Thanksgiving

We spent a wonderful week with our family in Manteca for Thanksgiving! The cousins loved being together and hopefully have forgiven one little person for leaving a few bite marks :/ ... We relaxed, ate too much, planned a family reunion, slept in, went on walks, went on a date, celebrated Christmas and Papa's birthday and got lots of hugs and kisses. It was wonderful!

Jon took these beautiful photos of the kids. Thanks Jon!

 Ava LOVED holding Grady, and that is an understatement. Her first words every morning were "Can I hold Grady?" Thank you Ava for taking such good care of your cousin!

 Uncle Brian came to visit, bringing Christmas gifts to everyone. Thanks Uncle Brian for spoiling us!

 We had a relaxing Thanksgiving day 

One night we left the kids and had a quiet date- so sweet to have time alone with my man

 Papa had a fun surprise for the boys and had one of the Uncles restore this bike and trailer for the boys in Mets colors- isn't it fun?! 

 Annual Cousin Christmas PJ shot and celebrating Christmas 

 Weston received the biggest toy airplane and here Gabe is showing his excitement by hugging his new Cozy Truck- such a goofball!

Now we are home making it look like Christmas

Little Love

Our fabulous brother-in-law is quite handy with his camera and just sent me these gems from when we welcomed our little guy into the world! Just thought I would share :)

It's been so wonderful and crazy going from a family of 4 to a family of 5. The boys just continue to love and kiss on their baby and are so sweet to run to comfort Grady when he cries. Such a sweet and full season with so much to be grateful for!

( and in case I paint too perfect a picture there are days of sleep deprivation and one little boy who likes to make a mess while I nurse- including poo poo on the rug and half a bottle of soap in his hair...which he sweetly replied "I was taking a bath mommy!")

So Much

Romans 11:36- " For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory foreverAmen. "

There is only one source for everything and that is our awesome God! I am so overwhelmed when I look around and see how blessed we are. Our closets, kitchens and schedules are overflowing with good things and we always have more than we need.

This thanksgiving I'm reminded once again to look around me and give glory to God and no one else. I'm thankful for loving parents who sacrifice their time and money to love and care for us, a home with a yard for our energetic boys and nice neighbors to live by, a church that teaches us God's word and how to love Him more deeply, a husband who works hard and joyfully to provide for us, sweet children to fill my days with work and laughter, and on top of all this I have hope in a glorious future with Christ because of His sacrifice and resurrection for my sins- amazing!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Birthdays

Gabe and I almost share a birthday! I turned 31 (oh my) on the 6th and Gabriel turned 3 on the 9th. I hope to post more pics soon but this will have to do...
Gabriel loves the British cheeky show "Wallace and Grommit" : a darling series made from clay about a cheese loving inventor and his dog. It was so fun to have a British themed day for him and my mom when all out in showering him with Wallace and Grommit stuff- he received stuffed dolls, a tea mug, new movies and even a chef's apron to wear while helping me in the kitchen!
Instead of cake I made a berry fool which is a mixture of whipped cream, crushed meringue cookies and fresh berries for our berry loving babe.

It was fun to have a relaxing day with just us loving on our cheeky little guy- he's quite the character these days! His vocabulary has exploded recently,and although sometimes a challenge, he has kept us until our faces hurt.
He loves to sing, play any kind of game that involves tackling, chasing, jumping, running... And does everything himself these days.
We love our feisty big eyed boy and all the love he has to give. He is soooo affectionate and freely gives kisses and "I love you's" away - it's precious!
We pray that his passionate love of life will turn into a passionate love for The Lord and that his desire to make people laugh will someday be a tool in drawing people to Christ!

Oh and we had to sing the happy birthday 3 times so he could keep blowing out his candle ;)

1 month!

Our peanut is one month already! Can't believe how blessed we are with this sweet guy. He is such an easy baby and a joy to our family. We thank The Lord every day for you Grady- happy one month birthday

1st road trip

We had a staff retreat in the mountains and this little guy slept the entire 3 hour drive there and back!

Pumpkins

Daddy was so sweet to keep the boys entertained and thought of some fun things to do while Grady and I rested. The boys carved pumpkins for the first time and they loved it.

Gabriel was so cute and treated the pumpkin like a baby after it had the face carved into it :)

Loving our Baby

We have been so blessed to have had so much help from our family over the last 3 weeks. My mom leaves tomorrow and I will be on my own with the 3 boys for the first time...we will see how it goes :)

Andrew's family was here first and we had so much fun with them!

Nanni snuggles

Weston was the 1st one at home to hold Grady, it was such a sweet moment. He was awestruck and just quietly held him for a while

It took Gabriel a couple days to want to actually hold him but now he can't stop snuggling his brother

After a few days of rest we had lots of fun friends come and meet Grady! 

Our amazing neighbors the Langs

Kathy and Katy-Beth have become part of the family and watch the boys often for me. Kathy was with Weston and Gabriel the night Grady was born and stayed until Nanni could get here. It was so sweet for them to meet Grady!

Auntie Marci giving a diaper change lesson

The cousins doing a craft in the garage

Thank you so much to Nanni, Papa, Auntie Marci, Uncle Jon, Joy and Ava for being here when Grady was born! You helped so much and made this time so special for us. 

We had a few days after Andrew's family left before my mom arrived, so we did a lot of snuggling with Grady and Daddy...

As well as Grady's first check up. He's doing great and growing like a weed!