Saturday, March 5, 2016

Little G Turns 1

 The day before Little G's birthday, he woke up with pink eye.  Woohoo!!  We were all super excited about that.
 Luckily, I still had antibiotic drops from the last time the kids were sick with pink eye and Little G never lost his smile through the deal.
 The night of his birthday we took him to eat at Red Robin.  Big boy drinking his water.
 Enjoying his time.
 Keeping himself occupied. 
 Selfie of me and Sissy, my little goofy girl.
Sooooooo.....we got some interesting and exciting news on Little G's birthday.  I had been running around doing errands with the little ones and I decided to buy a pregnancy test since I was really late for my period.  I hadn't experienced very many symptoms yet so I wasn't sure what to expect....but right away that bright blue line appeared.  Talk about shocked and excited.  My mind instantly started racing of how others would react.  This will be our fourth baby in five years.  I was very nervous about sharing the news.  The first one I had to tell was Mr. G.  When he got home from work that day I took him in the back bedroom and showed him the gift that I had gotten Little G for his birthday....it was a Big Brother shirt.  Instantly, Mr. G asked if I was pregnant.  To which I nodded yes.  Mr. G came over and gave me a great big hug with a huge smile on his face.  Even though he wasn't necessarily wanting a fourth child, especially this soon after our last baby, he was genuinely happy.  He was also genuinely shocked, but the joy of knowing we will be sharing our life with another bundle of joy made his shock wear off quickly and the excitement take over.  We decided that even though it was still really early in the pregnancy we would go ahead and announce the news to our family and closest friends at Little G's birthday party the next day.
We did a Winter One-derland themed party for Little G.  One of my high school basketball players made his cake for me.  She did fantastic.
 I decorated the house with pictures for the party and formed a big number one from all the pictures of Carson's first year.  It was emotional looking back at how much he has changed in just a year and remembering all the wonderful memories of him growing from a baby to a toddler.
Here is some more of the decorations and wintery-themed food including penguin cake-pops, puppy chow, and powdered doughnuts.
 It was party time....the kids were excited to celebrate and play all day long.
 Little G is taking up to 5 steps by the time he turned one, he knows how to wave bye, blow kisses, play peek-a-boo, say Da-Da, Ma-Ma, Na-Na, and his favorite word is Uh-Oh.  He is the quickest little crawler.  He is the happiest little dude I've ever met.  He always giggles after he sneezes.  And he will stick his tongue out if you stick your tongue out at him. 
 Playing with one of his friends during the party.
 Working on his walking.  About a week after he turned one he took off with his walking and is now marching all over the place.
 Look who got a hold of my phone and took a cute selfie of himself.
 Grandma and Papa came and brought a wooden rocking horse for Little G...Sissy G was very excited about the horse.
 Our friends and family gathered around to enjoy their supper.
 Some of the kids eating food in the living room.  It was such a fun party.
 Little G chowing down.
With all the people there, plus lack of a nap, he wasn't his usual smiley self towards the end of the night.  You could tell he was tired, but he still very much enjoyed himself.
Time to gather everyone in the living room and open presents.  Mr. G and I were both a little nervous knowing that the last gift Little G would open would be his new Big Brother shirt.  And, of course, everyone had absolutely no idea.
 It all happened so fast.  Kids were all around us ripping open presents and we were trying to throw out "thank-you's" and enjoy each gift. 
 Little G getting some help from Big Bro.
Opening up his cards.  We felt so blessed with all that Little G received from so many people that love him dearly.  It was a wonderful time. 
Next came his final gift.  And after five seconds of holding the shirt in front of him, Nana yelled out with a big gasp, "YOU'RE PREGNANT?!?!?!?!?!"
The whole room seemed in shock and blown away.  We heard lots of "Congratulations" and even some comments like "You guys are like rabbits."  And "You need to lock Mr. G up."  But it was all in fun and I truly believe everyone was excited for our next wonderful Baby G. 
 Then it was time for Little G to dig into his cupcake. 
 He was a tired little man and wasn't really interested in his cupcake at this point.  His brother tried to encourage him to take a big bite.
 But all he would do was look at it on his fingers.
 Finally, I decided to just hold him and let him try to eat it that way....and he started to really chow down after that.
 Mmmm Mmmmmm Mmmmmm
 Cupcake followed with a quick bath to get all the bright red and blue icing off of him.
 Sorry for the pink towel, Little G. 
 Once he was all clean and had his pajama's on he then started walking around trying to take bites out of everyone else's cake.
 Getting to ride on his new rocking horse.
 Playing with Papa's beard.
The evening ended with the kid's all dancing to some songs on the TV. 
I think everyone had a good time at Little G's party.  It might have been a little overwhelming for him but I do think he had fun.  I enjoyed celebrated this special little guy with friends and family and also sharing our wonderful and excited news.  This life we live might be chaotic at times and a bit loud and wild but it's these years when the kids are little that I know we will also look back on with such joy.  These little people mean the world to us.  They brighten each day.  It doesn't matter if they're sick, or whiny, or just plain crabby...it's still so much fun getting to spend each and every day with them.  I wouldn't change a thing. 

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

The Everyday Stuff

During our weekly homeschool group meeting our kiddos got to be a part of putting together bags of food for kids in need in our area. 
They each got their own brown paper bag...
And would put the correct number of each item in their bag as the went through the line.
Then they would put them in the bins.  The kids enjoyed helping others and felt like they were big stuff.
Little G playing ball with his buddies at the homeschool group.
While we were shopping at a local store, Sissy got to see the pet pig that the store had in a cage in the back.  One of the workers let Sissy G feed the pig some celery.
Sissy had an absolute blast.  She may have a future in the pig feeding business.  But when I went back to see the pig a few minutes after Sissy had fed her....
This is what I saw.  Hopefully the pig was just sleeping.
Speaking of sleeping....how sweet is this sound sleeper?
Underwear man playing catch with his balloon.
Another sleepy-time photo.
We took a quick trip down south to see our friend play in one of her last collegiate home games.  The kids had a blast.
And our friend was player of the game with another double-double.
Valentine's was fun for us this year.  Bubby got to give out valentine's to all his classmates at preschool.  Sissy got into the heart stickers while Bubby G was putting his valentine's together.
It was this lil dude's first valentines day.
This was Bubby presenting his Batbot at our homeschool group show-and-tell.  He did such a good job.
Sissy dressed and ready for the basketball game.
Bubby ready too.  He even carried his ball around with him everywhere.  Little G seemed interested on getting his hands on that ball.
My little Valentino.
I think he knew he was adorable.
Sissy must've slept hard that night.  She woke up with some crazy hair.
Painting her first jewelry box.
And Bubby painting some race cars.  The kids took at least an hour working hard on their projects.

This one speaks for itself....It quickly became one of my favorite photos.
Sissy had gotten really quiet in the back room and when we found her she had lipstick in her hand and a colorful face.  Still beautiful, but it was a bit difficult getting that bright pink lipstick out of her eyebrows.
Nana gave Sissy one little heart chocolate to eat on the road.  She didn't eat the chocolate, but instead let it melt in her hands and then she enjoyed squishing it through her fingers.  Nothing like a lil sensory play while riding along in the car.
Mr. My-Hair-Has-To-Look-Perfect.
He did a good job.
You definitely want nice looking hair when you are cooking up some pancakes for lunch.
Can you tell which outfit is Bubby G's favorite right now?  In fact, he is wearing it as I type this out.  I'm pretty sure he grabbed it out of the dirty laundry pile. 
The everyday stuff is what I like posting about the most because those seem to be the days you typically forget.  But with having a blog it helps me remember each little special thing about the childhood of our kiddos, and to me....that's priceless.