back to normal

we are finally back to a "normal" routine post-holiday and duck game here in the gassner household. the last week or so was a little rough as maya had a bug that caused her some problems on both ends if you know what i mean. let's just say that i've had more than my share of bodily fluids on me. ugh. we experienced our biggest blowout of all time within 30 minutes of landing in arizona...i just thank god that it didn't happen on the plane. in fact, she was such a trooper on our trip to arizona to watch the ducks in the national championship game. with all the puking and pooping that went on...none of it happened when it would have really, really sucked. she was good on both flights (including a layover for each) and for the tailgater and game (almost 10 hours where we had access to nothing but public restrooms at best!). just this weekend she started getting back to normal and i see her appetite increasing daily (thank god...i have such a tiny girl on my hands!).

arizona was a ton of fun - despite the bug and the loss. it felt wonderful to get some warm sun on my skin and to say i was excited about the game would be an understatement. thanks to rick (aaron's dad), a 30+ year season ticket holder, we had the privilege of using 2 of his 4 allotted tickets. i was really hoping that maya would be the lucky charm given the fact that attended all of the home games except portland state (we were in sunriver and seriously, it's portland state!) and they were undefeated. unfortunately that wasn't the case, but oh what an exciting game - when they scored the touchdown and 2 point conversion with a couple of minutes left in the game it was beyond thrilling. i thought i was going to cry! maya of course slept right through it all! she fell asleep with 12 minutes left in the second quarter and didn't wake up until we got to the car. poor kellen was left behind to play with grandma (which he loved and probably preferred...thanks, jan!)...he requires a ticket to get into the game and those were going for $1500+ and he wouldn't sleep sweetly in the ergo for the whole game!

we were able to meet up with one of our great college buddies and my roommate for a year for a pre-game beer or two...fun to relive those college days. why on earth did i ever think it was hard - those 2pm work outs and classes 3 days a week sure were rough! what i wouldn't give to know then what i know now. but i guess that is what life is all about. the joy of growing older and more experienced...the ability to appreciate what we've learned and the path to get there!


even though he wasn't in attendance...he was showing his duck spirit all week long leading up to the big game!


maya looking cute right before she boarded her first flight!


maya girl feeling a little anxious right before heading over to the stadium for some tailgating and then the big game. she was the cutest little duck fan there - i must have had at least 20 people take her picture!!!



our family at the tailgater...hosted by our arizona gassner family. such fun times and good margaritas and pulled pork!


mama and maya - such high hopes for a duck win.


daddy and maya - not so pleased to be wearing the headphones...but an absolute must. it was LOUD in there!


with the new year here, we are excited at really settling into our new normal again. these kids are so much fun and so much work. there are definitely moments where i wonder if i'd be a better mama to these kids with a little break...but i'm trying to cut myself some slack and just enjoy and be thankful for this time i have. so we'll be enjoying music classes (maya's favorite...she's a music and dancing girl!), art classes (cool place... my masterpiece art studio - check it out and if you want to go to a friday mini masters art class let us know!), playdates with friends, cooking together, lots of reading and playing together. the simple things in life. i'm so lucky.

bath time...a favorite pastime for when we are feeling bored or cooped up in the house during the winter!

GO DUCKS!

We've been chanting this all week long! Hope our efforts pay off for a big win on Monday!! GO DUCKS!!!

go ducks {catch up}

september 4th was the duck season and home opener against new mexico...the score - 72-0, making it the perfect game to bring the kiddos! this was kellen's third game - he has attended one each season and maya's first game - she'll likely be attending every game that i attend this year as she is the ultimate mama's girl!

kellen has become the ultimate football and duck fan! just like last year, he really got into the game experience - taking any opportunity to give everyone high fives, loving the duck doing push ups with each score and even sitting on the lap of the guy in front of us to "discuss" and watch the game! we went out to the car at half time with the ducks up A LOT to nothing prepared to go home, but kellen refused to go home...he wanted to go back to the game!

maya was great - wore her headphones the whole time, napped a bit and sat with either aa or me taking in all their was to see at autzen!

unfortunately no pictures from the tailgater, as we got there a little late and eating/drinking were priorities over the camera! but here are a few shots from the game.

go ducks!

a couple of weeks ago our boy attended his second duck football game. last year the game went so well, but he was also only 9 months - not super mobile and no where near as busy. i was a little worried about how it would go this year and figured we'd probably be making some rounds around the stadium or hanging in the mo for a bit. as usual, my worrying was for nothing - he was GREAT! since the rain was threatening, sarah and i decided to go down a little later to the tailgater with the babies so we wouldn't be hanging in the rain for very long. kellen was the most prepared for the rain and looked pretty darn cute with his rain pants and jacket!

the highlight of his tailgater was "driving" auntie sarah's car:

the game was an all around success with the ducks beating the 18th ranked Utah team 31-24! the boy seems to be taking after his dad in taking these games quite seriously:

2009 2008

we look forward to many more years of family duck moments!

post-holiday post (warning: another long one!)

let's see if i can recap our holidays...it already seems so long ago! hanukkah was fairly uneventful this year, although we did make it out of the snow and over to adam and sarah's for a latke feast one evening. we didn't bring our camera, though...so no photos. sadly, i'm not even sure that we managed to light the candles every night! we did light them with my family on christmas eve, though and b had the honors!

the snow caused my family christmas eve celebration to be postponed until this saturday, so instead my sisters and their families came over to our house and we celebrated with a big lasagna meal and present opening for the kidlets. it actually turned out quite nice, but did make me a little sad that we had decided not to decorate for the holidays...so it wasn't very festive!

family pic:
group shot:
checking out his gifts:


christmas day, aaron's parents came over and watched kellen while we went to check out a movie. we had planned to go with adam and sarah to the curious case of benjamin button, but we had no idea that the theatre would be so crowded! we got to see benjamin button and adam and sarah had to go see another movie. after the movie, we had dinner with aaron's family and it was a bit of an adventure to get there and back...with several cars having to be pushed out of the snow, but we all made it there and back and it was nice to be with family, enjoying a good meal.

cuddling w/ grandpa (and teddy, of course!):
with muzz and chief:

k, checking out the tree and wanting to grab every ornament...maybe it was a good thing we didn't have a tree!
the boys pushing the first car out of the ditch:
k, watching the boys push the car out of the ditch:


we enjoyed a great duck football win in the holiday bowl (42-31 over Oklahoma State)...so nice to end the season on a winning note and so happy to see college football coming to an end here VERY soon! k and aa did some major celebrating with each duck touchdown which was even more entertaining for me than the actual game!

new years was quite mellow...just our little family home for the night. we put kellen down a little early and enjoyed a nice meal and for me a couple of glasses of champagne! coconut shrimp to start, mango and hearts of palm salad and seared scallops, roasted brussel sprouts and garlic bread for our meal. we ended with a little peanut butter pie and barely managed to stay up until the clock struck 12...but we did and we were tucked into our bed by 12:08! 2008 was quite a year and i'm definitely looking forward to 2009 and all it brings! i have a few ideas of things i'd like to accomplish in the new year and one of them includes figuring out our family holiday traditions for this new year...i'll share more of what i want to do in the next post.

GO DUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a couple of highlights from the last couple of weeks...

wow - this working thing really gets in the way of my blogging! i'm so behind, but i want to try to capture some of the exciting things we've been up to the last couple of weeks. there have been a few firsts for the boy.

to start things off a couple of weeks ago kellen attended his first tailgater and duck game! i wasn't sure how it would go and was prepared to spend much of the game in the moshofsky center - but boy was he just the perfect little guy! he enjoyed some burgers and beer, er i mean rice cereal, green beans and milk and he did suck on a bit of canteloupe at the tailgater. bry did grill up some mean bacon cheeseburgers for the rest of us to enjoy! we then ventured in to the game with the sound reduction head phones ready to go. since he'd been yanking them off the second i put them on his head prior to the game, i was a bit worried that he wouldn't tolerate them. but once inside the stadium, he didn't even realize that they were on his head. i think that there was so much to take in that he was simply in a zone! he even took a nap during most of halftime and the third quarter. fortunately the game was never in question and we were able to leave a bit early to beat the rush out of the parking lot. all in all it was a big success.



we then headed back to salem where he took a bath in his grandparent's sink - which he thought was just great fun!

Here are a bunch more pictures if you are interested: http://picasaweb.google.com/adgassner/KellenSFirstDuckGame#

last weekend kellen took his first plane ride to visit my mom, his meme, in vegas. traveling with an infant is MUCH different than traveling on your own and we didn't even need to bring a bunch of his things, as my mom had borrowed some gear. the airport and flight there actually went super smooth. aaron dropped me and the boy off with all our stuff and for the first time in our lives we actually paid for one of those luggage carts! i always wondered who would actually pay for the cart and now i suspect we'll be regular purchasers of the cart!! aa parked the car and rode the shuttle back to the airport while i fed the boy and then we all strolled fairly easily through security and onto the plane. the flight wasn't full, so we had our own row. kellen fussed just a bit and then fell asleep for over half of the flight! whew...i was a little worried about what we'd do if he melted down. once in vegas, things started going a bit downhill. as i fed the boy his dinner that night he was being a bit fussy and not wanting to eat. being the good mom that i am, i kept trying to feed him when he really started wailing and promptly threw up for the first time! hmmm...not such a good start to the vacation. he rebounded fairly quickly, but around 3am that night/morning aa started feeling not so hot and proceeded to be hit with a bit of a stomach bug for pretty much the whole trip. the next morning, i fed the boy a jar of prunes and oatmeal without thinking about what that mean - kellen promptly had a blowout in the highchair before he even finished the jar. i'm sure my mom was thrilled to have to clean up vomit and then poo all in the first 18 hours of our visit! we did have lots of fun and finally got to see my mom's (not so) new condo, meet many of her friends, watch the ducks pull out a double overtime win against purdue and spend some good quality time with my mom. the flight home was pretty much the same, only this time the flight was full. fortunately adam and sarah (aa's brother and our sister in law) and her family were in vegas and they happened to be on the same flight home as us, so auntie sarah sat with us and helped to entertain the boy! unfortunately i didn't take my camera out very much - so we are lacking in evidence that we were even in vegas. here are the few that i took:

(you made the blog, ken!)

home opener, etc.

i can hardly believe it, but yesterday was the duck home opener. night game against the huskies...what a way to start the season! we enjoyed a great tailgater with friends and family, but half of our regular crew was not able to attend due to a wedding. looking forward to next week when we'll all be there...including our one and only, kellen!


i purchased some sound-reduction headphones that i'm hoping we can keep on him. we've been playing around with them in the house for the last several weeks, but he still just wants to rip him off his head when i put them on! we'll see how it goes...the two of us may be hangin in the moshofsky for much of the game! (here's a pic just for you, jamie!)


we have a big week coming up...kellen starts at the nike child development center - he is in the C. Vivian Stringer Center...named after the Rutger's Head Coach of Women's Basketball. i have mixed feelings about his entrance into daycare...while it's really the best case scenario with me working, i also dread the spread of germs and the sickness that i know will be coming our way soon, plus i'm just really sad to be away from him all week and boy, it'll be a lot of work getting all the bottles and food prepared each day! the one plus - they use cloth diapers! ok - and it's mighty convenience being right there on campus with me and i can drop in anytime to see him...that does make me feel better!

oh and in other news, i've been sporting a major black eye this week...last weekend while loading up the boy and his stuff into the car, i slammed my temple into the car door. ouch.


also, here's a cute pic of the boy's new toy.


okay...just a few more in his footie pj's...the cuteness factor is just off the charts (that hat is a few sizes too small now...we were just messing around! the kid is into everything these days!

darn formatting...these are supposed to all show up in one line, but i can't figure it out. oh, well.