After the party the dads headed to a bar to watch some football and the big girls all crashed for a nap — well, not all — Miss Maeva rested for a long time, but never fell asleep. My girls were gone to the world. They really needed that nap. 

While they slept I got to spend some time with my youngest niece, Gabriela. She is such a sweet baby. She very rarely fusses, loves all the attention from the big girls, and is always belly laughing. I’m lucky to be able to see her so often especially since we don’t even live in the same state. 

Love this face.

The girls had a YaYa morning! She took the 4 big girls to the local children’s theater to see Sleeping Beauty. It was an interactive show and the girls loved it. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing at Auntie Stacy’s house. 

Our first trip to San Jose this year. We went for a long weekend to celebrate Maeva’s 4th birthday with her. The girls were so thrilled to see their cousins and B finally got to head out with us and see Stacy and Carl’s new house.

I love seeing mine and Stacy’s girls together. They adore each other and are so stinkin’ cute. 

The Carlson’s joined us for the Bronco playoff game today. The kids had a blast showing off their gymnastic skills, playing with all the new toys from Christmas, playing games, and of course eating the yummy dessert that Jennifer made. The boys helped her make Oreo cookie balls which I’m not exactly sure what they included but there was lots of chocolate and sprinkles and all around goodness. YUM! I didn’t get any pictures of the actual dessert, but you can see a little bit left on the kids faces and in their teeth.

We had a blast hanging out — we love seeing the Carlson’s. It’s always a bit hectic around the holidays so I’m glad we could have this day to relax and finally catch up. 

I’ve been attempting to balance my schedule so I work super long days on Mon, Tues, Wed, and Thur and then take a day for just me and my girls on Friday. This week we went to paint pottery. My girls love it  and we finally made some very overdue Christmas gifts. I thought this would take up a few hours…silly me. We were in and out in a half hour. These girls may love painting, but they don’t mess around. 

After painting we went to see the 3rd installment of the Chipmunks movie.  The girls loved it and danced their way through the movie. I have to admit it was rather painful. The things I do for these girls.

Sheila is one of my very best gal pals and we couldn’t be more excited to celebrate her birthday with her. I made up a batch of chili, we got her a cake and I created what some might call margaritas….other’s might call them tequilla with a splash of a lime and an excruciating headache. We headed up to the Tyler house with several other families and had a fabulous celebration for Sheila’s birthday.What a party! Such fun! 

Happy Birthday, Sheila! 

Yeah, this seems like a good idea….

It’s 2012 and all I have to show for it is this crappy picture from my phone. 

Ok, not a great quality photo but I do like this girls so I’m thinking 2012 is going to be pretty promsing. 

Happy New Year to all!!

B got sick and we had to delay our flight home. We got an extra day with Yaya which was wonderful….yahoo…but we had to miss Ben’s birthday party….booo! We landed right around the time that the party was ending. Next year we will be there — definitely!!

Sheila texted me as our flight was landing and told us to get the heck on over so we didn’t even head home. Just went straight to their house and welcomed in the new year. Lansing and Sheila are so hospitable and never fail us when it comes to a rockin’ good time. 

Goodbye 2011 – we are ready 2012. Lets do this! 

One of the girls’ favorite books is Pinkalicious. It’s a really cute book about a little girl who loves pink, everything pink, especially pink cupcakes. She eats so many pink cupcakes she turns pink. 

Who knew, Pinkalicious was a musicial? Well, it is and it was playing in Chicago while we were in town. YaYa and I surprised the girls and headed to the Emerald City theater downtown for the show. The show was the perfect length of time for the young crowd, there were plenty of cute little songs, and the story was really cute. The girls had a fabulous time and even got autographs and pictures taken with Pinkalicious after the show! 

Interesting side note….YaYa and I were chatting away about the girls and their cousins before the show started and the woman in front of us turned around and said “sorry, I have to interrupt….are your daughters named Annabelle and Eliana?”. I said no, that Eliana was my niece and she informed us the two little girls in front of us were sisters named Annabelle and Eliana. Interesting…those are not two very common names! She was shocked we had two in our extended family also! 

We were able to spend 3 days at YaYa’s  house to celebrate with her. The girls got MORE gifts. Drums! Yes, drums. They are loving them and I appreciate they are electronic and have a volume control. 

YaYa has lots of toys at her house and the girls just adore visiting her. They drag out all the Barbies and dollhouses and go nuts.