Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Gabe!


There is so much that I remember about the day you were born!The phone call from your mom to tell me that you were on your way or going to the hospital at 3 in the morning so that I could be there for you arrival into the world. Just being able to share in happiness of your arrival.

I was pregnant and had an appointment scheduled for the afternoon of the 29th to have an ultrasound. I had told Sandy that she was not to have her baby while I was gone! I had been up all night and I was not going to miss his arrival! I dashed home for a quick shower and picked Steve up. He had come home from work to go to the ultrasound with me. We were hoping to find out what we were having. So in the afternoon just a few hours before Gabe's arrival into the world, we found out that we were having a little girl.

It was a great day.

(Great) Grandma

Steve's grandma passed away last week.

He was out of town when grandma's health took a turn for the worse. He had not made it home before she was gone. I hated the way that I had to tell him; quickly, as he was trying to get his work boots off, the dog whining for his attention, and before the one of the kids came running to tell him. But he knew.

Grandma's service was on Tuesday. She is Home now.

Baby Brandon

1 day old, with daddy

coming home

5 weeks

about 6weeks

2 1/2 mos

3 1/2 mos

Just a little peek

3 1/2 mos old


2 1/2 mos


2 mos


Home from the hospital


3 days old


2 days old

Disc after disc after....

You get the idea... I had mentioned in my Christmas Now and Then post about looking thru CDs of pictures. In effort to try to keep some sort of back up, we occasionally would copy the files to CD. While the thought behind is great, I don't think that we did it the most efficient way. And well, I can say that because I have now gone thru ALL of them!! (give me a great big YEAH!!) But you learn as you go, yes? Most of my pictures files are so neat and tidy! And although I have seen some of the photos SOOOOO many times over, I loved seeing my babies grow up all over again! Being able to recall actually taking the pictures or what had been going on. Ahhh, memories.

So that being said, two things should come of this. One will be that my nice new files all on this computer (one location of all pics is AWESOME!!!! We are talking 7 1/2 years worth) will be backed up on the lovely new external hard drive that we purchased recently. Again, knowing that this tasks was shortly coming to an end. (big YEAH!!) And secondly, that you may be seeing more of the kiddos as just "lil' bits." Gosh were they ever cute!! Actually, they were more than cute(still are), but I just might be a tiny bit biased...

New blog to read

I just thought that I would throw this out there...

I check in faithfully at Bring the Rain. Angie had asked for fashion help from Melanie at Big Mama. Of course I had to jump over to take a look. So funny! While visiting, I was reading some of the older posts. I was laughing out loud. Immediately had to copy the address to add to my blog list.

New Year's Day

One little picture to post from New Year's Day. We "celebrated" the day by getting up and moving so that we could drive to Ohio. Not terribly far by any means. We spent the afternoon visiting my mom in the hospital. A little extra oxygen and some steriods, she went home a few days later.

Any ol' who, I captured this...

Christmas Revisited...

I hope that I have done this correctly! Here it goes! Finally a sneak peak at our holidays...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Christmas and New Year

I've gotten behind...

Christmas was a fun time. We went to Steve's parent's house. It is tradition, ya know! We get their a bit early so that the kiddos can go ahead and open their gifts from grandma and grandpa. They love the leapsters they each received and the games to share as a family. Once the rest of the family and guests arrive we have dinner and finally exchange gifts with everyone else. I love to finally see if what seemed to be a great gift when bought hold up to expectation. I hope it did!!

We finally got the kids bundled and gifts we received loaded up around 9:30. Very much past the "normal" bedtime of the kids, but what the heck! It was Christmas. It was pretty easy to get them to bed though. I think that they were happy with everything that they received from us and Santa. Clothes, games, and movies to share.
I even made Christmas dinner; complete with pie for dessert. (the chocolate fudge cake with milk chocolate frosting was made for Christmas Eve)

Saturday after Christmas we went to the zoo. Normally, I would think that it is absolutely crazy to go to the zoo at the end of December, but it was in the 60's! We went to see the light display then over to the White River Gardens to see the train displays. We worked on a scavenger hunt while there. We found everything on the list!

New Year's Eve was also spent at Steve's parents. They live so close and it just doesn't seem to be a good idea to go "out." The kids stayed up to watch the ball drop and "toast" with sparkling juice. We came home right afterwards. Usually the kids will stay all night, but we were leaving to head to my mom's on New Year's day.

New Year's day was not exactly as we had planned. Instead of going to mom's house, we spent the day visiting her in the hospital. My brother and sister-in-law cooked the meal that my mom had planned on cooking. They did a good job! (but don't tell my brother!- his head will get big :) ) Mom is doing better. What a wonder what a little extra oxygen and steroids will do for ya.

We have gotten the outdoor decorations down today. And now we are getting ready to settle in to watch on of our new movies. The popcorn is popping as I type.

I will get some pictures up later. I wanted to get up to date...