He's coming...

We're totally ready for you big guy!!!
Merry Christmas

Things in mexico...

move a little slower.

can be a lot more beautiful


are family friendly


arrgh full of adventure

and can be like paradise in the middle of winter

(to be continued...)

Finally Ready

We're ready to go trick or treating! Emile and I are the top news stories.

(if you are unsure about Emile's... he's the balloon boy)

And the boys... Capt Hook and the croc!
Happy Halloween!

Argh Matey...

Here at our house... we are gearing up for Halloween!!!
What are you gonna be?

T.M.I.

I cried like a baby last night, but for all the right reasons! It started when Emile was being weird on the phone that morning and told me, without any explanation, to "trust him". Trust what? It was almost like he was begging to me to pry. He started sending crypted texts like "tonight's gonna be a good night. Stay tuned for more texts and don't ask any questions. Trust me." and "310...scenic..." . Most of the messages I couldn't really understand, except I knew he was planning something. Dinner, I guess.
By 3pm, I get a text that says. "I will be home around 4:15 today. I need the house with just the boys for about 30 minutes, so be prepared to leave for a bit. Dress casually nice 4 tonight"
I come back from my 30 minutes, and nothing looks any different from when I left. Except the boys have shoes on and he said to get in the car. Every detail of this night makes me want to jump out of my seat with excitement, but I'll try not to bore you. Basically every step was chorographed, and every place we went was oddly planned. It turned out that while I was gone for 30 minutes, he was frantically packing bags. For EVERYONE! He stashed the goods in the trunk where I would never see, and away we went. The boys got dropped off, for what I assumed was just a nice evening out to dinner, and we took the town. We enjoyed Brazillian cuisine. ( Do all brazillians eat this way? I'm pretty sure those ladies must NOT be eating what I ate!)
After dinner we saw a movie, drank hot chocolate in our favorite truffle shop, drove around and then suddenly pulled over at a beautiful downtown hotel's valet. Now is about the moment where I heard the scratch of a record player doing the rewind sound. Did he just pull over at a hotel? This is NOT my husband!!! Well, we enjoyed the amazing modern art for awhile in the lobby, and then he handed me the key to our room. I'm still not believing that I am awake at this point, and when I open the door, he has set it up with music, flowers, and yes...even a few secret surprises.
That right there is where I lost it!
Totally started blubbering.
I have NEVER had ANYONE be so nice to me. He didn't miss anything. He even remembered my chapstick and hair ties. He grabbed enough diapers, milk, binkies, blankets, shoes and crackers to leave the boys, and the dog in good hands. He kept me guessing all night, and not expecting a single thing. I didn't have a clue and each turn was a shocker!
The only bummer in all this is I didn't have my camera with me.
I'm just left with one picture I took when I got home.


I am SO SO SO in love! And even more because this was for absolutely NO reason! No birthday, no anniversary, not even a sanity break. Just pure perfect kindness that I have never seen before and was most unexpected.
He can go golfing ANYTIME he wants to for awhile!!

Fall festivities

Do you like that Emile? I guess I'm just lucky he didn't get a picture of me with caramel oozing down my fingers.
This was the best treat we've made at home yet and we unfortunately couldn't get Trenton past his phobia of sticky things. He just kept yelling "it's sticky-o".
More for us I guess.
Thanks for enjoying this with us Mom and Dad.

We managed to go to two fun pumpkin patches. I just can't get enough of the picture below. Blow it up and check out Simon's toothy weird grin. He's such a ham!

Preschool

This is Trenton's second year in preschool. We are at a different school this year and loving it. I never had the chance to post his annual picture by the door this year, but this classic just shouldn't be forgotten!

He is teaching us sign language, letters, Spanish, and even about how we should all "obey". He comes home refreshed and full of new stories to share with us. Does he really have to grow up?

Boys boys boys

These cute boys went and had a day out at the circus and pretended to be a Pizza Man to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. I just had to show you how much fun they have together. It was certainly a memorable BNO!

Trenton's birthday party cont.

I'm catching up.. in a BIG way. I didn't even get to finish blogging Trenton's big day. It was completely exhausting, but worth every second to see him so so happy.

Here is some more of the fun that we had.

This matey is the most savage pirate around!

Every pirate needs a few things. A tattoo, an eye patch, a hook, and a bandana. These pirates were totally into it, and then they enjoyed some pirate sandwiches, pirate booty... and a little refreshment. :D

(I think I got a little too into it this year.)

They went on a scavenger hunt lead by Mr. Fearless himself.

Through the obsitcles and over the plank.

... then off to the treasure.

A little pin the flag on the treasure.

And.. finally the pinyata. This started out a little dangerous with the bat... as you can clearly see the horor in my face.

But, no one got hurt and the candy was just the kind of mayhem you expect out of 4 year olds.

I can't wait to come up with next years theme! We love you Trenton, and hope all of your memories are fun and full of joy.

Pirate Trenton's birthday

It's official! He's 4 years old!!!
He is a joy beyond expression, and today he was such a little man as we got all dressed up to celebrate the pirate in all of us.
There will be more pictures to follow, but for now here is a taste of the fun.

And... I went a little over the top with his birthday cake. Here are the pictures...

Wipeout!

We watch TV in our house!
I'm not sure that I should admit this out loud, but I guess this is just us. Just to compensate for what you are about to read... we do like to play too. We play hard, we crash hard. While we are crashing (and DVRing till it is maxed out)... we are watching these.

I like... Oprah, The Biggest Loser, Supernanny, The Bachelorette
Emile likes... golf, The Soup and Big Break
Together we LOVE ... Wipeout, So You Think You Can Dance, American Idol, House, Prison Break (so sad it ended), The Office and can't wait for Community
Trenton likes... Transformers, Go Diego Go, Superwhy and Word World
Simon likes... Go Diego Go (aka "go go")

With all this fascinating and captivating television, we caught this last night, and laughed so hard that my stomach hurt! You'll have to watch this and tell me if you fall over. If not... just join us on Wednesday nights with a bag of popcorn and I dare you not to laugh so hard you fall off the couch!

Beach weekend

Here are just few pictures and a video from our trip out to the beach!!!

The summary sounds something like this....we met up with sweet friends for a short time and fell in love with their new baby! We got to know my brother's fiance and fell in love with her too! Then, we played in the sand, ate great food, hunt for pirate treasure and cried when we had to come home.

Here are our friends... safe, sound and on the ground.

Then, this happened, you cannot see it well.. but if you squint, blow up the picture, or look below you'll see Tony showing the boys how to be men.

I.... can be found behind the camera.

and... this video is not short, and most likely not exciting to anyone NOT in the family. Feel free to watch, but really.... just smile and say that you did.

Beach Trip 2009s from Raina on Vimeo.