Xmas Recap in Pics

Yep, life has taken over....I've been MIA for months now living life.
As we end another year, here are some pictures from our holiday....

Happy New Year everyone!

August?!

I can't believe it's August already.

Did you see when I last posted? Over a month ago. Life has been so crazy. With Avery home all summer, I've had zero time to be doing this. Normally I fiddle on this during naptime when my housework is done. But now I have Avery home, so naptime isn't really "my" time right now. I'm lucky I get the housework done these days!

Anywho....we've been so busy this summer.  Our entire month of July was booked before July even started-including my days off during the week. Doctors appts, dental cleanings, going places, visiting with people. And our weekends were the same way.

I don't even know where to start so this is just going to be a random post of stuff from the last month. Avery chose a pretty cool birthday present this year...but that will be it's own post when I can get to it!

We had Gabe's annual family reunion at the lake on July 4th....

Red, White, and Blue!

and even got to go on a boat ride! Avery loved it! Cassie wouldn't step foot on it!

Bianca, Molly, Owen, Mark

The kids had a good time swimming that day too!

Avery

My Mom had a few free tickets to an amusement park here that I haven't been to in about 15yrs! So we decided to take the kids for the day. My Mom met us there and my friend Megan and her family met us too. We had a really great day-the kids loved it. Avery wanted to go on everything, but of course wasn't tall enough to. Cassie was a stinker and refused to go on a lot of things, but eventually we dragged her on a few rides and she had fun!

Avery and I at the top of the ferris wheel

Avery and Leigha

Gabe and I celebrated 7 years of marriage! My Mom watched the kids so we could go out for dinner that night-was really nice!

YUM!

Before dinner, I had a chance to visit with my old neighbor. His Mom and my Mom have lived on the same street for at least 35 years and him and I grew up together. I haven't seen him in probably close to 10 years (he lives out of state now) and we actually were in town at the same time for once. It was really great seeing with him and briefly catching up!

Dominic and I

We also have gotten some use out of the bounce house this summer! My friend Jessica came in to visit us for the day and we had a great time. I think it had been at least a year since we saw each other, but we picked up like it was yesterday. Our kids all played really well together too!

Connor

Caroline

It's been a really great summer so far-it's hard to believe we have less than 4 weeks left until school starts back up. And of course those weeks are quickly filling up with things to do!

Long Overdue

Over the weekend, we took a long overdue trip to Buffalo.  We haven't been there in at least 2 months I'm guessing...which is a long time for us!

Megan and Renee and their kids stopped by for some fun!

Puzzles:

Celebrating Noah's birthday a month late!

Cassandra loving up a "baby" (Sabrina-who's just as big as her!)!

Sabrina

As you can see, my friends have very tall kids....Sabrina is 20months old and Cassie is 3!

Leigha is only about 11wks older than Cassie!

Cassie and Leigha, Noah and Avery!

We had a nice, relaxing day! And at the end, my girls showed that they do love each other-well, at least Cassie loves her big sister! Haha!

No plans to go back yet, but hopefully now with summer vacation coming, we can go sooner rather than later. Although we do have a special birthday coming up which is interfering with our weekends!

Spring Break!

The end of Avery's spring break is almost here. Tomorrow is Easter and she's back to school on Monday. 

We had a great week with her off though!

On Monday, Renee and Sabrina came from Buffalo to visit us for the afternoon. The kids had a ball playing with Sabrina, who is now running around with them! They had a lot of fun! And of course I'm kicking myself because I didn't get a single picture of them together!

I worked like usual on Tuesday and Wednesday.

We had a little scare on Wednesday afternoon though. Daycare called my work around 4pm saying that Cassandra fell and bumped her head and that we "might want to take her somewhere".  Gabe went and got her and texted me that they were headed to the doctor's office. I met them there after getting out of work. She ended up cutting the back of her head open, and thankfully it wasn't bad enough for stitches. I guess it bled a lot (by the looks of her clothes) and her hair was all matted to it so it was hard to tell just how bad it was until we got there. We all took a sigh of relief and grabbed some junk food (aka Wendy's) for dinner on the way home for the kids.

Thursday, we took the girls to their first movie. Well....Avery has been to one with my Father-in-Law before, but this was the first time we took her. The girls really wanted to see the new "Cinderella", so that's what we saw. Avery was great. Cassandra did pretty well, but did get antsy at times. I think since it wasn't animated it was harder to keep her attention. Overall they did really well though and the movie was amazing if you haven't seen it yet!

Friday was our  neighborhood egg hunt held at a neighbor's house. It was the perfect day for it-about 60 and sunny out! They spread out about 525 eggs and each kid starts with 10. Then once everyone has 10, it's a free for all!

getting lined up

Go!

Cassie and Avery

Avery

The kids had a ball as usual!

After dinner, we still had to dye eggs. The girls always love doing it!

Today we went to Buffalo to visit my Mom and Aunt. Megan and her kids stopped by as well. Tomorrow is Easter then back to the usual grind on Monday!! 

What a fun and busy week!

Xmas Recap

Here we are...the last night of winter break. Tomorrow we get back into our routine of being up early every day and Avery heading back to school.

It's been 2 full weeks of family, friends, parties, and just soaking up our time together. That's what it's all about right?!

So, here's a recap of our holiday break!

Of course there was cookie making! I made 3 kinds this year. The kids love doing the cut out cookies. Both girls helped me roll and cut them and Avery helped me frost and decorate one day while Cassie napped.

A quick shot of our mantle:

I took vacation days on Dec. 23rd and 24th (I'm amazed we were even open on Christmas Eve). The girls went to daycare on the 23rd and I had a day to get things done. I went to the gym in the morning, ran a few errands and did all of the wrapping we had-took me a good 3 hours to finish it all!

The weather here was very atypical for this time of year. Christmas Eve day it was in the upper 50s! It's very strange having a Christmas without snow! It's the one day a year I don't mind it and we didn't have any this year!

On Christmas Eve we were all up and ready to hit the road. We always spend Christmas Eve at my Mom's in Buffalo. Before we hit the road, the girls had to put out their cookies for Santa and the reindeer food since we usually get home very late.

Then we drove to my Mom's!

Mom's tree

We took a few photos before people started coming over.....

Mom and the girls

....and we ended up doing gifts with each other right away. We had family coming for dinner and we had no idea who else was stopping by, so we decided to get it out of the way. The girls were all about the gifts!

First present!!

My friend Renee and her little one, Sabrina stopped over to visit!

Sabrina

The girls just love her and can't get enough of her!

Cassie, Sabrina, Avery

My Aunt and Uncle also stopped by for a short visit. Then our cousins came over for dinner.

Cassie and Eddie

After dinner (while we digested), it was more presents with the cousins!

Taylor and Avery

Cassie and Eddie

And a few more photos before they left!

Taylor, Eddie, Rachel, Eddie

Cassie, Rachel, Me, Mom, Aunt Pat, Avery, Taylor

We left my Mom's around 8 or so to drive home. The kids were so wound up that they didn't fall asleep. We finally got them to bed and went to bed shortly after.

Then, it was Christmas Day!

Santa came!!

Avery let us sleep until around 8:30 and we waited upstairs for Cassie to get up around 9. Then of course we had to open presents right away! They went for their stockings first!

Avery

Cassie-no idea what that face is!

My little cuties

After opening, we had breakfast and then just relaxed and played with all of their new stuff. After Cassie's nap, it was time to head to the in-laws' house for dinner!

Ready to eat!

We had to wake Cassie from her nap and she was downright miserable. She refused to get into her dress and was quite a pill for awhile. She finally warmed up a bit.

Avery and Cassie

We had a very good dinner and then opened presents.

Cassie with her Anna hat

Bianca and Owen

Cassie

Friday was a pretty lazy day. We all had off and just hung out at home playing with all of the new toys!

On Saturday, my Dad and Colleen came out for our Christmas dinner. We had a really nice visit with them!

Dad, Colleen and the girls

Sunday was another family party for the extended family at Gabe's parents' house. Then Monday was Gabe's birthday!  Gabe and I worked pretty much a normal week so we had a little bit of a routine last week. I'm ready for us to be back on a schedule though. We all enjoyed staying up late and sleeping in late, but we're ready to get back to normal too. It definitely was a nice break and a very nice holiday. It's amazing how fast it goes though. I think the anticipation is almost better than the day itself!  Avery was pretty bummed that it was all over too. We took down the tree and decorations on New Years Day so it feels a lot less cluttered in here. Now I just need a food detox! Hahaha! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday! Here's to a great 2015!!