Here is Kate’s First Year video created by Dawn and, of course, her beautiful letter is below.

Dear Kate,
Happy first birthday sweetheart! I can’t believe you’re one already! What a bittersweet day for me and what a hell of a year it has been for you. I want you to know that I love you and I want you to know (for later) what a special person you are and what you mean to me.

This year has been a little crazy for us. A year ago today you were born by the jaws of life c-section late in the afternoon and you have made our world better every day since.  You are a very happy baby.  You’re constantly smiling, laughing, making friends, charming strangers.  You are the friendliest person I know and you love everyone.  Some day you may judge people before getting to know them and that may make you more guarded but right now you give everyone the benefit of the doubt and you are very generous with your love.  In your heart everyone is good and that is a good way to be.  Your Apoe (grandmother) says you need to be careful of strangers, that you would let a monster hold you, and while both of those are true you are young and it’s good to be kind. 

You are a very determined little girl.  You know what you want and you are going to work hard until you get it.  This is a good life lesson but can be frustrating when what you want is the batteries from the back of the remote.  You don’t talk yet, you only say “da da” and “uh oh”, and I don’t know if you know what either of those mean but you’re a fierce pointer.  You love to point out what you want and grunt at it.  You’re so funny.  Your grunts includes “Eh!” (my favorite), “Wha?”, “Meh!” and “Ugh!”

You’re a climber.  You learned to climb steps and Grammy’s house and you haven’t stopped trying to get on top of everything since.  You like to conquer your toys, any footstool you can get your hands on, and any mole hill you can find.

People tell you that you’re gross.  Well, you are, but I’m hoping it’s a phase.  As a baby you spit up horribly.  You stained everything, it was gross.  You snored, you tooted, you were just a beast.  Now that you’re older you’ve gotten a little better.  You just do different gross things.  Now when you spit up you think you’ve invented finger paint and you’re determined to decorate the floor.  You get mad when we wipe it up.  You eat like an animal!  Food is everywhere.  The floor, your shirt (you have started ripping off bibs), in your diaper, down your back, in your hair… eating is a contact sport for you.  It’s a good thing you’re so damn cute.  I hope one day we can just say you’re messy and not gross.

You are gorgeous!  Not because I’m your mother – you really are gorgeous.  Everyone tells us.  We say you’re “universally cute”.  I wonder how you’ll look in a few years, though I’m rushing nothing.  Will your hair be black or brown?  Will you always have those killer round eyes and one sweet little dimple (your brother has the other one)?  Will your curls continue to curl or will they be a distant memory after your first haircut?  Time will only tell but you have got to be one of the cutest one year olds I’ve ever known!

You love music.  Man, do you love music!  You dance to any beat you can find, you clap your hands and grin big when you hear a kid’s song but you’ll rock back and forth to my music too.  Music really does make you very happy.  We’re starting Kindermusik on Thursday, I’m sure you’ll love it.

You’re an explorer.  You need to check everything out.  You want to be held at home because you know every nook and cranny but in public or at a new place you can’t wait to get down.  You’ll crawl through dirt, it doesn’t matter, you need to SEE! 

You’re allergic to dairy.  I really hope you outgrow this.  It will be really sad if you can’t have ice cream.

You can’t walk yet.  You’re cruising around furniture and you’ll hold our hands to practice but you haven’t stepped out on your own quite yet.  All in your own time.

You love your brother.  I hope that never changes.  You look at him like he’s a celebrity.  You love to watch him, you love to play with him, and you’re sad when he gets rough.  He’s a boy though, so he’s rough often.  You didn’t care when he broke your arm and you chase after him like it’s a price well worth paying.  Please be sure to always remind him that he broke your arm when you were a baby – especially at his wedding.  Be kind to him, love him like mad, always.  Family is very important and even if he is annoying sometimes he is your brother and you need to look out for each other.

You are my sunshine.  I love you and your brother very much but you can’t talk back yet or tell me no.  You wake up every morning with a smile on your face, just dying to snuggle in and let us hug you.  You always make me laugh and remind me that life is good.  You are an easy baby, even if changing your diaper right now is like trying to nail jello to the wall, you’re very easy going and flexible with your schedule and needs.  I would like to think I know you the best and have known you the longest.  Even when you were bouncing around inside my belly and hiccuping like it was your job I knew you were special.  You have always been very special to me for so many reasons.

You have never been a cuddler.  You never enjoyed being rocked to sleep, you never wanted to be coddled.  If that ever changes I’m here, I’m the one underneath your very cuddly brother.  There’s plenty of room on this lap for two.

Kate, you’ve given me the opportunity to experience everything exactly opposite from your brother (from pregnancy, to birth, to nursing, to temperament, and so much more).  You have made  so many of my wishes and dreams come true.  I wanted you for so long and now that you’re here  I want nothing but the best for you.  I have so many hopes and ideas of what I would like you to become (nothing specific - just independent, successful, self assured, deliriously happy….) and I would do anything for you to make your dreams come true as you did mine.  I would like to believe we’ll always be close, that you’ll always need me, and that you’ll always want me around.  Looking back on my relationship with your Grammy though I am sure there will be times that you don’t feel all of those things at once and you don’t believe me.  But know, my dear daughter, that it is true, and it always will be, the absolute unwavering certainty that I LOVE YOU.  Please know how truly special you are to me now, and always. 

All my love,
Mom

P.S.  I cried on the exam table the moment we found out you were a girl in my 12th week of pregnancy.  I will likely bawl like a total baby at your wedding.  Please invite me anyway!

Happy Birthday Mushy!

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!

I’ve always joked that some of the dinners at Walter’s parents remind me of Fear Factor episodes.  Well, partially joked, because they did have items I’ve seen on the show – like 100 year old eggs.  There’s nothing like watching a 70 something year old little Chinese woman yell “Just eat it!” at the tv, but I’m getting off track…

So the other form of Fear Factor I was recently introduced to was how you feel when food you know and love goes weird.  My sister, Lindy, just came back from Japan.  She absolutely loved it and took some amazing photos (although they were with a point and shoot – puh-shaw!).  Being the amazing sister she is she brought souvies back for everyone but she also brought a huge assortment of Japanese cuisine.  Ok, cuisine is pushing it.  Japanese junk food.  And on the last night of her most recent visit home we had a big tasting party.  We tried so many different things.  Some of them were amazing, some of them not even worth mentioning, and some that went directly from tastebuds to trash can.  Here was the adventure…

It’s been so long that I don’t exactly remember what everything is.  These were ok.  They looked better than they tasted if I remember correctly.

The “candy” in the cellophane packaging was awful!  I kept waiting for it to get better, because everyone said it would.  It didn’t.  The Kit Kat in the back is flan flavored.  I highly recommend it!

Here’s more Kit Kat.  Green tea, cookies and cream, and coffee flavored.  I’m not sure if they have regular Kit Kat (what we’re used to) but they’re hitting home runs with their other flavors!

The green tea Kit Kat was a little strange because it was, well, green.

They seem to take their green tea very seriously.  Here are coffee and green tea chocolates (like m&ms) from Starbucks in Japan and a Coke with green tea.

I don’t remember the flavors but here are Oreo candy bars.

Lindy swears that sweet beans are amazing.  Apparently the amazing ones are kept in Japan.  This can of them was… not so much.

These were very good.  I have no idea what they are.

The timing was funny because we just went to a birthday party for friends who live in Japan.  They gave the kids Japanese animal crackers and I almost fought them for it.  They are sooooo good!  More like Ritz crackers than the vanilla cookies we’re used to – yum!

And this last little gem.  Candy made to look like sushi!  How freaking cute, right!?

And anyone who knows our family or follows this blog knows that on the last night of my sister’s visits we always take a sisters photo on my moms green couch.  It is the most unflattering place and position to be photographed in but it’s tradition.  I have no idea what we’ll do if mom ever gets rid of this couch!  I’m happy to report that this year I actually timed my hair and makeup, can I still complain about my weight?  Our old sister photos are here.

And mom.

My sister Lindy and her kids, Natalie and Jeffrey, came to visit a few weeks ago.  It was such a nice week for all of us, except when the boredom of shopping set in and Jeff missed his video games. 

Lindy has been asking for family photos for YEARS.  We’ve been willing but it’s never worked out.  We either ran out of time or it was a bad hair day or half the family was doing something else or… or… or…. well this time Dean (her husband) was missing but we were going to get some photos before another decade passed us by.  We took some at my mom’s house and some out and about.  We have so many photos this will have to span a few posts.  Here are a few favorites at mom’s house that we forced them into just in case they found a laundry list of excuses not to do any during their visit.  I’m so glad that’s not the case but also glad we got these as well.

Jeff is a funny kid.  He loves to wear long sleeves in the summer and shorts in the winter.  It makes my sister crazy.  Well, he also loves this hat, which makes me crazy.  I can’t imagine how hot it is under there, especially with our 90 degree+ weather but he never wanted to part with it.  We shot him in it because it is very Jeff but not really my cup of tea.

Growing up at home we always had pool parties.  Labor day, St. Paddy’s Day, your birthday, it was always a pool party.  Even now that no one lives at home and home isn’t where it used to be we still manage to end up in the pool, for every occasion. 

Kate sporting her sunscreen mohawk…

The one person not interested in a pool party was Julia.  There was a big misunderstanding and we accidentally left her at my parents’ house when we left for the pool.  Keep in mind it’s like a 3 minute walk but her feelings were hurt and she was not going to go swimming…. or so she thought.  She was being super stubborn and showed up at the pool in her clothes.  That didn’t matter to Scott.  She was going in, even if he had to put her there – and he did.

Here’s Julia flying into the pool with a death grip on the patio chair.  I love that you can see Scott’s accomplished hand in the corner of the photo and Nikki laughing hysterically in the pool.

Poor Julia.  She got out of the pool and sat back on the patio furniture.  That wasn’t going to work for Scott.  Back in they went.  Both of them.

If I remember correctly, she eventually gave in and stayed in the pool.  It beat getting tossed in every time she left.

And then the boys flipped.  Scott taught Jeff how to flip into the pool.  Lindy was so nervous she couldn’t watch. 

Jeff always went in sideways holding his nose.  Maybe that’s what threw off his center of gravity.

Walter and I forgot our suits so we just watched from the sidelines.

Unfortunately we also forgot Noah’s suit.  He still wanted to go in so I put him in a swim diaper and deemed it good enough.  Walter wanted to die.  Not because Noah went swimming in only a swim diaper but because of the actual swim diaper.  When Noah was Kate’s age I found a gigantic pack of them at Costco.  It was my second time ever purchasing them.  I didn’t know they came in different styles.  Well, I bought Little Mermaid swim diapers because of it.  Pink Little Mermaid swim diapers.  I told Walter to stop freaking out because the diapers go under the bathing suit and no one would ever see it.  Ever.

Well at least Kate has a million more to go through because it will have to be over Walter’s dead body that the boy ever don the girly swim diapers again.  Maybe that’s why Noah has perfected potty training.  Oh, his poor future therapy bill.

More flipping…

We had a blast that afternoon and will always laugh at everything that happened and went wrong.  It’s memories like these that sustain us until the next visit.  I miss my sister and her family so much.  Someday I hope we’ll all be closer.  More from the trip next time…

“Uh oh!”.  So cute.  So adorable when young toddlers learn to say it, especially after they purposefully launch their sippy cup from the highchair tray.  Kate has everything down pat except the “uh oh” part.  For now she just rambles away in baby language, experiments with volume, and often ends in da da da da or by blowing raspberries. 

“Uh oh” elicits an entirely different reaction when you hear it from your 3 year old.  Your 3 year old who doesn’t use words like “uh oh”.  Usually it’s – “I broke Ayla’s bracelet because I pulled on it too hard.  Will you please tell her I’m sorry?”.  So when the boy is reduced to “uh oh”, we either leap to his aid or pull straws to see who the poor sucker is that has to leap to his aid, which is when we know Kate’s not involved and there is no crying.  Tonight Noah came from the bathroom with this spine tingling “uh oh” and the look on his face like something big was going down.  And then there was this -

Noah: “Uh oh!  Mommy, daddy, there’s a problem in the bathroom.  The water is coming up like this <raises his hands over his head> out of the toilet and it’s going all over the floor!”

Walter and Dawn:  <blink> <blink> <stare>

Dawn:  “Why don’t you come sit back down and finish your dinner, we’ll deal with that when we’re all done (or the water starts making its way into the dining room).”

Noah sits and starts to eat.  God only knows if he washed his hands after all the excitement in the bathroom.

Dawn:  “Did you go poopy?”

Noah:  “No.”

Dawn:  “Did you use toilet paper?”

Noah:  “Uh huh”

Dawn:  “A lot?”

Noah:  “Uh huh….. I used….. FIVE!”   <shows us five fingers to drive the point home>

Walter and Dawn:  <hysterical laughter>

These kids.  They really are here for the comic relief in life, aren’t they?  Well Noah did flood the bathroom.  He probably meant that he put five rolls of paper down the toilet but who hasn’t tried that.  All is well in Yap land now but I wanted to share this with you because it made us chuckle.  And for the record, we recommend using four or less toilet papers in the future.  If you figure out that measurement please let me know!

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!

There are so many great songs for the soundtrack to Kate’s life and this is just another to add to her playlist.  Noah broke Kate’s arm.  Ok, that’s dramatic.  Noah tried to jump over Kate and he accidentally fractured her humerus bone at the top near her shoulder… but what a crazy few days that brought us.

If you’re on Facebook you already know all the crazy details but for those of you living under a rock (as Facebook is the new black, I mean blog) I wanted to share some of her pitiful photos from the adventure.  Rest assured, she is fine.  She won’t need a cast and has already started crawling again, although she has a slight limp.  She’s also taken this opportunity to work on her will to walk.  I have a feeling that’s right around the corner (God, help us!).

Most of these photos were taken with my phone so please excuse the yuck of them.

Here the kids are at my mom’s that afternoon like nothing too crazy laid ahead -

The accident happened after dinner and right before bedtime.  Neither Walter or I witnessed it but Noah says he tried to jump over her.  We just saw her planted face first into the wood floor, crying hysterically.  At first we thought she was just scared but it took longer than usual to calm her down.  She was super sensitive but it was also bedtime.  So we gave her a bath and took her to the ER just to be safe.  When we got there she was all smiles and giggles so we didn’t go in.  We went home and put her to bed.  The pediatrician said to keep an eye on her and wake her in two hours to make sure she was ok and didn’t have a concussion.  An hour and 59 minutes later there was hysterical crying from her room.  There was something wrong.  I took her to the ER again. 

We didn’t have to wait long and the pediatric side was pretty empty.  The one set of people who were there absolutely fascinated Kate though.  They didn’t speak English and she was enthralled.  She wouldn’t stop staring so they waved every now and again.  I couldn’t wait to be called in, kids really have a way of embarrassing you!

The xrayed her and found nothing.  They pushed and pulled and she cried. 

If you look close you can see the xray of her arm on the computer in the photo on the left and the xray of her shoulder in the photo on the right.

It was the middle of the night, she cried when they touched anything.  They couldn’t figure out if there was anything wrong so they gave her Motrin, sent her home and said to follow up with the pediatrician. 

The next morning our pediatrician thought she had a strain or a sprain in her wrist and we would know in two days if it was going to get better without treatment or if she needed more xrays.  She hates xrays!  He said if there was anything broken it would have shown on the xrays the night before but that infants are difficult to scan and sometimes things don’t show up right away.

As soon as I got home from the doctor the hospital was calling.  Can you imagine my reaction to “We’re very sorry but we just realized your daughter has a fracture in her arm that we didn’t notice last night.  We recommend seeing a pediatric orthopedist.  Have a nice day!”?  And then the whirlwind began.  I cancelled all of my business appointments and became Super Mom.  I found myself making appointments with anyone who would see us and flying down to Pembroke Pines faster than the police would have appreciated.

The pediatric orthopaedist was amazing!  She recommended we splint Kate’s arm and come back in two weeks for a follow up xray (in Boca thankfully).  Apparently infants’ bones grow so quickly that casting her arm would have slowed down the healing process.  They expect her to be good as new before her next appointment and she’s already on the mend.  A little fussier but she also cut her top two fang teeth the day after the accident.  I think she’s in pretty good shape for the shape she’s in.

We went to the beach on Friday and just to show you she has done more than cry this week, here she is…

… having her first taste of sand.  I’m so thankful the drama is over and that she won’t remember any of this.  I have a feeling no one else will forget though and in thirty years I’ll still be able to play the remember-when-you-broke-your-sister’s-arm card. 

More on the beach and my sister’s vacation here soon.  I’m hoping to get better at blogging, you know, in my spare time.

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!