Sunday, September 29, 2013

Our princess has arrived, YAY

She is here you guys, I am an aunt, YAY. My niece made a beautiful grand entrance on Saturday, 28 September a few days shy of her due date (good girl). My sister in law has an easy delivery, God is good. It's gotta be the African genes working for us :). I was with them until 8pm the night before and at 3am I get a text that they are in the hospital in active labor.

Well, my niece made her grand entrance at 7:34am. All is well with the world. They named her after my great grand mother and her mom's mother. Her name is beautiful, I love it a lot. Without further ado, the pictures.

Have you ever seen a more beautiful baby girl, I think not.
We went into paparazzi mode as soon as we got there. My mom and grandma with the baby
My grandma so proud to be holding her great grand daughter named after her own mother
 Me and my very first niece, I am such a proud aunt
My mom and her first grand daughter
 Three generations, amazing
 4 generations, I mean it doesn't get any better than this
Oh man, it felt good to hold a baby, this will be us again in less than 5 months :)
 Jbird meeting his cousin for the first time
The boys meeting their cousin for the first time, they were not impressed
Oh hey, this baby does have a mom :)
 and a dad, my poor brother was been up all night, he looks exhausted
And a family shot of course
Our family is growing and we can not be happier. We thank God for bringing this little girl safely into our arms. Now to go love on her as we do. Welcome to the world baby girl, you are the perfect addition to our growing family.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Celebrating hubby's birthday

We celebrated my hubby's birthday this past Sunday a whole 10 days early. He is turning 30 this year so we wanted to do something special, more than just our traditional cake.

Initially we planned to go to Vegas with the whole family and make a trip out of it. Then my sister in law got pregnant due on his birthday and we got pregnant too. We decided that a trip to Vegas was not going to be in the cards for us this year. My hubby still wanted to do a Casino style birthday, he has been under the impression that he will be lucky on his birthday and win lots of money. Our next best thing was to go to a nearby casino and enjoy a few hours of fun. He didn't win but we definitely had fun

18 weeks with baby boy #3, so exciting how much faster things seem to be going this time
 Oh look who made an appearance
We packed the whole family as we do and headed to the casino. My mom kept the boys while we played and we all met up afterwards for dinner. My hubby was so happy that we got to celebrate with everyone despite all the changes.

Our crew in the parking lot. It was also game so of course the boys had to be in their gear
 Our little family :)
My mom and grandma chilling with Jbird while Tman took a glorious 2-hour nap. We always time our outing this way. Gotta love a kid that naps everywhere
The grown ups after losing all of our money in the casino. Oh well, at least we had good time and enjoyed the game (we didn't win but maybe next week will be our week, I know I say that every week but really, it's happening)
Then we all met up for an early dinner to celebrate the birthday boy
 My hubby was so embarrassed by the birthday singing :)
 Tman insisted on blowing the candle with his dad
 Twin cousins, 39 weeks and 18 weeks
Vegas will happen, maybe next year, I mean hubby's mom is turning 60 so we have a great excuse to make that happen :). Birthday celebrations were a great success. Now we await the birth of our princess, can't wait to meet that sweet little girl. I am going to be an aunt you guys and it's a girl...eeeeek, you don't even know how excited I am right now. Matching bows have been purchased :). 


Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Weekend fun - Celebrating a bachelorette

We had such a busy weekend. Well, I had a busy weekend and the boys chilled most of the time. On Saturday I hosted our girl's brunch in the morning and it was loads of fun. I love that my friends and I always schedule some time to do fun girl things and catch up with each other. As busy as our lives are it would be hard to hang out otherwise.

My brothers came over after the brunch because we had so much food left over and a really good family friend was in town and joined us for the brunch and they wanted to hang out with her. I love me some family time
After the brunch I was invited to celebrate my friend Ally's bachelorette party. She is getting married next month and I am bummed that we can't go (being a destination wedding and us being booked with trips all year didn't help). I made the effort to go celebrate her last days as a single girl. My hubby watched the boys while I was out dancing the night away.

Before I left, I of course took some pics with my boys, I mean you don't do that? Well, you should.
Tman was all about giving me kisses
 Jbird, not so much, he clearly didn't want me to leave
Hubby wanted to join in on the picture taking fun and snapped this family self portrait, my favorite kind of pic. How are we going to fit 3 kids in a self portrait? I don't know but for now we got this fitting 2 kids down to a science (of course with bean in the belly).
After all the picture taking fun, I went to the bachelorette party. We had such a fun time. The set up was awesome, I devoured those strawberries :). I couldn't drink so that was the next best thing.
Putting some cream on the shots, extra creamy please

Yeah, it was serious shot taking :)
Me and the bachelorette
The girls before we headed out to celebrate
We went to a local bar with karaoke on the weekend. I didn't sing (thank goodness) but the bachelorette definitely did
and she danced and danced
and she backed that thing up
It was amazing. She had an awesome time and frankly so did I. Thought I couldn't drink, I definitely had a ball celebrating this lady. Pregnant lady in a bar, what up
On Sunday we celebrated hubby's birthday almost 2 weeks early because my sister in law is due on his birthday. That deserve a post of his own. It was a busy but awesome weekend around here. Hope you had a great weekend too.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Travel - Strasbourg, France (with our mothers)

We took this trip to Strasbourg, a small quaint town in France 5.5 years ago. Gosh, I can't believe it's been that long already. Our mothers always visited us at the same time that way we didn't have to take time off to entertain them; they just kept each other entertained during the week and over the weekend we would take trips to nearby towns.

This trip to Strasbourg was one of our weekend trip. We decided to go wine tasting as you do when you are in France. Before going to the wine fair, we took on the sights. I am huge on sightseeing.

Me and my hubby in front of yet another European cathedral, he was not impressed
 Me and my mommy, two peas in a pod
After sightseeing, we went to "le salon des vins" a wine fair where we tasted so much wine and champagne that we were so happy all we had to do was walk to our hotel afterwards.


 Our mothers, wine tasting
 Me and my hubby enjoying some wine
All of us next to the biggest wine bottle I have ever seen
 I mean that bottle was bigger than my mom's head :)
Mother-daughter bonding is the best. I hope to have a great relationship with my (non existing yet but that I hope to have one day) daughter like I do with my mom.
Since it was Valentine's day weekend, we decided to go out and celebrate that night. We drank even more wine, what do you know
Us, pre-wedding, pre-babies, wow, that was almost 6 years ago. I would tell these two lovebirds, just wait, your future is bright and beautiful and full of babies :)
 All of us before we left the restaurant
Wine tasting in Strasbourg with our moms was such a fun weekend trip. Sometimes I miss those days of us traveling the world and doing crazy things, but I wouldn't trade our new family life for the world. Strasbourg is so worth the trip and best of all you don't need a lot of time there to enjoy it.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Weekend fun - Rock n Roll birthday

We had another awesome weekend, a perfect mixture of busy and chill. On Saturday we celebrated my nephew's 3rd birthday, he is only 6 weeks younger than my Tman. His mom hosted a rock and roll party at her house and it was a great success. The boys had a ball. My hubby had a guys night out and couldn't make it but my mom was there with me and the boys so we didn't miss him much, ok maybe a little bit :).

My cousin had such awesome decorations, she is one crafty momma

Before things got started we squeezed in a few pictures with the boys

 My boys with the birthday boy
 My mom hung out with Jbird the whole party, while I chased Tman
Tman was so happy about getting a tattoo
Tman rocked out with his uncle in the backyard and was loving it. My kid is a future rockstar I tell you.
 My mom and brother hanging out with Jbird
We managed to get a pic with the boys, YAY
And what's a great rock and roll party without dancing and air guitar playing in the backyard? the mommies probably had more fun doing this than the kids did :). It was such a great party.
Sunday was spent relaxing and watching the game. My brothers came over as usual and everyone was rocking their team gear
and though our team did not win, we were representing. Oh well, maybe next week will be our week.
It was another great weekend around here. Hope you all had a great weekend too.