Trip to Naperville, Illinois--my hometown!

So we drove up for the weekend to Naperville where I grew up and Jon and his wife Wendy and still living to bless their twin boys, Evan and David. We had a lot of fun and packed as much visiting as we could in about a day and a half. It seemed like it flew too quickly but it was a lot of fun seeing my parents and grandparents and Jon and his family and old friends. Here is a picture on the blessing day.

Gabe with Great-Grandpa Smith. Aren't they so cute together!

Gabe playing with Granny, my mother!

Here we are at Olive Garden. My parents took us out for my birthday dinner and I have been craving Olive Garden's salad and breadsticks so that is where we went. This is the best picture that our waiter took. It is sad, underexposed, dark, and heads chopped off. The other pictures had people completely cut out so this one is the best we got. Sorry, Dad and Gabe, you're only half way there.

Gabe is having his first taste of garlic bread and loving it! I think he ate a whole breadstick himself and made a beautiful mess of buttery slobber all over his shirt, but he had fun doing it!

Abby is wearing Papa's shoes and posing. Papa is actually sleeping on the floor right behind her. It was a long morning! Isn't Abby precious? I love you, girly-girl!

Here we met up with the Harrises at Gartner Park by my old home. The girls all had fun playing at the playground and in the sand/mud. This is my Abby and Aiselyn and Abby Harris.

Abby on the playground!

Here is me with Cindy Harris. I miss this woman. She was a great young women advisor, teacher and example and I loved babysitting for her kids when I was younger. Kids grow up too fast in my opinion! But it was great visiting for an hour while Ben had his soccer game.

Here is all of us after the soccer game. Hilary was there but somehow snuck out of the picture. It's too bad that Theo and Rachel couldn't have been there too, it would have been nice to see them too. Thanks so much Harrises for being so great. I miss you guys and we'll visit again next time we come up!

It was nice to go back home and visit and remember the good old times. We got to stay with the Rosa family but somehow I don't have any pictures of them. Thanks so much for putting us up and letting us eat your food and ice cream and for letting the girls play with all your dolls and toys. We had so much fun!

Gabe 9 months

So Gabe turned 9 months old two weeks ago and now I am putting up some pictures to savor his beautiful face. He is such a delightful baby even though is has been miserable the last month or more teething. He is quick to smile and wave hello and loves to explore as any boy should. he loves to splash and make big messes in the bath tub and loves anyone who will give him attention. I am so grateful to my Father in Heaven for sending this wonderful son into my life! I love you Gabe!

Gabe the buffer man

So Gabe has acquired a new skill. This is a fun video to enjoy.

catch up...again!

I have been a huge slacker lately with updating my blog and everything else for that matter. So let me just catch up a little bit. I turn 29 in just two days and then Gabe turns 9 months on Thursday so hopefully it won't take too long till I get another post up. We have all been pretty sick lately. Abby has had a cold and cough for like a month and I went to take the girls in last Friday to the doctor and turns out that they both have strep, so at least they will be good and healthy for our trip this weekend to Chicago to see my brother Jon and Wendy to bless their new twin boys. Well, to top things off, I got sick on Saturday, sharing...and gracing...my guts with the toilet bowl all day. I'm still not 100 percent but I'm not throwing up at least. Gabe's had a cold and teething for a few weeks and hasn't eaten very well, and has lost a bit of weight but I think he is starting to eat a bit more now. Tommy is doing well at work and took great care of the kids on Saturday while I tried to stay in bed and away from the bathroom. I sure love that guy! Well, enough of the woes, and here are bigger and better things that have happened of late!


This is a video of Gabe when he turned 8 months old so it is about a month old but it is cute.


Here are some pictures of the kids taking baths and having fun together. I just love it when they all get along...I guess that really only goes for the older two, but I'm sure you all know what I mean when there is peace and harmony.

Here is a video of the kids when we were in Maryland at Grandma and Grandpa Krebs's house. We met up to spend the weekend sight seeing D.C. again with our good friends MaryIrene and Jeffrey Allen with their wonderful boys Elliot and Sam.

These are some pictures down at the family farm in Virginia taken just a couple of weeks ago. Gabe is sporting the semi truck and Aiselyn is going to the rodeo! Somehow I don't have anything of Abby--poor girl!

This is the capitol building in D.C. with the beautiful tulips in front of the botanical gardens. It was so pretty!

Here is me with MaryIrene and Gabe inside the botanical gardens...I don't recall what kind of pretty flowers we are by...maybe irises. Ya got me! I don't know! But they look good and we aren't bad either!

Here are Aiselyn and Elliot playing underneath an airplane or something at the Air and Space Museum. They had a lot of fun together during this trip!And here is our cute little family in front of a spaceship. Doesn't that just catch the moment?

Finally here is a fun video of the girls doing their ballerina tricks.

I love my family so much, I am so glad that Heavenly Father has sent them into my life. I just hope and pray that I can do what He intends me to do with them especially these wonderful children. Sure they make me want to pull my hair out at times but they really are some of the best little kids one could ever ask for. Aiselyn loves to learn and get bigger and is reading really well now, Abby is just a bunch of fun and loves to follow Aiselyn around and does voice her opinion quite well...she is a red head after all. Gabe is just a bunch of fun as well. He is very laid back and still doesn't have any desire to roll over or cruise or anything which is really fine with me...he sits up and plays with his toys and is happy. One of these days he will get up and start walking I am sure...but I can wait. Tommy and I celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary next week. I can't believe it has been that much time already. We are very much still in love and he makes the outside of our house look good while I usually tackle the inside. It works out pretty well! Until next time--peace out!

Snow fun in Georgia

Here is Aiselyn the morning after our snowfall. This apparently is what she deems warm. She has no socks on and her crocs. Granted she did listen to change into her tennis shoes later. She kept going out to walk around in the snow making footprints throughout the day and that is saying a lot for my children. For some reason they don't care to spend that much time outside. She spent a lot of the day out there...so less stress for me!

This is our first snowman....a whole whopping six inches tall. This was at the beginning of the snowfall right after church so there wasn't that much snow yet, but we had no idea we were going to get as much snow as we did.

This is the second snowman that Tommy threw together for some reason with the shovel on our back porch/deck. It is special. Both of these snowmen only took about three minutes or less to build. but we got maybe four inches on snow at our house and that is amazing for Georgia, right. I can't say I love it, but it does bring back some memories of living elsewhere. It is cold though!

Here is a picture of our house on Monday morning after the snowfall on Sunday. It does look very pretty I do have to give snow that much credit.

This is a video of "our" snowball fight. The girls were having fun with their daddy!

Here is a video of us making our first and quick dinky, little snowman!

I am glad for the girls' sake that we got some snow since Aiselyn has been asking for some all winter long, but I am also glad it is just about all melted. It was fun while it lasted, but I am more looking forward to the 70's by the end of the week!

Gabe is 6 months old!

Okay, so I know that Gabe is 61/2 months old now and practically seven months but I guess pictures are better now than never. But for some credit these have been taken over the last couple of weeks!

This one is what I call the "Wuz up?" face. For those tv watchers: remember the super bowl commercials from a few years ago with everyone saying, "wuz up?" with their tongues hanging out? well, that is what I think of whenever Gabe does this!

Gabe almost rolling over but refusing to finish the process! Just hangin' out on his side. I know all kids do this it seems, but it never ceases to amaze me why not just roll over already?

Gabe likes to try to grab his bottle as soon as he spots it. These are of him trying to drink it himself. Maybe someday, he will actually get some!!!

"Hey, Mom! You lookin' at me?"

This one is at the Fancy Nancy party at the library! He is dressed up in what I deem his best outfit!

Playing in his jumperoo! I try to catch his smiles, but the flash always stuns him!

This video is of Gabe playing, he wasn't doing a whole lot this time, but at least you can see him jumping which is cute!




This video is also of him playing but he really isn't doing much at all. But you can hear the girls playing in the background which is pretty cute!

I love my cute, little squirts. They drive me crazy a LOT, but I sure do love them!

Hair cuts!!!

So we three girls wanted to be triplets, so here we are! It is a lot of fun and so much easier to deal with hair so short...and less tangles! Yipee!