Halloween Outfits

Okay, Yes I know I have not put pictures up since their birthdays. We have been super busy. Anyway here are pics of Halloween costumes. Matty and Lexi picked them out and adore them! Happy Halloween!

Disneyland

Matty and Lexi love Mickey Mouse and we decided to to use the promotional offer at Disneyland and take them on their free birthday in 2009. We all had a great time. We started Saturday at California Adventure. We went to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Show. It is the perfect little one show...fun, interactive, and you sit on the floor, so no falling. Lexi liked it...but Matty was in heaven. He kept turning around and would look at us with a huge grin. I am not sure I ever so him smile so big (what a great smile!) We went on a big Mickey Ferris Wheel and some kids rides in Bug's Life. We stayed for a little bit of the Light Parade, until Mickey appeared and then headed back to the hotel. We were all wiped out and ready to get a good night's rest for the new day.

We began Sunday having a nutritious breakfast and headed to the fabulous Disneyland. Matty and Lexi beamed as they hugged most of the characters. They wanted to go on rides, and especially head to the princess castle and took turns waiting in the line. we went to celebrate at a birthday party to decorate cakes and see Mickey and Minnie. We went on some rides and headed back to the hotel to rest and return later. We hung out at night and searched for Donald Duck, without any luck. On Monday, their birthday, we headed back...determined to find donald Duck and do some more fun things. We went to watch the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show again. We found Donald, but were unable to take a pic because the lady decided to cut the line we were in waiting. I was really annoyed, but the kids were glad they found Donald...oh well.
We left the park at about 1:45 to head home because they were wiped out...in fact as soon as Jeff strolled them to the car they were asleep.
I am so glad they had a good time, chasing around 2 three year olds can be some work--but their happiness makes it all worth it.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Parties

Matty and Lexi are counting down the days until their birthday. Lexi walks around sayin...My birthday is August 3rd, and Matty knows his too. They are excited to go to Disneyland and have a tiny bounce party. This weekend we went to a :Pump it Up party for Jake and Jaegar. It was a blast!

Lexi being brave....WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Wait is Matty eating? nope drinking...pizza please eat... but he loves his balloon!

One of the birthday boys (Jake) poses with Lexi. The blondies could totally be siblings!

Reminiscing

It is great to watch Matty and Lexi get super excited when they look at their scrapbooks. It makes all of the long hours of work worth it. Now it also makes me think I had better get working again, unfortunately I have not scrapped since October.
Matty and Lexi go through their albums and talk about the pictures like they still remember the moments. I guess they are ready to become little scrappers too.

Fun day in the sun!

We had a fun filled day on Sunday. We went to Grandma and Grandpa Maren's house, and then off to Tricia and Rick's.

Before we left the house Lexi helped to put Matty's sandals on...she is such a little mommy!

"Mommy, We are ready to go...."

Playing in the pool...

Matty and Lexi love playing in the pool...guess we are ready for swim lessons.

Rainy Day in Vegas

Well it does not happen to often, but we were stuck in the house due to thunderstorms and rain. Matty and Lexi begged to go outside and play in the rain like "Caillou", it took forever to explain that they couldn't with lightning. Evenutally they were able to go out for a little, but they decided getting wet from the rain wasn't as much fun as they hoped it would be. They decided to watch it from inside. =)

Strike a pose!

Every once in a while Matty and Lexi will now ask me to take their pictures. Maybe because I have been a slacker in the picture department. Anyway here are some cute strike a pose pics!

LOVE

Matty and Lexi really do love one another. Lexi is so nurturing to Matty or "Matty Baby" as she calls him (usually). Even when I get them from school, the teacher tells me how Lexi is always checking on Matty to make sure he is okay. They love to read to one another, play puzzles, draw, play, and mostly giggle. I am so glad they have such a close bond, don't get me wrong they get into their own mischief and can bother one another...but they are both almost 3 it is expected. I hope they always have their special bond!

New Beds

We decided that since the kids are about to be 3, it was time to get ready to move them to beds. I listed their cribs and dresser on craigslist and within minutes I had someone who wanted to come by to see them. They bought Lexi's crib and dresser. They took their naps on mattresses on the floor and I had to go over to Toys R' Us to purchase new beds. On Sunday afternoon, we put together new toddler beds for Matty and Lexi. Lexi got a "Pink" Dora bed and Matty got a red Cars bed. They were both very excited to sleep in their new beds and decided that they would both sleep in Lexi's room for a slumber party. I told them they needed to stay in their beds. They talked for a while, but did go to sleep. The funniest part, was that in the morning...Matty still cried for us to come and neither of them got out of their beds.

Monday night as we got ready for bed, Matty decided he wanted to sleep in the higher bed...I thought he meant the full size mattress in his room. Nope, he meant the crib. I haven't taken his apart yet, since I am planning on selling it. Well I figured it was not a battle worth fighting now, so he got to sleep in his crib. Lexi loves her new bed and kisses Dora good-night before going to sleep.

Dressing up!

Matty and Lexi love dressing up! Anything and everything they find ends up on them. Lexi decided that she wanted to wear her princess dress, so after some minor alterations to allow her head to fit through, she was thrilled to put it on. Matty found Jeff's old Halloween mask and put it on and ran around the house.

They are getting so excited about their birthdays and everyday they ask if it is time for the birthday party or Disneyland. They love marking off the calendar. Lexi even decided to try and cross off more days when I wasn't looking---thinking it would be sooner for us to go. I had to laugh and tell her it did not work that way!

Chatting on the phone

Lexi loves to chat on the phone with everyone! She is such a girlie girl. Matty is more of a "catch me when I want to talk on the phone kiddo"

Some Singing!

Lexi and Matty love to sing!
Lexi said she wanted to sing Twinkle, Twinksle, but just like a girl she changed her mind.

Back to the Boardwalk

Jeff went to NYC to see some of his friends, so we went with Grandpa Danny and Grammy back to the boardwalk for some fun. The kids rode the rides again!

They enjoyed some frozen custard!

Grammy wanted to get them their first cotton candy. Lexi took one bit of cotton candy and said "I don't like it." Needless to say Matty loved the pure sugar.

Cousins in Maryland

We continued our trip to Maryland to meet more cousins. We went to Hillary, Gary and Cheyanne's House for dinner with family. Joyce, Larry, Jaimin, Tory, and Jonah also met us there. The kids all played together nicely. Matty even nibbled on food since other kids were. Matty and Lexi were in heaven when Gary put Dora on the big screen! We had lots of fun! It even made up for the fact that the kids did not fall asleep in the car until 11pm and we made it back to the hotel at 1am---oh well we were on vacation.

Vicki's house

We went to visit mommy's friend Vicki in Manassas, VA. The kids liked going to the duck pond and also to the House of Bounce. We had lunch at a traditional southern place---Cracker Barrel..yummy. The kids like picking out old school candy in the gift shop. Vicki also had the best treat of ice pops at her house. It must be something that everytime someone knows that Matty is coming that they make sure to have ice pops! We had a lot of fun at Vavava Vicki's house. With Vicki in obstacle course!

Daddy and Lexi go down big slide!

Mommy and Matty Bounce!

Lexi with VaVaVa Vicki!

Sesame Place

We had fun going to Sesame Place and seeing all of the characters. Surprisingly some of the rides were a little too scary for the kids and they chose to not go. But overall it was fun. They loved taking pictures with the characters. Lexi saw Zoe and said... "Mommy I wanna take picture with Zoe...cheese"It was hot and we were all tired but made the very best of it!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Meeting Cousins

We went to my Cuusin Stacey's house to see family. Thwy had fun playing with their cousins and great aunt and uncle. Grandpa Danny...Why are you standing so far away?

Point Pleasant Boardwalk

The rain stopped so we wnent to mommy's favorite place when she was a kid...the boardwalk. Matty and Lexi went on rides and had frozen custard. Matty LOVES rides, he lights up and gets super excited. Lexi always wants to go on them, but usually just seems to pass the time while on the ride. In any event she still wants to go on them. We rode rides fro over 2 hours before leaving to travel to North Jersey to see relatives.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Fun at Chuck E Cheese

It was raining so we decided to take the kids to Chuck E Cheese and Friendly's for some fun and dinner. The kids had fun!

The Flight

HORRIBLE... well before we booked the flight I knew a red-eye was a bad idea...but I listened to others who told me they would sleep and agreed. Well I should know by now to go with my instincts. It was a super crowded flight with no empty seats, the guy that was next to me was an ass and Lexi and Matty couldn't decide what they wanted. They kept wanting to switch places...probably to move. I tried to get them to sleep- oh no. Thank goodness they watched Dora a little.

For a lot of the flight, they both wanted to sit on mommy and the man next to me asked me to make sure that neither of them touched him or his stuff. Urghhh! For landing Jeff sat by Lexi and I by Matty...big mistake she cried for 35 minutes straight for mommy- people were not happy including Jeff. He kept saying take her, I will pay a fine for her not being buckled in seat, but I was worried about safety. Matty fell asleep literally within 5 minutes of hitting the ground.

He slept through the airport and even through getting rental car. Lexi was a little more difficult in the airport but not awful. She too fell asleep a little after hitting the rental car. It was a calm ride to my parents' house except for the rain.

We arrived at The Kalish's and all was good until...They woke up screaming. It took about 10 minutes to coax them back to sleep on mommy and then we all tried to nap for a while. When they got up from naps, they were much happier and ready to have fun.

Our Pilot

We got to the airplane with enough time so be grabbed a bite at CPK. We were seated next to a nice pilot. Matty and Lexi were very interested in him, which is strange becasue usually they are shy with others, but I guess they were excited that he flew planes. We got to talking and realized that he was one of the pilots on our plane. He invited the kids to the cockpit when we got on the plane, probably to give the kids a tour and some wings, but it didn't work out...at least we have this picture.

playing at park

We went to the park with Matthew and Leilani Trites and of course their mommy and grandma. The kids are too daring for me and I really thought we were going to have to cancel our trip to NJ becuase we were going to end up in the emergency room...but luckily there were no casualties.

Bounce House Fun

Today was my first day off from work on track break. Matty, Lexi and I went to Bounce U. It is a bouncy house place. We had so much fun! It was not crowded and the kids were the best listeners. We had a fun day and there were no tears all day! It was wonderful being home with them all day! I am looking forward to the next few weeks off!

Fun at Sunset Park

We had fun at the Sunset Park Kids Day by 94.1. The kids went on the swings ride, played on bouncy houses and went on a few other rides. Matty enjoyed 2 ice pops and Lexi liked a hot dog.

Matty went down a water slide, he loved it until he fell into a shallow bit of water and got scared.

Princess Dress Up

Lexi loves to dress up like a princess! She made it that much cuter when she borrowed my sunglasses and purse...put on her hat, and then decided to smile for a picture. She cracks me up most of the day! She loves to have fun and really knows how to make people laugh with her contagious laughter!

Mother's Day 2009

We had a nice brunch at Grandma and Grandpa Maren's House. Lexi and Nana
Matty and Grandma Elaine


Matty with Grandpa Lanny

Lexi and Grandpa Lanny

It was a nice calm day!