Congratulations Chris!

On Friday, December 19th, Chris graduated from Missouri State University with his Masters Degree in Counseling. I am so proud of him for all of his hard work and this great accomplishment. It was not an easy 2 1/2 years for Chris (or the rest of us!) but his hard work paid off and he graduated with a 3.8 GPA! His college journey is far from over...he is just thinking about what degree to work on next. He plans to get a Masters degree in Theology and a Doctorate in Psycology. Those plans might change though! For now he is looking for a job using his degree...he has applied for several state jobs and a few local jobs. If a good job opportunity takes us away from Springfield we will consider taking it, but we hope to stay in this area.

Chris...we are so proud of you! You are such a wonderful husband and daddy!

Gabriel's Two Month Check-Up

So, we just got back from Gabriel's two month check. First of all, I can't believe he is really two months old already. He is getting SO big! He now weighs 11lb 3oz and is 23 1/2 in long. The doctor said it looks like he will be a tall skinny boy just like his brother. But for now I'm still enjoying his leg rolls before they go away! He had to get his first set of shots today. That part was pretty bad. I'm so mad that Chris always misses these visits and I have to go alone because it's so sad! He had one oral vaccine and then three...3!...shots. He did the whole "stop breathing turn bright red scream at the top of his lungs" thing. And then when it was all over and I was holding him, he still whined for about 5 minutes...just to let me know how mad he was at me for putting him through it. Anyway, he did survive and now both boys are sleeping peacefully in their beds.

Here are some things that Gabriel has started doing lately:
* He smiles, coos, and laughs at us
* He loves his floor gym...it plays music and lights up, and he kicks his feet and talks to it!
* He loves bath time...it's his time for quiet reflection after a long day :)
* He is sleeping pretty well at night...by that I mean he wakes up to eat after about 6 hours then goes back to sleep for another 3 or 4 hours. I'll take it!

Well, I don't have time to put pictures up today, but I will post some more shortly. I'm taking tons of pictures, just don't ever have time to upload them:)

Christmas is coming!

We are busy getting ready for Christmas around here. Chris put lights on the house for the first time in three years! We got our tree up and decorated and the nativity scene set out above the fireplace. I'm almost done wrapping the presents and I can't wait to put them under the tree.
This is Gabriel's first Christmas! He is growing so fast and we love seeing the new things he is doing. He is such a sweet baby!

I tried to get a good shot of the boys, but that's pretty hard to do with a toddler and a newborn. They are never both looking at the camera at the same time, but this one turned out pretty cute. They love each other so much! It's so fun to watch their relationship already.

We all piled in front of the Christmas tree, wearing our Christmas pajamas of course, for our family photo. We had to tell Christopher to pray so that he would sit still long enough...look at his hands!
Our neighbor, Kendra, brought Christopher home like this! She bribed him with candy to sit still long enough to wrap him up! I thought it was the funniest thing ever!
This is Gabriel and Kyle at Thanksgiving. They are two weeks apart, but Gabe is still almost twice his size!

This is an older picture, but I thought it was so cute. They love "playing" on the floor together. I just have to make sure Christopher doesn't lay on his brother! :)

Thanksgiving at the Chiarino's

So I'm a slacker and I haven't been uploading this as much as I would like. The truth is, my computer broke, so I have to share Chris' and he uses it for class a lot. It's just not as easy to upload pictures and get on here without my computer.
Anyway, we had our close family to the house for a Thanksgiving feast. I was recovering from a cold, so it's a miracle that everything got finished. I have to say, it wasn't my best cooking, but it was still pretty good. Everyone ate until they popped!

What a beautiful family...and so much to be thankful for!