Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Aubrey's Birthday, Cooper Dean is Here, Fall Fun, Cousin, Olives & Friends Thanksgiving!

Cooper James Dean 
11/11/2013
7lbs. 1 oz. 19 in.
Everyone is doing well, and the girls are loving having a new brother! 
Congrats Eric & Adj, can't wait to meet the little guy.
Happy 3rd birthday Aubrey.  Since November has been full of milling. Nicole and I took the kids to the ranch to have a little birthday celebration. After a day of shopping for pink and purple, she was a happy girl with her cupcake!
Thank you Nicole for watching the kids!  I had an event, & Mike was milling so Nicole took the kids on some Fall Adventures!

 Gino once in awhile asks me to rock him at night, it's not all the time, so I usually give in. This one one special nap day. I decided to just take a break and hold him. Excellent choice if I do say so myself.

Cousin Cole, growing up and looking adorable in his Uggs

 This girl loves Vegemite after our Australia trip!
 It's been awhile since Stella was little and wanted to sit in Gino's lap. But this particular day he wanted to hold her like the good ol days.  It was cute, but Stella wasn't so sure about it. "I hold Stella" he kept saying.
Annual Friends Thanksgiving @ Nats.  
Delicious food, vino & a night out with the girls. Just what I needed!





Fall is Here! Playing in Trees & Raking Leaves! 


Well it is good to know we were included in what she is thankful for! Dogs, Turtle & Family! 
Wonder what we have been up to???????

                                         

Sunday, November 17, 2013

CP SLO & Kiddo Updates

Well, since Mike has been up to his elbows in olives this month, I decided to take the kids to SLO for a road-trip. Alumni weekend is always a fun reunion and most of our group heads back.  This year Red was the only one who played in the game and she made us proud! Thank you Clarins for letting us have some sleepovers!

 One morning Giada went on an adventure with friends, so Gino and I went to campus for a run. Man did those hills kick my ass! It's not like that in Lodi! The campus has changed so much, it really was fun to see everything. I even ran up Fredericks for Old Time Sake! Ran by AGR, looks like they were supporting Breast Cancer Awareness.



 Calivirgin supported CP Softball
As usual, Hot Virgin Jalapeno was the popular choice to top the popcorn with; have you tried it yet?
 I missed the "wear a gray shirt" memo!


A trip is not complete without the stop at the Avila Barn and the Beach!

Just a girl and her corn. Both kids ate their corn so fast, I couldn't believe it.

As you can imagine there are points in the day that go smoother than others. Often times I want to lock them in a room together and make them work it out. Luckily, there are a lot of times that are very sweet, and they love to be with each- other. Caught a few sweet ones recently.

Giada
- Almost 5, hard to believe
- Has an excellent memory, and asks very in depth questions. I'm already worried about the teenage years with this one, based on how she already reacts as a 4 year old
- Loves going to Grace Preschool, this year 3 days a week
- Gymnastics/Dance class is a weekly highlight
-Loves trying to rhyme things, and what she comes up with is  pretty funny
- Her hermit crab Periwinkle just died, so that was interesting to deal with. At first she was really upset, now we have buried her and moved on. She did tell her friend "Dylan, I was going to give you Perwinkle, but then she died and I didn't want to give you a dead crab"  ** No worries Nicole, I wasn't going to give you a live pet
- Loves doing puzzles and is very proud of herself as she gets better at them
-Makes up jokes and asks you to as well, watch out she usually doesn't like what you come up with, and it cannot be a knock knock joke
- Continues to draw a lot, and much better than I can even attempt
- Growing the bangs out is taking FOREVER. Now she wants to cut them but we are not doing that now after making it so long
- She is always writing cards and letters with the words she knows, and wants to mail them to us. Asks us how to spell things out. Mom, Dad, Pops, Giada, Gino are some she has gotten good at writing.
Giadaisms 
    -- "Me and Gino are not the calmest kids, you probably want to keep Cole" (after we watched him one afternoon)
  -- me: Giada I can't do everything at once Giada: "do you wish you were an octopus so you had more hands?"
   -- "Gino god and Santa are watching you so you should be a good boy"
  -- "I tested the scissors out on my tongue (from her play hair stuff) and on Ginos hair and it won't cut"
  -- "When I wake up in the morning, snap crackle pop I will be dry"

Gino
- Runs everywhere he goes
- Jumps off everything, climbs on everything
- Definitely asks "Why"
- Can speak pretty well now. It took him quite a while to get going so now that he speaks well, his vocabulary and the way he answers questions makes him seem so much older to me, but I think it is because he sort of missed the babbling stage because he didn't speak much then
- Getting pretty good at colors "geen" " lellow" "giants" (orange) "red" "bu""chocolate" (brown)
- Enjoys painting and drawing, just all scribbling at this point
- His easy going personality is pretty much gone. He definitely knows what he wants these days
- LOVES fruit, peas, he is pickier than Giada
- Growth spurt lately, all of a sudden everything is too small for him
- Goes to sleep later now, between 8-9 and still gets up 6ish. Some days even no nap....so sad.
- He does go down for bed relatively easy after a couple books.  Pacifier is gone! We only really let him have it at bed, or the car, but we were sick of it. I told him it was for babies, we could give it to his cousin Cole. I said that for about a week and then just got rid of them, and it hasn't been an issue since. He has hardly brought it up. I'm shocked and thrilled!
-Loves playing dress up
- Working on manners so he just says "please welcome thankyou" to cover all his basis
- "Mommy Julie" is a new favorite Giada has taught him to say now that he has mastered "Mike"
- Likes counting... 1, 2, 2, 1, 2,1  over and over

Monday, November 11, 2013

Danielle's Wedding & Halloween



Well I am a few weeks behind so here is the long catch up post. What happened to my weekly posts? It kept me on track.  Mike and I got a quick getaway down to Venice, kidless before harvest started.  Wonderful to catch up with all our friends, and celebrate Danielle & Tim's wedding! Congratulations lovebirds. The wedding was beautiful, and the late night In & Out hit the spot! 







Thanks to Mom and Jeanne for watching the kids while we were away. The kids got a chance to play with Cole at Eastons Birthday Party.  Fun to see their Australian friends again!

Thought this would mean a nice peaceful trip to Target, but then I couldn't fit anything in the cart. Maybe that is a good thing too!

A lot of this goes on around here. Dress up time.  This is what you dress up in when you want to be just like your sister!
 Crazy but true, it is November and still no rain or cold weather. The kids were even in shorts today. But lots of outside play time still happening around here!
Pallet rides at the ranch, always fun for everyone.

Annual Grace Field Trip to Teacher Jan's Walnut Orchard. Pumpkins, hayrides, walnut painting, and watching harvesting. Fun and educational!



Happy Birthday Teya!
 
Carving Time! Our expert carver was harvesting so it was left to me.  Luckily he came home in time to save Minnie, so I didn't totally screw her up.  Giada took my paper away and said I could just look at the stuffed Minne to figure it out! Yeah right! Gino went running off and came back with power tools and goggles, it was hilarious! To each their own!

Fun thing about being a kid is everywhere you go for a couple weeks you can wear your costumes. Dress up day at gymnastics class. She would never wear the orange tutu, and this was the only day butterfly had her antenna's but the wings were a hit. And shockingly Gino kept his giraffe headpiece on!  I thought for sure I had one more year to at least pick Gino's costume, but he kept yelling "gaffe" when Giada would ask what he wanted to be...so this was it! Funny since we had Giada be a giraffe when she was little. 
Lucky for me the kids still like to answer the door, and don't really know much about Trick or Treating. So, I spread it out throughout the week and go to a few family stops all week and then answer the door on actual Halloween. 1st stop Nana & Pops!
Of course we made a stop in Woodbridge too! Gino was teaching Stella the ropes.
Dress up day at school!
Cousin Cole! Happy Halloween to our favorite chef!
Christopherson Cousins! Gino was clearly over the photo session!
Annual pics, oh how the kiddos have grown. Thor and his ladies!