Happy 2nd Birthday Dylan!

Today was Dylan's 2nd birthday and what a great day we had celebrating! AJ greeted him first thing in the morning with her handmade card and a race car present! After that we all ventured downstairs where we had presents, balloons and cupcakes for breakfast waiting. After his cupcake Dylan opened a few more gifts and we decided it would be fun to hit up Chateau Elan Winery for some wine tasting and a French lunch! To our surprise Santa was there when we went through the door and the kids were psyched to sit on his lap and let him know all the toys they wanted. After lunch we walked around the winery and got to pet a horse. Then we ventured home for nap time. After his nap we skyped with my side of the family - they all sang Dylan happy birthday. We had a pizza party for dinner and watched WVU beat Pitt! We had more cupcakes and sang to Dylan a final time before sending him off to bed!

Dylan in 2 short years you have brought Daddy, AJ & I immeasurable amounts of laughter and love. You are a rough and tumble bundle of fun, crazy energy! You make life so much more interesting and keep all 3 of us on our toes - we never know what you are going to do next. You love your "yak-yum", you love to play with your cars and trucks, you love watching the lawn guys, you love waiting for the garbage truck or school bus to pass by, you love to eat, you love to laugh, run and jump off things and you imitate everything your sister does. Right now she is your best friend and I hope she always will be - you two are partners in crime! You have started potty training and are doing pretty well but we have a long way to go. You are starting preschool next week and I just know you are going to do great! At your 2 year doc apt you weigh in at 31lbs (90%), you are 36 1/4 inches tall (92%) and the doc said you are just perfect although he thinks I may need a extra fridge by the time you are in high school! We love you my boy and we can't wait to see what the next year brings - lots more crazy, happy, fun I hope! XO

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a great thanksgiving we had today. It's still very hard for me to be away from my side of the family for the holidays but I am very thankful that we had mom & dad Matrale here up from NJ and Alex's brother Peter up from FL! I got up early and baked cupcakes for Dylan's second birthday tomorrow and then got right on Thanksgiving dinner. I put out home made pumpkin rolls early to snack on and they were gone quick! We played outside for a bit - the kids drove around in their new wheels (Grandma & Pop Pop gave them their gift for Christmas early), we watched football, we watched some other shows, skyped with the Matrale's back in NJ, had a awesome dinner and then had a pajama party complete with desserts, games, dancing and simon says! What a great day we had together with loads of laughs, lots of love and tons to be thankful for!

















Don't want to forget to mention the special place settings we had. I got the beautiful dishes from my Aunt Margie, the silver from Alex's nana, and the beautiful center bowl & table cloth from my mom, some of the other dishes the food was served on came from my mother in law, and from both of my grand mothers! It made me feel blessed to have a little piece of those near, far and passed with me on Thanksgiving!

LOVE!

LOVE my 4 year old & almost 2 year old SO SO SO super much and I just love grabbing and hugging them - can't you just feel my happiness?

Potty Training!

Well we are miles and miles away from being trained but you have to start at some point somewhere!

So, with out much further ado, here is Dylan making his big debut in BIG BOY UNDER PANTS and he looks SO stinking adorable that I can't take it!

Oh, and as you can tell the Mountaineers were playing today and YES, we won - maybe the stars are in our favor!

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad M!

Today is my mother & father in laws anniversary and we wanted to wish them a very happy one! We made a big sign and sent some pics and as you can see it's finally cold enough here once in a while to wear Uggs and of course this year AJ insisted on BRIGHT PINK ONES! We can't wait to celebrate more with Mom & Dad M when they get here on the 19th - wooo hooo - we've missed them so much and can't wait for some time together!!!

Sunday Best

Love dressing my kids all cute and going to church on Sundays! AJ goes off to her Sunday school class and Dylan comes with us. We always sit in the kids cry room and Dylan is always the craziest kid in there - weather he's trying to run away to go play on the steps, throwing his sippy cup at someone, announcing "I farted" really loud or smearing chocolate or lollipops all over us, (YES, people he's getting candy at 9AM, don't judge, at least I have him in church and it gets him to behave momentarily - lol) he still looks good and hopefully that helps people just laugh him off!

Sausage Baked Ziti a la Vodka

Vodka Sauce (put in Cousin N's Penne Vodka in search engine on top of page for recipe)
1bs bulk Italian sausage
1lb ziti
3 cups shredded mozarella
1 16 oz container ricotta
1/3 cup grated parmesan
1 beat egg
dried parsley
s&p

Start water for pasta and throw it in when boiling. Brown sausage in pan and add to vodka sauce. Put some sauce on bottom of baking dish. In a large mixing bowl mix together egg, 2 cups of the shredded mozzarella, the ricotta, parmesan, salt, pepper and parsley. Drain pasta when al dente and mix with remaining sauce and cheese mixture. Dump into baking dish and top with any remaining sauce and the last cup of mozzarella. Pop in a oven pre heated to 350 degrees for about 25 minutes till heated through and cheese on top is all melty! SOOOO GOOD!