Brothers

A REAL Snow Day!

Forget all my other posts about snow...this one takes the cake! We had at least 3 inches of snow last night...it was beautiful! Saturday was a perfect day for a snow day since Neal was home, and he is much more fun playing in the snow than I am! He and the boys had a blast throwing snowballs at each other. Well, Gabe had a blast until Daddy nailed him in the face with one. After he was done crying, he told Neal with his little angry voice "I'm going to get you"! So Neal made him an extra big snowball and let Gabe throw it right at him! Sam never stopped smiling and laughing, he was totally into anything that Neal did. They slid down the hill in a Tupperware box and built a mean snowman. Gabe and I pooped out before the snowman, but we sang Frosty while we were eating lunch. When Neal and Sam came in a while later, they were both freezing. Luke slept through the whole thing of course, but I took a picture of him just to have it documented that he was here!

It was a lovely day!

Luke

Here are some new pictures of Luke. He will be 8 weeks on Monday. He is such a little sweetie...he is starting to smile and really make eye contact, which is always so fun. I can stare at him for hours...even the back of his head is cute!

It's a sad day...

Football will never be the same again. Brett Favre retired today after 17 years playing football. Neal and I are huge Green Bay Packer fans, it will be really weird to watch a game with out seeing #4 throwing touchdown passes. I'm so sad, but glad that he is going out with an amazing season behind him.

To the Country

On Saturday, we went to our friend Elijah's birthday party. My friend Renee and I were pregnant with Gabe and Elijah at the same time and they were born two days apart. We have the same doctor and delivered at the same hospital, I actually walked down to her room when she was in labor and hung out for awhile since I was still in the hospital. Renee had the party at her dad's house, he lives out in the country on about 50 acres, so it was a perfect place for a party. It was a beautiful day (rare for Nashville this time of year) to be outside. They had tractors galore, dirt to dig in with buckets and shovels, goats running around, balls, soccer goals, rocks, mud and plenty of wide open space to run around. The boys had a blast...it was really boy heaven. Their favorite part was digging in the dirt and playing on the big tractors. I had so much fun with my camera...plenty of photo ops of my boys! Neal stayed home with Luke, so I was free to follow after Sam and Gabe and snap away. I promise there were other people at the party, most of the pictures are just of my kiddos.

Gabe's Birthday Party

Since Sam's birthday party in December, Gabe has been talking about what he wanted to do for his party. He decided awhile ago that he wanted to go bowling...so bowling we went! Franklin has a really nice bowling alley with a little kid size room with 6 mini lanes. We rented that out and had tons of fun bowling with all the kids. Gabe was very serious about his bowling, you'll notice that he isn't smiling in any of the pictures, he was really concentrating! He told me later that the bowling was his favorite part. Every time he was opening a present he would say "What is this could be?" It was great. On Saturday, his actual birthday, we went to another friends birthday party (more on that in my next post) and then Sam went to spend the night at a friends. So Gabe had Neal and I to himself (Luke was here but he still sleeps most of the time), we had a great time playing Candy Land, putting together puzzles and playing with all his new toys. It was really good for him to have some one on one time with us...and Sam had a blast at Tucker's...so everyone was happy.

Happy Birthday Gabe!

My little Punkin is 3 today! This is typically when a mom usually says "I can't believe he is already 3". I can't really say that in your case. It seems like you've been 3 for awhile, you are so grown up. You've always seemed older than you really are...I guess because you are always trying to keep up with your big brother. You are such a little sweetheart. You make me melt with your sweet smile every day. I love to watch you experiencing life. You do it so enthusiastically. You are a happy soul who loves to be around your friends and family. The other day at school, as we were leaving, you said good bye to everyone we passed and almost knew all of them by name! I love picking you up from school on Tuesdays and Thursday because you are always so excited to see me and give me the biggest hug. You love to tell me all about your day and to show me the fun things you have created, you are very serious about your artwork. You surprise me each day with the things that you are capable of doing and understanding. You love to be a helper, when I ask you to do something, you will always say "sure!" and run off to do it happily. I know that probably won't last, so I'm enjoying it now! You are very determined when you set your mind to doing something. You've just mastered putting your socks on yourself, every time you do it you say "perfect!" You are full of life, love, fun, joy and laughter...my sweet boy...you fill my heart each and every day of your sweet life. I look at you and see this precious little person who could not be more perfect. You make me laugh, you amaze me with your sweet, giving spirit. I could not possibly love you one bit more than I already do. You are a precious gift from God.

Happy 3rd Birthday Gabe, we love you so much!