Garrin's First Christmas

Garrin has had a busy week celebrating his first Christmas. He has been wonderful during all the festivities. Unfortunately he has had a stomach bug that started on Christmas Eve. He has spent a lot of the festivities taking baths, sleeping, and snuggling in someone's arms. Despite his sickness, he has enjoyed all of the festivities!

On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, we celebrated with Nana D, Papa D, Nana Mac, and Aunt Audrey. We had chili and vegetable soup for lunch. We also enjoyed Wisconsin cheese that Uncle Bob and Aunt Brenda sent. It was delicious! Garrin got many new clothes and toys that he will be able to enjoy! It was nice to spend time together on Christmas Eve.

In the evening on Christmas Eve, we went to the Children's Christmas Eve Service at church. Nana D, Papa D, Grammy Smith, and Papa Smith met us there. Garrin wore a crown to be a wiseman during the Christmas story. There were angels, shepherds, and wisemen. As the pastor read the Christmas story, the children came forward to see the baby Jesus in the manger. The children left gifts for baby Jesus that would be donated to local shelters and food pantries. It was fun to remember the reason for Christmas as we went to church.

On Christmas morning Garrin awoke to see that Santa had arrived at his house. His stocking was filled with all kinds of new toys. Alongside his stocking was a new train. Garrin loves to watch his train go around and around. He also likes to try to catch the balls that come out the top. He loved his first train.

On Christmas afternoon it was off to Stockton, MO to see Grammy Smith, Papa Smith, Uncle Travis, and Aunt Julie. It was fun to spend time with them. We enjoyed visiting with each other and exchanging gifts. Garrin added to his library collection, played with new toys, and opened many new outfits. It was nice to get away and relax!

The festivities will continue throughout the weekend. We have many more friends and family to see during the holidays. We are so grateful for everyone that is in our lives. We are so blessed to have friends, family, and a loving God!

Garrin Visits Santa!

Garrin discovered this week that he is on Santa's nice list. Thanks to Aunt Rachelle, Garrin was able to see a video that Santa had e-mailed to him! Here is the link to the video if you would like to see what Santa had to say: http://family.go.com/santas-list/video/53121-rachelle1122/

Luckily, we saw that Santa would be at Bass Pro this week. Garrin was able to sit on Santa's lap and tell him his Christmas wishes! Good thing Santa has elves to help him out because Garrin's speech is not the easiest to interpret.

Garrin has all his Christmas shopping, wrapping, and baking done. This week we found him under the Christmas tree in his Christmas outfit. He can't wait for his first Christmas. It will be a lot of fun to celebrate the birth of Jesus with Garrin. We look forward to sharing with family!

A Few of Garrin's Firsts

Garrin has had a busy month with lots of firsts. He is changing rapidly and the time seems to go faster and faster each day. It is hard to believe that we celebrated his 8 month birthday last week. Here are some of the things that have been going on:

First Illness: We didn't make it through fall without illness. Garrin had his first high fever from an infection. Unfortunately a week later Garrin also developed bronchitis. He has been on his first antibiotic and inhaler during the Thanksgiving holiday. He is well on his way to being recovered and sleeping through the night again!

First Teeth: The tooth fairy arrived! Garrin had his first two teeth finally come through. On his 8 month birthday, we could feel the ridges of his front teeth. The next morning, they were in full view. I suppose he'll have to rewrite his Christmas list since he got his two front teeth for Thanksgiving!

First Thanksgiving: Garrin had fun at his first Thanksgiving. He decided to be a Pilgrim instead of a Native American. You can see that he enjoyed the festivities. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we celebrated with Uncle Travis, Aunt Julie, Papa Steve, and Grammy Jeanie. On Thursday, we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with Aunt Rachelle, Uncle Terry, Cousin Ashlyn, Papa D, Nana D, and Great Aunt Audrey!

First Christmas Decorating: Garrin also enjoyed the traditions of decorating for Christmas after the Thanksgiving holidays. He helped decorate the Christmas tree with some of his new ornaments. He also helped dad test the outside Christmas lights. He has been enjoying new Christmas books and getting ready for the holidays!

Obama Rally!

Nana "D" and Papa "D" were able to go to the Obama Rally on Saturday night in Springfield, MO. What an exciting time to get to see a presidential candidate only a few days before the election. They arrived at the rally around 4:30pm. The gates for the event didn't even open until 6:00pm with Barak making his appearance around 9:30pm. While waiting in line, they enjoyed a Pizza Hut Pizza. Then, they were surpised to receive purple braclets allowing them to sit right behind Barak Obama. What a fun time to see history in the making! Don't forget to vote on Tuesday!

Halloween Fun!

Garrin experienced his first Halloween! He had lots of fun and received many treats. It was a busy week beginning on Sunday by going to "Trunk or Treat" at church. On Friday, we invited friends and family over for a Halloween Open House. Garrin had lots of fun with everyone. You can look at the pictures below.

Pumpkin Patch

We had a great time today as we visited Campbell's Farm in Clever, MO. It was fun to be with all the 1st and 2nd cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents for a day at the pumpkin patch. Garrin picked out his first pumpkin. He even took his first hayride! We had lots of fun with everyone. You can see our pictures in the slideshow!

Step Out for Diabetes--Thanks!

We had a great time today at the Step Out for Diabetes walk. Matt, Trishna, Garrin, Grammy Smith, Nana "D", Papa "D", and Aunt Audrey all walked. We met near Cox South in Springfield and enjoyed a beautiful morning together. Thanks to family and friends, we contributed almost $550.00 for the American Diabetes Association. We walked a total of 3 miles and then enjoyed lunch provided by Pasta Express as we picnicked. We can't wait to help support diabetes again next year!

Step Out!

As most of you know, Trishna is a type 1 diabetic. On Saturday, October 4, 2008, our family will be participating in the American Diabetes Association Step Out Walk to Fight Diabetes. We would love to have any of our friends and family join us for the walk. It is a 3 mile walk. It begins at 10:00AM at the Cox Wheeler Heart and Vascular Center across from Cox South. You can register online (click here) or at 8:30am the day of the walk. Afterward, lunch will be provided by Pasta Express.

You can also sponsor a walker if you would like to make a donation to the American Diabetes Association. Trishna, Garrin, Matthew, and Dayla Rosebrough have all registered for the walk. You can go to the link here if you would like to sponsor one of us: Sponsor a Walker.

6 Month Pictures

We had Garrin's six month pictures taken today. He will be six months old in four days--my how time flies! It was the first time that we had his pictures professionally taken. Someone at school had told us about a new picture studio that was in Springfield. It is a chain of studios called Portrait Innovations. They were very reasonably priced and had no sitting fee so we thought we would try them out. It was a great experience! We had fun trying to make him laugh and smile. We ended up with some great shots once they added some special features and cropped the pictures. We are excited to share them with you! They gave us a CD of all our images, but we chose to share only a few. Enjoy!

"Hey, Hey, We're the Monkeys" and "The Karate Kid"

It seems as though this past weekend has flown by. We have had fun this weekend. We spent Friday night at home. In our neighborhood we have a water retention area that is full of yellow wild flowers. Every time we passed by, we thought that we needed to take a family picture among the flowers. After dinner on Friday, we threw on some clothes and decided to have a family photo shoot. We were going to try to just use our timer on the camera, but luckily Grammy Jeanie and Papa Steve stopped by as we were heading down the street. We have some really good pictures together! You can see them scrolling on the right side of the blog.

On Saturday morning we decided to make our way to the mall. Trishna needed to get a baby gift for a friend and we thought it would be a good time to look for a Halloween costume for Garrin. We couldn't find anything that was cute and reasonablly priced. As we were about to leave the mall, we decided to try Old Navy. We found the cutest monkey costume in Garrin's size. He makes a pretty cute monkey!




On Saturday evening, Papa D and Nana D took Garrin and Matt out to eat while Trishna was out with some friends. Garrin was in a great mood. Papa D could actually look and touch Garrin without him screaming. By the end of the evening, Garrin and Papa D had bonded. You can see the video of the 5 month old Karate Kid and his trainer.

Dickerson Park Zoo

Garrin had his first trip to the Dickerson Park Zoo! It was a dreary day, but we couldn't pass up McDonald's $1 day. Despite the sprinkles, we managed to spend a couple hours walking around the zoo. Mom and Garrin had fun feeding the giraffes crackers. We also saw lions, and tigers, and bears--oh my! You can view the slideshow below to see our adventures. Garrin ended his day asleep on dad's shoulder as we walked to the car. It must have been too much excitement!

Garrin's Week

Garrin had a big week this week. After a few weeks of rice cereal, it was on to the baby food. Garrin had his first vegetable--squash. Mom and dad were so excited to see him eating baby food, that they fed him three fourths of the container in one sitting. Needless to say, he is loving his squash. He has finished his entire container of squash every day this week. Yum! Yum! This weekend will be trying carrots. Oh to be 5 months old and excited about vegetables!

Oh what fun it is to play with mommy! Garrin loves to play with his blocks. Friday after dinner Garrin was having fun with mommy. Garrin is all of the place trying to scoot and roll toward his toys. Here is a video of Garrin playing with his blocks!

Garrin's Laugh

We love hearing Garrin's laugh. Tonight as we were eating dinner, he was all smiles and laughs. Trishna had him laughing at everything. We thought you might like to hear his cute little laugh. Enjoy

Garrin's Exersaucer

We thought you might enjoy seeing Garrin live and in action. We don't have a video camera, so we thought we would try to use our digital camera. The quality is not that great, but it is better than nothing.

Here is a video of him playing in his exersaucer. Enjoy!


Here is another video of playtime on the floor!