Happy Birthday Patrick!!!!

On Monday we celebrated Patrick's birthday and had a really great time. He is now the big 33! So that means I am officially married to an "Older Man!!!" (Since of course I am only 32 HAHA!) So, I caught some pictures of the kids along with a group shot of Patrick and the kids.

This is one of Isaac making one of his quirky faces. And Jordan posing as usual!
And Miss Sydney enjoying a nice piece of birthday cake
(Pineapple Upside-Down Cake.)
And last but not least a picture of the whole group before we dove into the cake.

Well Patrick, we hope you had a great birthday and we all love you very much!

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara, Jordan, Isaac and Sydney

Pumkin Carving Part Two

We had to trash the last pumpkins because they were overtaken by bacteria/mold/fungi/ organisms of unknown origin. I guess we carved them a little too early. So, this weekend we jumped back onto the carving game. Here is a picture of Patrick and Sydney enjoying some time together.

Patrick with the finished pumpkins. Jordan did the middle all by herself.

The kids playing is a pile of leaves in the front yard.

Jordan

Sydney throwing leaves everywhere.

Isaac pausing for a quick picture.

Another group shot.

Who needs toys in the fall. Toys fall from the trees at our house.

We are definitely enjoying fall. Hopefully it will last for a while. I don't think I am ready for winter quite yet!

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Let the Festivities Begin!!!!

Well, it is official, the Halloween festivities have began. We still have one week until Halloween is officially here but that doesn't stop the Gallegos Family. We started the day off with a fun, non-scary Halloween party. We decorated pumpkins, played games and watched a magician. The kids had a lot of fun. Here is a picture I caught of the kids before we left. Jordan is Scooby-Doo, Isaac is a dragon and Sydney is a Dallas Cowboy's cheerleader. (Yes, the cheerleader costume goes over VERY well here in Ohio! LOL)

Then we came home, had some lunch, and all took naps. Next on the agenda was some good old fashioned "Haunted Gingerbread House" making. Yes it was messy and everyone really enjoyed it. Let's be honest. Anything that involves candy is enjoyable for our kids. Here is a picture of the kids with their "Haunted Gingerbread House."
Here is a view of the house from the front. Isaac did most of the "yard," that would be the front part with pumpkins and gummy-candies. (And a fruit roll-up pathway! You just can't see it for all the yard decorations!)

And a view from the back. The red thing is supposed to be a dead tree. This was the first thing Isaac wanted to eat when we dove in to it.

And here is a picture of the kids eating their house. It was all they could do to wait until after dinner to eat it. But I do have to say that they ate all of their dinner tonight. Go figure!

And here is a video of the kids eating the house.

And did you notice that Sydney shook her head "YES" at the end of the video. Her big thing right now is to say "NO" to everything. Well, she is definitely following in the sugar loaded footprints of her sister and brother.

So, we are preparing ourselves for a week full of Halloween parties, trick-or-treating, and dressing-up. I think I am ready but we will see how the week goes!

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Fall is Upon Us!

Well, the leaves are changing, the weather is getting cooler and the Gallegos family is outside with spoons, knives, the bed of a truck and pumpkins. What can I say, we are building memories for a lifetime! So, as you can guess, we carved pumpkins this afternoon. Now, I remember carving pumpkins as a kid. There were no fancy carving knives or stencils. We simply made triangle eyes, a triangle nose and a grimace smile that only a mother could love. However, the times have changed and our kids aren't carving the same pumpkins their parents did. This is the stencil Isaac chose for his pumpkin. Yes it is a dragon and he is making a dragon face. And the orange thing sticking out of the pumpkin is the fancy carving knife that I was talking about earlier!
And well, Jordan didn't want a normal face on her pumpkin either. She chose this witch stencil.
So, do you think they carved them! Of course not, but Patrick and I were up for the challenge and I have to say that they didn't turn out half bad. The kids like them so I guess that is all that counts. So, if you live in the area and want to see some cool pumpkin carvings feel free to drive by. And if you live far away, we are always up for company so you are welcome also.

So, here is a picture of the kids and Patrick with the pumpkins all carved. And "YES" I think Isaac is playing with scissors in this picture.

Finally, after all the excitement the boys were worn out and this is where I found them after cleaning up outside. What can I say, they needed a nap. So here's to Fall, pumpkin carving, and naps on the couch on a Saturday afternoon with dad.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Hiking with the Fam

About a month ago we went hiking at a place called "The Ledges." We knew about this place but just never had made it out there. So, one nice brisk evening we decided to pack up the kids and head out there. It is actually only about 5 minutes from our house and after we got there, Patrick and I couldn't believe that we hadn't gone before. There were some really nice trails that were even pretty good for the kids. Overall, we had a really nice evening. So, here are a few pictures we caught!At this point we were at a look-out spot and as you can see it was a really nice sunset. And from this view we are eye level with the trees.

Patrick and the kids catching a nice view.

I even got them to take a group shot!

And this shot was taken during the hike. It looks like it was dark but we were actually just in the trees. Trees are something that we really love about Ohio. And obviously we weren't very prepared because Patrick and Isaac were both wearing sandals.
Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

We Ran The Bird!

Well, this morning we "Ran the Bird." We ran the Akron Marathon/Half Marathon. The mascot for the run is the Roadrunner, therefore the saying "Run the Bird." And if you want to get technical, I personally only ran half of "The Bird." LOL! This was Patrick's first marathon and he did an awesome job. There are a lot of hills and that is what makes this marathon a more challenging one. His overall time was 3 hours and 40 minutes. So we would like to share a few pictures we caught throughout the day.

The following picture was taken after we got home.Here is one of Patrick, after much hydration, food and stretching! (The color was starting to come back to his face!)
And we managed to find these really cool shirts for the kids. The front reads "If you think the Roadrunner is Fast......"
And the back read "You should see MY DAD!" They wore them to the race and they looked so cute.

And a picture of Patrick, Jordan and Isaac after we got home.Unfortunately, I forgot the camera so the next few pictures are courtesy of Patrick's dad, Gene. Thanks Gene for being on the ball.

Patrick greeting the kids about 10 minutes after he finished.

With hugs and kisses.

I did run the the half marathon and I have to say that is was pretty hard. The hills really make a difference. Gene caught this picture of me when we were waiting for Patrick to finish.

And here is a picture of Gene with Jordan and Isaac. (With their roadrunner fans. Isaac's was moving too fast to be caught by the camera!)

Also for fun and amusement, like the run itself wasn't enough, there was a huge blow-up roadrunner. And we couldn't help but take our picture in front of it. So in the following picture you can really only see the legs of "The Bird" but that is okay.

Well, here is to another road race down. Congrats to Patrick for a great first marathon. We'll see if he EVER does another! LOL Also, a HUGE thank you to the Allen Family and Vasquez Family for coming down and supporting and watching us. You truly are great friends.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Isaac's first day of School!?!?!? (And second!)

Isaac has been in school for 2 weeks now and I have been meaning to post pictures of his first day. When we woke up we got ready and I was ready to take pictures. The only problem was that the battery in the camera was dead. So, I decided that we would just take pictures AFTER school. That sounds like a good idea, right! Well, after we got home he put on a new pirate costume and wouldn't stand still for anything! So, after running around for a little bit his God Mother asked if she could take him out for lunch and have some fun for the afternoon. Isaac was beside himself and was running out the door before I could catch a good "First" day of school picture. So the next 2 pictures are of him running around and playing in his pirate costume. Sydney also took to the pirate activities and in this picture Isaac is trying to put her pirate hat on.
Other than pirate pictures, none were taken on his official FIRST day of school.
So, on his second day of school I was ready with the camera (full battery and all.)

(He eventually put on shoes and THEN we were off to school!)

And here is a picture of him in the car waiting for drop-off. He is sticking his out of the sun-roof. He was very excited.

Ya, I know, probably not the safest picture ever taken but I do want to say that we were not driving at the time in which this picture was taken! (That is a special note for any CPS workers who may follow our family blog!) HA HA HA HA HA HA

So here is to a great year of preschool for Isaac. Good luck "Big Guy" and have a blast!

Love Ya and God Bless, Mom and Dad