A Day at the Lake!

Our friends Laura and Todd invited us to spend the afternoon at the lake with them and we were very excited. They have a sailboat at a lake about 45 minutes away and we had so much fun. Neither Patrick nor I have ever been on a sailboat and it was a great time. All together there were 6 kids and and 4 adults. We (the adults) were outnumbered but we were up for the challenge. We sailed out a ways, anchored down and let everyone get in the water to play. Here is a picture of all the kids before we jumped into the water. Laura, Sydney and I sporting the cool and fashionable life jackets!
Sydney and Ella having a good time!

Patrick and I swimming in the lake. He was trying to pull me under but the life jacket saved me. (I guess it was doing it's job!)

Jordan swimming on her own. Which for Jordan was a big thing. She was afraid there were sharks or whales in the lake!

Isaac looking over the edge of the boat.

And a final picture after a nice bar-b-que. Between the two families, we grilled burgers and hot dogs, had fruit salad, pasta salad, chips, Oreo cookies and Swedish fish. Quite a well balanced meal if I do say so myself. Overall, we had a really great time and are thankful for very good friends.

So, to Laura and Todd we say "Thank You" for a great afternoon at the lake. And as a side note, we have officially been in Ohio for 3 years. We use August 1st as our date because that was Patrick's 1st day of work. So, this afternoon just goes to show that we have made some amazing friends here in Ohio and we are very blessed. So, a big "Thank You" to ALL of our friends here in Ohio for a great 3 years.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

She's Walking!!!

The time has finally come and Sydney is walking. She has been taking a step or two for the last month or so but not truly walking, until NOW! So, here is a short video of the girl just walking around.

It is truly crazy how fast kids grow. How lucky am I to watch these 3 kids grow up!

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Happy Anniversary Patrick

(Look how young we look.)

Patrick and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary yesterday. The above picture is one of us seven years ago yesterday. To celebrate we went out this weekend and had a great time. We went to downtown Cleveland, had a nice dinner, watched a hilarious comedian at the comedy club and finished off the evening at an Irish pub remembering back on the past seven years. It was a lot of fun. The past seven years have flown by and I am definitely thankful for everything. So, Patrick, I want to thank you for a great seven years of marriage. And, thank you for these crazy kids that keep us both young!

(Yes, Sydney has a car in her mouth!)

And I think Jordan may have a future in photography. She took the following Picture of Patrick and I. Way to go Jordan!!!

So, here is to seven great years Patrick. I love you and look forward to many many more!

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara

An early morning jog

This morning a ran in a local 5k to benefit pancreatic cancer. I have to say that I am a little out of shape and it was slightly harder than I had expected. (Let's be honest it was much harder than I had expected.) But it was fun and I realized that I have a lot of training to do for the race in September that Patrick and I am running.

So, here is picture that Patrick caught of the kids and I before the race. (If you notice I look much more hydrated in this picture than future ones.)Here are Jordan and Isaac playing on the bouncer while I was running. Whoever thought of having a bounce house at this event is a genius.
And another one of the crazy duo in the bounce house.

And here is a picture of Jordan and I after the race and a few chocolate chip cookies. O', what a way to finish 3.1 miles. :)

So, overall it was a good run. I finished in 25 minutes and that was my goal. As I finished it had just started to rain so we were able to grab some water and head out before the flooding rain came down. We had a good morning and are ready for a fun day.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Busy Busy Busy

We have been trying to stay busy and luckily have been carrying the camera around with us. Patrick went out of town and I caught a few pictures of what the kids and I did while he was gone. Now that one of Jordan's first loves is bike riding, this is all that she wants to do. I don't blame her but it is hard for her to understand that she does have a younger brother and sister who don't want to spend the entire day in the back of a bike trailer. But, I did get the bike trailer out of the basement and decided that a small bike ride would not hurt anyone. So, here is Jordan all pumped up and ready for a nice bike ride. And here are Isaac and Sydney. I don't think they realized what was coming.
And a group picture of all three.
After all was said and done we rode about 5 miles and Sydney ended falling asleep. The only reason Jordan ended the ride was because it started to rain! She is enjoying her new bike riding skills but Isaac figured out pretty quickly that the bike trailer wasn't his favorite mode of transportation! However, the next day I was able to get him and Sydney back into the trailer with a tasty Popsicle!

And I thought this was a cute picture of all three kids in Jordan's new pool. (She got it as a birthday gift. What a gift, one that everyone can enjoy!) It has sprinklers along the edge and they spray into the pool. All three kids LOVE the new pool.

So, here are a few things we did while Patrick was out of town. We also went to the zoo and I will hopefully get those pictures posted soon. But Patrick is now home and we are all very happy for that. We hope everyone is having a great summer. Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

One down, ??? to Go!

This was Jordan this afternoon. Yes, she is all smiles. And she has every reason to smile because she has a tooth that is loose and she has been waiting for a tooth to fall out for a very long time. I have to admit that the tooth was REALLY loose and I was hoping Patrick could pull it when he got home (around 4:30) but she was just not patient enough to wait. So in the following picture she has ALL of her teeth in. (No Gaps, Yet!)So, here she is trying to pull it out herself with a tissue in hand.
And now she is trying the old apple trick.

However, much to her surprise none of these tactics seemed to work. So she ran off to the chair to pout about it. And much to her surprise, when she pushed her head into the chair to pout it push her tooth just enough to fall out. She was just as surprised as all of you are right now!

And here she is with a new gap in her mouth and plastic bag in-hand carrying her first tooth that has come out!

So, as you can see, Jordan continues to grow and hit some of these fun milestones. And we are so excited to get to share them with her and all of you. Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Two Wheels!

Well, I guess it is time for me to get back into the blogging mode. We have been getting back into our routine since returning from Texas and this evening we got some video of Jordan. Hope you enjoy.

We decided it was time for Jordan to start riding her bike on her own (No training wheels), so this evening she tried it. And I have to say she did a great job. It was fun to watch her.

It was starting to get dark so we had to end the lesson but she is very excited to start again tomorrow. Plus, we were using our neighbor's driveway so we figured it was time to leave. (We didn't want to impose too much!) So, now that we are getting back to our routine; hopefully, I will be posting more frequently.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.