Washington Trip

So these pictures are in no particular order.  I am too lazy to put them in chronological order, so enjoy the randomness.

 Luckily my sister was willing to put up with my uncooperative children and take some pictures of our family.

 Here is our new Gianatasio family photo.

At the Portland Zoo

Then on Thursday it was Nate's 33rd birthday and we also had an unbirthday party for all of the kids since none of us live by each other to celebrate them through the year.  We even had the kids pick each others names and go to the dollar store to pick out a birthday present.  They loved it and had so much fun.

Sorry this is the zoo again.  We took a train ride to the rose gardens.

 Making animal footprints in the sand.

 Mmmm... lunch time.

 More train ride.

 Gwyn loved looking out the window of the train and to feel the wind on her face.  It was so cute.

One day we hiked around to see some waterfalls.  We climbed over rocks and saw some beautiful landscapes.

 The water was freezing.

Going for a walk at my parents house, headed down the driveway.

 My kids loved my parents house and being able to run around the yard.  They also loved going into the huge garden that my mom has.  Also one of the highlights was checking for eggs each day that the chickens possibly laid.

 My parents' house and their land around.  It was very beautiful.

Berry Picking

We went berry picking and picked some blueberries and raspberries.  We came home and made jam.  I was able to bring home 6 jars of homemade jam.  However, I did find out that when bringing home jam in your suitcase when flying you have to split it up between many different ones because of the weight.  Also you better believe that they open up and check each suitcase for the contents of what you may be hiding.  I am just glad that the TSA didn't decide to keep it for themselves.

I have some more pictures, but I will probably post them another day.  I don't want to overwhelm you all at once.

Family Vacation

So I have just spent three weeks at my parents new house in Washougal, WA.   I have tons of pictures of our adventures.  I will post lots of them later, but I had a great time seeing family and was sad to say goodbye.  I am ready to jump back into life, but at the same time not excited that Nate is still working in Indiana for another month.  This month should be a big a busy one as we squeeze the rest out of summer in the next couple of weeks before Bristol starts first grade.  Kali will also be going to Preschool this year and is so excited.  More to come later.

Nicole

Happy 1st Birthday Gwyn

Gwyn is one today!  We are so blessed to have this little sunshine in our family.  I can't believe a whole year has already gone by.  We had to celebrate her birthday on Sunday along with Father's Day because of Nate's work schedule and he left yesterday for Boston.  Since he will be gone until Sunday we thought we would celebrate with our family before he left.  Happy Birthday Gwyn, we all love you so much!

 I didn't know if Nate was taking a picture or a video.  That is why I look so unhappy.

 One of her presents, she loves banging on the drum.

 Her Aunt Michelle is here visiting and gave her this chair.  She absolutely loves sitting in it, she just has to fight her sisters off of it first.

 I used a cake pan my mom gave me from when my sisters and I were little.  So I had to decorate it the way my mom used to make our cakes.  However, I took an easier way and didn't do a layer of frosting first so you can kind of see in between the stars, but hey I still think it turned out cute.

 She wasn't too into the cake and especially didn't like the frosting.  Instead of making a huge mess and scarfing it down she started to hand me the pieces of cake she didn't want.  I guess she is not a cake person (well not yet at least).

Love This Little Girl

Gwyn will be 11 months old tomorrow.  I can't believe how fast this year has gone by.  She has definitely had her difficult times and was not the easiest baby, but she is sure a sweetheart.  Every morning when I get her from her bed she lays her head on my shoulder and pats my back.  She loves giving kisses and she is a major Mama's girl.  She is finally crawling like a "big girl" (or normal crawling).  She has no desire to start walking or really pull herself up much. She only really likes to stand when we are at church and she can hold on to the back of the pew and look at everyone behind her, other than that she is perfectly content sitting and crawling. She is so tiny that I think it would be crazy to see her walking.  She is finally wearing 6-9month old clothes.  She is a great eater though.  She never was too hot on baby food, but loves eating finger foods instead.  She is drinking from a sippy cup that she can hold herself.  Her favorite word is Mama.  She will sometimes say "nigh nigh" for night night and "ma" for when she wants more.  She is starting to hold her own against her sisters and is forming quite a good grip on toys she is playing with, since they usually get taken from her by Kali.  She also will throw a fit by screaming if her sisters take something or are pestering her too much.  She even tried to take a chomp out of Bristol when she wouldn't leave her alone the other day.  She loves to play with her sister's toys and doesn't really have much love of her baby toys.  We all feel so blessed to have her in our family.

This is kind of a long video, but you can see her crawling, hear her say Mama, and wave goodbye.  Whenever she sees the school bus she starts waving, because she waves to Bristol everyday when Bristol leaves for school.

Spring and Easter Time

Here is another marathon post.  One day I will get into posting more regularly again.  This will have to do for now.

So I decided to take a picture of the front of our house this spring.  I just thought the blossoms on the tree and the tulips in the planters looked so pretty.  

There were a few (and I mean few) warm days in April.  Most everyday was pouring down rain.

Enjoying the warm weather outside.

So the following pictures are of one of the times it has flooded behind our house.  The woods behind our house and everything were flooded.  This was the worst time.  The girls thought it was just so fun to run in the mucky water.

 Bristol has been picking up Gwyn a lot lately.  Despite my efforts to leave her be.  This particular day she decided to put Gwyn into her toy box.

Easter Egg Decorating

 We decorated eggs the day before Easter.  The girls had a great time.

 I love that Kali and Nate have similar facial expressions in this picture, with neither one of them knowing what the other person was doing.

 Our eggs (well at least the ones that survived with out breaking from a certain 3 year old and her aggressiveness).

 Gwyn joined in halfway through once she woke up from her nap.

Easter Egg Hunt

 The next day searching for the eggs that Daddy hid.  (I never got their pictures this year in their easter dresses)

Just some photos of Gwyn since she is so darn cute and so you can see how she is growing (or not growing, she only weighs about 15 lbs and is 10 months old)

The sun finally came back out about two days ago.  So we decided to sit out and enjoy the weather once again.

 I am not sure how this picture of Kali got stuck in the middle of the rest of these, but it is pretty cute.