Unfailing Love: Nights on the Town

Vincent Gerard

This is my hubby. Also known as Vinny, Dowey, Dowebally, and (as of last night) Pickle Juice. (You may learn that I have an affinity for nicknames, comes from my daddy!) Unbelievably, the hubs and I have been married for 9 years! I can't believe it! Seems like just yesterday I was a freshman in college and my friend introduced me to this hunky senior with a hot red car! Vince is working hard to support our family and traveling here and there. Vince is a WONDERFUL father and his girls (all of us) are the most important things to him!

Barclay Kathryn

What to say? I'm Barclay, usually known as Barclay (not much you can do with Barclay). I was an elementary teacher for fours years until I had Bella. Now I am doing the job I have wanted to do ALL of my life, being a mom. I love these two girls more than I can possibly express and it is my joy and privilege to be able to spend each day with them. I recently entered the blog frontier, and although my blog followers will probably be able to be counted on one hand, I thought it would be exciting to be a part of something so neat. I love that there are many other moms out there facing the same joys, hardships, questions, surprises, and challenges that I am. I also hope to be a sort of medium to spread awareness for others that need prayers, help, or just someone to walk through life with!

Isabella Kathryn

Usually referred to as Bella. As well as Bells, Bellie, Belly Boo, Bellsie Bubs, Bubs, Bubba, Bells and Whistles.... Bella is our first born daughter. She is 6. Bella enjoys school, reading, riding her training-wheel free bike, she could color and write for hours, she loves singing to the Momma Mia soundtrack, anything princess or pink, having bows in her hair, playing dress up, and her little sisters! God blessed us with Bella a month early but she was perfectly healthy. In six years she has become such a bright, outgoing, sensitive, and fearless little girl. Bella really is the sweetest girl you will ever meet. She is eager to please. If she hurts or disappoints someone it literally crushes her to tears. This last year she asked Jesus to be her Lord and Savior and we could not be more proud!! Love this sweet, blonde, blue eyed beauty!

Bryanna Karina

Usually known as Brynn. As well as Brynnie, Miley, Miley Moo, Geegs, Geegers, Brynnie Boo, and many more. Ten days before Bella turned 2 years old we were blessed with another beautiful, healthy girl by planned c-section. This time I was able to see my baby right after birth, watch her get weighed, bathed, etc. I couldn't wait for Bella to meet her. Brynn is now 4 and keeps me laughing all day long. Brynn, since she was about 2 months old has been the smiliest baby I have ever met. All you need to do is look at her and she will flash you a world class smile. Brynn is smiley, more shy and reserved about things than her big sis, can be quite the clown when she feels safe or gets in a silly mood, amazingly brilliant, she's been speaking full sentences since she was 19 months and continues to amaze us with what comes out of her mouth. She loves doing whatever her big sister is doing, dressing up, looking at books, her blankie, being held, twirling in her dresses, singing, and dancing whenever she hears music! Brynn is my compassionate baby, she hates to see people hurting. We just love this sweet, shy, snuggly, smiling little girl!

Brooklyn Blythe

Also known as Brookie, Brookie Cookie, Cookie Lu, Lulu B just to name a few. Sweet, sweet Brooklyn is our family's latest addition! We welcomed Brookie into our family on August 23rd 2010 at 12:23pm by planned c-section. I was nervous she would be a bit high maintenance since she came out screaming bloody murder and continued to wail anytime anyone touched her- get her footprints, take her temperature, etc. Amazingly, she would instantly stop the moment the Hubs touched her or began talking to her. And since her birthday, we have barely heard a peep out of her..... And fast forward 18 months, she definitely makes plenty of peeps now! :) We are full blown in the the terrible twos (which IMO last from 18-36 months) I believe. To make matters worse she's also cutting her 4 molars. She definitely knows what she wants but can't quite articulate it, so gets frustrated. Eating is also a hit or miss these days which is very foreign to me. Mixed with the crabby days though is the funniest personality ever. She is a riot! She LOVES chasing after her big sisters or having them chase and imitate her. She also has this adorable chubby face and will peek out of the corner of her eyes and just melt your heart! She is definitely shy at first but if you can get through to her she will keep you in stitches with her antics. We love you little BB and couldn't ask for a sweeter addition to our family!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Nights on the Town

Well we kicked November off celebrating sweet baby Katie.

Who is not such a baby anymore, since this was her second birthday. But my daughters still call her Baby Katie. :)

We love going down to the city and especially to see our dear friends the Lymans. They have a pool in their building, so of course the girls were delighted about that!

You can just feel her excitement. :)

The daddies and some of the kiddos. Us mommies didn't want to get in and deal with redoing our hair and such. :)

So at Katie's party last year Uncle Jake put on a puppet show that just delighted the kids, so we convinced him to keep the tradition going. Kiddos loved it!

Birthday girl!

Auntie Shari gave the kids these balloons as goody bags, BIG hit!

Everyone happily helped Katie with her gifts.

Happy Birthday Katie Grace!!

Can't believe you're two, I remember the day you came home like it was yesterday. :)

Just a couple weeks later we had the pleasure of going down to the city again for the annual lighting of the Mag Mile.

They have a parade and as it goes down Michigan Avenue the lights on the trees light up. And then it ends with fireworks. We've gone the last couple years now and the kids always love it. Usually it is FREEZING but we've had an unusually mild fall. So although the kids are super bundled it was actually quite pleasant out. :) We went with our Usual Suspects clan - just missing the McMahons :(.

Waiting so patiently for dinner.

Can you even move my dear? :)

Avi, Bells, Katie, Ellie, and Brynn

Anderson, Avi, Bells, and Katie

Me and the girls, Somer and Shari! Missed you Kelli.

The boys.

We had to hold the kids up to see the parade and there was one more kid than there were adults, man were we all sore the next day!

The hubs started out holding up both big girls....

I must have caught everybody off guard with my picture taking...

Somer was ready! :)

Finally I gave the hubs the baby and took Brynn, but man was it a workout to juggle all 3 of them!

The kids enjoyed the parade, unfortunately the fireworks started abruptly and loudly and we had not warned the kiddos so Katie, Brynn, and Brooklyn were not big fans of the firework display.
Afterwards the kids were a bit wound up, and since the weather was so nice we hit the park for a bit. :)