2014 Family Christmas Card Pics- "The Outtakes"

This year we wanted to give "Aaron James Sanchez" some experience and he took our family shoot over to Searles Castle- which is a historical place right in our hometown

 

 

We had some laughs and Aaron got some great shots....

 

Pidge ended up sleeping for the first few- hysterical!

 

Here are the outtakes....

 

 

 



A Trip to Edaville U.S.A!

Edaville U.S.A

So we dragged Mimi and Papa to Edaville with us- it was about an hour ride....not the best Christmas light show but we had a ball, nonetheless and really started the Christmas season off with a bang!

After the show, we headed back to Mimi and Papa's for a homemade Italian feast...they never disappoint.....after two days of this kind of eating...we so need to cleanse! :)

Here are some cute shots from our special night!

Scenes from Thanksgivig 2014!

We always start with the Windham Turkey Trot!

This was its 20th year of existence!

Here we are in our cold cold glory (we were very lucky- we had a snow storm on Wed into Thurs morning and most of the town lost power! God blessed us with power to cook and keep everyone warm!)

Back at the house- Eva loves her big brother!

 

After we were done and big kids went to have dinner with their mom, we started our feast

Here are a few shots of the girls with my parents

This was Eva's 1st Thanksgiving!  We celebrated this special day AND the fact that she just turned 7 months!

 I was pretty bad about getting pictures the rest of the day....no pix of our family...my in-laws or the food!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I am grateful for.....

doing the right thing

believing that this too, shall pass

that there is something more....

for the sweetness and the snuggles from my girls

for the strength of my husband

Girls' Weekend in Portland, Maine

Oh what fun we had!

Cass and I went up early to walk around and

when the rest of the bunch arrived, we hit one of the oldest restaurants in Portland for lunch...

DeMilo's

It is actually a boat!  You eat in the boat...right on the water!!!

and then we hit the shops...they have the most interesting ones....jewelry...art....food....

we endulged at Alex & Ani....at the Salt Shop and even a food store, where we found different olive oils and balsamic vinegars

I also bought a jar of Pink Himilayan salt that I cannot wait to try on our grilled fish and meats

On Saturday night, after shopping and chilling in our hotel room, we had the most amazing dinner experience at Five Fifty Five

We chose the Five Course Meal and we enjoyed FOUR HOURS of the most amazing dining expereince....from salad and appetizers to dinner, cheese, dessert and wine

It was outstanding with lots of laughs too

After dinner, Greer insisted on one more drink at North Point

Although we were tapped out, we obliged and had even more belly laughs

The next morning, we were told to try breakfast at Bintliff's

We ended up waiting an hour and a half...but it was worth it

Since we spent so much time there, we called it brunch

We wrapped up the weekend with a little more shopping

Girl time is so therapeutic...grateful for wonderful friends

Weekly Gratitude

I am thankful for...

a successful sales presentation

for my experience and passion

for my warm home

for being able to share the Halloween magic of our neighborhood with my parents and in-laws

Halloween 2014!

One of our best EVER!

We carved our Jack-O-Lanterns on Monday night while we watched

Disney's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (those who follow the blog know how obsessed we are with this)

Here are our creations this year...pretty basic and traditional but spooky nonetheless

Diana spun around singing the theme song...well, her version of "Ichabod Crank" ha ha!!

On Halloween Day, Diana got to enjoy her party at school...I chaperoned and helped out...fun but  LOTS of work...these teachers have so much energy!  WOW!

Here is the group

 

 and then traditionally, our street, gets together for Halloween...dinner and then trick-or-treating

We wanted to host again and we wanted to include the entire neighborhood which consists of three streets

so we did...and it was a BLAST!