The Best Gift

The Best Gift
By Barbra Streisand


The best gift
That I ever got
Didn't really weigh a lot
It didn't have a ribbon 'round
And it sometimes made a terrible sound


The best of all it seems to me
It wasn't 'neath the Christmas tree
And yet I guess I'd have to say
That it made all the other presents twice as nice


The best gift that I've ever known
I'd always wanted most to own
Yet in my dreams of sugar and spice
I never thought it could be so nice


The best gift that I'll ever get
Was sometimes dry and sometimes wet
Was usually pink but oftentimes red
As it lay so innocently in its bed


The best gift of the year to me
The one I hold most dear to me
The gift that simply drove me wild
Was a tiny new born child...

Thanksgiving '10

It was a Gerratt year for Thanksgiving and we still all got together. It was weird wtihout my parents there but the next time its a Gerratt year they will be back.

A lot of the work and stress went to Todd and Brenda. They offered to have dinner at their house! There was a lot of us, but it was so much fun and great to see my family. We stayed with them and the rest of the family stayed at my parents house.


Brenda went above and beyond, she had craft projects for the kids, turkey hats and snow man tree ornaments. She also had a snow man pinata for the kids. She and Lyndsie filled the pinata with candy and little numbered bouncy balls. Each kid got a ball and after they gave the ball to Brenda she gave them a prize. All the boys got remote control cars and the girls got little Fur Real animals. They all loved them!


Dinner was awesome! We had SO MUCH food it was comical. We had turkey, prime rib, salads, home made rolls, vegetables, and so many pies that we didn't have enough room on the table for them all! It was so much fun to watch the kids play, eat, watch football, eat, be together, and eat!

I also love that the girls were able to spend time with thier Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. Eric's kids are older but so amazing with their younger cousins. Hinkley and Slater are only a month apart and so cute together. Slater has always been longer than Hinkley. She, as you can see, is much chubbier! Thanks Todd and Brenda for hosting Thanksgiving. It was awesome to see everyone, it makes me wish that we could see everyone more often.

Little piggy, little piggy

Hinkley does not have as much hair as Bailed did at her age. My sister in law, Yvonne put Bailey's hair in piggys when she was 5 1/2 months old and my little Hinkley is 7 months old and piggys just aren't there yet. I think her hair is as thick but at the her crown and its not as long as Bailey's was. There is a tiny center piggy in this 1st picture.


But I tried to put her hair in piggys and this is what I got! She is so dang cute and was really photogenic the day I took these. We don't put piggys in except for special occasions but her hair will get there so I'm not worried! Besides I love accessorizing with head bands.

Daddy Time and Turkey Painting

We were all home just hanging out and playing with the girls. I went to change laundry and while I was upstairs sorting clothes Bailey came up stairs and found the laundry basket and told me that she was taking it down stairs. When I came back down this is where I found the girls. Hinkley was in Bailey's jumbo blocks box and was loving it. I guess she thought she was pretty cool.
Bailey put some blocks in on top of her and Hinkley was totally happy to hang out and play with the blocks. When Bailey saw how much fun Hinkley was having I guess she thought she needed to try it too! Hinkley has now learned to scoot so there is no confining her to anything!


My sister sent Bailey this little turkey to paint. Bailey was so excited and couldn't wait to piant it. I didn't know what the paint would do to the table but it came right off of everything that it should have. Bailey had an awesome time and felt so grown up. She even put it in a special box when the the Thanksgiving decorations went down. Thanks Aunt Wendy for the awesome memeory, we wished you could have been here for the painting party! I thought I had a picture of the finished product but apparently not!

Little Bailey goes to school!

We have been concerned with Bailey and her pronunciation of words for awhile. I talked to her Doctor and he kept telling me to give it some time. Well its almost been a year and we still have concerns. I called the Up to 3 Program and they came out to the house to do some general testing. She tests great in all areas and her vocabulary came back that she tests higher than her age. But her dang pronunciation struggles. So after being tested by a speech therapist she qualified for their program. So now in the Up to 3 program she goes to preschool twice a week, a speech group once a week and meets one on one with a speech therapist once every other week. She is loving preschool, but it is really hard for me to leave her. She is only 2! I leave her for 2 hours and she does very well. I met with the teachers, watch her through the viewing window but I can't believe she is going to preschool. When she turns 3 she will be out of their program, but has already qualified for another program that will help with her pronunciation. Where did the time go? How can she be old enough to be in preschool? How did we get here already?

Halloween '10

Halloween was a party this year. Its so much fun to have Bailey getting old enough to understand, get excited, and enjoy the holidays. I'm a little sad that she is getting older and such a big girl!


We decided to take her to the Halloween ward party. The youth put on a party for the primary. Bailey had fun playing games, seeing her friends, she hung out with her friends Megan and Ellie pretty much the whole time, and loved winning the prizes. She was so excited. We didn't have her costume yet because I hired Ben's sister to make it for her this year. So we kind of had to improvise on her costume for this party because her real one was in Idaho. We borrowed the wings from Megan and Ellie, the skirt from my cousin Katie. We only half dressed up Hinkley she could have cared less!


For real Trick or Treating Bailey was an Indian and Hinkley was a Skunk. Bailey wore the skunk costume at 10 months and it was getting pretty tight on her. Hinkley wore it at 6 months and it was pretty baggy for her, but still way cute! Hinkley was really good she just kind of puts up with us. Bailey was way excited. We stopped at Uncle Todd's and Aunt Brenda's first and than headed to Ben's mom's ward party. Bailey was having to much fun to eat but had a ton of fun Trunk or treating with her cousins. We left Hinkley with Brenda she was all partied out. After the ward party we went back to hang out with Todd and his family. When ever the door bell would ring she would run and open the door the little kids on the other side would say "trick or treat" and Bailey would say it right back to them. Todd and Brenda would have to be close behind to hand out the candy. That fun come to a quick stop when she ran to open the door, the kids yelled trick or treat and Bailey took one at them and screamed and ran! By the time she got to me she was hysterical! One of the little boys had a skeleton mask on. It took me a few minutes to calm her down and she didn't want to play with the trick or treaters any more after that.


She still loves to play trick or treating and loves to dress up now. She kind of always did, I think she gets it from her Uncle Eric! I think Hinkley is just glad we aren't putting her back in the costume and is our sweet baby.

My baby...

Before Halloween Hinkley turned 6 months old! Holy crazy! I can't believe she is already that old.


She is a beautiful little girl. She is really calm and mellow, except when she is hungry or really sleepy. She smiles and giggles and is amazing. She is doing well with her baby food and is good at eating her veggies. At 6 months we moved her out of her cradle in our room at night and into her crib in her room. A very emotional night for me. She has done pretty good in her own room, its still weird because she has been in our room since we have been in this house.


She is sitting up, very observant, and puts up with all of mine and Bailey's crap! She loves Bailey, loves to watch the dog, loves to roll around the floor, and like to sing and talk. At her 6 month appointment she weighed 15lbs and is little lower in weight and height than her peers, but is healthy and doing great.


Her skin is a little bit darker than Bailey's and her hair has stayed black. So we have started calling her Cocoa Bean. Its so cute to hear Bailey say it too and it seems to fit her. She makes some of the best faces in pictures. We love you little Cocoa Bean and we can't imagine our lives with out you