Gabi turns 3 !!!

 Our little Baby Cakes turned THREE today.  People always say that it's hard to watch your youngest get older, and they are right.  Long gone are the days of her relying on us for everything.  This sassy, independent girl keeps us on our toes and is growing up too fast for our liking.  After potty training herself, she now insists on getting dressed and undressed on her own.  She can put her jacket, socks and shoes on.  She pretty much mimics what her siblings do and other than reading, writing and drawing at their level, she is pretty much on track with them.  We still aren't sure if she will be a left or righty, since she switches her writing utensils from one to the other.  She loves creative play and enjoys both playing with others and on her own.

Some silly things about Gabi:
-when talking to us she clarifies something with the word "actually", ex:  "I got ponies for my birthday, ACTUALLY, unicorns."
-it's adorable to hear her talk about how much she misses her daddy "so much" and talks about her best friends Chloe and Kyle.
- we roll our eyes whenever she says "gaga."  That is her token word right now... when she has nothing better to say, she says "gaga."
- it's cute and funny how she uses her VBS training to explain away accidents or things gone wrong. i.e, after a potty accident recently, when I asked her why she didn't go to the bathroom, she said "mommy, it was just an accident, and you know, no matter what people do, trust God".  I couldn't help but smile.
- right now she is VERY particular about the way she sleeps.  Her pillow has to be in the perfect position for her, only the sheets may be used to cover her, her dream lite needs to be on the blue (purple to her) setting, and her white noise giraffe has to be on selection 2 which is a jungle type sound.
- we love the way she says "bye" and blows a kiss to people upon her's or their departure.
- her hair is real long, and for now she still has her curls... though they are starting to wave more.
- she LOVES purple.  In fact, despite having her long awaited pony party, she still tells people she is having a purple party, will someday have a purple teacher, and a purple classroom!
-her favorite princesses right now are Tiana (from The Princess and the Frog) and Merida (from the movie Brave).

Gabi got spoiled on her birthday with several friends coming to visit and sharing the day with her.  We then had her Gramma, Bapa, Godfather Paul, Kateri and Chloe over for dinner and dessert.  Since Gabi loves Oreo cookies (thanks to our neighbor Tracy), I made her on her of Godmother's recipe .. an Oreo and Ice cream dessert!  Happy Birthday Gabi Rose!

breakfast with the Miller boys

Avarello ladies joined us for lunch

Gabi and Chloe got Bitty Twins!

Much like the ones Isa and Annie got a few years back =)

GWL Family Weekend

 This year, Tobin and I thought that we would share our anniversary weekend with the kids and spend it together as a family.  Jeremy, Heather and kids were headed to Great Wolf Lodge to celebrate Annie's and Millie's birthdays, and we joined them for an action packed weekend!  Our family had a blast!

We went to the GWL in Mason, Ohio, near Cincinnati.   This indoor water-park is larger than the one closer to us (as we found out after-the-fact).  It had several water pools including a wave pool, toddler pool with slides, hot spring pool, and others.  There were plenty of slides and the kids could go on all of them except for two.  We arrived Friday night, and after briefly checking out the Bedtime story hour we headed right to the water.  That night we tried out the family water slide that is a raft that holds up to 5 people.  Our family, Jeremy and Annie joined us for the evening fun.

On Saturday morning, we went straight back to the water after breakfast.  The kids enjoyed everything.   Gabi was a little mermaid, swimming and sliding on anything and everything we took her on.  Isa also loved the slides and water, but her favorite was the hot spring.  Will had fun, but preferred the pools and lazy river to the slides. His favorite was a pool that had a net over it that the kids can hang on to in order to traverse the lily pads and stumps.   One of the kids' favorite slides was the "potty slide".  This was  really called "Coyote Canyon" but was a slide that ended in a large bowl that you circled around in your tube and then got "flushed" out to the exit, just like a toilet! 

On Sunday, we checked out and ended our day in the water again  before the long drive home.  This day we did some slides, but the majority of the time was spent racing around the lazy river!  I will never forget the huge smiles on all the kids this afternoon.  

In the evenings Jeremy and Tobin had a wonderful time catching up.  The girls loved spending time with their cousins.  Isa couldn't have been any happier spending the weekend with Annie.  Gabi kept asking to see Millie whenever she wasn't around.  Will loved swimming with the big boys and hanging out with Daddy and his Godfather.  I loved all the smiles we got and watching the kids laugh and shout with amusement on the slides.  Isa loved our weekend so much that she is already begging us that we need to return for her 6th birthday!  We truly did have a wonderful weekend together!

This is the "hydro plunge" their fast water coaster.  Heather and I tried it out the previous day and made sure Tobin and Jeremy got on it too!

"hot pool"

   

hard to believe that little Own is ONE!

being crafty at the "cub club" area.

couldn't resist this pic.  Isa's smile after a wonderful weekend!

 a few videos from our weekend!

Happy Valentines Day!

2013... and we get to spend our NINTH anniversary with the best kids ever.  The kids enjoyed a special heart shaped blueberry muffin drizzled in icing.  A few special treats, a special visit with Gramma in the morning and then a wonderful dinner out for Tobin and I ended the evening.  Tobin and I went out to Texas Roadhouse and reminisced of our courting days in Texas.  It's been a wonderful 11.5 years together, and a blessed 9 years of marriage!  Our lives couldn't be more perfect.  We are blessed daily with the love of our children, we get to spend days with our best friend, and we get to share our lives with so many special people to us.

Happy Valentines!

Scary night

What started out as a typical Friday sure didn't end that way.  After a brief Costco run and dropping off some of the groceries at Gramma's, the kids all insisted on staying to play a little.  We didn't get more than a few sips into our coffee when we heard Will crying in the playroom.  After rushing down to see what went wrong and trying to assess the situation, we realized that he may have swallowed one of the glass decorative beads that people use in floral vases.
Thankfully Will was breathing fine, just shaken up, but I soon realized he couldn't swallow anything.  I left the girls and rushed him to the local ER.  After an x-ray, the ER doctor told us that we would need to be transported downtown to Cleveland Clinic to see a Pediatric GI doctor.  Will got to go on his first ambulance ride.  Tobin met us downtown and the next phase began.  The doctors there decided that Will needed to go into surgery to remove the marble.  After meeting with the team, they took Will in for what was to be a simple 20-25 minute procedure.  30 minutes later, Tob and I were still calm.  55 minutes later, not so much.  When we finally stopped someone to get an update, we had a nurse come out and tell us that Will was fine, but they couldn't grasp the marble.  They were now in the process of bringing in an ENT team to assist and determine if there was better equipment to grab the marble.  2.5 hours later they were done!  After inserting a rigid tube down his throat, then inflating a balloon past the marble, they were able to push the marble up enough to get it.  Will stayed overnight to be observed and to endure a barium test to ensure his esophagus wasn't torn.  Thankfully we got lucky.  No tears or holes and we finally got to take our little boy home a little after 2pm Saturday.  We were extremely blessed that the marble went down his esophagus and not his wind pipe.  We were able to take our little man home and couldn't have been happier about that.

 tired, but on his way home!

It wasn't until much later that we finally found out why he even put the marble in his mouth.  We found out that Will and his sisters were pretending to be Velociraptors.  Will was the daddy raptor and his sisters were the babies.  He was apparently teaching the babies how to properly eat meat.  He showed them how to put one in his mouth and spit it out, but when he put the second one in, it accidentally slipped back in his throat and he tried desperately to throw it up.  He said, he'll never do that again!