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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Rafael's Birthdays

My little man turned 2 in November!  What an awful mama that I'm not even writing about it until February!  The lucky little man got 3 different birthday celebrations because of all the craziness of Thanksgiving and surrounding weeks.

For his "friend" birthday party, I had fun putting together a dinosaur themed brunch party.





We had a Dino Dig Site outside which the kids largely ignored because it was a beautiful day and ohmygoodness LEAVES!!!!



I saw a neat idea for "volcano lava cakes" on Pinterest, but they didn't turn out quite as beautifully as I was hoping.  Oh well, they were still delicious!!!!  (And huge thanks to my friend Tina for helping me make them!)



Rafael got TONS of boy toys including various cars galore!  We have a whole toy bin dedicated to cars now!
I made little favors out of leftover Halloween candy whoppers.
It was such a fun day!

He also celebrated with our choir family at one of our choir practices.
Sitting with his Nina Amy

Blowing out his birthday candles with his sister and Nina's Andrea & Amy

Enjoying his dessert with his Nina's

Opening his present from his ninas.
Here he is playing with his gift.  Such a cutie!
His THIRD celebration (what a lucky boy!) was on his actual birthday, which fell on Thanksgiving this year! We celebrated with family after our big dinner by having him blow out a couple of candles on a cupcake.

All in all, I think his birthday was thoroughly celebrated this year!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

My new niece

I have a new adorable little niece!  It was fun being pregnant at the same time as my sister - but not the first time!  I was also pregnant at the same time as my oldest sister and that was cool too.  It is nice to have cousins who are the same age - or close enough!

I combined forces with my sister's mother-in-law and provided all the decorations and games for my sister's shower in October.  It was so much fun!
The invitations that I made
 I didn't get any other shot of the decorations, which is a shame because they were so cute!  I did a pink/green/brown butterfly theme.  So fun!
Playing a blindfolded diapering the baby game

My 7 year old niece was the fastest!

My sister with my Grandma, Aunts, Cousin and niece and nephew

My 2 sisters

My sister with me and the kiddos

2 pregnant sisters!  It's funny because I felt HUGELY pregnant and the time and you can hardly even tell!
My adorable niece was born in the wee early hours of Nov. 19th.
Meeting her for the first time

A month later at Christmas
I just saw her again on Tuesday and while I didn't get a picture she was wide awake, alert and watching the other kiddos play!  I can't believe how fast they grow up!

Fall Recap - Little Stuff

While I was doing my last post and uploading photos of all the exciting things we did this past Fall, I realized that most of the photos I wanted to post were completely unexciting, everyday things.  So here's what happened in our day-to-day life this fall.

Rafael started joining Michaela and I during our school-at-home time.  It was a rocky start while we figured each other out.  Like me learning never to leave Michaela's dry-erase-marker work out with him nearby...

And to put a lock on my homeschooling cabinet!

They both had way too many moments of general cuteness!






They both got used to the idea of "babies in tummies" since both I and their Tia Racquel were pregnant.
This is supposed to be the baby in their Tia's tummy

This is supposed to be the baby in my tummy
They had a lot of snuggle time with Philip and I




Rafael proved he was a hungry growing boy by always eating all of Michaela's food after she ate her "required" 3 bites.
He also started becoming more independent - entering the "I do it all by myself" phase!

Michaela finally had legs long enough to ride the tricycle she got last Christmas - and she took her brother along for the ride!
The kids were obsessed with our massive leave piles out front.  All I had to do to get a few minutes to myself were bundle them up and take them to the front yard.  They would play for a good 45 minutes in those leaves while I read or worked on the computer in my little lawn chair!



I love looking back at pictures and watching my little ones grow up!