Gonzalez Family Journal

Summer Fun!!!

vicg1974 — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:22:34 +0000

Not too long ago, Ricky asked me if I had any intentions of ever posting pictures to the blog anymore. With Facebook now in the picture, I tend to always post stuff there and forget about the blog. I hope to do better with that.

So, school has started back for Austin and thankfully, he is enjoying 7th grade. He has started playing the tuba which he seems really excited about. Classes started back for me last week and I was none too thrilled after just only 2 weeks off. This semester will probably be my toughest one yet. Probably not the best time to start fall ball but we have. Tonight is Anson’s first soccer practice and tomorrow night is Aidan’s. I hope they have fun!!!

Anyway, here are some summer fun pics I snapped with my iPhone. Enjoy and soccer pics to come soon!

This silly girl is a mess! She is into more stuff than her brothers some days!!!

First ponytail!! It didn’t last long ~ she just really doesn’t like her hair messed with at all!!!

Silliness with the iPhone 4…. now we can do self-portraits much easier!!!

Summer in Alabama ~ fun, fun!!!

Splash pad in Trussville with the church toddler group! The kiddos LOVED it!!!

Austin at the pool!

Aspen at the pool!

Anson at the pool!

Daddy and Aidan at the pool! I think Aidan is certainly ready for swimming lessons!

What a fun-filled summer! Soccer pics coming soon….

One of the best photographers in the Birmingham area – EVER!!!

vicg1974 — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 14:40:04 +0000

So it’s been a while but … I needed to come out here and post a note to tell everyone about my good friend Grethel Van Epps. All of the Gonzalez family professional pictures have been taken by her for the past 3 years and she is awesome!!! Please go check her out and next time you are considering some professional shots — give her a call!
www.gvephotography.com/blog and www.gvephotography.com

And a sample of the latest pictures we’ve had taken by Grethel:

Anson’s 3rd birthday party

vicg1974 — Mon, 24 May 2010 20:53:52 +0000

We had Anson’s birthday party at the beginning of May after I took finals. It was so nice to enjoy the party! We had it at Fox’s Pizza in Argo and the kiddos all had fun. I had a girl I found on Facebook (friend of a friend) make his Toy Story cake … isn’t it too cute??

I cannot believe my little boy is 3 years old!! Where did the time go??

End of the year stuff for Aidan & Anson

vicg1974 — Mon, 24 May 2010 20:51:05 +0000

So, the boys finished out school for the school year (and mommy finished her spring semester – YAY!) so now it’s time to catch up on posting pictures.

Aidan & Anson had their end of the year parties. They both did stuffed animals (Aidan made a moose & Anson made a monkey) and had ice cream parties.

Here are pictures of Aidan’s moose making and ice cream party.

Here are pictures of Anson having his ice cream party.

Aidan’s end of the year program. We will miss Mrs. Jamie ~ she has been an excellent teacher for Aidan. She has gotten Aidan to talk when no one else could!!

Toy Story 3

vicg1974 — Sun, 23 May 2010 20:53:10 +0000

Think my kiddos are excited about Toy Story 3 coming out soon? Austin drew this in the driveway yesterday!

Not too bad on the artwork, eh?

Aspen’s rash ~ day 2

vicg1974 — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 14:23:44 +0000

Well, it has gotten significantly better in a short amount of time. Here are a few pictures I took yesterday afternoon of it.

She looks a LOT better this morning. I think we are on the mend!

Aspen’s horrible rash ~ day 1

vicg1974 — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:32:19 +0000

Aspen started showing signs of a nasty rash on April 20th. That evening, she started running a fever and the rash started getting worse. She ended up clawing herself to pieces, spiking a high temp, not sleeping well that night and had her mommy concerned it was chicken pox. We saw our pediatrician today and turns out, it wasn’t chicken pox. He honestly didn’t know what it was so we went to the pediatric dermatologist. Dr. Lytle said this was only the 2nd time he had referred someone to the pediatric dermatologist on a emergency basis — and the first time was Aidan! I guess we are now known as the “rash family”…

These pictures were taken approximately 24 hours after the initial signs of the rash. Doesn’t it look horrible? The pediatric dermatologist (I love Dr. Theos!) said it is a virus or skin reaction to a virus. She called it uticaria multiform ~ and said all we can really do for it is Benadryl & Zyrtec, oatmeal baths and lotion. Poor little baby is so itchy, and you can tell she is totally miserable. She said it could take a while ~ and it would probably get worse before it gets better.

I sure hope she feels better soon!!!!

Aspen’s 1st Birthday Party

vicg1974 — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:23:33 +0000

I still cannot believe my baby girl is ONE!!!

We celebrated Aspen’s first birthday on April 11th. She seemed to have an enjoyable time but I will say, she DOES NOT like the cake and attention of the singing.

Here are some pictures of the decorations and cakes. The little “candy pop” were something I did myself. I’m not usually creative but I was kinda impressed with myself. I thought everything looked really nice.

Pictures of family at the party.

Singing Happy Birthday to the sweet little birthday girl and eating cake — YUM, YUM!!!

Mommy (and Aspen) opening her presents.

Thank you to everyone who came to the party and thank you for her presents – she loves her new toys!!!

Easter Egg Hunt

vicg1974 — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 23:58:47 +0000

On April 3rd (Aspen’s actual birthday!!), we went to the church Easter egg hunt. The boys had a TON of fun!!!

Here are some pictures of them hunting eggs and eating candy.

And some other pictures of them enjoying the festivities. Austin looks thrilled, huh?

What a great egg hunt. So nice that Aidan & Anson are finally big enough to enjoy something like this together!!

Playing catch-up!

vicg1974 — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:21:35 +0000

So, between school & 4 kids, I have very little free time. And honestly, what free time I do have, I spend it on Facebook. Anyway, now it’s time to catch-up our blog (especially since people actually do check the darn thing and Ricky asked me to put some pictures out).

First, Christmas —

So, for Christmas eve, I bought a pre-built gingerbread house for the boys to decorate. Ricky helped them and I think it turned out really good!

Then we baked some cookies and I helped the boys decorate those. And then they got to eat them! YUMMY! I also baked a cake for us to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

Then — Santa! The boys were SO EXCITED and Aspen had no clue what was going on … but she loved it anyway!

Opening presents was so much fun. Grandma & Uncle David came over … and then Grandpa & Linda came over. The children RACKED UP on some toys Christmas Day. We were overloaded!!!!

The day after Christmas, Ricky took vacation and we took the children to McWane. We knew they would love to see the trains exhibit before it was gone! They also played some on different things that were there. On our way out, we noticed the hurricane machine. Ricky got in with all the boys – and as you can see from the picture on the lower right, Aidan & Anson were pretty scared. I guess living at the coast isn’t a very good idea until they get a little older, huh?

Now, on to January. The biggest event in January was Aidan’s class trip to the circus. Ricky took a vacation day so we took the little ones (Aidan, Anson and Aspen) the the circus. It was the first time for all of them!

All of these were taken when we first got the circus, found our seats and got settled.

More pictures from the circus. Everyone started getting tired – and Aspen crashed … she just couldn’t hang!

The kiddos had lots of fun and thank you Clearbranch for the AWESOME seats!!!

In February, we had a rare occurrence – snow in Alabama. In fact, this past winter was an unusually cold & snowy winter for us. The kids loved it!!!

Pictures of the boys playing in the snow. Anson took a few tumbles but he didn’t let him stop him from playing hard. And I think we still have the snowballs they put in the freezer!

Aspen got the enjoy the snow a little as well. It was too cold out for her to stay outside long but she did love being able to go outside and experience it.

More to come later. I’ve been here for awhile already … time for a little break.