Dec. Mish Mosh

We made some new friends recently with the Mossman family from Florida. They have moved in to join our other friends, the Gibsons, in their ministry at North Cove Fellowship Retreat Center. The Mossman Family is 11 strong, having 9 children ranging from ages 16 to 1. Anna is closest to age with her new best friend Esther who is 6 years old. They have a 4 year old boy Miciah, who is just one month younger than Anna, but boys just don't have the same flare as girls at this stage. All the children get along wonderfully and here is a combination of kids from the three families sitting nicely and watching a video together. Good thing you can't hear noise from a picture:)

We had the Youth Group Christmas Party at our house last week, and Gabe was just loving it. Here he is with Freddy, very carefully stealing Doritos and cupcakes. Needless to say the diet was lost that night but we have been very careful since then to make up for it!

In case you did not know we brought home a stray cat that had taken residence at the school and named her Seraphina. We were not quite fast enough in getting her fixed and ended up with an adorable litter of kittens. Here is Anna making sure all inwell with momma and kitties.

We had a great sleepover with Hannah and Jeramiah Harris! This is a very energy filled group. I did manage to get them all together for a while focused on Playdough! They had a wonderful time!

OK here is the story: Anna yells from the other end of the house, "mommy come here, come here." I proceed toward her bathroom where the voice is coming from thinking I'm on bottom wiping duty again. Anna comes out of the bathroom playing with the front of her hair saying very dramatically, "A squirrel nibbled off my hair, a squirrel nibbled off my hair!" Surprised, dismayed, and half laughing, I try to get the confession. "Anna was it really a squirrel that cut off the bangs in your hair?" She replys with all seriousness and flare, "It might have been a beaver?!" What do you say to that??? Well we did a tiny trim and bangs it is!

Libero Thanksgiving-Christmas

Anna takes a ride on Uncle Will.

Then Anna takes a ride on Auntie Lola.

Gabe loves to play woth the trains at Grammie's house.

This girl has got a fashion all her own as she ports her new stockings and cowgirl boots she got from her Auntie's and Uncle's for Libero Thanksgiving-Christmas.

Auntie Lola's cat like reflexes catch Gabe in time for a perfect smiling photo opportunity!

Leaves. Leaves Everywhere!

That blond haired beauty is our 4 year old. Though she looks a but older with her golden locks flowing, she played in the leaves with child like imagination and energy.

Gabriel's only wish is that the leaves could be down all year round, he absolutly loved playing in the mountain of leaves!

Here they are trying to escape as daddy continues to build the piles.

Gabe is looking rather handsome in his Lightning McQueen hat!

Anna tries to hide from the camera, but her pink Dora hat gives her away!

Cousins @ Lynni's Shower

Inside that beautiful belly is Cousin Baby McBRide who we are eagerly anticipating arriving around February 14th. We know he or she was mssing that action going on with his or her cousins on the outside:)

Josiah and Anna are guided through the tunnel by their Auntie Michelle!

Anna, Gabriel, and Josiah were eager helpers in putting all of the change into the new baby's Bottle Bank for his/her college fund!

Anna & her Auntie Michelle

These two beautiful ladies are a great team. First borns unite to build the awesome cardboard castle you see below, thanks to the surplus of big boxes from Auntie Lynni's gifts from her baby shower.

First Anna's in the box.

Then Auntie Michelle is in the box.But the most fun being had when both beauties are in the castle tower together!

Gabe @ Lynn's Baby Shower

Food is one of Gabe's favorite things and there was lots of good stuff at Auntie Lynni's baby shower.

By far Gabe's favorite part of the shower was the balloons all over the place.

After the shower was over we gathered them all together and let him go at it!

There is always fun in the dirt to be found and had for our big guy!

1st class trip to the Apple Orchard

This is Anna and her friend Adelyn's momma on the tractor ride through the orchard.

Gabriel did not take his eyes off of tha tractor the whole time we were on the ride!

Anna got to be a part of the bees presentation portion of our trip. She is modeling some beautiful beekeepers gloves.

This is Anna and her friend Caleb peering out the side of the wagon on the tractor ride through the apple orchard.

While we were out.

Anna is so very proud of the cake that her and the babysitter made while we were out on our date night!

Gabriel hovering over the delicious looking cake!

We felt very loved and very proud of our chef Anna!

Smile everyone! (Gabe is smiling he just thought the cake was more worth smiling at than the camera!

This is our awesome babysitter Cassie holding our new cat Seraphina. Cassie has been an answer to prayer in allowing us to go out without having even the littlest worry that our children are getting the best care and love!

Gabe's Photo Shoot

Happiness is written all over his face. We were playing chase and Gabe sought the couch for refuge!

THis sly little smile was the result of an attempt at getting his fingers in a special cake!

"OK mom what do you want now?"

This adorable little cloth diaper clad fellow just fell asleep on the floor after a long morning of play therapy!

Licking our chops getting ready for lunch!

Anna'a Photo Shoot

That is a huge slug that Anna is holding. There is no more appropriate picture to start with than this. Anna is a combination of princess and tomboy!

She has her daddy's eyes, no doubt about it. Another brown eyed girl!

That little bit of a swollen cheek was the result of a run-in with a bee, the bee stung but Anna won!

Though looking a little pouty, this face is going to melt hearts, I am sure of it!

Say cheese! We were going for the just rolled out of bed hair look!

Spring in here!

We are so happy to have the beautiful spring weather here! We did a little spring shopping and bought a new digital camera after our old-fatihful finally gave out 7 years and over 6,000 pictures later! So we are back in buisness with photo recording Anna and Gabe's every move!
Gabe is now 2 years 2 months old, 3 feet tall, and 35 pounds! Gabe's current favorites are grapes, Let's Talk Puppy Dog videos, and playing in the dirt! Anna is now 3 years and 9 months old, 3 feet 3 inches tall, and 39 pounds. Anna's current favorites are strawberries, school at home and at MCA, and collecting worms! We love and miss all of our friends and family and are looking forward to lots of visitors and visiting in the quickly coming summer!

We still love to spend lots of our outdoors time on the swings, though Gabe and Anna continue to like to use swings in the non-traditional ways, pretending to be flying like airplanes!

Gabriel is very careful about the DVD's he allows himself to watch so he always reads the back of the box first to make sure the content is appropriate for his age and desires!

Anna finally recieved some new play-dough since all of hers had become this rather undesirable brown color and rather hard. She is loving it, and making sure this time she only takes out one color at a time!

We bit into our first watermelon of the season, plenty juicy as you can see! Gabe and Anna had an eating contest devouring about a qurter of a rather large watermelon on their own!

We went to Sam's Club for the first time in about three years and to Anna's absolute delight they had the biggest box of Strawberries she had ever seen! She ate that entire box in three days single handedly, and that was with us telling her several times a day she could not have any more!