Happy Valentine's Day

We hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day. Ours was a great one. It seems as though the Candy fairy has dropped off more candy than we need so the kids were very excited all day long. When the kids woke up this morning they were so excited to open valentine's cards and have a special treat waiting for them. It is so fun to see them getting bigger and enjoying special times like these. The following picture was one I caught this evening before they headed off to bed. (There was still a lot of sugar running through their system at this point in the evening!) Also, we made truffles in the shape of hearts. The kids helped so that made it even more messy! (I will have a whole post on that experience later!) Here are the red covered ones.And here are the white covered ones. I need to stop making these things or I am going to explode!
And last but not least we talked about love and I showed the kids how to make hearts with their hands. They were very excited about this and I even managed to grab a few pictures. Their sweet little hands........ priceless!!!!
Isaac's hands
And Jordan's hands

We hope all of you had a great Valentine's day.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Bubble Packing

Last week Patrick's parents sent us some home-made tamales. Which we were very excited about. You see, here in Ohio, good Mexican food is hard to find. And I mean really hard to find. Unfortunately, it got lost somewhere in the mail and took a week to get here. So, what does that mean? That means throw them away or you and your entire family will get food poisoning! Total bummer, we were really looking forward to some fresh tamales! But it wasn't a total loss. Isaac and Sydney got the chance to be introduced to bubble rap. And they loved it!!!

Isaac trying to figure it out.Sydney trying to figure it out.

And here is a short video of them popping the packing wrap.

At least it wasn't a total loss! With lemons we made lemonade on this day.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Love, Love, Love

"Let Love and Faithfulness never leave you..." Proverbs 3:3

Well, February is upon us. I can hardly believe that January has passed but we are going into February full swing. And "Love" is the theme of the month, right? So, Jordan has 3 projects that are to be done within the next few weeks. So we got them ALL done today. She was very excited and enjoys crafts so these projects were right up her alley! The first was her Valentine's box. We went to the store today and picked up some supplies and the following picture is the final product. She is so excited to take it to school tomorrow.

(Yes, that is a feather boa that is wrapped around the edges, her favorite part!)

The second was a Valentine for her class. Her class gets to decorate the hallway with a large homemade valentine from home and ours is officially done! I love the joy in her face in this next picture!

(It is stickers upon stickers upon stickers and it is all hers. There was no parent involvement on this one!)

And the final project is the 100th day project. February 9th is the 100th day of school and again she wanted to go with the Valentine's theme. We glued 100 candy hearts in the shape of a heart. She has to wait until it dries to take it to school so it will be a couple of days before she can take it in. You kind of have to use your imagination to see the heart shape but after she cuts it out it will look more like a heart (HOPEFULLY!!!)

So, Love is the theme of the month and the theme of our home. I like to think that "Love" is always the theme of our home but sometimes things get crazy and it is easy to let Love get pushed back. And then I remember that the ultimate gift of Love was given to us from Jesus on a cross. So, for this month may we remember to Love, Love, Love!!! (And receive the Love, Love, Love that is all around us!)

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

A weekend in Columbus

We ventured out this past weekend and headed south to Columbus. Yes, the capitol of Ohio, the home of "THE Ohio State University," and the home of COSI. COSI is a children's science center with lots of thing to offer to a family like ours. We were looking for some place to go and just have a good time and that is what we found. Following are a LOT of pictures of the weekend so sit down and I hope you enjoy!

Sydney playing in a pretend house.

And now pouring water. She kept trying to drink the water and that made me a little nervous!
Wind blowing through her hair!

Sydney and I looking like aliens!

Alien Isaac and Alien Jordan

Goofing around!

Still goofing around!

Here is a group shot of me with the kids. And yes, Isaac is in the stroller and Sydney is trying to push it! And I am pretty sure he is picking his nose also!

And here is a shot of me with the kids as we are learning how sound vibrations can flow through a hanger, string, and your fingers and finally we hear it in your ears.

There was a section of the science center called "Progress." It starts with horse drawn carriages and butter churns and goes into an era of bicycles and diners. It was a pretty interesting set-up. Here is a close-up of Jordan and Isaac in a phone booth!

And Patrick riding a bike with the kids in the phone booth behind him.

Patrick in the horse drawn carriage with Sydney and Isaac while Jordan is in the background churning butter.

A picture of the girls in the covered carriage.

Patrick and the kids making the pistons in a giant engine move.

And here is Sydney playing with the buckle of her stroller. Yes, all these cool science things to play with and she is loving the stroller!

Jordan being crazy!

Sydney learning about pulleys.

Jordan and Isaac in a pretend submarine.

I think this is one of my favorite shots of the whole weekend. This shot was taken while Patrick and the kids were inside a real submarine. I couldn't believe they all fit! The kids thought it was pretty cool also.

Isaac hanging on and learning about levers!

Jordan hanging on and learning a little also. At the other end of this lever was an old car so that made it even more fun for the kids! When the car went down they went up!

Overall, we had a great weekend. It was fun to get out of town for a few days and just play. So, I think we have decided that we need to make a few more of these unexpected trips just for fun! This is how memories are made.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

New Recipe!!!

I recently found a new recipe for brownies/cookies and it was definitely a success. You are supposed to put these in a 9X13 pan and cut them up but I tweaked it a little and put it in a cupcake holder hoping the wouldn't be so messy. The official name for these are "Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies covered with Ganache!" Can you say delicious and NOT nutritious! Well that is exactly what they were.

So here are pictures of the kids enjoying these new masterpieces.

Jordan enjoying hers.
Sydney, I think she really liked the ganache. (Along with her forehead!)
And Isaac with his. You can see the two layers in this picture. (He hadn't quite devoured it yet like the girls had.)

And this is what the cupcake looked like originally.

I didn't get any pictures of Patrick and I eating these but believe me, we ate plenty ourselves!

Yum Yum, I have a feeling we will be making these again and soon!

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Happy Birthday Damon!!!

Today is my brother's birthday. So, the Gallegos children sang him a heartfelt and joyful version of "Happy Birthday." (That last sentence is said with total sarcasm!) And if you take a close look at Sydney you may notice the mark on her forehead. (She looked like a unicorn on Tuesday, so it looks great now!) And yes Jordan is wearing a princess dress with wings and Isaac is in his dragon costume. And unfortunately Isaac really did fall asleep during dinner.

So, we hope Uncle Damon has a great birthday and we wish we were there to sing this to you in person. Love Ya and God Bless, Tara, Patrick, Jordan, Isaac and Sydney

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Snow Day!!!!

Friday was a snow day. We got 10 inches of snow during the night but they expected even more during the day. So, luckily for all the kids in Hudson, that meant NO SCHOOL!!! So, for the first snow day of 2010 we decided to do some painting. Painting ceramic figures that is! And luckily I had the camera close by. And this is how the story goes!

All three kids got one of these fancy plastic trash bag shirts!Isaac painted dinosaurs figures!

Jordan painted Ice cream/dessert figures!

And Sydney painted one of Jordan's ice creams and one of Isaac's dinosaurs!

So, everyone had something to paint and they were ready to go! Jordan was very excited to mix red and white resulting in PINK!!! And then later she figures out that purple and orange make brown. I guess we all learned something new on this day.

And Isaac intently painting!

And the final products. WOW what talent. They must get it from their Father!

And one last picture of the kids finishing up their projects. Actually, Isaac is already done. He just decided to paint his hand since he ran out of dinosaurs. Go figure!

O' what fun snow days can bring. I have to say it is nice to have an unexpected long weekend, for all of us! We hope everyone else is enjoying this cool January weather.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.