Time for a wedding!

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!

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

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 :)

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...

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

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

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!

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.