Mini Family Reunion

We went down to L.A (Redondo Beach) for a couple of days to see cousins and all of the kids. It was little Gus's 1st b-day and we all just wanted to see each other. My cousin Lisa lives in L.A too so it was great to catch up. I can't believe how mature Katie is. She is going to be something great after college! :)






Here is the view Mark & Micka have from their place. It is right by the beach and they have a top floor view! It was great weather for an outside b-day party/BBQ!










Here's Maggie playing with all the new fun toys. These are those balloon things that you blow up and they have rubber bands on them... She loved it. Some funny things that she's been doing is singing the alphabet, Twinkle Twinkle, counting to 10, and learning "I love you" in sign language. Except she says "Me love me" instead! She is like a parrot right now. I can't even tell you all the words that she's saying but she can repeat just about anything. I have to watch my mouth!




Here Grace, 2, Maggie 1 1/2 and Gus 1. They sat there for so long that we finally realized that there was a pile of chips on the table. Oh!!!! They were getting as many as they could before dinner!









Here's Lauren and Megan. They are getting so big and they are both super sweet! Girls are just so much fun! I remember putting their hair in pig tails. I try with Mag but she just takes them out. There's only two strands of hair anyways!

X-mas Time!

X-mas time!

Helping daddy with the tree that we got at Home Depot! For everyone that had a bad experience at Home Depot, I just have to tell you that when I worked in the tree lot I would get out of the booth and help out all the customers. It was my favorite time of the year!!!! I guess people are getting lazy now!






OHHHHHHH! No wonder you woke up crying!












This is what Gabriel and Maggie will look like on their wedding day! Hee! Hee! He is such a gentleman!










Monkey see, monkey do! We have learned in the past two weeks about little repeat. I was dusting a couple min. earlier... Yes... Nicole I was dusting! Next thing you know Mag got the Febreeze from under the sink and a wash cloth from her hamper and started cleaning the floors. Yesterday I opened a big cardboard box with scissors. Sean found her with his small scissors doing the same thing to other boxes. Scissors and Febreeze is what we let our 18 month old daughter play with. Don't you?

No need for an explanation! Pure joy!

Forts and Dancing

We took our X-mas pics in the backyard. Mag's favorite song this week is the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" so here I am singing it for the 8000th time.










I tried to take X-mas pics a couple days ago and could not get her to smile. Sean comes home and it takes him 2 minutes and I got great shots of her. Figures!!!!









I tutor every Monday so Daddy and Maggie hang out. I come home to forts and dancing. It's adorable! Sean is under the blanket somewhere!

So Thankful!

I want to be just like daddy and eat dog biscuits!
I guess we didn't feed her enough turkey!












Here is Thanksgiving day.... so much to be thankful for. My family was thankful that I didn't cook. But Erika and I can do some mean dishes! We said at X-mas the boys are doing the dishes. Sean decided to come to my mom's, sleep all day and wake up to eat with us. He only had about an hour but it was nice to have him there for a bit. I'm so thankful for him and how much he provides for Maggie and I. He is such a hard worker and I love him for that!










Erika and I are trying to figure out how you prepare, cook and cut the turkey. We saw all the body parts and got grossed out. One day we'll learn.









My helper Vinnie! Vinnie is so thoughtful. He played with Maggie, he helped me bring food next door and he helped with serving the pies. He is such a good boy!










We celebrated Thanksgiving on Sunday. Nicole and I were so proud of our "already cooked" Honey baked ham, Stove top stuffing, green bean casserole, rolls, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. All the kids were well behaved! We all said what we were thankful for!!!!

We went to our niece Alyssa's powder puff football games. It's so weird to know that I met her when she's four and now she's fourteen. We love watching her play soccer and Sean is especially proud watching her play quarterback!








Here is my little angel having a good time in the backyard.....

until the rock throwing began.....

Well... my pics got all turned around like usual so here she is having a time out because in the next picture you can see that she looked right at me and threw the rock anyway.

She is a stubborn L.T. and she will look right at me just to test me. I think we have our hands full.

I'm going to throw this anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And this pic is supposed to be at the top with the football game one. Cousin Aidan loves Maggie and I love watching them play together. He protected her from the football field the entire time.

Halloween!

Oatmeal, Oatmeal!!! Good source of nutrition! Horrible mess for mom! She loves to "eat" it herself which means scooping it with the spoon and then using her hand to get it off the spoon and shoving it in her mouth. Then she wants to wipe her hands so they go in her hair, face, pj's, etc. Good times!







For Halloween, we went to the New Life Harvest Party and had a blast. Grandma and Ladybug are heading over to the "hay" ride that Uncle Tony is driving. She didn't like it too much! The tractor was from 1960 so it was really noisy.








We had to make a quick stop to go and see Gabriel the lion. This is a classic picture because their both wondering what the heck is going on and why does my friend look so strange! They eventually held hands and played in their cute little costumes.







My favorite little ladybug. She was heading next door to show off her costume.











There was a photographer who took our family photo. It turned out pretty good. Maggie was eyeballing all the games and candy. It only took her a few times to realize that if she played a game she got candy. There was one time where she was "stealing" the candy from the bucket and putting it in all the kids baskets that were standing in line waiting to play the game. I kept telling her to give it to her mommy (especially the chocolate). We had a great time! Even daddy stopped by during work to say hi to us. Everyone thought he was in costume too! LOL!