Congratulations Chris!

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

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

Gabriel's Two Month Check-Up

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

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

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

Christmas is coming!

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

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

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

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

Thanksgiving at the Chiarino's

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

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

Gabriel is one month old!

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

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

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...

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

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

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.

Gabriel Steven has arrived!

Sunday, October 12 at 4:19pm Gabriel came into this world. He weighed 7 lb 10 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long. I started having contractions in the middle of the night and we decided to drive to the hospital when they were getting stronger, around 7:00 in the morning. Chris thinks I'm crazy because I got out of bed and started getting ready and cleaning the house before we left for the hospital...women understand what I was doing though! Anyway, when we arrived, they told me I was dilated to 4 cm, so we started walking around to keep things moving, and before long, we decided to break my water. Well, then the contractions really started on strong. Not too long after that, I decided to get my epidural...I was dilated to around 7 cm by then. Well, after about another 2 hours or so the nurse checked me and told me I was 9 cm. Everyone had left the room, including Chris-to get a snack with Christopher. So, as soon as the nurse left the room I started feeling like I needed to push...and I was in the room alone! I called Chris, but his phone was dead...then I called the nurse. She checked me and said I was fully dilated and ready to push. About 5 minutes later Chris strolled into the room to find out how my progress was. He walked into a room full of nurses and delivery equipment. They locked the door behind him and told him that we were having a baby! I pushed about 4 times...no kidding...and Gabriel was born. I was so amazed at how fast everything happened. We are home now and so thankful for our beautiful healthy baby boy. He looks alot like his big brother, but his personality seems a little more laid back. Christopher is doing well also. He loves giving his little brother kisses and always wants to share his blanket with him.

Belly Pictures

We decided to take advantage of this wonderful fall weather, so we headed to the park to take pictures of the belly before it goes away! I haven't taken as many pictures of my belly this time around, and I have none of Christopher with me, so I had to take a few to remember what it was like to be pregant and have Christopher at this age.

It is such a fun time for him right now. He learns new words every single day and he is so proud of his new communication skills. He loves to learn and see new things. He reminds me of myself a little bit because he seems to be growing up so fast...I know I was like that when I was little. I am going to try to show him how to enjoy things in the present instead of always looking forward...something I'm learning as an adult!

Hopefully the next pictures I post on here will include our new baby! Stay tuned...

Fall Fun!

On September 25, my dad turned 50 so Christopher and I drove down to surprise him...along with some family from Wisconsin. We had to stop by Aunt Penne's nursery so Christopher could pick out some pumpkins. He had to help water the plants and pull the pumpkins in the wagon. He always has so much fun with Aunt Penne!

This is all of the family who drove from Wisconsin to surprise him for his birthday. It was a lot of fun and he was definitely surprised. He also liked Christopher's shirt that said "I love my papa".

Pregnancy Update

I had an appointment today and I am dilated to 1 cm! I'm so excited, even though it still could be a while. I'm just happy that what I was feeling was right. In a way I want it to happen soon, but we are having family pictures taken on October 11, so I don't want it to happen before then. He is kicking like crazy and I feel like he's trying to come out already, but he needs to stay in a for a bit longer. Well, hope you like the recent belly picture...it's huge!

We're back...

I can't believe it has been a year since I have posted anything on here. I don't even think anyone reads this, but I woul feel better if I started putting pictures on here again so people can see how big Christopher (and soon Gabriel too) is getting. I used to have a lot of trouble uploading pictures on here, but I'll give it another try. Hopefully I'll make the time to get on here more often. :)

This is a picture of Christopher riding the pony at the county fair last month. I think I enjoyed it more than he did...he just went along for the ride!

Playing at the Jordan Valley Fountains! It was so much fun!