Easter pics, Easter fun run, birthdays, 8 mon pics, kiddo update

This week we celebrated lots of birthdays! Dinner with the family to celebrate Nonno!

Puss and Boots theme to celebrate Lucca! His dancing to the movie is hilarious- wish I had it on video!

And last but not least....Happy Birthday Francesca. The kids loved the Blues Clues theme and meeting Blue!

Aubrey had fun in the tent!

Giada made a new friend Gianna and the birthday girl Frannie wasn't sure what to do with all these people!

Best buds!

This weekend was the Easter Fun Run...the kids ran much better this year. The dogpile at the beginning of the run was classic but they all jumped up and took off! Mike put a video together below. I hope she stops running like me with her arms down! lol

This week we visited Ron and Kerry Hilder.... they had Giada climbing in their famous front yard tree in no time....along with snail science experiments....it's always and adventure with the Hilders!

Gino still loves bathtime!

This week after the rain Giada wanted to take a scooter ride to Matt and Stephs...she quickly gave up the scooter for puddle jumping! Pajamas and cowboys boots...she was quite the sight!

I love artichokes! She asks for one every night when I ask what she would like for dinner!

This weekend was Lodi Spring Wine Show...always a fun one for us to see so many familiar faces and fans of the oil. The new flavors were a hit and we were award winners again!

Springtime Easter pictures with Heather Jean Photography. We feel so fortunate to have so many photographer friends always doing fun things to capture the kids! Giada was so excited to hold the baby chicks and hasn't stopped talking about them since.

Forgot to post these 8 month pictures!

8 months old

- Jabbering up a storm...no real words I can make out yet.

- Easy to laugh and thinks his sister is hilarious!

- Still easy going, and only cranky when he is tired or hungry...I'll take that.

- Terrible sleeper, up hourly the last 3 nights, but I'll blame that on teeth hopefully. I need to really work on that...it's getting WAY old at this point and at 9 months, I stop night feedings...so I had better get on it!

- Eating all kinds of baby food, doesn't seem to care what it is that he is eating. He really grabs for and wants real food. I'm just to nervous about choking and haven't given him much yet. He eats those puffs and seems to like those quite a bit!

- CORDS, he loves cords. He crawls from room to room to find them and outlets. Something Giada didn't care about..hope this passes quick!

- He has started letting go of things and thinks he can stand....and he is mistaken, he falls every time!

- Bangs on everything...tables, faces, whatever is near him. If he has a toy and can make it louder...all the better.

Giada Update and Giadaisms

- Finally is letting me comb her hair every night!! I put a million creams etc, on it and it's not too painful for her now! Progress! She only want's pig tails, but atleast she is letting me put her hair up!

- Likes to dress herself everyday...and it takes forever!! I try to get her to pick out one part the pants or the shirt, so I can pick out one part to make it kind of match...and she always wants to pick the shoes too. She usually prefers a dress or skirt and sparkly shoes....I'm wondering if she really is mine - lol!

- About half the week now Giada has no nap. Now I wouldn't be so sad about giving up the nap IF she went to bed earlier...but she still goes to bed at 9 or 10...that does not work for me. So we are figuring that out!

- She told me " I'm teaching Gino to say steak - not yet but when he talks he can say steak!"

- We were cooking dinner one day and she said "Dad, when you turn into a girl you can have these" (She meant her measuring spoons) He said, "Oh when will that be" She said" When you turn into a girl"

- Giada told me " I wont say your stomach looks big again, but when I was in your tummy it was big and now its just kind of big!" Oh really...thanks Giada!! This was an improvement I guess from last week when she told me my stomach was big...not it's just "kind of big" - Ill take that as a compliment ;)

Go Kings, Peyton's Birthday, Gino Jeep, Raley Kid's Day

Don't worry - we are teaching Giada the important things in life! Go Kings!

This little guy is growing up. We have a picture of Giada in this jeep too...I'll have to pull it out and compare!

Celebrating Peyton's Birthday! The girls ate more sprinkles then they put on their cupcakes.

Always hard to get a group photo of the kids!

Playing around at Go Bananas!

Pops found Giada Tinkerbell gardening stuff - knee pad, shovel and gloves. She especially loves it when she comes across a worm or snail! The other day she put a worm in some water and told me "this worm just loves taking baths" she doesn't realize he isn't actually swimming....he's no longer living. :)

Kids Day at Raley Field!

We got rained out at this event last week...so off we were to it this week. Thanks Renee for the heads up on this event, it was a fun one. Bouncy houses, parachutes, frisbees, bats, balls, coloring, hula hoops and much more! Looking forward to the next one. It was not overcrowded and everyone was super nice...kids had a blast!

This picture was as we were walking in.....not sure what they are doing, but it's funny to see their little personalities in action.

Giada loved Dinger!

Hey batter batter.....

Clearly the kids had no interest in our photo.

St. Patricks Day, Nico's Bday, Sleepover & Giadaisms

We have a climber! She will climb anything and everything and more recently moving objects to climb on so she can get to what she wants. So far this poor Japanese Maple has only lost one branch!

Happy St Patrick's Day! Bre at BW Photography had a darling set for the holiday. Giada's "neck hurt" that day. It was very out of character but she had this sore neck for a couple days - maybe slept wrong?? Who knows. Either way - wanted nothing to do with our picture, but Gino cooperated. I kept asking if she wanted to go back and she said "Next time Ill take a picture atBres work"

We still love our cat Max! Max was missing for the first few weeks of having Belle, but we have convinced him to come back. He does run straight upstairs when he gets in the house....I think he is pretty frightened by the pup but he is adjusting!

No preschool for the kiddos the last 2 weeks, so Heather and I wanted to do something fun with the kids. Wouldn't you know it rained the day we planned to go to the SF Zoo...so we headed to the Mud Mill - the kids love to paint there.

I asked them to look at me for a picture and they said they were busy - lolIt's not a trip downtown unless you hug Big Bear!Gino is also climbing on everything! He has made major progress on getting himself down though....which makes it much better for everyone!So I saved the party hats from Giada's birthday. She had us all wearing them the other night and said "Let's pretend it's my birthday!" I think she was hoping for cake and presents too! Sydney was a good sport, along with Mike and I...Gino and Belle....not so much....Later in the week the crowns and hats came out again. This time she said "Gino can be queen"

And it's official...I'm the mom that drives those HUGE carts you can't even move around the store. I always regret giving in, but they have so much fun. Gino couldn't get enough of that steering wheel.The boys headed to Reno for some March Madness, so the girls got together and had a sleepover. The kids had tons of fun, staying up late, watching movies and making pizza. We had lots of fun drinking wine and catching up. Thanks Nicole for having us over!

The kids were cracking us up that night. Dylan said "this is going to be the best pizza ever" I also said at some point in the night - Dylan, it's so nice to see you, he replies "thanks!"

Happy Birthday Nico!! Marc and Renee should make a business out of throwing parties! They are awesome at it!! This year's theme Mr. Potato Head. Food, friends - so much fun!

Just a sampling of the HOMEMADE AMAZING potato heads all around the house!

Nico and Giada messing up the darling table decor!

Gino enjoyed being pushed around the party on the tryke

Dylan went to town creating his potato head cupcake!

And had fun making funny faces at me when I was trying to take pics!

Lots of kiddos!

Giadaisms

I just can't write things down fast enough these days...she is a crack up.

- This one ...not so funny! "Mom, your stomach is getting big" Really Giada.....thanks a lot.

- She loves drawing things these days, letters, numbers and learned a heart. She said "Look I made a heart just like dad showed me!"

- She was helping us make dinner and says " This is going to be the best cooking ever, I can tell"

- Mike was helping with dinner and I told him to let her crack the eggs, he looked at me like - that is a bad idea- and she says " I can be the egg cracker in no time"

- Giada was resting in our bed one night watching a movie, I was cuddling with her until she said " Don't lay your cheek on me, I'm not a pillow" :(

- That same movie night we were having some popcorn and she says "I like salt on it and this doesn't feel like it has any??" - Really Giada??

-Potty training is improving. I just gave up and that method is working, most of the day she is going by herself. And she loves the potty chart, different stickers for what happens - seems fun for her.... we'll see...hopefully the end is near!