Pupkims

It's fall! I love fall. Especially here in Virginia, where the leaves turn all sorts of beautiful colors. When the sun hits the red, yellow and orange leaves, it looks like the trees are on fire. I'm also enjoying all the fall produce, and pumpkins in particular. Gabriel calls them "pupkims". We have made two different types of pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin granola and I have loved getting some pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks! Gabriel had a blast going to the "pupkim patch" (aka the parking lot down the road) to pick out a couple that he could paint. One for him, and one for Hope.

I took this picture right before I had to reach out and stop them both from toppling over. 

We used our finger paints to decorate the pumpkins.

The colors ended up getting all rubbed together, and in the end the pumpkin looked like it just had a mud bath. Oh, and our hands got just as much paint on them. :)

Maybe I should make some pumpkin pie! MMmmmm...

Our Little Girl Is 9 Months

Hope is growing up so much faster than Gabriel did. How is she already 9 months?! I wanted to take a moment to talk about her now, before she leaves the baby years in the dust.

Hope is a complete mommies girl. She will cry if someone else is holding her while I'm in the room. It's sweet. And also not very convenient for me. But it's a phase I'm loving, regardless of its difficulties. Hope loves her big brother. She stares at him as he plays and laughs whenever he interacts with her, even if he's tackling her. And even though she enjoys mommy and Gabriel so much, she still gets a big grin on her face when daddy gets home from work. I keep telling her that she's the only girl I'll share him with. She says "dada" all the time. All. The. Time.

Hope likes to suck on her middle two fingers. Gabriel did this too, but only for about a month. Apparently Richard used to do this as a kid, too. So they get it from daddy. One day, I snuck a picture of her before getting her up from her nap. Fingers still in her mouth, and a hand holding onto her ear.

At her 9 month checkup, Hope measured over 18 pounds. She's average for her weight, but above average for height. She has started to scoot around, and we finally put the baby gates up. In this video you can see she's like a little inch worm, slowly making her way to wherever mommy is.

Every night, as we put the kids to sleep, we thank God for the blessings he has given us. What a wonderful gift these children are!

Ocean City - Beach Trip

We are so blessed with having the chance to visit the east coast beach and hang out with friends at a condo for a few days. Our friends have a family member who owns the condo, and when they made a trip out there last week, they invited us to join! We had a ton of fun, and Gabriel loved having other boys to wrestle and play games with.

Here are some of the beach pictures.

A nice shot of our new friends, Brian and Bethanie.

While we were there, we were teaching the kids about the story of Jericho, when God used Joshua bring down the walls. This video shows Richard and the boys doing a play of the scene.


Reading a story before bed time. Here I am with Gabriel, Koa, Tonche, and Aisling.

An evening stroll to the park.

And we liked the park so much, we went again during the day. Here the kids are watching a truck move the bleachers around.

  The boys kept hugging each other.

Gabriel found this cute hat.

Although I admit it's much cuter on Aisling. :)

I snapped a morning sunrise shot before we headed out. It was a great trip, but time flies way to fast when you're having fun!

Color In Motion 5K Run

Richard and I have been trying to get back into an exercise routine. I'm starting to notice a pattern here. Get pregnant, then don't exercise for a long time, then try to get into shape. Repeat. So in an effort to get moving, we started running. We wake up early in the morning and switch off staying home while the other person exercises. Now, I have tried to get into running before. Each time I start running, I get excited and go buy cute running shoes and any new running clothes I may need. I picture myself as one of those hard core runners who look amazing and run really fast. Then, inevitably, I get bored and stop running. I have already gotten bored with running, and decided to go join a gym. Their group classes keep it fun for me. I'm a gym junkie now. Hey, don't judge. Richard on the other hand, has never tried to make running a habit, but it seems to be sticking with him way more than me. He uses the Nike running app along with his friends and it keeps him accountable.

Anyway..... all that to say that I wanted to share some pictures. Before I got bored of running, I did do a little 5K run in Washington DC called the Color In Motion run. I signed up with a couple of my friends, and we had fun getting all colorful.

Summer Reading At The Library

I didn't know our library had rewards for the kid's reading during the summer until the summer was almost over. We had gone to the library often throughout the summer. Each time we got so many books I promised myself I wouldn't get so many the next time, only to be followed by the same number of books and the same promise the following visit. The library was rewarding kids with a coupon booklet and a paper with their name on it posted on the library wall for reading 15 books. Since there is no age limit, and being read to counts, it was easy as apple pie!

Gabriel and Hope each got their names posted on the wall. We have since been back a couple times, and the names are still there. Gabriel is quite proud, and Hope, errr..., well she just wants to grab my phone when I try to take her picture.

Summer Fun

July Visit to California

This is how Hope and I roll when we travel. I carry her in my baby carrier and she stares up at me the whole time. She loves me. I love her. We are in love. :)

In July, we were able to visit our friends in California. Hard to believe it's been over a year! Tim and Marlene let us stay at the "Pitchford Suites", and let me tell ya, best place ever to stay! I highly recommend them. It's pretty exclusive though. Ya gotta know someone to book a stay.

Tim and Gabriel watch a LOT of Veggie Tales. Despite Tim's efforts, Gabriel still claims his best friend is "Maween!" Sorry, Tim. Maybe he'll change his mind on the next trip.

 
But that's about all the time we spent indoors. We were too busy checking out beaches and new cupcake stores. Marlene took us to The Grove in Los Angeles. Gabriel had a blast riding the trolly and eating some chocolate.

We even saw Mario Lopez filming Extra. Some of you may know him as AC Slater :)

The Beach!

Oh, and then we did some shopping, of course! The boys loved this part ;)

Tio Tim got Gabriel a balloon shaped like a fish on a pole. It got popped shortly after. Then there was crying. Then Tio Tim dished out another dollar for another balloon :)

More beach!

 

One of the many cupcake places we went to.

  

Then we also got to spend some time with some more friends, including the newest addition to the Speedie family. Here I am with Liam and his little sister, Naomi. I wish we lived closer so Liam and Gabriel could play together. They are so similar, and Gabriel still talks about Liam.

 

Since our trip, the two things that stick out most to Gabriel are memories of playing Liam, and his best friend, "Maween".