Thanksgiving in Mobile

I love going to Mobile for Thanksgiving. We have a lot of family there, and there are lots of kids when we all get together. I love all the energy and noise! I only wish we lived closer so all the cousins could see more of each other. This trip, Paw was there too, and Hope got to meet him for the first time.

Ella, the oldest cousin, loves every baby she sees. Hope loved her too!

Cousin Andrew taught Gabriel the joys of video games.

And here are the boys (most of them) dressed up for the professional pictures. So dashing!

We squeezed in a walk down the road to feed the neighbor's horse. I think this is becoming a tradition.

Here are some of the shots from our photographer...
The whole gang. Paw in the middle. The four siblings with their families. All nine grand-kids are actually looking at the camera! Oh, except Hope. Way to mess up the picture, Hope! Ok, ok, you look cute anyway.

The youngest two grand-kids, Hope and Faith.

Hope had enough pictures by the time we took this shot. But I love it because you can see Gabriel trying to comfort her. He was saying "It's ok Hope. I'm right here. It's ok...."

And this is a great shot showing Gabriel's personality.

What a handsome little guy!

Sorry, but the good Sanders family shot is going out in our Christmas cards. So that's a surprise :)
Sorry,

Arizona in November

We traveled to Arizona in November to visit family. The weather was sunny and warm. The kids really enjoyed seeing their grandparents and great grandma. Many of the family members got to meet Hope for the first time.

Hope, still in her "No one better hold me except mommy" phase, greeted Gigi like this.

Papa and Gabriel had a blast in the pool. This is what Gabriel was looking forward to! And Papa didn't disappoint. It took a little coaxing, but Gabriel finally let Papa take him into the deeper end.

We went to the zoo, where I fed some manta rays.

We saw an albino crocodile.

Took a train ride to see ostrich and many other animals up close.

 Hope finally warmed up to Gigi.

We also went to the Children's Museum. Wow, was that place amazing! I was too busy having fun to take many good pictures, but here is Gabriel cooking up something yummy in the kitchen that is tiddler size.

My favorite picture from our trip. Here is four generations of women. Hope, myself, my mom (Kathryn) and my grandma (Bernice). Oh, and this is a great example of what Hope does constantly. She sucks on her middle two fingers, and holds her ear.

And lastly, this is what Gabriel did whenever we weren't out and about. Anyone remember Lincoln Logs? He loved them! Shhh, don't tell him he's getting some for Christmas!

Gabriel Lip Syncing

From The Mouth Of Babes - Part 4

Said by Gabriel:

When asked if he wants to help make smoothies - "We can't make smoovies. We don't have gwound egg shells or pepper."

After tooting - "Dat was baby Hope toot."

While driving in the car, listening to music. It was a windy day. - "Mommy, da twees are dancing. Dey wike this song!"

While heading downstairs, and wanting Daddy to carry him -
Gabriel: "Daddy curry me."
Richard: "Carry you?"
Gabriel: "Yah. Curry."

While I was watching a youtube video showing a woman applying makeup - "OK, so first you poke yo eye, like dis." {pokes eye} "Den you poke yo eyewashes, like dis." {feels eyelashes} "Den you put it aaaaaaall over yo face!" {rubs hands all over his face}

Halloween 2013

Our little train engineer and princess :)

Gabriel immediately put all his candy in a row, because how else can you enjoy it unless it's organized? After organizing, he asked if he could have some leftover cauliflower from dinner. Not even joking!

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!