Our Sweet One Year Old!

On Monday Gabriel turned ONE! How time flies! It has been the sweetest experience to be a mom and for Patrick to be a dada (as Gabriel says). We have already seen God's grace in this journey as parents. We don't have a lot of expertise under our belts, but we surely see the purpose in God's plan for children to be part of our marriage... always a life giving love. We have grown closer working as a team to love this son of ours, while Patrick working on his PhD and his second job, me working for Vandy Catholic, and trying to balance the rest of life... keeping house, exercising, eating well, and staying attached to our sacramental life. Gabriel has been such a source of selflessness for us and we are grateful. Time doesn't seem to be taken for granted anymore. Three days after Gabriel's first birthday we were able to give him the news that he was going to have a little brother! This is another part of our trip to Heaven... another little boy to love... we couldn't be more excited. God, again, you will never let us outdo You in Your Greatness and Generosity. We love you.

Happy Birthday, my sweet baby boy, Gabriel Patrick.

Last Year

One year ago at this time I had cleaned every last inch of the apartment. I had all the laundry done, every dish clean, every piece of furniture dusted, every inch vacuumed and my bags were finally packed. Right about this time, Patrick and I had just returned home from buying a rocking chair and we were cleaning out the cars... shop vac, dusting, etc. Everything was just about ready and I started feeling the lower back pain. I tried to stay on my feet all day because the doctor had said three days earlier that I would be in labor within the next three days. As soon as the lower back pain started, we rushed to bed, not knowing how much sleep we would get. The first contraction woke me up the next morning, May 10th @6am. It was the biggest high... to deliver a baby that day... we are starting the countdown tonight to Gabriel's very 1st BIRTHDAY!! Time so flies. We are so blessed to have this sweet baby boy... and can't wait for our next little one in September.

Nashville Flood 2010

The last 5 days have been crazy here in Nashville.  If you have seen the news at all, we had torrential rainfall during the weekend.  At least 25% of Nashville's annual rainfall fell in a matter of two days overwhelming one of the cities two water treatment facilities, leaving 14,000 homes without power and killing at least 18 people.  We were generally unaffected by the rains with the exception being trapped at work for 5 hours on Saturday afternoon.

When I woke up Saturday morning, I had a message from my manager that the golf course was closed but that I needed to help set-up for a wedding that evening.  I arrived at work at ten to 2 and there was water running across the entrance, but I made it across in the Honda just fine.  Not more than thirty minutes after I arrived, there was waist deep water running across the entrance, and the water was shoulder deep by 3.  There were about a dozen people at the club, and the golf pros set out driving the cart paths looking for a way out but were largely unsuccessful.  By around 5, the wedding had been moved to a nearby hotel, so I was just waiting to be able to leave.  The water finally receded by 7:15, so I finally left.

Below are some pictures of the flood.  All of these locations are within 5-10 minutes driving of where we live.


These are of the flooded water treatment facility:

These streets are right down the road.  As you can see, both are flooded:

Here are a couple boats that were swept away by the flood waters.  I should note that we don't live near a boatable body of water, so this is unusual:

Coast Guard to the rescue:

The water likely covered this taxi.  The driver must be airing it out:

Gabriel Patrick at Almost One Year

So, this is the first time I remember seeing blood. He hurt his mouth and was bleeding A LOT according to me... but then again I thought he had a temperature the other day when it read 97.9 degrees. Anyway, you can see the traumatic leftover tear he has, but he is still trying to smile for the camera in the midst of the pain!

Just the sweetest little face... he so looks like his dad.

This is our son who has been drinking out of a straw for months... people totally crack up when they see it. He LOVES drinking from his sippy cups with straws. So cute.

He was looking at his Daddy and laughing... he just adores him. Probably because he is strong enough to throw him around and make a waterfall/whirlpool in the tub. I have seriously never heard so much noise and water splashing at bath time! Mommy is a little bit less likely to soak herself and the whole bathroom... but, that makes Daddy "funner!"

Can you see his 2 bottom teeth? ... we finally have some! Yea!

So, I put him in his highchair today while making my lunch. I turned around after hearing him sing and clap for a while and saw this incredibly chill kid hanging out with one leg on the tray and leaning back like he was driving a cool car. It reminded me of how my brother use to drive. Oh, how silly he is!

Here he takes after his mom. Whenever we put him out back in the grass he tends to hold both legs in the air because he can not stand his legs or feet to touch the grass.. maybe it tickles. Here is the leg hold in action... he will hold it like this for ten minutes if we leave him there. We laugh so hard everytime. We have to work on this so he acts like a real boy and plays in the dirt.



A day when he was talking up a storm and helping me dust bust the kitchen. He is this pleasant all the time... even when on his most recent sleep strikes. Love 'em.