Austin's 15th Birthday!

Austin is one of the lucky ones that shares his Birthday with Thanksgiving every so many years.  This has it's pros and cons to it, I'm sure he could elaborate more on that than I could but since this is my blog I guess we'll leave it at this.  One of the pros is that you are sure to be with family on your actual birthday, one of the cons is that your birthday is easily forgotten among the Holiday.  This year his birthday was shared with Thanksgiving, he said he enjoyed spending time with the family :)  (We had Thanksgiving dinner at our house).  He already got his MAJOR birthday present at the beginning of the month, Max.  He did get a few other things from us but most of all was excited to get his Colorado Hockey jersey that grandma gave him.

 

 

Silly Kid!

So hard to believe that I have a 15 year old!  The time goes so fast and then I wonder where all the years have gone.  This kiddo makes me so proud!  He is a great kid, gets good grades (for the most part, lol), loves to play sports, and has a tender heart.  I am one proud Mama!

Happy Birthday Kiddo!

Abby's 4th Birthday!

My baby girl is now 4?  As much as I love to watch her grow and learn it just seems to be happening too fast!  She is my last baby but she is no longer a "baby".  She is so smart!  She is a little sponge and just soaks it all in.  She loves to learn and is always eager to share what she has learned.  She loves going to Challenger pre-school.  She has been doing ballet now for a little over a year and just absolutely LOVES it!  She also loves doing gymnastics.  Abby is definitely a girly girl!  Anything pink is her favorite and of course something she "always wanted".  :)

Grandma Marci and Great Grandma "Nana" came over for cake and presents.

Austin's Early Birthday Surprise!

For Austin's whole life he has wanted a dog.  We have attempted to have a dog on 2 different occasions when he was about 3 years old which didn't end up working out well.  Since then he has begged and begged for a dog and for years we have told him "no".  I have tried to explain to Austin that if he can't even keep his room clean how on earth is he going to take care of a dog?  Well 12 years later I bring home my little teacup Yorkie, Ruby.  As soon as Austin saw her he said "I have wanted a dog for my whole life and you bring home this tiny thing?".  I started to feel a bit guilty and began researching dogs that don't shed.  (Dog hair is the biggest reason that I have not wanted dogs). I discovered that Schnauzers don't shed so I was on a mission to find a pure breed.  I found one in Indiana which was almost 8 weeks old and could be flown to us soon.  We decided to surprise Austin with his new puppy for his 15th birthday.  I got a hold of the dog breeder and sent her a payment and made arrangements for the flight.  In the meantime I had done my very best to convince Austin that a dog is a lot of work and maybe it wouldn't be a good idea.  I was trying to make sure it would be a complete surprise and that he had no idea that a puppy was coming.  Well unfortunately I did my job but I did it too well and the day before the puppy was to arrive, Austin told me that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to get a dog!!!  Ugh!  Really?  What have I done?  Oh well, too late.  The next day, on November 8th Austin had football practice and while he was there my Mom and I drove to the airport to pick up the cute little dog.  I was so nervous and couldn't wait to see the puppy in fear that I had been scammed.  As soon as I walked over to the baggage claim area, right there in the office was a dog crate with a black schnauzer.  What a relief!  We got home just in time to get in the house before Austin got home from football practice.   When he walked in the front door we were sitting in the front room with Max.  This was the expression on his face, he didn't quite know what was going on.

Once he took it in for a minute, I said "Happy Birthday".  Once it set it what was  happening he was pretty excited!

This is Max!

8 weeks old 

5 lbs

My Hubby hits the 50!

Yep you read that right, Vinnie has hit the big 50!!  I wanted to make his Birthday an awesome one!  It began with a quiet breakfast at one of our faves, Cracker Barrel.  The boys were all in school so it was just the 3 of us.

After the boys got home from school we had a little birthday celebration.

Later that evening my  Mom came over to watch the kiddos so I could take Vinnie out.  I wanted to do something different for him.  So I picked a restaurant downtown that we had never been too.  Bayou.  It was yummy.  It was nice to try a different place.

After dinner we headed to watch a ball game.  Go Bee's!  This entire evening was a complete surprise to him,  he had no idea where we were going until we got there.  Again, this was totally out of the ordinary of something we would normally do.

I even caught a foul ball!

The best surprise for his birthday was still yet to come.  We had a weekend planned to head to Wendover.  While Vinnie was away in Alaska a few days earlier I secretly packed an extra bag and hid it in the garage.  When it was time to put our things in the car to head off to Wendover I hurry and snuck the extra bag in.  I told him that I wanted to drive because we had to stop somewhere first on our way out of town.  He thought this was a bid odd but he went with it.  He had thoughts running through his head of what I could possibly need to stop for as we were going way out of our way.  As we approached the airport I told him that we had a plane to catch in an hour and a half and we were headed to Vegas!!!!  He was in shock!  I was so excited that I was able to keep this to myself for so long.  We stayed at the Luxor and I had booked shows for us throughout the weekend.

We went to Gordon Ramsay's Pub & Grill for lunch.  That was fun and exciting for us because we are fans of "Hells Kitchen".  It was exciting to be in one of his restaurants.  It was delicious!

That night we went to the best show ever!  Absinthe!  We had front row seats and boy were we close!  I could stretch my leg out and touch the stage with my foot.  It was a very funny show, filled with raunchy humor.  It was in a circus type tent outside of Caesar's Palace.  It was our first Vegas show ever and it was awesome!

Of course we got some gambling in...we aren't big gamblers but we do enjoy the penny slots :)

They even had one of his favorite iPad games, Plants vs. Zombies!

 

and this is a gem of all gems...oh my!!  

We went to the Penn & Teller show which was awesome!  We also like to watch Celebrity Apprentice and enjoyed seeing Penn on that show so it was fun to see him in person.  Before the show started they let us go up on stage and look at some of their props.  After the show they came out and gave autographs.

Another night we went to Cirque De Sole which of course was incredible!  

It was an amazing extended weekend and a Birthday to remember.

 Cheers & Happy Birthday Vinnie!

My Little Gabe is 7!!!!

Where has the time gone?  7 years old already?  Austin was 7 when Gabe was born and here we are now celebrating Gabe's 7th Birthday.  I just can't believe how fast the time goes.  I get excited with each milestone he reaches but at the same time I also look back and remember the milestones that have passed.  I wish I could just hold time still (sometimes, anyway haha).
Gabe is totally into Charlie Brown!  He loves to wear his Charlie Brown shirt that I made for him on Halloween.  He lives in this thing!  He sleeps in it, I have to fight with him to put on a different shirt to go to school, the second he walks in the door after school he is walking up the stairs pulling off his shirt to change back into his Charlie Brown shirt.  He is beginning to wear it out like and old blanky.  For his birthday cake we decided to do cupcakes that look like snoopy laying on his doghouse.  Gabe loved them!

Grandpa Jim, Nana, and Grandma Marci came over to celebrate with us.

Sebastian loved the frosting :)

Gabe got some toys to use with his iPad and along with that he got his very 1st iTunes card!

He was pretty excited about that.

Later that evening Auntie Marie came over to give Gabe a gift, he was in heaven!!!  She made him 2 new Charlie Brown shirts, we were able to retire his raggedy one  :)

The smile on his face says it all!  If you look closely you can see that he was watching Charlie Brown on his iPad at the time.

Happy Birthday to my sweet little guy!!

5? ALREADY?

Well another year has gone by and now this cute little kiddo is 5 years old!  Sebastian is such a character!  He loves super hero's,  Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles, and Dinosaurs.  Anytime we are in the store and he sees something from Avengers he says "look, it's mine!"  His Birthday was pretty low key as we knew he would just want to play with his new toys.  Grandma Marci and Marie came over to have cake and ice cream and watch him open his presents.

Sebastian's favorite part about Birthday cake is blowing out the candles.  I think I had to re-lite the candle 5 different times and yes we sang 5 different times too just so he could keep blowing out the candle.  In fact, even if I have a candle lit in the house he gets all excited to just go blow it out.

Abby is right there with him, not missing a thing!  These 2 are very close :)

Dinosaur books!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Avengers!

Happy 5th Birthday to my little guy!

Gabe is 6 years old!!!

As I sit to write these Birthday posts the first thing that I always find myself typing is something along the lines of "Where does the time go?, # of years already?, I can't believe my baby is already _!."  But it is so true, the time does go by so fast and I just really can't believe that Gabe is already 6 years old.  It has been an amazing 6 years.  This little guy that I have been blessed with has taught me so much and I look forward to learning more from him each day.  This last year has been a big year for Gabe.  He FINALLY got potty trained, he started kindergarten, we had his name legally changed from Vincent Gabriel to Gabriel Vincent, and a few other small things but those were our major monumental experiences.
Gabe began his day with going to school.  He wore a button/ribbon to school that said "Birthday Boy" on it.  Once he got to school they gave him a Birthday crown to wear.  We picked him up from school a little early because he had his well child check up appt.

To celebrate Gabe's Birthday we went to Jungle Jim's and had a small party for him.  Nana, Grandpa Jim, Grandma Marci, Daddy, Austin, Sebastian, Abby, & Me.  The kids had such a great time riding all of the rides.  This was the first time we have ever gone there and I love it.  It is small enough that it isn't too overwhelming yet it is big enough to hold a roller coaster, swings, bumper cars, a few other rides, a jungle jim to climb thru, and token video games.  The kids had a great time running from ride to ride.

Gabe is completely into Snoopy!  He loves the Peanuts gang!  Daddyo decorated the cake for him and he was so excited when he saw it.

Of course he didn't eat any of it but the adults sure enjoyed the cake.  The 3 little kids seem to think that they don't like cake and Austin didn't want any because it was Strawberry..his loss.

TIME FOR PRESENTS!!

For Christmas Gabe got a Charlie Brown, Lucy, and a Linus doll.  To add to his collection we gave him Peppermint Patty and Sally.  He also really likes Red Baron snoopy so we found a small Red Baron.  While at the Hallmark shop I ran across this gift bag that is Snoopy's dog house and of course had to grab that.  Good thing it feels pretty sturdy and is made of cardboard.

The kids were exhausted and ready to go home, yay!  That made it easy to leave.  Once we got home it was time to put the kids to bed.  Gabe gathered his Peanuts ® gang and put them in his bed and then said "Where are Marcy and Schroder?".  I guess we are going to have to try to track down some more dolls. 

Happy Birthday to our little Guy!  

We love you Gabe!