Easter is Eggcellent!

 Easter was a hit again this year! We colored eggs twice, once while Gram was in town and then again with our friends the Hadley's when we also decorated sugar cookies.  Egg salad sandwiches and stinky refrigerators have been a real part of our lives this past week.  

Everyone woke up to the Easter bunny and grandparents leaving them WAY TOO MUCH candy!  I honestly think that Easter is worse than Halloween at our house! 

 Mr. McDuff was happy to clean up any jellybean that happen to break loose from a plastic egg and was Miss Viv's shadow all day! 

 We had a little Easter Egg Hunt at our House this morning.  Once Viv found out there were jelly beans inside, all she needed were the two eggs she found.  Berkeley, like the good brother he is, was happy to find the rest of the eggs and claim all the candy as his own.

(Yes, his eyes are a bit red from all the tears we had prior to the hunt.  There were lots of "No's" coming from this boy and it was not the best of mornings, but we luckily recovered)

 This is the Best Family Photo we could get.  I sure do love my people!

 Viv has taken a major liking to her little friend Bennet, isn't he adorable?  We enjoyed a lovely brunch at our friend Aubrey and Stewart's House with so many of our amazing friends. We are missing a few families, but we had a lovely time together per usual.

 From left to right: Marci, Lisa, Dan, Christian, Viv, Leslie, Josh, Courtney, Andrew, Gwen.  The kids were all enjoying their giddy hearts eating in the basement away from the adults.  

 I love these girls!

 Trying to get these kids to pose for a picture proved to be impossible.  They love each other however and had a great time finding eggs.

 Viv is a little slow to pick up on how this egg hunt works, but she did manage to find 3 light pink eggs!  Vivienne did a lot of falling on the grass, it was her first time walking on uneven surfaces, or even outside, and it was pretty hilarious watching her so unsuccessfully maneuver the yard.

 Vivienne looked amazing in her Gymboree Rabbit in a hot air balloon over Paris Dress.  

 My two beautiful children.  Berke rocked his $1 Target Fedora hat and his brand new glasses that I am totally loving on him!  

Gotta love the holidays!

Miss Viv at 15 Months Old

 Our little ginger, aka The Red Tornado, is full of spunk and fun!  Viv started walking shortly after the new year and that has turned in to running and climbing at this point.  Viv loves to point and whine until she gets what she wants, this happens a lot more than we would like to admit.

She has fantastic fine motor skills, she can put the top on and off a stick of chap stick, she loves putting lids on Tupperware, and is starting to do the large wooden puzzles with nobs.  She can do the large Lego's very well and tries to play with her brothers Lego's with some frustration as well.

This gal isn't super chatting, she can say "Mama" "Oh O!" and "No" She can bark like a dog, hoot like an owl and says Maaa for a cow.  She used to do a cat, but no longer preforms, she also no longer says Dada.  She can sign more, milk, and please.  She is not a lady of many words but she appears to understand everything we are saying to her, from get your coat, grab your bag, where's the dog, lets go bye bye (she does the most adorable wave by the way), put your socks on (which she tries to do ever so unsuccessfully).  She loves to snuggle, play with anything that has buttons (remotes and calculators are the favorite), she loves to dance when she hears music and she loves to eat whatever we are eating.  She has to feed herself now with forks and spoons.  She loves bananas, spaghetti, oranges, grapefruit, yogurt, pizza, and sweet potatoes.  

Bath time is her favorite and she is becoming more and more ticklish.  She has the silliest fake laugh, but the most adorable smile on the planet.  She loves to sit and look at books and has started taking an interested in watching Elmo.  

 She still loves her mama the most but daddy is quickly climbing the latter of coolness.  She loves playing with McDuff and giving and receiving kisses from him.

She still loves to be doing whatever Berkeley is doing, from cars, Lego's, stuffed animal play, etc.  She wants to be in all the action.  

She is into everything and making it impossible to keep the house clean, but I wouldn't have it any other way!  She is a keeper and makes us laugh every single day.  She is so much fun and I'm amazed watching her grow and develop all too fast.

We love you baby girl; our little miss independent lady!

March Madness

 We finally broke the record; we have now officially survived the snowiest winter in Boston on record.  We did it!  Not gonna say it was easy or that it was worth it, but we at least have bragging rights, which in these parts, is pretty popular.  

There is not a lot going on or a lot to do when it is so cold outside and the snow is SLOWLY melting.  We are maintaining our routines, school, work, commuting, daycare, little sleep, wake up at 5 a.m. daily, repeat.  

The kids are growing, changing and learning so much.  As they grow bigger our apartment gets smaller and smaller.  The kids take it is stride and even though we've spent way too much time indoors lately, we still love each other and that is all that counts.

 Look how big my baby girl is getting.  Her beautiful red hair is growing, teeth are coming in and she is learning and getting into everything!  She thinks all animals bark, she loves to eat (not baby food, that is for babies), loves any toy that makes music and/or has buttons (remotes, calculators and phones are the best), and she loves to point at everything and wine until we figure out what she wants, which is usually something she cannot have.

 Berke is surviving Kindergarten and informed me that his best friend is Julius, his girlfriend is Shaylin (but when he tells her he likes her she tells the teacher.  Ms. Scrima says that is not appropriate for school.)  He gave up on karate, wasn't for this kid, so we are on the hunt for a new hobby....the search continues.  

He does seem to enjoy electronic music making with his dad.  Never a quiet moment with these two around.

 This guy decided to grow out a beard for the winter.  I wasn't sure I'd like it, but holy moly, what a sexy beast!

 Berke is always the silly boy, always!  He drives me crazy at times, but there is never a day that passes that he doesn't bring a smile to my face.

 This handsome fella is BFF's with Vivi as she feeds him well, gives him lots of kisses and plays with him all the time.  He just got the winter fur removed, so he is all handsome and ready for warmer months so he can chase some squirrels.  

The Historic Boston Winter of 2015

I haven't done an update lately as we really haven't been able to do much.  To be honest everyone in Boston was talking about how great winter was in December and January; the weather was nice and we had no snow.  So many people including myself said, "I'll take this winter."  We clearly all spoke too soon.  When we got our first snow around 6 inches the end of January we were all so excited.  Wahoo!  We finally got to use our snowman kit that Grandma and Grandpa Gentry sent us for Christmas!  Berke and I ran out and played with the neighbor girls up the street.  We had fun building a snowman, a snow fort and having a snowball fight.  Vivi was inside hanging out with Charlotte.  It was great!  Awesome, I thought, we had our winter, not bad.

We made cookies and celebrated and enjoyed our snow day.

Then, it began, the first 12-18 inch storm occurred.  We got hammered and we could barely open the door.  I enjoy shoveling, so I headed out, eager for the exercise.  The first big snow, it was crazy but magical, nothing we haven't had to handle before.  

 With all the snow it was hard to get out, but we managed to walk to a local indoor farmers market one Sunday and to the Brandies Alumni Day another Sunday before a big storm.  Cabin fever has been a REAL thing this winter and getting out is necessary.

Next we had huge storm number two with 12-18 inches and we were thinking, "Well this is just nuts!  We cannot possibly get anymore.  There really isn't anywhere to put this stuff.  As you can see in our little city, the yards are pretty small and there really isn't any extra space to put snow.  Most people have to park on the street and when it snows like this the city we lose half of our street parking spots.  

After this storm school was cancelled for an entire week due to the roofs needing to be cleared.  This happen to be the week before February break, so we had two full weeks of no school.  Berke went to the babysitter with Vivi a few days, to school with dad for a day and then to winter camp the last week.  It was CRAZY!

Then big storm #3 hit, another 12-18 inches!  This was a defeating storm for the entire city.  We had NO WHERE to put this snow.  It was better in the burbs, but for us city dwellers this was awful!  The worst!  TERRIBLE!  I started shoveling but there was just no where for this white stuff to go.  It wasn't heavy but in order to clear the car I had to heave the snow 7 feet high and then it would come tumbling back down.  

This wall of snow in my neighbors driveway is 7 feet high, it is a foot taller than Christian.  There is a garage behind that pile.

 Each storm I would shovel off Charlotte's back porch, each time this was how much snow needed to be removed.

 Vivi thought snow was pretty cool for the few moments she got to touch it. Berke loves eating it and wont listen about not eating the dirty snow.  He at least avoids the yellow snow, so I guess we can be happy about that.

This is the pile in our front yard, as you can see it is way above the fence line at this point and our little tree is completely buried!

Keep in mind, I just switched jobs, I'm doing home hospice now, which I love.  But remember how the city loses half it's parking spots when it snows so the plows have somewhere to put the snow?  Well in most cities, people also put furniture and other household items to mark the spot that they dug their car out of.  So as you can imagine my job has been super amazingly fun with trying to find places to park (insert sarcasm).  

After storm three my back was sore and on Thursday morning I put some milk away and my back was out!  Next to child birth, this is the most painful experience of my life.  I could not walk, I could not hold my baby I could not do anything!  After a few pain pills and muscle relaxors I was on the mend (a week later). 

As I type this we are currently 1.5 inches away from beating the record for the most snow in one winter ever.  Clearly we want that snow, because we didn't go through all this to come in second place.  We want bragging rights that we survived this crazy winter.  We did set a record for most snowfall in February, duh!  

In the month of February Berke had 7.5 days of school and he was sick for one of them.  It's been a strange, cold and terrible winter.  I have never seen anything like this in my life.  The streets are smaller than before and everyone in the city is grumpier than usual!  I appreciate the sweet winter packages that have been sent our way!  Honestly the sweetest and most thoughtful thing ever!!!

So there you have it!  Worst Winter EVA!

She's ONE!

 Our little winter solstice baby turned one!  It is so hard to believe that it has been a year already, it went by SO fast.  Berkeley was a very helpful big brother showing his little ginger just how to get her presents opened.  She was more than happy to have his help; anytime her brother is giving her special attention is a great gift in and of itself.

 Viv was spoiled from presents from grandparents out west in the morning.  That afternoon, a few neighbors, her aunties, and her babysitter showed up for a party.  We had a

Winter "One" derland party.  It turned out very cute, as cute as this mom can get anyhow.  The party was lovely, filled with people who adore this little sparrow as much as we do.  She is SO incredibly easy to love and just makes everyone want to smile when they see her.

 Vivienne was all dressed up for the occasion, Christian thought it was over the top, but it most definitely was not!  I mean look how adorable she is!?!

 I was proud of out cute winter food theme and was really proud of the cake I made with my first go around with fondant.  Cute right?

 Charlotte came over even though it was her birthday to!  Charlotte turned 80 and Vivi turned 1, they have a special connection!  

 Vivienne loved her cake and did not hold back on eating it.  She shoved every delicious sugar bite into her mouth as fast as she could; made mama proud!  

It was a great birthday!  We love our little Vivi so much and are happy that she has joined our family and brought us so much joy, happiness and sleepless nights!  Happy Birthday Baby girl!

Halloween

 Don't want to forget to post about Halloween!  Berkeley was an adorable Ninja and he enjoyed having a sword and nun chucks to "fight" with.

McDuff pulled off the pirate look like a pro.  

Vivienne was an adorable like a penguin.  She didn't love having the head piece on, but she left it on if the velcro was undone.  The kids got tons of candy just on our street, as the neighbors know and love them so they spoil them.  They also don't have a lot of other trick o treaters.

We watched Ghostbusters as a family that night snuggled on blankets with pillows, it was so fun.  Berkeley loved the movie!