hiatus

for those of you wondering, i haven't been blogging because our computer got all screwed up. i lost 3 years worth of pictures (arghhhhh!). we had to have a new hard drive put in, and now we're in the process of rebuilding our entire library of photos, music, documents, software, etc. right now, we basically have Internet and email and nothing else on our computer. so, maybe after Christmas we'll be up and running again. by then i should have A LOT to say :)

triangle

see the image in the bottom middle of this picture?  brooke drew that and said, "look, mom!  i drew a triangle."  i was speechless.  sure, it's not a perfect triangle, but it IS a triangle.  and she drew it without being asked to and without any assistance.  i've been working with brooke on her shapes, so to see this gave me such a good feeling inside.  i was so proud i had to take a picture :)

our little man is 6 months old

right about now i'm wishing i could slow down time.  my baby turned 6 months old last week.  we put away the baby swing and bouncy seat, which is a clear signal that we're on to the next stage...  i can't believe it!  a lot has happened in the last month.  gavin now has his 2 bottom teeth.  he's rolling from tummy to back and back to tummy and manages to move all around the floor so we can't turn our backs on him for long!  he grabs everything and has a super strong grip.  he loves playing with toys.  he puts everything in his mouth.  he's doing a lot of baby talk and forming new shapes with his mouth (like "O").  he loves to motorboat (stick his tongue out and blow air to make noise).  he loves food and has tried peas, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, prunes, apples and pears.  he completed 4 cross-country flights with ease and saw the beach and ocean for the first time.  he attended his first wedding - aunt heather & uncle danny's!  he was baptized.  and his beautiful smile continued to light up our lives every single day.

my girl

told me she loved me twice today.  unprompted.  nothing better than that.

my 2 1/2 year old

it's 6:30am, and brooke and I are up eating breakfast.  here's what's running through her head...

"so, today is going to be a better day for me."  (i swear she said it just like this.  we've been having lots of talks about how to be a good girl while daddy is out of town :)

"my belly is saying this is a good muffin" :)

"my baby doll doesn't want to wear a diaper to the mall because she's a big girl.  she's 3!"

"i need to put new PJs on because i can't see my fingernail polish with the footies on."

"i'm so excited to go to the dentist!  is he going to say, great job brushing your teeth brooke stealey?"  (we've been talking about going to the dentist.  i can only hope she's "so excited" when the time comes!)

are my babies really getting this big?

today was a big day.  lots of milestones...  brooke's first day of "school" and gavin's first time in a high chair and first time eating rice cereal.  my babies are growing up right before my eyes!  

brooke was SO excited for school.  she's in a young pre-school class two full days a week.  she rushed into her new classroom, quickly found the baby dolls and said from across the room "mom, you can go."  just like that.  she was off on her own at her new school, not needing her mama.  i'm so excited to pick her up and hear how her first day went.  

at gavin's 4 month check-up the doctor told me to start cereal at 5 months, but i decided that Gavin was ready and there was really no reason to wait.  he insists on sitting for most of the day, so he really liked being in the high chair.  he seemed to like his cereal, too, although most of it came running back out of his mouth.  it was really exciting to get the high chair out again... to be doing it all a second time... loving every minute.

you heard it here first

one of my favorite days

one of my favorite days... was having the pleasure of taking my sister wedding dress shopping in seattle.  last saturday we had a "girls" day (+ Gavin :)  it's been a really long time since i've spent a day alone with my sister, and it was so special to just have the time together.  just us. and three appointments at bridal boutiques to find just the perfect dress.  heather looked stunning in every dress she tried on.  i think my sister is one of the most beautiful people i know and words can't describe how beautiful she is going to be on her wedding day.  i love you, sis.  thanks for sharing such a special day with me.  i'll never forget it.

are we in arizona?

because the thermostat reads 100 degrees today.  are you kidding me?

worse than i remember

when searching for houses in the seattle area, we learned that most houses in the pacific northwest do not have air conditioning because you really only have a need for it a couple weeks out of the year.  well, this is ONE OF THOSE WEEKS!  it was in the 90's today, and it's going to stay that way through the week.  "record-breaking" temperatures here in the seattle area.  i remember thinking, "surely a country girl who grew up without A/C can handle a few hot weeks in any given year."  well, this girl forgot one important thing - i might not have had A/C growing up, but i did have a POOL.  and that pool made all the difference.  we lived in that thing during the day and there was nothing better than a late night swim in the pool to cool off after a long, hot day.  so, after this long, hot, exhausting day, I'm going to lay in bed and think about walking out my back door, staring at my reflection in perfectly calm water and diving right in to feel the cool rush of water around me.  aaahhhh.... or maybe i'll take a cold shower :)

b and g

gavin @ 8 weeks

brooke @ 29 months

a photographer friend of mine, john oaks, was nice enough to do me a huge favor and come take photographs of us in our house before we left cincy.  our first house will always be very special to us.  it was small, but we loved everything about it (well, almost everything :)  john sent me the pictures this week, and i think they turned out great.  most of them are of the 4 of us, but there are some of the kids individually that simply capture my heart.  i thought i'd share two of them now.

mr. happy go lucky

at 3 months old, gavin is as sweet as ever.  he's constantly smiling and laughing and almost always keeps his cool, even when his sister is in his face or screaming in his ear.  he's our happy little guy, and i couldn't possibly love him any more than i do.

in the past week gavin has started holding his neck up for long periods of time, using his arms and legs to hit the animals dangling from his play mat, grabbing things with his hands and rolling onto his side.  it won't be long and he'll be rolling all the way over.  it's so much fun to see him growing and developing.  as you can see in the picture, he's also lost almost all of his hair!

the things she says...

i find my daughter's vocabulary to be pretty amazing for a 2 1/2 year old.  the things she says absolutely crack us up!  i thought i'd capture some of her latest phrases.

first, i should tell you that i've gone from "mommy" to "mom" in the past 4 weeks.  i certainly didn't expect this at the age of 2 1/2, and it makes me feel like brooke is way too big for her britches!  in fact, most of the time it's "hey, mom..."

"mom, gavin is smiling all over the places" (meaning: gavin is smiling a lot)  this one is my fav.

"mom, what time is it?" followed 2 seconds later by "mom, what time is it?" (laura - sound familiar? :)

"do you know what his/her name is?" (now asked whenever we see a little girl or boy that she doesn't know, which is a lot these days)

"what's their last name?"  (lately she's been memorizing everyone's middle and last names)

"mom, i like gavin's PJs.  they're cool."  (ha!  i have no idea where she picked this up.)

"mom, do you have one of these for me?"  (asked whenever she sees something she likes or thinks she needs.  for example, her friend's play stand mixer, my baby carrier for gavin, etc.)

"cousin pierce loves me a lot.  cousin joey loves me a lot."  (differentiated from mom & dad who must only love her a little :)

"llama pajama macy's i don't know about that!" said loudly and emphatically  (a recent trend is taking fragments of things that make sense and combining them so they make no sense at all.  llama pajama is from a book, macy's is the department store, and "i don't know about that" comes from somewhere but we're not sure where.)

"daddy, i bought that for you."  (she loves endearing herself to her father)

"i want it, i want it, i want it!"  (i'm desperately trying to teach the child some manners :)

and, of course, she wouldn't be a 2 year old if she didn't ask "WHY?" a million times a day!

little mama

phew... that was a long break.  sorry!  now that we're settled in seattle, i hope to find time to blog much more frequently.

last week when my mom was still here she commented that brooke didn't seem to be very interested in her baby dolls anymore.  i guess she was just getting acclimated to her new house because a few days later... the babies were back.  this past week brooke has been playing "little mama" to her baby dolls.  she feeds them "the milk" when i nurse gavin.  i wish i had a picture of her holding her baby doll up to her chest trying to do it "just like mommy."  brooke's latest pleasure is her new baby doll carrier.  two days ago she pointed to my baby carrier for gavin and asked "do you have one for me?"  so yesterday when we were in the local toy store, i saw this baby carrier and had to buy it for her.  isn't she so sweet?  what a good little mama!

Gavin Cole Stealey

Our beautiful baby boy, Gavin Cole Stealey, was born on Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 1:51am. He weighed a whopping 9lbs. 2oz. and was 21.75" long.   Brooke is a very proud big sister!!

more pics of our new house

check out the link below to the "video flyer" of the house we're buying in seattle.  

http://vicaso.net/iflyer/13365

thank you, easter bunny

brooke had a great weekend celebrating easter.  she seems to love any holiday involving lots of candy :)  my girl has quite the sweet tooth!  her two favorite easter gifts - her very own Hello Kitty cell phone and Peeps.  yum :)

Our New House

we're 60 days away from owning this great home in snoqualmie, washington!  we put an offer on a house on thursday and reached an agreement with the seller by the end of the day.  now, if only selling our house is this easy, we'll be in great shape!  our new house is a great home on a corner lot with awesome views of the mountains outside our front door and a kids' park/plaground right across the street.  it's a huge house with lots of room for guests, so we hope to have a lot of visitors : )  we think we'll be very happy here for a couple of years.

seattle bound

we took our first trip to seattle as a family a couple of weeks ago to get acquainted with the great city we'll be living in for a couple of years.  this is a picture of us at pikes place market - one of the most famous landmarks in seattle.  we had a great trip.  brooke did fantastic on the long flights and really enjoyed getting to know seattle.  we had a great realtor, nancy, who became brooke's fast friend when she gave her a new baby doll upon meeting her.  we saw some great neighborhoods and great houses.  now we just have to play the waiting game... not much we can do right now but let the anticipation and excitement build since we're not moving until summer.

look, it's uncle carl!

so, brooke loves her uncle carl!  they are buddies.  we've noticed that occasionally when we're riding in the car, brooke will yell out "uncle carl!"  i finally put it all together and figured out that she thinks the guy in the verizon ads is uncle carl.  kevin and i find this hilarious!  think of it from brooke's point-of-view... she's riding in the back of a car, looks out the window and sees a picture of uncle carl on a billboard.  from a distance, you totally get it... dark hark, dark glasses, fitted jacket... it is uncle carl!  

naked dance party

last month my book club had our annual holiday party.  we always invite spouses and this year we included all the kids.  it's amazing how we've multiplied in the past couple of years!  there were kids everywhere.  three of the oldest kids - owen, reese and brooke - turned the festivities into a naked dance party.  i started changing brooke into her PJs when suddenly she looked into the other room and exclaimed, "they're getting naked!"  off she ran to join owen and reese, and they all danced the night away to kevin and samir's jam session...