Nails and Gingerbread People

While Jordan was on Christmas break we had a great time. It is always fun to have all 3 kids in the house playing and fighting together!! :) And one of Sydney's obsessions is her nails. She LOVES to have her nails painted. And lucky for me, Jordan enjoys painting her own nails and Sydney's also. So, I caught a few pictures of the two of them spending some quality Christmas Break time together!

Jordan better watch out, or Sydney will have her painting them every day. It is fun to watch them spend time together and enjoy each other's company.

We also made Gingerbread Men/Women that day. As many of you know, anything that involves cookies or candy is on the top of my kids list of things to do!!!
Jordan already eating one of her's.

Isaac with his decorated cookies.

Jordan decorating her cookies.

Sydney showing off her work.

Isaac decorating his cookies.

Overall it was a great Christmas break and we all had a great time together. I can't believe it went by so fast. We were very blessed this Christmas and we continue to recognize all the blessings that a little baby in a manger gave us so many years ago. We hope all of you had a great Christmas Season. Love You and God Bless, Tara G.

No School, Snow Days!!!

We have used all of our school's snow days and we did it by the middle of December. (3, we had 3 hazard days this year.) Yes, we still have 3 months of winter left (and let's be honest, it may be 4 to 5 months left!) So, I am curious to see how the rest of the winter goes, but that is fine, we will just go with the flow. Plus, I consider snow days just extra days we all get to spend together. So, here are a few pictures I caught during our snow days/No school days from December.Everyone lined up and bundled up.

And this is one that was taken on the first of the 3 snow days we used up. It was crazy snowing and I think over all with this storm we got a little over 3 feet of snow.

I like this picture because you can see how much was built up behind the garage door. The crazy part is that we had already had the driveway pushed twice that day. And I am pretty sure this picture was taken right after lunch time. I didn't know if it would ever stop. However, it did stop and let's be honest, this is what winter is about!!!

As I write this, the latest storm has just left a couple of feet of snow and another is expected to hit in the next few days. So, this is what living in Northeast Ohio is all about and I am grateful for these extra days of time together.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Uncle Damon

Uncle Damon came to visit during December and we all had a great visit. This was his first trip to Northeast Ohio and hopefully we weren't too crazy and he will come back again!!! The kids had a blast and I so did Patrick and I. Patrick even managed to talk him into doing a nice Saturday morning jog (I think they went about 20 miles) and the temperature was 20-25 degrees. If the craziness of 3 kids running around didn't scare him off, then the run just might have!!! No, overall I think he had a great trip and I know we had fun. So, here are a few pictures I caught while he was in town. The girls giving him hugs.

Isaac and him just hanging out. Isaac is always excited when there are other guys to run around with.


Damon and Jordan



Wrestle mania!!! A favorite in our house.

Being silly

Crazy face picture!!! At least I think this is Damon's crazy face??? Patrick and Damon also took the kids sledding. Let's hope he comes back soon. We all had a great visit. We can't wait for another visit from Uncle Damon.

Love You and God Bless, Tara G.

The Goofy Challenge

We have not fallen off the face of the earth! I just haven't posted much stuff in the last few months. However, I am back on the blogging horse and I couldn't resist posting about Patrick's weekend!

So here is how it started. About 2 months ago Sydney's God-Father (Jose Vasquez) wanted to start training for a 1/2 marathon and he asked if Patrick would help. So Patrick agreed and they decided to have a fun weekend and run the Donald Duck 1/2 marathon at Disney. While Patrick was looking up the information about the 1/2 marathon he found information about the Goofy Challenge. What exactly makes up the Goofy Challenge, you may ask??? Well, you run the 1/2 marathon on Saturday followed by the full marathon on Sunday!!! Yes, that is BOTH races which total 39.3 miles for the whole weekend. So knowing Patrick, he is always up for a challenge, and it looked like the Goofy Challenge was just his type of challenge. He did great on both runs and to top everything off, his dad and brother were both able to make it and watch. Needless to say, everyone had a great time.

Here are a few pictures from this evening and the weekend.

Patrick with all 3 metals that he received. (That was one really neat thing. He got 1 for the 1/2 marathon-Donald Duck, 1 for the full marathon-Mickey Mouse, and 1 for completing both races-Goofy.)

Patrick and Jose


Here is a picture Patrick caught of Anthony (his brother) and Gene (his dad.) Patrick had a lot of fun hanging out with them throughout the weekend.


And last but not least, here is a picture of the kids after Patrick got home. Patrick gave each of them a metal and needless to say, they were very, very excited. And of course, Pape (Patrick's dad) got them the stuffed animals to go along with them.
Patrick, we are so proud of this huge accomplishment and we are glad you are back home.
Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Adding one more to the Mix!!!

We are excited to announce that Baby Gallegos #4 will be joining the family some time in mid-March. Yes, we are adding one more to the mix. We are currently about 23 weeks and we found out last week that it is a little boy. We are all very excited but I do have to say that I think Isaac was the most excited out of all of us. He just can't wait for his little brother to get here. It is hard to imagine that there will be one more added to the picture below, but we do feel truly blessed to be able to welcome this little boy into our crazy family!Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Hocking Hills

Patrick's parents came up to see us at the end of October and we thought it would be a great idea to take them on a little trip. For us it was like a mini-vacation. I don't know if they consider traveling in a suburban for 3 hours with 3 kids and a sick daughter-in-in-law much of a vacation but I think they had a great time also. We decided to head down to Hocking Hills. It is just about an hour south of Columbus. So not too far in our book. So, here are a few pictures from our trip.

Sydney watching everyone do the rope course and zip lines.

Jordan on the rope course.

Isaac and Patrick on the rope course. Gene also did the rope course and zip line with the kids. It was fun to watch all of them maneuvering through everything.

Gene and Sydney after one of our hikes.

Isaac in front of one of the caves we found.

A family shot caught by a random teenager who we threw our camera at!

A true family picture! The adult is smiling. One kid is upside down. One kid is not looking and the other is actually smiling and doing what I am asking. We got a lot of these shots while we were there.

And another family shot. Our faces are a little larger in this picture and easier to make out.

And this is a picture of the cabin we stayed in. It was really nice. This is how Julia and I like to go camping. :)

And one final group shot. Magically, Gene managed to get everyone to look at him at the same time. I think by the end of the week we were using the word "Candy" to get everyone to look at the camera and smile.

Overall, the weather was really nice. A little cool but not too bad. We had a blast on the trip. We got to hike into a couple of big caves and see the trees as they were all turning . I would highly recommend Hocking Hills to anyone who has never gone. It was so beautiful and was a great place for the kids to play and run.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Akron Marathon

Yesterday was the Akron Marathon and 4 out of the 5 people in our family ran in some way. Patrick and I thought it would be fun for the kids to run their own race. So we signed them up for the "Kids Fun Run." And boy did they have fun. It was a 1k race and they did very well. Here is a picture I caught of the two of them as we were waiting at the starting line. (Yes the over sized t-shirts really look comfortable for a run don't they!)I was nervous to just leave them and go to the finish line so I decided to run behind them so I was sure that they didn't get lost at the finish. Unfortunately in doing this I was unable to catch a picture of them finishing. (This also meant that I was a participant in the "Kids Fun run!") However, this is what they looked like after they crossed the finish line and were heading to get their medals. (I think this is a really cute one myself.)
So, after the kid's Fun Run was over we headed over to catch the 1/2 marathoners and marathoners come in. And wouldn't you know it, after a little while, here came Patrick. Here he is at mile 26. That means there was only 2 tenths of a mile left to go. And he had a huge smile on his face. ( I don't blame him. After 26 miles, I would be very excited to only have 2 tenths of a mile left.)

And what else did he do but grab Jordan and Isaac and say "Come on kids, finish the race with me!" And so they did. He some how managed to get them all the way into the stadium and on to the finish line. And the following is a picture I caught from the top of the stadium as they were all making their BIG finish.

Patrick did a great job and we all couldn't have been more excited for him. Here is a picture of his friend Tony who ran the last 3 miles with him. He said this was a great encouragement to have a friend help you get your mind off of running and somehow help you keep your pace after already running 23 miles. So Tony, "Thank You" for everything from all of us.

And here is our friend Michael that came over from Toledo and also went to cheer on everyone in the race.

I even managed to get a picture of Patrick and I after his run. :)

So you may be asking "Where was Sydney???" Well, to make things easier for me we left Sydney with a babysitter. And trust me, it would have be a whole lot tougher with one extra kid in downtown Akron yesterday morning. So, she gets to wear Patrick's medal while the other kids wear theirs.

What a great way to spend a Saturday morning.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.