Our other birthday gal!

And yes, in addition to celebrating Little One turning 1, we got to celebrate Nana turning 92! She had all 50 people singing Happy Birthday and a yummy cookies and cream Cold Stone Creamery cake. I think she had a great night. The kids did awesome. All 26 kids sat on the stairs and sang to her... It was adorable and of course Nana cried... but at 92 I think she is allowed! :-)

Time for a party!

So, we made it.... one year has gone by with Little One... It has been a year full of ups and downs. As most of you know Little One's life did not start out exactly perfect with a trip back to the hospital at 5 days old with RSV. She came through that though and has been a joy! Such a good natured, happy, easy baby! We decided to throw a party for our friends and family and we were so happy that so many could join us. It was a fun night.... Great friends, great times, great food and great wine! :-) The kids had a blast in the backyard with the trampoline, bacci ball court and soccer balls and goal... We turned our garage into a craft wonderland and thanks to my sister (who has to be the most patient woman in the world) put on her teacher hat on her day off and ran the room. The kids had tons of things to work on... the girls had wooden butterflies and the boys had wooden airplanes that they could paint... and boy did they paint! :-)

We also had foam placemats and foam door handle holders that could be decorated with a variety of different foam stickers... The garage is still in craft (AKA disaster) mode but the kids had a blast and that was what was important!

Little One did great... We had about 50 people here and it was alot to take in... but she handled it like the star that she is. The highlight was ofcourse her cake... She had so much fun. She started out looking at it and touching it with her fingers and then it became like a pie eating contest with her entire face in her cake... It was great. Thanks Daddy for taking her upstairs and giving her a very good bath!

Never trust silence

Especially when your child has a friend over... Here I thought I was getting so much done. Miss M was at school, Little One was sleeping and Miss A had a friend over to play. Little did I know that Little Ponies, Princess and Barbie dolls, and Little People had gotten boring and they moved over to the makeup Miss M got for Christmas. I had let Miss M keep this in her room because she knows when the time is to use it and to ask first... Well, it seems that it was not in her special hiding place and her sister and friend found it... and this is what came down the stairs....

BIG KICKS!

Miss M and Miss A have tackled the world of soccer... The beginning was a little rough...

Miss M got a ball in the face from the other team... not a great way to start up.

Miss A decided she did not like playing goalie and walked off the field mid-game... While on the sideline with Daddy trying to talk her into going back into the game the other team scored.. because there was no goalie (Miss A)... So, that resulted into a total meltdown because they are now "winning".

Fast forward 3 weeks and Miss M is running up and down the field and even had her foot on the ball a bunch of times. When the ball goes off the ground she ducks, but we are making progress. Miss A has decided goalie can be fun because when she saves a goal she gets to do a "big kick"... So, the future of soccer looks bright, we think!

Mama's the word....

After hearing "ut oh", "Dada" and "ba (Bottle)" for a while now finally on the eve of Little One's first birthday she finally said MAMA!!!!! And she did not stop for about 20 minutes... I guess this is the beginning!!!!!!!!!!! YEA! Stay tuned... we have an update on Little One's birthday party from this past weekend!

The Gingerbread House Tradition Continues....

We started a neat tradition a few years ago... We got a gingerbread house for Miss M to work on with my dad... We figured it would give them both something to do :-) and they would have a blast doing it. It has become a tradition year after year and this year Miss A joined in on the action. As you can see my dad is meticulous about the frosting and the kids are becoming just as detail oriented with decorating them. Most years we do houses.. last year we did a train. It is a really fun time and the kids look forward to it every year we see the houses out at Costco!

Christmas Morning

Started at 605am with Miss M waking us up saying she heard the reindeer and boots of Santa on the roof! It was still dark but she was sure it was time to wake up... She went running through the house to tell everyone and wake them up.. Only to look down into the living room and see that nothing had changed around the big tree! All the gifts that were there, had been there the night before. She could not believe it... until she realized all the stockings were GONE! She then went running downstairs and found that Santa tricked us! He left all his things in the family room under the kid tree! He must have thought that the living room was too full, and he was right! So, we were so excited... Santa went way overboard this year! We all must have been so good. The stockings were overflowing with all kinds of goodies. The highlights were a Princess bike, a Chad and Taylor doll set from High School musical, and a Little Eninsteins composer toy for Miss A, High School Musical dolls, dance mat and a leapster for Miss M and an activity table and walker for Little One! There was so much more but those were definitly the highlights from Santa...

Little One got in on the action too... although she missed the first hour or so of the festivities! Never wake a sleeping baby!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was spent with the Peoria Clan and we had a great time. Mum and Pa went to see Nana and Aunt Joyce and said they had a very nice Christmas Eve as well... It was a crazy afternoon with us all trying to get out the door on time... We did and it was a grea time. We went to mass and then back to Grandmas for dinner and presents. Boy, were the cousins and Grandpa and Pa good to us this year. Little One was more interested in the tree and the bulbs on the tree but she had plenty of help opening her gifts! We did not get home overly late, and as excited as the kids were about Santa coming they were pretty tired. Miss M and Miss A helped me make our traditional reindeer food and we sprinkled it outside before trundling off to sleep... I think they were out before their heads hit the pillows!

Breakfast with Santa

We had the coolest experience this year! We went to Seville Country Club with our good friends the Palmers and had breakfast with Santa. This was not any everyday breakfast and visit with Santa. The brunch buffet was amazing... we are talking anything and everything you could think of. Mike loved the seafood bar, prime rib, omlette bar etc.. The kids loved the kid section which consisted of chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, little hot dogs, cereal, donuts etc... They totally catered to your every need. Miss A goes to school with her friend and Miss M went to preschool with her friend... they have kept in touch.

After a very yummy breakfast we headed to the North Pole on a special train... Such a fun ride. When we got there we went to Santa's waiting room :-) . Santa's elves had different crafts and games for the kids while they waited for their special one on one time with Santa.

Waiting for the train to pick us up for the North Pole

Little One catches some z's before the big moment

ALL ABOARD!

And the magical moment.....

A Christmas Gathering...

So, being in our new house for our first Christmas I felt the need to host a gathering... I would have loved a large gathering but by the time I thought to do this I needed to keep it simple... so thanks to our close friends and some of our family that was able to stop in... We had a good time... yummy Honeybaked Ham dinner, games, firepit and samores, etc... It was the perfect way to celebrate the season on a Saturday night...

The life of the party getting ready to celebrate her first Christmas!

The bonfire was a hit and the kids loved roasting marshmellows and making samores!

Christmas Spectacular Featuring the Rocketts

We had the opportunity to go see the New York City Rocketts with Miss M's Brownie Troop this year... The girls had so much fun... Our seats were way up high which we were worried about when we got there, but it ended up being incredible.. you could see so much more from up high. The kids had a blast and it was such a treat. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for watching Little One.. it was a late night.. would have been too much for her!

Limo to Lunch!

Thanks to all who supported Miss M's qwest for cookie dough sales! To get to go on a limo ride and out to lunch she had to sell 300.00 worth of cookie dough! She sold 308.00 worth. So off on a limo ride around the neighborhood she went and then on to Barro's Pizza for lunch with the principal! She had a blast!

here comes the limo!

Miss M and her friends that also got limo to lunch

off she goes!

Crazy socks!

Miss A was so excited to have crazy sock day at school... it's the little things right? :-) Daddy was out of town so we had to make sure to get pics which means we get to share them all with you too! :-)

The bginning of a 2 month update

Hoping everyone had a joyous and magical holiday season... This year our holiday season started with Thanksgiving at Carrie and Mario's... we of course woke up and watched the Macys Day Parade which has become a tradition for my girls just as it was a tradition for my sister and I... The kids get so excited while watching and it makes you feel like a kid again. We did not have to worry about making dinner this year so we had a very relaxing morning which was something desperatly needed for all of us. This fall has been a whirwind and full of travel, activities etc.

Here are the girls watching the parade... (Miss M and Little One are still in PJs)... Miss A could not wait to get her new outfit for Thanksgiving on... so, she put that on at 7am!

We finally got ourselves going and made our way our for Thanskgiving dinner. We had our first deep fried turkey... it was good and made in like 45 minutes.. You cannot beat that! A fun day was had by all!

Updates will be coming I promise

Hi everyone,

Yes, I have gotten the emails asking when the blog will be updated... I promise soon! We have some great pictures from our trip to see the Rocketts, our breakfast and personal visit with Santa, Christmas and lots of other fun things... It has been a whirlwind... School started this past Monday and we are already back into soccer, school, art class, music class, Brownies, MOPS... you get the picture! I hope this weekend to update the blog with some latest pictures!