I Heart Faces

My friend Melissa sent me to the site i heart faces which is a site that showcases pictures (of faces!) taken by by inexperienced to experienced photographers. If you get a chance, go check it out!

On to happier things!

Okay, on to happier things! The picture above is Audrey saying "cheese." Yes she says it and even squished her face all up while squinting her eyes to try to "smile." She is just too cute!

I took this past Friday off because Grant had his preschool screening. He passed with flying colors. Of course, he was not perfect, but the screener was very impressed with how advanced his vocabulary and reasoning were. She also got such a kick out of his ABC's song that she made him sing it twice just so she could hear it again! He has a little trouble with annunciation (says "glub" instead of "glove" and "sfell" instead of "smell") but nothing to worry about right now. All in all I am so proud of my little 'big' boy!!

Today I wanted to share a little of the drama I had to endure last week prior to the whole Gabby thing. Well, lately Grant has been skipping his afternoon nap and whenever he does that he often falls asleep on the way home. So we end up with this...

This is all fine and dandy if we have nothing going on in the evening because some times he will sleep from 5 pm to 6:30 am. Well, that wasn't the case on Tuesday. Audrey had a chiropractor appt and of course Grant was with. He hadn't napped all day and had just fallen asleep 2 blocks before we got there. When I woke him up to go inside he was a complete bear. I got Tootie out of her seat and Grant stood on the sidewalks crying hysterically and then I had to drag him inside, while carrying Audrey. He then proceeded to stand in the MIDDLE of the waiting room and scream "I WANT TO GO BACK TO THE CAR TO GET SOMETHING" over and over and over...and he continued for what seemed like an eternity while we waited for our appointment. Then he screamed the whole time we were in the room (which of course was right next to the waiting room that we had dust disturbed), while the Dr was examining Audrey and then finally he just opened the door and ran back into the waiting room screaming and crying. I am sure the other patients thought he was being abused. To top it all off, our wonderful Dr. CARRIED him out to our van and put him in his seat while he proceeded to cry say that he didn't want to go home with me! I can not imagine what the Dr. thinks of me now!!!! I was so completely embarrassed and fuming with anger, but I surprisingly kept my cool the entire time. Oh, and the reason he wanted to go back to the car was because he thought he could stay in there and sleep while I was inside. NO WAY! But I couldn't reason with him. When he is that tired and is woken up, it is almost like he is in a daze and doesn't understand what people are saying to him. Lesson learned I guess. This transition phase is gonna be tough though.

Here is my sweet little bumpkin' eating her fair share of her favorite food...blueberries.

How many of those suckers do you think she can fit in there!?! She looks like a little chipmunk!

Here are a few cute shots of Grant's new invention. He put my balance ball up on the couch and was 'riding' on it.

I love this action shot of him making himself tip off of it! What a little daredevil he is!

This is my other little hell-cat! She isn't scared of anything.

Duke and the kids went to town so I am home alone and need to utilize this time alone to get the kids yearly picture books put together. Grant will be 4 next month and I still have his 3 year one to do too! Can you say procrastinator????

Gabby's Journey

Last night when I asked you all to pray for Gabby, I was serious but on a light note. This morning when I was getting the kids ready to go to daycare, I told Grant that we would go pick up Gibber Gabbers at the vet after I was done with work. Then around 9:30 am I received a call from my vet saying that in the last half hour, Gabby had taken a turn for the worse. He believed she was in complete kidney failure and suggested the best alternative at that point be putting her to sleep. I immediately lost it since I was convinced that I was taking her home today...even joking with a coworker about what the vet bill was going to be. Well, the joke ended with that phone call. I left work to go say good bye to my sweet Gabby Girl. When I got there she looked terrible and wouldn't even move. It broke my heart, but after seeing how much pain she was in I knew in my heart that it was time to let her go. Gabby entered Heavens gates at 10:30 am this morning. I am a complete wreck today but in her memory, I wanted to share Gabby's journey. I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but I am using this as a form of healing.
This was tiny little Gabby on the day I brought her home from the Humane Society. She was about 8 weeks old...born in the beginning of April 2002...she would have been 7 years old this April. Her name at the Humane Society was "Uno" but for some reason that name didn't fit.

This pictures shows exactly why we decided to name her "Gabby"...she ALWAYS had something to say.

Look at how cute and tiny she was. I fell in love with her the minute I set eyes on her and she fit so well into our family.

Here she is on her first encounter with a mud turtle.

And ever since she was little, her favorite place to hide was in the flower garden.

She was quite the little helper...

And really looked up to her Daddy.

Here she is playing with Duke and his popsicle stick.

And nothing is better than an empty paper bag.

All ready to pounce!

Enjoying some marti gras beads...

This is Gabby as a "teenager". You know, that akward in-between stage.

When she was younger, she loved this rug. She would roll around on it and bury herself underneath it.

Posing like the queen she was.

And getting a little snuggle in with her Mama!

Naptime...there are a lot of these type of pictures. She always knew how to make herself comfortable.

She was even around back when we built the addition on to our house.

This was another one of her "hang outs"

As was this comfy spot.

Oh, and this one too!

This is the bed that was supposed to be Grant's toddler bed. We bought it before he was even born and used it as a decoration in the porch before it got filled with other 'stuff'.

I had a fountain in the porch for a while too. Gibbers was a sucker for running water.

And then came Grant...ruining all of her special time with Duke and I. Here he was torturing her a little.

As he grew, they became very good friend, which I never even imagined. She was always a sassy cat, but she had a soft spot for the kids.

Here are the two good buddies plotting an attack on a poor unsuspecting turtle.

Once she got used to Grant, along came...

The puppy! Roxy always wanted to "play" with Gabby, but Gabby wasn't as thrilled with the idea as you can see.

She tried hiding over here...

And finally jumped up where Roxy couldn't bug her! My little flower girl.

Here she is getting into some mischief...trying to get into the basket on the table. Usually she gets in trouble for getting up on the table or counter (Duke will probably freak when he sees this one) but I thought it was kind of cute so I took a picture before I removed her from forbidden territory.

What is it with cats always having to get inside everything???

And on top of everything!

Here is some nap time with Duke. I love the silly ways she used to sleep.

And this is her all snuggled up in her favorite blanket.

Silly kitty!

I wonder if she ever got sick of me taking her picture?

I have so many fond memories of her and I am so glad that I was able to capture so many of them in pictures...Funny thing...we have had Gabby so long that the pictures when she was little had to be scanned in because I didn't even have a digital camera then.

The kids loved her so much also.

I am really dreading having to tell Grant that Gibbers won't be coming home again. He is at that age where he is beginning to understand what death is. I really don't want to have to break his little heart today.

Audrey loved the kitty too. Here she is all sweet with her kitten kat.

Then she would torture her a little...

And then give the kitty some loves!

Gabby really did love the kids. When Grant was a baby she used to run over to him whenever he would cry to check on him. She was also a great hunter and a loving family member. This last picture was taken a week ago and is the last picture I have of my sweet kitten kat.

Gabby, I am going to miss you so very much. I know you are in a better place and are now pain free. Hopefully you find a nice warm lap to curl up on for eternity. I love you Gabby.