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| A heartfelt thank you to our dear, beautiful friend Olivia Gulino for taking some family pictures for us. On a warm Sunday morning, we drove over to the green space behind the neighborhood next door and prayed that we would get at least one picture where everyone was looking at the camera. God didn’t answer our prayer (ahem, Gianna)…but we did get a couple of cute ones.:) |
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| This is a delightful child. |
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| No children were injured in the making of these family pictures. Despite the best intentions of some involved. |
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| Yay for cute pajamas. Yay for the precious sound of giggling from small, happy children. |
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| We call it the Stink Eye. It’s her little way of pouting. She will fuss and fuss and then…silence…and the Stink Eye. The adorable thing is that since this picture was taken, we have turned the Stink Eye into a trick of sorts. We will say, “Gianna, where’s the Stink Eye?” and she will do it to be funny and make us all laugh. |
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| My darling cousin Lynsey has three children my kids’ ages. It’s been such a blessing to have her friendship, and our kids get along beautifully too. I love that my kids are such good friends with their cousins. Lynsey’s oldest, Wyatt, is Gabe’s age. Wyatt loves to go hunting and do all things outdoors with his dad, my cousin Daniel. We went over to their house one Saturday morning a few weeks ago, and Daniel had just returned from squirrel hunting with a friend. Before I knew it, Wyatt was parading around the yard with one of the dead squirrels. I just rolled with it, and so did my kids. And it was fine. This picture makes me go “Ewwww!!!!” and “Awwww…” at the same time… |
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| I caught this little moment between Michael and Gianna the other day. They stared at each other quietly like this for well over a minute with Gianna holding Michael’s hand like that. So sweet. Michael is seriously the most wonderful father to these children. They light up when he walks in the door–and so does he. I have to remind him to kiss me before the kids… |
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| Lunch with my two favorite little ladies. I’m lovin’ on that fancy table and gourmet fare. It looks like we took a break that day from PBJ or leftover red beans and rice. Nice. |
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| This was the only picture I was able to take of Gabriel at his Grandparents’ Day program last week. Good thing it’s kind of a cute one. Goodness…that little boy cried and fussed like you wouldn’t believe that morning because he had to wear pajamas to school, and he was worried about being embarrassed. I tried to tell him the story of when I was a little girl and got sunburned with purple streaks on my face, and my dad made me go to school even though I looked completely awful and my face hurt…my empathy was lost on him. |
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| My sister Rivers and me, AFTER we finished our first 5K together last weekend.:) It felt so amazing! We are training together for the 10K race at the Louisiana Marathon in January. My sister in law is coming in from Ohio to run the half marathon that weekend, and my brother in law and his girlfriend are also running the half. I am so proud of each of them. Not sure if I will ever feel called to run a half marathon, but never say never… |
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| Eating some Smarties they scored from the local fire department’s annual Santa Claus drive-by. Every year since I was a kid, they drive through all of their stations’s area neighborhoods, sirens blaring and Santa on board throwing out candy to solicit food bank donations for Christmas. It was surreal and sweet at the same time experiencing it again with my kids in the same front yard where I experienced it every year as a kid. |
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| My cousin Liz gave Gabriel a Guardians of the Galaxy Lego set for his birthday. He has loved it! He and Michael sat down and made the star ship tonight–it’s pretty cool. I love the father-son time. I also love seeing Gabriel work on a project like that from start to finish, working through frustration and learning a little more about how to ask questions and be patient with himself and others. |
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| Crazy Static Hair from the slide at the park! |
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| More crazy static hair! Goodness I love this picture. |
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| Can you spot the funny in this picture from Grandparents Day at Gabe’s school? |
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| Dinner at one of my favorite restaurants with some wonderful old friends from college. The guys all lived together in a ramshackle old house in the Garden District their last year of college. We all got married within a little over a year! The fifth roommate is now a Capuchin brother in California (almost a priest, come February!). We try to get together for a nice dinner at least once a year. It is so good to have these friends to grow with and walk beside in marriage and parenthood. All of them are so solid and faithful. Having that longtime spiritual connection and support, especially in our mutual vocations to marriage, is such a blessing. |
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| The kids earned a donut in our church’s “coffee shop” after mass last Sunday. That’s kind of a big deal for us. Most Sundays lately have not been Donut Sundays unfortunately. Mass is still difficult sometimes. Pray for us:) |
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| I liked this picture because it looks almost exactly like the one we used for the Save the Date magnets for our wedding. Six years or so of marriage. So much has happened and yet so little has happened…thoughts for another day, though. 🙂 God bless! |
Thank you for continuing to share your life with us. I really like your blog and I really appreciate your positive attitude. I also appreciate your willingness to say when stuff is difficult and share your struggles. I like to think if we lived in the same place we'd be friends. 🙂 But for now, know there is another out there in the trenches praying for you. Thank you.
Thank you;)