Trip up North

Yikes, I am such a slacker! Not only have I not been blogging, but I haven't even been taking photos of my children - shameful I know. So this weekend while Paul was away in Vegas, doing an early 30th birthday celebration, I decided to head up north to Sacramento to visit family and friends - all the while determined to get some great photos of the kids. As you will see below, I think I did pretty good.

As always, Olivia and Amelia being together is a non-stop photo op. Those girls are just so darling and every time they see each other they seem to get more and more interactive with one another. I cannot wait for Kim to finish up nursing school (as is she!) so we can plan more regular play dates with the girls. But we got Kim and Livy almost all to ourselves this weekend and took full advantage, going to the mall, park and just hanging out at my mom's house.

While we were at the mall (yes, I had my camera at the mall) we went on a carosuel ride with the girls. While Alex is a seasoned professional, Amelia and Olivia had never been on one before - and it turns out they aren't big fans. Alex had a blast though riding a dragon with Nana.

We also went and got the kids fall shoes. I discovered I am a horrible mother and had been letting Alex walk around in size 9 shoes when he measured to be a size 11!! Eek! So needless to say he got a new pair and so did Amelia.

The mall out in Roseville has a great play area that the kids just loved. It was so bright and colorful so it was excellent for some very cute photos.

Saturday night my mother watched the kids for me (thank you Mom!!) and I was able to go out and meet up with some good friends from high school. We had a girls night out with no dinner and Kim was able to come along too. It was so great to catch up with Becky and Shannon. They are both awesome mothers and had some really great advice and stories to share with me. Shannon is pregnant with her 4th baby and is looking fabulous! Becky looks awesome too, as she always has. It was a great night filled with some margaritas, shopping and lots of chatting.

On Sunday my aunt, cousin and her two boys came down to visit us and we went to the park for a little picnic. The kids had a blast running around (even though it was 100 degrees) and got some energy out before our long ride back to Fresno.

Now I am back to work, work and more work. Hope you all have a wonderful week out there!

Fall is upon us....

I slack off for just a couple weeks on my blog and suddenly it is fall, although Fresno weather does not appear to have gotten the memo. It has been very hot here, but today is (hopefully!) the beginning of a cool down. However, in all other ways the fall season is upon us. School has started, pumpkin spice lattes are back and fall sports began- the only fall season thing my son is excited about!

Alex has been excited about soccer season starting all summer and yesterday he had his first game. One of our good friends call this age group playing soccer "bumble bee soccer" because the kids all look like little bees surrounding the hive as they swarm around the ball. Alex doesn't really have a clue as to what is going on, but is having a great time running around. We are going to work with him this week about getting the ball in your own team's net, but it is really most important that he is just having fun right now.

Alex is also happy because his best friend Sean is on his team with him. Which we thought would be a good idea but are now wondering if it really was a good idea watching them bicker and throw elbows at each other out there.

Amelia also had a blast watching brother play soccer and cheered him on in her own little way. Anyone that is out and about in Fresno is welcome to stop by and watch Alex kick the ball around every Saturday morning through October!!!

2nd City? Not in my book....

When Paul said he had a work conference to attend in Chicago a few months ago I decided, this just may be that mini vacation I've been needing!! So being the wonderful husband he is, I was allowed to tag along on his work trip for a few days. Funny thing is, I lived for a year just two hours away from Chicago but never made it up there, and boy do I wish I had been able to. Paul and I had hoped for a little Chicago weekend while I was living in St. Louis but when my dad got sick it just didn't work out. So 7 years later, we enjoyed a few days in Chicago and it was quite the memorable trip.

In anticipation for our trip I started doing some research on eateries. Being an avid watcher of the Food Network Channel I had seen a show with the head pastry chef for a restaurant named 'Hot Chocolate' and had to check it out. It was the MOST amazing dinner I think I have ever had. We went there Sunday night and over a bottle of wine enjoyed some amazing entrees (pork belly with grilled peaches salad and amazing macaroni and cheese) and of course some desserts that were out of this world. They were so amazing I had to take some photos of them. I had the chocolate souffle with salted caramel ice cream and Paul had a blueberry cannoli. They are famous for their hot chocolate, of course, and had handmade marshmallows with each cup that were amazing! The staff there were amazing; really I cannot recommend this place enough!!!

Continuing on our tour of eating through Chicago, Paul took me to Gino's East Pizzeria the next day for some famous deep dish pizza. My dad frequently took business trips to Chicago, so I was eager to try some of this deep dish pizza I had heard so much about and it didn't disappoint! Neither did Gino's which is an older restaurant that is artistically decorated by all of it's customer's who write on almost any surface they can find!




That afternoon, Paul went back to work while I walked off some of that pizza on the Magnificent Mile. Wow, the shopping in this city is amazing! I did some damage, much to Paul's horror, but come on....all the ladies out there can understand when I say there was a 4 story Banana Republic!!!

That night we went for drinks up on the 96th floor of the John Hancock building where the views are amazing and the drinks were pretty decent....





After our drinks we went to a great little Italian place where their motto was right up my alley of "Where Wine is Cheaper than Water." They had some amazing food, noticing a trend here?




Now most of you who know me well, know that I am not much of a sports fan. But my wonderful hubby is a big baseball fan, so our last night in Chicago we caught a Cub's game at Wrigley field. Even though I am not much of a baseball fan it was fun seeing a game at this historical field. We had fun eating at the Cubby Bear before hand and then listening to Eddie Vedder (from Pearl Jam) sing 'Take Me Out To The Ball Game' at the 7th inning stretch.

Wednesday morning I was sad to pack up and go, but was missing my kids a ton by then. I was so lucky to have my mom stay home with them while we enjoyed our trip in Chicago (thank you again Mom). To finish off the trip I went through a run, in the rain, along the Lake Michigan shore and through the parks of Chicago. There weren't many people out so it was peaceful and so beautiful, especially looking up at all of the tall buildings amongst the morning fog. It was amazing, as was our trip.

Don't let the name Second City fool you, this city is first rate and I recommend you all get out there to enjoy it for yourselves.

Happy Birthday Alex!

I cannot believe you are already 4 years old! It really seems like just yesterday I was holding you in my arms as a newborn or watching you take your first steps. You are growing up to be such a wonderful and unique little man! Mommy, Daddy and Sissy love you so much!!!!

A spoonful of culture....

I'm sorry to say this, but it is true, I don't really feel like I have a culture. My roots trace back to 'hillbilly' on my dad's side and somewhere in England on my mom's side, but all in all I don't have a strong sense of personal culture. So when Paul and I started dating almost 8 years ago I was in amazement of his strong sense of culture and how fascinating it is! We now make sure our children also get a strong sense of the Portuguese culture, and this weekend was an important event in the Portuguese culture.

A majority of Portuguese are Catholic. During the summer each Catholic church takes a weekend (which lasts Thursday to Sunday) and has a festival or 'festa.' During these four days there is tons of food, dancing, music, a parade and mass. Money is raised for the church and people in the community come together to partake in the great activities.

Last year Alex was baby Jesus in the parade, and I tell you was the hit of the parade. This year Alex and Cierra were on the float of folk dancers dressed in traditional Portuguese folk dancing attire. Alex actually wore Paul's hat and sash that Paul wore as a child. After the parade Alex and Cierra performed with about 20 other children on stage doing some traditional Portuguese folk dancing. ADORABLE! It was very sweet and you better believe I got it on video!!

Even though Amelia was too little to participate in any of the events, she dressed the part and was so sweet in her outfit. She wore herself out running back and forth and watching all the events going on. Being an animal lover she was thrilled with all the livestock present.


One of the ways the church raises a lot of money is through an auction they have. The big ticket items at this auction are goats (like above) and cattle as well as Portuguese sweets and other random items. This year they were auctioning off some puppies and oh my, the kids fell in love with this dog. I was swayed for a moment because this dog had an awesome temperament. He was calm with all these kids petting him and when Alex sat down next to him he even laid his little head on Alex's lap. Alex really wanted to take him home but right now just isn't a good time for us to adopt a dog, maybe a little later down the road. He went home to a good place though, but I had to take one picture of Alex and Cierra with their little friend. Meanwhile, Amelia fell in love with a little Mini Pin and was even playing peek a boo with it! I am not sure how much longer we can deny these kids a dog....

Birthday bash

I cannot believe I am the mother of an (almost) four year old child! We celebrated Alex's fourth birthday this weekend, even though his birthday isn't until August 18th. However, please don't tell Alex he isn't four yet or he will dissolve into tears. "I am a big kid now," he informs me on a daily basis.

Alex decided on dinosaurs for this year's party and this theme turned out quite cute. I loved his cake (and it tasted so delicious!) and he got lots of new dinosaur friends for his birthday. Although the favorite toy this year was a Bumblebee Transformer he'd been eying for quite some time now.


One of the best parts of birthday parties are the guests of course! Some special guests this time were Kimberlily and Baby Livy! We are always so glad to see them and it was so great this visit to watch Amelia and Olivia actually start playing together. I can just see the bond forming between them and growing stronger everyday. They would light up when the other would walk into the room. They had great fun this past weekend feeding each other, playing in the pool and just running around.




Cierra, our niece, also has been here this summer from Canada. Cierra and Alex have also been having a great time running around and getting into all sorts of trouble. My sister in law Cris has a CD of photos she is giving to me this coming weekend with lots of photos on it, but here are a couple I got this past weekend.

As I stated above, there are more photos to come after I get my hands on that CD, but I wanted to share a bit of the birthday festivities this past weekend! Alex has been recovering from all the excitement these past few days!