Champions

It was INCREDIBLE.  One of the BEST sports moments in history.  A team who wasn't supposed to even be in the post season, let alone the World Series.  The St. Louis Cardinals were amazing us all....except for dad.  Back in April my dad said that we were going to win the World Series, but he says that every year, so I'm not sure it counts.  We were about to lose....we were supposed to lose....we were playing bad enough that we should've lost....but we won.  I was able to tape the reaction of my family just moments after the big win.

Game 6 video

Unfortunately, the game went into extra innings so we all got to bed after midnight.  Which meant the next night, Game 7, we were all lil tired.

 Here is my sister-in-law and my nephew sound asleep at about the 6th inning.

And, of course, Baby G was knocked out, as well.

Here's the lil girls sitting with their Nana during the final moments before the big win.  Game 7 wasn't as exciting because we were ahead most of the game, but I was still able to catch the reaction of my family when we made the final out.

Game 7 Video

We now can tell Baby G that the year he was born the Cardinals won the World Series.....Absolutely Incredible.

Learning To Sit Up

Every day is a new adventure with Baby G.  Today's adventure was trying to sit up.  We have been practicing for a little while now and Baby G is getting closer and closer with each day.  There are times when he can sit up for up to 30 seconds all by himself and other times as soon as he sits up he falls right back down.  Today we went on Mr. G and my bed to practice.

 One of the first things I've learned about trying to teach Baby G something new is to first make sure he is in a good mood.  If he is tired or hungry then there is no use trying to teach him anything, but he was all smiles today so we started practicing.

 I put pillows around him to make his falls a little softer.

 Someday he won't need those pillows around him.

But right now he still does.  Of course he falls to the one side that I hadn't put a pillow. (Notice the black and white furry animal in the background....Marley has found his way into yet another photo)

Baby G is right back up again....although he's leaning a little forward...and yet some how he landed...

Backward, but he had a soft landing.  I guess we will just have to keep practicing.  I think he is doing a great job especially considering he is only 4 1/2 months old.  I am very proud of him and I know Mr. G is too.

Learning To Sit Up Video

Picture Day

We had the opportunity to go up and visit Mr. G's family over the weekend to celebrate Mr. G's birthday and to take pictures for his parent's Christmas card.  It was a gorgeous day....Sunny and about 68 degrees.  We went out to Mr. G's sister's house for pictures because they have a lot of trees in their back yard and it looks beautiful this time of year.  

 One of the perks of going up there is getting to see this lil cutie.  He is Baby G's cousin and is just 2 months older than him.  Right now they don't notice each other too much but someday I have a feeling they will be good friends.

 Before pictures Baby G got down on the floor with his grandma and played with lots of toys.

 Then his big cousin joined him.

 At this point these kids had no idea just how many pictures they were going to have to pose for.

 Once we got outside they wanted to take pictures of the lil boys so me and Mr. G's sister held them while everyone took pictures.

 Then we took some with the grandchildren and grandparents.  I actually heard Baby G's grandma say that this was the best day of her life.  She loves these lil boys to pieces.

 Baby G had started getting fussy from all the pictures so he cuddled up with his daddy, grabbed his pacifier, and felt much better.

 He almost looks like he could just take off running at any point.

 But we have to hold him back..... After the pictures outside we came back in and put the lil boys in their Halloween costumes.

 From the beginning Baby G's cousin kept wanting to take off Baby G's socks.  He was fascinated with them.

 Baby G kept looking at us with a look of...."Help me."

 But no matter how hard we tried...

 He kept pulling off the socks.

 So we decided to just take the socks off.

 Getting them both to smile and look at the camera at the same time was virtually impossible.

 But they sure were cute.

 Hey...This picture turned out pretty good.

 Then Baby G started getting tired.  Good thing he had his cousin to lean on.

At that point my sweet punkin was tired of pictures and just wanted a rest.  So we did just that.  It was a fun day and I think we ended up with a lot of cute pictures.  And to top it all off the Cardinals won 14-6 in the World Series.

Liebster Blog Award

I was totally surprised to see that I had won the Liebster Blog Award.  I must admit that I was really excited and looking forward to pass the award on to others.  Now that I am a stay at home mom it is not very often that I get awarded with something.....in fact it is usually never, so this is pretty cool.

I would like to thank Genia for giving me this award.  Check out her blog when you get a chance.

Now I will pass this award on to 5 other blogs that are up and coming.

1. Making Our Life Matter http://makingourlifematter.blogspot.com/

2.  Our Country Road http://ourcountryroad.blogspot.com/

3.  A Homegrown Life http://crunchychristianmom.blogspot.com/

4.  Kim's Korner http://blessed2bamommy.blogspot.com/

5.  I Have Been Blessed http://ihavebeenblessed.wordpress.com/

Upon receipt of the Liebster Award, there are a few very simple rules:

1.  Copy and paste the award on your blog

2.  Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you

3.  Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

4.  Hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.

Playing Catch With Mama

This is probably something that Baby G will do more of with his daddy when he is older although I love to play catch just as much as the next guy.  However, it is probably more exciting for a boy to play catch with his dad then with his mom, but the other day Baby G and I were able to play catch together for the first time.  Since he is only 4 months old he hasn't mastered the skill of throwing yet, but his catching skills were pretty good.  He seemed to pick up on the idea of bringing both hands together in order to grasp the ball that was flying at him.  Of course, I helped out a bit by sitting Baby G in such a way that the ball would be easy to grab.  Still....I like to think he is a prodigy.

Playing Catch With Mama Video

Baby G's First Attempt At Eating Cereal

Baby G had his 4 month doctor's appointment a few days ago and the topic came up of starting Baby G on baby food.  I was against it at first.  I had been reading up on how you should wait until the child is 6 months old before you start baby food, but what the doctor said made sense.  It doesn't have anything to do with the age but instead the weight of the child.  Since Baby G is 18 lbs 10 oz and 27 1/2 inches long putting him in the 90 percentile for weight and off the charts for height he is a good candidate to start baby food.  The doctor said that I should go with my gut.  Wait until I think Baby G needs it.  Like I said, I planned to wait a while but then I started hearing lil Baby G's tummy growling often through out the day and I knew that it was time.  So this morning before Mr. G went to work we fed Baby G his first bowl of cereal.  This was a big deal because Baby G had never tasted anything other than breastmilk.

 He made lots of funny faces each time we put a little cereal in his mouth.

But he seemed to enjoy it for the most part.

I think he especially liked spitting out the cereal after I put it in his mouth.

 There ended up being more on his chin and bib then in his belly.

 Actually, I'm not sure if any of it made it into his belly.

 But he didn't seem to mind one bit.

 He sure was cute while we were feeding him though.  He was laughing and jabbering away the whole time.

 Aw...looky there.  He's even cleaning up his mess.

 You could tell that Baby G was so proud of himself.  It was as if he knew that he was growing up and eating like a big boy.

Now if we could just teach him to swallow the food.  It sure was fun though and apparently it was tiring because Baby ended up laying down for a 2 hour nap after he ate.  It's hard work learning how to eat food but with Mr. G and I as his parents I'm sure he will become a pro at eating just like us.  Of course I wouldn't send you away without a video.  We actually got Baby G's first few bites on camera.  Enjoy!

Baby G's First Attempt At Eating Cereal Video

Opened My Eyes

Today Baby G and I were running around town like crazy trying to get all our errands done.  Mr. G's birthday is in two days and I was needing to get a lot done especially since today I had the car.  It's tough to get errands done on the days that I don't have the car.....scratch that....it's pretty much impossible.  So today was the day that Baby G and I had to focus on getting all our errands complete and unfortunately it was about 45 degrees and rainy.  The first cold day we've had in months and not at all a fun day to be caring a baby from place to place.  But we made do and were finally back in the car headed for home when I stopped to let a man cross in front of me.  This man had on a hoody with the hood pulled up over his head to keep the rain out and jeans that had obviously been worn a few too many times.  He looked like he hadn't shaved in a few days, his clothes were dirty, and he held a plastic sack up over his shoulder.  When I waved him to go ahead and cross in front of me he smiled and waved back at me.....twice.  He had such a sad look in his eyes.  As he walked on passed me I noticed he had a limp and then saw that the plastic sack that he was holding over his shoulder held a six-pack of beer.  Usually when I see someone like that my first thought is, "What a screw up."  Not real Christian of me...I know.  But for some reason today was different.  I felt like I was seeing this man for a brief second through God's eyes.  It could be because when I looked in my rear view mirror I saw this face looking back at me....

And I thought to myself that the man who just walked across the street, possibly homeless, possibly an alcoholic, possibly without a job, friends, or a family that he can lean on....that man was once just as innocent and peaceful as the lil boy looking up at me from my back seat.  And my heart broke for that man.  I am positive that God's heart is breaking for him too.  I know that God loves that man even more than I love my own son and I can't imagine watching my son walk the streets like this man was.  I wondered about the man's life....his childhood...his upbringing in the church.  I wondered what he was like in school.  Was he a popular kid, a nerd, the class clown, the athlete, the stinky kid?  Did anybody ever stop to tell this man about Jesus....about a God who loves him and wants to make him well?  Has this man been abused, mistreated, ridiculed by others?  Has he been a part of a loving church family or did he try church once but could tell by the looks on everyone's face that he didn't belong?
And then I started thinking about this man's future.  Where was he going to get his next meal?  Was he going to spend all his money on alcohol?  Did he have a family that was depending on him?  Will he ever find peace?  Will he ever be happy?  Will he ever get freed from his alcoholism?  Will he ever come to know Christ?
I wanted so bad to jump out of my car and stop this man whom I've never met and tell him to throw that beer in the trash and come with me.  I wanted to give him warm clothes, a hot meal, and Bible.  I wanted to help him, but it didn't matter what I wanted to do, because in this day-in-age a young girl with a baby in her backseat could NEVER help a stranger because you just never know what could happen.  So since I couldn't physically help him I started praying for him.

Then I looked back at my son again.

This world is a scary place full of so much sin and it terrifies me to think of the future of our son.... Is there a possibility that someday it could by our little boy walking the streets?  You always think it can't happen to your children, but I'm sure this man's mother thought the same thing.  All of a sudden the responsibility of raising a child seemed so hard.  Just the other day Mr. G and I were sitting in the parking lot at a local high school when school let out and we both were shocked at what the children were wearing, saying, and doing.  Mr. G's comment was that he felt like we were on hell's back door....and this was at a school.
The Lord has trusted this precious life in our hands and it is true that it is a huge responsibility, but with that huge responsibility he has also put in our heart an agape love for our son.  With that love along with the guidelines God has given us in His Word we should have all the tools we need to lead Baby G down the path of righteousness.  It won't always be easy and we know full well that we will make mistakes, but we will try our hardest to make sure our son will never be walking aimlessly down the road with a sack of beer hanging over his shoulder with no particular place to go.  I pray for the man that I saw today....that he will come to know the Lord and find peace, but I also pray for our son....that he will never know that kind of life.  I know that Baby G's life won't always be peaches'n cream, but through it all I pray that he will cling to the Lord and when his life is over he will find himself resting in the arms of the God.

Punkin Painting

So after we took pictures in the leaves we decided to paint punkins.  In previous years Mr. G and I would each paint a punkin near the beginning of October, but our nights are full now enjoying our lil boy that painting punkins just hasn't been a priority like it used to be.  But I didn't want Baby G to miss out on the tradition of painting punkins this year so before dinner we sat down and Baby G painted his first punkin.

Not showing too much excitement yet.

 Let me add that just recently did Baby G start to get ticklish and I think this is one of his most ticklish spots.

 He couldn't stop smiling.

 Once I got the foot painted it was time to put it on the punkin.

 You got to smash it in really good.  After we did the foot we then did his hand.  We were unable to get any pictures of this because we were making sure that Baby G didn't put his paint covered hand in his mouth.  Safety before blogging.

Here's the finished product.  I think Baby G did a pretty good job if you ask me....especially with the letters.  It was another fun fall day with new family fall traditions being passed on to lil Baby G.  Even though he won't remember his first punkin painting it was an experience I will never forget.....

Scaring Marley

Let me first add that no animals were hurt in the making of this film.  We had been outside taking pictures of Baby G in the leaves when Mr. G accidentally kicked the leaves and it scared Marley out of his mind.  So I turned the camera on and we waited for Marley to get close to the leaves again and Mr. G kicked the leaves.  You can see for yourself poor Marley's reaction.  I love that he turned to me for safety when actually it was my idea to even take the video.

Scaring Marley Video

Fall Leaves

We decided that since today was a gorgeous fall day that we would take Baby G out to get some pictures in the leaves.  I also thought it would be a good day to do his hair for the first time with gel.

 I know he doesn't look thrilled about it in this picture but he loved looking at it in the mirror.  You could tell he thought he was lookin' good.

 Here he is getting used to his surroundings.  He's never been surrounded by a huge pile of dead leaves before.  It takes some getting used to.

 "Hey, mom.... how long do I have to sit in leaves for you?"
"Until you give me a big smile, sweetie."

 All Baby G wanted to do, though, was look around.

 I wonder what he is thinking.

 I didn't get it on camera but he actually starts jumping in the leaves like he does in his jumper at home.

 And while he was jumping he landed back into the pile of leaves and surprisingly didn't mind too much.

 Um....He doesn't look to happy here.

 Marley wanted to get in on the fun too...

 Are leaves considered vegetables if they are dead?  Mmmmm...

 Aw...what a cute picture of my boys.

Oh, sorry Marley.  You're considered one of my boys too.

"Hey....what are you doing down there, mom?"

There's that grin mommy was looking for.

He looks so proud of his shoes.

I'll show you one more concerned look, and ....

And one more almost happy look.
I am so thankful that we live in an area where we can enjoy all four seasons.  I have a feeling that for many years to come Mr. G, Baby G, and I are going to have fun playing in the fall leaves.