Visits with the grandparents

Raphael is now sitting up and army crawling everywhere!

Two weeks ago my parents decided to spend a weekend in Buffalo. They spent one night at a nearby hotel since they had a free night's stay and they knew we'd all love to take advantage of the pool and weight room. Jacob loved swimming and my parents said the room was quite comfortable (better then the usual air mattress on the apartment floor). We also went to the Antique Mall in Clarence. It is the largest indoor/outdoor antique center in the state. The boys seemed to enjoy looking at the endless rooms of furniture, old toys,

books, lamps, etc. My Dad offered to buy me a $175 antique nativity (since he knew I have been looking for one), but I told him this was a little on the pricey side. Thanks anyway Dad! We went to Red Robin for only our second time since living in Buffalo. We all raved about the burgers.

It was a relaxing weekend. We topped it off by going to mass and then enjoying a salmon dinner together. Sitting in the Lego castle.Uncle Chad and little Raphael.Aunt Laura, Grandma and Jacob.Grandma and Jacob playing with Legos.This past weekend we spent a few hours with Grandma, Poppy, Uncle Chad and Aunt Laura at the Strong Museum of Play. We checked out the new Lego exhibit and had a blast. Jacob couldn't believe that he was in Elmo's world and wanted to play with the extra large Mr. Potato Head all day.We love our families! Thanks for playing with us and we'll see you soon.

Happy birthday hon!

Jay turned 28 yesterday! We stayed home to celebrate and enjoyed some quality family time and good eats. We had pizza for dinner and I made a Texas sheet cake for dessert.

Happy birthday to the love of my life!

Christmas 2009

We spent Christmas break with both the families. It was truly a great Christmas! We especially enjoyed seeing Maria, who has been in Malawi for the past four months. We did not spend as much time with Rebecca as we would have liked and unfortunately did not see Jim at all, due to his crazy schedule.

This year Jacob was also able to understand a little bit about baby Jesus, Santa Claus and yes how to open presents (in fact he wanted to open ALL the presents...we'll have to work on that).

Christmas eve we started the tradition of reading from the Gospel of Luke (well we tried to..it's kind of hard with an antsy two year old) and followed this with dinner and Christmas Eve mass. We were going to bring the kids, but decided that this was not a good idea.

Christmas morning we opened gifts and then headed to Grandma and Poppy A.'s house. We spent the day with Laura, Chad, Deand and Mom and Dad. Dad A. went all out and meticulously planned and prepared a delicious SEVEN course Christmas meal. Below is the menu (sorry I don't have pictures to make you all jealous):

-Polenta with homemade tomato sauce

-Homemade french onion soup

-Buffet style salad

-Lemon sorbet with mint

-Chicken marsala

-Filet mignon

-Cherry cheesecake and Christmas cookies

The chef and his grandson.

I enjoyed it since we did not snack all day and instead spread out the dinner over a period of three hours. Granted we ate alot of food, but it was fabulous and will be difficult to top next year!

Jacob placing baby Jesus (the true reason for the season) in the manger.

Our attempt at a family picture! Jacob received his first lawn mower from Grandma and Poppy and a John Deere tractor from Grandma and Poppa..both sets of grandparents were thinking alike!

Aunt Maria and her godson.

Grandma K. and Raphael.

We were able to meet up with Clare and Charlie after almost three years!! We had a great time catching up.

Raphael's first Christmas...what a blessing he is to our family.Grandma A. and the cutie. Sadly, we did not have a white Christmas until three days after the fact. Jacob loved helping Poppa shovel the driveway....this might come in handy in future years! How I felt when the holidays were all over (happy, yet exhausted).

It's a NEW year!

Happy 2010!!

I still haven't posted Christmas pictures (I promise to do that soon). We've been going a little stir crazy lately, but who knows maybe we'll be moving somewhere warm in the future? Here is what the boys have been up to.

Jacob is obsessed with wearing hats. Jacob also has to make sure Raphael is wearing a hat at all times. Raphael managed to take part of his onesie off and then fall asleep!
Raphael received a little hair cut! His hair was getting in his eyes and knotting in the back.

Jacob likes to wrestle Raphael..I keep telling him Raphael isn't quite ready for this!

p.s. Jacob's new favorite book is "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak. He is always talking about the "wild things" and also calls Raphael "wild man!" Too cute.

Inspiration

Archbishop Dolan, the Archbishop of New York City, is a true inspiration. He recently started his own blog called "The Gospel in the Digital Age" and I love it. Check it out: http://blog.archny.org/

As a mom I am finding out how important it is for me to find time for the daily mass readings, lectio divina and now I can add this blog to my spiritual nourishment.

Here's to a happy, healthy and holy 2010!