Nate & Katie's Wedding: Video Preview

I still need to get a full post up about the wedding, but I'll give you a little preview, via some videos....

Unfortunately, I didn't get my camera on in time to get the full effect of this garter removal.  But let me just tell you, if you know my brother at all, you would have been amazed by it.  Nate is generally very quiet, so when he busted out some choreographed moves while removing the garter, jaws were dropping all over the reception.  It was awesome.

Speaking of sweet moves, I'm not sure where Jake & Ben picked up theirs, but they had a great time.  We practically had to drag them off of the dance floor whenever they needed to use it for the more formal dances.

Labor Day Weekend 2011

Sometimes, I feel like I live for 3 day weekends. I measure time at work in between paid holidays. (thus, the time between Labor Day and Thanksgiving seems to draaaaaaaaaag) We spent our Labor Day weekend visiting the Martini family in Virginia! The boys had a fun time reuniting, as always.



On Sunday morning, we headed out to Great Country Farm to participate in their potato dig. Our reason for going was two-fold; the adults got some potatoes out of the deal and the kids were forced to do some manual labor (in the hopes of wearing them out before nap time!)



The farm had so much stuff for kids to do! We enjoyed a pancake breakfast, tractor ride, train ride, playgrounds and a moon bounce.





Liam enjoyed his time at the farm by taking a nice long nap while Brian carried him around in the Ergo, then had a little snack, then took in all of the sights and sounds for the last hour or so.



On Sunday evening, the men headed into DC for the night to celebrate Brian's 30th birthday. They enjoyed themselves (even though they headed back to the hotel early in the night and still woke up out of habit at 6am!), and we had a girls night back at the house once the kiddos were in bed.

Thanks for having us, we look forward to the next visit! :)

Reunion!

It's hard living hours away from our BFF's, but it's always so much fun when we get to have visits with them. The Martini family came over on Saturday, and we were lucky this time that they were able to have a sleepover! We were also joined by another family-Jen, Michael, Jack & Sidney.




I have to say, it's so nice that the kids are at an age now where we can just kind of turn them loose in the house & let them do their own thing. Most of the time, the kids were doing one thing, the men were congregated somewhere & the women were in another room. Everyone got to have time with their friends, it was fabulous! Aside from a few of the usual scuffles ("NO, that's MINE!"), the kids had a great time together.



The boys played until they reached the point of sheer exhaustion (yet somehow, still resisted going to bed---ahhh, to have even half of their energy!) and we got to spend some time together in the morning before the Martinis had to head back home.

Birthday weekend fun

I think it's safe to say that Jake really enjoyed his birthday this year. He started things off on Friday by bringing Steelers cupcakes into school. When I picked him up & asked if he had fun, his answer was "It was my birthday, I stood on a chair and my fwiends sang a song. The chair wobbled! I ate a cupcake and shared with my fwiends. Then, I save the cupcakes in my tubby (cubby)". He said that paragraph in one big, excited breath :)

Nana & PopPop came in Friday evening and enjoyed some outdoor activities with us on Saturday. We still have tons of snow, and it was the perfect day for some sled riding.



He opened his presents from us and Nana & PopPop that afternoon, then we settled in for the Steelers game. Poor kid is always going to have to compete with the Steelers during the playoffs anytime they're having a good season, but he enjoyed watching the game and telling the men who were yelling loudly sometimes "You need to use your inside voice!" :)



Sunday was his official birthday party, and we were happy to have GG & Pappy, Uncle Nate & Aunt Katie, Aunt Missa, Uncle Dennis, Ben and my Uncle Kip & his fiancee Gena join us for the day!! Jake is a very lucky boy & received lots of fun new toys.




As always, the highlight of his day was seeing his BFF, Ben. The two of them are just little giggle monsters when they get together. And obviously, they both share a love of cupcakes.

Weekend Recap

I was so grateful to have almost all of my Christmas prep done last week, because we had a really busy weekend planned and it was nice to enjoy it without stressing over all of the stuff that needed to be done.

Saturday started out with a trip to visit the BFF's, who were in town for the weekend! As always, the boys had a great time together and exchanged gifts. Jake received an Aquadoodle, bath crayons and 2 rock & roll race cars....all of which he has been playing with since then (thanks, Martini Family!)


We went to the annual Capo Christmas Open House that evening, where there was tons of yummy food and multiple rounds of cornhole.


We celebrated my bday a bit early that evening with my family, check out the pretty cake!


On Sunday, my cousin and her family came to my mom's house for a visit...the kids don't get to see each other very often, but it's very cute when they do get together:



We made it home that afternoon just in time to watch the Steelers lose (boo!). It was a busy, but fun weekend....it's what the holidays are all about, right?

Beach Bums!

I'm still shaking sand off of things and trying to return to the real world, but we are back from our annual vacation with the Martini Family! It was another wonderful vacation and a VERY much needed break this year with all of the craziness of our upcoming move, it was so nice to take a week away from it all and just spend time as a family.



Our daily routine typically went like this: wake up at the crack of dawn (thanks for that one, toddlers), get ready for the beach, go to beach alllllll morning/early afternoon, come home for lunch/naps, sometimes head back down to beach depending on the time. Rinse & repeat for 6 days and end up with a very happy little man who did not want to leave his buddy Ben, or his beloved beach.



Jake begged to "jump the waves" all week, which basically meant one of us picking him up, letting him "swim" toward a wave, then pulling him up right before it hit him (most of the time....one super strong wave came & went right over top of him & Brian one time, oops). Jake had a great time, mama used muscles she hasn't used in...um, ever. Who knew what a workout vacation could be?




The boys would sporadically start cheering "Boozeshakes, Boozeshakes, Boozeshakes!" (which is a drink that Brian concocted for our luau), so we gave in after a few days and whipped up a nonalcoholic version of it. They proceeded to cheers, chug, then run around the house on a sugar high.



Another highlight as far as food for the boys was going out for ice cream, as evidenced here:


We decided to get creative halfway through the week by getting dressed up, heading down to the beach & having a little photo session. We got some really great shots, which I'm really excited about, because I have a lot of new space to decorate in the new house & I think a lot of these will look really nice once they're framed:



Just look at these two, I was in cuteness overload by the end of the week. It's a good thing they get along so well on their own, they have no choice but to be BFF's!! :)