First Day of School

Ok so today was the first day of school. I was not ready for today at all. To be honest I could have used three or four more weeks of summer. I just really enjoyed having the boys home with me every day. I liked not having to be anywhere if we didn't want to be. I liked hanging out with friends and a trip to Disneyland. I liked having live in baby-sitters for little Gabers. But today the reality hit and off to school the boys went. I didn't even realize until I uploaded these photos that all the boys are matching!! I didn't do that on purpose! :)

Bradley came home and said he had a great day! He loved most of his teachers so that is a good thing. He was a bit disturbed that his Spanish 1-2 won't count as a credit in high school so he will still have to take 2 more years of Spanish. He was also upset to learn that this year his Aims test also has Science on it! He cracks me up. He is a straight A student but you wouldn't know that! ;) He did say all in all though it was a GREAT day.

Greg also had a great day. He really likes his teacher and ALL his friends are in his class. There are 35 kids this year in one class. I feel I will need to bring his teacher LOTS of Starbucks to help her manage!! I can barely deal with 4 kids everyday I have NO idea how I would do 35 and all 9 year olds!!! I did go in the classroom and met her and she seems super nice. She is right around my age with a 10 year old and 3 year old. I just pray Greg doesn't make her mad too quickly. Gotta watch that one! ;)

JT started his new school last week. He is attending a new school this fall and I really do like it. Only problem is I wish there were more students. Since it's a BRAND new school not many people have signed up. It's a great program and very nice, but he has only 6 kids in his class. Lot's one 1 on 1, but I need him to get ready for Kindergarten with 25 students. I am praying as the year goes by more and more people will find this school and sign up!!!

So here is to a new school year. I just pray we get thru it! :)

Where has the time gone?

***Six Month check-up****

Weight: 18 lbs 4 oz 59%
Height: 27 1/4 inches 76%
HC: 42 1/2 cm 16%


This Wednesday Gabe will be 6 months old. One half of a year old. How did this happen? I am not wanting him to grow up. No matter how hard it is (and sometimes its hard with 4) I just want him to stay little. Too cuddle in my arms, to try and give me kisses, to give me his HUGE smile. I love this little man!!!

His eyes are now for sure brown. It's so funny because Brad is the only other one with brown eyes. Greg and JT have blue/green eyes. Plus the other three boys are blond and Gabe is so dark. He is a little Italian boy!

Grampy came over tonight for dinner and we told him that Gabe didn't really like eating food. Grampy said here give it to me...I will do it. We gave him some peaches and he ate the WHOLE thing!!! I guess Grampy will have to come over every day!! :)

Look at those yummy peaches. We have given him applesauce and bananas, but it appears that peaches are the BIG winners!!!

Yum!!!

After we ate our yummy peaches we took a bath. Tonight we moved our bath into the tub because our last one in the sink we made a HUGE mess!! We even switched sides of his tub because he can now sit up. Oh he is so big!!!!

Another bath shot. Gabe LOVES the bath. He loves all water. He has been loving the pool at night time too!

After our bath we fed him and cuddled on the bed with him while watching some TV. He was so chill!

My FAVORITE picture. Daddy and Gabers just chilling. Everyone is so relaxed!!! We go to the doctor later this month. Can't wait to see our weight and height. It is amazing to me how much he has grown. He is so very heavy now and he is trying to crawl. His little knees are red because he gets on his knees and rocks back and forth. Before long he will be off!!!

New happenings in our fifth month!!!

There has been a lot going on in our house this summer!! Gabe just keeps getting bigger and bigger. (sigh) The other night while feeding him his banana's I had him in the Bumbo. Yeah that was short lived as he will NOT sit in it anymore. Every time you put him in there he tries to stand up!!!

Gabe sitting nicely in the Bumbo for like 1 minute!!!!

Now he is busy digging his heels on the table so he can get out!!!

Almost...his bottom no longer sitting at all. I decided that it was no longer safe and had daddy get out the big boy highchair.

Gabe was waiting for the new highchair. Since daddy was doing something he stopped to watch.

Our new high chair. He really didn't know what to think!!! You can see he looks a little confused! Ha!

All done and mommy took a big shot of Gabe!! He looks like such a big boy in this!!

A week ago my mom and I took the boys shopping for some clothes. Carter's was having a HUGE sale and I just LOVE their clothes and their prices!!!! The boys got matching outfits and when JT saw Gabe in his this morning he hurried up and got dressed!! It's so cute and JT is so proud!!!

JT insisted he take this picture. I was still in my pjs and not really up for a picture, but LOVE Gabe's face!! Love the serious look!

Gabe doing some exersaucer time. He loves this thing. Can play for up to 20 minutes which is such a life saver sometimes!!! Especially when I am trying to prepare meals for the others!

I swear it looks like he is trying to say "cheese" here!!! ;)

Tonight was Gabe's first swim! I am not sure why we have not taken him sooner, but oh my!! He LOVED it. He was in the pool for at least 30 minutes and didn't make one peep. Just smiled and smiled and smiled. It was so cute!!!

Greg took a swim too with Gabe. This is without goggles....his eyes match the water!! So beautiful!

Greg with goggles!!

He would NOT stop smiling. Love it!!!

Then he thought he would try and escape. No kidding. He was trying to get himself out of the crab...

Trying so hard to escape....

He thinks he can he thinks he can....

Daddy took him out so he could just swim. They did this for another 15 minutes. He had so much fun. I brought him in and got him all ready for bed. He fell asleep taking his night bottle. Can I say he NEVER does that. It was just too funny. Guess all the pool time REALLY made him tired. I am thinking we will have to do that more often!!!

Happy 5 month birthday!!!!

I can't believe that 5 months have already gone by. Wow it has been fast!!! Gabe cracks me up all the time. He is so smiley and sweet and just an all around happy guy. Below is a picture of his first play date! His girlfriend, Emmery, who is just a few weeks older than him came over to play!!
They just kept staring at each other!!!

This was the July 4th cupcakes at the BBQ we attended! Thanks Jeannine for having us all over!

Here is Brad eating one of those cupcakes BEFORE dinner!!

The kids were outside playing in the pool. That was a good thing because it was 108!! Yikes that is HOT!

Greg apparently has taken up eating his nails...nice!

Gabe took a nap in the sling and I was putting my feet in the water trying to stay cool. He woke up and was ready to eat!

Picture of the boys (minus JT) at the BBQ!

Gabe being silly tonight. Yes his shirt is wet because he won't stop drooling. He is quite the drool monster!

Look at me SO big sitting all by myself!! He can sit now for a few seconds all alone! So BIG!!!

Roxie, Daddy and Gabers just being silly!!!

Mommy and Gabers...he looks scared... :)

Gabe in the jumperoo...he LOVES this thing!! So grateful to our neighbor who handed it down. Thanks Julie!! I can get thru getting ready in the morning because of this wonderful toy!! He jumps while I do my hair/makeup!!

So happy!!! Gabe isn't eating much solid food. He really prefers the bottle and as much as he can get!! I need to start getting better and feeding him more. He just usually eats a bite or two and isn't that interested. I am sure now he might be. He is over 17 lbs and just gaining like crazy.

Pacifier (pie-pie) or Thumb

Ok I have always been a HUGE fan of the pie-pie. Brad had one til he was 3. My best friend in Atlanta, Shanna, and her son Austin guilted him into making his go away. She was watching him one day and they made him feel bad about having it and poof it was gone. Funny thing was like a year later she found where it was hidden!! :) We didn't have too much of a hard time with him after that so it was a good thing.

Greg had his pie-pie until he was 4!! I bought him a bunch of toys and told him if he would throw them all away I would give the toys to him. For a few weeks he said no thank you. Finally one day I had the flu and I was stuck in bed and ALL the toys were just sitting there. He said mommy I want those toys. I told him all the pie-pie's in the trash. And low and behold he threw EVERY single one of them away. Off to play with his toys he NEVER asked for it again.

Then I had JT. I tried to push the pie-pie on him, but he wanted NOTHING to do with it. He was a self soother. He didn't use his thumb either. He wanted no part with any of it. It kind of made me sad since sometimes you REALLY need something to plug them up! :)

Now on to Gabe. He has been taking his pie-pie no problem until about a week ago. When he found his thumb. Oh what a battle it has been. Everytime I see him with his thumb in his mouth I grab a pie-pie. As you can see from the below pictures he now sucks his thumb WHILE the pie-pie is in his mouth. I am going to win this battle....well I sure hope I do!!!!

Gabe chilling with his pie-pie....

Gabe says uh no guys I will suck my thumb and pie-pie....

Yah he won this time, but I am determined to WIN this!!!! :)

Yummy cereal???

*******After this post is another new post so keep scrolling down**********


On June 1st, I decided to try and give Gabe some cereal. He seems to be eating many bottles a day now and I thought he would like something that would be more filling....As it turns out I don't think he was quite ready for such a big step. Hey, at least he thought it was funny!!!!

I haven't tried since. We went to Disney and I didn't want to bring everything with me. I will start trying again this week. It would be great if he started to add a little more to his diet!!!

A Fun trip to Disneyland!

We just got back from a family vacation to Disneyland. We noticed while there that our economy was doing just fine!! The first night we got to California we met my childhood BFF at Downtown Disney. There was 1 1/2 hour waits at EVERY restaurant. Rainforest Cafe was 2 hours!!! We ended up eating at the ESPN zone which was good and had fun playing games while waiting!!


A picture with my boys and Julie's twins!

JT playing hockey. He thought he was so big!!

A picture of Julie and I!! We had not seen each other since January 2004 and it was SO great catching up with her, her husband and kids. We decided NEXT time there would be NO kids!!

This is right outside of Disneyland. This was our first day at the park. I had no idea how JT would react to everything. He did great. Only problem was we learned quickly he just wanted to ride roller coasters and sadly there are not many at Disney. He didn't like the slow rides...

Main street waiting for Matthew and Grammie to get some coffee!!!

Greg and I are raring to go ride rides...come on coffee people!!!

An awesome self portrait on the jungle cruise! The only picture of just the two of us on this trip!

This was us waiting in line for the Pirates of the Caribbean. The good thing was no lines more than 30 minutes. The bad thing was we never got to ride Space Mountain because it always had a 45 minute or more wait.

All JT wanted was a picture with Mickey. He didn't care about any other character. Well Mickey's line was closed so I talked him into a picture with Pluto. All of a sudden Mickey was heading out for a break and he jumped in our picture!!! The kids didn't even know until it was done. It got even better though because minutes later Mickey came back out and I was about to get a group shot!!!

JT with his new ears. Brad and Greg already had ears from previous trips. Only JT and Gabe got some ears. He was very proud of them!

Gabe and his new ears. That is the infant hat and as you can see quite big on his head. Not sure who it's supposed to fit??

Our great group shot with Mickey. That was it. JT NEVER asked to see another person. Sure made our trip much easier not trying to track down characters. We never even went to Toon Town or Fantasyland because JT wanted only roller coasters!!!

We were about to get on the Buzz Lightyear ride and JT started dancing he was getting so excited about playing the shooting game!!!

JT wanted to drive himself on the cars, but you have to be 52 inches. Brad said he would go with him. JT was so excited!!!

So big!!!

Here is the one "family" shot and JT didn't want to look and Gabe was like are you guys kidding?? This was day 2 and we were not as happy since we were a little tired!!!!

JT riding the Merry Go Round.

This series of pictures cracked me up. I was trying to get a shot with all 4 boys. I have yet to get one I really LOVE. As you can see Gabe is so confused by the toy snake that JT has.

I finally get the boys to look at me....Gabe says nope what is that yellow thing???

Here is me trying to get closer to get Gabe to turn my way....again UH NO mom!!!

JT with his snake!! He won it playing one of the fair games. I don't like those games, but Bradley took him to play while Matthew, Greg and I rode California Screaming. Lucky...that pretty much sums up our trip. We had a GREAT time. There was some fighting with Greg and JT, but other than that it was very successful. The drive there and back as well. I just love having all of us together!!!