Christmas Part 2

And now for the joys of Christmas morning. This is actually not Giovanni's first Christmas, but it's the first Christmas he could really participate in. And he loved it!

This car has been one of his favorite things. All he wants to do now is get in and out of the car. He can't push it along with his feet yet, but it won't be long. Now if it could just get warm enough for us to go outside! (Grrr for the cold).

Christmas Part 1

The first part of the break we got to stay with my sister and her family, which was so much fun. Her kids are such a hoot. They like to line up the chairs and play train- and they know that their mom makes the best conductor! It reminds me of a similar picture of Sam and I when we were kids playing train at Grandma's house with her chairs. Even Giovanni got to be in the train in his high chair!

Mom only ever wants a good family picture. So here we tried again on Christmas Eve. The babies aren't looking, but it's a good a picture as we ever get, and probably better, because we are dressed up for our home Christmas Eve party.

Baby Gio's First Birthday

I'm quite behind on posting, so I'm sorry, but here goes a little back posting!

Here Gio's helping himself to Julia's dinner, but I don't think she minds. She wanted to sit by him and "help" him eat.

Julia with a bag on her head- what a nut!

And the cake- I made a healthy carrot/applesauce/ground raisin cake and then Giovanni didn't even eat a bite. He was already so tired of the party that he had to go to sleep and all the adults got stuck with the no sugar cake. Oh well, better luck next year.

Random pics

Today Giovanni decided to dump out the dirt of one of Jonathan's flower pots. I can't remember if I reprimanded him, but I definitely got a picture. I just thought of the picture Jonathan's mom has of him in paint (which is, yes, way worse). I don't want to miss any funny moments!

Here's a cute one of Jonathan and Giovanni together at the park last Friday. We were about to take some senior pictures. But these too guys were so cute I had to take a picture.

Just one from our trip to Reno

We have lots of great pictures from our trip to Reno, but this is my favorite of my two boys. How cute!

Giovanni and Nico

Ball

Giovanni has been saying "Ball" for about 3 or so weeks now, and I haven't gotten around to posting a video of it. Here is a video of him saying ball and throwing it. (He can say "dog" and "hat" now too- but not as on demand). I was trying out a lower quality video to see if it would load faster...but it doesn't look great so I may just do a higher quality one again next time!

Visit from a friend

Our dear friend came to visit this last week and watched Giovanni while we shot engagement pictures. We forgot to bring pant for him, so she rigged this pair out of one of Jonathan's long sleeved t-shirts! What a hoot.

Pulling everything out

Giovanni has started opening the cabinets and pulling out everything inside. Which is funny, except that any time I'm cleaning, he's working just as fast messing up.

He also says "ball" now. He's always saying "ball, ball, ball" and pointing, and sure enough I'll look around and there will be a ball: the giant red balls outside of target, baseball pinatas in hobby lobby, kids playing ball in the park. He can spot them from a mile away. What's funny is when he finds something that isn't quite a ball. I fed him eggs the other morning for breakfast, and when he had finished what he was eating, he pointed to the other egg and said "ball". This particular evening he decided that the potatoes under the kitchen cart were balls. I told him it was a stretch...although, he does know that a football is a ball, and it isn't round...

After all that hard work pulling everthing out, he had to take a rest on Daddy. Such a cute little sweet pea!

Swinging...superman style

Okay, so it's just this one that he looks a little like he's superman flying. I really like that he's pointing since he's pointing at everything these days.

Sorry about the logo stamp. We just decided the other day that anything going on our photoblog needs to be stamped (and a lot of what we post here, we post there as well).

Overall, we had a really fun time at the park. He always loves to swing. He also always loves to go to the pool at another local park. I haven't been able to photograph him there, though, since it's usually just the two of us. I can't exactly shoot a pic of him in the pool!

Our little pepperoni's first ravioli

And he liked it.

Octo and Anya

This is my first toy to make for Giovanni. It's an octopus in case you can't tell. I think it was more fun for me to make than it is for G. He only seems interested in it when I spin it around over his head like a helicopter.

And here's some pics of his CUTE CUTE cousin. Note here (in case you know) the blanket is the same one baby Angelina slept with!

Pumpkin

We were working on a fall promotion, so we used our friends/family to be our examples!

Monastery of the Holy Spirit

Practicing HDR images. It was a bit of a headache, so although we have some more cute pics of baby G at the Monastery, I can't bring myself to continue tonight. He thought the grass was strange. He kept on pulling it up as though he was a human lawn mower. When he got down on his belly, he pushed himself up on his hands and knees. Maybe this is the way to teach him to crawl that way.

I think this picture may be a little dark, but it was also an attempt at layering pictures with HDR (high dynamic range). It looks better big.

Trip to Gatlinburg

We went to Gatlinburg for the Labor Day to see some of my friends from college. It was some of their first times to meet the little guy. Here we have Christina (soon to have a little tyke of here own) with Giovanni in the Smoky Mountain National Park.

James teaching Giovanni to play video games...thanks James....

Making sauce for Calzones...yummy...

Some random pics

Just some random pics. We got a new camera on Monday and so have been playing around with it. What a cutie pie.