January highlights

Here are some highlights from January since I didn't document them at the time.

There was lots of silliness.

Uncle Nick came on his way out of town for business. 

There was snuggling. 

Rocky (the stuffed dog from school) came home with Gianna for the weekend, which she LOVED. And since January was not super cold, we got to use the scooter from Santa and even climb some trees!

Christmas 2011...you read that right

Yeah, so I haven't blogged about Christmas yet. So here's what I remember; good thing I have pictures to help. Although, I was a terrible photographer as usual because of sleep deprivation and bad colds for all of us. There is barely evidence that we were with all the kids grandparents! BUT, Christmas was a great time regardless.  (By the way, Gianna's tooth trauma reached its peak of awful blackness right around Christmas so that's why she looks toothless in some pics. It's almost back to normal now.) As you can see the kids had a great time with their cousins, Bella and Jack.

Jack was pleased as punch to get some quality art-time with the girls!

Santa and his elf made a special appearance at Nonna and Pop-pop's house. Gianna was a little suspicious (i.e. scared) and Mark only agreed to get near him because of the promise of a cookie. It was great fun to see all the kids surprised faces!

I think everyone had a good Christmas, but I'm not sure, I can't remember. 

Kitchen renovation so far

Okay because adding pictures on this blog sucks, they're a little nuts. But here are before and after shots of the two sides of our kitchen. I have to say that looking at them side by side it doesn't seem that different, but I assure you that the old cabinets were small, dirty, and awful. We're loving the extra space (cabinets to the ceiling and extended counter tops) and the more attractive look. The floors have yet to be done. Hopefully soon, especially since the floors are the main reason we started this nonsense.

Below is the nonsense I was talking about. We lived with a whole set of extra cabinets in our kitchen for two week because our first contractor never showed up. I'll spare you the details of all that, mostly because it still nauseates me to think about. But thanks to my father-in-law we still got it done in time for Thanksgiving.

At least the kids enjoyed the fun that packing up the kitchen and emptying the cabinets provided!

Thanksgiving 2011!

Thanksgiving was a close-call this year! Our kitchen was finished getting remodeled on Tuesday. I promise there will be a whole post just about the kitchen complete with before and after pictures soon. But it was finished just in time and we couldn't be more thrilled. Grandma and Grandpa arrived on Tuesday and we had a fun couple of days getting ready. Then Nonna and Pop-pop arrived on Thursday and stayed through the weekend while Grandma and Grandpa left on Friday.

We girls all made the center piece and name cards. It was super fun. I think the adults had more fun than Gianna!

Of course there was lots of time for playing. 

And posing for pictures in Gianna's school hats was fun for everyone!

The kids both tasted pumpkin pie for the first time. They weren't super impressed. 

Mark spent a lot of the weekend in this doll stroller for some reason. I predict it's demise will come very soon!

Gianna made delicious ginger bread with Nonna!

And she won the wish bone contest with Daddy. 

And she helped decorate the tree on Sunday. Phew, busy weekend!

Mark is 2!

November 20th was Mark's 2nd birthday. I still can't believe my baby is two! We started with a visit to Santa, hence the Christmas-y outfits on the kids. Time with Santa was apparently not on Mark's birthday wish-list. But after that trauma, he very much enjoyed all his balloons, presents and cake. (P.S. He had his 2-year appointment shortly after his birthday. He's 35.5 inches tall and 33 pounds, both 90th percentile-ish.)

And here is a video where Mark almost sets himself on fire. He's fine, just a little melted wax on his face. We're good parents...really.

Family time!

Back in November we went away for the weekend to see Doug's brother's family in PA and then on to Binghamton to see more of Doug's extended family. (We thought we'd be escaping the disaster that was our kitchen remodel, but it turns out it hadn't even started yet...but that's a whole other post!)

The kids and I spent a lovely couple of days with Elizabeth, Bella, and Jack. The kids all had a great time playing and eating together. Then Doug joined us Friday night and we all went to Binghamton in the morning. The first stop was Grandpa Ray's house.  Miraculously, I was able to get this shot of him with all the kids and no tears. I was stunned.

We had a great time catching up with lots of family and look forward to seeing them again in the winter.

Natural History Museum

At the beginning of November, our friend Kelly was visiting NYC. We were able to see her on Saturday by meeting her at the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. There are no pictures of the great start of the day which was tipping the double stroller over in the middle of a cross walk: picture both kids completely upside-down and not able to be seen under the tipped stroller and screaming. Luckily, the only real injury sustained was to Gianna's front tooth. The tooth is now gray, but the dentist says there is no damage to the tooth, so losing the tooth in a few years will cure that problem. Anyway, where was I. Yes, the museum. It was very cool. The kids loved the dinosaurs and we were thrilled to see our friend!