Presents,Cookies,Presents,Cake,Presents & MORE CAKE…………

What a busy month we had in December and into the New Year!

~SETH~

My sweet Little Baby Seth Turned 1 on December 23rd!!!!!! I can NOT believe how fast this year has gone…amazing! We had an ice cream cake for him and he was fine until we are started singing to him and then he began to cry…awwww!!! Our singing wasn’t that bad…I’ve heard worse on American Idol…FOR SURE! HA!

             

     “Oh my Tummy!”                                   Birthday Tickles from Bubba

Our Nickname Peanut sometimes calling him Monkey has changed to MonkeyRoo! :) Why you ask??? Well he is a MONKEY….he wants to climb on EVERYTHING and give his mommy a heart attack! I can remember Gabe climbing, but never this much….I think he sees Gabe doing all these “fun: things and wants to be right up there with him! AND ROO because he loves to still get into a little ball on my chest and bury his head, as if to get in a little kangaroo pouch! :) THIS I LOVE! He has always been Smiley pants, but shy and prefers to stay in my arms, but he is coming out of his shell and venturing happily into other arms! WALKING ~ He has been walking here and there, but not full throttle…UNTIL this weekend! After Gabe’s Birthday Party, which I will tell you about later, he was all over the house and has continued on through the rest of this weekend! Looks like he will be moving out of the nursery at church! Seth is full of energy and wants to play on Gabe’s level so bad, wants to be a BIG BOY already…you can tell! :) He is a JOY and beautiful, my little MonkeyRoo!!!!!!

~GABE~

WHAT!!!????!!! Gabe is 3…NO WAY! I really can’t believe this! Crazy how big he is getting! We had a little family birthday party on his actual birthday, December 27th at my parents and he had a lot of fun doing that. But this past weekend we had his Birthday Party at our church and he had lots & lots of friends come! We had a RACE and everyone brought their bike or power wheels! Those kids had a blast: they each got a badge with their picture, decorated their bikes with balloons and streamers, got cool shades, loud blowing whistles, and they all got medals to wear at the end of the race!  To say Gabe was excited would be an understatement, because he was beside himself when he found out that the John Deer Tractor Gator hiding under a blanket in our garage was not his cousin Dalton’s, but indeed it was  HIS very own! We cannot keep him off it! What a JOY to see how happy your child is….now that my friends is PURE  HAPPPINESS!

View Full Album

Gabe is so much fun and keeps me busy! He is a little boy who is passionate with everything he does and he is loveable and outgoing…definitely not the boy who is shy, he will be the first one to RUN to you with full force! He is still very observant just as he was when he entered the world,  all wide eyed! :) These days he does a lot of imitation…which is normal and he has such an imagination. He loves being a BIG BOY and is not copying Seth as much these days…this is good! :) He is ready for Seth to really play and loves to talk to him and leads him to the playroom. We don’t watch a lot of TV but he does LOVE Little Bill….we like it too, because it has good morals and teaches good lessons! Some cute Gabe Quotes recently~ I saw a friend of mine on a TV commerical and told Gabe look that's mommy’s friend, he said “YOU GONNA GO IN THE TV AND GIVE HER A HUG?”~  “Daddy can get his Ladder and take me up to the moon!”~ “Mommy when I get Big I’m gonna fly!” One time I was really sad and he said “Aww mommy its’ ok did she take your heart?” These are just a few…I need to start writing them down, there are so many and I forget!

Anyway, can someone STOP the clock for just a little bit…it’s all happening way too fast!

                               ~LOVE, Melissa

Christmas Weekend

We got a call from Santa via Skype, I don’t know who was more excited Gabe or Zach! It was really neat POP ;)

Santa made an early stop do drop off a few presents for the boys to enjoy before heading back to FL.

Gabe enjoyed seeing Mia on several occasions; s’mores night, looking at Christmas lights, and exchanging gifts!

Christmas Eve I headed to the church early for practice. I sang with the praise team and then sang a solo called Your Here by Francesca  Battiselli. It was a song that was as if Mary were singing to baby Jesus…beautiful song! The boys all headed up there that evening and we all enjoyed the service. ONce we got home we set out cookies with milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer and it was off to bed. Jordon & Kristi stopped by and we got to visit with  them which was nice because we don’t see them as much since they have moved.  Jacob became one of Santa’s helpers and put together Gabe’s (manly) Kitchen and even put some pretend food on his little table!

Christmas morning was spent opening presents, Daddy making an awesome breakfast, playing Guitar Hero, riding scooters, playing football, Seth riding his firetruck and then Uncle Jason stopped by bearing gifts and we started it all again! :) Todd took the boys to the airport around 3:00 and I know they were ready to get home for MORE presents were there to be open as well! I packed us up and then we headed to Granny & Pawpaws for Christmas. More presents and we also had a mini celebration for Gabe’s 3rd birthday and Seth’s 1st Birthday! Granny taught Gabe how to hold only  3 fingers up! :) We did a lot of eating, present opening, and visiting with family!

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas full of JOY and Family!

View Full Album

Christmas Time

Well we are full in the Christmas Spirit and now we have Jake & Zach here….YEAAAAAA! :) They arrived yesterday around 4:00 and will be here until Christmas day. We will be busy ~ Smores one night, an evening with friends, a graduation party of a friend and someone the boys look up too, Brown Bag goodies for the homeless, build a ginger bread house (we started the tradition last year & it was fun, only Jake & Zach missed out on it…but not this year), Santa will make a stop early for Jake & Zach so they can enjoy their gifts, Christmas Eve Service, and then Christmas morning with a Todd’s FULL breakfast meal, and LOTS & LOTS of LOVE!!!!!

Last Tuesday Gabe had his classroom Christmas Party! We made an ornament together, the children exchanged book gifts, and we enjoyed cookies!

 

A Tradition that we started this year is ADVENT! This year I just have the envelopes in a Christmas bag, so next year I plan on having something a little more creative! :) We were given an advent package at the Birthday Party for Jesus and I had been wanting to do one, so I was really excited. Of course Gabe does not get it all, but seeds are being planted! :)

Hope you all are having a Merry Christmas!

Gabe’s first Christmas Program

Oh my gosh he was super cute! I’m so mad though because our battery was not working for our video camera and I did take a little footage with my little camera, but I was moving around and it was shakey and did not come out that well!

The evening started with a Pancake supper, which he loved and when we first walked in a little boy ran up and started sayng” HI Gabe over and over” it was cute. Once we sat down here came another little boy that said the same thing, it was adorable! Then next thing I know Gabe is pointing to a little boy and telling me look mama its Eric, can I go say hi and I said of course honey and off he went!  I watched him walk over there with his little hands clasped together in front of his body and he smiled and told the little boy hi…I just realized how much Gabe is growing in that moment, what a sweet little boy! Oh and then he saw a little girl named Sienna, he said Mama I’ll stand by Sienna and you take picture, K?!! After dinner we headed over to see Santa… I wasn’t sure if Gabe was going to go for it, because during the day he kept saying he didn’t want to see him and that he “wasn’t” scared of him, which means he IS! To my surprise he was fine, I think seeing all his little friends going too also helped! :) Seth was a little questionable, but did fine.

I was so proud of Gabe he was well behaved and sat so still while with his class waiting to go on stage…awww he was so sweet singing his little songs: SANTA to the tune of Bingo, Jingle Bells, and We Wish you a Merry Christmas! When he first got on stage he saw me and ran towards me, gave me hug and then went back on stage!

My little Charlie Brown did wonderful and we had smiles that lasted all night!

View Full Album

Seth’s mini 11 month photo session :)

 

View Full Album

Our little monkey turned 11 months on Nov. 23rd and these are a few pictures we took a few days after.  He is still crawling like crazy and getting close to walking….I’m betting that will be a birthday surprise for everyone…Seth will take his first steps!

I can’t believe how fast he is growing!

Tis the Season….

Last weekend we got out all the decorations and Gabe was excited to say the least! :) OH I that it was fun last year with him, BUT this year WOW even more fun! He was ready to get Tigger & Pooh up in the yard…

 

Gabe and I went to a Birthday Party for Jesus…we had so much fun…

View Full Album

 

Seth enjoying all the decorations…

View Full Album

Our plan was to cut a tree in Elgin this year and one of our friends from church was going to use our fake one…but she ended getting one from someone else and we decided to save money and go with our fake one this year….it is still pretty, just missed going to Elgin…hopefully next year will make it! Gabe thought it was so cool when he got to get on daddy’s shoulders to be the star on and then he wanted to use his stool to put the ornaments on. Gabe also enjoyed his first Hot Coco! :) while watching Charlie Brown Christmas!

View Full Album

Thanksgiving

We headed for Conroe last Tuesday after Gabe’s Thanksgiving Feast. Todd left around 3:00am Monday morning for Fl to see Jacob, Zach, and some of his family. That drive would be too much for Gabe & Seth…18 hours in a car!?!

 

It was hard to be away from him and I really wanted to see the boys, but they will be here in a few weeks! :)

We did get to SKYPE and that was fun!!!!

Our first stop was at My Aunt & UNcles for dinner and then we headed to my mom & dads. Matthew’s girlfriend Lindsey got in on Wednesday…she was a really sweet and fun girl! We just hung out around the house and Gabe got his ride on the tractor, we went to the park, had a quick trip to Kohl's, played a came of Cootie and mom cooked some for the big day!

View Full Album

We had Thanksgiving at My Aunt & Uncles, the food was fabulous and the layout was like something out of Martha Stewart..lovely! So So so Yummy!! What a wonderful day after we ate we went for a walk then had a taste of ALL the pies that they made and then headed to the Park! That was fun…..some of us were playing horseshoes, a little hitting the baseball, swinging, sliding, walking and Gabe enjoyed the sand pit UNTIL HE RUBBED HIS EYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! POOR BABY!! I ran to him picked him up and ran to the nearest water fountain…there was a beautiful garden and luckily there was a water hose right there, we flushed his eyes out and you could just see all the sand! Once we made it to the car we got a water bottle and leaned him back and OH BOY He did NOT like that! But it was clean! When we got back to the house I got the boys in their PJ’s and Gabe had a little snack outside watching and listening to the music on my Aunt & uncles house! Seth enjoyed his first Thanksgiving, he LOVED the green Bean Casserole and the whip cream on the pies! He also enjoyed being pushed around in his ride! :)

View Full Album

That evening the boys went down fast and I enjoyed some wine on the back porch with my brother and Lindsey. It was chilly but we bundled up and I even played a little guitar and sang! It was fun!

We headed back to Austin on Saturday since Rain was in the forecast I did not want to be driving in the rain!

We had a great time, BUT I sure was wishing I had leftovers..BIG TIME!!!! Oh well I got some Big Beautiful and very JUICY lemons from my Aunts tree! I am enjoying lemon in my water and will be making some lemonade, plus I won’t have to buy any for cleaning for awhile now!

So thankful for my family and my friends, God has blessed us so much! I hope everyone had a beautiful day.