The Chiarinos

Photo Update

2010-10-12T10:40:00.004-05:00

Here are some pictures that I wanted to share. I've taken lots more lately and these are in no order but here is some of what we have been up to lately :)

These haven't been edited in any way, but I love close ups of my boys...makes me want to kiss those cheeks!

Super Chris and G Man out trick-or-treating

My handsome super-hero

Another close up of my sweet little guy

This was the first time the boys got to try on their halloween costumes that I made. They were sooo excited about them! Christopher must be trying out different model poses...what is that look?!

Snapping goofy shots with my phone

Another shot of the superheros in front of the house

Totally random and out of order...this is at Gabriel's birthday party. He had tons of fun!!

This is a shot I got of all the little cousins while we were visiting in Wisconsin. It makes me so happy to have all these munchkins together :)

Too much to catch up on!

2010-10-12T10:02:00.004-05:00

It's been so long since I've blogged and so much has happened, I don't even know where to start. I'll try to get as much in as I can in one post...but I might add more later :)
These are in order of what pops in my head first...no logic here.

* We found out a few weeks ago that our new baby will be a boy! I have to admit that I was a bit shocked initially - my mommy intuition was waaaay off! Now I am so thankful and excited to welcome not just ANOTHER boy to our family, but a new miracle and blessing. I can't wait to meet him. To answer the most asked question: we have always had 4 kids in our heart...so we will try to have another baby in a few years...only God knows what's in store for us :)

* We recently went on a weeklong road trip as a family to visit our extended family in Illinois and Wisconsin. It was so great to see aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. Our boys fell in love with each and everyone one of their cousins all over again. It was really a joy to see those little relationships grow...and it brought me back to being a kiddo playing with my cousins.

* Gabriel Steven is now a Terrific Two year old! Today is our little guy's birthday! I am amazed at how fast he picks things up...having a big brother definately helps. He is almost completely potty trained and already sleeps in a big boy bed. About a month ago we got the boys a new bunk bed and Gabriel went straight from the crib to the bottom bunk...and he's done great! He also says so many words I can't even keep track. He's speaking in short sentances and saying anything he needs to communicate his little two year old wishes. My favorite words are: picka(pickle), happy daday(happy birthday), mommya & daddya, titi(christopher), baybay(baby), NO NO daddya!, and bataties(batteries).

*Christopher is my awesome little helper and a wonderful big brother! He loves to help with babies and is already very protective over his little brother. He has finally started drawing lately-I was starting to wonder if he would ever be interested in drawing! His first work of art was a spider and then he moved on to a self-portrait. I was really surprised with how advanced his drawings were since he hadn't done any before...it's like he skipped a few steps. His face had lots of detail-like the eyes and pupils, nose, mouth, eyebrows, hair, etc. He is also doing great with letters! He can recognize several letters and tell you their sound, and he is also starting to write his name. I'm so proud of my little man! He goes to preschool two mornings each week, but he has started to have some seperation anxiety when I drop him off. I've managed to talk him into going, but today was the most difficult. I had to actually walk him in the door instead of dropping off with the teacher like we usually do. He says he doesn't like it when his friends take his toys and that's why he doesn't like going...no one likes that! Although it breaks my heart to make him go when he wants to stay home, I know it's really the best thing for him to work through these obstacles now and learn how to deal with issues at school. I'm already starting to worry a little about him starting kindergarten, even though it's two years away, so this is good for the both of us to ease the transition! His favorite things these days are: riding his spiderman bike, riding his new skateboard, casting his fishing pole, playing with the neighbors across the street, playing baseball, running out for football passes from daddy, watching movies, and making up games and stories to share with us.

* My brother found out he is going to be a daddy! His wonderful girlfriend, Mandy, is pregnant with a baby boy. And the crazy thing is...we are due on the same day...February 16th!! I'm so excited for them and for us-since we will have a nephew and a new cousin for our boys to love on! I pray that God guides their relationship and keeps their baby healthy.

I have lots of pictures to post on here, but I'll have to do that later today/this week.

Stay tuned :)

Start Spreadin' The News!!

2010-06-21T22:41:00.002-05:00

The picture speaks for itself, but I'll go ahead and say it: baby Chiarino #3 is growing in my belly!!! We are sooo excited and thankful that we were successfull after only a month of trying--God is so wonderful! Here are the answers to all the immediate questions(I've been through this before!) :
* I am about 6 weeks along and feeling great so far! A tiny bit of queesy stomach in the morning, hardly any heartburn, and just a few hormones so far!
* We should find out (yes, we are finding out!! I'm too impatient for that!) the sex of the baby around Gabriel's birthday in mid-october.
* I'm estimating that I'm due in mid-february, but I'll find out the "due date" in a couple of weeks when I see my doc.
We realise that the thought of having 3 kids is a bit crazy to most of our friends and family (with some exceptions!) but we are pretty crazy and are so thrilled to be adding to our family. Here's the answer to your next question: we would like to have four kiddos, but if we feel like our family is complete after this little blessing we might stop at 3. Either way, we feel sooo blessed!

Harvest

2010-06-21T16:00:00.003-05:00

Our lonely strawberry rippened and I gave Christopher the honors of sampling it's sweetness. I took pictures so we could all experience it with him. I must say, his face didn't have the expression that I expected...it was a little "tart" looking.

We have also sampled a few ripened cherry tomatoes...right off the vine...doesn't get any better! I have decided that next year I am going all out with my garden...it's gonna be BIG!

Highlights

2010-06-16T11:18:00.004-05:00

Summer is in full swing here at the Chiarino house! Here are some highlights from the past two months:
* Christopher graduated from the ladybug class at preschool. Everyone likes to remind me lately that he only has two summers left before kindergarten. I'm boycotting that idea and keeping him home from preschool and big boy school forever.
* Gabriel hardly seems like a baby anymore. He and Christpher are best buds and run around laughing and playing together. I love seeing their love for each other...it makes my heart swell!
* We have started potty training Gabriel. He loves watching his brother and doing anything Christopher does, so it only seemed natural. The first thing he did was poop on the potty...then a few days later he peed. I like to call that the "breakthrough" phase. We are now in the "boycott" phase. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
* We have been spending a minimum of 2 days each week playing in the pool and jumping in the sprinkler.
* Our garden is growing...slowly but surely. We have tons of tomatoes that need to turn red soon so we can eat them! We are going to have more squash than I know what to do with. We have baby watermelons...I'm super excited about those! And our strawberry plant had two strawberries on in--Gabriel ripped one off--and now we are down to one lonely strawberry. Christopher is definately my little helper when it comes to the garden. He LOVES checking on everything and seeing how it's growing. I can't tell you how excited he is that our strawberry started turning red last night. I guess I'm going to have to let him have that one!
* That's all I can remember for now. Here are some fun summer pics to enjoy! I hope you are enjoying your summer fun!

* Oh, this picture reminded me--Chris built us a deck! It's fabulous and we are definately enjoying it!!

* Last weekend Chris was in a friends wedding. It was outside, so a little warm, but it was gorgeous and lots of fun! Doesn't she look fabulous in her dress?!

{I don't think any mama has a set of boys who are more handsome than these guys!!! I love these boys...and their daddy!}

Make Week

2010-04-22T20:09:00.002-05:00

This week we participated in "turn off the tv week" and "make week" and today was Earth Day! We have been making lots of things this week and enjoying time outside learning and exploring. It's been lots of fun and we plan to carry over to the coming weeks too. Here are some of the things we did during our week:

Monday: We planted some seeds to grow wildflowers and set them outside to start growing. I'm so excited for the boys see their sprouts come up soon! We also painted some egg cartons that we made into caterpillars with colored pipe cleaners.

Tuesday: We did some exploring on a walk around our neighborhood, looking for birds, flowers, squirrels, and caterpillars.

Wednesday: We finished making our caterpillars. We also laid out a huge piece of white paper on the ground and painted with our feet. The boys LOVED getting naked and running around with paint on their feet.

Thursday: We made a bird feeder and a watering jug out of empty milk jugs. We also planted some vegitables and flowers around the house. The boys really liked grabbing handfuls of birdseed to fill the birdfeeder and dirt for the plants.

Friday: Tomorrow we plan to make lots of fun indoors since it might be raining. We are going to make forts, make popcicles, and make believe with stories and pictures. It's sure to be lots of fun!

Here are some pictures of our painting adventure.

Oh, and I also started my compost pile...I'm so excited to make some rich nutritious dirt for our plants!

And on a side note...we got a pup from the shelter. His name is Duke and he's a beagle/boxer mix. The boys love to chase him around the yard! Here is his sweet little face...

What did you do for Earth Day? I am always looking for new ideas of things to do with my little guys!

Help! Super heros have stolen my heart!

2010-03-27T23:34:00.002-05:00

Pardon the cheesy title...I couldn't resist! Christopher, although never having watched a single Spiderman movie or show, has become infatuated with the character. He has the bike, helmet, shoes, sunglasses, swim goggles (or "boggles" as he says it), underwear, and now, after a recent trip to walmart, the jammies. Gabriel has also joined the club only because Christopher insisted that they both have a pair of spidey jammies. I must admit...they look absolutely adorable in their matching pj's!

I have noticed something lately. Can you see it? They are brothers. Buddies. Hand-in-hand, finding mischeif, loving and beating on one another - brothers. I feel so fortunate to have the chance to witness this.

And this little prince of mine is now officially done breastfeeding. We had a good long run...almost 18 months. We both loved every moment of it and we (ok, more me) were ready to move on. I miss it a little, but he still crawls into my lap, rests his hand on my chest, and lays his head on me. Those moments are always to quick for me, but he is a growing little curious on-the-move boy, and there is a world to explore.

Luck 'O The Irish...German/Italian Style

2010-03-26T10:43:00.004-05:00

We like to join in the St. Patty's fun even though we aren't Irish in the least. (I have a cousin who married an Irish girl..does that count?) The day actually snuck up on me, so I had to scramble to think of fun ways to celebrate with what we had around the house.

We started the day eating green eggs & bacon (channeling Dr. Seuss:). We made green lime jello that we saved for snack time. The boys aren't a big fan of jello, so they pretended to like it for a few pictures. We read some fun St. Patty's books, talked about the culture a little, and made some festive Irish flags to wave around in our own little parade.

Here are some pics of my little leprechauns!

Two days in a row!

2010-03-11T19:29:00.004-06:00

This little angel is to blame for the baby fever that as infected my house. Our good friends, Cammi and Jason, had a little girl about a month ago. Her name is Aryah and she is such a doll. I could snuggle and smell her for hours. Ooohhhh...I LOVE baby smells! I know, I'm kinda wierd :)

Ok, so I'm a liar...

2010-03-10T20:27:00.004-06:00

I said I woul be back to the blog, but...um, well...that just didn't happen as you all have noticed. I'm really going to try harder. We moved our computer out of the living room so I just don't get on it as much. I really need to figure out how to blog from my iPhone! Anyway, here are some pictures from today...we had a perfect day outside! In the morning, we walked around the nature center and went to storytime, then home for lunch and loooong naps, and out again for ice cream cones and playing at the park. I enjoyed relaxing and spending quality time with my precious boys! They are getting to be such good buddies...when we were walking on the trail, Christopher grabbed Gabriel's hand and they walked like that for a while..."talking" and giggling to each other and just being brothers.

We are still here!

2010-01-14T19:22:00.002-06:00

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

2009-11-27T19:32:00.003-06:00

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.

2009-11-15T21:00:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

2009-11-15T20:53:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

My Pumpkins

2009-11-02T11:45:00.015-06:00

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!

2009-10-25T19:33:00.001-05:00

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

2009-10-18T18:25:00.004-05:00

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...

2009-10-12T09:18:00.005-05:00

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!

2009-10-11T20:50:00.004-05:00

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!

2009-10-11T20:08:00.006-05:00

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

2009-10-01T21:37:00.006-05:00

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

2009-09-28T19:22:00.002-05:00

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!

2009-09-25T13:06:00.003-05:00

{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!

2009-09-25T12:56:00.004-05:00

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

2009-09-09T18:59:00.003-05:00

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!

2009-08-27T19:35:00.005-05:00

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

2009-08-10T19:04:00.005-05:00

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

2009-08-09T21:08:00.002-05:00

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?

2009-08-09T19:16:00.003-05:00

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

2009-08-03T22:05:00.002-05:00

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

2009-08-03T20:56:00.002-05:00

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

2009-07-27T20:52:00.002-05:00

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...

2009-07-26T22:03:00.002-05:00

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

2009-07-26T21:12:00.003-05:00

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!

2009-07-25T20:32:00.003-05:00

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?

2009-07-24T21:28:00.002-05:00

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

2009-07-24T16:26:00.002-05:00

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

2009-07-21T21:08:00.004-05:00

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

2009-07-19T22:55:00.005-05:00

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

2009-07-08T14:01:00.004-05:00

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

2009-07-06T18:47:00.005-05:00

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

2009-07-05T12:45:00.005-05:00

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.

2009-06-22T20:00:00.003-05:00

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...

2009-06-20T22:37:00.003-05:00

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

2009-06-19T23:19:00.002-05:00

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

2009-06-19T17:36:00.002-05:00

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!

2009-06-19T17:06:00.003-05:00

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...

2009-06-19T15:11:00.002-05:00

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!

2009-06-06T19:33:00.009-05:00

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!

2009-06-06T19:09:00.005-05:00

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!

2009-05-27T13:54:00.010-05:00

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!

2009-05-16T20:41:00.003-05:00

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!

Peek A Boo

2009-05-11T08:24:00.003-05:00

Is there anything more precious to hear than a baby laughing? Especially when it's your own baby.

Mothers Day Weekend

2009-05-10T19:20:00.008-05:00

This weekend I drove Gabriel to Edmond, Oklahoma to spend time with his Aunt Lauren and Uncle Eric. We had such a good time visiting with them and watching Gabe be his fun goofy self.

He showed them how he found his feet and tried to get them in his mouth!

He also had tons of fun playing with their weiner dog, Dexter! Dexter loved to lick all over Gabriel's face and body...which made Gabe giggle! Gabe kept trying to get Dexter to lick in his mouth...yuck!

He also tried to eat Dexter's ears! Dexter was a trooper. I think he is ready for his own baby soon ;)
Then Aunt Lauren took us Downtown to walk around a gorgeous botanical garden, called Myriad Gardens. We pushed Gabriel around in his stroller for a while and then we let him get out in the grass and play for a while. He had fun sitting up on his own (a new trick that he recently learned). He would hold on to the grass on either side of his body to help balance...so smart! :)

Inside the botanical garden is this huge "bridge" that you walk through. It like a giant greenhouse, and it is so gorgeous. You get all the beautiful plants and trees from the tropics with no deadly bugs or snakes.

Thanks Aunt Lauren and Uncle Eric for a fun weekend! We can't wait to come back and visit again!

When we got home from Oklahoma on Mother's Day, my in-laws were still in town. I had a good time visiting with them and seeing how cute baby Kyle is. Sorry...I didn't get my camera out for that! After they left to drive back home, me and the boys went to RibCrib for dinner. It was so yummy!

One of the best things about today was that Christopher told me "happy mama's day!" That was the first time I have ever heard those words from my own child and it was such a beautiful thing to hear. He is getting so big and I cherish every day that I get to spend with my little guys!

Random pictures and thoughts

2009-05-05T21:58:00.010-05:00

Gabe is not a fan of his new homework assignment! He gets lots of tummy time with his toys out of reach until he gets mad enough to do something about it. I do eventually cave and help him out a little, but that's what Moms are for! He is getting his whole belly off the floor, but not yet getting up on his knees. I hope he is crawling by the time we go to Wisconsin in June...that would be fun!

I broke out the bubbles the other day when I was about to throw all the kids out the door! Just kidding, but it is amazing how bubbles can brighten your mood! Aren't Christopher's feet so cute!

The big boys snuggling on the kitchen floor. My boys have a sensitive side!
Christopher crawled in to Gabriel's bassinett. Instead of Chris telling him to get out, he thought it would be a good idea to take pictures. Way to encourage the kid. But they are cute pictures.
If I saw a picture like this of someone else's kid I would think "Wipe that kids mouth for crying out loud!". This is what happens when you have a two year old and a 6 month old...you stop caring if their mouth has crusty food on it from lunch...and it's after naptime already! I did eventually wipe it off. (note: I still care when we are out of the house!)

Bear is such a good dog! It is so cute to see them play together.

Chris was taking a shower and I was trying to get 5 more minutes of sleep. Christopher is so good at knowing when I don't want to get out of bed and he picks these times to try things he would never get away with. I crawled out of bed, rubbed my eyes, and walked in to the bathroom to see this...

My first thought...don't cats usually crawl into sinks?

6 Month Pictures

2009-05-04T17:35:00.006-05:00

These are a few of my favorites. Some of them look so much like Christopher at 6 months!

We love cloth diapers!

2009-05-04T13:20:00.004-05:00

Everyone knows I use them, but most people are a little aprehensive about them. Once I started researching cloth diapers, I decided I had to use them. I love them because I am not putting thousands of diapers in the land for our children to deal with years down the road, I never have to run to the store because I ran out of diapers, my kids have soft cotton on their bums instead of harsh chemicals and materials that will never biodegrade, and they are cute!

Well, I have been thinking about posting some information about cloth diapers, but then I ran across this post that has everything I would have to say and then some. So, if you are interested in cloth diapers this should be fun and informative for you. If you never think you would ever use cloth diapers, read it anyway...you never know! If you have any questions, I would love to answer them for you!

Gabe's 6 month update

2009-04-29T15:38:00.008-05:00

Well, I'm so late on this that he is closer to 7 months old now, but oh well. The reason I held off posting this is because his doctor's appointment kept getting pushed back. He finally went in yesterday and now we know all of his stats. He weighs 16 lbs 2 oz and is 26 1/2" tall. That puts him between 50th and 75th percentile for height and between 25th and 50th for weight. I don't know how I have two long and thin boys...if you have ever seen a baby picture of me you would know why I'm so confused! They definately have daddy's body type when it comes to that...Chris was little until about jr high.

Gabriel is doing so much these days, it is hard to even think of all the new things to tell you about!

~He has found his toes! They are his favorite toy and it makes me laugh to see his chubby little body roll around trying to get them in his mouth. He has this funny dance that he does when he tries to get his right foot into his mouth and then his left leg starts kicking (I think he's trying to get momentum for the other foot!) and then he looses grip of the right foot and they both start kicking and he starts giggling. It's one of the cutest things I've ever seen!

~He is doing baby crunches to try and sit up when he is laying down. He's going to be a buff little baby before long! He still hasn't rolled over from his back, but both his doctor and I agree that he has the ability to, but just doesn't want to be on his belly. In an effort to give him the motivation he needs, we are giving him more time on the floor with his toys out if reach. The hard part about this is that Christopher likes to lay on his brother when he is on the floor, which is not good!

~He already has two teeth! This is great for him since he isn't a big fan of baby food. We started giving him baby rice cereal when he was about 5 months old. After about a week he liked it enough so we moved on to baby oatmeal cereal. After he mastered those, we started with green beans, then peas, brocolli, carrots, and now squash. I have also given him some applesauce and bananas. When we started with baby food, I was giving him store bought organic food because I didn't have time to make fresh baby food and the farmers market doesn't have any produce yet. That only lasted about a week. Now we are just mashing up steamed vegitables that we buy frozen. Frozen veggies aren't my favorite thing to give him, but it's all we can do right now until the farmers market gets some more stock. He likes having more texture than pureed food and is really enjoying all the flavors. He also loves to eat teathing biscuits and pieces of bread.

~He is sleeping from 6:30 or 7:00 at night until 7:00 in the morning...with zero feedings at night! Love it! We moved his basinet out of our room and he sleeps much better that way. I think we were bothering him with our noise from moving around in bed because he used to wake up once a night, but when he's not in our room he doesn't wake up at all. He also takes two naps per day; one around 9:30 and another around 12:30. He doesn't like to take evening naps, but he gets to bed early so I don't worry about it.

~He loves to play peek-a-boo and just cracks up laughing when we play games with him. He is so smiley all the time, especially when Christopher talks to him! He also talks all the time. He talks when he eats, when we are in the car, and when he plays with his toys.

~He is still nursing and we are both enjoying every day of it. I was out of town last weekend so he had to take bottles for daddy, and he did great! We were both excited when Sunday came and we could spend some mommy & baby time together.

~He has noticed Bear (our dog) lately. He loves to watch Bear and smiles when Bear looks at him. Just wait until he starts crawling...I'm sure he will chase Bear all over the house! It's a good thing Bear has learned patience in his old age.

~He is an independent littly boy who doesn't use a pacifier, bottle, or mama to go to sleep. He is so good at going to sleep on his own...just lay him down with a blanket (his favorite fuzzy white blankie) and let him do his thing.

~He grabs everything within his reach! We have to really watch what we do when we are holding him because if he is sitting in our lap while we are eating or drinking, he will try to grab it!

That is all I can think of that he is doing these days. He's tons of fun and a blessing for our family! We had his 6 month pictures taken and they turned out really cute! I will post them on here as soon as I get them from the photographer.

The Joys of Sisterhood!

2009-04-26T19:58:00.004-05:00

I just got back from a ladies retreat at Lake of the Ozarks. The theme for the weekend was "The Joys of Sisterhood" and I was blessed by my sisters is Christ this weekend! I came back from this with an amazing sense of peace that allows me to connect with the women at my church (and in my life) better than I ever have because we all now know that we are here to build one another up instead of judge each other's shortcomings or blessings. God is so good and he has blessed me so much!

I must say, it was really hard to leave all of my boys (especially with Gabe being only 6 months old), but Chris put all of my worries at ease and took wonderful care of the boys. He paid attention to their schedules, made sure they got to bed on time, and even took them to our neighborhood garage sale and bought a Little Tykes Playhouse for the backyard! I couldn't be more proud of him!

My good friends Cassi, Kelli, and Cammi were my roomies for the weekend. They endured my scheduled breast pumping sessions and didn't even freak out when I dripped breastmilk on the table! What good friends :)
This is a picture of the beautiful chapel where we had worship service on Sunday morning. The whole front is windows that looks over the cliff over the water and resort...breathtaking!

Three's Company

2009-04-22T20:09:00.005-05:00

We have been busy lately with having 3 boys in the house. The babies, Caden and Gabriel, are so cute and I have fun playing with them all day! Gabriel turned 6 months old last Sunday (on Easter). I will have pictures, the doctor update, and more info about Gabe at 6 months coming soon!
Christopher has turned in to my little helper. He helps me feed Caden and throws his diapers in the trash for me. Today, we were playing in the playroom and Christopher wanted me to play his harmonica. When I started playing, he walked over to me, put his hand on my shoulder and said "Sshh. Caden. Sleep" Last week was pretty hard for him...just learning how to handle this new adjustment, but this week he seems to be finding his niche. He was singing "rock a bye baby" all day today!
We are also trying to get this whole potty thing down, which keeps things interesting during the day :) I had to snap this picture for the scrapbook! I am really looking forward to getting lots of pages done at the next Scrap-a-palooza.

A New Adventure

2009-04-13T21:58:00.004-05:00

I have been thinking of how to earn extra income for our family while still raising our boys and staying home with them. Actually, Chris and I have been doing a lot of praying and talking about the subject...and patiently waiting for God to show us how to make this difficult task work. Well, Friday we were contacted by a family who needed full time care for their little boy and we met with them that evening. We are so excited to start watching their little boy--yes, another boy!--during the week while his Mom and Dad are at work. Today was our first day with Caden and it went really well. Of course, all three boys are learning how to deal with the new transition, as am I, but I think this new adventure is going to be a lot of fun for us! Here is a cute picture of the boys playing on the floor together. Christopher thinks he has a new baby brother...it's so cute! The only sad thing about this is that Christopher can no longer to go the preschool at our church since I can't get all three kids out of the house in my car. We are really disappointed about it because he enjoyed going to school at church and he will miss his friends, but we are trying to figure out a way to get him there next school year, which starts in September. Hopefully we can make it work! In the meantime, we are staying busy with our new little buddy.

Coloring Eggs

2009-04-11T19:14:00.009-05:00

Well, we started out with a bunch of these...

then Christopher wanted to do this by himself, and actually did so without making a mess.

And then we did some more until...

we had all of our eggs colored. How beautiful! Doesn't it just make you think "springtime"!?

We had so much fun working on this together!

Gabriel had fun watching us and playing with his toys. And Daddy had fun playing photographer.

What a handsome little guy!

We can't wait for tomorrow when we get to find them! Oh...what fun :)

Wounded Soldier

2009-04-11T19:09:00.003-05:00

Lately Christopher thinks that any little thing needs a bandaid, or as he calls it, a "banaid". He told Daddy that he had an owee on his head, so Daddy got the ace bandage out of the closet and wrapped Christopher's head. I cracked up laughing when I saw it...he looks like he either had a face lift or is a wounded war veteran. He even has the pitiful looking face to match!

Gabe's First Day of Sunday School

2009-04-10T14:50:00.003-05:00

So, this quarter at church I am teaching the baby class in Sunday School. It was timed perfectly because Gabriel is almost 6 months old so he can start going to the class. Last Sunday was our first time and it was so exciting...probably more for me than for him! The class is 6 months to 2 years old, but most of them are on the younger end of that.

This is what we do in class:

* We start out by giving the kids cheerios as their parents drop them off. (Gabe will have to wait a while for that!)

* The we introduce all the kids so they can become familiar with each other.

* We sing songs about Jesus and God and other fun things. While we sing, the kids get to play with a little toy that goes along with the song.

*After we sing songs, we say a little prayer and then let the kids get down and play until their parents come to pick them up.

I'm so excited to be able to experience Gabriel doing this...it worked out so great! After my 3 months is over he will be in class with the new teacher and Christopher will go to his class. That means I can just sit in adult class and learn...with no babies on my lap! That will be a new experience for me! :)

Preschool Easter Party!

2009-04-10T14:10:00.008-05:00

Christopher's preschool at church had an Easter party for all the kids on Thursday. Even though he wasn't feeling the best, we still were able to come up just for the party. We got there just in time...they were just on their way to hunt for eggs when we got to his classroom. The weather was getting a little rainy, so instead of hunting outside on the playground, they did it in the sanctuary. It was so funny to see all the pews covered in eggs!
Here is Christopher waiting patiently with the rest of his class, the Ladybugs, to get their eggs.

And he's off! The tricky part of the whole thing was limiting their eggs. The older classes were coming in after us to hunt for eggs also, so each child had to find 10 eggs and then stop. Try explaining that to a two year old!

After the hunt, Christoher and his friend Gracie sat down to open their eggs together. He did so well...even after I told him he couldn't eat any of the candy! It was a good thing because after the hunt they went back to the class and had the party. I now know that a party for two year olds means giving them lots of sugar! Get 'em sugared up and send 'em home!

Candy!

Jumping Beans...

2009-04-05T19:50:00.005-05:00

Christopher had two birthday parties this weekend...and both of them had big inflatables for jumping around. Needless to say, he was in heaven! He could jump for hours until his little cheeks get rosy and he's dripping sweat! These pictures are from Gracie's party. Gracie and her mommy used to watch Christopher when I first started back to work when he was about 5 months old, so Gracie thinks Christopher is her little baby...even though he's not a baby anymore! When all the kids piled on this chair for a picture, Gracie had to make sure that Christopher was sitting in her lap...so cute!

Our good friend, Jason was Christopher's jumping buddy all afternoon. He would go up to him, tap his leg, and say "Jas help" because he wanted to go in the big obstacle course inflatables. They had such a good time together!

Here is the princess and her prince charming!
He is getting so big! Every day he does something that surprises me, whether it's doing something sweet and thoughtful for his brother or saying a new sentence that he's never said before. His little brain is just in overdrive right now with all the things he takes in each day!

It is so awesome to see him develop friendships with so many people...it really makes the phrase, "it takes a villiage to raise a child" make sense because all of these people have a big impact on his personality and growth! Thank you to everyone who loves my kids...you are so special to us!

Learning to Dress Yourself is Complicated!

2009-04-03T16:19:00.004-05:00

I just had to take this picture! Christopher decided to take his shorts and underwear off just to put them back on all by "self" as he says. Well...I don't know if you can quite tell in the picture, but he has both legs through one leg in the underwear and shorts. So Funny!

Just so you know...before I was done posting this, he asked me to help him fix them! I didn't think that looked very comfortable :)

New Favorites!

2009-04-02T11:48:00.005-05:00

We are a bunch of growing boys around here and we have lots of new favorite things! Gabriel's new favorite is his Jumper...he loves to jump in it and laugh and look around the house. He loves being able to sit up and be independent. He's our little jumping bean!
One of Chrisopher's favorite things right now is enjoying the beautiful weather outside, and one of his favorite things to do outside is draw with his sidewalk chalk. He has gone a long way since last year...he very rarely puts it in his mouth now! :)

Mommy's favorite time is naptime! Most days Christopher and Gabriel take a nap at the same time...which I love! They are both getting so big and independent. I love how their relationship is developing! Gabriel laughs at Christopher all the time and Christopher loves to help mommy with Gabriel. Gabriel is working on getting bigger than Christopher so he can get him back for being a little too rough sometimes...oh brother! I love my little guys so much!

Let's Go Fly A Kite!

2009-03-30T19:45:00.005-05:00

This afternoon was a little too windy to take the boys for a walk in the stroller, so instead we decided to break out one of Christopher's birthday presents that he hasn't used yet. He got a Mickey Mouse kite and it was the perfect day for kite flying! I got it started and then handed it off to Christopher to navigate on his own. He was so amazed and excited about the independence it gave him to hold it all my himself. After all, his favorite word right now is "self"...because he is an independent two year old who has to try everything first before I can help him.
He really got it up there! We did have a few mishaps...like when it got stuck in the neighbors tree! But nothing I couldn't fix :)

And then the wind started to die down...and distruction occured! The string came crashing to the ground all around Christopher. He tried to pick it up and run, thinking he could get the kite back up in the air. And this is what happened...

Serious entaglement folks! Of course, instead of running to his aide I stood there and laughed for a minute and then realized I was missing a great photo opportunity! I did finally help him free...then we called it a day and went inside to have dinner. What a fun time!

Rainy Saturday Morning

2009-03-21T08:34:00.002-05:00

I just put the baby down for his morning nap and we are enjoying this lazy Saturday morning. Christopher woke us up early this morning, but Gabriel actually slept from 7:30 last night until about 6:30 this morning(thanks to big brother:). After we changed their diapers, Chris made me a cup of coffee and we all piled back in to bed and watched "Willy Wonka". We actually only watched about 15 minutes of the movie, but it was so nice to have the four of us in bed, relaxing, and enjoying each other's company. I love Saturday mornings! We were planning on going to Silver Dollar City this morning, but since it's raining I think we will just work on putting the huge pile of laundry away. Is is sad that putting laundry away sounds more enjoyable than wadding through a crowded amusement park with two cranky boys?

St. Patty's Day

2009-03-18T16:26:00.003-05:00

For St. Patrick's Day we dressed the boys in their matching green outfits from cousin Kate. They looked so cute! We threw a blanket on the grass and played in the front yard all afternoon.

Take A Quiz!

2009-03-13T16:02:00.004-05:00

See if you can tell who is who! :) There is one picture of Christopher & one of Gabriel both around 4 months old. It is so neat to see how they look alike!

G Man

2009-03-09T16:05:00.003-05:00

This is the nickname that we have given to Gabriel. Actually it was Chris who started calling him this and it has stuck around. So now we have G man and Little man!

Just thought I would give you all an update on what Gabriel is doing lately. He will be 5 months old on Thursday! His weight is well over 13 pounds...probly pushing 14. He loves to drink milk and it shows! I think next month we will start with some solid foods. His doctor recommended waiting until he was closer to 6 months as long as he seems satisfied on milk.

He is rolling onto his back and almost rolled onto his belly. He loves to watch his big brother play...and he laughs when Christopher talks to him! He likes to chew on his blanket and he is saying more sounds now. Just the other day I think I heard him say either "gaga" or "dada"...not sure, but it was awesome! His eyes light up when his daddy is holding him...just like christopher-they LOVE daddy! He laughs when we eat his belly...so much fun:)

He is still sleeping in the bassinet in our bedroom, but he has now officially graduated from being swaddled! He loved to be swaddled and I loved it because all I had to do was lay him down and he would fall asleep. Now that he is used to the freedom he is back to falling asleep on his own most of the time.

In a nutshell...he is doing really good. We are blessed to have him and enjoy watching him grow every day!

King of the castle & soaking up the sun!

2009-03-05T15:30:00.003-06:00

Let me just say that the desktop weather on my computer says it is 75 outside! We are so thankful to be able to get outside in the beautiful sunshine and play! I took some pictures yesterday after naptime when me & the boys were out playing in the backyard. Christopher had fun climbing to the top of his fort and throwing balls off. Gabriel chilled out in his bouncy chair and watched Bear most of the time. He is so relaxed outside...he just loves it! Christopher was the exact same way as a baby:)

Here he is peaking through the hole in his fort. He kept pushing the ball through it...then he would giggle like he did something really neat!

Mr. Potato Head

2009-02-28T12:40:00.004-06:00

After lunch today, I was putting Gabriel down for his nap and I noticed that Christopher was being really quiet. I snuck down the hall to see what he was doing...camera in hand...and found him sitting on the floor in his play room with Mr. Potato head. He got this toy for his birthday and he loves it so much!
So, this is the masterpiece that was created! Pretty halarious!

And then he's off...

He ran off to show daddy what he had made, but Chris had just left to coach a basketball game at church. I felt so bad for him! We are saving it to show daddy after Christopher wakes up from his nap.

Well, the house is totally quiet right now, so I'm going to take advantage of my time. I hear some dove dark chocolate calling my name!

Christopher's first day of preschool

2009-02-26T16:34:00.003-06:00

So, Tuesday was Christopher's first day of preschool. Our church has a preschool for 2 and up that meets on Tuesdays & Thursdays from 10:00-2:00. I wanted to keep him home with me, but he loves spending time with other kids, and since I'm not working anymore he doesn't do that on a regular basis. I knew that having a short amount of structured play time with other children would really do him good. So, we went and got him a little lunch box and packed his backpack with all the essentials. When we got there, he was walking down the hallway carrying his backpack and lunchbox and he made sure to say "hi" to each person he saw. When a mommy or daddy would ask him how he was doing he would say "good"...so sweet! When we got to his classroom he just walked right in and found a ball...that's my boy:) I stayed around for a while but he didn't pay any attention to me. He enjoyed being there and is learning the names of his new teachers and friends. I will keep you all updated on how this new venture goes for him. I expect that it will be a great experience for him and allow me to spend more time with Gabriel (and get some extra house work done:)

Fun times in Feb...

2009-02-24T18:55:00.005-06:00

We have been enjoying the boys this week. Gabriel is getting so big and it's just awesome to watch him do new things. He has started talking a lot...he makes all kinds of goofy faces when he does it:) He still chews on his fingers all the time. Christopher loves to tell me everything he does. He tells me when the baby laughs, talks, chews, or poops. It's like my own personal alert system:) Tonight the boys watched a little bit of Shrek together...Gabriel was laying on Christopher's back...so sweet!

The boys took their first bath together on Sunday. It was really short because Gabriel got a little overstimulated and needed to relax. Afterward, they both got baby massages...what a life!

Today was Christopher's first day at preschool. Our church has a preschool program on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:00-2:00. Since he is two years old now he can start going. He had a blast, but I had a hard time letting go:) I will post pictures of school later.

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T23:09:00.005-06:00

Our Valentine's Day was lots of fun. We started the day by making heart shaped pancakes...yummy! The table was decorated all pretty and we broke out or wedding crystal stemwear just for fun. Then I headed off for the spa! Chris got me a facial, pedi, & mani...so fabulous! It was pretty much all I needed for a nice Valentine's Day, but that wasn't all!

So, after the spa, Chris had to coach a basketball game at church. We had lasagna for dinner with Mimi & the boys, then Mommy & Daddy went out for some fun. We got all dressed up and headed downtown to the new movie theater to watch "Taken". It was an awesom movie! It had my heart racing from the beginning...I would definately see it again.

After the movie, we had reservations at Fedora-a fondue restaurant downtown. I was super excited about this because I LOVE fondue. I don't know what else to say about the experience, except that it was completely disapointing! I'm so sad to say it, but it was just a bad experience. We got there at 8:30, ordered an appetizer of cheese fondue, a bowl of soup, and a dessert fondue. We got our soup at 9:30 and our appetizer at 9:55. We never got the dessert fondue. We were pretty disapointed, but what can you do! The waitress said they had never been so busy before, but hello...reservations! They new they were going to be busy. Oh well. We will probly just make fondue at home next time.

Even with the bad restaurant experience, we still had a great day.
Today I thought a lot about my mom...it's been 20 years since she passed away. I love her and miss her so much.

I hope everyone had a wonderful day...big or small! Happy Valentine's Day everyone...we love you!

Don't eat the yellow snow :)

2009-02-12T20:10:00.000-06:00

Wow...it has been 3 weeks since I posted anything! Where has the time gone? We have been pretty busy around here and going through some change as well. Chris got a new job as an employee for the State of MO in the Children's Division. He had his first day on Tuesday and so far he is loving it. It's great for our family because he can come home sometimes on his lunch and he gets lots of paid vacations. I have been doing a lot of "mommy things", like scrapbooking and exercising with my new buddy Teresa. It feels good to make time just for me. I haven't taken very many pictures lately, but I forgot to post the pictures from our "snow ice cream" snack that we made during the big snow. It was fun and nastalgic, but Christopher didn't really like the taste, so I ended up giving him a scoop of vanilla...oh well.
Mimi is coming up on Saturday to watch the boys for us. Chris and I have some fun plans for Valentine's Day, so I will post picture and tell all about that in a few days. The boys go to the doctor tomorrow for their check-ups, so I will let you all know how that goes.

Scrappin' Away

2009-01-27T22:21:00.000-06:00

Here are some pages that I have been doing recently. I don't usually use pre-made sketches on my pages, but lately I have been. I think it helps me get them done faster because I don't just sit and stare at a page for an hour and think of what I want to do. I think I am more proud of the pages that I sketch myself, but in the end they all look good. This is copied from a page that Scrapbook Generation had done as one of their montly kit pages. I just looked at theirs and tried to replicate the tree...I think it looks really neat.

I used a sketch out of a magazine for this one...but I turned it into a 2-page layout.

I actually didn't use a sketch for this one, and at first I didn't like it very much, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

This is also a Scrapbook Generation stetch. I still need to add a picture to it. I actually copied this one exactly, which I rarely do on sketches.

This is an older page that I did. I was just looking through an album and remembered how much I love this page!

I just finished this one. I don't really like doing 1 page layouts, but I really like this. I used a sketch out of the October issue of Creating Keepsakes.

Snow Day and Hillbilly Sledding!

2009-01-27T16:59:00.000-06:00

We spent most of they day cooped up in the house playing with dinosaurs, reading books, and playing with pretend food. This morning when Gabriel was playing on the floor, Christopher laid down next to him and asked me to "tuck them in tight" with the blanket. I went to grab the camera and when I came back Christopher was rubbing the baby's head...so precious! For some reason blogger uploaded the photo flipped like this and I can't figure out how to fix it...oh well:)

Then when Daddy got home from work, they got all bundled up to go out and play in the snow/ice. I looked out the window to see what they were doing and I see them in the neighbor's driveway, pushing Christopher down in a laundry basket. It was about the funniest thing I've ever seen. I had to go see for myself, so I threw on my coat and grabbed the camera. Christopher was having the best time! Brian, our neighbor, would push him down and Christopher was giggling the entire way down the driveway. Then me and Kendra had to try it! It was pretty halarious, but thankfully no one took pictures of that!

Scrapbooking madness!

2009-01-26T00:01:00.000-06:00

Ever since I spent last Saturday at Scrap-a-palooza I have been in the mood to scrap! I've gotten quite a few pages done in the past week. I usually work on them after the boys go to bed...and I have been doing about one every other day or so. It feels good to get pages done. I actually need to buy more albums because I've run out of room!
I just did this page tonight. I have been using a lot of sketches from magazines lately, but this one was just done on a whim. I arranged the pictures and it all came together. I will try to take pictures of other pages I've done this week and post them on here.

Inauguration Day

2009-01-20T22:13:00.000-06:00

I'm not exactly one of Barack's top supporters, but I am proud to be witnessing the history that was made today. Even though the boys are too little to remember, I look forward to telling them about what took place today. I hope that my doubts are wrong, and this day is the start of a positive change for our country. After all, we are leaving these problems to our children and grandchildren...I hope we can start to fix them before we pass them on.

Time for a wedding!

2009-01-19T13:41:00.000-06:00

Chris' sister, Nicole, got engaged on Christmas Day. Kyle is her fiance and he's a great guy! When they came up to Springfield a few weeks ago, I shot some pictures for them to use as engagement photos. I'm no professional, but I think they turned out pretty nice. These are just a few of my favorites. The wedding will probly be a couple years from now, so they can save up money. But you know me...I've already started planning it for her! I love weddings :)

Happy Birthday Christopher!

2009-01-18T19:53:00.000-06:00

Well...Christopher is officially two years old and we rang in the big day in a big way! We had a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party with lots of friends and family! Everyone had a lot of fun...especially when Mickey Mouse himself arrived at the party to surprise Christopher.

Scrap-a-palooza

2009-01-18T19:33:00.001-06:00

My wonderful husband gave me a ticket to an all day mega scrapbooking crop that took place on Saturday. I didn't get to bed until 1:00am the night before, so I wasn't in the best scrapbooking mood, but I tried my best to make some decent pages. It ended up being a really fun time and I'm pretty happy with the pages I made. You can't see much detail on the pictures, but you can get a basic idea.

Family time in 09 :)

2009-01-06T19:44:00.000-06:00

During the first week of the new year we have enjoyed spending a lot of time together as a family since Chris has been off work. Here are some pictures of what we have been doing.

Gabriel loves his bunny...Thanks Aunt Jen!Having some tummy time...and giving mommy a big smile!
Christopher and Daddy have been building forts and hiding.
Chris has been trying to fix the heater the past few days and Christopher loves to use his new tools to "help" daddy! He climbed all the way up the ladder with his toy drill in one hand and a flashlight in the other. What a handy man!

Is it true...

2009-01-06T19:33:00.000-06:00

that Christopher is already turning 2?! Yep, on January 18 as a matter of fact. I can't let my little guy turn 2 years old without having a celebration with friends and family. Here is an open invite to all of our family and friends who are able to come. We would love to have you!

We are having a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party at 3:00pm on Sunday, January 18. I will be in the gym at our Church. If you want to come and need directions, give me a call at 459-2264.

Christmas Morning Pictures

2009-01-01T23:05:00.001-06:00

I'm sitting on the couch while Chris plays a video game...and I figured this is a great time to get some more pictures on here. The boys are sleeping in their beds and I have a few minutes before I crash!

Christmas morning was so much fun this year! Christopher is still young enough to not be so excited that he wakes up at 4am Christmas morning wanting to open gifts...which I am very thankful for. We all woke up around 8:00, I got the cameras out and we walked into the living room. The tree was all lit up with gifts piled all around and the stockings were stuffed. It was so awesome to feel the magic of Christmas morning through Christopher's eyes. It is something I will definately look forward to each year. So, as you can imagine, the wrapping started flying! Christopher was fortunate this year because he got to open his AND Gabriel's gifts..since Gabriel can't really do it himself. He had a lot of fun, but after opening a few toys he decided he wanted to play with them and didn't care as much for opening any more. He got lots of toys that I am excited to play with...like a kitchen, tools, and a wagon. He also got a few books and clothes. Gabriel got lots of baby toys, a pair of shoes, and a Bumbo chair. I got a gift certificate for the scrapbook store as well as a seat at an upcoming scrapbook event...Daddy knows what I like!

After we tore open the gifts, we sat down for breakfast. I cooked an egg casserole and a french toast casserole. Then we had to finish packing the car to drive down to Mountain Home. I tried to pile all of the gifts in the wagon so they weren't spread all over, but Christopher decided he wanted to pull everything out of the wagon. I just waited until everyone was buckled up in the car and then I ran back inside and threw it all back in the wagon! You have to be tricky when you have a 2 year old!

I am so thankful that I was able to spend Christmas morning with my favorite people...my husband, kids, and my brother. I couldn't ask for anything more.

Of course, I had to video tape the morning! I can't wait to watch that tape later:)

Christopher digging through the pile, trying to decide what to do next.

This picture was taken after Christopher pulled everything out of the wagon at least 3 times!

Anti-Resolutions

2009-01-01T17:02:00.000-06:00

I couldn't let the day go by without writing something on the blog. We have spent the first day of 2009 being as lazy as possible. It has given me lots of time to think about what a new year means to me. I don't usually do New Years Resolutions. I think they are pointless because I am always trying to improve, so I don't typically take time at the new year to think of what needs to be improved in my life. However, this past year my life got busier than it ever has. I think I need to take a step back and think about what is holding me and my family back from enjoying our lives. So, here are a few things that I will try to do this year...

*live more simply, meaning just enjoying the very simple things in life like my husband and kids. I want to stop thinking of fun things we can do and just enjoy being together.
*I want to fill myself up with good things. This include a lot of ideas, but mainly I need to take better care of myself through my God, food, hobbies, and friends. I also need to take more time to scrapbook my family pictures. If I give myself more time to scrapbook and fill myself up with good things I will be better able to care for the needs of my family.

There are lots of other things that I want to do right now, like lose the 10 pounds I gained this holiday season, watch less tv, and do some traveling with the family. I wouldn't call them resolutions, more like items on my evergrowing to-do list. Anyway, I wanted to write the important things down on here so I can remind myself of them as the time goes by.

Also, we had a wonderful Christmas and I will write about it and post pictures later on...maybe tomorrow:)

Congratulations Chris!

2008-12-21T21:36:00.001-06:00

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

2008-12-15T14:17:00.001-06:00

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!

2008-12-09T14:03:00.000-06:00

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

2008-12-05T14:23:00.000-06:00

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!

Gabriel is one month old!

2008-11-08T19:41:00.000-06:00

Is it possible that he has been here for a month already? Time has gone by so fast. I am so blessed to have two beautiful healthy boys and I could not be any happier! Gabriel is such a blessing to our family and we are having such a wonderful time getting to know him. He is pretty laid back, but if he wants something he lets us know. These are some things he has done this month:
* rolled over from his belly to his back
* he is lifting his head pretty well
* he has gone to ArtWalk downtown...he slept in the sling the whole time!
* he is starting to take the pacifier a little bit, but sometimes it makes him gag
* he loves having his feet rubbed...it calms him down
* he smiles, but not not for any apparent reason
* he has slept on papa Mark's house boat
* he met his new cousin, Kyle, who is 2 weeks younger
* he went on his first out of town trip...to Mtn Home

Aren't these pictures so sweet! I had so much fun taking them. He fell asleep on my chest while we were rocking, so I laid him down on his blanket and snapped away. He is so precious!

What's happening

2008-11-08T19:06:00.000-06:00

The Chiarino house has been very busy over the last few weeks. Here are some pictures of what we have been up to...

Christopher did some sponge painting. As he was dabbing the sponge on the paper, he would say "pat pat pat". He is getting so smart!
Every morning when Christopher gets up, the three of us snuggle in my bed. Sometimes we watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but Christopher always wants to hold his brother and give him kisses. It's so adorable and it makes me remember every single morning how blessed I am.

Here is a picture of Christopher and Daddy feeding Gabriel his first bottle of breastmilk.

Of course Christopher didn't actually vote, but he and Gabriel went with us to the polls to vote. It was a pretty exciting time and I am looking forward to them being old enough to understand the importance of voting.
Here is a picture of one of Christopher's friends who lives down the street. He had such a blast riding in her pink Barbie Cadillac! I'm not looking forward to seeing this in 15 more years!

Halloween

2008-11-08T18:51:00.000-06:00

We did lots of fun activties for Halloween this year. Obviously it was Gabriel's first Halloween and it was also baby Kyle's first Halloween...he was born one week before Halloween. Kyle is Nicole's baby, and he is two weeks younger than Gabe...but look at the size difference in the picture! Kyle is on the left and Gabriel is on the right. I thought Gabe was little until I saw them next to each other.

We took the boys to the Dickerson Park Zoo Spooktacular. Christopher dressed up in his cow costume and got candy from the animals. We also went to our church's fall festival. It was a lot of fun for Christopher because they had a ton of games he could play.

Here is a cute picture of Gabriel in his pumpkin outfit that our neighbor Kendra bought him.

Two Weeks...

2008-10-25T16:14:00.000-05:00

Wow, the past two weeks have just been amazing! I can't believe Gabriel is two weeks old already. We have had lots of help around the house, with Mimi, Dani, and Lauren coming to visit. Things are definately falling into a routine already. I don't know how I got so blessed, but Gabriel and Christopher actually take naps at the same time. I'm not sure how long it will last, but I'm loving it for now. Christopher loves to hold his brother and give him kisses. Gabriel is such a good baby...so snuggly and happy! Anyway, here are some pictures of what we have been up to in the past two weeks. We are off to the zoo tonight for the Spooktakular and then our Church's fall festival tomorrow...so I'll post those pictures soon.Christopher had a blast painting the pumpkins we got from Aunt Penne's pumpkin patch!

The weather was great last week, so we let baby Gabe get some sun on his belly. We had so much fun just sitting on the blanket and watching our new little guy.

We took these pictures just after I gave him his first bath...he's all fresh and clean. He really doesn't like his paci, which is a huge difference from his brother who LOVED his. We offer it to him occasionally, but he's pretty content without it.

Visitors

2008-10-18T14:02:00.001-05:00

We had lots of friends and family who wanted to come see our new baby boy. I wanted to post just a few pictures of the visitors to the hospital .
My dad and his girlfriend, Dani, came up from Mtn Home.

Pam and Dalen, our good friends from church.

Papa Mark with his second grandbaby...and they have the same middle name!
Uncle Mat, our friend from church.
Uncle Sheldon, Chris' best friend
Chris' mom, Mimi, with grandbaby number 3...and four is coming soon.
And this is Dr. Scarrrow...she delivered Gabriel because Dr. Lehnert was off for the day.

Professional Pictures

2008-10-17T12:27:00.001-05:00

We got some pictures taken the day before Gabriel was born, and then this past Thursday we got some more taken with our larger family. The link to view and purchase the pictures is: www.seemyprints.com. Type in our last name: chiarino. Then enter your email address and you can see our pictures...hope you like. I will get back on here and post some more pictures that we have taken as soon as I get a chance.
Things are going well around here. Chris' mom is helping keep our house clean...what a big help! Chris is busy with Christopher and I am busy with Gabriel. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to do all this by myself next week, but we will figure it out.