Our girls

Our Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving visiting family in South Carolina and Virginia . As usual for such excursions, we didn't take many pictures so most of these were taken by other people.

These first few were taken at a rest area of all places. We stopped so that I could feed Alena, and Gabe and Mya had a great time playing in all the leaves that had fallen.


Once in South Carolina, we met up with my parents and sisters. Here Chrisa and Mya are reading a book.

Alena on the floor playing with some toys.

For Thanksgiving dinner, my Dad's family uses a nearby church fellowship hall. It works great since there's plenty of room for everyone to sit and the kids to run around. Gabriel thought it was so fun to play ball in that big room.

Alena enjoys some good 'ole rice cereal.

Once in VA we stayed with my parents, and one afternoon we went to see some baby goats. Gabriel was even brave enough to pet them.

Funny Pics

Here's some pictures that have made me smile this past week. Enjoy!

Alena's First Video

I caught Alena tonight as she made her first few crawling steps. This is one determined little girl - I can't believe she's doing this already before she's even 6 months old. Hope this isn't a sign of things to come :) Try to ignore Gabe and Mya in the background - they were "reading" to each other.

They Match

I don't really get into the whole dressing your kids to match thing, but Mathu made these cute dresses for the girls and they wore them to church today. We had them pose for some pictures this morning before we left. Mya is telling Alena where she is supposed to be looking.

Don't worry, I have no plans to dress Gabriel to match the girls, but he did want a turn holding Alena and having his picture taken. It cracks me up how big Alena looks with them holding her because she is pretty little. It just shows you how small Gabe and Mya still are even though they often seem so big.
And, here's how much Alena likes her cereal. All this, and yes she did manage to eat some too. Thankfully, she has quickly learned how this whole eating out of a spoon thing works, and doesn't make quite such a mess now. So far, she has gobbled up every bit of her cereal, but we'll see how she does once we move onto the more exotic. :)

Fun at the Park

We tried out a new park today, and had so much fun. The weather was just perfect for a fall day and the kids loved running around and trying out all the new stuff. They had several things we'd never seen before like a three person slide, and a small free standing wall to climb. It was worth the trip. Enjoy the pictures.

Alena stayed in the stroller almost the entire time but she seemed happy to be outside and loves watching Gabe and Mya play. They'll both occasionally stop whatever they're doing and come over to say hi to her.
Gabe loved the swings which were pretty high off the ground and thus would go pretty high. He would say, "Mommy, give me the push of the year!"

Sitting inside the hippo's mouth, pretending to be eaten up.

Something that I really liked about this park was that they had a separate structure of smaller things perfect for Mya. It had this cute little house on the bottom which was probably her favorite part.

Mya on the big swings as well. This was her face when I told her to, "Smile!"

This picture is so Mya - that serious little not quite a smile look.

They even had a nice path for walking/bike riding so I was glad we took Gabe's bike over. This was his birthday present and even though it looked so small in the store, it looked big next to him. He can ride fine once he gets started but needs a little help getting on and to stop he usually just runs off into the grass. He needs to grow about half an inch to really be able to touch the ground.

Happy Birthday Gabriel!!!

Today our little man turns four years old! Happy Happy Birthday, Gabriel!

Just a few minutes old
One year old

Two years old


Three years old
Four years old

I know this post is kind of long, but I wanted to start this tradition of asking this list of questions every year on their birthdays and seeing how their answers change with time. Below are the answers Gabriel gave today.

How old are you today? four

What is your favorite color? red

What is your favorite food? cherries

What is your favorite book? Go Dog Go

What do you want to be when you grow up? Fireman and work all over the world

Where is your favorite place to eat out? Chilli's

What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy? Go outside and swim in the swimming pool (I don't know where this came from since we don't have a pool)

What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy? Laptops – run around the yard

What is the best thing about having Mya for a sister? She plays outside with me

What is the best thing about having Alena for a sister? I can love her

What is your favorite thing to do with your friends? Drive in my hummer and loader

What can't you wait to do when you get bigger? Pour my own milk

Where is your favorite place to visit? Grandmama and Grandaddys and Carrie and Robbies

What do you love about going to Mathu and Pathu's? Playing with 'Nannah

What do you love about going to Grandmama and Grandaddy's? Playing there

What is your favorite thing to play? My Bob the Builder set

What thing do you most dislike doing? Clean up my room

What is your favorite part of the day? Watching George

What would you do if you could stay up all night? Watch tv – all the channels

Where would you go if you could go anywhere in the world? To a meeting

What makes you happy? My teddy and blanket

What makes you sad? Hitting my head

What do you wish you could do? Go with Daddy to work

What would make this the best birthday ever? PRESENTS!!