Sunday, February 27, 2011

Parents Weekend

Here are a few wonderful moments when my parents visited for Abbey's birthday.

I heard it has been the hardest winter in a 100 years on the East coast this year so of course we spent some time soaking but the sun at the beach.
The pool was too cold at the hotel but Abbey loved the Jacuzzi.
My mom came to the rescue to help finish all the kids crowns for the birthday party. Couldn't have done it without you mom. If you look closely you can see Davey's little hand holding onto my mom. So cute!
Abbey and my dad having a tea party. What a sweet moment. By the way Abbey is trying to figure out which is her pinky finger so she can properly drink tea.
It was a great time together eating good food, going to the running warehouse many times, stopping by the swap meet and just enjoying being together. Thanks for coming all the way out here. We love you!!

Friday, February 25, 2011

Birthday Video


Kevin made this video of Abbey's birthday party. Didn't he do a great job!!

To my beautiful little girl:
Abigail you are an amazing kid. You have accomplished some major milestones this past year. You are completely potty trained, you sleep in a big girl bed, you can count to 20 (pretty much) in English and to 10 in Spanish, you can say your ABC's, you transitioned from being an only child to being a big sister, you are starting to dress yourself, you saw your first movie at the drive in (Tangled) and you are learning to ride a bike.
You love being in the water; pool, shower, bath it doesn't matter. Your favorite TV shows are Seaseme Street, Dora the Explorer and any thing Princess. Your favorite foods are mac and cheese, raisins, pancakes, apples, red peppers, and anything chocolate. You make friends very easily where ever we go, especially if they are girls. And in the past few months you have been captivated by princesses., you wear your princess daily almost daily. You don't like wearing things on your head, you aren't very interested in coloring, and you won't eat mashed potatoes.
You are still an energetic fun loving kid but you are starting to be a little shy. You have a tender compassionate heart and you are an affectionate little girl who loves to give kisses and hugs freely. You hate to see others sad or hurting, you sing to Davey whenever he cries. I just love your beautiful personality. I love having flash light dance parties in the dark with you. I love seeing you hug your brother. I love snuggling with you under a blanket to read books. I love that you reach for my hand to cross the street. And I love when I say the final goodnight you respond with " I love you Mommy". I absolutely love you Abigail. Happy Birthday!!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

She's 3 Years Old!!

My little girl turned 3 on January 21st. We started the day with pink chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Then we had a Dora Princess party at the beautiful Islay park to celebrate. It was an amazing day: there were lots of kids, good friends and my parents were there all the way from NY! It was so sweet having them there. They bought Abbey princess dress as seen above which was perfect for the party.

We celebrated with pink and orange Dora cupcakes. Abbey helped with putting all the candles in cupcakes, maybe she thought she was older then three?
The kids played pin the tail on Swiper the Fox.
Little Freddo was the tough guy.
Martha Stewart helped with some decorating ideas. Don't you just love these.
Stewart took a swing with Dora
Davey was entertained by the grandparents the whole party. Looks like he had a good time!
And Wyatt had a blast running around with the balloons.
And here's our attempt to get a group kid pic with their crowns. I used Soule Mama's pattern for the crowns. I love how Abbey is attached to her best friend Emma and don't you just love Fred's expression.
Abbey had a blast and so did we. Happy Birthday Abigail!!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

O Christmas Time

I know it is totally ridiculous I am posting Christmas stuff in February but I just have to.

First we packed in our Christmas fun with local festivities...

We went to the Victorian Christmas Lights in Paso Robles. It is 12 blocks of houses lite up with Christmas lights and all kinds of fun stations to stop at along the way: live nativity scenes, random people sings Christmas songs or at least their version of Christmas songs, free Starbucks, roasting marshmallows, free cookies, cake , hot coco, live music. And there was even actors acting out the Grinch and Ebeneser Scrooge and a real snow to sled down. Kevin and I love it. Abbey however was so tired she slept in the stroller the whole time, the first and probably the last time she will do that. And Davey slept in the baby carrier so it was almost like Kevin and I were on a date.
We had to ride the holiday Carousel in the Mission Plaza.
taking walks downtown to get some treats

When we head to Tucson to visit family and friends for a couple days.

This is my Grandma Carol and my Aunt Linda in the picture. I love this picture of my grandma and Dave, it is so represents how my grandma loves being with the kids and they love her. Abbey was leading grandma by the hand around her own house tell her all the things she needed to see. So cute!
And here is my strong Italian grandpa, we call him Poppy.
I cry every time I leave my grandparents, they mean so much to me. Our visits are too short and too far between.

The last night in Tucson we had party with all our college friends. And boy was that fun! We had the party at our best friends the William family in their beautiful Victorian (I think) house and we had fine food from Brooklyn Pizza (my favorite!). It was simple and fun, we laughed a lot and kids were running around every where.
After all that we headed to Prescott AZ for the grand finale Christmas celebration with Kevin parents. Sadly Davey was so sick the whole time we were there but it didn't stop him from learning how to sit up on his own on Christmas day.Feed the neighbor horses some carrots.Decorated the treeI always try to knit with Kevin's grandma. She is a knitting guru and the best teacher. Christmas morning!! This was the first year Abbey really understood opening presents and she had so much fun. Dave just tried to eat all the wrapping paper. That kid is crazy about paper.
And to celebrate the reason for the season we made a birthday cake for Jesus.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Beef Bourguignon...yum!!

I don't know if it is all the rain or what but I have been on a mad cooking spree. Today I made beef Bourguignon from some stew meet that I got on sale. And may I say is was AWESOME!! Seriously you just have to make this. You can find the recipe over at Passionate Homemaking and I made it with her amazing Garlic Mash Potatoes. It did take some time to make but oh so worth it.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Valentine's Party

I have never been into celebrating valentine's day. Kevin and I don't buy big gifts for each other and we usually stay in for dinner. But this year I was excited to have a party for the kids. What really got me excited was thinking about celebrating God's love for us. Besides the fact the decorating with red and pink and hearts is beautiful, kids exchanging cards is priceless and the sweets are awesome.

Some yummy snacks. These are peanut butter and jelly stars and hearts.
A couple crafts: we made heart necklaces. But Calvin wore his in boy fashion.
We also made some crayon melts. First you shave crayons then sprinkle the shaving on wax paper then cover with another piece of wax paper. The next step is the fun part. Take a iron and run it over the wax paper and you get this cool tye dye effect. The kids love it! You can cut shapes out too. We made heart and taped them to the widow. They look great with the sun shining through.Valentine bags
Giving of Valentine's
Receiving the Valentines
My little cupid! Isn't he so cute? The funny thing is that I didn't even need to undress him for the picture. I think we crawled around wearing only his diaper the whole party. seriously who has time to dress their kids. We were just too busy having fun!!

You may have noticed that I have been neglecting my blog for months and I am sad because so many fun things have happened since December. That is why I have decided to post some very outdated events now and then. So don't be surprised if you see a Christmas post next.