downtown disney.

we normally don't spend much time in downtown disney as we usually go straight into the park, and then straight back to the tram, but we got together with alex's parents, nicole and her fam, and alex's aunt and uncle and a couple of cousins and spent an evening walking downtown disney. it was super fun, and a great way to be with our family...some of whom we don't get to see often! not to mention, i saved my weight watchers points and had a delicious dinner at espn zone ;)

our little model baby.

i made the banner on the chair for our kitchen window an it worked perfect on the chair!

alex styled and shot a christmas shoot for my sister celeste's family. you can see a few of the awesome shots here. we decided to throw micah in for a couple also, and they turned out super cute...if i do say so myself ;)

family pictures.

seriously...micah's little face kills me in this picture!

we took some more family photos with our friend, richelle dante. she has been taking our pictures since our first married christmas in 2008. she has quite the booming business now, and we are so grateful that she still makes time for our little family! here are a few of my favorites.

this is after richelle told alex he was throwing micah so high up that she couldn't get both of them in the frame. yeah, i couldn't watch.

thanksgiving :: part 3 :: camping

the day after thanksgiving (after 4am shopping with my mom and sis), we went down to san elijo to camp with alex's family. micah had a hard time falling asleep which is pretty typical for him. he doesn't like to sleep anywhere but his crib. what he did love was spending so much time with his fam. he adores all of his cousins, and any time he gets to spend with them is always so much fun. a HUGE bummer that happened while we were there was that micah's milk spilled on alex's camera and fried the mother board. i can't seem to find many pictures of the time we spent, but if a picture is worth 1,000 words, then a video must be worth a million...so here's the video recap that alex put together! update :: i removed the video because it kept starting automatically. to see the video, go here.

thanksgiving :: part 2 :: day of

after we delivered our cookies, we prepared a few things to take with us. my brother was here with his girlfriend, tara, and they were busy prepping also. we had two thanksgiving meals...one at my grandparents' house, and another one at my sister Celeste's home. it was a great day...micah loooooves to be surrounded by family...i do too ;)

tara with her candy/cookie turkeys

micah giving great-grandpa some love

can you tell that this kids loves his cousins?

to the left is the best baked mac n cheese. so yummy.

to the right you'll see a thankful poem by maliah (8yrs). so sweet!

thanksgiving :: part 1 :: neighbors

micah is down for a nap.
alex is watching a movie.
i am going to play catch up on the blog. i can't believe i haven't even touched thanksgiving! well...here it goes! 


the day before thanksgiving, micah and i made some iced pumpkin cookies for our neighbors before his nap. Micah likes to "help" by mixing up some sugar and flour in a bowl while i bake :)

 

during his nap, my bro stayed with micah and i made a quick trip to michael's for some packaging materials. while he slept, i used the alphabet stamps i bought to add some life to the plain brown bags. did you know that michael's has small treat size bags with little tabs to keep them closed for only 29 cents?...maybe it's 39 cents, but either way, i like the price! it's hard to tell in the pic, but they say happy thanksgiving...i couldn't find my black ink (i found out later alex had taken it hostage), so i had to use green...not really dark enough , but it did the trick. 

 

on thanksgiving, we went out to deliver to all of our neighbors. micah carried each bag and handed them to our neighbors. it was fun to focus our family on blessing others before we went out to celebrate with family.

 

despite what it looks like, alex was with us....that's what happens when you're the photog! here's a family shot before we went delivering. 

pre-christmas fun

if below doesn't work, check it out here... funny jib-jab

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

better late than never.

alex recently finished micah's first year recap video. to be fair, i didn't ask for him to do it until after micah's birthday, so it wasn't all his fault that it took until micah's half birthday to get it done ;)

i cry every time i watch it. i love it so so much and i love that we have it now. micah loves to watch it and point out his family and friends! just a warning, it's LONG!

Micah's first year from Alexander T. Pavone on Vimeo.

happy half birthday little man.

happy half birthday (yesterday) to my favorite little guy! i can't believe we're already here! look for an update post about all that this busy guy is up to...but not today, i'm late for work!

micah and ryder.

micah and ryder are only 5 weeks apart. they are little buddies, and so much fun to watch. they couldn't be any more different which only makes it more fun to watch the two of them together. alex put a video together of the little guys last Sunday at a progressive dinner that we did. There were pictures taken for the next Faith Community HomeFront Monthly, and it was a fun night all around.

decorating fun.

i've been having so much fun making things for our house. with halloween behind us and thanksgiving on the horizon, i had fun taking down the halloween decorations and putting up the thanksgiving things i made. the only halloween thing that was different this year than last year's "boo" banner was the candy corn i made...again via pinterest. i don't have a pic of mine, but they look pretty much exactly the same as the ones in the pin :) here's a look at the thanksgiving decor up in our house...it's only two things, but it makes our home feel so festive.

thankful tree :: via pinterest

i don't have a specific pin to thank for this, just was inspired by all of the awesome burlap banners!

i am now super excited to start working on christmas...both decor and presents! i am proud to say that i have already purchased several gifts, and i'm excited to actually have time to make some gifts this year too! it's amazing what happens when you start planning in september :)

a day in the life.

inspired by this post, alex decided to document a day in his life. it was funny to watch him set up each shot, but the outcome is pretty cool. check it out ::

one last halloween post.

i made micah a lined bag for trick or treating. i found the tutorial via pinterest and changed it up to add his first initial instead of the candy corn. i love it, and micah liked carrying it around. total win!

one of the seams started coming apart, and i even learned how to make invisible seams to fix it up! it was a fun project, and helped me learn a little more about sewing.

happy halloween.

l to r:: foofa, muno, plex, and dj lance rock!

halloween was such a fun day! our RH offices are moving, and monday was the big move day and they asked that no one be in the building(s), so i ended up having it off! i woke up before my boys and made pumpkin shaped pumpkin pancakes for them. it's rare to have a hot breakfast right when you wake up in this house so we all felt pretty awesome having that!

we just hung out at home most of the day and then after dinner, we met up with some of my cousins and their kids for trick or treating. it was the first time trick or treating with micah. it was so much fun watching him go up to each house. he didn't like the idea of leaving each house so quickly though. my little social guy wanted a little more interaction or something :)

 

as for costumes, we wanted to do something as a family (i'm ALL about coordinating costumes), and i wanted it to be something that he would recognize so naturally we landed with his fav...yo gabba gabba (or as micah likes to call it, yay-yay). my brother joined in on the yay-yay party! all in all we had a super fun day and i am already thinking of costumes for next year!

 

 

halloweenie '11

a super fun fall tradition for us is our Halloweenie party! the first year was super last minute, but i absolutely love that it's become a tradition! Here's a fun video that alex made to recap our night! (oh, and it's halloweenie because we eat hot dogs every year ;)

the 4th Annual Halloweenie from Alexander T. Pavone on Vimeo.

i was super happy to be feeling a little better so that i didn't have to miss out on the fun! and just because i love memory lane, here are the halloweenies of the past ;)

2010 ::

2009 ::

2008 ::

 

pumpkin patch

a fun fall tradition for our little family is going to the pumpkin patch. last year, we had a blast creating our own pumpkin patch.

 

 this year, we went to irvine park for their pumpkin patch. we had fun with family, and micah loved getting to run around...it's what he does best! this weekend really felt like the start of the holiday season and i am thrilled! it's definitely my favorite time of the year, and i'm excited to experience it all with a toddler this year!