Brian's 35th Birthday week!

Brian's birthday week was kicked off with cake and ice-cream at Grandma and Grandpa Tees's house(with Uncle Bob as the special guest...lots of pictures to follow). On BT's actual birthday the kids made a Happy Birthday sign and hung it on the front door. He was soooooo happy when he came home! We then celebrated the evening at Nana and Nonno's with a a homemade cake:) BT blew out a lot of candles this year! Lastly his birthday week was topped off with a surprise party at the SLS Hotel surrounded by so many of his good friends and family. We spent one night at the hotel and spent our time leading up to the party sipping cocktails and getting foot massages by the pool. Brian was so touched and surprised that so many people came out to celebrate. Many thanks to Nanna and Nonno for watching the kids so mommy and daddy could spend a much needed night away!!

He's vertical just a week shy of 9 months!

Yay!!! On Thursday night the whole family was hanging out in Preston's room before bedtime and all of a sudden Preston pushed off mommy and stood up. He looked like he was surfing with both his hands straight out to the side. Sophia was pointing and laughing at him like "hey...he's not supposed to do that...he's a BABY"! We all screamed and freaked out until Preston plopped to the ground. Since then he's been practicing a lot. Layla caught a few pictures of him standing at the park and we caught one in his diapy:) Leyla often spends her days between the library, duck park, and the park, and Gymboree. She gets some great shots of the kids so here are a few of our recent fav's!

Yo Gabba Gabba "coma"

These pictures are a perfect example of the Yo Gabba Gabba "coma" as we call it. Sophia has been smitten with the show for a year or so but PJ has recently jumped on the bandwagon. It's the only show he's interested with thus far. We're pretty sure Sophia will convince him that Barney is pretty cool too! We have a "no tv" policy during the day with Leyla, but at night the kiddies have free rien of the tube(with mommy and daddy choosing the programming of course)! We tend to believe that Sophia's advanced vocabulary is due in part to her exposure to different "educational" kids shows. These programs not only expand vocabulary but they stimulate imagination and encourage singing and dancing...all thumbs up! On any given night we can be found in our living room dancing to YGG, Sesame Street, or Barney. Sophia doesn't let anyone get away with sitting through the programs...you must stand up and participate!

911 2010

On Sunday mommy took off for a much needed "girls day trip" to see Mickey while Daddy, Nana, Nonno and the kids headed to Malibu to see the flag display on the Pepperdine campus. Each flag represented a life lost on 911 so there were over 3000 flags! Sophia just so happened to be in her patriotic dress:) After the flags they all played at the park and had lunch:) Mommy was very grateful to spend the day with friends but was VERY happy to come home to the family!!!

Swimming with the Martinez family 2010

Saturday morning we packed up the family and headed down to Orange County. The weather was perfect so we swam all day and Dave and Denise bbq'd for us at night. Preston loves the water so much and loves to splashe himself with water in the face:)After swimming, we hung out in their beautiful backyard and enjoyed the evening by the fire. Sophia was super fascinated by the fire but understood it was "hot and you can't touch it" which she repeated to us over and over:) A perfect end to a perfect day. Thanks for having us!