One Shot

Friday we had dinner with my mom's side of the family. My Uncle Dale from Oklahoma was in town, and my Grandma Spice's 88th birthday was the 23rd of Nov., so we was celebrating! My mom made a TASTY dinner and we again had fun watching the little girls hang out and play! So after promising to take many photos with all the cousins around, I only took one picture the entire day! My photog friend Jake helped me (or rather did it for me) edit it to look really cool! After getting some piano lessons from Great Uncle Dale, Hope was showing Gemma how to play.

She's gonna be a great big sister to her little sister! :) Yes, Grace is having a girl!! Yeah!! And in a couple months we'll know what Larissa is having! Can't WAIT!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know I did! We have a tradition of spending Thanksgiving with Grace's family, and this year was no different! I think we've spent at least 5 or 6 Thanksgivings with them in the almost 10 years my brother has been married to Grace, and we have no intention of making other plans! Every year Trevor's family usually makes other plans (Dawn's in Texas, Danica has Hugo's family, Gary and Nina have Nina's children) and we celebrate with dinner on another day. So we are free to hang out with the Biniasz's, eat Carol's AMAZING dinner, play a game or two, and watch Survivor! :) Tonight we played "Press Conference" and it was so fun! Oddly enough, I did not take any pictures! I took the camera and never even took it out of the bag. :( I didn't even think about it. Tomorrow we are having a dinner with my mom's family, and I will for sure get the camera out! All 3 cousins will be there, so that will make it happen!

So, I know it's been a long time since I posted, and really, my excuses are lame. I have MANY things to blog about: Declan turned 6 months, Gary's 70th birthday dinner, I "quit" my job and we're moving......ok, just to explain that last part real quick: we are moving out of our appt in Fullerton and most likely moving to Irvine. To be closer to Trevor's work and basically have better living conditions. And I plan to work from home so I just "quit" the salon, not from hairdressing altogether! :) Anyway, I do plan to blog soon, I promise. And there will be pictures, I had my own "6 month" photo shoot with D and I want to edit them to look really cool, like my friend Gina does. (I really wish she lived closer so she could give me lessons, instead I have to borrow books from the library on how to use photoshop!) So be patient! :)

Alright........I'll be back.......soon!

35 Years

On November 3rd my parents celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary! **Congrats mom and dad, you are an inspiration to all of us! We look forward to celebrating your 60th! :)** Us kids took them to dinner at the Yard House, and then we hung out at Danny and Grace's. We had a lot of fun hanging out and watching the girls interact. Declan was pretty mellow, but give him a couple months and he'll be able to hold his own with those girls! Of course I had my camera there to capture the evening! (And the one picture I didn't get that I should have was one of my parents together! Oops!)

Uncle Chris and D

Uncle Danny and Gemma

Aunt Larissa and Hope('s legs)

Grandpa and Hopie

Daddy (his crazy eyes) and D. The shirt reads "Everyone's Favourite Boy", he needs to wear that as much as he can before Grace and/or Larissa have a boy!

Hope, America's Next Top Model

Gemma, America's Next Top Injured Model

(The cast is off now and she's fine!)

We gave our parents a Family Tree photo frame with the inscription "Our Grandchildren" on it. Trevor's dad has one and I've always wanted to get one for my parents and now I have!

the girls wanted to help open the gift...

but then Hope found Gemma's pacifier......

so Gemma had to "chase" her down to get it back!

These two steps have come to be known as the "baby couch" where the girls like to sit. Gemma was standing there by herself calling for Hope to join her: "Hopie! Hopie! Hopie!" When that didn't work, she shouted the first name she had been calling Hope: "BO!!" Sooooooooooooooooooooo cute! :)

And the family shot of all of us. Unfortunately, I didn't focus well! :( Oh, well, there will be plenty of opportunities to come, and more grandbabies to add!

Happy 4th!

How funny is that? This onesie was given to me by a client for the 4th of July.....and it still fits him! How entirely appropriate it was for today: it was the 4th, election day, and it was patriotic! So I had a small photo shoot with D. He's still slightly wobbly while sitting, he could fall back or to the side at any moment, so I was SOOOOO scared he would fall back on the cement! Eek!! He didn't! Yeah! And yes, I voted. For the first time actually. Well, I voted at the primary, too, but this was the first November election, and first presidential. My guy didn't win, but oh well. At least this year it didn't feel like choosing the lesser of the two evils.....ok, I don't really want to get into politics, I'm kind of over it. I'm SOOOOOOOOO glad there won't be anymore prop ads every two seconds! Ok, really, moving on! Enjoy D!

Bonsai Tree Update

When I posted our "family tree" a month ago, there were 7 cousins for Declan, with one on the way making 8. Well, #9 is coming too! No, Grace isn't having twins.....Chris and Larissa are expecting baby #2 in June! Our family is multiplying like crazy!! Congrats to the new babies! Here are the big sisters:

Gemma (with a broken leg! :( )

Hope

This is what Declan had to say (he typed it himself!):

"fxxbvc b v ,y, m m v fev o ."

I think he's happy!! :)

"Solid" Food

*Disclaimer: For those of you who are receiving this post via e-mail, please note that there are videos, and you will need to go to the actual blog to view them. I don't know why this is, and I think you can download them or something from this e-mail, but it's probably easier to go to the blog!*

After experiencing 7 nieces and nephews, and a few friends with children, I kinda know what milestones are coming and when. One of my favorites is when solid foods are introduced! For those who don't know, they are usually started between 4 and 6 months. I was planning on starting as soon as we got the ok from the Dr. at D's 4 month appt. However, due to some family history of allergies and asthma, the doc recommended we waited until 6 months. Boo. So........I mostly gave in! I decided I would try out giving him rice cereal on my birthday........as a birthday present to myself......because I was so excited about it! (Yes, really, I know I'm a dork, but you all love me anyway!) That day was exactly-ish 5 1/2 months, I figured we were pretty safe. I would give him the smallest amounts, only once a day, and watch for any negative reactions, like a rash or whatnot. So here we have, for your viewing pleasure, the adventure of starting "solids". (Really, it's so watered down with breastmilk, it's hardly a solid, but whatever!)

This is our first attempt. Trevor was not able to hang out and be my cameraman, so I tried at first to do it myself.......I quickly learned this was not a good idea.....well, somewhat quickly. What you don't see right outside the frame of the shot is Dec grabbing the bowl. And then when I set the camera down to retrieve the bowl, D goes after the camera! Yikes!

Second try at the filming! This is the edited video as I am sure you all didn't want to watch 6+ minutes of him eating...or slurping rather. I set the camera on the bookshelf, and I think I got a pretty good shot of him!

Here's a closer look. Sorry my hand is in the way, but you can still see his face reacting to the taste! I love it!

And the final look, with his face dripping and his pj's soaked! Good good times! I love this kid!!

Halloween 2008

A dream was fulfilled this Halloween.....Declan was an octopus! (Yes, Gina you were the winner! And Amanda.....good guess, so close.....maybe next time! :) ) Two years ago I saw the octopus costume on a little girl and I said "That is what my first child will be for their first Halloween!" Thanks to Danica and Trevor, my dream became a reality! Danica found the costume on ebay, and Trevor did the bidding, and won!! I'm soooo excited! Here are a few shots of him, and then one with him and Hope....Gemma was not up for wearing her costume for pictures!

Such a serious octopus!

Declan getting into character....

A happier octopus!

With all eight "legs"

With Hope the Chicken. (Grace made matching costumes for herself and Danny.....I can't wait to see them!!)
Gemma wasn't in the mood to wear her costume so Uncle Danny wore it for her!

On Halloween, we went to the Kidz Fest at our church. There were bounce houses, Carl's Jr., and trunk-or-treating. It was fun and REALLY crowded!! I was really hot so I kept thinking Dec was hot, so the only pictures I got of him there were with his costume half off! We didn't stay long as D was not nearly old enough to enjoy most of it, but it looked like a lot of people were having fun! I'm glad that our church does this event every year, I look forward to bringing D next year when he'll be able to walk and actually collect candy for me......I mean him......no, I really mean me! :) I only took a few pictures that night, so here he is with Grandma and then there's one of his girlfriend, Abigail. Yes, she is in the same costume as Hope!