Valentine's Day 2011...

Happy Valentine's Day to all! Hope you have a sweet day and spend it with the ones you love... And maybe get treated to some chocolate cake like the ones that I love...

St. Lucia...

So we just got back from a much needed vacation to St. Lucia and it was amazing! It was much needed for 2 reasons, 1) we have not been on vacation alone in several years (since before I was pregnant with Chase) and 2) we have multiple feet of snow on the ground and were in desperate need of some beach time!

View from the plane while landing... Not a bad way to start vacation right?


I have to admit we chose our resort more than we actually chose the island of St. Lucia to visit, but it is absolutely gorgeous! Our resort was an hour and a half drive from the airport, which was not ideal and caused us to down Dramamine, but it gave us complete tour of the island which was cool. We saw all the main towns, plenty of banana plants, gorgeous mountains, went thru the rain forest, all while driving on the left hand side of VERY windy roads.


We stayed at a resort called Ti Kaye Village which I fell in love with while booking the vacation thru the website and pictures. It did not disappoint, I would definitely recommend it! The resort is in the middle of nowhere and is perched on top of a cliff on the edge of the ocean. The view from our room was breathtaking water view, perfect. We spent the entire vacation on the beach, basking (ok maybe frying) in the sun, reading (actual adult books, 2 of them, what a concept) and drinking Piton's and pina coladas which is just how we like it. The beach was on an inlet where tons of boats came all day long to bring people snorkeling, which was amusing to watch. Hence all the picture of boats...



And last but not least, here is Charlie's dream boat... I will let you know when we make our millions and make the purchase... Or maybe not, as we won't have internet access floating around the carribean...

Sunday Snuggling...

I left the kids in the living room watching a show before their naps this afternoon. I came back into the room and this is what I found... So sweet...

Cake Balls...

So do you all know what Cake Balls and Cake Pops are??? Bakerella has made them pretty popular so you probably have.If you have not had them you must, you have no idea what you are missing... They are the easiest thing to make, you take a cake, crumble it, mix it with frosting, roll into balls and dip into melted chocolate. But they are so yummy, like little truffles... Audrey and I made some today, strawberry cake with pink frosting for early Valentine's Day... These little things...
Made these smiles... Love it...

Izzie's Party...

Today was Audrey's friend Izzie's birthday party, and Audrey won't stop talking about it! Granted she loves parties, but all she has said all day is "Izzie's party was the BEST ever!". It was a brilliant idea for a winter birthday party. A local bakery, Ginger Betty's hosts parties and the kids got to decorate 2 huge gingerbread cookies with their own icing bag and every kind of candy imaginable. The girls were in heaven, and my sugar queen Audrey was no exception. The difference between Audrey and the other girls is she meticulously put candy on her cookie, Smarties to be exact, and the other girls were done by the time she had finished her 1st cookie. She lately has been showing traits of Charlie and I and all I could think watching her was "That is SO Charlie"... So here is the master piece in case you were wondering... I piped the icing, Audrey did the rest...


The birthday girl... They brought out a plain white cake and she got to decorate it with a girl that worked there, pretty cool idea...


Waiting patiently for her cake to come... Like she needed any more sugar...

Snow Day...

Well, we went to bed last night with no snow falling and woke up this morning with 8 - 10" on the ground. It has continued to snow all day and while we didn't get the "blizzard" they had predicted we sure are getting a ton of snow! The whole family had a snow day as there was no way we were driving into work in this. While Charlie was doing all the dirty work of snow blowing us out (and the rest of the neighborhood), the kids got geared up to go play. We missed the last big storm so Audrey was really excited to get out in it! I'm thrilled she likes the snow finally, I don't have to watch the rest of the neighborhood sledding while we sit inside and watch out the window. Chase is not overly impressed with the snow. He wants to be out in it and watch Charlie shovel and snow blow, but he wants to do this while being held which is overly difficult to do for a long period of time (his weight and slippery snow pants!).... Audrey loved sledding next door too, hopefully we can go back out after her nap. I didn't bring the camera over there which was too bad, watching the girls sled was priceless...

Twenty Months...

So I just re-read my 18 month post for Chase and laughed because not a ton has changed. Which is just fine. He is still a sweet momma's boy with a nice dose of temper thrown in when he doesn't get what he wants. He is enjoying the snow we have gotten, which makes me happy because Audrey hated the snow at this age as I am sure most of you remember. Chase actually doesn't like the actual snow, but he likes that snow means he gets to shovel. With any shovel he can find. Or broom, or anything else with a long handle... Kind of funny, expect when you want to bring him inside and he has different thoughts... His talking has improved in the past couple of months but he is still far from actually "talking". The number of words he uses seems to increase on a daily basis which is good, but we still tons of grunts and noises that are supposed to mean something which is frustrating for us and him. He is still just as cute as ever (I am not biased at all:), take a look for yourself...