Illinois

Here are some pictures of us in Illinois. Gabe got chocolate cake every night at Kathy's (Nick's mom) house...he loved it! Do you see the little boy in pink underpants in the pool picture? Yep...that's Gabe! We didn't bring any swim gear for him so Chrissy loaned us some of her daughter's! He was so pretty in pink!!!
Here's Gabe in his hawaiian outfit...and running around in our hotel! He had a great time seeing all his relatives on Nick's side for the first time! He LOVED playing with Kathy's cats...I think I have some pictures of that being developed.
Gabe is just chattering away these days...in his own little language. He says "bye-bye" to Daddy every day when he goes to work and he gives "hugs" now...which is just too precious to describe!
Have a wonderful day ~God Bless~

Can you guess who this is???

Isn't he cute? Nick was quite a chubby little baby.... I like the one where he's in all his military stuff!

"Luna"

This is our little lost kitten we found on the side of the road by Lake Luna on base (that's why we named her Luna) We kept her overnight and fed her with this tiny little bottle. She was the most precious little thing. She slept all balled up in two towels in a box. She would even purr after she ate! We took her to Pet Smart today and gave her to an Animal rescue/adoption organization. It was heartbreaking for us both. We just fell in love with this little kitten. She was only 5-6 days old...her little eyes weren't even open yet. But she had the sweetest little meow! We would have loved to keep her, but with Gabe, a little one on the way, a big ol' golden retriever, we thought it might be too hard. But, some family is going to be very lucky to have Luna...she's a sweetheart!

My parents left for Iceland last Thursday. They have called us a couple times and are doing well. It's been quite an emotional weekend for me with all this going on. Deke is up at college in Michigan and doing good as well. Our little Gabriel is an energizer bunny lately! He wants to explore, touch, and figure out everything around him. He just gets more fun every day. He can say 'bye-bye' and almost "cat" it comes out just 'ca'. His favorite word right now is Daaa-dy! He just adores his daddy! Nick wrestles with him all the time and I caught him trying to wrestle with some other babies in the nursery today!! Nick thinks he wasn't wrestling he just wanted to "lay on them" I guess he was born a natural "wrestler" like his father! Little Michael seems to be just as active as Gabe! He kicks all the time...And big! I jumped in church today because he kicked me so hard! I can't wait until he gets here...I am getting so excited!