A Night to Remember

My cousin, Ellen, got married Saturday night at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. It was a wonderful and unique wedding. The ceremony took place in the planetarium with a short star show prior it to beginning. Ellen looked beautiful and her new husband is such a sweetheart. We are so happy to have him join our family. The cocktail hour was in the room with the giant heart! The food was delicious! We then went on to the reception for more eating, drinking and LOTS of dancing. We wish Ellen and Andy a lifetime of happiness!

This picture is of Franklin Hall where the reception was held. I took it while sitting at my table. It is such a beautiful room! The statue of Ben is huge!

Here's the family!

NOT WEDDING RELATED!
Mom mom and Pop-pop let the boys have this desk that used to by mine when I was a teenager. I loved that desk! The desk top can lie flat or be lifted up to different heights. It wasn't getting any use, so now the boys can use it. Aidan has really been into drawing lately and is destroying the little table and chairs set that I would like to save for the baby when she gets her first kitchen set! Now they have a place to be creative and I can rescue the table set!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas! We went to Christmas Eve mass down by my parents. A lot of my family members meet there every year. It's my favorite mass of the year! We then all go back to my grandmother's house for food, drinks, gifts from Santa and the best Chinese Auction ever! You may know that game by a different name. We play with more than 30 people and it involves a lot of stealing of gifts and laughs. I ended up leaving with Margarita mix and Mojito mix. Perfect for the summer by the pool!
Christmas day was great, except for the fact that Aidan woke me up at 4:30 am to open presents!!! I sent him back to bed and about an hour later when I was just falling asleep again, he came back. We never ended getting out of bed until 7am, but I was up since 4:30. The boys loved their gifts and Aidan said, "Santa is so nice because he gives lots of gifts for no reason." My immediate family came over for the day. We tried something new this year. We had to give homemade gifts. Everybody loved the fleece blankets I made for them. I had such fun giving them! We weren't sure how it would work out, but it was really special and turned out being a great idea. My sister, MIchelle, made homemade lime mustard! I can't wait to try it. Denise made everyone knitted scarves!
I had one moment of feeling sad. We haven't even met our little girl yet, but I felt sad for her not being with us this year. Next year will be awesome having a baby around again for Christmas morning! We will be going to Brad's parents next weekend for the Wunderly Christmas!!! We will get to see Brad's brother, Todd and his family and his sister, Amy. The boys will get to play with their cousins, Ryan and Emma (who they are crazy about!). We look forward to going and I'll post some pictures afterwards. I hope everyone had a wonderful day and was able to spend it with people they love. I'll leave you with some pictures from the holidays!

The boys helped me bake Spritz cookies for the first time (successfully).

Aidan enjoyed the cookie gun (for about 30 seconds).

Nate the Cookie Gun Master

Aidan, Nate and JImmy. "Who?" you ask. Jimmy our little red "Elf on the Shelf". Jimmy came to us with an adorable story called "Elf on the Shelf". The story explains how Santa sent him to us to "watch" us and report back to Santa every night. So every morning he is in a different spot in the house and the boys have to run around and find him. The boys were so excited that we got to learn this special Christmas secret of how Santa knows if we have been naughty or nice. They were sad to say goodbye to Jimmy on Christmas Eve because he needed to return to the North Pole until next December. Cutest thing ever!!! Highly recommended!

Christmas Eve at Nanny's house.

Mom mom and Pop-Pop

Nanny and the boys. Doesn't she look amazing for 92 years old!?!

Christmas morning

Nate and his Lego!

Aidan and the blanket I made him!

We Elfed Ourselves

Check out this link for a laugh and then make one of your own!
Merry Christmas!

Click Here

A Whole Lot of Nothing

Nothing exciting going on here. We have had a very routine and typical week. Boys are doing well in school. Brad is finishing up the semester. Woohoo!! And to make that an even bigger WOOHOO, he is taking next semester off because of the adoption. The boys and I are very excited to have more of him until September. I've been in Christmas mode, which I love! I'm done shopping and wrapping. I love getting things done early, because I like to enjoy the season and not feel pressure. I want to be able to put on the Christmas music and bake cookies and not worry about other things that need to get done.

We have one more piece of paper ready to apostille in Harrisburg, then I THINK we are done for a while! The boys are really getting excited about their baby sister. Aidan always makes up scenarios about what will be happening and what he'll say. Of course, it is always something silly and usually doesn't make much sense. But we laugh and he's happy because he got the exact reaction he is ALWAYS looking for. I think Aidan is most excited about not being the baby anymore. He often comments on getting to be a big brother. Sometimes I hesitate to talk about their sister. There is that fear that something will go wrong and their hearts would be broken. But we keep praying for her and the other children that need homes and look forward to bringing our little girl home. As our expected referral time approaches, please keep us in your prayers. Thanks for all the support.

Homemade Pasta! Yum!

Brad and the boys made homemade pasta and ravioli on Sunday! They worked for hours and hours. I kept my distance and my mouth shut about the mess they were creating! Brad made a homemade cream sauce also. It was worth all the time and effort, because everything was delicious! And even better than that was the quality time my boys all had together, while I kept the couch warm and the remote nearby. :)

Aidan did a great job kneading the dough.

Here Nate is using the pasta machine to roll out the dough.

Aidan used the pasta maker to make angel hair pasta.

Nate stuffed the raviolis with spinach and cheese.

Here it is! And Denise will be happy to notice the whole wheat flour that was used!

Mmmmmm!

Mmm - Hey, wait a minute. That doesn't look like pasta. It looks more like pancakes and sausage! Little bugger!