5 months old!

Our little one is 5 months old today! Here are some pictures that we captured this weekend. There have been many many hours of crying and being cranky in those 5 months, but we love this little boy very much and are so thankful for him! We love you B!

Cousins Now and Then

2008



2006

Gillan/Purdy Beach Trip

We just got back from a great week at the beach in Corolla, NC with my family. It was a great time to hang out and spend time with each other and enjoy God's creation in the beach. One of the neatest parts was getting to know the newest members of our family better(Nathan (7 months), Baxter and Jake (almost 5 months)). It was also hard at times - Baxter did not prefer sleeping on the beach and woke up at 5:30 or 6:00 each morning. Owen LOVED the beach and spending time with family. Overall it was a great week! All week I felt like I couldn't take enough pictures to capture certain moments, but the following pictures will at least give you a look into what it was like.

Matt and Owen standing in the waves early one morning.



what a goofy boy!



Baxter did take a couple of good naps on the beach.



Here are the "big cousins" and the "toddler cousins" at the beach together. Megan (almost 8), Anna (2), Owen (2), and Reese (10).



Owen's love for trains came with us to the beach. We made a lot of sand trains!



Here are the CT Gillans and the Purdys hanging at the house. Owen, Baxter, Jake and Anna.



This is what Owen did about 90% of the time we were down at the beach!



This was a good part of that 90%!



Here is our newest family picture.



Megan, Owen and Anna. Notice the ouchies on Owen's ankles. They are from his water shoes. They hurt him so much that he kept saying "mommy, can I crawl?" He spent a good portion of the week crawling around inside because they were so sore. Poor thing!



Here is the whole family! We are in green, Brett, Carolyn, Anna and Jake are in white, Bryan, Becky, Reese, Megan and Nathan are in black and my folks are in blue.



Just precious.

Family Run

One of my favorite things to do as a family is to go running - crazy I know! Baxter is finally old enough to go in our new double jog stroller, so we went out for our first family run last weekend. I had taken them out by myself a few days earlier and it was a slight disaster. At one point they were both crying, I was holding Owen and we were a good 5 minutes from home. I was glad that for our second attempt with the stroller Matt would be with us too! It went so much better. Both of the boys seemed to enjoy it! We look forward to many more runs with our two boys!

A shot of our running shoes before we left. Owen loves to run very fast in his!



Baxter before we left. Doesn't get much sweeter than this!



Here are the boys in the stroller. Owen held onto Edward the train just like this the whole time.

First Wedding!

Matt got to officiate his first wedding last weekend! Our friends Kyle and Jenny watched the boys for us so I could go too! He did such an amazing job and really brought such glory to God through the ceremony. He had been able to do some pre-marital counseling with the couple too, so it was neat to get to know them and then be a part of their wedding day. It's something that he looks forward to doing more throughout his ministry. I snapped a picture from the back. It wasn't a very good one, but it captures the moment.

FREE Chick-fil-A!

At Chick-fil-A today, if you dress up like a cow they will give you free food! So that is just what we did at lunch. We went with our friends Wes and Jennifer and Luke. We ran into some other folks from church too. There were many cows running through the food court at the mall. Quite a scene!

Here are our two cows before we left home.







Matt and I weren't going to dress up, but when we got to the mall, some of the others had extra cow "stuff" so we taped it on to join in the fun. What a great family portrait. It doesn't get better than this!



I failed to get a shot of Luke and Owen in their cow clothes, so here is a picture of them talking in the car at the little play area.

Thank You Costco!

You may already know how very much our family loves Costco. If you don't know, we love it VERY much! Here are FOUR MORE reasons that we love Costco.

1. You can build a great tower that is REALLY fun to crash!



2. You can make a train track with tunnels.



3. This one is a little scary :) I came home from my Saturday morning breakfast at Panera to this. Matt didn't even hear me come in the door.



4. Like father like son.



Thank You Costco!

Maymont

We enjoyed a picnic lunch at this great park (Maymont)in Richmond the other day. It can take a lot of energy to get all four of us out of the house with a picnic lunch, etc, but it was WELL worth it!

Matt and Owen ready for lunch! We found a great spot to eat under a BIG tree, on top of a BIG hill. We could see the "choo choo" (which was actually a "tram" that drove people around the park) go by which was a highlight for Owen of course.



Baxter hanging out in the stroller while we got everything set up.



Mommy and Baxter.



Mommy and her two little boys. I should post this one somewhere in our house so that on hard days I can look at it and be reminded of what a blessing they are and what a blessing it is to be their mom!



This is a video of Owen and Matt running around a bench near where we ate lunch. Just listen to the joy that Owen has! It's a blessing to see our boys love their daddy so much!

Brothers

I imagine there will be one hundred more posts entitled "Brothers," but it just captures our boys so well! We hope and pray they will always love each other! Boys clothes are not always very fun, but at least we can have some fun matching them occasionally! Thanks for the cute shirts Grams and Grampop!





Owen and Baxter enjoying the exersaucer. Thankfully Baxter welcomes Owen's "teaching" so far!



And here is a video of Owen singing to Baxter and drumming with Baxter's arms. This is what happens when we go to the grocery store. I have Baxter in the baby Bjorn carrier facing Owen in the shopping cart. As we walk the aisles of Walmart, Owen "tugs" on Baxter's arms and sings his favorite songs very loudly. We are generally walking through Walmart singing either the ABC's or Amazing Grace. We hope it is a blessing to all who pass us by!

Train Tracks

Owen has started drawing train tracks.

Pool Time

We bought a little pool to help us get through the hot days of summer. Here is some fun we had with it last week.

Waiting for daddy to fill the pool.



Enjoying the pool.



This is where Baxter spent some time while we were playing in the pool since it was 100 degrees!

Just Hanging Out

We've been doing a lot of just hanging around the house recently because of the heat. Here are a few shots that capture our time.

Why not build a tower and then draw with it?!



Baxter LOVES eating his hands these days!



Just saying HI.



Just a sweet boy.

Guitar Fun

Matt broke out his guitar today and we enjoyed some time singing and playing music before naptime.

One True God

We are teaching Owen the Children's Catechsim. It is a series of questions and answers to help him learn and understand the central truths of the Bible. Sometimes when we are working on the questions, I'll sing the words of the answers to make it more "catchy" for his memory. The other day I was singing one of them and Baxter enjoyed it a lot. The questions says "Is there more than one true God?" and the answer says "No. There is only one true God."

Silly Game

A new favorite game of Owen's. We call it "Way High Sky...Right There." you'll catch on as you watch.

June Boys

Just a few pictures from the last week.

Owen and Baxter loving each other! Today I was telling Owen all of the things that he can teach Baxter (golf, basketball, singing...) and Owen was really excited! Let's hope that continues as Baxter actually learns these things over the next few years.



Classic tummy time for Baxter. I caught him as he just started to spit up! Poor guy.



After he spit up, he enjoyed staring down the dinosaur on his burp cloth.