It's Paw-Paw's Birthday!

Today is David's step-dad's birthday and although we already had fun celebrating with him Saturday, we hope today is a special day for him! We love you, Dan! Happy Birthday!!!

The Smiths Come To Town

This weekend was a great weekend and it was made even more special by the fact that David's brother and our sister-in-law and our niece were in town from Pennsylvania. We don't get to see them near as often as we would like and our niece, Jersey, is getting so big and she is such a beautiful girl with all her curly blonde locks.

Most of David's family gathered at his mom and step-dad's house today, after the guys played a round of golf, to enjoy Maw-Maw's famous, Baked Spaghetti and Porkchops (YUMMMMEEEEEEEEE!!) and to visit with the out-of-towners. It was a great chance to chat, laugh and watch the small cousins play together.

Danny, Joey and Jersey- It was really great to see you and we are SO looking forward to catching up with you in a few more weeks at the BEACH!!! Thanks for coming to see us!

"Hoppy" Easter!

I'm sure my husband is getting REALLY tired of me saying this, but I think it is a cute play-on-words! Our Easter was VERY "hoppy" and was Ally's first. She had a blast and got almost as much loot as Christmas (thanks to everyone who gave her Easter presents)! It was a really nice day to visit with family.

I will let the pictures take you through our very busy day...

Riley started off the day by sniffing out everything the Easter Bunny left for Ally...only thing that really caught his interest was of course the plastic Easter grass (weirdo cat!)

Then Ally and Daddy made their way downstairs to find the Easter baskets that were left...

This was VERY exciting as you can see (you can also see by the looks of their hair that they had both just woken up).

Yea! Cheerio filled Easter Eggs...my favorite!Ally wondering what IS UP with this weird plastic grass??As you can tell by the preceeding pictures, Ally made out like a bandit this year! Three baskets filled up with fun stuff for babies...a brand new sippy cup, a stuffed bunny, some crayons made just for littles, a brand new beach towel with her name on it and...some candy for daddy. :-) After baskets, we all got dressed and in our Easter best and headed to mass with Grandma and Grandpa C. We thought Ally would sleep through the whole thing (the reason we decided to wait and go to noon mass), but she was more interested in waving to everyone around us and looking at everything she possibly could. After church, we made a mad dash to Grandma Lang's for a nice Easter lunch. It was great to see everybody. While we were there, Ally snuck in a short nap in Maw-Maw's arms...

Cousin Jilly showed up in her Easter finest...pretty girl! We wish she would have been feeling better on her first Easter, though...pesky colds! (Get better soon, Jilly!!)Cousin Kaylie was putting on a show for everyone, looking as cool as can be in Aunt Tiffany's sunglasses. :-)We woke Ally up from her nap and made a beeline for Grandpa and Grandma T's house, where Ally got a new pinwheel which she enjoyed very much. Grandpa T. showed her how to get it to spin and she really tried hard to do it herself (she'll figure it out soon enough!). Granddaddy came down from Mentor, OH and it was very nice to see him, as always. We had another Easter meal, giggled at Ally and Jillian playing together, got some great shots of Ally in her pretty dress and then we were off to our next stop...

The last of our stops for the day was to the Henderson's for Easter dinner and red velvet cupcakes...yum. It was DELICIOUS, even after all the food we had already eaten. Of course, like at the other two stops, Ally was showered with gifts. She got finger puppets, a new outfit and...

BEACH TOYS...yea for vacation only being a couple months away!

Cousin Dylan was all dressed up and looking as cute as ever in his little sweater vest...Here, he and Uncle Dave share some time on the couch watching The Masters...
Ally and Grandma enjoy some time and smiles together after dinner...It was a great day and thank you to all of our wonderful family for a wonderful Easter. We love spending time with each and every one of you and we miss those of you who were not able to be with us. Happy Easter everyone!

A Yummy Dinner and Two Cute Babies

Tonight we had Monica (Maw-Maw), Dan (Paw-Paw), Julie, Brian and Jillian over for a little Mexican feast! I made a garlic-lime chicken dish with rice and a corn and black bean salsa. It is a recipe from my sister's friend Emily (she makes Martha Stewart look pitiful) and we have had it before and really liked it. I have never made it before, though, so I was hoping it turned out. Everyone seemed to like it a lot and there was hardly any left over, so I guess that is good indication it turned out ok. :-)

After dinner we enjoyed some turtle brownies and ice cream and fed Ally and Jillian their dinner. They filled their bellies up and then we let them play in their diapers for a few minutes, before getting them into their pj's, while we all stood around and laughed at them and took picutres.

It was a fun night and good to see the family, since we hadn't seen them in a couple weeks. Thanks for coming over guys!

Christmas with The Smiths

Tonight we had our Christmas celebration with David's mom and step-dad and all of the siblings from that side. Everyone was there...Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw, GG, Julie, Brian, Jillian, Kayla, Tonya, Ryan, Alyssa, Danny, Joey, Jersey, Erica, Jake and of course the three of us. It was a great night. We started the evening with a delicious meal made by Monica and some brandy slushes (Julie and I were all over those things since we couldn't have any last year!). We spent a lot of time chatting and laughing and catching up with those we don't see very often and then we got down to business...presents time! The kids had a great time and before we knew it, the ground was covered in wrapping paper and toys! The big gift of the night was for all of us...a vacation to South Carolina this summer! We are all very excited and we are looking forward to lots of fun on the beach. Thanks to Monica and Dan for hosting a wonderful Christmas celebration!