For my Mom

If there is 1 thing my Mom loves it is a picture of groups of kids together, especially cousins and what not. These pictures right here are the closest things my kids will ever have to first cousins, only kid missing is Christopher. And now we have 2 babies a couple months apart, so exciting!  And, even more exciting is Jess's sister had a baby today so there are 3 little babies only 3 months apart, all girls!

Jess doesn't believe me, but I think Rachel is bigger than Emily.  I declare it so!  She just looks bigger to me.

As you can tell, Emily was a little off her game that day, Rachel was pretty good, as far as Rachel goes.  Jess doesn't believe Rachel is a fussy baby, guess she hasn't called during the fussy periods! 

It was nice to see the girls!  We've seen them a lot this year and it has been so nice, fun living closer to "old" friends!

Emily's big day

This weekend I had the honor of going to Charlotte and celebrating Emily's Baptism.  The Dr said I was still good to travel until the end of the month, so we packed up Saturday and drove up to Charlotte.  We got there a little early so we could hang, chat and make sure we weren't late!  Emily's Baptism was the first Baptism at this Church, they don't actually have a Church building yet, so they meet in the rec center.  A Priest comes up from the sister Parish and does the Mass.  He seemed slightly confused, because he thought I was the Mom and hadn't lost the baby weight yet, when he figured that out, he thought Eric was the godfather, when he figured that out he then realized that Jess had an older son.  He gave a lot of blessing on us all before Mass and we all walked down the aisle with him.  Since there was no Baptismal font in the rec center, when it came time for the Baptism, he had us all stand in front of the Church while Dave, the godfather held the bowl for the Holy Water.  He gave a really nice service and Emily didn't even make a peep.  She was so good!  Unfortunately Jess didn't have a charged camera, Grandma forgot her camera so we got the only pictures.  For probably the first time EVER we had a completely charged camera and were ready to go!  Eric took all the pictures and he even got a video.  If you look closely you can see me giving Nate the evil eye because he's trying to blow out the Baptismal candle. 

Emily's Baptism - flash slideshow maker

We then all went out to dinner to celebrate and we'd decided to stay the night, but the kids just couldn't settle, so we popped them in the car and drove home!  We got home about midnight.  We stopped twice, but the kids were already asleep.  Once because I was like, "get me out of this car", I have to move and once because Eric felt the same way!
We are spending the rest of the weekend pretty low key, the husband's home and I guess we will be doing some grilling and what not, but that's about it!

The Wedding

Gwen's godmother got married last weekend, we drove up to Virginia Beach with Mom to the wedding.  We had a really nice time.  I was asked to do a reading, so we had to drive up on Thursday to be there for the rehearsal.  I was fairly nervous about the reading, but I've been told it went well, I am pretty sure they didn't have a videographer, so we'll never have any proof.  Kiki did a great job with the wedding, she was beautiful and since she and her husband met at a dance studio, there was lots of fun dancing!  Of course, by then I was not too into doing anything but sitting in my seat and watching.  The kids danced and danced and danced.  The kids were obsessed with Kiki and kept running up to her and giving her hugs.  We let the kids stay up way past their bedtime and everyone crashed in the hotel. 
We had a great mini-vacation.  The hotel was right on the beach. So the kids played on the beach, the water was cold!  I miss the gulf coast!  The kids didn't care though and played in the waves.  We even saw some dolphins.  We had adjoining rooms with Mom, so we had space, and could sleep in.  It was great! 

Kiki's wedding - free slideshows

In honor

Today my friend had her baby, so I suppose today is a good day to post pictures from her shower.  I made her present.  My first complete set of bonnet and booties.  

We had a nice time at the shower.  It was nice to see my oldest friend and her family.  Gwen stayed at the shower with me and disappeared with the other little girls.  Eric and Nate hung out around town. 

This is the first time we've been pregnant together, so it has been nice to chat with her over the pregnancy woes.  She is the first of the "pack" of friends that I have that has gone in to labor, now starts baby season for us.  I have 2 more friends before me and then at least 1 after.  Still a couple months to go!  Congrats Jess on your beautiful tiny baby!  I hope we can meet her soon!

New Year's Eve

We were pretty excited to have visitors for New Year's Eve. Gwen was really excited, she wouldn't go to the grocery store with Daddy and she wanted to decorate the driveway. 

I think that Eric might have helped a little. 

It was nice to my friend and her daughter.  We don't get to see each other that often, even though we live closer than we used to, and we seem to be in the exact same place in life currently.  Which you know doesn't always happen, made Eric a little uncomfortable, just the idea of what we would talk about sent him off to another room!  But we had fun, kids stayed up too late, and we saw the ball drop.  The neighbor was kind enough to make a special trip to bring over some sparkling cherry juice that she apparently had laying around, so we were able to enjoy that in Champagne glasses, like we were real drinkers!  A good night indeed!

Mother-daughter tea

Gwen and I were invited to a Mother-Daughter tea on New Year's Day. (this is why we had the big practice tea party with Grandma).  Gwen was super excited and decided to wear her Christmas dress and I asked her if she wanted to do her hair in the hot rollers.  She said yes!  She wasn't pleased with the length of time the curlers were in her hair, but I tried to keep them in for as long as possible.  One thing I know about my hair is it starts out big and then falls, was pretty sure Gwen's would do the same.  

BIG HAIR!!

I combed it out a little, and she was ticked at me, but her hair is actually cut to curl out, so I just brushed it out a little. 

Ready for the party!

She and her little girlfriends had a great time.  They got to paint a little tea pot and cup, drank hot chocolate, ate little sandwiches and put on a play.  It must have been a lot of fun for her, she asked if we could go to another one the next day.  My friend has said she would like to make this an annual thing, I hope so, it was fun to chat with the Moms and watch the girls and their "play".

Wedding weekend

I have been pretty busy lately and I think that this past weekend and the preparation for traveling through 9 states to get to the wedding has taken up most of my time. We chose to drive to the wedding to keep the costs down. And I have to say my kids are fabulous travelers! The drive was long; we packed new car toys in a bag, food and audiobooks. Eric drove most of the way and has vowed to not drive for a LONG time.
In good news, we had a nice time at the wedding and Eric really enjoyed spending time with his friends from college. They did a great job with the wedding and the kids really couldn't get enough of seeing their godfather and Hector and Carissa. I took some pictures, but sadly none of us in the rental car! (I wonder why that was). So, here is the slide show.

Wedding extravaganza - photo slideshow

Happy 3rd birthday!

Today is Nate's 3rd birthday! It is so hard to believe he is 3, mostly because he's talked like a 3 year old for several months now. He's also now day potty trained, which you don't often see in 3 year old boys. He is much improved this year. We are still suffering through a boy who does not nap but probably should, but who would want to nap when there is so much fun going on during the day with Gwen home.
He is quite a sweet boy. He has his favorite people and he gives them leg hugs and such. He still gives a good hug and kiss to all of us, he loves to cuddle for sure.
As I've mentioned he is a very good talker and seems to be very smart. It will be interesting to see if that translates well to book smart. He is a very active boy and has to be watched all the time! He also seems to be very musical. He always wants to listen to music and often plays the piano or the guitar or whatever.
Today has been a very good day for the birthday boy. We decorated the house up and woke up to the sounds of Gwen yelling about balloons. Nate has been walking around all day declaring "it is my birthday!" He seemed to love all his presents and is so aggreable and happy that we all had a lovely day. His godmother and her daughter were able to come up and join us for the afternoon, which was lovely. And although we could not find Nate's "Speed" car to put on his cake, he loved it nonetheless! He is currently camping outside in the new tent he and Gwen have received for their birthdays! Here is a slideshow from today. Enjoy!

Visiting

This weekend we had a visit from the godfather and his girlfriend. We have not met this girlfriend before and were excited to finally meet her. The kids where SO excited to see the godfather they could hardly contain themselves...although I think Eric doing the countdown every night at bedtime contributed to their being so pumped! They flew in and stayed for several days. It was nice to see the godfather again and to meet the girlfriend. She seems very nice. I didn't take near as many pictures as I should have. At one point I thought, I should really pull at the camera, but sadly it stayed a thought, so I missed so great pictures, so I think.
Friday was a quiet day, picking up from the airport. The kids playing with Uncle Eric and Ms. Bruschi, board games, outdoor games. Fun! There was bowling, a night out alone for Eric and I, a trip to the Mall and a trip to the Botanical Gardens. I think everyone had fun. Here is a slide show for your viewing pleasure.

Cookie decorating

One of the things I most remember about Christmas is having the neighborhood boys come down and decorate cookies with us. I don't know why the sisters that were my age didn't come down to decorate, maybe they did, I don't remember. So I decided to have my friends that have kids Gwen and Nate's age to come over to decorate cookies on Saturday. Gwen and I made the family cookie recipe on Friday, I doubled it! Nate was so excited on Saturday, he sat in the kitchen at the table for about 45 minutes before everyone got there. And then my friends arrived with their kids. There were 10 kids here, although I guess the 2 youngest being 1 and under don't count? They were here, but they didn't do any decorating or eating... I took some pictures, but I seemed to have missed one of the little girls, she was on the wrong side of the table for me.

The kids didn't color as much as I thought they would, so I decorated the rest of them really fast before the icing melted. The kids seemed to have fun then we pushed them all outside to run off some sugar. I think at most the decorated 5 and ate most if not all of them. Gwen really showed her stuff. It was a lot of fun, but I was pooped for the rest of the day! Eric even made dinner!