Happy Birthday Nicolas!! And Happy St Patrick's Day!

Tomorrow is Nicolas's birthday! My little leprachaun. :) A funny little stat I noticed a few months ago... his first, middle, and last names all have 7 letters. 777. He was born lucky! And I swear we didn't do that on purpose. Even Max is 77 (his two middle names have 5 and 4 letters). We had Nicolas' birthday party yesterday. It was at the Karate studio where he takes (duh) karate. It was really fun!! One of his regular instructors hosted it. He is so great with kids. Most of the kids had never done karate before... but he had them all doing punches and kicks, and breaking boards... and then a fun relay race involving punches, kicks, and running. I was really impressed! Even though it was a karate party, Nicolas wanted a Hot Wheels themed party. So he had a Hot Wheels cake (with the obligatory 4 leaf clover I include every year), Hot Wheels decorations, and miscellaneous items in the goody bag. :) Without further adieu... the pictures....

It's so freaking HOT here!!

Guess who said that?

a. Me

b. Johnny

c. Emma

d. Nicolas

e. Max

If you guessed (a), you'd be wrong. But that's where (d) (right answer) got that word from. I say it all the time. Hehe.

Where was it so freaking hot? In Tucson, where we went last week for Spring Break. We left Tuesday morning and came home Wednesday night. We went to the Children's Museum on Tuesday when we arrived. It was fun! Nicolas and Max had a blast. Even hard to please Emma enjoyed herself.

Afterwards we headed to our hotel and just chilled. Well, we ate an early dinner, then chilled. Watched TV, went for a walk, played our Nintendo DS's... and went to bed early. Our hotel was in a (seemingly) shady part of town, and we didnt' know what else to do. The next morning when we left we found out we were close to a park. Bummer.

The next morning we had an awesome (free) breakfast. I always try to stay at a hotel that has a free continental breakfast. I love making the waffles. :) Then we checked out and headed to the Sonoran Desert Museum. It was an incredible day. The weather was perfect... high 70's and partly cloudy. Johnny commented (more than once) that I picked a perfect time of the year to do outdoor activities. He hates outdoor activities when it's so hot outside (I took everyone to the Grand Canyon 2 years ago in July... damn it was hot!) So everyone had a great time... no grumpy Mommy or Daddy... and no grumpy kids! Emma was happy (hard feat sometimes!) and Nicolas and Max had a good time. SCORE!

I know most of you couldn't care less about what I have to say. So here are the pictures of our trip! :)

Family Portraits

We have never had family portraits taken. The last professional pics of Johnny and I were from our wedding (almost 7 years ago!). So it was about time. And they turned out great! :)

Enjoy!

http://www.thegambinofamily.com/Photo%20Galleries/2009/family-portraits-march09.htm

Up up and away!

This post gives new meaning to yesterday's post about "what's Max up to?"

So, Max has been taking a Mommy and Me Gymnastics class. He has great strength and hangs onto bars and rings and swings without touching the ground. I help pull his head up and over the bar and he leans over and gives me a kiss. Awwww!

So, last evening we were headed out the door to go to our portrait sitting. I had parked the car in the driveway but we walked out through the garage. I opened the garage door and Nicolas and Max stood at the door as it opened. Max watched Nicolas hold onto the bottom and copied him. Well, Nicolas knew to let go... Max did not. My back was to them... luckily Emma's was not. Emma caught Max as he was headed up to the garage ceiling... a couple feet above the ground... thankfully before he fell. I can laugh now.... but Emma's reaction (screaming) scared Max and he was bawling all the way to the house we were going to for our pictures. Just great!

The pictures still turned out awesome! :)

What's Max up to?

Potty training! He wakes up dry 99% of the time. He pees on the potty every morning (that I am home) and periodically throughout the day. I suddenly realized a few weeks ago how much easier travelling out of the country in the summer will be if I don't have to take diapers! So away we go! Of course we have two potty chairs (upstairs). The blue one doesn't get used as often (except Max likes to "ride" it!) but he wanted to pose on it when I had the camera. :)

Gosh, Max looks so skinny in those pictures! Really... I do feed him! :)

So, what's Emma up to? She complains she's never blogged about... so here she is with her bangs cut. She looked like a shaggy sheep dog! I love that you can see her eyes now! We're getting family portraits done tonight, so she really needed the bangs cut. Apparently she's being teased mercilessly about it at school. Teenagers!

Random Pictures

Just pictures. :) Including some of my garden. Max at gymnastics, Nicolas at Karate and his basketball banquet yesterday.

Videos

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a video worth?