Gabe's 5th Birthday!!

October 2nd was Gabe's 5th birthday, and it was a TON of FUN! We started off the day monkeying around and bouncing off the walls...

Then we had fun playing the Wii (Gabe loves to play Mario Kart)...

Then we had a party! Gabe wanted a green monster truck birthday cake, so Grandma made him a cake and decorated it with a green monster truck, a ramp, and plenty of cars for it to crush to smithereens!

He was sure to tell Grandma how much he loved the cake and give her big hugs.

After Gabe was done terrorizing the cake, he had a blast opening his gifts...

Including this ridiculously cool bike!!

Thanks to all the family for a fun day and wonderful gifts!! We love you!!

Gabe Photo Shoot

Declan Photo Shoot

Bella Photo Shoot

Gracie Photo Shoot

We had a photo shoot of the kids when Gracie was just 3 weeks old (Sept 22nd). Here are some of my favorites of Gracie.

Speaking of Preschool

Came across this picture from January 2009 where we attempted to let Declan go to preschool at just 2 1/2 years old. It only lasted a month because he really wanted to be in Gabe's class and wouldn't cooperate. What can we say, he loves his brother! He'll get to go next fall, though, when Gabe starts kindergarten.

Gabe goes to preschool

Wednesday September 9th was supposed to be our C-section date, but we really didn't want to miss Gabe's first day of preschool, so our awesome doctor moved us up to Saturday the 5th and we didn't miss Gabe's big day. First, he wanted to say good-bye to his new baby sister.Then he put on his hand-me-down super-cool Batman backpack (thanks to cousin Gaige!) and we were off to school.
His new preschool is part of a church and is actually quite big. Gabe was pretty proud to be there!
We got to hang out with him for a few minutes and that made him feel more comfortable, apparently way more comfortable!
Tell me where you have ever seen a cuter first day of school picture than this next one!! If anyone wants prints of this one, let me know. I love my son!!
His first and second days of school have gone really well, and this school is 500% better than the preschool he attended last year. One of the things they do to make the kids feel big is they get in and out of the cars all by themselves. Of course, Gabe is such a pro. He's been practicing buckling and unbuckling himself all summer and opening and shutting his own door for a couple of weeks. Now when we get in the car he exclaims the second he's ready, "OK! I'm all buckled, it's safe to drive on the road now!"

Graysen comes home

We came home on Labor Day (after waiting a painful 4 hours for the one doctor actually working the holiday to finally make it to our room). Thankfully we had some great friends we haven't seen in years come visit us, so that helped us pass the time, along with the first season of Veronica Mars (why they canceled that show is beyond reason).

So we got home and loaded all our stuff on the pool table (because that's what pool tables are for, just like treadmills are for extra closet space). The kids were so happy to see us, not that they didn't have lots of fun staying with Grandma & Papa (thank you!!). The grandparents had even given us a cake to celebrate Graysen's birthday (and everyone said "awwwww").We also tried to see if we could get some more pictures of our baby girl. Here are a few.
Graysen sleeps a lot for now and is doing really well. She doesn't really cry that much and is beginning to make the shift from being awake at night to sleeping at night. Hopefully we can keep that up! At her 1-week checkup she was back to her birth weight of 10 pounds. What a champ! We have her on formula, so we're going through the process of figuring out if she can handle the Wal-Mart formula brand or if we need to go with a name brand. So far it's looking like name brand formula may be in our future. She doesn't fit much of her preemie outfits, and the many newborn size diapers we had don't fit her either. She's already growing up so fast!!!

Charlene is recovering very well, too. She takes the stairs with relative ease, can handle the bumpy car rides much better now, and has even tackled shopping with us a couple of days now. The kids, on the other hand, have been a little out of sorts since we returned home with our new bundle of joy. Annabelle has been kind of jealous, and the boys have just been all-out aggressive and hyper. But Grandma and Great Grandma have been so nice to keep the amazing dinners coming so we can focus on the children, myriad chores, and catching up on sleep.

Huge thanks to all the family and friends who showed their love, helped us out, and told us what beautiful babies we make! And just for the record, you all can stop counting because while they were doing the C-section we had Charli's tubes tied. We are officially done (but so grateful for and completely in love with each of our children)!!!

Graysen's second day

Here are a few more pictures of Graysen taken before we left the hospital. Grandma & Papa were nice enough to bring the kids by for a few minutes so they could meet their new baby sister. They all did great with her.

Our big girl is here!

Graysen Lilly was born at 11:31 AM Sat Sep 5, 2009, weighing in at 10 pounds even and measuring 19 1/2 inches long. The C-section went very smoothly without any complications, and our Gracie is doing great!!! Praise the Lord!!! You can see a few more photos at our Flickr page (link is provided at the top right of this blog).

Bella takes us to the park for her birthday

For Bella's second birthday, she wanted to go to the paygwound and 'wing (i.e., playground and swing), so we took her to a nice park nearby. She and Declan had a blast on the swings.
The bigger swings had massive puddles under them, so Gabe went for the motorcycle instead.

After a few minutes, the cousins arrived: Alexa (affectionately known as AJ), Gaige, Josie, and Kaydran. As they were driving up, we took a quick pic with Mommy.

Then we headed on a treacherous expedition to the parking lot to greet our friends!!

Everyone kind of did their own thing, having a total blast. Even though the merry-go-round was surrounded by water, I went ahead and pushed them all around super fast (but forgot to get a picture of it). Everyone had a fantastic time, and we all went to Braum's together for lunch (they are an ice cream diner that is so, so good). Later we went to Great Grandpa Fred's house to finish off our day of fun with family.