party time!

This year we decided to have Gia's party at Mimi's house. She has such a gorgeous back yard and pool and really it is a perfect place for a party! Of course it was like 100 degrees out (literally) and almost rained but luckily the party was a success and Gia had so much fun with all her little friends :) We did a girly safari theme... I made most of the decorations with the help of my sister in law Lynn and the cricut machine she let me use. It was a lot of work but I think everything came out so great! Here are some party pics!

waiting for all her guests to arrive!

yay!

cupcake setup!

i ordered the fondant from 2 etsy sellers but made the rest of the stuff!

goody bags

decorations!

I was real proud of my sign, it took a lot of time...

lovely pool

everyone in the pool! gia with her cousin darian and her uncle salar

gia and gianna playing at the water table

avery swimming with brandon

daddy and gia

the bea's are here!

the boys playing!

mya bea painting her flower pot!

and mya mourad painting hers, these mya's are so damn cute!

gia was all into painting hers

miss avery!

ashley is so big now and so cute with her red hair!

love her!

my grandma

michael is so adorable

still painting :)

rachel and jack who finally woke up and joined the party

this pic came blurry, so annoying. it was while everyone was singing happy birthday

blowing out the candle!

mmmm

with her brother

love these two more than life

with their grandparents!

i think willie liked his cupcake

tried to get a shot of all the kiddies

miss ashley again

gg and her great grandbabies

taking a break, she had a great time!

thank you to all our friends and family who came and celebrated with us :)

2 Years Old!

I want to cry as I type this... I can't believe Gia is two. When she turned one, I wasn't too sad, she was still a little baby to me at that point. Now there is no denying she is a little GIRL. I love her more and more everyday, she is so fun and so smart and seeing her learn new things everyday is just so exciting!

Here is a little recap of what she can do now...
-TALKS!!! she does not stop! she can form 2-3 word sentences too. Like, Mama SIT! bird fly! Dady (jack) is here!
-Sings... her favorite songs are: Abc's, twinkle twinkle little star, ba ba black sheep, itsy bitsy spider, and happy birthday. She learns all these songs from dvd's and from us singing, it is so cute.
-Can count from 1-13
-She loves to dance! She makes me put on all my house music and she dances around the living room
-Plays 'I got you' where she runs around tickling you and vice versa
-Is SOOOOO helpful! She loves to help me empty the dishwasher, get the baby dressed, clean up and so many other things
-Loves her brother. I love that she calls him dady instead of baby, and she wants him everywhere she is. He looks at her now with the cutest eyes, like he just adores her. I can't take it! I hope they are close growing up!
-Loves to read books, color (she is actually pretty good!) and is awesome at playing with the ipod.

Having a toddler can be crazy hard some times (most times lol) they are either the most fun ever or the most difficult! I am trying hard to keep my patience and just enjoy this time, it is a blessing to have this perfect little girl and some days it is easy to overlook it. I was thinking about stuff tonight and remembered this picture hanging in my parents house, I googled and found it... I think it is just perfect for people with young kids:

Mother's Prayer

Give me patience when little hands

Tug at me with ceaseless, small demands.

Give me gentle words and smiling eyes,

To keep my lips from hasty, sharp replies.

Let not fatigue, confusion or noise

Obscure my vision of life's fleeting joys

So when in years to come my house is still,

Beautiful memories its rooms may fill.

Gia, I can't believe you are 2 years old! I can't even imagine my life before you were here. You make me smile everyday and brighten everyone's lives. We love you more than you will ever know!!!

zoo time with cousins!

a few weeks ago my sister in law lisa and her 3 kids were in town for almost a week. gia absolutely loves hanging with her cousins so we took advantage and hung out everyday! one day we went to the zoo in van saun and it was a great time, perfect size for the kids and they had a blast!

here is gia holding ollie and una's hands waiting to get in...

eli was ready to go!

 they have a butterfly exhibit and it was so cool! i wish i had my zoom lens so i could have taken better pics.

 there were so many different kinds, so pretty

 eli hanging!

 my girl, she basically refuses to look at me when i take pics grrrr

 so cute she seriously loves them!

 cousins!

 turtles! they were pretty cool

 

 here was the anteater, seriously weirdest animal i ever saw.

all the kids!

basically after they left gia woke up every day asking for eli, ollie, una. i tried to explain they don't live here, but i don't think she understands! tomorrow we leave to go to ocean city for a week, i can only imagine how much she will be asking for everyone after that!

3 Months!!!

my little buddy is getting so big, like BIG! he has gotten so chubbawubb since he turned 2 months! we didn't have a 3 month doctors appointment so i don't have exact stats but I am thinking he gained a few pounds! he is in 3-6 month clothes and even a little big for some of them already, it is crazy! so many things have happened... here is what he is up to these days :)
-has rolled over a couple times from front to back and once from back to front when mimi was watching him! but he is crazy in his crib so i do not doubt it!
-speaking of sleeping he is now sleeping like a champ (praying i did not just jinx myself here!) but he sleeps from around 7-3 or 4 every night, eats then sleeps another few hours.
-wears size 1 diapers but could def fit in 2's i am just trying to get rid of all or 1's!!!
-smiles and giggles all the time!
-'talks' so much, it is so cute!
-loves his sister and vice versa, she always needs to know where her 'dadie' is. so cute, says 'dadie, dadie?' or when he comes into the room, 'dadie's here!' i hope she keeps feeling this way about him!
-is just the best little boy, he lights up when he sees me and it MELTS my heart. this age is when babies are like crack and makes you want more, hehehe right john ;)

love watching him grow and i just love you so much jack!

his 3 month shot!

i mean seriously with this face!!!

i love you baby boy!

.

trip to the beach!!!

besides our annual trip to ocean city, nj john and i haven't gotten much beach time in over the past few years, ya know having babies and what not makes things kinda difficult! but i want that to change because truly my fave memories growing up are all the beach times i had with my friends and family. we grew up less than 40 minutes from the beach so it was an easy ride, we are a little farther now but hopefully not forever and we can make our own beach memories :)
ANYWAY! we decided to head to the beach a couple weeks ago because the weather was gorgeous and i knew gia would love it this year. last year she couldn't even walk yet so i was excited to see her reaction to the ocean and sand. she loved it! here she is walking back from checking out the ocean with her dada...

miss thang

 seriously love this munchkin!

 chillin in the tent

 lol

 she is always imitating her brother, its hilarious

 playing in the sand

 she was loving it!

 me and my little man

 diva

 my 3 faves

 love them!

 this pic cracks me up!

 chillin in her beach chair

 feety feety footies (this was a song we sang to gia when she was a baby)

 this is one of my fave shots of all time!

 

 after the whole hour and a half we spent on the beach we decided to do the boardwalk

 first we got some ice cream, yum!

 then we played some games on the boardwalk

 she won a hello kitty

 she was loving watching daddy play skee ball

 picking out her prize

 jack, lol, looking surprised!

we had so much fun but damn 2 kids at the beach is CRAZY. i do not foresee a relaxing beach day for years to come LOL. but it will be lots of fun :)