Kids cuteness

My growing girl. Each day is filled with such amazing treats. It is a good thing, because those bad moments, that only make you want to scream (and sometimes do a little), but follow with a deep breath, a glance at the St. Terese prayers sitting on my counter, and a hug to remind me what a gift she is, are really bears sometimes. That was a lot, a big ramble, hope you caught it all ;)

She is so big, saying things I can't even keep up with! With thought processes I didn't know she was capable of yet!

Cuteness:
Picking up a pretzel off the floor, blowing on it and saying "it's okay now."
Conversation with Jes, visible deep thinking followed by: "Gianna's at home?" pause, pause "daddy's at home, mommy's at home, baby Evie's at home, bubba (pause, pause)Bubba's (pause, pause) at school?"
Daddy: "No, bubba's at Mallory's"
Gianna: "Bubba's at Mallory's, sissy's at Mallory's (pause pause) I miss Bubba and sissy. Daddy misses bubba and sissy, mommy misses bubba and sissy, baby Evie misses bubba and sissy, kitty cat misses bubba and sissy."

Sorry for all the grammatical errors, but I sure hope you caught the cuteness.

Kelly and I drove through Starbucks for a sweet drink while having girl time this weekend (a luxury for sure, not an avid visiter to this place). Grabbed our drinks at the sindow, Gianna instantly says "Where's my drink?" with the saddest face in the world. So what did we do, of course we drove back around...smoothies are kid friendly right?!

 

 

Just little reminders of His presence with us, I am sure. Why else would we be given these amazing gifts?

 

Showing us what they are capable of, in these littleness...

 

Making us tear at the slight errors on our part, because WE are capable of more...

 

Giving us His love, the only way possible...

 

 

 

Pumpkin Patch

I LOVE fall, truly...so many beautiful smells and colors. The wonders of bringing out the hot cocoa for the first time, the smell of fires outside, the crunch of the leaves, the brisk chill of the wind, but saved by the warmth of cuddle duds (YES I wear them, my blood runs ice cold, they are part of my skin in the fall and winter!), and warmth of heavy sweaters and sweatshirts. I LOVE it. And this is amazing, because I know it means winter is coming...and as much as a love autumn, I HATE winter. Also strange because I LOVE Christmas! It is as if God gives me the gift of autumn and Christmas to get me through the bitterness I feel for winter and seasonal depression that envelopes us. Yuck...

But autumn ;) I smile thinking about it! And one of the beauties to be embraced is the sight of your babes amongst leaves and pumpkins! Gorgeous.

My wonderful sister wanted to take Gianna for a day out (a necessity for a mother's sanity at times), and the pumpkin patch was on the list. It was only allowed if I was able to accompany them for this part of the adventure. And it was glorious...

Sorry, I first have to brag about how cute my babes are...we'll start with this GORgeous SIX MONTH OLD! I just can't believe she's that big...but I digress...

 

She was a little nervous about this, but turned out so precious...

 

 

 

 

 

She was in love with the little ones...just like her ;)

 

 

 

 

 

And as we left the animals, well, she had to say "goodbye little lambs!" because she was well familiar with these guys through the nursery rhyme...I wasn't about to tell her any different!

 

 

 

 

 

My babies...

 

Siblings

I remember being absolutely terrified about having a second baby. You always hear that love multiplies, even when you don't know where more is going to come from, but when you go from your first to your second, you just don't believe it...because you can't imagine. I thought I had put aside those fears midway through the pregnancy, but I was wrong. I remember beginning to get ready after the water broke...I was excited, packing, showering, dressing...then I looked over at my darling Gianna. She looked up at me with big eyes and a wad of Kleenexes trying to mop up the mess she made by knocking over a cup of water. And when I saw her effort, I lost it. I remember holding her in my arms for the last time before going into the hospital thinking "what have I done?" Little did I know, I would be giving her one of the greatest gifts I could...a sibling. Watching all the kids grow together teaching each other things we can't quite do as well ourselves...patience, sharing, kindness, generosity, understanding, gentleness, LOVE
And I will never be afraid again...

The greatest gifts we can give our children, are siblings...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween

I have so many GOOD memories of Halloween. It all began with Halloweeny Beenies, beenie weenies to the normal person, followed by a few rounds around the block at mom and dads, and met up at Grandma Jeanne's with all the cousins to hit up the older blocks. Those were the days, walking until the porch lights beat us at calling it quits...carrying pillowcases until they were nearly too heavy to carry ourselves...dumping the loot and trading amongst each other. And it really had nothing to do with the candy...looking back, it was all about the experience with the family. I do hope we managed a young enough neighborhood to enjoy this near our house as kids start to grow a bit, but right now, it just isn't the same. It doesn't help that we can't seem to trust anyone to give untainted candy...people used to throw out candied apples and popcorn balls for us to eat! And now we can't trust the candy people give anymore...Maybe there's goodness in this...perhaps He is trying to teach us something...

Some wonderful friends invited us to join them for a pre-Halloween party for the little ones! We had a wonderful time making cookies, coloring, playing with stickers, enjoying delicious treats...Thank you guys ;)

 

 

 

Heading to Grandma Karen and Papa Rob's to show off the costumes...

 

 

And to Mima and Papa Stan's

 

 

Joined by the kids before heading home...

 

And to all, I hope you had a Blessed All Saints' Day...we enjoyed sharing saints stories...and concluded with St. Gianna's story! We followed it up with some family game time. Beautiful day...beautiful night...