Sandy's Birthday Dinner

To celebrate Sandy's birthday, we went out to dinner and had a great night out! Sandy wanted Thai food, so I suggested a place called Kratiem in Englewood ... I go here for lunch almost every week with my next door neighbor Lizzie (she picks me up from work and we drive 5 minutes to Englewood).

Jen, Nicole, Amanda, Sandy

We decided to make it "family style" so that we could order several dishes and have a little of each ... it was delicous! I'm now addicted to Thai food ...


After dinner, we walked over to Baumgarts and had some decadent desserts! Thanks for a fun night out, ladies!!

My Birthday Dinner

Happy Birthday to ME! Last night I got to celebrate my birthday with all my wonderful friends and it was so much fun! We went to Pancho's Burritos in New Milford which turned out to be the perfect location. Thanks to all my fabulous friends who planned/organized the whole thing ...

Nicole picked me up and we got to the restaurant a little bit early to make sure they had our table ready ... it's a very small restaurant and we needed to seat 10 people, plus a baby :) Nicole and I stood at the bar while they got our table ready and I had to take a picture of her beautiful Strawberry margarita! Get ready for a LOT of pictures, since I combined the pics from my camera, Nicole's and Jen's!

Amanda, Nicole and Jen

My adorable cousin Sara made the schlep from Brooklyn to New Jersey just for the occasion ~ it was great to see her and introduce her to all of my friends!

Sandy, Amanda, Maribel

Christie and Meredith

Christie, Meredith, Erin, Sandy, Sara, Amanda

Diane and 3 week old Erin

Doesn't Diane look beautiful?

Jen looks like she's ready for another baby!

Nicole, Erin and Diane (with the red glow from the lighting)

Sandy, Sara, Amanda and Maribel

Erin, Diane, Jen, Christie & Meredith

Meredith ran 12 miles that morning because she's training for an upcoming half-marathon ... she ordered a burrito and we all laughed at how huge it was! Despite having burned thousands of calories that morning, she only ate a small portion of it :)

This isn't the best picture of Erin, but I had to post something about her since she was such a good sport ... she's my only single friend, so she had to endure an evening of conversations that revolved around children, motherhood, and marriage! We hope we didn't scare her away :)

They brought me a big slice of chocolate cake with strawberries and everyone sang Happy Birthday to me

As you can see, I had a great time!

The group shot (poor Erin got the brunt of the flash!)

THANKS to everyone for coming!! It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day!

Happy Birthday Honey!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband John! This seems like the perfect opportunity to write about something that happened this week. On Wednesday, I took Nila to Hackensack for her platelets instead of John. Since John does it so often (usually 3 times per week), I know it's a bit of a chore for him ... but since I rarely do it, I actually enjoy it. It's a nice break for me to get out of the house and I really enjoy meeting and talking with the nurses that take care of Nila. On Wednesday, I was happy that I got to meet Sari, the research nurse that is working directly with Dr. Goldberg on the study that Nila is a part of. As soon as she saw me walking in with Nila, she knew exactly who I was and she acted like we were old friends. She immediately started talking about John, telling me what an amazing man he is. I know he's an incredible person, but it was so nice to hear a complete stranger go on and on about the man I married. I was in heaven, listening to her gush about what a wonderful son he is to his mother, about what a proud father he is to his daughters, and about what a loving husband he is to me. She said he comes in with his mother, showing complete patience with her, taking his time to get her settled each morning, as if he has all the time in the world. He never acts rushed or like he'd rather be doing something else. He's there to make sure his mother receives the best possible care. She told me about her 3 sons and how she doubts any of them will some day take such amazing care of her. It was so nice to hear how much they love seeing John each week. John is the type of guy who has so much character, wit, and personality. He is always fun to be around, has an amazing sense of humor, and a great deal of patience. I guess he has to, now that he lives with 4 women! I often get wrapped up in the stresses of life; taking care of the needs of the girls, his mother, the dogs, and all the things that need to be done around the house. Sometimes John ends up taking the back seat and for that I feel horrible. I love my husband dearly and I need to show it more. I am so lucky to have married him and I look forward to spending the rest of my life with him. I love you honey!

For John's birthday, he wanted to spend it with his girls.

We started off with a big family breakfast. I made eggs, bacon and french toast

We got our first big snow storm yesterday (Friday), so Reagan was anxious to go play in the snow with her Papa! They got all bundled up and Reagan was so excited!

Reagan and John making snow angels in the front yard

Admiring their snow angels

Didn't Reagan's turn out nicely?


Here's some video of Reagan teaching Papa how to make a snow angel!

Here's some funny video of Reagan walking around in the snow. She just went through a growth spurt, so her snow boots no longer fit her ... we put her in rain boots instead! Hopefully Santa will bring her some snow boots for Christmas! John and I love the part in this video where she falls and says "I'm okay" ... she's so darn cute!

After playing in the snow, I took Avery over to Nicole's for her afternoon nap (THANKS NICOLE!!) and John and I took Reagan to her FIRST MOVIE!!! We went to the 2:30 showing of The Tale of Despereaux. Reagan was such a good girl throughout the movie. I liked it, but it definitely wasn't my favorite movie. It was just fun to take Reagan to her first movie! Luckily, Avery was great and took a 2 hour nap at Nicole's.

After the movie, we picked up Avery, then picked up dinner. John wanted to try a new place in Westwood called Jim Dandy's, a place for RIBS! We ordered take out, then came home to eat dinner. Reagan and I then made John a birthday cake ... he opted for something different, strawberry!

I tried to let the cake cool before frosting it, but as you can see, it was still too warm and the frosting just melted right off of it! Definitely not my best work, but I knew John wouldn't care how it looked! And Reagan was helping me frost it, so it was more about having fun. I also let Reagan take control with the candles ... she chose how many to put on it and where to place them.

Regardless of how ugly his birthday cake was, John was just happy to be surrounded by his girls on his birthday!

After the kids went to bed, John and I watched a movie together, something we rarely do but really enjoy. We watched the new Coen brothers DVD called Burn After Reading. John absolutely loves the Coen brothers and their wacky, clever films. This was definitely a good one, very entertaining, so I recommend it :)

All in all, I think it was a great day! Happy birthday to my fabulous hubby!!!!

Thanksgiving / Reagan's Birthday Celebration

What a fun, but long day! We celebrated Thanksgiving at John's cousin Jose's house in Washington Township and had a wonderful time. I'm glad that Reagan and Jose's birthdays fell on Thanksgiving this year ... it was great to celebrate the birthdays while everyone was together and in festive holiday moods. Thanks to Doreen and Pepito for hosting Thanksgiving, as well as Reagan's birthday party!

Before we left, I tried to get a picture of the girls in their cute red & cream outfits. Debbie gave Avery this adorable sweater for her birthday ... if only I'd opened Reagan's gift from her sooner, I could have dressed Reagan in the coordinating sweater Debbie got for her too! Oh well, they still looked cute!

As you can see, getting them to both stand or sit down at the same time was impossible ... once Avery sat down, I asked Reagan to sit down too ...

Once Reagan was sitting, she was playing with her new shiny shoes, and Avery was ready to stand up again ... and notice how Avery's shoes didn't stay on long? Oh well.

By the time we got to Jose's, Avery was in dire need of a nap. Before putting her down, where I knew she would completely mess up her hair, I asked Jose to take our picture. My instructions were to just keep snapping photos, in hopes that at least ONE of them would turn out acceptable. The one above was the first one - so cute, if only Avery's hand hadn't been in her mouth!

Then Avery wouldn't stop looking at the fish tank that was to the side of us ...

Those fish were fascinating!

Almost there ... but Reagan's forced "Cheese" face isn't what I was goin' for.

I finally asked Jose to stand by the fish tank and we all turned a little to the side

And we got it! Yea, a family picture where everyone is smiling! It only took about 40 tries.

The main purpose for this photo was so that my mother could use it in her Christmas card ... she's putting together a collage on Shutterfly and asked me for a picture of the 4 of us. It's scary how difficult it is to get ONE good picture!

Avery and Reagan checking out the fish tank

Nila, Avery and Nayda

Doreen, her mother Catherine, and her sister Dawn

Marcelo, Joaquin, and Maribel

Joaquin devouring the onion dip! ~ On the drums with his grandpa

Reagan, Gabby and Catrina (Dawn's daughter, Gabby's cousin)

Jose, Doreen and their gorgeous turkey

Amanda and Maribel

Reagan had a great time playing downstairs in the basement

Just before dinner - Doreen and the turkey

The Thanksgiving Table - Just before we ate

John and his mother Nila

My honey and me!

Unfortunately, Avery only slept for 20 minutes ... when we strapped her into the high chair to eat her first Thanksgiving dinner, she was over-tired and not exactly happy. Of course, our other daughter Reagan wanted nothing to do with the food being served. So, John and I didn't really get to enjoy our Thanksgiving meal ... we were each dealing with one child or the other while everyone else was eating. The food that we did quickly eat was all delicious ~ I just wish I could have eaten more! Oh well, I'm sure next year will be better (easier!)!

After dinner, Avery went back to sleep and Reagan took up a new hobby: playing Jose's drums!

Here's some video of Reagan's Jam Session!

All day long, Reagan kept pointing to the Liter of Orange Fanta that was sitting on the counter, saying, "I want some orange drink!" We tried using it as a bargaining tool to get her to eat dinner, but it didn't work. Finally, we caved and gave her a small glass of it, only because it was her birthday :) A little orange soda once a year isn't so bad, right?

Present Time! Reagan was getting extremely tired from all the running around she was doing downstairs ... by the time we opened gifts, she was all business. She'd open one, push it aside and attack the next one - I need to teach her some manners!

Maribel gave her these dress-up items ... the ballet slippers are actually real shoes and they are simply adorable! I wish they sold them in my size.

Jesus ~ Ethan, on their way out

Jesus and Debbie ate dinner with her family, then stopped by briefly for dessert

I made the cake for Jose and Reagan, along with many cupcakes

See how excited she was when she blew out the candles? Then she was determined to take them out as fast as possible and suck the frosting off!

Jose's family gave him a Playstation 3!

We left around 9:00 PM and had to wake up Avery from her deep slumber in the Pack 'n Play. After about 5 minutes in the car, Reagan was OUT COLD. She played so hard and was SO tired! Of course, Avery was now wide awake and didn't end up going back to sleep until almost midnight! Thanksgiving ended up wreaking havoc on her schedule. Oh well. At least Reagan had a wonderful day!