Jordan is 7!!!

Guess who turned 7 today!!! Jordan definitely had a great day. She was supper excited about today and I can't blame her, it is exciting being 7. So here she is with her birthday cake. She picked out the animal print theme and she was very excited about her cake. I have to say that I was pretty excited about how cute it turned out also.


As soon as she woke up this morning she was ready to open presents. And when I went upstairs mid-day to grab some laundry this is the note I found outside my door.

(I like how she signed it "sincerely Jordan.") And I couldn't figure out how to turn the picture around so am sorry it is upside down.
And here she is with her cake while we were singing "Happy Birthday."

And enjoying a bite. She wanted chocolate cake with icing. She is a chocolate girl, just like her dad.

And Jordan was very excited that her cousin Paige was able to come over. Here is a picture of all the girls playing dress-up.

Balloons and a new princess dress

It has been a crazy weekend and I was just so glad that she had a great birthday. And I think she had a great day. It is hard to believe that she is already 7. It is definitely true when people say "they grow up too fast."

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara

Happy Father's Day!!!

...And I will be a father to you,

and you shall be my sons and daughters..."

2 Corinthians 6:18

Well, today is Father's Day and we had a great one. (At least from my perspective it was a good one.) We had a nice run this morning in the valley with the kids and that was fun. Jordan rode six miles with Patrick as he ran and they got to spend some special time together.

So, Patrick I thank you for being such a great Husband and Father. You bless our family in so many ways.

These 3 kids couldn't be happier!!!

And Me, well, I couldn't be happier either!!!


You are a great dad and I hope you know how much we truly love and appreciate everything you do for us! Your guidance is amazing. We hope you had a great day.
Happy Father's Day!!!

And for my Dad, thank you so much for everything you have done and continue to do for me. You are so great and I love you so much! I hope you had a great day and I wish we could have been there to celebrate it with you!!! (And remember I will always be your favorite!!! Don't worry, I won't tell Damon, your secret is safe with me.)

And Gene, I hope you had a great Father's day also. You have raised an amazing husband and father in Patrick and for that I will always be grateful.

I hope that all of you had a great day!!!

Love you and God Bless, Tara G.

Family Pictures

Patrick's parents were in town last week and we took the opportunity to take them out to the Cuyahoga Valley. While we were there we decided to take some pictures as a family. And well, that actually is harder than a person might think.

So, the following is what we got. (You never know, one of these may end up being our Christmas card picture!)

For the most part everyone was looking at the camera in this one. (Jordan has the funny face in this one!)

Our families version of a straight line!

What is Patrick doing to Jordan???

AHHH, A true family portrait for the Gallegos Family!

4 out of 5 of us looking at the camera is about as good as we can get!

As a side note, I cut my hair off about a week ago. I donated 11 inches to "Locks of Love." Lets hope they can make a crazy cool wig out of all that hair!!! :)

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Our first Harvest

Well, all of our hard work has paid off. We harvested our first strawberries yesterday. Yes, we are already harvesting food from our garden. (A small side note: The word "Harvest" is used very loosely in the previous sentences!)

I checked out the garden and noticed that some of the strawberries were ready. So I quickly picked them before the birds got to them.

So, here is what we got!!!

Yes, 2 strawberries. Roughly the size of a penny. They were so small and there were only two of them. (That is why I used the word "Harvest" so loosely.)

However the kids were very excited.

Here they are eating up their dinner so they can eat the strawberries I picked from the garden. They didn't know that I only got two and that whey were the size of a penny but they would soon find that part out!

So, here is a picture of Jordan with the strawberries.
And Isaac was super excited also.

And Sydney, well, she was excited but just wanted to eat them. It was kind of tough taking the picture without her shoving them in her mouth.

So, when every one's dinner was done I divided them up and handed them out to the kids. The really funny part about all of it was that the strawberries were kind of tart and the kids did not like them at all. Their faces were priceless!!! Well, we hope to have much more harvesting in the future and look forward to sharing.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Gardening Fun!!!

This one is for you Mom and Dad!!! :) So while my parents were here in April I talked them into helping us make a small gardening area. And I have to say, it did turn out really nice. We made an 8 ft by 8 ft area that is fenced in so that no deer can get in and eat all of our goods. The kids and I planted some stuff a couple of weeks ago and my parents have been asking for pictures every since I told them that stuff was starting to grow. I do have to add in here that I am in NO WAY a gardener. I DO NOT have a green thumb and I am surprised that we actually have green plants growing in the garden right now. So, here are a few pictures of our new little garden and some of the other things we have been growing around the Gallegos house!

Our Garden

The other side of the Garden. (The corn is on the right and it isn't all coming up like I thought it would. The corn was the one thing Jordan wanted to grow so I hope we at least get a few good rows of it.)

And we have 7 strawberry plants. Here is a little strawberry that is not quite red yet!

And last fall I decided to plant some garlic. So far it is looking great. Garlic is supposed to keep the deer away also but I don't know if that is really true.

And in this area we have watermelon and pumpkins. Isaac wanted to plant these so let's hope we get a few of both! This area is very good at growing weeds so I don't see why watermelon and pumpkins shouldn't grow! And as I was taking these pictures I noticed a few watermelon plants coming up!!! :)

So, Mom and Dad, here is what we have planted so far. I know that the garden (aka Jungle - nicknamed that because I am pretty sure I planted everything way to close) has been a lot of fun for the kids and thank you so much for helping me get it built. I will post pictures again as things get bigger so you can see the fruits of your hard work. (No pun intended, but that was actually pretty funny.)

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G,