The Magic of the Holidays...

I love this time of year... Lots of food, presents, family, and the magic of the season. My boys had an absolute blast with our "Elf" that came to keep an eye on them until Christmas Eve. They were sooooo good that Santa loaded the house with a zillion presents. Christmas Eve morning the boys were both up at 4am.. Nanny said Matthew had gone downstairs around 2am and asked.. "Nan, are you awake?" her response "No buddy, go back to sleep..." hahahaha That bought us an additional 2 blissful hours.

Christmas morning we were all up, presents were unwrapped, and breakfast was on the table by 7am.. Yep... We have early risers which is perfect. My mom, myself, and the boys are so in the spirit of the holiday.. we were all up early in great anticipation to what Santa had left us!

Jake was so interested by the tree and all the ornaments. He loved to hold them and watch them swirl... The innocence of a baby exploring his world.. Precious!


Matthew loved decorating cookies, tables, chairs, and even the floor had sprinkles!!!! So fun!

To my surprise we had a lovely White Christmas! I feel like it has been years since we had snow on Christmas!!! It was awesome! Nan and Pap had to leave a bit early to beat out the blizzard, but it was great!

My baby's first birthday!

Happy First Birthday Jacob! I love you my dear Jake.

You light up my life with that wide, bright eyed smile of yours. Your silly antics like climbing on your chair and then up onto the couch to harass your brother. Carrying your Woody doll all over the house, playing ball with Matthew, and pulling Murray's tail... You are one of the happiest, light hearted, loving people of my life and I thank every day for you. You are so snuggly (when you want to be), super silly, and you definitely know what you want.

I am excited to see the man you will become and I am a little sad to see that little baby growing up so darn quickly.

My wish for you sweetie pie, is that life will take you on a never ending adventure. I hope that I am always there to help you up when you fall, hold your hand when you are scared, and relish in that smile when you have done something that you and I are proud of!

Happy first birthday bright eyes! We love you!

Additional Turkey Day fun.....

We also had a super fun visit to Hershey Candylane one night. We bundled up and headed out for cocoa, lights, rides, prizes and fun! I won Matthew a really cool little Elmo Elf and Gpa won the boys little stuffed sharks! We had Warm Nuts (hee hee), popcorn, soft pretzels, and cocoa... YUM!

We visited with Kristin and her awesome family of 5 (kids that is...) Matthew loves playing with the boys and Zoe and Jake kinda hit it off...

Thanksgiving was AWESOME!!! All the kids, cousins, grandkids, and great grandkids spent the day at my Aunt Terri's and Uncle Jeff's house (Lindsay's too)! We had delicious food, a whole lotta laughs, presents ( a mini xmas for the kids) and some perfect family time. The kids both got some awesome presents and got to spend time running around with their cousins. Exactly what Thanksgiving should be!

I am so thankful for all my family and friends!

The only bummer was Jake's first visit to the ER. He had croup and a terrible ear infection. He was a little trooper though it all...

Vaca to PA..Turkey day, Candylane, and a whole lotta fun!

So we had our annual drive to PA for Thanksgiving week. It started off with the boys and I driving the 7 (oops 10 hours) to PA. We had a super fun stop at the Crayola Factory. (Jonny flew down a few days later.. he is not a driver ;)) We had an awesome visit with my family and some old high school friends!

My dad built an amazing boat... You saw an old post on my blog I am sure. It is amazing. Pictures do not do it justice.. He swears that Jake is going to be the sailor.. so here is a super cute pic of our little sailor!

We headed then to Monkey Joes this amazingly fun warehouse for kids, full of the biggest, most gigantic bouncy houses and slides ever!!! Matthew and Jake had a blast. Nanny, Gpa and I were worn out but the end of that trip! We also had a trip to the mall to build a super cool Abominable Snow monster and Snowflake! We also has a ton of fun playing in the leaves and blowing gigantic bubbles!

Jake was also baptized in my Uncle's gorgeous church the day Jon flew in! He wasn't the happiest baby that day! Here is brother Matthew trying to make him feel better!

(more in the next post....)

Trick or Treating....

Halloween this year was sooo much fun! We started off with some pumpkin picking and a hayride, we celebrated with a Spooktacular Halloween Party with 27 kids. Yup! 27 kiddos all at our house... It was a gorgeous fall day so we were outside.. Bouncy house, costumes, cupcakes, and sooo much silly spooky fun! Buzz (Jake), Woody(Matt), Jessie (Me) and an Alien(Jon boy)!

Then we headed to Patriot Place for some Tricks and Treats and a HUGE bouncy house... Matthew was Lightening McQueen because he wanted an easy costume there! :)

Finally, it was Halloween and the real trick or treating begun.... Jake really wanted the candy...

Matthew visited a few houses, but had a blast handing out candy to all the kids!!! I have to give Jon props for the pumpkins.. He made an awesome Mickey Mouse and the one in the picture.. Donald Duck!

apples, pumpkins, hayrides, and more fall fun...

Have I mentioned yet how much I (we) love the fall... Football, crisp cool mornings, pumpkin spice coffee, colored leaves, Halloween, candy, friends, costumes, family, Thanksgiving, delicious fall beer, snuggling, racking leaves (pine needles), more snuggles...so fun!!

Well we started off with our first fall adventure. The entire family headed to an adorable farm up the road for a morning of pumpkin picking... We were in search of the "perfect" pumpkins!!

Well the perfect pumpkins were found!!!

Matthew wanted every pumpkin in the patch. Big, small, gords, butternut squash.. I swear everything ended up in our little red wagon! (Even the kids)

It was an awesome day... We even found time to decorate some for our annual kids Halloween party! It was a perfect day! I love my boys! And I love spending time together as a family on a gorgeous fall day! What more could a girl as for!

finally.. ski jumps too! part 4

Here are a finally few shots from the Olympic Ski Jumping complex! It was so flipping awesome! Seriously those guys have some brass balls to be jumping from those heights. We rode the chair lift to the top of the jumping ramps and watched them practice... then we headed up the elevator to the tippy top of the jumping platforms! HOLY **** it was sooo high and sooo fun!

Oh my gravy..... can you seriously believe people ski down this and then jump off it...

We also had a chance to watch the freestyle jumpers too. They actually fly off the ramp, do some crazy flips and spins and turns and then land in a pool for practice! So wild!
hmmm do you think the boys will make the 20.... Olympics as Ski Jumpers???

and some more vaca.....part 3

We headed up to High Falls peak for some hiking and some awesome views of the waterfalls since it had rained heavey earlier in the week it was AWESOME!!!! Below are some fun family shots....

The birthday couple! Don't they look great for oldies :) :)

Our little family!!! Yep, I did carry Matthew part of the way on my shoulders.. He told me his legs were broken!!

Aren't these brothers just the cutest!

The whole crew posing for a pic! It was great fun adn an easy hike!

Jon and his boys at the end of the hike and so ready for some Hot Cocoa and a nap!!

60, 64, laughs, hiking, beautiful views, and family fun! part 2

Ooh here are a few more pictures from Santa's Workshop... Jake and I were riding the Merry go round so you get a nice view of the reindeer bum bum...

Matthew and Gpa had a blast feeding the "real" Santa's reindeer...

The afternoon after seeing Santa we headed up Whiteface. It was gorgeous. Cold (ice on the trees). We thought we could take the elevator to the top of Whiteface... So, we headed into the mountain down this long tunnel to wait in line to take an elevator in the middle of the mountain. Yay Right! I am slightly claustrobhobic, well in there I thought I was going to pass out. So I took off, back out the tunnel with Dad and Jake. Matthew, Mom and Jon took the elevator to the top. Dad, Jake and I hiked to the top. How hard could it actually be when the trail starts out with stairs... I only had a 20lb baby and a 5lb pack strapped to my back... It was well worth the struggle (at one point I was pulling myself over a boulder and Dad was trying to push me... we gave everyone there a few laughs for sure!)

60, 64, laughs, hiking, beautiful views, and family fun! part 1

So... My Dad turned 64 this year and Mom hit the BIG 60!!! We decided to celebrate in Lake Placid, NY... We staid at a beautiful resort on Mirror Lake, private beach, paddle boats, and glorious views... Here is a view one morning from our bedroom!

Nanny got alot of love from her grandsons... In the picture above we had said to Matt Man that he has red hair just like his Nanny.. His response "Yep, from Hugging!" Too cute and where do they come up with this stuff!

Matthew's favorite part were the friendly ducks.. In this picture it looks as if he is scaring them and yes he was trying to.. Boys :)

The first day was a little on the rainy side so we enjoyed the Wild Center. So fun watching the otters play, hiking around, and learning about the environment. Matthew made a little friend too... My silly hubby is playing around with the only moose we saw ;)

Then off to Santa's Workshop (kinda lame) but the kids loved it. Dad and Jon got in on the fun too!

Ladies man... Look what I got in the mail...

Isn't he adorable... thought anyone reading would enjoy this adorable picture!

Battleships? and some summertime fun...

Matthew sliding down the biggest anchor ever!!

Jacob showing his super cute side...

My parents made the trek to New England last weekend to visit us and boy did we have some fun! The Beach, Battleship Cove, and some pool time!

Battleship cove was Awesome. My grandfather (my dad's dad) used to be the first mate on the Blakeley (during WWII) and so my dad got to check out a ship almost like the Blakeley.. Also, a submarine and some other awesome Navy ships. It was an incredible day. I heard some old stories about my family and my dad had the chance to reminisce.

We also had the opportunity to view the 9 11 memorial to the loved ones from Massachusetts lost that terrible day. It was a very nice memorial that I teared up reading.

It amazes me how much our Military employees and families give up every day to protect all of us here in the USA. I know they wouldn't have it any other way but I am impressed by all of them. Thank you seems too simple an expression to thank them for what they do for all of us each and every day. But THANK YOU to all our Military, you are amazing people and so are your families.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend and the Awesome fun we had....

Gpa, Jon, and Jake chilling on the SHIP!



Nanny and her boys (Ladies Man) getting ready to chow at the mess....