Happy Mother’s Day hun! You always doubt yourself, but I just want you to know, I think you’re the most amazing mother. You have the biggest heart and go out of your way to try to make everyone happy. All your friends can certainly attest to that. You love and take great care of the kids and me too. You make life fun and interesting.

You’ll take the kids to the middle of circle time and to see Handy Manny when they are being shy.

And you’ll feed the lorikeets even though their little claws skeeve you out a little.

So here’s to you hun.  I wish I could give you more or show you more properly how much I love you and how amazing you are.

Happy Mother’s Day!

You know those posts when people go on and on about their vacations and seem to post every. single. picture?  Annoying, isn’t it?  Well, this is one of those posts.  Sorry.  You can scroll through and miss the commentary without hurting my feelings.  Promise.

Two weeks ago Robby and I took Ayla and Noah to Disney!  It may seem a bit unusual but Robby had time off during the week he had to take and I wasn’t up to anything so we decided to take the kids and knew they would have a blast sharing the experience with each other.  Boy, were we in for a few surprises!  But overall, we had a blast!

The night we arrived we had dinner with the characters in our hotel.  Ayla wasn’t totally sure about them, probably because of their size.  So long as dad was in the middle though she was pretty agreeable.

Noah wasn’t interested – SHOCKER – but when I asked him to do it for Walter so he could see how much fun we were having he agreed.  Please excuse his shorts.  Unfortunately he’s only growing taller and is in the same shorts from two birthdays back.  They’ll be Daisy Dukes next summer.

The desserts at the restaurant (in the Swan Hotel) were ridiculous!  We got a little bit of everything to try and one thing was better than the next.  I wish we had a before photo, I’m sure it would have been much more appetizing than the aftermath of half eaten treats.

The next morning we were planning to go to the Magic Kingdom.  Unfortunately an all day rain storm had the same agenda.  It rained ALL DAY.  Luckily it didn’t slow us down.  In fact, besides the ponchos, the park was fantastic.  There was no one there and there were no lines!  Score!

After this photo we went to breakfast.  On the way back from breakfast, Noah walked into a wall.  The wall won and he had a bloody nose for the rest of the day.  Excuse the leftovers in the rest of the photos.  Yes, he’s fine.  I think he must get his clumsiness from his father.

The kids were anxious to get on the monorail!

Once we got in the park we immediately bought the classic Mickey poncho.  Somehow Noah’s was HUGE.  I still don’t know if they gave him the kid size!

To dodge the rain we went to the Country Bear Jamboree.  This was a first for Noah and I think maybe me too.

Exciting stuff.

We had to hit up It’s A Small World, I think that’s a given!

It still amazes me how mesmorized the kids are by this ride!

And then, believe it or not, WE WENT ON DUMBO.  That’s shocking for a few reasons.  1) I haven’t been on Dumbo since I was Noah’s age.  2) I don’t go on rides that go in circles.  I almost had Noah talked out of it but I eventually gave in.  3) The line for Dumbo is usually crazy long.

In my efforts to get out of it we ended up behind Robby and Ayla but at least we kind of got to take a photo of them!

At Mickey and Minnie’s house the kids touched everything.  Here they are making popcorn.

And here we are waiting to see Mickey and Minnie.  Wet but thankfully, it wasn’t cold!

I can’t quite remember how I bribed Noah into this.  It wasn’t his favortie thing of the day – clearly – but he did it!  I was shocked and proud!  Ayla wanted nothing to do with them.

But she did want to see the Princesses… which Noah wanted nothing to do with.

Ayla was quite the talker with these beauties.  We really got a laugh when she told Cinderella that Noah was shy, told Belle that he was her Prince and they were married, and then told Sleeping Beauty he was her brother.  Maybe you had to be there but we were hysterical!

The Princess and the Frog are a new addition to the lineup and they were quite a pair!  They were dead ringers for the characters in the movie and they had such great personalities. 

Then we rode the bumper cars.  I haven’t been on this for a very long time too!  See the reasons up at the Dumbo portion of the trip…

And Noah met Buzz Lightyear.  He kept telling me how excited Daddy would be when he told him they met!

And Robby’s favorite ride… The Carousel of Progress.  I’m pretty sure this was my first time on this.

Afterwards we had dinner at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom.  Another first and we loved it!

Ayla wasn’t so sure about seeing these characters but if Noah can do it – anyone can!

Afterwards we went to see the fireworks…

The kids were way ready!  They had snacks, light up necklaces…. but there were no fireworks.  We were misinformed and therefore an hour early.  Again with the lying fibbing, we were able to escape to the car, unharmed by the crowd or the kids.  Fireworks will have to be another time.  Robby and I were beat! 

I’m not sure who enjoyed this trip more – the kids or the grown ups!  I would do it again, rain and all, in a heartbeat.  There’s nothing like experiencing Disney through the eyes of a child!

That’s it, I’m officially a mom.  In case the whole pregnancy, labor, delivery mess didn’t convince me, this is it.  I spent my day making treats for the kids’ bake sale.  Always trying hard not to take ourselves too seriously, and because I can’t eat chocolate, I didn’t “bake” just anything… Noah and I made popcorn balls! 

Popcorn balls have been one of my favorite treats for as long as I can remember.  We used to make them at my grandparents’ house every Christmas;  I have such fond memories of those times!  Today I use the same recipe written by my grandmother in pencil on an ancient index card. 

Every time time I make them I manage to do something wrong; some things never change.  The recipe is very simple.  Make popcorn, make this eewy, gooey, sticky sauce, poor the sauce over the popcorn and form into balls.  The first year I made these on my own I let 3 milliseconds pass between pouring the boiling sauce over the popcorn and attempting to form balls.  I don’t remember having to wait for anything to cool as a kid!  I also don’t remember how long it took that to heal but I’ve never done it since!  This time I put all the ingredients in the sauce at once, two are supposed to go in at the very end of the boiling process.  Oops.  They still taste great!

And because I enjoy my memories of popcorn ball making so fondly I figured I’d pass on the tradition.  Here’s how it went down -

Noah, Monkey and I pressed the popcorn into balls.  Noah was in charge of picking stray kernels off my hands for his snack.

He was also excellent at finding all the unpopped, hard seed kernels and putting them aside.

Don’t you love his dimple!?

I made a little one for him -

In order to bribe him for this -

Did I mention these things are sticky!?

We also baked some double chocolate chip muffins for the boring people at the sale.

Happy Valentine’s Day!  I hope your festivities are just as sweet!

Hello Internet Friends.  Why do I always feel like I’m apologizing for being absent?  My computer died – hard.  And as soon as it went and was replaced my monitor followed suit.  So now I am writing to you from a gorgeous new computer setup and I’m able to upload photos FAST! 

Unfortunately I’m behind in my updates, and boy have we been busy, but hopefully I can catch up and post more often.

In August Walter turned the big 4-0.  Two days after that I turned 31 (I’m officially “in my 30’s” and feeling old).  To celebrate we took the family to Disney.  For support we brought my mom.  We had no idea how the kids would handle the heat of Disney in August.  I wasn’t sure I was up to the challenge, but we had a blast, and mom got to squeeze in some relaxing while we checked out the parks.

Thanks to our great friend, Lauren, we got to stay at the Swan Hotel.  It was so great being a short boat ride to Epcot!

At the hotel they had a dreamy restaurant.  It was outdoors (ick) but it was so beautiful and the food was amazing!

The comfy seating got two thumbs up from Noah!

And the rest of the property was equally as entertaining…

And beautiful…

During our stay we only made it to Epcot and the Magic Kingdom.  Both were incredibly hot!

Noah, who used to love giant characters, was pretty lukewarm about the whole thing this trip.  We even did a character breakfast and as far as he’s concerned, the highlight was the bacon.  He seemed to love the Under the Seas and Spaceship Earth (the big Epcot ball ride) the most at Epcot.

We were at Epcot on Walter’s actual birthday.  For his birthday I gave him smiles.  Lots and lots of smiles, and patience.  If you know me and you know how I feel about heat you know this was an amazing gift and very difficult to deliver.  It came naturally to Kate though.

And I also bought him dinner.  We left Kate with my mom at the hotel and went with Noah to Coral Reef, the restaurant at the Living Seas in Epcot.  The view was incredible, the drinks were delish, and the food was amazing!  It was a great dinner!

Afterwards we watched the Epcot fireworks then went down to the boardwalk for ice cream and people watching.  It really was a magical day!

Magic Kingdom was a little more fun for the kids since its pretty much geared toward them.  We didn’t have a lot of time but we enjoyed the time we had!

Noah got a water bottle/fan/squirty thing that he is obsessed with.  He sprayed everything, and I mean everything, but at least it kept us cool!

We rode Winnie The Pooh…

And then Noah and Walter went on the Barnstormer, Noah’s first roller coaster!

He loved it!

And of course we went to see Mickey and Minnie.  Again Noah really wasn’t interested but Kate was in love.  She was so excited, I thought she was going to take her first step into Minnie’s arms.  She was also a huge fan of her giant ears!

And of course we had to hit up the gift shop so Kate could get ears!

And since we were so close we took a little detour to go see my Aunt Love and Uncle Kenneth.  They just finished renovating their new home and it’s amazing!  It was quite a project for them but I can’t imagine it turning out any better.  They really put a lot of work into this house that they decided to buy as soon as they saw the view from the front door!

Noah says they have good taste in furniture too!

We also took the opportunity of being with family to use the facilities!  Noah had a flood accident the first night in the hotel.  His poor monkey got soaked and was in desperate need of a bath!  Luckily we were able to make that happen.  Noah insisted on supervising the whole ordeal though!

Here’s that view from the front door (looking in).  Let’s pray the hurricanes stay away!

The kids made themselves at home.  Unfortunately the home wasn’t made for them.  I’m still so sorry about that figurine that Kate wanted to play with!

What’s up and where have we been?  I’m going to answer it for you all right now.  Yes, we’re still alive.  Yes, we remember your phone number (or have it somewhere).  No, we haven’t fallen off the face of the Earth.  No we’re not mad at you.  Things have been busy.  Crazy busy.  I have been neglecting everyone.  I am very, very sorry.

I have been working tirelessly at launching a new business.  With the two kids always within earshot it has become very hard to plan weddings for clients who expect my full attention (and deserve it).  So until piss and vinegar, I mean Noah and Kate, are both out of the house for a chunk of time every day I’m trying to use my talents for other things.  I just opened “Oh My Bride” (www.ohmybride.com).  It is an opportunity for me to still make money and play in the wedding business without having to be on call 24/7 or at the beck and call of a bridezilla with a cell phone.  Sure, I still have “office hours” and plan to interact when I need to but at least the majority of my dealings will now be online and through email to keep me from having to screen calls and dance around nap schedules.  I am still doing weddings, at least until this new venture gains momentum, and I’m looking forward to a packed dance card this winter with events.

As I mentioned before, my sister and her children were in town for 10 days and we took every opportunity to enjoy their company.  We also did my niece, Natalie’s, senior photos while they were here.  With so many interests though it turned into a bit of a marathon and we are still editing.  Here are a few to enjoy for now.

This is Natalie in her Junior Prom dress.  It was my sister’s (her mother’s) Senior Prom dress but has been reinvented.  Talk about vintage!  We also took some photos of her in her Senior Prom dress but you’ll have to ask her for those.  Wouldn’t want to give too much away before the big event!

Yes, that is a real train.  It was FLYING by.  I’ll spare you the photo with the look on her face that says “You want me to do what!?”.  We have so many beautiful ones to choose from, this is hard!

This isn’t even a sampling of all the shoots.  Like I said, we’ve been busy!

And in the spirit of photos we have (finally) started to embrace our love for the craft and share it with others.  We used to do photoshoots back when film was in and we were still a little (ok, a lot) unsure about the whole portrait thing.  Then it was only for us, then we included friends and family since we’ve learned not everyone can take a photo without chopping heads off.  Fast forward 10 years and hundreds of practice shoots later and we find ourselves getting inquiries left and right.  Family and friends always pushed us to do this and we have seen the light.  To mainstream things a bit and have one central location for our favorite photos we’ve created Yap Originals (www.yaporiginals.com).  Our friend Lauren actually branded us and always bragged about how many “Yap Originals” she had hanging in her home.  Thanks Lauren!

Here are some photos from our most recent newborn shot.  Isabelle is a doll and she has an amazing family.  What a love!  We have so many other recent shoots that I wish we could share.  Oh, what I could do with free time!

Isabelle’s dad is a firefighter… and she has her own boots!

We were also MIA because we were off getting older.  Walter and I (who are 2 days apart) took the kids to Disney for our birthdays.  It was soooooo hot but also a lot of fun.  We have a million photos to share and will, soon.

The one thing keeping us sane and us as with it as we are (which isn’t very “with” as it turns out) is Kate’s new BFF, Falan.  Falan is the newest addition to the scenery around here.  I hate to call her a nanny, because that sounds so snobby, but she’s so much more than a babysitter.  I don’t know what we’d do without her.  We originally hired her to help until I got Oh My Bride off and running but I’m not sure how we could ever part with her.  Hopefully things start running smoothly and prosperity finds its way to our door so we won’t have to worry about that.  In addition to being amazing with the kids she is ridiculously beautiful.  How lucky was I to talk her into modeling a few hair accessories for Oh My Bride?

So we’re here.  I appreciate all of you who have reached out to us.  We are grateful for your love and friendship.  Hopefully things will slow down here just a bit so we may have the opportunity to get back into the social scene.

Love you all!

This 4th of July holiday weekend we took off for a mini vacation.  We headed south to my very favorite hotel, the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood.  It was everything we hoped it would be and more!  The weather was perfect, the pools were fun, the beds were super comfy, the kids were even well behaved!  We were lucky enough to have a lot of friends with the same plans and because of that we enjoyed many laughs and large meals.

Here are a few photos from our relaxing weekend, there are many more to come -

First, let me show you why I love this place so much…

Yes, really.  And yes, really, these are photos from this weekend.  The pool and beach didn’t look like this for long but they were still very beautiful and very relaxing when other people showed up.  This is one of four pools at the hotel so you never noticed that the resort was bustling; there’s so much room to spread out!

And this is how excited we all felt when the plans were made and we were on our way.  A family vacation was so overdue!

The one photo we got of the kids together this weekend…

She may owe that pole dinner.

At the pool…

Our friends Bettina and Dan and their daughter Helena happened to be staying the weekend at the resort as well.  The kids loved swimming together!

Rachel, Robby, and Ayla were also at the resort as were thier friends Nicole and Chris and their children Nicholas and Carsen.  You haven’t lived until you’ve looked for a dinner reservation for 11 people 30 minutes before you’re hoping to eat!

Nicholas is such a cool kid!  A lover boy with a little Dennis the Menace mixed in for good measure.  We had a blast, he has such personality!  At one point I was holding Helena (above) and Nicholas (below) was playing with us.  Someone joked about how easily I could pass them off as my own kids.  I’ll just have to borrow all the redheaded children and wish their parents luck with the stubborness and sass that comes with the color! 

Chris and Carsen                                                                     Little Miss

For the fourth we were unknowingly misinformed and decided to take our chances watching fireworks from Rachel and Robby’s room.  Little did we know we would have been much better off on the beach, where we originally planned to go, but then we would have missed this amazing view of the city and the light show.

The city after a few cocktails…

The monkeys…

And a certain little someone learned a new trick while on vacation… she now STANDS!  Where does the time go!?  Buh-bye baby Kate, hello toddler land!

And just for fun we relived a few moments.  I told you this place was my favorite!

(Noah at 4 months)

(Kate at 9 months, who doesn’t know how not to smile)

(Noah at 7 months)

(Kate at 9 months who apparently heard she was going to be late for lunch)

Still think they look exactly alike?!

Unfortunately when we got home reality smacked us in the face!  Monday was right around the corner, grocery shopping needed to get done and the laundry fairy never showed up this weekend.  Oh, and there was a leak in our roof that was flooding our laundry room because of all the rain.  Fun times!  At least we’re tan!

I love my family.  I love how crazy and quirky they are.  I love how different we are.  I love how we stick together through tough times and sticky situations.  I love that they would do absolutely anything for me.  I love that when my cell phone rings at 8am and 5pm every day I know exactly who it is (it’s always Lindy).  I love that my sister spent way too much money to chat with me during her trip to Japan.  I love how much they all love my kids.  I love how they love to remind me of every embarrassing thing I ever did in public. 

My mom recently had surgery (nothing serious, nothing related to her long gone breast cancer) and strangely it’s been very uniting.  I laid in bed with her, Kate, and my niece Julia today and we all chatted, laughed, and entertained Kate.  It’s one of those moments that just sticks to your memory.  Thursday my sister, Nikki, and I plan to invade her bed for some quality time and I’m sure that will be just as fun.  I hold those moments close like the times when my mom stayed with us after having Kate.  They are just so awesome!

So along the lines of them doing anything for me I suckered Nikki and Julia into a photo shoot.  My new online site (details soon) offers hair accessories but I didn’t have any good photos of the products.  They loaded up all their pretty dresses and dragged over for a shoot during the horrible rain storms and a surprise ant problem.  They were such troopers!  They even stayed afterwards to babysit so Walter and I could go out!  Anyway, I got some photos for my site but I got two others that I am in love with.  Two that I want to hang up all over my house.  The last time Nikki and Julia took photos together Julia was tiny.  Like preschool tiny.  I love having an updated photo but why, oh why, does she have to look more like Nikki’s sister than her daughter?!?  12 going on 25!  What’s with these kids growing up so fast!?  I’ve had the first photo hanging in my house since the day I took it.  I’m not sure I can take it down, maybe I just need a bigger frame.

Then                                                                                             Now

And here’s one of Julia that I love (that’s one of the hair accessories by the way).  She says she looks “fat” and “ugly” in this picture.  Mark my words young lady, you’re going to wish you were this “fat” and “ugly” in 25 years.  What I wouldn’t give…

*And it did occur to me that when I said “my family” you may have been expecting a story about Walter, Noah, and Kate.  They’re pretty amazing too!

So I’m trying super hard to come up with a different post each day this week.  I may not keep up my steam but my mom loves reading the blog at her shitty job and if putting up a few photos is all it takes to brighten her day than I’m happy to oblige.  I would like to point out that my mom told me I wasn’t a good writer in high school, that my sister Lindy was so much better, but who are you begging for words from now – huh!?  Just kidding!

Here are a few photos from a few different things floating around in my-point-and-shoot from March -

A get together at Lauren’s house, or as we lovingly refer to it, the Savino Family Daycare.

Kate and Adrianna chillin’ out on the playmat.  Something tells me they are going to be sharing clothes for a very long time.  Hairbows too maybe.

Think Alex and Noah are starting to hang out a little too much?  I kid, we love having Lauren as a part of the stay-at-home-mom-posse!  I just hope Noah starts mocking Alex’s awesome potty training habits!

Vanessa’s gorgeous daughter and Spencer just did their own thing.  They’re the babies of the bunch!

And then we decided that it would be a good day for Kate to try something truly solid.  I had a box of Arrowroot cookies with me and she seriously dug it!

Taste it, smell it…

But then she dropped it.  This photo is Lauren trying to cram it back into her hand, not take it away.  Maybe she’s just mad that a) it’s not one of those Krispy Kreme donuts, b) mom let her leave the house with her hair looking like that or c) that I swear the dress she has on is 18-24 months!

Here’s the daycare gang!

And here is Lauren with her cousin and sister and their children.  They were all pregnant together, can you say HORMONES?

Then a few days later we went to Noah’s newest favorite toy store, Genius Jones.  It just opened up in Mizner Park in Boca and they have the coolest toys.  If anyone’s interested, he would love an Automoblox for his birthday.  We went there to get a birthday present for Helena.  I’m ashamed to tell you that we didn’t get a single photo from the party!  None of that is all that interesting.  The reason I bring it up is because I actually caught Noah smiling at the camera!  I’m sure it was a total accident!  Kate on the other hand never stops!

Kate also had her first bagel in March.  Our favorite waitress at Westside Bagel II, Lynn, was anxious to give her one and who are we to deny Kate free food?

They aren’t very attractive photos but it’s what I have.  She LOVED it!

The “after” bagel is to the left of the knife.  May it rest in peace.

And later that week we went to the mall with Beth and Aaron.  It’s been a long time since we’ve seen them because of one illness or another.  Ear infections, colds, fevers… it’s been awhile!  I hope this summer brings us healthier playdates!

Anyone that knows either boy knows that a stop at the fountain is an absolute must!  Thank God Beth had pennies to spare!

Remember what I said about accidentally smiling at the camera?  That’s my boy!

So while spring has sprung around most of the US, it’s summer hot here!  It’s so hard to believe it can be in the 90’s here and we have friends snowed in in Denver.  Not to rub it in but we took the opportunity to take the kids to the beach.  While it’s technically not Kate’s first time, it is the first chance she’s had to take it all in.  Being the air conditioned girl she is, she only wanted to take in the first five minutes of the visit but Noah was having way too much fun!  The water was freezing but he didn’t mind one bit.  Here are some photos from our first beach trip in ‘09.

This is how often we go to the beach – “I’m going to build a castle!” – Not there, buddy!

Noah wanted to bring home every shell!  He somehow managed to sneak a pail of sand into the car!

And Kate just soaked up the sun.  Complete outfit courtesy of Ayla.  Oh, how I love hand me downs!

At first Noah wouldn’t let go of my hand.  The water was frrreeezzzzing!  He was a little apprehensive about the waves, but not for long.  Please excuse the fact that I ended up in these photos!  I’m still hiding behind “I just had a baby”, and I’m still carrying around baby photos to back it up!

Before I knew it he wanted nothing to do with hand holding – he was off!

Actually diving into the waves!  The salt water in his face didn’t bother him one bit!

Since I’m only averaging one post each week I might as well share the rest of our “Family Fun Days” with you.  Below are some highlights of the rest of Walter’s time off. His first week back to work went pretty well.  Noah was sad after one nap in particular when Walter wasn’t here but we kept busy and managed to keep his mind off of it.  We also had a house guest (more in a later post) which gave him something new to enjoy.

Here we are on a play date with our friends Beth and Aaron.  We see them at least once a week and really enjoy their company. 

Noah, Kate and me on the carousel -

Noah has been a bench rider for the past several months but once again ventured onto the horses.  Two year olds are so weird.  And this one is so in love with his Daddy!

And another day we went to “Apoe and Agoon’s” Farm (Walter’s parents).  Noah loved it!  He checked everything out and did an amazing job supervising the work.  Kate on the other hand decided she’s not one for the great outdoors.  She complained the entire time, couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, she couldn’t figure out why anyone would go there voluntarily.

We, of course, post only the happy photos though so everyone thinks our kids are angels.  Just kidding.  We did work really hard for these smiles though so I have to share them!

Noah hunting oranges -

This is a tangelo orange.  You can’t do this with all oranges but if you peel the skin and cut the top off you have instant orange juice, there is none fresher.  You just squeeze the orange together and drink, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat.  I felt very outdoorsy doing this!

Here is Noah washing his hands -

It was a gorgeous day!

And here is a panoramic photo of the farm.  With such limited space here you can’t enjoy the full size photo but you get the idea.  Claire and Herbie work very hard growing all kinds of fruits and vegetables and have for years.  While it’s not my cup of tea I give them a lot of credit!  It really is a labor of love!

And then to torture Kate even more we went down the road to Lion Country Safari.  She didn’t like this place much better, the bugs were just a little smaller.  We did the drive through, which we haven’t done in over a year because Noah has never enjoyed it.  Well I think he’s finally old enough to appreciate the giant animals and interesting sights.  He really loved it.  We also did the water park (the only one open in January) but didn’t get any photos of it. 

Noah kept saying – “I want the rions to go ROARRRR!”  I love that kid!

And he was fascinated by the zebras!

If you look closely you can see the baby white rhino under the mom.  He was soooo cute!  There were also two giraffe babies but their photo didn’t come out so well.

On a more somber note, one of the reasons I’ve been so slack in blogging is my Dad.  He gave us quite a scare this week.  We’re not sure why but he experienced a seizure and brain bleed.  He’s still in ICU being poked and prodded and at the moment all of the doctors can only scratch their heads and wonder what happened and what should happen next.  I’d like to give a little public love to my sister, Nikki, who happened to stop by the house when my dad was home alone and all of this started.  Had she not we’re not sure this story would have ended as good as it has.

Here’s my Dad -

He is the most amazing cook!  This is him cooking Thanksgiving dinner in 2007. 

And here is the moment we realized we don’t take nearly enough photos of him.  Because – well, that’s Noah.

And so is this.

And here’s a real oldie, unfortunately I’m not omitting much in between -