Gabi's birthday celebratations!

Happy Birthday Gabi Rose!!!! Today our little family spent the day together just relaxing and catching up with time together.  We ended the day with a special skype from the Florida crew to sing Happy Birthday to our 1year old.  No matter the distance our hearts are always close!

Over the last couple of days we were blessed to have almost all of Tobin's siblings in town.  There were lots of giggles with cousins, sledding, a princess sleepover, brothers playing rough, and the week culminating on Saturday with Gabi's 1st birthday party!!!! We were blessed to share this celebration with cousin Millie who turned 1 only two days prior!

a little slide show of the week with family and fun times with our Texas gang and family here in Ohio! We had loads of celebrations... Annie's 3rd birthday, Millie's 1st, and the combined party!   Miss ya already!

Gabi is ONE

 Really?  Our youngest and last is ONE YEAR OLD today!  Oh Gabi, you are a bundle of sunshine and love.  Gabi is one of the most easy going little girls we have been around.  She is sometimes so easy going, it's easy to overlook her and she gets lost in the crowd.  However, when she smiles at you, it's intoxicating.  Her eyes sparkle and her whole face smiles!  She is daddy's little girl and lights up whenever he is around, she is also becoming Bapa's little girl too... following him around as soon as he enters a room!

Over the past month Gabi finally got her FIRST TOOTH!  She now has her bottom 2 teeth coming up.  She is still not walking on her own, but you can tell she really wants to!  It is funny to watch her crawl with both legs swinging in front of her to one side!  Recently she has started to become a climber (a trait that her older 2 sibling are well known for!).  You can catch Gabi trying to get her leg up on things trying to climb them.  Over the weekend she climbed all the way up Gramma's little picnic table!
We love our little girl and she is adored by her siblings too.  Will is often heard saying he is her "protector".  Isa is all too fond of giving her hugs and kisses, sometimes 1 too many =).
Gabi in now loving most solid foods and beats out her older siblings at the dinner table.  She tries most anything and loves her veggies.  She is currently drinking 4 bottles of formula a day, 3 meals, and some snacks.  She still is taking 2 naps a day, but there have been days when there has only been an afternoon nap.  Gabi loves her toys, and recently has enjoyed playing with the piano and the kids bouncy zebra.  She loves climbing up and riding around on it.  She has been more and more interactive with balls, sorters, and toys with buttons.  She still loves Will's dinosaurs too!

Over the past year Gabi has brought us unconditional love and happiness, we couldn't imagine a single minute without her!  Happy 1st Birthday Gabi Rose!  You are the sunshine in our lives!

babies

this morning my cousin Carla delivered her 3rd little boy!  Congrats Rooney family, we love you and can't wait to meet the new addition!!!!

baby Rooney, 7 lbs 14 ounces.  Born 9am!

Side note... we are waiting on news of the arrival of another little niece or nephew in NYC today too!!! Still praying for you Mary and Justin!!!

****UPDATE!!!!*** we have a NEW NIECE!!!!  Congrats, and welcome Mira Mae!!!!

6 lbs 10 oz! Mira Mae

fairytales and frogs

This afternoon the kids and I headed out the Zoo's Rainforest for their Fairytales and Frogs event. We met up with the Schilens clan and the Avarello girls.  All the girls wore their princess dresses and even got a chance to meet some Princesses!  They had fun running around, playing the lily pad jump game, dancing, and finding all the animals.  We ended the event with Will doing one of their crafts, he made a little frog, and Isa and Gabi loved the tree frog!!!  What a fun afternoon! 

 

let's go fly a kite...

today we had another unexpectedly beautiful day for NE Ohio!  For the second day in a row, the kids were outside riding their bikes and enjoying the sunshine.  Today, however, Will broke out a new package of sidewalk chalk and we also had the inaugural flight of our 2011 Buzz Lightyear Kite =)   we love days like these!

a little hard to see, but Will drew his "own" hopscotch board!

also wanted to mention... today Isa went in for a "peer evaluation" at Will's school.  We are hoping she will be accepted as a "peer" student for Fall.  Please keep your fingers crossed for us.. it would be so nice to have them going to pre-school at the same place and time! 
And.... Gabi wore her first real "walking" shoes today.  These were Isa's shoes, but they fit great!  We'll have to get her her own official 1st pair soon though!

SEVEN

Tomorrow, yes on Valentines Day, we celebrate SEVEN years of marriage.  The past seven years for us has been blessed.  We had a wonderful opportunity to get away this weekend to celebrate.  We decided to head to Findley Lake, NY to relax around the area and then hit the slopes at Peak n Peek.  It was a wonderful weekend!  We absolutely missed our kids, but it was so nice knowing they were in good hands and having a blast with Gramma and Bapa!  The best part for us was just being able to go out, do some shopping, see a movie, eat and chat together without any agenda or being pressed for time.  On Sunday we headed to the slopes and had an amazing time skiing together, a past time we love, but don't get to do often enough. It was amazing just hanging out with our best friend.
We feel so blessed to be surrounded by family and being able to share so many wonderful memories with them over the years, and are so glad that we get to see our family that is away so much more often than most.  Thank you... all of you, who make our lives so much more interesting, and for loving us the way you do. 

 video of Tobin zooming down the slope

this picture was drawn by Will this weekend, and it is a perfect representation of our family now!

p.s... HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!

Grandma Thomas

Tuesdays.... Gramma Wendy normally has Grandma Thomas on these days.  For a while now, the kids and I have tried to share in some of the day with them.  Normally it's just some time together over coffee while Grandma Thomas marvels at how "smart" the kids are.  I have to admit that I don't think the kids are much smarted than your typical kids... but it always makes a mom feel good when someone else dotes over them.  She is constantly saying how "smart" "good" and happy they are.  She doesn't know them by name, but says that she loves them so much.  This make Me happy.  For us, knowing that we can bring her a smile for a portion of the day is amazing. 
The last few months have been harder for Gramma with her mom.  She has been more confrontational, a little more disoriented, and sometimes just sad.   We have started to notice that Grandma Thomas can relate to the kids, and is most happy with us when we are all singing the kids songs in the car.  She is a kid at heart, and it makes her happy.  She claps and sings along with us, laughing and smiling along the way.  Today they came over for coffee, and then later in the afternoon (while Will was at school) we ventured to the Nature Center.  Grandma is just as excited about what she sees as the kids are.  We feel so blessed to be able to share in these moments with her, and as a bonus, the kids also get that extra time with Gramma on our little adventures.

Grandma with her little Gabi.  My lil fixer uppers=)

 at the Lake Erie Nature Center.  Isa loves holding Grandma Thomas' hand!

 

 trying to find "Nemo" in the pond

fearless

silly puppet show

little projects

If you know us, and the kids, then you know they LOVE to color.  They love crafts, stamping, painting... anything artistic.  Most times I don't blog about all their artwork (because literally there is TOO much).  But here are some things they have been doing....

Our Isa is getting better every day with coloring and staying inside the lines. She is now using different colors for different objects.  She can write out her name and traces letters very well.  

 ahhh... Gabi has joined the coloring world.  She did scribble a LITTLE, but mostly enjoyed tapping the colors together, on the table, and of course... trying to eat them!

 

 Young Master William gets better with each passing day.  He normally opts for drawing his own pics for coloring in rather than use a coloring book.  The one coloring book he did decide to color... well he decided to color EVERY page in it in one sitting!  

The kids also worked on their Valentines cards.  Thanks to a LARGE family... they ended up making about 12 of these (I did have to help out some since they were loosing steam!).  Nonetheless they had a great time and loved making their own cards!

 Finally, Isa was so proud of this pic that she drew of her Gramma, I had to include it!

Paige's birthday!

Yesterday Will, Isa and I went to the N. Olmsted recreation center's gymnastics room to celebrate in Paige's 6th birthday (oh... and it actually happened to be MEGAN's birthday!).  The kids had a good time and so did the rest of the gang.  Thanks for having us!

the birthday girl!

lil miss Audrey took this picture of Will and I!

Will and Isa loved the trampoline! (their favorite!)

 lots of fun treats!