towels

Who says the kitchen towels and bibs should be folded ever so neatly and stacked in a drawer! Completely overrated in Brie's opinion! Crazy little thing thought they would be better served unfolded and on the floor, thus ready to go! She was quite proud of her idea and it gave everyone a good juckle.

snow seriously

Seriously snow, snow go away we have had enough already! This is the view out our deck tonight at 6pm and now at 9 pm the ground is all white! It is not that it isn't pretty I have just had enough. If it is snowing that means the temp if below 32 degrees and I am ready for 60's and 70's! Come on SPRING! The ONLY benefit of the snow is the lawn guy came last Thursday and his instructions were, saturate the ground. Well if our 3 inches on Thursday night was not enough then maybe tonights 3 to 5 inches will be enough to do the trick! Crossing my fingers this is the last time we see any white stuff until December 24th!

Tubbie time

Pete and the girls went to a church event Sunday evening so it was just me and the babes! They absolutely LOVE bathtime and usually we are in the just get it done mode, but tonight I let them play and they splashed, laughed, and carried on for like 40 minutes! PJ then announced the water was cold, yes indeed it was. I was able to fold the laundry and put it away as they played! Nothing like ease dropping on two little ones having the time of their lives in the bathtub! priceless squeels of delight!

PJ and Brie cheesing it up for the camera! Nothing beats a freshly bathed baby with "dooddies"(lotion) on ! A person could snuggle them all night!!

I love the baby blues as well!

Standing solo

I am not sure if I mentioned it and I am too lazy to go back to old posts and look, but as we were away pop decided it would be great if Brie learned how to walk. He was getting her to practice by using his cell phone as a ploy. While he was not completely successful she is now taking 4 to 6 steps consistently. However, this photo shows her independently standing in the middle of the floor unaided. Sure we are on the heels of her turning 14 months but I am NOT a pusher for them to walk, especially #4! She of course thought she was big stuff and had to keep demonstrating that she can indeed stand by herself! I need to take her in and see what she is weighing these days as she seems so petite to me. It is lighter on my back and she remains more of a baby to me this way.

Crazy PJ could not be left out of the photo fun! He insisted I take a photo of him as well as Brie. I caved and said do something cute and this is what I got! okay PJ you win, pretty cute! He really is a ham!

Anniversary Party

My folks hosted a 10th Anniversary party with my siblings at their house for Pete and I. It was a very nice get together filled with lots of laughter, some tears, and many memories.

Who said a St. Patrick's Day wedding wouldn't be a lifetime of fun! We have enjoyed our anniversary every year!
My brother captured a photo with the moon rising just over Pete's shoulder. We are holding flowers my sister gave us. They a solar lights and at night they glow and change colors. We put them next to our Marian statue and they really are pretty, I would recommend them!

Here is the crew. My siblings and siblings in law. Again thank you to everyone! It was a very nice evening together, cannot wait to see everyone at Easter! Love to all.

bonding

So we headed to my folks on Friday for alittle bonding time! Once again getting 6 people to all look at the camera at the same time is challenging. The individual pictures below turned out pretty cute.

Gabriellie with her grandpa!

PJ saying cheese and grandpa stealing PJ's hat! adorable!

"Barney" and grandpa, he has this nickname for her and it has stuck! When he says "there's my Barney" she just melts and beams with happiness!

Makayla is just a true sweetheart. She just really loves her grandparents so much! She stated Friday how lucky she was to have seen all four of her grandparents in the same day! I had to agree, yes very lucky! enjoy every moment sweet girl!

St. Patrick's Day!

We returned on St. Patrick's Day and granny and pop had the table all decorated and ready for the day. We owe them a HUGE THANK YOU!!! they managed to keep the kids all very happy and the house was still standing upon our return. We are extremely grateful to have had the chance to escape and have a vacation. The kids so enjoyed every moment with them! Pop and the baby bonded immediately and granny brought enough art supplies to last a year! The girls were in heaven. I spoke with the girls Monday night and got pretty teary eyed when we hung up so the next call was filtered through Pete. We so enjoyed our time away but we both were ready to see them Wednesday night! It was hard to be away from the baby. I tell you what though it does not take long to fall right back into routine, once I had to remind them I was just gone on a long trip and they missed me! Their behavior improved for a bit and then it was back to normal. The honeymoon period is definately over.

The girlies posing for their green day!

PJ was not wanting his photo taken, however I did sneak this one in.

I think I have a very similar photo from last year of Miss Brie. I will have to find it and do a comparision.

Vegas

Las Vegas in pictures! Pete and I decided we would head to Vegas for our 10th Anniversary. Pete's parents very kindly came into town to care for the crew while we were away. We headed out Sunday afternoon and returned Thursday afternoon.

This is the view from our room to the left and to the right. I have no idea what is north, south, east, and west in this city. We were on the 49th floor of a 56 story hotel. My ears popped every trip up and every trip down that elevator! We had a very nice room with a fantastic view! Our room was very nice, it had remote shades and curtains! That part cracked me up! a pretty cool feature though!

This is the strip by day. We managed to walk from Mandalay Bay to Circus Circus! It is like a 5 mile walk, granted we did not walk it in one fell swoop but we did walk a ton everyday! It was very neat to see each of the hotels and check out all the things each of them had to offer. I do not have a favorite but Paris, New York, Ceasars and the Venetian were on the top of my list.

This is the night view from our room, straight across from the Effel Tower look out and overlooking the Bellagio water fountains. We were able to enjoy a show every 15 minutes right from our window.

It was a little intimidating to look up that tower and know we were about to go to the top of it!

We made it! It is a glass elevator I might add!

This is looking to the right from the top of the tower.

This is looking to the left at the top of the tower. Our hotel set back to the right of this picture a bit. What we learned was with some binoculars one could watch the t.v. in our room from the tower!! yikes

One of the shows we went to was Penn and Teller. A magician/comedy act. A very funny show. After they came to the lobby and I was able to get a photo with each of them, however the one with Teller was to blurry to post. Penn is extremely tall and though Teller says nothing in the show he does have a voice! OK so imagine the photo here, I had it here and hit delete accidently and now I can not get it to come back to the spot. Sorry, just pretend it is here! ha

Another show was the Price Is Right, after a ticket mix up we were given booth seats in the front! It was very entertaining, neither of us got called up but it was fun none the less.

So this is the magical water fountain view from our room, pretty amazing! It is a spectacular show that is set precisly to beautiful music!



We enjoyed many other shows along the strip. We enjoyed a romantic gondala ride(the camera battery was dead for that adventure:~( )and Treasure Islands's Pirate Show, and the locals who were dressed up like everyone from Star Wars characters to Woody from Toy story.

Our last night in Vegas ended with a beautiful sunset. We managed to enjoy a couple drinks, did a little gambling but mostly just enjoyed our time together! It was such a blessing to have 4 whole days to ourselves and our schedules and decisions. We were able to have complete conversations and enjoy hot food. It made me fall in love all over again. 10 years of marriage has gone by so quickly. I pray the next 10 years will be filled with so many blessings and memories and love!

Good bye Las Vegas it was a wonderful trip, definately worth the visit!

Glee

PJ and Brie come up with their own fun, as shown here. She is screaming in sheer delight! PJ pushes her with his train. They together came up with the little set up, "Brie Brie you sit here", says PJ,"hold on Brie, fun huh" giggle giggle! This two little people are so entertaining!! We love our babies!

Puppy Love

So Auntie Coke has given the kids musical holiday stuffed animals in the past. Valentines this year we added a "wild thing" monster and a puppy. The puppy has become Brie's favorite toy. It plays a song and uses it's tail to roll everywhere. The minute Brie hears the song the puppy is doomed! She crawls as fast as she can straight toward it and attacks it as demonstrated in the video. It makes me laugh, enjoy.

Maggie's concert

Maggie's preschool held a concert today. Maggie was the lead singer, this was not planned but apparently she liked these songs a lot! She was pretty shy and quiet for the the Christmas show but not today! She belted out her songs for the whole room to hear, I left the camcorder at home so I do not have any proof of her performance. You bet I will not make that mistake again. She did a very good job and everyone smiled. She is standing next to the little man(on the right) who was the leader at Christmas so watch out spring program if they leave those two standing together!!

no photos

Pete and I had a date and we were able to enjoy Jeff Dunham live. His show was definately enjoyable and we were in good company. The next morning I headed to a Pampered Chef party and enjoyed some visiting with family. Then Jill and I were off for massages compliments of her hubby for her birthday. We were pampered for a fantastic hour. Then off to shopping, dinner and a movie without kiddos, and a full night of sleep!!! Up Sunday and off to mom and dad's for a short chat and then back home. A few quick loads of laundry, bill paying, and cleaning ending my weekend. Now for Monday......

B-I-N-G-O

So some girls from work came over to our place for Binner(breakfast for dinner) on Saturday night and then we went to BINGO. We had a BLAST! We got a lot of shushing from the little blue hairs sitting around us! We did not listen to them and carried on having a grand old time. Though none of us got a BINGO some of us bought raffles tickets and I WON!!! I was told to run up to the front, which I did and then I got to pick my prize. I hear from the pack of "animals"( as we were referred to once earlier in the night) GET THE TOLIET PAPER. I went with the group and got the TP!!! I had to share with each of the girls. The photo below displays our fun! As the night came to a close we came up with a plan for the next BINGO trip!! We decided next time we are going to put up signs that state our table will not be quiet!! hehehe