Thank you Santa!

Santa was very good to us this year! The kids got a variety of new toys and clothes, and Abe and I are got XM radio for our SUV and are planning a lunch date this week as aprt of our gift to each other. We had an awesome time celebrating the Christmas holiday this year, and with Alex being so close ot 3 now, he was really excited! It was fun to see him get excited over seeing Santa and watch him pointing out Christmas lights everywhere we drove this year. We starte dour Christmas morning around 7:15 AM when Alex woke up and we reminded him it was Christmas Day! His words to us were, "Let's go check my tree for presents!" LOL We took both kids downstairs and opened several gifts. Alex got a new race track for his cars to race on, and a car wash for them as well. He also got a Hess truck, which Santa had to drive to the city to find :( Of course they got tons of gifts from our extended family as well--too many to name! So Thank you also to our family for their wonderful presents. He has been switching between all of his gifts the past few days and he told me his favorite gift was his pit crew tool box from Lola! Amaya got a doll house, wheelie ramp toy, rocking horse and a stuffed dalmation. Her favorite seems to be her pillow pet from the Dove family, and her blow-up ball pit from Nana. After opening our presnts Christmas morning, we traveled to Dundalk to eat breakfast and open gifts with Abe's family, then traveled to Western MD to eat Christmas dinner and open gifts with my family. All in all, we had a realy nice holiday and it sure will be nice hvaing this next week off to clean up the Christ-mess!

Christmas Eve--we're ready for bed! I think I'll just sit on my present instead of opening it! Woohoo! My Hess truck!

Waiting patiently at Lola'sThe new slippers Santa brought him!

Awww..good family picture! Amaya in her princess ball pit

Alex is being attacked by the snuggie monster and he didn't even see it coming because of the camo print!

Amaya A.K.A "The Wildness"

She has a face as sweet and cute as an angel, but don't let her tiny little frame and adorable little face fool you--Amaya's nickname is "wildness" for a reason! The child is almost 14months old now, and she requires much attention for all who watch her! I am wondering if it the meaning behind her name. Amaya means "night rain" in Japanese and Soleil means "sun" in French. You know what heat and moisture sometimes create? Tornados? Hurricanes? You guessed it! Some of the things she does on a daily basis that has contributed to her nickname:

1. Climbs the stairs in about 15 seconds. Turn your back and she'll go missing--guaranteed. You're only option now? Look for her and at our hosue most of the time she's at the top of the stairs smiling down at us.

2. Crushes any attempt made to make her hair look somewhat tame. She usually has the barette/hair band/clippie pulled out seconds after it has been put in. Then she walks around with this wild stick straight hair that hangs in every direction.

3. She's loud. I mean loud. She echos in our house when she's happy, sad, angry..whatever. She's loud!

4. She fights sleep like a wildebeest, the usually passes out at some point during the struggle.

5. She runs everywhere she goes. Walking is no longer enough. She must run now to get where she is going.

6. She eats by shoving all food on her plate into her mouth all at the same time.

7. She climbs everything. Forget the stairs. She climbs her toys, her brother's toys, the couch, the kitchen chairs, the Christmas tree..she's like a little lemur!

So as you can see , Amaya is small, but certainly mighty and gives us a run for our money! When she spins into the room, you'll never forget it!Trying to contain "the wildness." Complete with her leopard print jumpsuit! Her she comes...look at that hair! I sure am cute, but don't be fooled! Don't tell me this only for my baby dolls! If I can fit, I am climbing in!

Hey Mom, I found these in the kitchen drawer!

Hmmm..look at this cool ornament..let me just pull it off and see what happens!

It's beginning to look a lot like..you guessed it!

Christmas! One of my favorite holidays is almost here! We have started to get ready by getting some black friday shopping done, getting out the trusty Christmas lights, window clings, light-up snowmen, etc., baking lots of cookies, and putting up our brand new pre-lit 7.5 ' tree! That's right, we finally got a tree that matches our house! We have 11 ' ceilings, so our smaller tree always looked a little sad, but our new one looks really nice. We let Alex help decorate this year, while Amaya milled about playing. Alex loved decorating the tree! We put on some Christmas music and he hummed all of the songs while putting every ornament in the same spot..LOL We also let him help put the star on the top, which made him so proud! We are so excited to celebrate Christmas, so it always refreshing to start getting in the Christmas spirit!

Amaya's1st Birthday...Part II

Since my family lives so far from us, we usually celebrate the kids' birthdays twice--once here in Baltimore and once out in Western MD. So, on November 13th, we traveled home and hosted another party for little Amaya at my parents' house. She had a blast spending time with family, eating cake, and opening all of her presents. She got tons of cute girly clothes, and her favorite toy,a baby stroller. She pushes it around with her baby in it, and of course in true Amaya fashions, she tries to climb it and ride in it herself! All in all, we had a wonderful day and we want to thank my family for attending and making her day once again a special celebration. We just can't believe she's 1 already! Getting ready to leave with Daddy All dressed up and ready to party! Eating a popsicle at the party Playing cars with Uncle Brandon Making a silly face with Daddy Me opening a present, Amaya trying to scale it of course

Happy 1st Birthday Amaya!

It's hard to believe, but our little princess turned one year old on Sunday, November 7th! This was way too emotional of an event for Abe and I as we still have memories of pre-term labor at 31 weeks and a tiny 5lbs, 3 oz. Amaya when she was first born, 3.5 weeks early. Also, our course, she's our baby, our youngest. We cannot tell you how complete Amaya has made our family, and how much we love our little girl. She is as sweet as can be, full of energy and curiosity, and of course absolutely stunningly beautiful with her big brown eyes and cute little tiny nose. We celebrated this very special day with a party at our house on Sunday,complete with a custom designed cake to match her dress. Our cake was made for us at Yia Yia's Bakery in Rosedale, and had a swiss butter cream icing, vanilla cake and strawberry filling inside. It was pricier than our usual Mars sheet cake, but a first birthday is a momentous occasion, and for those type of events, we believe in sparing no expense, especially when it comes to our kids! It was a very delicious cake as well, which is the most imprtant thing! Amaya got lots of wonderful presents even though she had a little cold on the big day, she still enjoyed some yummy cake, followed by a long and much needed nap in Mommy's arms. We had a wonderful day celebrating with family, and we're gearing up for party #2 this weekend at my family's house in Western MD! Thanks to all who made Amaya's 1st birthday so special! Her awesome cake from Yia Yia's!

Amaya is ready to party with her purse and her party hat..now she just needs to get out of her jammies! Alex and Matthew ready to get the party started!

Lola with her little ladies! Abe and I with our little birthday girl!

Looks like she's enjoying that cake!

Sweet little girl playing at her party!

Walk Baby Walk...

Amaya took her very first step on Wednesday, October 20th. We saw her make that first wobbly step toward independance right in our living room, and we knew the first real episodes of walking would be soon to follow. Sure enough, on Monday, November 1st, one week before her first birthday, she walked for the very first time. She look so cute toddling around seeing as to how she's so petite. She is very strong though and when she wants something, she gets it, no matter what she has to do. She's certainly a climber too. We can't believe little Amaya who weighed 5lbs. 3 oz.one year ago this week, is now walking acorss our living room, but alas she is...and here's a video of our cute little one the night she started walking!

Happy Happy HaLlOwEeN!

Halloween has come and gone, and this Halloween was extra special because it was our little girl's very first one! Since she arrived 1 week after this fun holiday last year, this was her last first holiday...if that makes any sense! Leading up to the big event, we constantly asked Alex, "What would you like to be???" He usually answered with three things--Lightning McQueen from his favrite movie Cars, a Hamburger, or Buzz Lightyear. So one day while looking around at the disney store, he saw the Lightning McQueen pit crew/race car driver outfit, and it was love at first site. So Alex was a pit crew chief, complete with a little drill Abe gave him to carry around,which he of course found necessary to try out on our tires. Little Miss Amaya went as a cute little lady bug. She had a cuddly,soft costume and cute striped tights to wear underneath. We partciapted in 2 trick or treating events this year. The Avenue at White Marsh hosted Trick or Treating on Saturday, which we attended. And on Sunday evening, we suited up and went door to door in the Graceland Park neighborhood of Dundalk where Abe's Mom and Sister lives. All in all we had an awesome time and had so much fun celebrating Halloween with 2 little ones. I have to say it was much nicer walking around with Amaya on the outside this year :) What do we have here? A ninja, tinkerbell, a clone trooper, a pitcrew chief, an army guy and a ladybug that is! Thank goodness our pit crew chief was there to help get us back in the race! Our tiny little lady bug! Alex, Julia,and Dylan hitting up their first house together! Miss Julia trick or treating with Lola

Our Annual Weber's Trip!

On the cool date of 10.10.10, we decided it would be a good day to make our annual trip out to Parkville to Weber's Cider Mill Farm. It proved a wise decision, as the weather was absolutely beautiful and the kids had a wonderful time frolicking around to the different activity areas with their cousins. Of course, Amaya still can't frolick, since she's not walking yet, but she loved looking around, being carried from place to place and playing in the straw for awhile while everyone else played on the toy tractors. Weber's offers so many activities for the kids and we love making the trip out there every year! We were going to get our pumpkins from there, since I love to carve them and bake the yummy pumkin seeds once Halloween is over, but we decided, we'll get them from somewhere else, since we would have had to lug them back to our car! I think my personal favorite part was defintely the cider slush and cider donuts though--Yummm!We got some great fall pics of the kids in Weber's pumpkin patch and in their play area, so enjoy! Can you believe how big this little man is getting?

All of the cousins at Weber's! Lola with the only girls! The oldest boy with the youngest boy--awww--Dylan and Alex!

The four boys together in the maze--Dylan, Alex, Daniel, and Matthew waving!

Me and Miss Maya going down the slide!

Arceo family on the hayride!

Alex, Matthew and Julia with a big wooden pumpkin

Nana and Pap's, Higson's Farm, and 11 Months!

This blog post is a combo pack. That's right, here we have 3 events all rolled into one! Let me start with our weekend visit to my parents house in Western, MD--Barton, MD to be exact. All the way at the southwestern corner of Allegany County. We went out Saturday morning and stayed until Sunday afternoon to let the kids spend some time with Nana and Pap. Alex loves visiting my parents, probably because there's pretty much no rules and Alex has a definite country streak in him. Let's see, he loves cars, sports, animals and dirt, so yes..he is a country boy! As soon as we pulled up, Alex saw my Dad working on his truck, and he stopped and watched him completely mesmerized for at least 10 minutes, with my Dad trying to teach him about brake pads or some non sense. The crazy thing is, Alex was actually listening to him. In fact, I was pretty confident that Alex could possibly crawl under my car and fix my brakes after Dad's "mechanic lesson" LOL. Other than that Alex almost passed out from excitement when my Mom pulled out my brothers' old nascar matchbox cars (of which there are approximaely 10,000). I think he played with these every second we actually spent in the house. On our way back to Baltimore, we all donned Ravens gear and traveled about 20 minutes from my parent's house to Higson's Farm in Wiley Ford, Wva. They were having their annual Fall Fest and it was really awesome. They had bouncy houses, petting farm, pony and hay rides, food, and of course pumpkins! Both kids loved the pumpkin patch, with Alex trying to roll them all around and Amaya licking them and hugging them! Then we headed back to the River (Middle River--don't knock the nickname) and listened to the Ravens beat the Steelers on our radio--Yeah! Great fall weekend--my favorite time of year!
So in other news, Amaya will be 11 Months old on Thursday! I can't believe our baby girl will be 1 so soon. This time last year, I was just going on bed rest and every moment, every little pain I felt scared me to death. No one will ever know how scary that time of not knowing was for Abe and I, and we are just so thankful that she waited until almost 37 weeks to make her appearance and that we have our healthy, beautiful little girl here about to turn 1! I think I am most looking forward to seeing her take those first little steps soon, watching her hair grow, and watching her be able to interact more with her big brother.Parenthood is such a crazy rollercoaster ride sometimes, but it's just so worth it in the end and both of my kids, but especially our little Amaya is living proof of that! :) One handed method! Alex so excited over "Uncle Bandon's" old cars!

Amaya and Nana at Higson's Farm! Alex and I in the goat pin..petting his rear! LOL

Amaya in the pumkin patch! Strong boy trying to pick up two huge pumpkins!

Family Pic at Higson's--not too bad considering!