Basketball Buddies

aj, holly and chase have moved back! we are really excited to have them here full time. visits are fine and all but way too infrequent. they haven't lived here since we moved here, so it's been at least 4 years. obviously, things have changed since then. specifically, the two littlest amadas arrived. their fathers were pretty close growing up, so we are hoping these little ones will be too. chase came over to hang out with us for a few hours this morning and we had tons of fun!

chase and roman

they started out the day playing with trains

then they moved on to what else? basketball, of course roman is showing chase how to shoot it..."bend your knees, like this"
"and then..."
"you shoot it!"
now, it's chase's turn

then, outside to ride bikes.

(yes, my kid is wearing an eagles helmet. we don't have enough bike helmets. don't judge.) they had their lunch outside before holly came to pick chase up.
good times were had by all. and, i'm sure they will continue.

Sweet Little Serenade

duke looks completely thrilled, right?

Our Photo Shoot

we had a photo shoot done in the fall in order to give updated pictures to the grands...

i had to keep them under wraps until christmas. but now i can share. we love them. it was the most beautiful fall day, not too hot and not cold either. the kids cooperated and our photographer was fantabulous!

enjoy!

Gratitude

after feeling pretty sorry for myself yesterday, i've decided to leave the pity party and make sure everyone knows how grateful i am for all that i have...

today, i am grateful for:

• my rockstar husband who waited 3+ hours to pimp my ride
• my son who says the most funny things without even meaning to
• a super cute new lunch bag from my mom
• starbucks peppermint mocha (chocolate can cure the blues, fo sho)
• kisses from ro (even with chapped lips, they are the best)
• craft blogs...the ideas and inspiration is endless
• the support of family and friends who pick me up when i am down

Homemade Christmas

last year i made a lot of presents for Christmas. i mean a lot.

this year, i just wasn't up to the challenge. i wanted to enjoy the season with roman and do all the little things i didn't get to last year, like baking and visiting santa.

here are the few things i did make.

picture blocks with the professional pictures we had done.

those kids. how can you not love those faces? i embellished this barn star for my mom. i used some Christmas-y scrapbook paper and a lot of the pictures we had taken. it isn't too Christmas-y looking, so hopefully she can use it all year long.okay, so maybe the holly paper is Christmas-y. whoops. these are something i made based off of something i saw on the internet. they hold a planner/address book, pen, stamps and some notecards. perfect to throw in your purse so you can write a note whenever you have a free minute. everything's there for you. some of them didn't turn out exactly how i planned, but all in all, they were a success. i'm not going to mass produce them, but they were a fun thing to see if i could make without a tutorial or pattern. oh, and one more. i baked a little, but what i really wanted to make was these peppermint marshmallows. anyone who really knows me, knows i love peppermint and chocolate together. i.e. my favorite drink is the peppermint mocha at starbucks. i thought these would be the perfect compliment to a warm mug of hot cocoa on a snowy day. they were easy and fun to make and i'm sure i will do it again. package them up with some cocoa and a candy cane and voila! a nice little pick-me-up gift.
i've already started my 2011 craft list and made something for a friend's birthday (oops, no pictures). woo hoo!

Roman's Playdate

on saturday afternoon, roman had a playdate with his best friend, mady. mady is a new big sister to ella, born just a few weeks ago. we thought that maybe mady would like to hang out with her buddy roman while her mom and dad got a few hours alone with ella.

this was before the "date", but he's now obsessed with being a police officer...

bouncy slides are so much fun!

two tots on a turtle

the princess in her castle

they had lots of fun together!

2010 Christmaspalooza

we were so lucky to be able to go visit our families for Christmas. we left on Christmas Eve at 3:30am and boy, was it a long day. it finally ended after midnight mass and we went to bed at 2am. after that it was smooth sailing...lots of family, lots of food, lots of fun...

here's the week in pictures.

amid all the chaos of Christmas Eve. being silly with macee.

making fun of amanda's baby bump
Grandpa and the littles
a present for me? can i open it...can i open it?
pretty girls...maddy and macee
rylee's got bedhead, but still a cutie
macee didn't appreciate the paparazzi




santa was good to him...very good.

santa didn't forget toby!

buzz in action

the annual picture of the kids in front of the tree

he can't figure out what he wants to be. he is a mix of buzz and the conductor from Polar Express here.

toby needed an icepack after an unfortunate xbox incident

moving on from one crazy family to another...down to my grandmother's house see, i told you. crazy.

love her.


the ladies and the gents...

the whole gang

roman loves his big cousin, CJ

CJ got a heater...exciting stuff for a 16 year old boy, huh?

well, someone stole the heater and he ended up with wine!

ariah is a perfect fit!

uncle gene must have been a very good boy this year

finally! he was really hoping for a football helmet and nana saved the day!

"i'm Eagles man!"

sami, blaire, krista

colleen, me

pretty girls...love them!

mr. and mrs. joshua miller

roman wanted a hug, but ariah wasn't having it...

then, we moved on to mom's house...

josh just can't be serious

maybe i can't be either. what goofballs we are.

toy story 3

what? oh, do i have wrapping paper on my face?

um, i don't even know what to say about this

short bus kid

i know he looks sad, but he has new toys, he's pretty happy right now

isn't her "necklace" pretty?
playing captain hook with her kitchenaid dough hook
now it's his turn
a toast...
the boy and his toys
nice wrapping paper jay

while we were eating, relaxing, opening presents, and eating some more, this was happening outside.
and was blowing onto the patio too...

the view from my mom's bedroom window

the backyard

the snowboots excited him just a little, can you tell?

helping me up, what a gentleman

the dogs, rounding the corner, ears flying behind them

he was loving the snow

mommom's favorite snowbaby

shifting gears on the "tractor"

back to northern de, to poppop's house

a real flying buzz lightyear!

thanks aunt alex!

racing around the track at mimi's house...getting really good on his new bike

taking the corner like a pro

visiting grandpa...4 generations

double vision

at poppop's basketball practice

i think he's got basketball in his blood

stealing the ball from poppa

nice shot!

3 generations of amadas

roman loves his aunt alex

on our drive back to mimi's house, we spotted this house that had hmmm, maybe 837 inflatables in the yard. so, we turned around to go back and drive by. the owner happened to be on his roof, fixing one of the inflatables. to say that he likes Christmas would probably be an understatement...

see?

i wasn't lying. 837. for real.

back down to mommom's.

his version of buddy the elf...

then, we headed to uncle josh and aunt colleen's house.

he loves riding a "tractor"

oh, and my crazy brother has a dune buggy. like, a street legal dune buggy. and he parks it in the garage. this is just hilarious to me.

and roman got to take a ride...

grandpa and grandma miller brought him a present too

thanks grandpa and grandma!

colleen got a nativity scene

josh got a gift card...

my sister-in-law colleen threw a surprise 30th birthday party for josh while we were there, and this was the cake her sister made. pretty awesome. also awesome was that i got to see a lot of my family one last time before roman and i left.
we had a fantastic time. i was grateful for all the time spent with family.

we were also anxious to get home. sleep in our own beds and get back on a routine. more sleep. less eating.

we got home early enough to be able to take a bike ride around the neighborhood. the weather was nice, so even though mimi's living room bike track was awesome, it was cool to be able to ride outside!



Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!