Christmas morning......

Checking out their new toys...........

Jason chillin' with his new sunglasses in his new chair...........

Still enjoying the drum set..........

Toys are for eating too right Mom?

Christmas Eve pictures.......

Such an evil look.......Nicholas swears he only stole a couple of bites from Santa's cookies :)

The boys enjoying their new drum set......

Nicholas really enjoyed opening presents this year.....if it didn't look like a toy though, he tossed it to the side!

Jason with Uncle Roger.......

What's up homie :)

Mom......these M&M's rock!!!

Shopping for a Christmas tree......

This one is atleast shaped like a tree.....

What about this one Dad??

Such a tough choice..........

The boys enjoying a movie on the way home ......

A trip to Pro Bass Shop o kick off the holiday season....

Our new tradition since having kids is to head to Pro Bass Shop to kick off the holiday season. They set up all kinds of activities for the kids and even have free pictures with Santa! No sooner did we arrive home from Mexico than did we pack up the kids to enjoy the festivities.

Jason enjoying his first candy cane....... Yum!

Nicholas thought Santa looked great.....from a distance

Hanging out by the turtle pond......

Nicholas says all he wants for Christmas is a 4-wheeler....better talk to Uncle Jack :)

Videos from Mexico.....

These 'monkeys' were everywhere!!!




I was completely against this but Auntie convinced me this 'monkey' was very gentle.......



I call them Happy Feet Jason and Rock Star Nicholas.............

Jason's 1 Year checkup...

Jason did great at his one year check up - he barely even cried for his four shots AND finger prick! Such a trooper. Here are his stats from the checkup:


weight = 26 lbs 1 oz (85th percentile)
height = 32 1/2 " (99th percentile!!!)

Our trip to Mexico!

Our trip to Mexico was a great success! We had a great time and so did the kids. We stayed at the Iberostar Lindo and abslutely loved it. We will definitely be back!!

Here's Jason riding the bull..........

Nicholas posing..........

The view from our room.... we ended up with two adjoining rooms right on the first floor which was perfect for us! We could wheel the stroller right in and it was great for the person stuck in the room during nap times.... they could just yell over to the others sitting by the pool for another pina colada :)

Family photo.........

Daddy and Nicholas giving the big elbow.......

Nicholas and Jason dancing on stage at the kids show......

Nicholas at the waterpark............

Hard to tell that water was actually freezing!

Mommy finally gave in and let Nicholas actually feed the 'monkeys'........

Both kids on the beach............ Nicholas is so brave! Maybe he finally will enjoy the ocean soon too......

Here Mom, have some sand..........

Mommy....... can you believe I actually have my feet in the sand ???

Playing catch with Dad.... times 2 :)

Enjoying an early morning walk...........

Jason playing chess.......

We called them monkeys but they are actually kaotis..........everyone had a blast feeding them!

Time to go home :(

Happy 1st Birthday Jason!

Happy First Birthday Jason! I can't believe our baby is already one. Where did the year go???

Jason had a great birthday celebration. We kept it 'small' and just invited family. We went with a baby Sesame Street theme and went with brunch since the kids are always in the best mood in the mornings. Unfortunately Nicholas woke up with high fever Saturday night so he was really under the weather for the party. And I mean REALLY under the weather - he didn't even want to play with his uncles or cousins! Jason was more than happy to take the much deserved spotlight :)

I have to give a shout out to Wegman's. The grocery store just opened up the next town over and I ordered the cake, cupcake and balloons from there. The cake was really moist and yummy and the latex balloons have been still in the air for over a week and a half now! They usually die the next day!! I will definitely be using them again for other events.

Here are some pics of the party decorations

My handsome little boy enjoying his cupcake.....

He is a true sweets fan like his mom! He ate every last peice of his chocolate cupcake.....here's a comparison of his cupcake..............

compared to his brothers......... but it didn't go to waste since Jason ate most of that one too :)

Hard to believe with this many people and presents it was only immediate family!

On Jason's actual birthday, Dan and I took the morning off and sent Nichilas to daycare so we could have special time with Jason. We started the morning off with the usual breakfast at Friendly's where Jason had a great time flirting with the old ladies and almost all my omlette. We then headed off to the Ecotarium and let Jason lead the way for what he wanted to do. After that he unfortunately had to head to the doctor to get his ears checked (Nicholas ended up having an ear infection) and then off to daycare. Instead of bringing in cupcakes, we sent in the small vanilla and chocolate swirl ice cream cups which his teachers said he loved! We ended the day with presents, pizza, french fries and more cupcakes!! A perfect day :)

Dan and Jason bundled up at the Ecotarium watching the otters..........

Jason's such a character....... he thinks he's so funny with the spoon in his mouth!

Jason enjoying his second cupcake of the week.... although he really just smeared this one around.

Jason enjoying his birthday dinner of fires and pizza.....

Tough to tell whose birthday it was when they both get balloons :)

Was that Happy Halloween or Merry Christmas?????

It was a crazy Halloween weekend for us! The festivities started off on Friday 10/28 with a Halloween party at daycare. Nicholas had been talking for weeks about he was going to be Batman and Jason would be Robin.... but when the time came to get into costume, he was not having it. We forced him into it long enough to get pics of the kids dressed up and do the parade thru the other classrooms. Jason, in normal fashion, was 'go with the flow' on wearing his costume :)

Saturday we spent the day with Auntie Lisa and cousin Christopher. We headed to Higgins Armory for their halloween festivities. Luckily we arrived early enough that we had the interactive room all to ourselves to play! The kids had a ball! Nicholas really loved this fake dog.... wonder what he is going to ask for from Santa this year :)

The real 'excitement' started on Saturday afternoon! Dan spent the afternoon take down the Halloween blow up in the front yard, starting up the propane fireplace and checking that the snowblower was up and running. The snow started around 2:00pm Saturday afternoon. Around 8:30pm that night, there was an accident in front of the house where a car went off the road and hit the telephone pole in front of the neighbor's house. Luckily, the power was restored in about an hour. Come 5:30AM on Sunday morning though, it was officially gone. We immediately started up the fireplace to keep atleast the downstairs warm. We had a fun day hanging around the house and even getting outside for a while. Nicholas and Dad had fun building (and knocking down) a snowman and Jason and Dad had fun wrestling in the snow.

We brought down the pack n play and blow up mattress and had a sleep over in front of the fireplace for the night. When we woke up Monday morning, I called the electric company and they said we wouldn't have power back until WEDNESDAY!! In the good ole days, Dan & I would have grabbed a couple bottles of wine and suffered thru the cold. But with the kids, even 65 degrees is too cold so we decided to pack up and head to Grandpa and Nana's house until the power came back on. We decided to skip the actual trick or treating with it being cold and the snow on the ground. But Nicholas really got into handing out candy to the big kids by the end of the night! Luckily when I headed home Tuesday morning to check on the cats, the power miraculously truned back on ahead of schedule! Yay! Everyone was more than excited to be home that night in their own bed!

The question is ............. was this snowstorm a sign of what's to come this winter or a fluke? Stay tuned :)