Happy Halloween, Thanksgiving and Birthday!

We are back! With having our kids' birthdays only 1 day apart, October always seems like a blur. If that wasn't enough, we also celebrate 15 other birthdays in October as well. And of course Halloween can not be overlooked, as it is easily my most favorite holiday! This year I decided to let Olivia pick what she wanted to be and the rest of the family would follow suit. Since Blake doesn't yet have an opinion, everything went smooth. Truthfully I don't think he would've have minded this year since he got to be Superman! Well, he wore a Superman t-shirt I found at Old Navy on Halloween day because he wouldn't wear his fake ab costume! Lil' Stinker!
Blowing up balloons at Matteo's birthday party

Next we celebrated Thanksgiving, once ON T-day and once on the Saturday that followed. This way we were able to see both sides of the family.

Matching outfits (as usual)

Holy red eyes, Blake!

Turkey cupcakes that Olivia and I made...

Next bring on my birthday...Happy 34th to me! Careful Boolah!

Happy Belated Birthday Blake...so sorry 2nd child!

Oh this poor boy. In all fairness I can not use the computer when he is awake, so it is in my downtime (cough, cough when is that?) that I can do this. Blake is such a sweet boy and is always up for a challenge. Some of his favorite things to do: climb on the back of the couch and hang, riding his new big boy bike, hitting a ball pitched to him and trying to get this whole peeing IN the potty, not on the floor thing. Mr. Blake has brought more joy and happiness to our lives that we didn't even know we were missing:) Happy Belated Sweetness!!

This pic is from my cousin's wedding in Sept, thought it was cute... YAY for Blake!

eating his horse cookie off the cake!

HAPPY HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY OLIVIA!

Can you believe this little goober is five years old? We certainly can't! We had a joint carnival birthday party in the beginning of the month. We had pony rides, jumpy castle, face painter, balloon guy, and of course CAKE! Which aside from the pony was definitely Blake's favorite part of the day. So today we celebrate OLIVIA JOY CATALANO, we love you sweet girl:) Here are some pics from the carnival and tomorrow will be another post for we have to celebrate Blake as well:)

Oh my word!

So apparently summer (and facebook) has taken over my brain, and blogging has become a thing of the past. We are so incredibly busy with two kids, it takes all of me to make it past 10pm. July was filled with fun days at the pool with Mommy so happy that both Olivia and Blake were cautious swimmers. Olivia would flit around with her friends in the baby pool while Blake played with his paintbrushes, cups, and squirty fishes. Then came August...Olivia decided that she can swim underwater, and she does so quite impressively. She holds her breath for about 4 breaststrokes and does so with perfect form. And Blake also decided that jumping off the side in 2 feet of water, with or without supervision is a great idea. There goes my somewhat relaxing pool days. They are getting so big and Olivia (and Mommy) have already started planning the October birthday extravaganza:) Hopefully I will post again before that!
Waiting for Daddy Sesame Place with the Cooks and Campos'...notice how happy I am and then there is the the rest of the crew...

Olivia catching a bird at Turtle Back Zoo

Olivia and Blake's free lemonade stand...people actually stopped!

picnic in our backyard before demolition!

WE MISSED MAY! but we got a pony!

That's right, you heard it here...We may have missed posting in May, but my mom bought the grandkids a pony! Olivia is thrilled to say the least. Even Blake got in on the action. Not much else is new, school is ending tomorrow, boo hoo, but the pool is calling our name.
Here is our little Hanny Montanny. Olivia sliding at the OLP fair

Blake and Mommy at the fair

Blake's newest addiction at my mom's... the tractor:)

Olivia and Snickers...I will post better pics of Snickers, and ones with Blake on him too!

Post O' Pictures

This is a ridiculously long post of pictures. We have been crazy busy with the kids. We went to visit Mr. Griffin and that was certainly a highlight for both Olivia and myself. Although we were sad that Sir Riles was not there, we had our hands full with Blake. Within 30 seconds of our arrival to the Cook house, Blake manages to crawl into and fall out of a lego wagon, thus splitting his bottom lip. Great visit even if there was a little blood.

Mr. Grif Olivia snapped this one!

Little Mommy

Uncle Jim as per Olivia

Hey, why does this kid get a bottle and I don't??

Next onto the Easter festivities...Dyeing of the eggs, visiting family and catching chickens. Olivia is obviously NOT her mother's daughter as far as the catching, petting, riding of farm animals is concerned.

Yummy vinegar

Proud Lady

Whoa she collected all of these and then re-hid them since Blake was still asleep. What a great big sister!

Helping Blake open his remote control car. That Easter Bunny gives great gifts!

Easter outfits

Chicken girl

We also went to the Crayola Factory when Olivia was on Spring Break.

Blake and Mr. Crayon

Coloring Model Magic

Chalk Walk

The gang came over for a visit... Cole, Lexi, Olivia, Blake and Jared!

We celebrated Olivia's half birthday on the 23rd. We made a cake, she decorated it and we even had 4 1/2 candles.

Olivia and Paige celebrated her 4 1/2 birthday!

And then we celebrated Blake's 1 1/2 birthday! 18 months already, where has the time gone??

First BBQ of the season on our new deck, I can't believe it was almost 90 degrees in April!

Tap Tap Tap

Miss Olivia had her tap recital last Saturday. I was so proud of her tapping her little heart out. It made my heart swell and my eyes well up seeing her on that stage. She was so excited and happy to be up there in front of everyone:) Such a cutie... Olivia and her flowers

Tap it out girls

Hold on Megan...is this stage moving??

Via and her Daddy

Proud Lady