Memorial Day

Like many towns, ours had a Memorial Day Parade and you better believe that the Gallegos family never misses a good parade! :) Jordan actually participated in the parade and she had a great time. As for Isaac, Sydney and I, we sat on the sidelines and cheered and waved at all of the floats. Sydney and Isaac really enjoyed seeing all of the floats and were even more excited when they saw Jordan walking by!

So, the following is an action shot of Sydney waving at one of the floats going by. And here is Isaac waving at someone.??? (Now I realize that it looks like this could be a posed picture because there is no one on the road, but there was a huge gap between the (Young) high school marching band and the (Slightly Older) bagpipe band. :) If you squint your eyes you can kind of see the bagpipers at the end of the street. I PROMISE they really are there!!!)
And after about 45 minutes in the sun the Indian Princess group came strolling up. And yes, there was Jordan. Waving at everyone she made eye contact with. (She really is a social butterfly - I have no idea where she gets it!)

And after Jordan passed the other two were done!!! Here is a picture of them as they were slowly melting away from the heat. They just wanted to sit in the shade and drink water. It was actually pretty funny to see in person.

Overall we had a great weekend. After the parade we went to some friends house and celebrated Memorial Day with them and their family. We have been blessed with so many great friends. We hope all of you had a great holiday weekend and on this Memorial Day may we always remember those who have given their lives for our freedom.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!!!

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Cleveland Marathon

This morning Patrick and I ran the Cleveland Marathon. Last year we ran the 1/2 marathon and this year we ran the full. And lucky for me, Patrick ran at MY pace. I am so grateful that he is so supportive. We loaded up and were off this morning at 5:25 a.m. Yes, 5:25!!! That is very early for me and the race started at 7:00 a.m. We didn't take the camera so all of the pictures below were taken after we got back home. The kids were very excited to wake up and have the babysitter here! :) Which isn't really a bad thing.

The kids are always excited when we get home from running but this time they knew we would have metals so that was the first thing they went for. Here is Jordan sporting the metal around her neck.

And Isaac just as excited, but he is more enthused with the twisting guitar that is on the metal itself.

And last but not least, Sydney, a picture of her sporting the metal.
Overall it was really a great run. I felt pretty good, however, those last 2 mile tried to kill me! And after getting back to the house we had the babysitter take a family picture. Below is what we got! The color was starting to come back into my face.
So, I have a HUGE "Thank You" to Patrick for pushing me harder than I push myself sometimes. This was something that I didn't know if I could really do, but he always believed in me. He kept me going the entire time and for that I am so thankful. I look forward to "possibly" doing another one. (Possibly is a big word today!!!)
Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

My goal was to finish around the 4 hour mark. Our final time was 4 hours and 7 minutes. I was so glad to just be finished. I didn't care what my time was!!! :)

Happy Birthday Sydney!!!

I am just a little late, but here is how Sydney's 2nd birthday went down. Her birthday was on the 18th of April and the theme this year was "Tea Party!" She was very excited to have all the attention on her. I made a cake in the shape of a tea pot and it actually turned out really cute. Here is a picture of her and her cake on the 18th of April.And a close-up of the cake.

And we waited until the following weekend to have her party so she got to celebrate all week long. That is always fun for kids. So the following pictures were taken at her birthday party.

The whole gang!!!

Sydney and her friends with their sunglasses!

Sydney on a tricycle that her Godparents got for her.

And a close-up of Sydney with her glasses and goody bag in hand.

It is so hard to believe that Little Miss Sydney is already 2 Years old!!! And O' how she has truly blessed our family. We had a great time celebrating.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Happy 4th Birthday Isaac

This weekend we celebrated Isaac's 4th birthday. It is so hard to believe that I-Man is already 4! And again this year we celebrated dinosaur style. (Yes, last year we had a dinosaur party last year also. What can I say, he really likes Dino's! If he keeps up the trend I should have the dinosaur-cake-making down perfect.) So here is Isaac with his birthday cake. He was very excited! (And we were also, for him.)

And of course no Gallegos birthday is complete without a pinata. And I have to say, the kids are getting pretty good at hitting shaped cardboard boxes full of candy. :) He was ready in this next picture.

What can I say, we all like pinatas in our house, especially Isaac.

We had a great time. Isaac invited some of his friends over and we all had a lot of fun. So, Isaac, thanks for a great 4 years and it is amazing how much you have truly blessed our family.

Love Ya Buddy, Mommy, Daddy, Jordan and Sydney

Resurrection Cookies

To help celebrate Easter, the kids and I made Resurrection Cookies. We all had a lot of fun and it was a good learning session for the kids. I don't know if any of you have heard of these cookies but as you make them there is a meaning for each ingredient and there are scriptures that you read after each thing added. It is a very good "tangible" way for the kids to learn and remember the story of Easter.

The first thing to do is put a cup of pecans in a zip lock bag and break and beat them up with a wooden spoon. This is to remind us of how Jesus was arrested and beaten by the soldiers.First we added vinegar to the bowl. The kids smelled it and then we read scripture about how Jesus was given vinegar when he was on the cross.

Next the salt was added. The kids were all given a pinch of salt. They tasted it and then we added it to the bowl. The salt is to remind us of the tears shed for Jesus.

Next we added the sugar, It reminds us that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him.

Then we added the egg whites. Eggs represent life and we talked about how Jesus gave His life for our life. The mixer was then turned on for 15 minutes and I took the kids upstairs to change into pajamas. This is what they looked like by the time everyone got their pj's on.
Then we folded in the pecans, and for Isaac we added in chocolate chips.

Then we placed them on a cookie sheet and placed them in the oven. Then the kids sealed the oven with a piece of tape. Like Jesus' tomb was sealed.

Even Sydney got in on the sealing of the oven.

We had to wait till the morning to unseal the oven and when we did this was our final product. They actually turned out very good. And the even better part about this cookie is that when you bite into it the cookie is hollow!!!

So, with all of these cookies now in our kitchen we bagged them up and shared with the neighbors. The kids explained how we made them and what each ingredient reminded us of. They did a pretty good job overall. I was surprised how much of it they remembered. I think this may be a new Easter tradition for our family. And to add to the fun, Jordan helped me read the scriptures now that she is reading on her own. I was very proud of her. Overall it was a lot of fun. We hope all of you had a great Easter!

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Breakfast is served!

Today is April fools day and I had the chance to get the kids first thing this morning. A couple of days ago I melted white chocolate and put a yellow skittle in the middle. Making the illusion of "fried eggs" which they would eat for breakfast. The following is a picture of the "eggs."
And another picture of some of the eggs that were made.
Jordan wasn't too sure about these eggs for breakfast but once she saw them she was sure that they weren't REAL eggs!!! (So she figured me out, but I still got the other two kids!)

Isaac was very excited to have white chocolate and skittles for breakfast.

And Sydney was also very excited about breakfast also!

We had a pretty good April Fools day and all day the kids were trying to pull stuff on me. I have to say, it was pretty fun for all of us. I hope none of you were fooled to much today!

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

May we become Fishers of Men

"Come, follow me", Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. Matthew 4:19-20

So this afternoon my friend and I decided to take the kids fishing. I didn't know if the combination of 6 kids, 4 poles with hooks, and a pond was a good idea but looking back I definitely think it was. So, sit back and enjoy this very long winded post.

This is how our afternoon started. Here are the kids patiently waiting on the front porch! (All six of them!)They were all very excited and even caught all of the bait for the afternoon. We sent them out into the yard to find enough worms for the trip and I have to say that they did a great job. We probably had 15-20 worms when we left.

So, we arrive at the pond and these two girls were ready for some fun. Ella is 2 1/2 and Sydney being almost 2 were our main worry. I was nervous about missing naps, a pond for drowning and catching a finger or nose in a hook but these two did very good and just enjoyed the time outside in nature.

Sydney definitely could fit through the slats in the "so called" fence and she even managed to sneak her feet through a few times but for the most part everyone stayed dry.

And here she is again wondering around the pond. Ethan is in the background doing some serious fishing.

This next picture is one of Jordan sorting through all of the worms. Ethan, Isaac, Emma and Her did a really good job getting our bait for the day.

And here is Jordan with her fishing face on!

And here are Sydney and Ella carrying around our bucket, which the kids had every intention of filling up with "huge" fish.

And then it happened. This was caught! Yes, you are looking at a picture that I took this afternoon. (And this is no "Big Fish" story!)

The BIG one, it was caught. It was about 2 ft long and a very fat catfish. It was huge and the kids were very excited. However, it did flop around a lot and made Isaac a little nervous but overall everyone thought it was pretty cool.

And another close-up of the BIG one. I was pretty impressed that this big of a fish was in this little pond that we were fishing in.

(Just a small clarification at this point in the post --- O' ya, and by the way, we didn't actually catch this fish. Some high school age boys were fishing on the other side of the pond and when they caught it we let the kids run over and look at it. But I bet I had some of you thinking that I caught that big thing with Jordan's Dora-the-Explorer fishing rod! Wrong, but don't give up on me yet, I did catch something!!!!)

And another picture of the boys as they were fishing.

And then it was our turn. The kids were done and Laura and I were ready for the challenge. So, she grabbed Emma's Barbie fishing rod and I grabbed the trusty Dora one and we were ready to go. And then it happened. Laura caught the first fish. I couldn't believe that she caught one first but I was excited and grabbed the camera anyway!!!

Not quite as big as the high school boy's fish across the pond but our group was very excited.
Here are the kids checking out the fish up close!

Even Sydney got in on the action. She didn't shy away from the fish one bit.

In fact we had to take the fish away from her for its own safety! I like the smile on her face in this one!

Here is one of Jordan getting close to the fish.

Now, I was on a mission. It was time for me to get serious. So, I switched from the Dora fishing rod to the Superman fishing rod. And lucky for me that was just the change I needed! I caught one!!!

Yes, again it is slightly smaller than the first one from across the pond but we wanted to get the kids comfortable around little fish first (Ya, RIGHT!!!!!)

And here is Sydney with the trusted fish bucket.

And again they are getting to touch and feel this little fish.

Sydney again getting right in there and grabbing the fish!

And the even funnier part about this fish story is that we really had a measuring tape with us so we could actually see how big our fish were. Mine was 4 inches!!!

And Laura's was 5 inches!!! (O' Man, she beat me!!!)

And you may have noticed that Laura is the one who is always holding the fish, unhooking the fish, baiting the hooks or anything like that. It just was not my "thing" today. Thank You so much Laura, I really appreciate that!!!

And here is Isaac taking back one of the fish to release back into the pond! He warmed up the the little guy by the time it was time to leave.

And here is Jordan taking back the other fish to release into the pond.

Overall we caught 3 fish. Laura caught 2 and I caught 1. (If we hadn't run out of worms I am sure I would have caught more. If you ask me, she may have been putting 2 worms on her hooks!!! Just kidding Laura) It was really great weather and I think everyone had a really good time.

We are continuing to enjoy our spring break and will post more of our adventures soon.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.