Here it is..check your mailboxes

The 2011 Arceo family holiday card...Coming to a mailbox near you! For a limited time only...

Daddy's Christmas Surprise

A couple weeks ago, I returned home from work, kids in tow from daycare and we all soptted something unusual on at the bottom of our stairs. A gigantic wrapped present! Woohoo! What could it be, we wondered? So we wasted no time and the kids dug right into the big present from Daddy. What was it, you ask? It was a real Christmas choo-choo to run underneath our tree! Abe said he had one when he was kid and really wanted to get one for our family, so he went on out to Home Depot that day and bought one for us. Pretty awesome Daddy, huh? Check out some pics of our new Christmas surprise in action :)Dig in kids!
Choo-choo! Alex is a big fan :)

Dutch's Winter Wonderland Adventure

Last Saturday, December 3rd, were retired our Dutch Wonderland season passes finally by attending their end of the season event, Winter Wonderland. Luckily, the weather cooperated with us though, and we were able to have a great day! They had the entire park decked out in the most beautiful Christmas lights, and at sundown, they began displaying a light show set to music every 20 minutes. It was awesome! They had a majority of their rides open, minus any of the water rides of course, and the kids had great fun on their favorite rides. Amaya is getting even more daring now and wanted to ride few new ones, and Alex was just as content to sit on the bench and watch her go! LOL All in all we had a wonderful time at Dutch and are considering the possiblity of renewing our season passes, though with Disney World starting to grow closer (June 2012) we're still not sure, so we're holding off for the moment. Enjoy sme fo the pics from the festive and fun Wonderland at Dutch! We stopped at Kitchen Kettle Village before going to Dutch and the kids got to see Santa there!

Both goofy kids wanted to sit on the back of stroller, so they decided to share it :)
They turned what is usually an outdoor pizza shop into an igloo building station--the kids loved this!

2 little chefs getting ready to decorate cookies!
Haha..self-portrait in front of Dutch!

It's Starting to Get Festive Around Here...

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we returned home from a wonderful trip to my parents and decided to get busy with Christmas! That night, we went into our shed, got out the Christmas boxes and got to work on decorating the inside and outside of our house. We put up our tree fairly quickly, admiring especially all of our hallmark collector's ornaments we have collected throughout the years. Both kids were really interested in their "baby's 1st Christmas" ornaments this year and thought it was funny to see pictures of themselves as babies in the little frames. Alex was puzzled as to why he was so much bigger in his picture than Amaya was in hers.I ahd to exlainto him that he was 9 months old on his first Christmas because he birthday is in March, but Amaya was only 1 month old on her first Christmas because her birthday is in November, only 1 month before Christmas comes. I think he got it! lol This year, we also let each kid pick an ornament from the Disney store of their favorite character to add to the tree. Alex of course picked Mater from Cars 2, and Amaya picked Rapunzel from Tangled. No big surprises there! Once the tree was up we all headed outside to work on the lights the next day. The kids sort of helped us along, while Abe and I put together, put into the ground, strung up and plugged in the lights. I have a few pics to show you our Christmas spirit here in Middle River!

Alex getting some help with his special Mater ornament. Amaya's is the big purple one already on the tree.

Alex after putting the star on the treeAnd Amaya after putting the star on the tree..we had to do it twice this year!

The finished product..ignore the messy background.We were still cleaning up the decorations!
The stockings are all hung up on the stair way!
Is this how Alex helps put the outside trees up? LOL

Soccer Awards Ceremony!

With his very first coach...Daddy!

Alex's first outdoor soccer season officially came to a close on November 19th, as we headed over to Stemmer's Run Middle School's auditorium to celebrate the season and receive trophies. The entire league attended and accepted trophies, meaning there were kids from ages 3- 14 filling the auditorium, as well as family members ans friends. Alex's team being the youngest was among the first to go up and Alex was the first on his team to get his trophy from his coach,who also happened to be Daddy :) It was so rewarding for Abe and I after putting so much work into coaching our little ones this season to be able to hand our little teammates a trophy and shake their hands. We're not sure what he's going to want to do next. He has mentioned Karate, because he watches our 4 year old neighbor come home form Karate in his cool uniform every Thursday, but he has also mentioned playing baseball in the spring. Whatever he decides is fine with us!Up on the stage, proudly displaying his trophy to the audience!

Sitting back down with his big trophy

Amaya's Birthday Celebration Part II- Our House and Build-A-Bear!

To wrap up the big celebration of Amaya's 2nd year of life, we hosted a party for her at our home, followed by a fun bear-making session at Build-A-Bear Workshop in Towson. We started the day by picking up her beautiful Disney princess themed cake from Yia Yia's Bakery in Rosedale. Once we returned home, Abe headed back out to pick up some delicious pizza from Ledo's and balloons from Party City,while the kids and I decorated and hung out until our first guests arrived at around 11:30. When Alex answered the door and saw that our first guests were his good friend Gaby and her Mom, he was super excited. In fact, he asked Gaby if she would like to play guns with him! LOL Gaby is a girly girl though, and opted to play with Amaya's mini princess figurines instead! Once everyone arrived we ate pizza, pansit, pasta salad, and some other yummy snacks. Then, we sang to our little princess, cut the cake, and enjoyed eating it. After cake, we opened presents and Amaya was so excited to get a princess lap top, a bath baby doll, some princess figurines, and lots of cute clothes! Around 1:45, we all headed out the door to the Towson Town Center to make our bears! All of the kids seem to have a wonderful time picking their bear, naming it, stuffing it, bathing it, choosing an outfit for it, dressing it, and of course singing lots of silly songs and doing lots of silly dances during the process! Alex picked a cute bear with a camo style fur, named him Michael Steve (LOL--though he has since changed it to just "Teddy") and dressed him in Cars 2 pajamas complete with slippers! Amaya picked a cute, girly bear with a heart print on her fur, named her "Princess Tangled" and dressed her in what else but a Rapunzel princess dress! At the end of the party, the kids marched around the store and posed for a group pic! It was such a wonderful day for such a special celebration, and we want to thank all of our family and friends for attending and joining in the fun! Now we get a 4 month break until Alex's birthday in March...phew!Amaya's beautiful princess cake from Yia Yia's!

The 3 princesses about to eat cake!Yummy! Too bad she dropped her cake on herself and needed a wardrobe change shortly after this pic.All of the kids doing a silly dance for their bears!Amaya stuffing her bear :)Julai with her Cinderella bear, Amaya with her Tangled bear, and Dylan with his Star Wars bear!

The whole party! Julia, Gaby, Amaya, Alex, and Nolan (In front) Matthew, Dylan and Daniel (In back)

Alex and Amaya's finished products! Michael Steve a.ka. Teddy and Princess Tangled! LOL

Happy 2nd Birthday to Our Sweet Little Amaya!

Today is our beautiful little girl's 2nd birthday! Amaya Soleil entered this world very quickly after only 3.5 hours of labor at 9:48 PM on a Saturday night. She was 3 weeks early, and a petitie 5lbs. 3 oz., but what she lacks in size, she definitely makes up for in personality. She has become so very independant without losing her sweetness. She knows what she wants, and will go after it when she wants to. She is pretty fearless, pretty outgoing, and of course very bright. She loves to sit patiently and build a tower out of blocks, but at the same time knows a thing or two about climbing, running, and dancing around the house. She is just so tiny, and it adds to her charm. Tiny or not--the girl knows how to work a room already, so lord help us when she grows up! I can't believe our little girl is 2 already, but I am so excited to watch her grow up and only want her to find happiness in whatever she chooses to do. To celebrate 2 years of her being a part of our family, we had cupcakes and sang to her after dinner, and let her open her gifts from Mommy, Daddy,and Alex after a much needed bath (The cupcakes weren't the cleanest treat!). She got lots of princess supplies of course since that is her whole world right now. She got a soft, plush Rapunzel doll, a Cinderella castle with a mini-Cinderella figurine, a Princess Encyclopedia, and a Mulan baby doll from Mommy and Daddy. And from Alex, she got a Rapunzel barbie with changable hair color. Of course, she seemed to like Alex's present the best,though she is cuddled up with her soft Rapunzel as we speak. All in all, today was not the best day at work, a stressful and busy Monday, but coming home and watching Amaya delight in her presents, be so excited over her cupcake and glow as we sang to her at our kitchen table turned the day around completely and coming home to our wonderful children always remind us of the important things in life. We are just so blessed and happy to have Amaya in our lives, and we know every year on her birthday, we celebrate a miracle--her being our healthy, happy and beautiful daughter. Happy Birthday sweet little Amaya!
A birthday kiss from her big brother Alex :)

Posing with Daddy

Well hi there birthday girl!
Opening some presents with help from Daddy and Alex

She hasn't put the Rapunzel doll down since she pulled it our of the wrapping paper :)Posing with all of her presents!

The best big brother in the world playing Princess with his sister--he was a superstar today. We didn;t hear one complaint about not having the attention on him and him not getting presents. He was justa helpful big brother from start to finish and so sweet to his baby sister singing to her and giving her hugs and kisses.

Amaya's Birthday Celebration Part I--Nana and Pappy's

This past weekend, we travelled to Allegany County to celebrate Amaya's big #2 with my parents, grandparents, brother and Aunt Nancy. We had a wonderful time eating a delicious home-cooked meal courtesy of Nana, digging into a tasty ice cream birthday cake,and watching our little princess open her first birthday presents in celebration of her 2nd birthday. She got a baby doll with clothes and bottles, stroller, lots of adorable clothes for herself, books, and cool Princess Ariel bathtub toy from her Western MD family. She also has a great time playing in Nana and Pappy's sand box. This has become her favorite thing to do when we visit there and she did not let the cold temps keep her from donning her warmest winter jacket and digging into the sand! What a fun weekend and great way to kick off the birthday celebration for our little birthday princess! A huge thank you to my family, especially my mom for taking care of all of the cooking and hosting the little party for Amaya and making it so special.

Playing with Grandma and some of her new toys

Playing in the sand :)

Loves her Great-Grandma!

Mom..look at me! Take my pic too!

Amaya's 2 Year Portraits!

It's hard to believe, but our precious little girl will be 2 years old in 11 days! To celebrate this milestone, we had her birthday portraits taken recently at our local JCPenny Portrait Studio in White Marsh. I was a little nervous as to how she would do, being almost that magical age of 2, but she did fantastic! A little model in the making :) The pictures will come in on Halloween, and I'll get them out to everyone shortly after that, but in the meantime, check out some of our favs!