Simon's birthday photos

These pictures might make you think... "geesh... I'm on Simon overload"! While this is true most days for us.. this photo shoot was actually so much fun. I'm crossing my fingers his new attitude lasts but for the last few days he has been smiley, cooperative, funny, and in my humble opinion.. pretty darn cute.
Shonda was so nice to take these pictures of him for his birthday. I will cherish these forever!
Thanks a million Shonda!

Valentine's Day Love

Being Valentine's Day and all, I thought I was being passed a love note by a stranger at church today....

Where's the love?

The funny thing is... our boys were REALLY great today! Our secret unadmirer's disapeared before we could thank them for their unsolicited advice.

I HOPE THEY HAVE A HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Home Sweet Home

(click to enlarge)
Just the 5 of us! This is the most rare picture in all of our albums! All of us... together... not crying (as far as you can actually see), and no toys on the porch!

Someday I'll look back at these pictures and they'll probably be the most sweet since they are taken at OUR house. The house our boys will always remember as their first!

(this is the kind of mood he was in during the whole photo shoot... figures huh? hehehe)

Sick days

This is how we spend our sick days.

While this was effective for awhile...it didn't last long before Trenton got really sick and bribing him with tents, tubes and other fun things quit working. So, we've been on the couch for three days. Hopefully the sun will stay out long enough for us to enjoy some of it.

Birthday Party!

We LOVE Simon!
We love parties!
We love Simon's Birthday Party!!!

I can't believe he is two! A few of his favorite things are...
Cookies
Cookie Monster
Cheese Burgers
Trenton's toys
Dancing
Flipper (his stuffed animal)
Trains
Turtles
& Family

Thanks for coming, celebrating and loving our sweet little Simon!

It's HERE...

I did it!
I finally finished our video.

Here is my warning... this is 16 minutes long!
It is broken up into sections. So, if you dare watch the whole thing, pop some popcorn and enjoy.

Cabo 2009 from Raina on Vimeo.

Christmas toys

Really... who golfs in their living room?

Christmas

Looking at the mound of gifts only made me feel like we were so spoiled!!

We made birthday cakes for Christmas Eve and after we sang songs,
we dumped all our sprinkles in all the crevices.
The cakes, not so yummy... the sprinkles, PERFECT!

To top off the holiday it snowed!!! It was beautiful, and didn't last too long. The boys were crazy for the sled, our snowman, and they had fun building a snow cave with Emile.

Thanks Shonda for the OMSI pass! We couldn't wait to go see the DINOSAUR (said with a roar)! He was just as big as we imagined.

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.