Great Country Farm

We have traveled up to our old stomping ground to visit with Gangi and Grandaddy (and Tommy for the split second we saw him). Today was a perfect fall day so we headed out to this fantastic farm in the COUNTRY! Our plan was to take a hayride and get a little pumpkin but there was so much to do we didnt even get to that! They had a gigantic bouncey thing:

Then they had pig races, yes I said PIG races

Jakes best pig face!

What was Gabi doing?

After the pig racing we went to one of the playgrounds. Its a miracle we pulled him away from here

Then there was the super cool tube slide

Last was the pedal carts, but Jake wasnt tall enough to pedal so he rode with Daddy

3 hours later:

We had a great day at the farm

Its Redskin time

I am a husband supporter which means I am a Redskin fan by default! Every year my poor husband gets super excited and tells me how they are going to win the Super Bowl. I use this to tease him mercilessly throughout the season. Sorry kids...

GO SKINS!

Friends, vomiting, ear infections and rashes

My BFF and her family came for our annual visit this past week. It is so exciting because we only see each other once a year and its a huge build-up. I know that katie was super excited to come to the beach and just hang out and "have fun in the sun". Well we should have known the week would not be the greatest when her eldest daughter Taylor caught the GI bug from the younger Emma Kate and vomited all over her "fun in the sun" shirt 10 minutes before they boarded the plane to come. A frantic phone call from Katie, followed by a vomit filled plane ride and here they were in VB! Jake was SOOO excited for them to come he couldnt take a nap, until he fell asleep 5 minutes before arriving at the airport. We woke him up to tell him we were at the airport and he practically jumped out of his seat. He was sooo amped up to see Taylor, who was NOT excited at all after spending 3 hours on a plane with her head in a motion sick bag. Zoom ahead to morning one of Kat-chel vacation and we wake to find JT has caught the bug and has been hugging the toilet all night, Jake is full of snot and Emma Kate has diarrhea. Katie and I look at each other and are determined to have a GREAT time and salvage all the together time we can. We pack the kids up and leave JT to enjoy the bathroom scenery (did I say that Kurt skipped out and went to work)and go to the beach. Emma Kate loved the water and with 17 month old abandon made a sprint for the ocean everytime we turned out backs. Taylor with 3.5 year old wisdom decided she did not like the water because she was scared of the fish. Jake in typical Jake style just ran around with his beach truck. The rest of the Kat-chel vacation went about the same way, sick kids, cranky kids and fussy parents. We had one more suprise when Gabi developed hives and Kurt had to run out at 9pm to get benadryl! I do think Katie and I did our best to slavage what we could of thier vacation. We made it to the beach a couple times, took the kids to the park and even snuck away to lunch together without the kids! Regardless of the situation it is always wonderful to see Katie and her family. We get together and its like old times, not a day has passed, except we are older, much more tired and have lots of kids running around! Here are a couple pics I took but for the best of the best visit Katies blog She did a post a day so scroll down for lots of pictures!

Emma Kate

Jake and Taylor

Gabi taking a nap!

Sweet, sweet babies

I knew when Gabi, Gabs, Gabi bear, came along that Jake would look big. I even tried to prepare myself for how big I thought he would look, but I didnt prepare myself for the fact that he looks like he has acromegaly! LOL. the kid is HUGE, he is THICK, he is a brick house! But he is so crazy cute and such a great imagination. He loves to play firefighter (wonder why?). He puts on his boots and his hat and pulls his imaginary alarm and he is off. Putting out fires in the house or rescuing his kitty cat, PIzza and his bear, Rupert from a tree.

My brother came into town to meet Gabi, but I think he and Jake had more fun "errufting" volcanoes

Some cute Gabi pics

A nice family photo

A family of four:

And yes..the diet starts in 2 days!

So far, so good

We have been home with Gabi for a couple days now and it seems to be going well. Jake is really doing fantastic with her. he loves to hold her and has lots of questions about her. He wants to know if she has teeth, if when she wakes up from napping she will be big enough to play, he wants to know about her "cord" and why she only eats milk which "is only a drink". Our first night was a little rough as expected but last night she slept in 3 hour blocks. we are hoping for the same tonight!

First Bath, big brother is a big helper!

Silly boy! Good thing Kurt used dry erase marker

I see definite similarities between jake and Gabi. here is a comparison. I see it mostly in the eyes and nose. Jake is the first pic, Gabi second. I think Jake is 2-3wks in this pic so he has filled out a little

Gabriella Kate

She is here! Gabriella Kate Detrick born 8/5/12 at 3:14pm 8.3lbs and 20.5 in My water broke at 3:30 am on the 5th but ended up having to be induced because I never went into labor by myself. I feel so blessed in life to have an amazing husband, wonderful family and 2 beautiful children.

An Expolosive birthday

Jake is 3! all he wanted for his third birthday was a volcano cake! he is obsessed with volcanoes. To make a long story short he can tell you about magma, lava, ash and steam, dormant volcanoes, extinct and active volcanoes. His favorite volcanoe is Mt. Vesuvius! Crazy... anyway, he wanted a chocolate volcano cake with a magma chamber, lava, ashe and steam. Mom and I delivered!

Jakes first look at his cake

here are a couple more pics from his bday!

Happy birthday sweet boy!