♥ The Toole Family Blog ♥

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

In Thanksgiving... 10:58 AM

It has been really busy around here...we have been getting ready for our company...my whole side of the family is coming to celebrate Thanksgiving at our new house! Dad, Erica and Ira get in tomorrow and Rachel, Allen, Kylie and Kira get in Friday. We will have our big dinner on Friday. Anyways, in honor of Thanksgiving, I thought I would make my list of things I'm thankful for...

-My marriage of 7 years to Juan. He truly is my soul mate & best friend. I am so happy to have him in my life.
-Our son Brandon who is a ray of sunshine on cloudy days. He makes me smile and I love to try to view the world from his eyes.
-Our son Colin who is just as happy as can be. He has shown me that I have an infinate amount of love to give.
-My sisters Rachel and Erica. They are both so awesome, fun to be around, we can talk for hours and I just love them! Allen, Ira, Kylie and Kira are on my list too! I love my extended family! We are all so lucky to be able to spend Thanksgiving together!
-My parents, who are always so supportive and loving too! They always go out of their way to do stuff for us, and to come visit us.
-Juan's parents, who are so generous, kind, loving and we always enjoy their company and conversations. I wish we lived closer (but we ARE closer than before!) We'll miss you for Thanksgiving!
-Juan's sister Jen, her husband Jeff and their beautiful daughter Gabriela. It is great to have another sister and brother! We have grown closer over the years and I just love spending time with their family!
-And of course the rest of our extended families...we love you all, and are so thankful to have you in our lives.
-I am thankful for my health & well-being.
-I am thankful for the many friendships I've made throughout my life. I honestly think I can say I have a friend in every part of the country!! (north, south, east, west, you name it, we have friends there!!)
-The ability to be a stay-at-home-mom. I can't even imagine working and being away from our two boys. And along with that, I'm thankful for the Navy, even though there have been some tough times, having that job security is a blessing!!
-I am thankful that we have found a church here in Jacksonville that so far feels like home to us.

When I think of the blessings I have in my life, I think of this Irish Blessing that I love:

May your days be many and your troubles be few.
May all God's blessings descend upon you.
May peace be within you may your heart be strong.
May you find what you're seeking wherever you roam.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

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Monday, November 17, 2008

7 years... 5:48 PM

Today Juan and I celebrated our anniversary. 7 years ago we had the most beautiful wedding and today we are still as happy as can be! I thought I would post a couple of pictures from our wedding day...unfortunately I don't have too many pictures because 7 years ago was before digital cameras were "regular"...gosh that makes me feel old!!!

And here are a few pictures we took today...we got to go on a "date night" out. We went to Red Lobster (our favorite!) and my mom stayed home with the kids. It was nice to get out together (alone) again!

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Monday, November 10, 2008

another funny video 4:35 PM

This video was taken last month by Erica. We were staying at her house before and after her wedding and they were pet sitting this dog that Brandon LOVED! He thought it was hilarious to chase him around the house. They played with each other for hours!!!

PICT2203.AVI

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Sunday, November 9, 2008

flair 10:04 AM

1 left a comment

Saturday, November 8, 2008

6 months old! 6:03 PM

I almost forgot to add that Colin turned 6 months old this past Monday. He went to the doctors and got his shots and everything. Here are his stats:

Weight: 17lbs 6oz
Height: 27 1/8 inches

He has started eating solids now. I have been making his baby food for him, and I think it's saving a lot of money compared to the jarred food I used to buy for Brandon. So far I have made applesauce, green beans and pureed pumpkin and banana. He has tried eating rice cereal, the applesauce, bananas and green beans so far and he gags on the green beans! haha! we'll keep trying though! Bananas have been his favorite so far--just like Brandon!

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this makes me laugh 6:01 PM

Colin was getting some serious exercise in his bouncer the other day. He was doing this for probably twenty minutes non-stop. The thing that makes me laugh the most is how serious his face is!

so serious!

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Photo shoot 5:50 PM

Here are the pictures from the photo shoot that my friend Brandi did of Brandon and Colin (and I had to jump in on a few because Brandon didn't want to sit still to get his picture taken.) Anyways, Brandi did this all in her home and I think they came out amazing. I'm going to have to recruit her for Christmas pictures :)

And one of all of us:

and a collage she made for me:

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Thursday, November 6, 2008

love this! 6:03 PM

So yesterday me and the kids drove up to GA to meet one of my friends that I met online about 2 years ago when I was pregnant with Brandon. She was pregnant with her daughter Madelyn and they were born about 12 days apart or so. A group of Dec 06 mommies have kept in contact since then and I have met up with a few of them. Anyways, it was really fun and I hope tomorrow to post pictures, but I just wanted to share something she did for me. First of all, she took pictures of the kids and me. She has a little photo studio set up in her apartment and the pictures turned out GREAT(will post them tomorrow!). then she went in photoshop and made this cute Dr. Seuss picture for me and I couldn't wait to share it! Thank you Brandi!

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Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Happy Halloween (belated!) 5:19 PM

Of course I'm behind in getting these Halloween pictures up, but here they are finally! So what happened was I got the kids both costumes at Walmart and they weren't too keen on them. Brandon hated his (the pumpkin) and refused to wear it more than a minute, so i snapped a few pictures and returned it. Then I realized that the cow costume I bought for Colin was kind of a waste because we weren't really even going to go trick-or-treating or anything, so I took his back and ended up having him wear Brandon's pirate costume from last year. But of course I took some pictures of him wearing the cow! So here's a bunch of random pictures of them in costumes, and with their pumpkins! (oh yeah i almost forgot, halloween night I put Brandon in the Batman PJs and he liked that way better than a "real" costume!)