Life is Beautiful...: January 2012

Since I haven't blogged for quite some time I'll try and get ya'll caught up on our last month! After Thanksgiving Grandma Coco and Grandpa Frosty stayed for a couple of days to visit and play some "butt". We also made a trip to the Wild Animal Park minus Grandpa Frosty... he decided to stay at home and read. The boys loved their visit with "gampa frosty" and "ga coco". The day after they left Noah woke up and kept asking "mama where is gampa"? He even checked the guest room to make sure I wasn't hiding him somewhere. Noah has a very special place in his heart for Grandpa Frosty...

A week and a half after they left to head home my Mom and Step-Dad came to visit for an early Christmas celebration. It was great having them here. My Mom flew in on the 8th and stayed with our family through the weekend and then headed over to Beth and Sean's to enjoy some coastal living. My Mom and I were able to spend some quality time together while Casey watched the boys for me. She introduced me to a store called Hobby Lobby! Oh my... I fell in love all over again! Sorry Casey and thank you Momma! Noah can't quite pronounce Nena for my mom so he calls her Nana... we skype with her often so he was immediately smitten with her. Gabe loves Nana too snuggling right into her shoulder. I think he remembered her from being here right after he was born. She spent many hours rocking him while I was off at school! After Nena and Grandpa Chris left we attended a Christmas party with our neighbors. They had a live band, great food, drinks, and a huge fun backyard for all of the kids.

The next weekend was Christmas! We had a small Christmas Eve get together at our house with my sister, Sean, and brother John. We made shrimp creole which is a family tradition on my side. We have had this nearly every Christmas Eve growing up at my Grandma and Grandpa Vincent's house. When they passed away we have tried to carry on the tradition... never having known their recipe. They added ketchup, horseradish, milk, flower, onion, and a few other things... Let me just tell you I have definitely NOT perfected this recipe! It was awful and I will apologize over and over to my sister and brothers! I owe them for being so nice to me... I'm sure after their first bite they wanted to run home and eat a cardboard box! LOL!

Christmas morning we woke up and headed to Fresno to celebrate with Grandma Coco, Grandpa Frosty, Auntie Chaudra, Uncle Corey, Cadence, and Cheira. We had a wonderful time eating, visiting, and playing! The boys loved spending time with everybody and we are really looking forward to seeing them all again soon. While in Fresno we were also able to fit in a Christmas celebration with Grandpa and Grammy Wood!

We headed home a few days after Christmas and were preparing for 2012!!! We spent New Year's Eve at our friend Megan and Jarrod's celebrating their son's 1st birthday! The boys made it until 7:30 pm and fell asleep on the short walk home. Mommy didn't quite make it until midnight either! Ok about 8:30 to be exact! I periodically woke up trying to make an effort to watch the New Year's show with Ryan Seacrest. I later figured out that I had failed miserably when what I thought was a dream about Lady Gaga was her actual performance! Man she is out there! For those of you who have heard about my dreams you know what I'm talking about! If her performance fooled me into thinking it was a dream then that performance was WAAAAAAYYYYYY out there! LOL...

Overall, we had a GREAT holiday season and can't wait to see what 2012 brings!

Happy New Year!

Did I mention I made 400+ cookies for friends and family.... ummm.... in one night! HOLY MOLY! Our whole kitchen was filled... Next year I'm makin' cheese balls!

Sugar cookies... not decorated yet...

Platters.. not finished yet... I forgot to take a picture with them all finished...

Grandpa and Gabe snuggling... they love their Grandpa!

These are from Christmas Eve... Ugly sweater party anybody??

Maura and Daddy...

Santa came and left all of these wonderful gifts for the boys! I'm not sure how he fit that huge kitchen in his sleigh! Noah now tells Mommy that "banta" aka Santa brought that for him... Santa gets all the credit...

Opening presents at Gra Coco's... Gabe says "huh??? I know there's more presents for me! You're joking right???"

Trying to steal Gabey's new present already...

Grandpa with all of his "Great's"

After opening gifts...

Gabe and Grammy really enjoyed each other...

Grammy Wood and a few of her "Great's" ... She has 4 more...

Cadi posing as my model... Santa brought me a brand new camera so I was learning how to use some of the fun gadgets!

My two little models...

Aren't they adorable...

Grandma Coco and Cadi

Our little Noah opening presents New Year's Eve... he couldn't open them all on Christmas morning... He hasn't quite caught on yet...

Gabe opening a gift...

Noah enjoying his new gifts.... The helmet is supposed to be used with his new scooter... and the ride-on train is Gabriel's... Whatever... it works...