Happy Halloween!

We can't believe how fast the time is flying this year. We were so busy this month, and with Aaron out of town on business, we didn't have any time to get our house all Halloween-scary. We did manage to get the kids dressed up and take them to Aaron's office for some trick or treating, as well as BelleSquare, which by the way was crazy so we left about 15 minutes into it, and then we hit Factoria Mall on the way home - it was much more our pace.

Nolan, The Dragon, was just passing out kiss after kiss as long as you were feeding him some chocolates. It was so cute, I kept giving him little bites - I couldn't resist. Nolan also insisted on carrying his own pumpkin bucket, no matter how full it got. It was so cute to watch him walking in front of us, tilted to one side, and with every step he took her heard a 'bump' which was the pumpkin bucket hitting his leg - haha, it was too cute.

Elaina, the Princess, had so much fun, it seemed like we weren't walking fast enough while scouting out the candy. She wore her dress up shoes out for day, and by the time we got home she was so ready to take them off. I think she now realizes heals are hard to walk in. The price we pay, the price we pay.

I dressed up for a party the week before Halloween. I was....well, I think a scary purple winged death angel. Aaron didn't dress up this year. This was his only free pass. Back to dressing up next year. As usual, we let the kids have a few pieces of candy, and then their buckets magically disappeared. They never even asked for them the next day.

Vegas, BABY!!

It's Vegas, Baby!

Aaron and I got away for 3 nights, sans kids. Gramma came to watch the kids and we jetted to Vegas for a long weekend. What an adventure we had.

We stayed at the Signature at MGM - so great - totally will be staying there again! We had lots of fun at the slots, tables and all that. This trip we decided to do more than just spend our days/nights in the casinos - we went on a private winery tour. A beautiful limo picked us up in the morning, greeting us with champange, oj, 2 bottles of wine, and roses. The drive to Puhrump, NV was about 1.5 hours - it was really beautiful. Once at the winery (Pahrump Valley Winery) we were given a private tour of the winery by the owner, Bill. He was so nice, and even gave us a bottle of Reisling from a friends winery on the house. After being our host for wine tasting we are lunch in their resturant. Bill came over to our table with glass in hand, and asked if he could have a taste. (Apprently he had not opened that case of wine yet) Bill took a sip, swirled it, and smiled. He said 'this is a bottle I'll enjoy drinking'. HAHA.

It was time to say good-bye to the winery and Bill. We got back into our Limo and headed back to Vegas. About 15 minutes on the road we started to hear this strange noise - as if our limo driver, Ty, was driving on the grated part of the freeway. A few seconds later he pulls over, we look behind us to see smoke and little parts flying down the freeway-haha! As it turns out, the rear axle fell off - haha. Enjoy the picture for the full effect. Not only were we now stranded - we (including our driver) had Verison, and there was one cell tower, which was not Verison - haha! So here we are stuck in the Nevada Desert having to try and get a cell connection. We had a few drivers pull over and ask to if they could help. The first guy - a Refrideration Guy - he pulls up in his Van and asks if he can help, and then offers Aaron and I a ride back to the strip ...um, I don't think so - HAHA! We've all seen that movie, right? Anyway, he was sweet - in a creepy way - here's a picture of me, creepy guy and Ty. You are in the middle of the Nevada Desert, you have to make the best of it, right? So we pulled out the champane and oj. we enjoyed drinks and dancing on the side of the road, while waiting for another limo to come get us. About an hour into our wait, Aaron and I both had to go to the bathroom - haha - yeah, the side of the road, baby! About an hour forty-five minutes later we get our new limo and are back on the road. Ty got us back to our hotel in time for us to run up and freshen up and then drove us to the Bellagio. We had tickets to see 'O', which was fantastic. We got tickets that day from some guy off of CL and we got 2nd row center - it was crazy. These seats were perfect. A real treat! Our last day in Vegas was spent in 'Old Vegas' - Freemont Street. We had a blast. I think we played Black Jack for 3 hours or so all one $50 each (well, I needed to steal some of Aaron's money for a few hands). We walked off the tables with almost double our money. While that might not seem like much - the fact that we were able to play that long on such a small amount of money - and we walked off the talble with more than we started...that's success for us! Vegas was good to us, and we were good to Vegas. It was a much needed getaway, and we are so thankful to Gramma for coming to watch the kids for us. Here are a few other random pictures from our trip.

Eileen and George Get Married

Eileen and George exchanged vows in Gramma's garden in September. This was an nice family affair, and a good time was had by all. The reception was at a winery nearby and it was a bunch of fun. Congrats guys! This picture of NoNo was taken just before the wedding.

The last several months

Hello all!

It's been a long time since I've found some real downtime to blog - The kids are sleeping and Aaron is in LA on business for the week. So here's a recap.

April/May/June

Elaina and Nolan had a great birthday! Nolan turned One and Elaina 3. She had a blast making her birthday cake, and Nolan loved eating his cake! Our house was filled with family and friends, and the noise level was high.

Nolan starting walking in early April, but really didn't master it until mid May or so. His eyes filled with excitement one he was able to walk without falling.

July/August/September

We took our first Family of 4 vacation this summer. We spent 12 days taveling the East Coast and Mid West. A family wedding took up to New England - so beautiful, and we had a wonderful time visiting family and enjoyed a great wedding. While traveling we made sure to do something every day for the kids. Our last day on this leg of the trip we spent the day in Boston, and took the kids to the Children's Musem in downtown Boston. Seriously the best Children's Museum we've ever been too!! I wish it was in Seattle! Both kids had so much fun, and so did we!

Our second half of vacation was spent in Chicago visiting family and friends. We had so much fun! The kids loved the Chicago Aquairum and the Zoo! Oh, how I have missed things like that. We staying with Aunite Biskit for a few nights (thanks again) and we stayed in the city for a few nights - at a great hotel. I was so exicted I got to spend time with my girl, Brooke and her family. I have missed her dearly, and hope we can see each other again soon.

While we had a great time, we have to give props to our kids! Lambs and NoNo traveled so well. I thought we'd have some rough nights with them - all goes with travel and small children - but really, they were wonderful. They adapted to every place we stayed (several hotels and homes) without any trouble. Lambs' favorate thing to do was to make a 'princess bed' loaded with pillows and keen-kits (blankies) and thought it was so special. NoNo just slept in each crib like it was home. Truely, they did so great.

Nolan did get sick while we were in Chicago - so sad - he just started thowing up one night in our hotel - just after Aaron and I got back from a date (Sissy was watching the kids) (thanks again, Sissy!) It was so sad to see him jsut not feeling good. That night he was sick a few more times, and the next day we took slow and didn't do much. He was sick on our last day, which was a family BBQ at Aunt Biskit's house.

All in all, we had a wonderful, fun-filled vacation, and I can't wait to see what we do next as a family.

August was a month to note. Our sweet Lambs woke up one morning and told me 'mommy, I'm all done with pull-ups'. That was it - it was awesome. Really, she had only been wearing them at night for the last few months, but I guess that was it. It's the coolest thing - I love that she's such a big girl! Now - if we could just get NoNo started on the potty training now - haha.

September 8th - Aaron turned 34. I successfully pulled off (for the most part - haha) a surprise party for him. It was so fun to be out at a bar, play darts, pool and enjoy some drinks with family and friends.

Recap Jan-March

We seem to have been so busy, we've not had much time to post things that have been going on.
Maggie added another year, celebrating her 37th birthday. She enjoyed a great girls night out to celebrate.

Sissy came to town for a week. It was so fun to visit with her. She helped us out around the house and with the kids. I know she loved spending time with them.
We managed to get away for an overnight and Sissy watched the kids. We found this very secluded B&B on Bainbridge Island. It was so nice. Here's a nice picture of part of the garden at the B&B. We look forward to going back there sometime (soon). We didn't take many picture.



NoNo started to show signs of walking. It's so great. He's only taking a few steps at a time - it's so cute. He's getting so big, we can't beleive he's going to be 1 next month. We took the kids to the Seattle Aquarium - they both had a great time. Here are a few pictures from that afternoon.

New Appliances

We finally got new appliances, and could not be happier. We've been living with our old and cranky electric stove, broken dishwasher and small microwave since we moved in. We've upgraded and are both just in love with our new toys. We are now the proud owners of GE Cafe series gas stove, microhood and dishwasher. It's so nice to have these pretties in our home. Our stove has a double over, and bottom drawer can be used as a warming drawer. The microhood is just plum cool. It's super huge and does lots of fancy things. Our dishwasher is so cool - who knew you could load it up with dishsoap and it would wash load after load and then will tell you when you need to add more soap. It's so quiet, too. We can't beleive how quiet this thing is. Now that we've got these fancy new appliances the rest of our kitchen looks so outdated. Ah, does it ever end? We also plan on doing counters, but not sure when that will happen. I think we'll also look into refinishing our cabinets - give them a boost.

Time Keeps On Tickin'

Here we are!

We got so busy,I'm just finding some time now to check back in and update what's going on in our lives.

We finally sent out our holiday news letters (today) - haha.

NoNo isn't crawling yet. He seems interested some days, but most of the time he'd rather stand. He's even walked a little with a kids walker. We think he might skip crawling and go straight to walking. He's got 6 teeth now, and loves to eat and is getting the hang of feeding himself. He's talking - of course DaDa was the first thing he's said. It's very sweet. He also still gives the best hugs ever - although sometimes he forgets that your face is 'yours', and he tries to take if off.

Lambs is doing just great. She's still potty training, but more seriously now. She also just got her very first haircut. It was really cute. She enjoyed it just as much as I did. We've got a pic and some of her clippings to put in the babybook. She's doing great in school. Jr. Preschool really keeps her going and she's making some really good friends.

Speaking of baby books - OMG they are so hard to keep up with. I still have to put the writsbands in the books. I keep coming across them and tell myself - yikes, I better get these in those books before I loose them - and a week later, I say the same thing. ARG. I would love a few hours, some sissors, glue stick and some pictures. I could get both the kids books in order and up to date. Then the challenge would be to keep it up - in a few months I'll be behind again, oh how the pattern goes.

Watermelon Looses the Battle

I picked up a watermelon from the market last night. After chopping it up I decided to nurse NoNo while eating some. NoNo was so interested in it, he would pull my hand toward his mouth, tounge hanging out just waiting for a taste. I sat him up and let him have a little taste, which then turned into about a half hour of him 'tasting' it. He got really upset when I took it away. This morning I took him shopping for those little mess food bags, I said I'd never use - never say never, right? We got home and filled it with watermelon and he went to town. I can't wait to try other melons, now.

Pumping in the Garage

I took NoNo out with me this moring to run some errands. Lambs stayed home to hang out with daddy. I guess he had a few things to do in the garage, some he and Lambs spent a little time in the garage. To keep her busy, we always let her play with baby bottles on tables in the garage, which allows us to get thongs dpne. Aaron looked away for a minute o two and when he go her back in is sights this is what he found. He asked her what she was doing and she told him she was pumping her milk. HAHA. She just unzipped her jammies and started 'pumping' -haha.

She was happy to have daddy take a picture of her, too. Such a proud mamma.

My 'Owbie Toe'

My wife takes it as a personal affront that I have not yet contributed to the family blog, so I thought I might share the recent adventures of my right big toe.

It started last week in the form a partially ingrown toenail. Such occurrences are not uncommon for me and I figured it would run it's course and be good as new after a few days.

I was wrong. Monday was when I first noticed the puss oozing out from alongside my toenail. I saw it as a good sign, that the malignant fluid causing the swelling had finally escaped. As the days progressed, so did the amount of puss emitted. Walking became painful, and I decided it was finally time to see a medical professional.

At the Highlands Urgent Care Clinic, I was pampered with the finest treatment. First, a local anesthetic was administered by sticking a 16-gauge needle directly into the most sensitive area on my swollen toe... OUCH! This was followed by a 1/2" long incision along the side of my nail, and evacuation of the all resident fluid. Then the kind doctor scraped away the offending foreign material that had caused this predicament in the first place. As a final bonus, he also scraped away some additional nail growth the didn't belong. By now the anesthetic was starting to wear off, luckily all the was left was the bandage. Driving home was a real treat, as my toe had finally realized the abuse it had been subjected to.

The throbbing has finally subsided, thanks in part to pain medication, but primarily due to kisses from my daughter to make my 'owbie toe' feel better.

A Spit Bath, of Course

I'm home with my sweet little people today, just hanging out waiting for Layla to come over with baby Gabe. Nolan decides it'stime to nurse, yet again, just as Lambs is begging to watch Dora. NoNo settles in to nurse, and Lambs snuggles next to me to watch Dora. A few minutes later I notice Lambs lovingly stroking NoNo's head. As I pay a little more attention, I notice that she's spitting on her hand and rubbing it on NoNo's head. I asked her what she was doing as she simply said 'mommy I'm giving NoNo a bath to get him clean', and spit on her hand and kept 'bathing' him. HAHA - I had to laugh out loud, then suggest NoNo was all clean and she stopped. It was so cute.

Ah, I love my sweet babies.

Big Man Standing

NoNo slept last night. That's right - you heard it here - NoNo slept last night. I was so wonderful. He went to sleep around 8pm, woke at 1am to nurse, again at 2am to be topped off then back to sleep until around 5am. Aaron got up with him, they played a while, he ate again, and took a ride in the swing for a while and napped again. I am so happy he slept. We slept. Eveyone slept. Ah, little things bring us such joy. I post this happy face pic of our big man standing with a little help from daddy.

Friday Night DressUp

This past Friday night we went to some friends place for dinner. All our kids decided to play dress up and it was just too cute! Emma, Sara and Elaina all got dressed up and then it was Andre's turn. He looked so cute. I think his attitude was if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I thought I'd share this really cute picture of the kids in their get-up. They all had such a great time in their fancy clothes!

We have to get Lambs a trunk of dress up clothes - she just loved wearing the heals and dresses.

NoNo Cool

It's 2:39am - I'm awake, while my little man sleeps snug in my lap. He's been have a rough go of it the last week or so. He's going through growing pains and teething - nights seem to be his 'witching hour'. I'm posting this cute pic I took of him this afternoon when he was happy and having a good time. I'm holding on to that sweet memory - as I sit here awake while he's snug as a bug.

Why don't I put him down, you ask? We'll he'll wake up, of course. He's got my number and calls it often. I remember this happened with Lambs when she was around this age, but MAN it's been a tough week. I hope this passes soon. I can get some real sleep when Aaron wakes up. Aaron is hopefully getting his turn at good, deep and restful sleep right now. I know he's just as tired as I am.

A Gaggle At Pikes Market

We had really nice weather today - a little chilly, but the sun was out shining down on us. Leya and I decided to take the kids to Pikes Market for a few hours this morning. We truly felt like we took over the halls walking through the market area with Leya pushing her twin babies girls, me wearing NoNo and pushing Lambs and Andre. Rita, was also there on her lunch break, enjoying time with her grandbabies and some sunshine.

The kids seemed to have a great time - especially when we let them out at the park to run wild. The had fun trying to catch all the birds, while eating a little dim sum.

I'm hoping for more nice weather in the next weeks - I'd love to go back again and spend a little more time.

Oh, after Leya and her gaggle left, Lambs, NoNo and I continued to walk around a while and Lambs we really fascinated with the guys throwing fish. Will have to go back there and see if she wants to touch them.

Halloween 2007

We love this holiday. We decorate the front of the house in anticipation of all the little witches, ghosts, ballerinas and skelotons. We all dress up, and then hand out candy. It's fun to hear those little ones coming up to he door 'no, you go up and ring the bell' 'man, this is scary' 'cool, look at all this' are some of the comments the kids make. We were a little bummed this year with the low turnout of trick or treaters.

We took the kids, NoNo the skunk and Lambs the ballerina, to InfoSpace this year for trick or treating. It was a lot of fun. Really, this was the happiest day in Elaina's world. All she had to do was walk around 4 floors nd collect as much candy as her little heart desired. Her eyes were never so big with the excitment of getting al this candy. I'm sure she was dreaming of eating each piece, too. We're not sure what happened but when we woke up the next morning both big pumpkin baskets were empty. No more candy. We looked and looked and looked, but could not find it - or that's the story we told Lambs -haha. We did let her eat a few pieces though, so we're not all that bad.

Remember that Memorx Commercial?

All that talk about the new tv - here it is. Lambs was sure to pull her chair up and watch her some Dora on the 'big screen' Dora - bigger than your head. HAHA. I think she loves the new tv as much as Aaron does.

Blog, Blog, Blog

I am so excited that I've finally got on the Blog wagon. I feel so behind the times! iTunes, iPods and all that - I'm so far behind. I think I know how this happened and how to fix it. It all started with cell phones, beleive it or not. I never had a cell phone until I moved to WA. Even when I moved here, it was a long time before got one. If I needed to reach someone, I'd use a phone. I knew your number, I knew how to push the bottoms and I knew how to leave you a message. I even knew how to set up my answer machine and press play when the light flashed. All of the sudden I get a cell phone, program in the number of friends and family and slowly my brain begins to go numb. After about 6 months, I no longer know your number, heck, I don't even remember my own number. What in the heck would I do if my phone was lost, I was lost and I ran out of gas. Hey, look, there's a payphone, and I have a quarter (or however much it costs these days) - now what do I do. The only phone numbers I have in my head are my home phone, my parents old home phone and sissy's phone. Now if Aaron was home, this would be great. But if not, I'm pretty sure my sissy, in Chicago, isn't going to be able to help me - haha. It's like the 90's were so long ago. I need to catch up.

Now I used to be really into music and still love all kinds, but I've been so far behind in the last 5 years - I feel like I'm, again, back in the 90's. How'd this happen. We'll I think it started when we bought our new house. Our townhouse in Bellevue had great wall space for us to have all our music on shelves, along with our DVD's. Now, we've not no wall space and all our movies and music are locked away in big binders - out of sight, out of mind - ya know what I mean? So I've got all this really cool music from around the world, and never think to play it. Now there's all this new music out there, but I've been so music-deprived, I'm just lost. My goal is to get some shelves up on the little bit of wall space we do have and get my music out and find that inner dancing, music loving, chilling with a glass of wine enjoying a night in the hot tub listening to music self.

Enter iPods. We'll this is short, cuz I don't know anything other than they are the 'cool hip thing' and everyone seems to have to have one. I have no idea how to work them, what uses they have and why people no longer use their cd walkman. Now I assume iTunes are what you put on your iPod, but honestly, I could be totally wrong on that that -haha. iMaggie know's that all this iStuff is so confusing. Technology has gotten so crazy, there's never going to the a 'best' because there's going to be something new a few months after the next big craze.

Something I do know a little about - and am loving is the Magelian RoadMate. I am so directionally challenged - it was really hard to find out how to get to new places. Going to playdates all the time, I was always needed to mapquest for directions. Then I'm supposed to navigate my big car, with precious cargo in tow, while reading a map. Yeah - not for me. We bought "Molly" from Costco a few months back and she's been my best girl ever since. She always tells me when to turn, how far it is, and will recalcute my route when needed.

When did it all get some complicated? I came to WA with my trusty 'ol 25 inch tube tv. It was great - one remote, easy buttons and it all worked. Just plug in my cable box and my VCR,that's right my VCR and I had great tv and movies. Oh, and my stereo was just as simple. So I could pop in a music cd at any time without having to switch channels, press buttons and get the almight 'ok' from these new fancy machines. We just bought Aaron a new tv, that's right - most of you know we already had this honkin' 50 inch Sony flat screen (which is now the kids tv) - but the HD had burned out, so this tv simply was no longer acceptable for my Aaron. I must say that you'd never know the HD was not working on this tv, unless you were really into HD watching and movies. It's a perfectly fine working tv. What ever happened to hooking up a tv in 20 minutes. Taking it out of the box, plugging in the cable jack to the back of the tv, and plugging that sucker into the wall. Grab the remote - that's right folks, ONE remote, and pressing play. It took Aaron 5 hours to set up his new tv, we've got all these remotes that he has had to program so we can use one remote - it's just crazy. All for high definition, larger screen to watch movies and better color. What can I say - men and their toys, right? It's ok. though - to see my mans face when that new tv was installed and all plugged up - it's all worth it.

I'm excited (not) to see what comes out next month, and how far behind we are now - haha. I'm even more excited to find some shelves, get them up and pull out my music. Stay tuned (haha, no pun intended) to hear how the shelf hunt goes. This is the first step to fix it - give mamma back her music - haha.

Lambs' First Rave

October 27, 2007

We took the kids to their first rave today. OK it wasn't really a rave, it was Baby Loves Disco, basically a rave for kids. It was Halloween time at BLD this month and Lambs got all dressed up. Our sweet ballet dancer loved putting on her outfit, and loved all the glitter she got to wear, too. It took her a little while to get into the party, but once she did she had a great time dancing and catching bubbles. When it was all over she told us how much fun she had at 'her party'. I think we'll do it again next month - maybe this time we'll bring a few of her friends along to help her relax a bit more and shake her grove thing. NoNo enjoyed his time there, too. While I didn't get any pictures of him, I did dance with him, while daddy was wearing him. He was looking around the whole time soaking it all in. Lots of smiles were sent out to the other little ladies being worn by their mommy and daddy.

Big Boy NoNo

Our little man is growing up so fast! He's already got 2 teeth and has started feeding himself. He loves applesauce, peas, sweet potatos and all kinds a squash. I made him carrots, too, but he's showing a dislike for them. I will keep trying and see if they take. He's sitting up like an 'ol pro, and loves to talk to us all the time. He is Lambs' biggest fan, and is always excited to give her hugs and kisses. We think he's going through a growth spurt or something since he's been super fussy the last few days. Last night he drank 15 ounces from 9pm til 6:30am. Needless to say sleep was not Aaron's friend last night (he took NoNo for the night). He's been nursing like crazy, too. He lets me in his mouth on the special occassion, and I can feel his gums all swollen - I think he's getting ready to pop a few more teeth on the bottom. It's very cute - he's so confused about what's going on with his mouth - he always tries to suck his teeth out of his mouth. HAHA - it's really funny. He'll just start making these sucking noises and you look and you'd swear he's trying to suck his teeth out.