A Very Merry Christmas!!!

What a year that 2009 has been! I am so looking forward to 2010 as it is quickly approaching!
I took the boys to see Santa. Of course Brad at 13 is pretty mortified I make him do this every year. I kindly explained that even when he is in college that is my ONE Christmas gift I will always want to receive. With Gabe and him being 13 years apart we will have MANY more times to see Santa. I do appreicate him being such a good sport however!

Christmas Eve we spent over at my in-laws house. Gabe hasn't been there in a while and he was in heaven. Oh the toys that Grandpa and Grandma have!!! This work bench by far was his favorite. It didn't make his Christmas list, but thankfully his first birthday is coming up shortly!!

He was eating a screw. I don't know why but it cracked us all up!!

Matthew and I on Christmas Eve!

Everything is funny to this kid. I have no idea why he is laughing, but with the red rosy cheeks he is just picture perfect!

Brad and I. Taking as many pictures as I can these days. I am realizing before I know it he will be all grown up and in college. I love that he is taller than me. I had heels on too. :)

Elizabeth spent Christmas Eve with us. Pretty sure it's been most of our Christmas Eve's in the past 10 years!!! At this point I think the wine was making our smiles so bright!!! :) I love you honey!!!

A half family picture!! I never knew how hard it was to take a picture with 6 people in it. Seriously. We have many pictures with 2 or 3 of the kids, but always seems impossible to get all 4 of them with us in one picture!

Grammie and Gabe just chilling before dinner!

Mommy and Gabe!!! Those cheeks!!

Here is Christmas morning BEFORE the kids were up! You can see it's still dark out. Gabe was up at 6:30 and JT didnt' get up until almost 8am!! I couldn't belive he slept in so late considering he was so excited for Christmas!!! We woke up the older boys when he came down.

So Gabe was NOT interested in Christmas at all. This is the one picture I got of him opening anything or even attempting to open anything. He got a lot of new cool toys and still only wanted to play in the cabinets with the dog treats and tupperware!!! He is too funny!

JT loves his new Karate Sponge Bob! There is just nothing better than watching Christmas thru a child's eyes.

Here is the after picture when all the presents were open! Looks like we had a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! We sure hope everyone we know did too!!!

Christmas Day is not only a day to Celebrate the birth of Jesus, but it's also my mother in law's birthday!!!! So we always have cake too!! Happy Birthday Mom! Hope you enjoyed your day!!!

Now on to 2010....

Recap of Thanksgiving and November and such...

This year for Thanksgiving we had it at our house. My mom flew to Chicago to be with my brother, niece and nephew so we had over the in-laws, my cousin and a friend. It was a very relaxing day as I didn't have to cook too much. I made my Mom's famous stuffing (not as good when she doesn't make it) and my awesome creamed corn...(Yum) Probably drank too much wine but isn't that what Thanksgiving is for?

This man and his crazy smile. His shirt says thankful for mommy!! I hope so!

This is Gabe cracking himself up. I don't even remember what was so funny, but oh boy it was!

Our delicious turkey courtesy of the in-laws. Yummy!!!

Here is a picture of almost all my favorite boys!! JT was with his dad. I love having my cousin, DJ, living in Phoenix!!

This is where Brad's team played the State Championship in Tucson, Arizona. It didn't matter if we won or loss because Tucson declined to travel to Orlando, Florida even if they won. However, yah we beat them!!!! Go Firebirds!!

Brad with the State Championship trophy. Now if only all the players got one of those!!

This picture truly makes me smile. My son is growing all up right before my eyes. What amazes me in this picture is 1. he is for sure taller than me now and 2. I think we kinda look alike. I don't know if I ever really saw it before. People would say to him or me that we did, but this picture I can really see it!! I can't believe in 2 months he will be 14. 14....

We also celebrated JT's birthday in November. This was him opening up a present. The expression on his face just cracks me up. Oh how he loves gift opening!!! Especially with friends!

Here is such a great picture. Since he got the DS for his birthday we just kept his party to family and his best friends. Brad is missing because of course he was at football practice!! Such handsome boys!!

JT blowing out the candle on his homemade cake! He loved it!! See who needs expensive store bought cakes anyway. :)

Gabe was getting in on the pizza eating action. He loves the crusts. I wish he ate more "normal" food, but I am guessing when you are 10 months and still have NO teeth eating "normal" food probably isn't on your list of things you are dying to do!!!

This picture was after the Firebirds won the Regional Game here in Scottsdale.

Here is Brad with the Regional trophy!!! Because of this win he got to go to Orlando, Florida for 8 nights. He is still there as I type this. Too bad for his team because they lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs to a team from Naperville, Illinois. (oddly enough I was born there and my aunt and brother live there) Final score was 32-24. (8 points is a touchdown if you kick not 7 like normal) So heartbreaking for his team and for him, but tomorrow they play their final game for 3rd. I am so proud of him!! Now we are ready for lacrosse season!!!!!!

Happy 5th Birthday my sweet boy!!!!

Five years ago today JT made his entrance into this world. He didn't show up until almost 8pm! He was the latest of any of the boys. I was induced every time and the other three came around 2pm, but NOT JT. He was waiting until the perfect moment. The one where the doctor almost missed it!! :)

Greg was so proud. You two would snuggle on the couch whenever I would let you.

This is us soon after you were born. You looked so tiny to me. Probably because you were only 7lbs. 6 oz.

JT's first birthday was at Peter Piper Pizza. You had a scooby doo cake. In hindsight the blue frosting was NOT a good idea. You sure loved it though!

Your 2nd birthday was at the train park. We got to play on swing sets and ride the train. You even had a train for a cake. You have always loved your birthday!

Your 3rd birthday was at our park in our neighborhood. We had a bouncy house which you STILL talk about today. I laugh at how sweaty you are in this picture. It is November....love it!

Your 4th birthday was at Pump It Up. You had all the kids from your dad's neighborhood as well as your school. What a fun party! Anything with a bouncy house!!!

This year you asked for a Nintendo DS. I decided that when we start asking for presents that cost as much as parties....then we start having FAMILY parties!!! So tonight on your birthday your grandparents and your bestest friends will be here to have some pizza and cake and just enjoy something low key.

I can't believe that 5 years have passed. You have grown into such a little man. You are so smart and sweet. You push the limits whenever you can, but you have never met a stranger and are a natural born leader. Happy Birthday buddy. We all love you!!!!!!

9 months already!!!!

Yesterday, Gabe had his 9 month check up! I have no idea where the time has gone. His stats came in at:


Weight: 20 lbs and 9 oz (46%)
Length: 30 inches (93%)
Head circumference 44cm (15%)

The doctor said he looks great and should start eating normal food. That of course confused me because he still has NO teeth!!! All of the boys at this age already had teeth so to me it made sense for them to be eating food. His ears were all better so now I am just praying we make it thru the holiday's all well!!!!


This is how he sits all the time. He crawls everywhere and gets up and then back to crawling. The other boys didn't do this either! When I asked the doctor he said it was all good! :)

I just love this picture. Lately I have been bathing both of the younger boys together just for time and they were both so excited!! Check out JT's new haircut too. They are getting so big!! JT will be five on Monday!!!! Ahhhhh.......seriously where does the time go?? When we were younger it took forever from the start of school until the Christmas holiday. Now it seems to come so much faster!!!

Happy Halloween

We started off Halloween at about 1:30am. Gabe woke up and would NOT go back to bed. He fell asleep on me which he has not done since I think he was 5 days old! He just could not get comfortable. At about 3:30am I put numbing drops in both of his ears and gave him some Motrin and begged him to sleep!!! He did until 6:15am. Wow. So I waited til 8am to call the Dr. and they said bring him on in at 9:15am. So on Halloween this poor man had to have a shot in both of his legs of antibiotics because he NOW has a bulging ear drum. Poor Poor man!!!
I have never heard him scream quite like that. Thankfully by tonight's trick or treating he seemed to feel better!!! Well, maybe not better, but for sure happier!

The three amigos!!!

This was Gabe's costume. I decided since he has been thru so much lately that dressing up was really only for me. He wasn't asking to be Darth Vader so I decided this year he was off the hook. I am already planning next years costume! : )

Daddy and Gabers after we walked around trick or treating. He was so happy to be outside!!!

A rare picture of Greg and I. Its so hard to get anyone, but Gabe in front of the camera today. Brad had his 2nd round playoff game tonight at 7pm so he missed dressing up and trick or treating, but that's ok because they won and are moving on to the next round. JT was with his dad and I will post some pictures of him in his Boba Fett costume soon.

One sick little dude....

This little guy has been sick for over two weeks. I guess I should be thankful that I kept him well for over 8 months with 3 big brothers who ALL attend school and bring home yummy germs just for us! :) However I was not prepared for how sad this little man would be. He was coughing and wheezing and coughing some more. He had to have a breathing treatment which did NOTHING, he had a chest x-ray which should inflammation and NOT infection and finally he was diagnosed with a double ear infection. Only problem with that is it has taken 2 antibiotics to KILL it! I think this one has done it as we have slept thru the night the past two nights and he seems to be more smiley....I sure hope so cause he sure has been sad.....

Pretty sure he is teething too, but still NO sign of teeth.

Daddy and him decided to be silly. It is so funny to me that at this age they get "being silly".

Love the one eyed dude. :) He went from not moving around too much to army crawl, to real crawl to I just want to stand up and walk around furniture people. I think he did this all in a matter of maybe two weeks. Sure is making the football games more interesting as he doesn't really care for me to hold him. ;)

I just convinced him to start eating baby food too. He hasn't wanted any of that either up until now. He just cracks me up. I am just so thankful he is on the mend......

And he's off.......

On September 25th Gabe finally picked up his knees, rocked back and forth and slightly started to crawl...well this past weekend he was OFF!! No warning. I put him down on the floor and he was gone....in the dog bowl!!!!! So now the "true" fun begins!!!! We are trying to figure out a way to keep in on the family room only, but you know the open floor plans make that a bit harder to do!!!

This picture just cracks me up. He looks so serious.

This was Gabe crawling away. He was going for the blue toy you can barely see in the picture. It plays music and he figured that out that day too!!!!

As soon as he realized I was taking his picture he stopped crawling away and started to smile for the camera. So funny this kid!!!

He turned around and came over to me so I could take more pictures. Do you see the drool???? Holy cow and still NO teeth!!! His gums aren't even the least bit white!!!

There is with Roxie on his knees going to crawl away.....so big he is.


Daddy even got in on the action. Wow my two boys look just alike!!!! Let the good times begin!