We are still here!

I have completely neglected my blogging lately. The holidays were busy, but mostly I've just been enjoying spending time with my amazing husband and wonderful little boys. We have been hanging at home, cooking, doing crafts, playing, snuggling, and have a good ol' time. I will be back to the blog more often...I miss updating you all on what's happening in our world. :)

Here's a fun picture for now...

A Chiarino Thanksgiving

Ingredients:

1 trip to SDC to see the Christmas lights and festivities (night before)

2 home-made turkey hats for two little turkeys

1 two year old soux chef

1 post dinner baby diaper blowout (Ewww!!!)

Watching balloons and tackles on tv

Lots of lovin from the oven! :)

Combine ingredients to create a wonderful blessed day of thanks.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

My Pumpkins

We celebrated Halloween in a big way last week and over the weekend. First, we dressed the boys up for our church's fall festival last sunday, then we took them to Halloween in the Halls at MSU on Wednesday. On Saturday we got up early for the Homecoming Parade at MSU and then went home to carve our pumpkins. Christopher helped me design a little one to carve, I did a goofy face, Chris did a goblin face, and I carved Happy Halloween into one. It was lots of fun!

Christopher enjoyed digging the "guts" out of the pumpkins. I'm not a fan of that part so I'm glad the boys like it!

After four pumpkins, we were knee deep in seeds and guts!

And here are the masterpieces!

Christopher LOVES his little pumpkin!

Then we dressed the boys up one more time for some Trick-or Treating fun. We took them to our neighbor, Miss Nell, and around to a few friends houses and then we let Christopher pass out candy to kids at our house. He loved handing it out...surprisingly!


We had a little Yoda and Obi Wan Kenobi this year!

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween this year!

I'm so mean!

I had to take advantage of this time when I get to choose what the boys dress up as for Halloween. Gabriel is Yoda and Christopher is a Jedi...more pics to come!

This was taken at our fall festival at church tonight.

I need to perfect the face paint :)

Loving Autumn

We have been enjoying the fall weather as much as possible-that is when it's not 40 degrees and raining outside! Today it was BEE-utiful out so we waited for Chris to come back from his men's retreat and then we headed to Campbell's Farm for some fun. I enjoyed snapping pictures of the boys in the gorgeous surroundings.

Christopher enjoyed the bounce house & the little tykes choo-choo train rides.

The boys painted some mini-pumpkins on Friday.

Gabriel got more paint on his face and highchair (and my camera) than he got on his pumpkin!

Christopher is such a little artist!

I hope this nice weather stays around a bit longer...we love getting outside and playing on our new swingset. Everytime I ask Christopher if he wants to go outside and play on it he replies with a loud "YES" before I even finish the sentance!

We are looking forward to visiting "Aunt Penne's Pumpkin Patch" next weekend in Arkansas, going to baby Kyle's 1st birthday party, and dressing up for Halloween fun coming soon!

One Year Ago...

we were at the hospital preparing for our baby boy to arrive. I can't believe it has been a year already. In some ways it feels like he has been in our family forever, but it feels like yesterday when I was cradling his tiny body in my arms. He has grown into such a unique little person in the past year and he has blessed our lives tremendously. Here a few things about our little prince...

* He is speed crawling, pulling up, standing alone, and walking along furniture. Not walking alone yet, but I expect he will be very soon.

* He is still nursing, and showing no signs of being done soon. I'm trying to use up the gallons of breastmilk I have stored in the freezer so that he can transition to whole milk. I am happily done pumping for now!

* He is a little flirt and he loves to point! When he sees a girl he knows, he will lower his head and gets a little grin on his face...it's too cute!

* He is still taking 2 naps most days, but occasionally he will just take one long nap. He goes to bed at 7:00 pm and sleeps until about 7:30 am.

* He loves animals...he squeels and gets so excited whenever he sees a cat or dog.

* He also LOVES his dada! When he gets home from work in the evening Gabriel is the happiest litte boy!

* When he wants something he lets us know by screaming. He does this in restaurants, church, stores...pretty much anywhere. It's quite a bad habit and we are working on different forms of communication :)

* His favorite foods are cheese, goldfish, grapes, bread, noodles, green beans, and bananas. If he has a mouthful of food and I start to give him a bite of something before he is done chewing he will drop everything out of his mouth and open up for a bite...it's the funniest thing!

* He is a curious, happy, & wonderful little boy! We love him so much!

Hours and hours of fun!

My dad got the boys a huge birthday/Christmas present this weekend.

Here are some cute pictures of all the boys helping out...

And here it is almost put together...it still needs the roof.

This is going to be tons of fun! Thanks Papa Mark!

Happy birthday to our little prince!

Gabriel's birthday is actually tomorrow (Oct 12) but we had his party today. It was a fun get-together with close friends and family.

Here is a picture of the spread and decorations. I had fun using my new cricut to make the banner :)

This was my first time making a layered cake and using fondant icing. It wasn't easy, but I'm happy with the finished product. Chris said it's not as good as "Ace of Cakes", but he did say it was the best home-made cake he has seen. And it tasted yummy!

Gabriel has his eye on that cake!

Eating the sprinkles first

And then he went for the whole thing!

He also loved the balloons that were attached to his highchair!

When it came time to open presents he was so funny! He loved tearing the paper and pulling on the tissue, but he really loved holding the cards! He would hold a card in one hand and tear paper with the other. He looks like such a big boy in this picture!

Trying on his new coyboy boots from Mimi...

Is there anything cuter than a naked baby wearing cowboy boots?

I made Chris' family sit down for a quick picture. The photos I took with my dad didn't turn out...sorry papa Mark!

Christopher with his girl Fotine...look at the love in their eyes!

Her heart really belongs to Gabriel though :)

Our wonderful family!

He was all partied out :)

Nighty night baby.

I just want to say thank you to all of our friends and family. Thank you for loving our boys and being part of their lives. Thank you for making memories with us.

Happy birthday to my little prince. You are an incredible blessing! Your smile is the highlight of my day. Your curiosity keeps us moving! Your joy fills our hearts with joy. We love you so much.

Wild Animal Safari

Me and all my boys (minus Daddy) took a little trip to Strafford to visit the Wild Animal Safari. This place has been 30 minutes from my house for 7 years and I have never been! It is a wild animal sanctuary that you can drive your car through and feed the animals. Sounds like tons of fun and a great educational experience for the kids, right?

Maybe if I hadn't been the teacher.

I think I just instilled fear into their hearts. I really didn't intend to, but I was down-right scared!

So, I got a bag of food along with our tickets. We start driving through and immediately see a camel. Awesome! He's walking toward us...cool!

And then I realize that he is going to stick his entire head into our vehicle. OH MY GOODNESS. Have you ever had a camel in your car? You don't want to. Here I am...trying to get a good picture while also rolling the window up on the camels head. After I took this pic I swear he kicked my van. I now realize why the lady told my they aren't responsible for damages.

So we decided to crack the window...just to be safe. The lighting is bad, but Christopher is carefully sliding a food pellet out the crack into the camels mouth.

He couldn't believe he fed a camel!

So if you think the camels are the scariest thing, well, you are wrong. Look at this! Huge ostrich eyes. Spikey ostrich hair. Pointy death inflicting ostrich beak. SCARY!!! I rolled the window up on a few of them while yelling "shoo shoo!"

I think the funniest thing about this picture is that the ostrich and Christopher have the same exact expression on their face. I think they are both thinking "WHAT is THAT??"

I still see this at night...and wake up in a sweat!

Now, moving on to the non-life threatening animals. Although this pig was disgusting and fat and just plain gross I was so glad to stop and look at him for a while since there was no chance of him getting into my car.

And there was one lonely zebra. So gorgeous.

It was a fun learning experience for all!

Zoo Field Trip

Last Tuesday Christopher's preschool class went on a field trip to the Dickerson Park Zoo. All the kids rode in the school bus (in their carseats) to the zoo where the parents were waiting. I couldn't miss his first official school field trip, so I loaded Gabriel and Caden (the little boy I watch during the week) in the car and headed to the zoo for some fun.

Christopher thought he was so cool because he got to ride in the wagon and didn't get stuck in a stroller. Apparently the little girl in the wagon with him didn't share the same excitement! :)

These are a few of the other "ladybugs" in Christopher's class. Notice how that little girl has the same look on her face as she stares at Christopher. I'm gonna have to keep my eye on her...

Here are the babies...looking at the baby elephant. They had so much fun looking at all the animals...and the big kids!

They love each other! Caden is like our little brother :) He even pulled Gabriels hair a little bit in the stroller...ah the brotherly love!

Happy Birthday Papa Mark!

{Christopher with Papa Mark on his 50th birthday last year}

I couldn't let this day end without giving my daddy some Birthday Blog Love! He is 51 years young today. Everyone who knows him knows he acts younger today than when he was 25...well maybe it's a toss. Anyway, we love you and Happy Birthday!

I've disappeared for a month!

Wow! It has been a month since I have blogged. I guess life has been busy lately. I actually have a few posts that I need to finish up and publish...maybe I'll get around to it this weekend. Just wanted to let you all know we are still here!

I just had to add this picture...well, because It's almost impossible to do a post without at least one picture.

Lots more to come!

Saint Louis Weekend

Ok, so these pictures are WAY late. At least I got them on here! Over Labor Day weekend we went to St. Louis for some fun times. We had a great time with family and friends...here are a few of our favorite zoo pictures.

10 months and growing!

We missed Gabriel's 9 month check up and the next time we could get him in to the doctor was this week, so it was more of a 10 1/2 month check up, but at least we got it in! He now weighs 18 lbs. 10 3/4 oz. and is 29 1/4" tall. For those of you who want to know where that is on the chart...his weight is about 8th percentile and length is 60th...so that makes 2 long and thin boys in this house! {Why can't I have that body style?}

Here are some other things that our little guy is up to lately...

* He is crawling all over the place. He chases his brother around the house and giggles, wanders into the bathroom, and picks up everything he finds on the floor!

* He eats ONLY table food. About 2 months ago he started yelling at us during meals...watching longingly as we ate yummy food while I shoveled mushy veggies in his mouth (although they were organic home-made mushed veggies:) So I gave in and started giving him soft versions of our food. Now he pretty much eats what I cook for each meal....including chicken, beef, cheese, eggs, sausage, and noodles. He LOVES food! It's a good thing he has 8 teeth...that's right...8!!

* He is drinking water and breastmilk out of a sippy cup during meals. He is really good at using the cup and we are working toward using that as the only source of liquid...since he is almost a year old. He doesn't drink bottles, so that's not a worry, but I am starting to get ready for my freedom to be gone for a few hours without pumping. We both love nursing and plan on doing it for as long as he wants:)

* He sleeps like an angel! He takes two naps that are about 1-1 1/2 hours long and sleeps from 7pm until 7am. He also loves being in his bed and hardly ever fusses when it's time to go to bed. Last night I was out with some friends during bedtime and Chris gave him a little milk from a sippy cup and he went straight to bed! No nursing or bottle...I wasn't quite ready for that yet!

* He just started pulling up on Tuesday. He is very excited about the new perspective. Bathtime is more interesting since he wants to pull up on the side of the tub :)

* His favorite thing to do is pick a toy up over his head and let it fall to the ground. He does this over and over ( usually until brother comes over and takes the toy! ) and laughs every time he does it! He also loves to clap his hands and "sing"...it's the cutest thing!

* His first bit of sassy emerged this week. When we are holding him he will hit our face. He gets really sad when daddy says "no" in his stern voice. I do the "place on the ground and walk away" method...we will see if it works!

* His vocal cords are very healthy! He likes to screech and growl...two tricks he learned from his brother. He says "dada" quite a bit and we have heard a few mummblings that sounded like "mama" but still not the clear word like I'm waiting for.

* I have no doubt for the love that Gabriel has for me as his mama, but this boy is in LOVE with his daddy. When Chris comes home from work every day Gabriel starts smiling from ear to ear and doesn't take his eyes of daddy until he comes over to pick him up to give him a big hug. It warms my heart.

* He loves playing with Christopher and laughs histerically at everything Christopher does!

* He is in the middle of the stranger anxiety. He doesn't notice new people right away, but after about 15 minutes he suddenly realizes that he doesn't know someone, and turns to look at me with a face of horror...tears welling up in his eyes.

I could go on and on about my little G Man. He is a highlight of our lives and we are all so blessed to have him. He is so full of life and happiness!

Show and Tell

I was just going through my pictures from this month and picked a few (ok, so I'm crazy about pictures and couldn't just pick a few) that I had to share.

Here is the picture of the sky as we were driving home a few days ago. Christopher started pointing out the window saying, "Look mommy, pretty clouds. Paint up there!" I LOVE seeing things from his perspective. I wouldn't have given this beautiful sky a second look if not for his beautiful 2 year old mind.

We have been finding time to get to the park a lot. We have discovered that Gabriel loves to swing. His little feet just wiggle and he giggles every time I push him and say "weee!!!".

Christopher is lining everything up...from bath toys to blocks, to farm animals. Watching his mind at work is pure entertainment.

He has also learned how to share with his brother more and more. Last week we were in the middle of the "MINE" phase...I'm so glad that is on its way out! Now I catch him giving Gabriel rides down the hallway in boxes and sitting next to him reading a book. I cherish these moments!

{ok, so he is actually taking a toy out of Gabe's hand, but Gabe doesn't care yet, so I'm picking my battles!}

Christopher has been enjoying his art more than ever lately. In this picture, I mixed oatmeal in with his finger paints and let him go to town on a huge piece of paper. He loved the texture!

And here is some good ol' fashion watercolor painting.

Gabriel has had several bumps and bruises in his life, mostly thanks to his brother, but since he has started crawling I am anticipating more self-inflicted injuries like this one...

He was crawling over to see his brother outside, and slipped on the sidewalk, going face first into the pavement...OUCH!!!!!

{within an hour it looked much better!}

We have been loving McDonald's lately...cheap meals, playing for the boys, and ICE CREAM for dessert! Who can beat that...oh, and I don't have to cook or clean! It has been a weekly event around here...part of me feels like I'm a bad mom for this, but I'll forgive myself!

And I snuck this one in here just to show you what an extremely adorable and happy little guy we are blessed with. And I wanted to prove that we don't eat every meal at McDonald's. ;)

Look for Gabriel's 10 month stats coming soon. I know I haven't done this in forever...it's time to get back on track!

Messy Fun

Since Christopher is stuck playing with babies all day, I have been trying to have a few "big boy" projects for him to do while the babies are napping. This week we made a mess and had lots of fun! I found a recipe online for something called "clean mud"...sounded interesting, so we tried it. Christopher called it "wonka suds" because it ended up looking like the suds that get all over the big truck on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Here is how we did it...

We took about a half of a toilet paper roll and ripped it into tiny pieces. I thought this would keep Christopher busy for a while, but instead he did it for about 5 seconds and then said "Mommy you do it."

Then we took a bar of soap and shredded it with a cheese grater. Again, I had to do this part because I didn't want his little fingers getting shredded.

Then you get some warm water.

Mix it all together, with your hands of course. And have a ball!

Squish it in your fingers, smear it around, pick up handfulls and plop them in the bowl....

And what you get in the end is a happy child!

I would do anything for that face :)

What's a trip to the fair without cotton candy, deep fried oreos, and near death experiences?

I was really excited to take the boys to the fair this year! They were both old enough to sit in the wagon and actually enjoy some of what the fair has to offer.

It all started off with some fun times in the animal barn, looking at cows, sheep, baby chicks, and horses.

Christopher spent a lot of time in the huge tractor tires filled with corn. He wanted to feed the baby cow, but we told him the farmer had already fed him for the day.

Then we went straight to the pony rides. This was, by far, my absolute favorite thing to do at the fair when I was growing up. Who am I kidding, if they would let me do it now I would still jump on one and ride around and around!

Take a close look...notice something funny about Christopher?

Yeah, that was him last year, and this is him this year!

Can you believe how much older he looks! And I thought it was pretty funny that he just happened to get the same (or at least looked exactly the same) horse two years in a row.

Then our fun trip to the fair took a turn for the worst when Chris (big chris, my husband and father to my children!) noticed that they had a sheep riding game. Is this sounding like a bad idea yet? Just wait. He insists on going over to the tent to check it out. They have a sheep "rodeo" for kids under 6 years old. They strap a rodeo vest and helmet to them and put them on a sheep. No saddle or reigns to hold on to, just wool. They set the child on a sheep, let the sheep out of the gate, and off they go...child bouncing violently until they fall off and hit the ground. Sounding like a stupid, dangerous thing to do yet? Well, Chris thinks this would be a blast for Christopher, and Christopher agrees because he trusts his dad to not throw him under the truck...or sheep. As much as I disagreed and begged, everyone there assured me that Christopher would not hit the ground and the cowboy would run along side to pick him up before he fell off. I agreed to that. That's not what happened. What happened was my little guy...2 1/2 years old...put a death grip on this sheep, they let him out of the gate, and he held on for a good 3 seconds. He hit the ground. My heart stopped. I wanted to run out there and pick him up and hold him forever. He walked over to us, stars floating in his eyes, and said "I fell off the sheep. Guy picked me up."
He ended up winning second place and got to stand on the podium and talk into the microphone for everyone to hear. (I think that was his favorite part)

I'm still not over my devestation from what I saw, but Christopher seems to be fine.

I did have a long discussion with Daddy Bear about this and we will be making better choices in the future.

So after all that drama, we all needed some extremely unhealthy food to calm our nerves. We stopped at the cotton candy window and fried goods window to stock up on goodies before we went home. Have you ever had deep fried oreos, by the way? I know what you are thinking...G.R.O.S.S.!!! That is what I thought last year until my (diabetic) friend made try one. Imagine a funnel cake, then put a warm gooey chocolatey oreo cookie inside of that. That's deep fried oreo. Heaven my friends!

Here is the difference between being a first time mom and now. Christopher would have never been able to taste the deliciousness that is cotton candy at the early age of 9 1/2 months, but I feel bad for Gabriel when everyone else gets to have something and he is left out of all the fun. He got to have his first taste of cotton candy...and do you think he loved it? Um, yeah!

I am so glad the fair is done and over with this year...that was more than I could handle!

I have lots of things I need to put up on the blog, so hopefully I can catch up this week :)

Baby Shower Gifts

I went to a baby shower this past weekend and brought a basket of (mostly) handmade gifts for the new baby. I tried a few techniques that I have never done before and for first attempts, they didn't turn out too bad.

I tried hand stitching a felt star on this onesie, but it ended up crooked, so I added the swirls with fabric paint to make it look like it was crooked on purpose. I hope it worked...

On some others, I applied iron-on embroidered letters(wish I could do the real thing!). I love personalized gifts...and they can be very expensive to buy!

This is a burp cloth that I used fabric paint and foam stamps to stamp his name. Mama loved these!

Here is the finished basket!

One of my dream jobs is to own a gift company that makes all kinds of gift baskets. I'm not very good at it, but it's fun!

I love...love...love to buy gifts for people, but it can be depressing when you don't have $50 to drop on a gift for every shower or event you go to. Try to think of fun handmade gifts that will mean more to the recipient.

If you have any other ideas for handmade gifts, please leave them in the comment section :)

Busy Little Beavers

Our "honeydo list" is in full swing around here! We are tackling one room at a time, trying to decorate (since most rooms never got that to begin with), re-organize, and repair/finish repairs that have been put on hold for the past 3 years. Maybe one day everything will be done...and then we will be ready to move!

Christopher loves...I mean LOVES...to help daddy mow the grass. Every time he hears a mower anywhere near our house, he stops and says, "oh, mowing grass", then returns to what he was doing. It's halarious. I hope that he still likes it this much in 10 years when it is his "job" to mow our lawn. ;-)
Gabriel has been busy learning how to crawl. For over a month he rocked on his hands and knees, then started lifting his bottom up and rocking on his hands and feet. I thought he would never crawl, but alas he did. And now I find him in the bathroom, dog bowl, or fishing for Bear's hairballs under the couch. Be careful what you wish for!

I love crawling babies!

I just had to throw this pic in here because he is looking SO big! His personality just cracks me up every day...he is beginning to be a bit of a drama "king". Wonder where he gets that from...

Adding Soft Focus

I was surfing around on the jessicasprague website and I found a free tutorial about adding a soft focus to photos. I have seen this done on pictures and love the subtle effect, but never knew how to do it. Like most things I have found on photoshop, it seems hard to do until you learn how to do it. Funny how that works :)

I'm still experimenting with it, but I think this will be something that I will use a lot!

And another...

This time I tried adding a brush to a storyboard...I love it! I can not wait to see how this looks in a frame :)

Summer Fun

Even though Christopher is not in school (therefore can not completely appreciate the joy of summer break) he is still doing some fun stuff this summer. I am so glad that he is old enough to participate in some things, but it makes me a little sad to think that he is growing up so incredibly fast. He just finished the summer reading program at the library. He had to do activities and read books to complete levels. After he finished, he got to pick out a free book!

This past Saturday he attended our church's VBS. It was just one morning, so that was good for him, and it gave us parentals a chance to get some stuff done around the house.

Here is a picture of him wearing his visor and getting ready to go in. I know he hates it when I make him stop to take silly pictures, but I will forget this memory by next week!

Before I snuck out, I had to snap a picture of him singing along to "If you're happy and you know it"! He loves going to church!

Can't Stop Myself!

I am in love with these 9 photo grids!!!

I made this one to frame and hang in Christopher's room. However, Chris just informed me that these pictures are only of my side of the family..true. He thinks I should make another one with his family included and hang them both up. Would that look strange?

Did I Seriously Just Create This?

I'm ready to start my photography company!

Just kidding ;) But I do feel like a bit of a pro after making this beauty...

{Well, I am talking about the photo grid, but also the adorable baby!}

I'm not completely satisfied with it, but when am I ever? I am so excited that I know how to make these...eeeek!!!! {That's me being giddy with excitement}

More Adventures in Photo Land

I have been looking forward to 7:00 every night when I can put the boys to bed and start working on photoshop stuff. These online tutorials are so amazing! I am learning techniques that I thought would be incredibly difficult...but they aren't at all! The trick is just learning the way photoshop works...with the different layers and such.

I wanted to post some more pictures that I have done this week for critiques. Although I am excited about what I am learning, these pictures are just a first attempt and I will be improving from here. I am a bit of a perfectionist, so it is hard for me to show my finished products unless they are perfect.

This is a storyboard with text added. I can't wait to make more of these and frame them up around the house!

I burnt the edges of this one and then added the grunge clipping mask
I finally learned how to do selective coloring! This was probably my most anticipated technique. I am so excited to do more of this!

Here I used some textures, added the rounded corner clipping mask, added the overlay and text

I also added textures, grunge clipping mask, and text to this one

Hope you like! Feel free to leave your opinion :)

Photo Edits

Well I have spent the last two nights on my computer messing around with Photoshop and learning about how to use it from these great tutorials at www.jessicasprague.com. I thought I would show off a few of my finished photos. They aren't award winning, but I'm starting to get used to this program-and it's endless possibilities.

I used a "brush" on this photo to add the word "special"

This is also a brush, but acts like a frame. See how you can do so many things!

I'm pretty proud of this one. I took the color out to make it B&W then adjusted the contrast levels and added a clipping mask to give the edges this grunge look.

On this picture, I adjusted the color (tried to make it more vintage...did it work?), added a black frame (which you can't really see), then added some more sparkle to the pupils of his eyes (using a brush), and then added the clipart word.

On this one I used 3 different textures and blended them with the picture. Neat, but odd effect.

So, what do you think? Be honest..I could use feedback since I don't really have a clue what I'm doing ;)

Experimenting in Photoshop

I have been wanting to learn about editing pictures in photoshop for some time now...but I was just too intimidated by the program to start doing it...until now. A friend of mine, Jen, took this online class and shared her info with me so I can learn how to do all sorts of things with my photos to make them look better. Today I learned how to add a frame and word art...what do ya think? It's so simple to do and I think, when used in the right way, it can make a photo look so neat! I can't wait to see what else I can learn :)



Jen-your example looked so cute (and it went great with this pic) ...hope you don't mind that I copied it :)

Celebrating America's Birthday

The 4th really snuck up on us this year since we got back from our vacation at 4:30am on friday. We didn't have plans, other than unpacking and settling back into routines. We still managed to have a few friends over for some grillin' and fireworks fun.

Honestly, I'm kindof a firworks scrooge. Ever since my dad had a bad accident with them about 7 years ago I haven't been a big fan. I don't like them around kids and I think that something happens to a guy's brain when they get a stick of explosives in their hands. I managed to deal with the small amount of fireworks that our friends brought over, and even let Christopher throw the popper things on the ground...baby steps!

Here are some sweet pictures of the boys waving their American flags.

And Teresa!

Nothin' says summer time like a slice of watermellon!

After we ate and played for a while, we put the kids to bed and got the lawn chairs out for a personal fireworks display. There were actually 4 shows going on right in our front yard-one of the "perks" of living outside of city limits. The best part of the night was when it started raining and we all sat in the rain and ate watermellon. I love sitting in a nice midnight shower!

Hope you all had a fun and safe birthday party for our country!

More Wisconsin-Illinois Trip Pictures

While in Wisconsin we had to go visit our new cousin Evrette. He was born about a week before we got up there, so we had a fresh out of the oven baby to hold! Christopher was surprisingly sweet to him. He asked if he could hold him and he kept giving him kisses and soft touches on his head...I guess he did learn something from his brother's earlier days.

Christopher was especially excited about seeing Grampa's farm and all the tractors and cows. My grampa has been retired for almost 10 years, but he still tends to 6 beef cattle and lots of crops! He took Christopher out to the barn and started small with the little mower.

When he traded Christopher for Gabriel on the mower I got a little nervous, but he did really good. Gabe didn't even get scared of the loud noise. This is the same mower that grampa used to hook to a wagon and give all us cousins rides around the house. Oh, the memories! I'm glad I have pictures of my boys getting rides from grampa on it.

After the mower, he took Christopher on the front loader. His smile just kept getting bigger and bigger!

After they parked the loader, Christopher points to the BIG field tractor and says, "grampa, me ride that big tractor!". Who can say no to that?

So off they went on the big one!

After we finished playing with the big boy toys we went inside to have cookies and play with puzzles with Gramma. I had to get a new picture of the boys with their Great Grandparents.

Grampa looks like he's telling a story!

Before we left town, we had to make a stop at CedarCrest! They make the best ice cream around and where else can you eat ice cream under a massive cow?

Monday evening we headed down to Aunt Katy's in Illinois. We had such a good time relaxing with them and spending time with more cousins! Here is an adorable picture of Christopher, Aunt Katy, and cousin Mason swinging on the hammock.

Tuesday we spent some more time with Aunt Katy and that gang, then after naptime we drove over to Gurnee and got checked in to the hotel.

We spent some time with Chris' family: Uncle Dave, Aunt Jen, Cooper, Maia, and Grampa Larry. We didn't get many pictures of our time in Illinois because we were so busy having fun. We spent all day Wednesday at the water park in our hotel with all the cousins. It was quite fun and exhausting! We celebrated Chris' birthday on Thursday and headed home that evening. It was a LONG 8 hour trip, but the boys slept and we made it home in the wee hours of the morning. It was so nice to have the whole weekend to regroup, unpack, and get ready for the new week.

Wisconsin Wedding

We we are back from our whirlwind trip to Wisconsin and Illinois. We were gone for a week but it seemed like only a few days! It was SO good to see family and watch the boys with their cousins. I grew up with lots of cousins who were all close and it is so exciting to see that our kids will have that also!

We left Friday morning for Wisconsin-which took us 11 hours! The boys slept a little in the car, but not much. My brother rode up with us, I drove, and Chris sat in the back to entertain the boys. Gabriel had his first twizzler and Christopher got to watch Goonies on the computer. We have totally different ideas on entertainment! :) The day after we got there was the wedding. That was great because we were able to see ALL the aunts, uncles, grandparents, great-grandparents, cousins, neices, & nephews at one time.

Here is a picture of my cousin, Kate's, kids with the boys. From left is: Emma, Christopher, Jack, Gabriel, and Hannah. They are all so stinkin' cute!

Hannah is such a big girl now! I could probably keep Gabriel with her for a few hours with no worries. She's a little momma and helps her mom with everything!
Christopher plopped down on the ground and started telling Emma a story. I think he fell in love with Emma while we were there!

Here is Uncle Brian and Papa Mark giving Gabriel a fo-hawk.

Christopher and Emma...two peas in a pod!

Our family after the ceremony...gotta get a family shot! It's so hard to get one with everyone looking and smiling. We did our best ;)

Uncle Brian is the coolest! Christopher and Jack both wanted him to hold them...he can't say no!

Momma and G Man

Christopher with his Great Grampa Shorty. Stay tuned for adorable pictures of tractor rides!

I tried to get as many people as possible together for a pic. Here we have Great Gramma Sauer, Gramma & Grampa Wallander, Papa Mark, Great Aunt Ann, Great Uncle Andy, and the Chiarinos.

I will post more pictures of Wisconsin fun soon.

I'm a closet scrapper.

Well, not really. I will scrap anywhere, but for now my beloved paper hobby has been shoved into my massive too-large-for-all-my-clothes walk-in closet.

I remember the glory days when I had an entire room with a window and everything. That sure was nice. Then it was limited to half the room. I should have realized then what was going to happen soon. The toys took over. Oh the toys toys toys! So, my prized scrapbook room became a toy room. But, my wonderful, thoughtful husband found a little table that would fit into my closet. At first I was mortified. I can't scrap in a closet. There is no one to talk to. Nothing to look at. No inspiration. But I finally came to realize that if I wanted a space that was all my own where little two year old hands couldn't reach in and destroy adhesives, glimmer mist, thickers, and chip board I would have to learn to scrap in a closet.

So here it is people. It's very modest. Don't laugh or you might hurt it's feelings. It's my scrap space. I love it and it loves me :)

Not Me...

I wanted to brag to the blog world about what I, a fantastic mom, have NOT been doing lately.

I did NOT let Gabriel lay on the floor with no clothes or diaper on while I was sitting on the computer, only to look over and see him laying in a puddle of his own potty.

I also did NOT put in ear plugs today while my husband was cooking dinner because my precious little children were NOT screaming at the top of their lungs.

I have NOT neglected my motherly duty of providing a balanced home-cooked meal to my family every day for the past two weeks. And I did NOT leave to have dinner with a girlfriend after the last home-cooked meal I tried to prepare (which was NOT over a week ago) got burned. No, I also did NOT leave my husband and children to eat the burned dinner.

I hope you moms out there don't feel discouraged because I AM getting the Mom Of The Year Award. For sure!

Friday at the Zoo

I took the boys to the zoo this morning. What a great (and hot) day for it! We didn't see all the animals because I was flying solo, but the double sit 'n stand stroller was mighty handy today! We saw the monkeys, birds, elephants, and a few more interesting creatures.

Trying to get both boys to look at the camera is impossible. This is the best I could do, even with whistles and snaps. People were starting to look at me funny.

Mom look hippo!

Feeding the giraffe. A must for the Dickerson Park Zoo!

Gabriel was in heaven...he got to eat string cheese and applesauce for lunch. I forgot to bring babyfood so no veggies...thanks mom!

Farm Day

I took the boys to the farm last week. Christopher loves to go to the farm! As a matter of fact, every time we pass by the farm to go home he tells the animals night night...even when it's 2:00 in the afternoon!

These cows were butting heads with each other. I told Christopher they were probably brothers!
He got really excited when he saw this mule. He called it a tractor and had to climb in to "drive" it. Just wait til you see what tractors really look like when we go to Wisconsin!

Taking a peek in the chicken coop.

Great friends, food, & bananagrams!

So I'm really behind on my blogging, but a couple of weeks ago I made a delicious pizza from scratch and we had Teresa, our usual houseguest, over.

After we put the boys to bed, we broke out the bananagrams! I love this game :)

We have a joke about Chris being a diva. It was so funny that one of our Dove Promises said to be a dark chocolate diva!
I can't think of anything better to do on a Friday night than eat good food, play a great game, and eat dark chocolate with friends!

A few good pages...

Two weeks ago I went to Scrap-a-palooza 2, which is an all day scrappers paradise! I got Chris' father's day gift done while I was there, and I also did 3 layouts. I'm pretty happy with all of them. The pictures didn't turn out very clear, but you get the idea.

I stitched the snowflakes falling on the left side of this page. I also used foam stamps, brads, & die cut snowflakes.
I really like this page! I used a technique that I've never used before, called "masking" to do the title-love it!

This page turned out really cute. You can't see what the word blocks say so I have to tell you because I think it's pretty clever. It says "big P little p; what begins with p? Poopy peepee potty and a picture if you please!" Took a little influence from the dr. suess book.

When I showed christopher this page his response was "both in the bath!" That's why I titled it that...because he loves to point out "both" all the time! No, he can't read yet...he is just that cool.

I have been really slacking on the blog lately. I will try to post some new pictures of our activities this weekend. Things have been so busy lately! We are getting ready for the big drive to Wisconsin next weekend.

Out on the town!

Do you see this people...dressed, make-up, and out on a friday night with NO kids! My husband is so wonderful-he put the boys to bed and cleaned the house so I could go out with some friends for Artwalk. It has been years since I've done Artwalk without kids. When Christopher was a baby we would take him in the stroller or carrier, but that just doesn't happen anymore.

So, I got myself looking presentable and stopped by Teresa's apartment to pick her up and we met a group of friends from church. What you can't see is that Teresa is practically on her knees while I still have to stretch to be in the picture with her! The first place we stopped was a rock sculpture exhibit-we saw some fantastic pieces, but unfortunately I didn't think to take pictures of the art. Then we made our way to Mudhouse, a staple for a trip downtown. Then we headed to the square where the Springfield Farmer's Market was set up. The square is a great place to people watch, if you are into that-and I am! We saw these girls who were wearing newspaper dresses. And they say news print is going out of style! We saw our friend Denise, who was taking up her usual post under her jewelry tent...makin a living! We also saw lots of people, some would call them hippies, who were advertising for the legalization of "you know what". Lots of "interesting people"!

Then, as we made our way south, towards Walnut, I was the victim of a drive-by drink out the window. Yes...people actually throw their drinks out the window to try and hit pedestrians! It wasn't my favorite part of the night, but it gets better!

We stopped to listen to this group of kids singing some great Christian music. Look to the right of the picture...see the girl standing there. Well, we thought she was with these people, but we soon found out otherwise. She started wandering around talking to different people. Well, not so much talking, but more moving her lips and gestering things. She went up to our friend, Amber, and started putting her hand up the bottom of Amber's pant leg. We think she "saw" something crawl up her leg. Anyway, she did several weird and dangerous things until there was a growing group of people who were concerned/mesmerized by this girl, who, by the way, couldn't have been older than 16.

So, needless to say, the Police arrived, as well as an ambulance who took this girl to the hospital. I'm sure the rest of her night did not go so well. I would hate to be her parents getting that phone call!

So, after all that drama, the studios were closing for the night. We only made it to maybe 5 or 6 places, but most of the group decided to call it a night. Me and Teresa walked across the street and got some late night subs at Jimmy Johns. It had been ages since I had a sandwich from there!

After Jimmy Johns, I was so tired and ready for bed! We couldn't let the night end without a game of Bananagrams, so we headed to Barnes & Noble for some Starbucks and a quick game. I pretty much quit thinking after I made the word "captain"...I was pretty proud of myself! Teresa definately won that one. After they kicked us out of the store (they were closing) we finally called it a night. I dropped Teresa off at her place then headed back home to give Chris a big kiss for letting me get out of the house...then I crashed! This staying out late thing kicked my butt!

Sunny Days!

Last weekend I took Gabriel to Willard to spend some time with his "Auntie Cammi & Uncle Jason" at the pool. It was his first time in the water, other than the bath tub of course! He was pretty nervous for about 30 minutes...he held on for dear life and fussed for a bit, but after that he turned into a little fish! He was kicking his feet and giggling-so cute!

I had to take a picture...even though I have no business being in a bathing suit yet!
Then this weekend, we met up with some friends who also have two little boys-Tristan and Zane. We played at the park for a bit. Zane and Christopher had a blast swinging for ever and making "manly" grunting sounds. Then we kicked our feet in the wading pool. The water was a bit chilli, but running around kept us warm. Then we all sat under a shade tree for a picnic. What more can you ask for on a sunny Saturday morning?

Growin' Boys!

Somewhere along the way, my life turned in to a boy farm! Christopher has learned this month that Mommy is not a boy like everyone else in the house. This picture proves that I need a girl!

The boys have been doing so much growing and developing lately! Gabriel is sitting up and getting closer to crawling every day. He picks up toys, chews on them, and watches Christoher wherever he goes. It so cute to see Gabriel giggle at Christopher!

Look at those big eyes!

Christoher drew this picture a few days ago. He said it was a rainbow, Noah, and the ark. What a smart kiddo!

{and that is grape jelly on his face, not the beginning of a pre-teen wanna be stache!}

Ice cream trucks are a must for summertime! I never had this growing up, so I get just as excited as Christopher does when the ice cream man comes. I actually broke every rule I have as a mother and let him get a spiderman popcicle from the ice cream man before we ate dinner! Bad mommy!

Christopher has been to several birthday parties lately. These "jedidiah" teeth were a gift in one of the goodie bags from the Chuck-E-Cheese party he went to last week. He has never had something like this, and we were cracking up when he put them in! It was too cute to see his reaction when he saw his face in the mirror.

Gabriel is a baby food eating machine! He loves everything he has tried so far, except for the kiwi...that was a little tart! He is quickly catching up to Christopher. He is only about 6 pounds lighter...watch out buddy! And do you remember Baby Kyle? Well, he is getting SO big! We saw him over mother's day weekend and I couldn't believe how much he has grown. He is babbling, rolling all over, and still bald as a cancer patient! :) What a cutie.

Baby Food Makin' Days!

I finally took the time to get a big batch of baby food made for Gabriel. I have been getting by with just mashing up one or two meals at a time, but life gets busy and it's just easier to pull it out of the freezer when I'm in a hurry. I spent about 2 hours cooking lots of fruits and veggies.

The menu for this month includes:

* yellow squash and brown rice

* sweet pototoes

* green beans

* peas

* carrots

* blueberries

* broccoli

* mango

* pears

*kiwi

We have yet to try the kiwi and mango and I'm not sure how he will like them. So far, he likes everything he has tried. Sometimes he starts to yell at me if I give him too many bites of vegetables without a bite of fruit in between!

I love the way home-made baby food looks. The colors are so vibrant! I have the book Blender Baby Food if anyone is looking for a reference for making baby food. I use it as a reference for some things and to get ideas for yummy combinations, but you can pretty much make anything into babyfood...just use fresh ingredients and keep it simple!