Photo Update

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!

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!!

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

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...

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!

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

Here's a fun picture for now...

A Chiarino Thanksgiving

Ingredients:

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

2 home-made turkey hats for two little turkeys

1 two year old soux chef

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

Watching balloons and tackles on tv

Lots of lovin from the oven! :)

Combine ingredients to create a wonderful blessed day of thanks.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

My Pumpkins

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

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

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

And here are the masterpieces!

Christopher LOVES his little pumpkin!

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


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

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

I'm so mean!

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

This was taken at our fall festival at church tonight.

I need to perfect the face paint :)

Loving Autumn

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

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

The boys painted some mini-pumpkins on Friday.

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

Christopher is such a little artist!

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

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