Good to Be in God's House...

Our Pastor starts every Sunday with the saying "Good to be in God's house!" And today, Kate seemed to agree. As we entered the sanctuary, the music had already begun. Kate usually goes straight to the nursery, but since she heard the songs, she asked to go "Sing songs." They were singing the song Come and Worship - some lines from the song were: Come, now is the time to worship. Come, now is the time to praise the Lord. Kate burst through the doors into the service yelling, "I come! I come!"

Florida '09 - Day 4

LION COUNTRY SAFARI!!!

A few years ago, I heard about this safari place just outside of West Palm. I couldn't wait until Kate was old enough that we could take her. This day was one Debbie and I were looking forward to all week. Shaun, Deb, the boys, Josh, Kate, myself and Papa all drove down to the safari sight. We borrowed a van and drove through a pretty impressive collection of animals. We did see lions, but here a a few of the favorite animals of the day.

(There was even a baby Rhino that we saw later on...)

After driving through the safari section, there was a zoo that the kids could walk through. Kate loves flamingos in her books, so we were happy to stop here and show her a real flamingo!

The zoo also had opportunities to feed some animals. Kate was able to feed a giraffe. He ate a cracker right out of her hand. Brenden fed some goats while Kate went into the bird house to feed some birdies with dad.

Shaun and I took the kids on a carousel. It was a lot of fun. Josh and Shaun also took Kate and Brenden on a mini Ferris wheel of sorts. Kate has no fear!

The park had a lot of rides and even a water park area. We didn't really come prepared for that, so we quickly passed by. But there were plenty of other things to occupy our time. It was a fabulous day!

Florida '09 - Day 2

Today was another beautiful, sunny day in West Palm Beach. It was a day to relax. Mommy slept in and had an afternoon to herself. Daddy played with Kate in the morning and watched a movie with Papa in the afternoon. Kate and Gigi went for a long walk today too.

For years now, it has been a family tradition to go the Breaker's hotel and have dinner at the Italian restaurant at the hotel. Beside delicious food, the hotel has beautiful grounds, an incredible view of the ocean, and kid friendly game rooms. The game rooms came in handy tonight, as the dinner took 2 hours. The kids were really good all things considered.

Kate: trying to catch the wind

Debbie, Collin (1), Shaun, Brenden (2.5)

Having a little fun with food! Brenden loved his spaghetti and meatballs.

Collin enjoyed part of Auntie Kim's chocolate chip cookie too!

Kate, didn't have much of an appetite tonight. However, she couldn't get enough of the motorcycle in the arcade room. She's even leaning in to turn here --it's like she actually knows how to ride or something. She's got her daddy's gene's in her, that's for sure!

Florida '09 - Day 1

We arrived in Florida today for the Gallagher family's annual trip to West Palm Beach. This year is special though, because everyone was able to make it: Papa, Gigi, Kim, Josh, Kate, Shaun, Deb, Brenden, Collin, Brian, and Jecholia. It's also nice this year that due to a special offer we were able to get three suites instead of one. So everyone has there space but can still be together. It's so helpful for the kids to have a quiet place to take naps and get away from all the stimulation!

Kate had a great flight. Even after waking up at 5 a.m. she was pretty pleasant today. Kate wanted to make sure Ernie didn't miss a thing on the flight down!


Day one was pretty much spent at the pool. Gorgeous day, but not even SPF 70 could keep Kim safe from the sun's harsh rays. We all are a bit pink today. Katie fared the best out of all of us. :)
She had a lot of fun. Hope we can get her out in the water again a few times before we have to leave.

Kate's World

As long as she has Shayla and her daddy as playmates, Kate can't be happier! She's always loved her daddy, but lately Kate has really bonded with Josh. She even wants to be with him more often than me. I love watching them together.

Every morning Kate wakes up and immediately asks for Shayla. She often won't even let me change her diaper until she's had a chance to get out of her crib and roll around with Shayla.

Kate's latest trick is climbing up onto the couch all by herself! Every time I turn around she is up on the couch. We are trying to teach her to sit and not run the perimeter. But she's having trouble obeying this rule.

Kate is such a joy these days! I love her so much! Words can't express the depth of gratitude we have for God's goodness to us in Kate.

Spring has finally arrived!

Well, I've been looking hard at the leaf piles in the back yard for the last several weeks now looking for any signs of emerging turtles. The weather around here has been anything but predictable, and yesterday started out as a really wet, rainy day, but the afternoon was sunny and warm. With the spring rains, I figured that I'd see Emily, my only remaining turtle sometime soon. I finally spotted her and managed to get a couple of pictures. The top picture is kind of a "Where's Waldo" kind of shot, but the second picture is a close-up. It makes me really happy to see the turtles, and I can only hope that Amos and Otis (where ever they are) came out of hibernation in fine shape.