Summer is slipping away!

Fall is my absolute favorite season. The weather, festivities, and coming of the holidays make the Fall most exciting. I am sad however, to see the summer go. It really has been a wonderful summer. We got to see lots of family and friends, and enjoy some lazy weekends. Some of the highlights...

discovering confetti at Jordan's wedding...

being ridiculously cute in his mini tux at Matt's wedding

when you love someone, you go the extra mile;)

our camera always blurs during life's most precious moments. (4th of July)

He's part amphibian. His feet are so yummy. 

We got to spend some time with Oma and Opa. We loved every minute:)

Gabriel loved time with Nanna Gennie and cousin Novi:) Wish we could see them more often!

Nothing cuter than a boy and his teddy bear.

No caption is good enough for this one.

See why we don't want summer to end?

I promised myself I would be better about updated my family blog. Something about having to log in with Gabe's email address that always makes it seem more of a task than it really is.

Will be back soon:D

Chunky Summertime

Well it has been a big week for the Chunk Head and he is really starting to come into his own. This past week we made a trip to Nana and Papa Zuniga's in Saint Louis and it seems that every time we are there he begins something new. I think it is due to all of the insanity, commotion, loud noises, and more playmates than he could ever dream of.

It all started one early Tuesday morning. Gaber, his Uncle Pedro, and I were at a secret fishing pond near their house. Pete was fishing while I was ensuring that Meat Hands didn't dive face first into the murky water never to be seen again. Gabriel has an unhealthy attraction to large bodies of water as well as large snarling animals. What can I say, my son laughs in the face of danger... literally, I'm not joking. So any-who, while I am keeping track of my son, Pete is starting to attract some fish. At one point he feels what seems to be a big hit, but looses it and the lure comes flying out of the water. I respond in disappointment, "Ahhhh man!" Then suddenly it is repeated by a small but not so quite voice playing in the dirt and sticks by my legs, "Ahhhhhhhh maaaaaannnnnn." Pete and I both look at each other and question if we truly heard what we think we just heard. We chalk it up to coincidence and move on for my boy has not uttered any words, much less a full expression with two components to it, and refuses to even say please in sign language because he is too stubbern and bull headed, even though he knows what it means and knows how to! So we continue, Pete fishes, Gaber gets dirty, and I protect the one getting dirty and stare at my fishing pole with yearning eyes. Suddenly Pete again feels a hit but looses the fish and we exclaim "Ahh man!" To out amazement our words are again echoed by the voice below me, "aaahhhhhhh mmmaaaaaaaaannnn." Then suddenly it dawns on the two of us! Yes he did just say that, my 13 month old son is a GENIUS! Over the next few days he also began to say "dog," "bark," and "ba" for bath.

Although we are surprised that his is saying words, we are not surprised at his choice of words. He is still obsessed with dogs and animals, and will search like mad any times he hears one. He is still a little water bug. While at Nana and Papa Zuniga's he had lots of pool time and loved every minute of it, throwing a fit every time we took him out. He had a routine of spending some time in the little plastic baby pool then trotting over to the big pool where he would fall into the arms of Anna or I waiting in the big pool. After some time there he would clime out on his own by the pool steps, make a b-line for the baby pool and it would start over again.

By the time we returned home last night he was completely exhausted from all the excitement. Despite his tiredness he refused to stop pacing every room in the house, laughing and babbling as he touched everything and reacquainted himself with all of his toys. He was very happy to be home. So happy in fact that this morning he decided that it was time for him to start learning to draw and color. So he found a pad of paper on the coffee table and a pen and tried to color/draw. We gave him a few pointers and he was off, making a few little scribbles here, then picking up his paper and moving a few feet to a new location. Then made a few scribbles, picked up his supplies, and moved on to a new location, and so on.

It seems like every time we go on a trip he comes back a different and slightly more advanced goof-ball.

(written by Gabe if you haven't already guessed)

Time really does fly....but Gabe and I have tried to soak up every moment of Little G's first year....I like to say he has one month left to still be my little baby:) I want to capture every moment on video to never forget the most precious moments. He loves to laugh and is always waiting for us to do something funny so he can let out his belly giggle. He also loves to eat and waits for any scraps to fall to the floor as you can see from the picture below;) His favorite things to do right now is look at books and flip through the pages, talk to himself in the mirror, gaze out the window if its rainy, be outside if its nice, and practice his walking skills...he knows he is big stuff. What Gabe and I are enjoying right now...watching his little life unfold. We marvel at the goodness of God in blessing us with such a beautiful gift of parenthood. We wish we could share these moments with our families, but at least we have some pictures to share...

My Valentines

Today is my husband's birthday. I love celebrating his birthday...and celebrating him...because I love him so dearly. He makes my life beautiful. I did a dedication post to him here. 

We had so much fun over the weekend with Valentine's Day and his birthday.

Here are some fun pics to share...

Gaber and all the ladies at our Valentine party.

I woke up Valentine's Day to 5 different cakes and ingredients to design a cake with my husband....he is so cool like that!

This was our result..

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day!!

The Animal Growl

We don't quite know where he picked up his growl...or what it means...but it makes us laugh every time...

                                               

The Chunk Report

We like to call him "chunk", "tank", "the boy", etc. He had is almost 9 month Doctor visit the other day:) And here is the report:

Height: 29 in. (95%)

Weight: 21 lbs (75%)

Status: Very Healthy 

This makes his daddy so proud.

Here are some pictures from bathtime that give proof to these stats:

I know ....I couldn't help it. These will be the pictures we put in his wedding slideshow;)

Happy New Year!

We had such a wonderful two weeks in St. Louis for the Holidays. It was hard to leave:( Since I already put up Christmas photos on facebook, I wanted to post these adorable pics of Gabriel from New Years with his Nanna Gennie. She drove all the way to see us from Milwauke. He also loves his Uncle Paul:)