Gabe is ONE!

On August 18th, Gabriel turned one year old!

We had a small "party" for him at our house with our family, my parents, and Jon's Dad and Gran.





We had a great dinner of Spaghetti Casserole (one of Gabe's favorites) and Sesame Street cake (which was a big hit by all of the boys).









He was also a pro at opening his gifts!







At this age, even a small party is enough to wear a little guy out...



... and perhaps a big guy too!

Continuing his trend of being a real trooper, Gabe is completely off of a bottle and “pas-pas” (pacifier). He loves giving HIMSELF whole milk from his sippy cup – just like his big brothers. He also will not allow us to feed him, but would rather do it himself.

His vocabulary is much more advanced than the twins were at his age, however with think a lot of that has to do with him being exposed to me working with the twins are their speech due to their mild delay (which is much improved, by the way). He is quite a social butterfly, waving and saying "bye-bye" to everyone we pass. He also shocks us by repeating a lot of words we say - ALREADY!

Gabe had his one year check up appointment on August 19th, and is wonderfully healthy! He is still on the smaller end of the growth chart, but is consistent with his previous trends (so we are not at all worried).

He was 29 1/4 inches, which puts him around the 30th percent for height; and 20 pounds, 11 ounces, which puts him around the 20th percent for weight.

He eats like crazy, especially Italian food and Hummus! When he really likes something, he will get a big grin and say "mmmmm..."

This last picture of Gabe is of him in his Daddy's first rocking chair.

If you can't say anything nice...

This blog has been pretty quiet lately. Since about March until July, not a lot had gone our way. I guess I have just not wanted to be a downer. Don't get me wrong, things could definitely be a lot worse, but let's not even THINK about that!!! Jon and I have agreed that March of this year until the last several weeks or so had been the most rotten time of either of our lives. No kidding. We are all still alive and mostly well, but one little thing after the other was going wrong.

Jon has said that it is like the "Perfect Storm" around our house. In addition to nothing really going right, we also have three toddlers in our house - two who are in the midst of the terrible twos, AND Jon has been working crazy long hours. That combination is not good!

So, just to name a few crazy things:

We had almost baseball sized (2 1/4 in) hail, which did a number on our roof and vehicles (mostly Jon's truck)

Our next door neighbor's house caught fire, scarily close to our house (this happened in May, and they are still out almost every day restoring the house)

Our microwave broke

Our bathroom toilet broke

Another hail storm came through, doing a little more damage

Both bathroom sinks broke (Jon and his dad had to replace two of the sinks)

I fell and badly hurt my left knee (this was in June - it is still is visibly bruised and very tender to the touch. I am *thinking about* going to the doctor for it since it WAS two months ago now!)

Our 20 year old Bradford Pear tree died, and we had to pay someone to come out and remove it and plant a new tree

I broke my right "baby" toe!

Jon's grandmother had to have a hospital stay

I was rear-ended, and therefore had to deal with insurance companies, auto repair companies, set up a rental car (by the way, it is NOT an easy task to track down a van/mini-van during the summer while lots of family are taking road trips), and see the chiropractor three times a week

We also completely potty trained two boys - including night time - during all of this.

This is not mentioning the day-to-day drama of having three BOYS (and they are ALL BOY!) under the age of three!

So, yeah, I have just mostly kept quiet. In addition, I just haven’t had much down time to blog. We are all doing much better now - thank you God. Jacob and Caleb are getting a little easier *some days*, and Gabe has made it to ONE year. The twins have started going to a preschool program Monday and Wednesday from 9:00 – 2:00. This gives me time with one baby - which I am finding is a piece of cake in comparison! Perhaps with things somewhat slowing down, I can update more often. I have said that in the past, however, so I am not making any promises!

More to come on our day to day adventures…