ryder! We are just L-O-V-I-N-G this little guy.

Boe's Hooky Spooky...

Boe's preschool had a Hooky Spooky Halloween Program. It was so cute! Each child had a part, either a joke or a trick. Boe had a joke. It was: Why do mummies make such great empoyees? Because they get all wrapped up in their work! HAHAHA! Boe did a great job and knew all the songs! We love you Boe-Boe!

Boo! It's Halloween...

We had a fun Halloween, well, all of us except Gage. He got sick on Tuesday of that week and got better on Saturday and literally missed out on all the fun. I felt so bad for him! Gage and Boe were firemen, but Gage REALLY wanted to be a vampire, so as I mentioned in my previous post, Kim made him an awesome cape and I told him that if he posed for pictures for me at the fire station, he could be a vampire on Halloween Day and Night. He was so excited but was still too sick to go to school on Friday. He slept most of the day and woke up at about 4:00 on Halloween afternoon, feeling much better. We got the kids all ready, Boe made a "Brave" and adorable if you ask me, firefighter, Ryder was cute and cuddly as a Dalmatian puppy, and Gage was literally UNRECOGNIZABLE as a SCARY, blood thirsty vampire! Kim, my dad, Ashlee (who came into town for her fav holiday) and Johnny came over for Chili and cornbread and then we took the kids out trick-or-treating. Gage only made it to about 10 houses and then he was feeling sick again, so we went home and Neal took Boe out for another hour or so. I always know when my kids are sick because they will lay around and veg and sleep. If they aren't sick, they aren't laying around! Anyways, we had a great time despite Gage's ailments and I am happy to report that he woke up Saturday completely on the mend. Don't worry, I've already planned my "themed" costumes for next year. Since my kids are getting older, I have to plan around them and their interests. I think Boe will make a splendid Darth Vader, Gage will be the perfect Luke Sky walker and Ryder will complete the picture as Yoda! Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween!