Welcome Riley Tullo!!!

This morning at 5:15am, Sarah and Vinny welcomed their beautiful little girl, Riley Isabella Tullo, into the world!! She weight a whopping 9 pounds, 8 ounces and is 21.5 inches long!! She definitely got some of those Garth genes in her!!! I ran down this morning to meet my new niece and was able to get a few pictures!!!

Christmas time

Well we are headed to NYC on Monday and Jack and I won't really be home until Christmas day! Our house is decorated but we won't really get to enjoy it after this weekend. I LOVE having the house decorated. Every time I look at the Christmas tree, I smile. We went Christmas light looking the other night and Jack just kindof quietly sat in his car seat and stared out the window at all of the lights. We got out at one place and JJ explained to Jack that the nativity scene he was looking at was the most important part about Christmas because this was the day that baby Jesus was born. Of course Jack didn't understand but it's never too early to start!!

In just a few weeks, Aunt Janelle will be making her appearance back to the States! We are extremely excited to see her and SO happy that she is going to be home for Christmas and make her permanent home back here in the States.


We are all waiting around for Cousin Riley to be born. Today is Sarah's due date and she had a doctor's appointment today and although she is making some progress, she still has not been having any regular contractions. So we are praying both for Sarah and Riley and hoping that it is not much longer. Sarah is getting extremely uncomfortable and is definitely ready to meet Riley!

We are super excited to come visit Mimi and Poppi in the City and I can't wait to see NYC all decorated for Christmas!!

We'll Miss you Mimi and Poppi!!

Today, Mimi and Poppi made their big exit from Virginia! They are moving to NYC!! We will miss them SO much and loved having them only being an hour and a half away. Thankfully, the plane tickets are cheap between here and NY and only about an hour long so we will still get to see them a lot! We are making a trip up on the 14th see them for a few days...we are so excited to get to see the city at Christmas time! So anyways, Mimi and Poppi, we will miss miss miss you both! We are praying for you and hoping your move is safe and easy!!

.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are SO thankful for SO many things this year. We feel truly blessed for all the things God has given us over this past year! Just to name a few....

1. A beautiful, energetic, little man who is incredibly healthy and wonderful.

2. A loving, faithful marriage that gets stronger everyday.

3. Our extremely supportive, loving and wonderful set of parents.

4. Amazing, supportive siblings.

5. Healthy, beautiful nieces.

6. A stable good job.

7. An absolutely amazing church that feels like home.

8. And extremely selfless, helpful friends!

We love you all and thank God everyday that you are in our lives!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! We hope you had a fantastic day full of blessings!!

Birthday party pictures and more!

Besides all the great Birthday party pictures I have to share, I was going through all my other photos and realized that I have TONS that I have never posted. So this is going to be a blog full of pictures and even a few videos!!!

Jacks First Birthday Weekend:
The first night of celebrating was with Grandma Nancie, Mimi and Poppi. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner of Jack's favorites-- spaghetti, garlic bread, and cupcakes.

Mimi made him this shirt "I'm the Birthday Kid!"









































Then Jack got to open his presents from Grandma Nancie, Mimi and Poppi!
He got a membership to the Little Gym from Grandma Nancie and Elmo Encore Live from Mimi and Poppi!!He LOVES Elmo!! (Yes he is about to give Elmo a big kiss)










We then went to Build-A- Bear and this is what Jack made!












Then the big birthday bash happened!!!






























This is the awesome trike that G-pa got Jack...he LOVES it! And doesn't he just look so adorable in it???













We had such a great time at the party and we want to thank everyone for all the great gifts and for helping us celebrate Jack's FIRST birthday! We love you all!

So now some extra pictures/videos that i thought everyone would be interested in...

Some fun at Carter's
Mountain!













Just a super cute picture!












This video depicts every single day at the Leach house...Jack and Abby playing

Happy Birthday Jack!!

Well this day has finally arrived...Jack is 1!!! It is absolutely shocking that it has been an entire year. I can't believe that he has been in our lives for 12 months now. It feels like just yesterday I was laying in my hospital bed waiting for all my induction drugs to finally kick in ( which really, they never truly did!). At 7:15pm tonight, Jack will officially be 1 year!

We have, of course, lots planned to celebrate this momentous occasion. First off, since JJ is working today, Jack and I are going to Mommy and Me, then Little Gym and then going out to dinner with Jack's "second" family-- Lauren, Monica and Sarah. These three friends have truly been our Richmond family not only since Jack has been born but ever since our RMC days. What would i do without them??? It was only appropriate to celebrate with them on his birthday!! Tomorrow, the grandparents are coming to town!! We will have Jack's official "birthday" dinner tomorrow night with some of Jacks favorites-- spaghetti, garlic bread and his first taste of cake! Then Friday is a fun filled day of Build-A-Bear( a new tradition we are making in our family) lunch with the grandmas, and then Birthday pictures at Sears! Then of course, Saturday is the actual birthday party where all of our family and friends will help us celebrate once again!!

We want to say thank you to everyone who has helped us get through this first year. Especially Grandma Nancie, Mimi, Poppi and our designated babysitters-- Monica and Sarah! We could not have done it without every single one of you! It has been a great year, with a lot of trials and tribulations, tears and victories, and hugs and kisses.

Hopefully this next year will be as wonderful as this past one!!!

New Layout, Same Family

We have officially turned our blog into the Leach Family blog. We are excited to share with all of you are adventures we have everyday! Life with a 1 year old is exciting every second and we can't wait to relive them all with you! I will do my best to inform you all on everything we are doing--although sometimes life gets very hectic and I may forget at times.

Right now we are focusing on Jack's First Birthday party!!! ( which by the way, the RSVP date was October 17th!!!!! eh hem!!). Anyways, we are so looking forward to seeing all of our friends and family and celebrating this great day! Jack is so excited that he is getting older although I sometimes wish he was a little baby again. I look at him and sometimes have to remember that he is an actual little boy now instead of a little tiny baby. He even looks like a toddler. I need to update my pictures soon so you all can see how big he is actually getting!!!

Changing

Well I have to inform everyone that I have just gotten too busy to write my blog anymore. So I have decided to turn it over to Mommy. She has MUCH more time on her hands than I do. She doesn't have to explore every inch of our house and eat every crumb/dust ball/piece of trash on the floor like I do. So from now on, Mommy's taking over!

11 months

Jack,
It is amazing to think that in ONE month you will be an entire year old. That is absolutely amazing to me. How can it be that 11 months ago from today I was holding you for the first time and completely falling in love with you. I can't believe that I lived my life without you for 24 years! You have changed me in so many ways that you will probably never see or understand. You have made me become completely less selfish as well as teaching me how to love someone unconditionally. There is something about the love that a mother and son have between them that no one can explain. You left yesterday and went to Charlottesville with Daddy for the entire day ( 8am-9pm) and i stayed home to make some $$$ babysitting and I really thought that I was missing my left arm all day. It's so hard to not have you with me ALL the time when I am so used to you always being there. I cried when you left in the morning and I waited at the door until you guys pulled up to the house when you got home. I had never been so happy to see Daddy's truck pull up in the driveway. Next week, I am going to the Outerbanks for a long weekend with your aunts and I'm a little nervous that I won't be able to be away from you that long. I know you will be having TONS of fun with Grandma and you probably won't even think about me once, but I am going to totally miss you every second of the day!
The things that you have accomplished this month are unbelievable and I don't even think I have enough room/time to mention EVERYTHING. You are totally INTO EVERYTHING! Now that you actively crawling, you want to explore every inch of our house. You have definitely got that crawl down to, you can probably crawl way faster than I can walk. Which isn't necessarily a good thing especially when you are going after things that you aren't supposed to have. You have become extremely obsessed with Abby. You pretty much think she is the coolest, funniest thing in the entire world. Thankfully, she has had A LOT of patience with you. You like to crawl all over her and grab her tail and her ears and she, very patiently, lets you do all these things with maybe letting out an aggravated groan or moan every once and awhile. Every morning when we come down for breakfast, the first thing you look at is Abby in her cage and start cracking up at her. Then I give you both about ten minutes to love on each other before anything else happens in the morning. She is definitely your best friend right now ( although I'm not quite sure that you are her best friend!).
I think that you have officially said your first word and although it is not "MAMA", it is "DADA". At first you just used to say dadadadada all the time but recently you actually know who "dada" is. When he comes home from work, you see him and squeal "dada". And whenever daddy is not home, you pick up the phone and go "dadadada" and we call him and he talks to you and you just repeatedly say "dadada" over and over again. You love your daddy. You have started to say "mama" but it's only when you are mad, upset, or hurt. Whenever that whiny cry starts, all you say over and over again now is "MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA" until I come and pick you up. And no one else will work when you are upset! You just keep screaming MAMAMAMAMA until I am the one who comes to get you. I guess that means that I am your comforter ( or I'm the pushover who picks you up whenever you get whiny) but whatever it means, I LOVE that you know who I am.
You are starting to cruise around all the furniture. You get yourself standing up and walk holding on to the sofa and you get so proud of yourself whenever you do it. It's amazing how much you are moving now and I know that probably within the next month, you will be walking all over the place.
Your birthday party invitations have been sent out, the planning is in process, and in one month you are going to be a YEAR old!! It is so true what they say about how quickly you kids grow up. How can it be that you are a year? It is absolutely mind boggling. I love you, I love you, I love you. I know you are growing up fast but always remember that I love you and I am your biggest fan!
Love,
Mommy

I know, I know it has been FOREVER since our last post. Unfortunately we have been SUPER SUPER busy and I can't even find the time right now to fill you all in on whats going on in our lives. Everyone is great, Jack is growing like a weed, and tomorrow he is 11 months old! ZOIKES!
Tomorrow I ( Katie, that is) am taking my comprehensive counseling exam and am completely stressed and overwhelmed. I basically have to recall every single little detail that I learned over the past three years! If I don't pass it, I can't graduate. If I don't graduate, I don't counsel. Therefore, this is a VERY big and important test! So until this weekend ends, this is all you get! A quick update and to let you all know that no, we are not dead, just very very busy!
I promise to update everyone on our lives this upcoming week, you just have to be patient!! I will just leave you with a few pictures...

New Jersey Trip!

These past couple of days we went to New Jersey to visit daddys' family. Daddy couldn't come with us because he had to work so mom and I represented our little family. Mom and I went with Mimi, Poppi, Aunt Janelle and Aunt Joy. We had so much fun! We left from Norfolk and we all got to ride together. This is a picture of me and mom right before we left!












We then of course had to stop at Starbucks because I know mommy is in a MUCH better mood when she has her coffee!











Poppi got tired of driving so he let me drive for awhile.











I was the best rider in the whole world! I didn't complain at all!









They took me to this place called "the city" with HUGE buildings and lots of noise.










We went to the Central Park Zoo and I saw TONS of animals that I have never seen before. However, I was most interested in the little birds that walked around the sidewalks and ate all my crumbs.
We saw the sea lions...



















And the penguins...




















And the Polar Bears...














This is mommy kissing me with the tall buildings behind us....it was so
much fun!








The real-life version of the blue bird in the picture tried to attack us--seriously, Mommy hates birds, she screamed.











Here is the whole gang at the zoo!










Aunt Joy and me singing songs in Central Park!












On the way home from New Jersey, I had to stop and get my Starbucks fill!

Fun Day at Busch Gardens!