Ella's 2nd Birthday Party

   To celebrate Ella turning two last week, her parents had a wonderful Minnie Mouse party for her.  Ella loves Minnie Mouse, and since we are going to Disney soon, my sister figured it would be the perfect theme.  My sister put so much work in to the party and everything was just perfect.  Ella loved everything and had a great time.  Ashlyn was so very excited to get to celebrate Ella's birthday at such a fun party.  I know that all the kids had a great time. 

The birthday girl in her Minnie Mouse costume

She is so tiny!

Such a pretty girl

The kids all loved the huge Minnie balloon my sister got

The adorable treat bags for the guests

The theme was Minnie's Bowtique.  My sister wanted to decorate the cake.  I came up with the idea of covering the cake with bows.  We liked the way it turned out.  Ella loved it. 

Sweet boy taking everything in.

Dawson and his Gram

Ashlyn got to help make the punch.  She LOVES punch!

The girls coloring at the coloring station while waiting for guests to arrive

So sweet

The girls being silly

Eating the delicious food my sister made

One of the highlights of the party was that my sister made bow and bow tie sugar cookies for the kids to decorate.  They had a blast and went to town covering their cookies with frosting and lots of candy. 

Such a little perfectionist. 

She took her time to decorate two cookies and immediately declared they were for her Gram and Papa.  She is so sweet. 

Lots to decorate with.

Ella making her cookie.

Dawson was most interested in eating the frosting. LOL

 

Finally got to sample his cookie.

Unfortunately, the party was right at Dawson's nap time.  He was unusually tired that day.  After the cookie decorating, he started to melt down.  Joey snapped a great picture capturing him.  Poor little guy had to take a nap for half of the party.

Opening presents

Ella with the shopping cart we got him. 

Blowing out the candles.

Joey's attempt at a picture with all the kids. 

My favorite boy in the entire world and I.  Love him so much!

Denver Game

   This weekend was a fun one!  We love the Broncos around here and we were very excited to see them go to the playoffs.  We will be in Disney World for the Super Bowl, so we decided to have a little family get together to watch the game.  My parents, Steven, Katy, Bryan, Ella, Jameson, Jacob, and Nadia all came over.  I love making party food and we had some amazing food.  Even though the outcome of the game was SO not what we wanted, we still had a great time eating delicious food and spending time with one another. 

Dawson in his chair ready to watch the game.

What an adorable little fan. 

Ashlyn showing off her tatoo

My favorite baby in the world and I. 

Jacob and Joey being goofy

What a cute family.  Jameson looks too cute in this one. 

Daddy and his little fan

Denver Nuggets

      My brother is awesome, and gave us all Nuggets tickets for Christmas.  My sister has never been to a game before.  I went to one last year with Joey, and had so much fun!  I knew that we were going to have a great time.   The game was last Saturday night. 
    My brother, Joey, Ashlyn, Katy, Bryan, Jacob and I all went.  Dawson got to have his first sleepover by himself at his Gram and Papa's house.   We all drove up together and started the night with an early dinner at Magianno's.  We love their food and as usual they didn't disappoint and we all left full of great Italian food.  After dinner, we headed to the game.  We got there early.  Since we were early, we were part of the first 5,000 fans that got a Nuggets bag.  Sweet!  The game was so much fun!  There is such a great energy in the Pepsi Center.  I actually like Nuggets games better than Broncos games because they are indoors and more lively it seems.  Ashlyn was dying to meet the mascot, Rocky.  Towards the end of the game, Joey spotted him and Ashlyn finally got to meet him.  She was happy! 
    The Nuggets played a great game and ended up winning.  What a great night we all had!  Ashlyn fell asleep right away in the car.

 

Ashlyn checking things out

Daddy and Ashlyn

The pregame show

Uncle Steven offered to buy Ashlyn a treat, and she chose this huge slushie.  I think she worked on eating that thing for most of the game. 

Cheering on the Nuggets

Nuggets fans have lots of spirit!

Mommy and Ashlyn

Her slushie

We had awesome seats

Finally, meeting Rocky

Group photo

Sisters enjoying the game

Relaxing at the game

Ashlyn in the car on the way home.  Too much fun!!!

New Years and Countdown

   We had a really nice New Year's Eve this year.  Since having children, New Year's is just not the celebration that it once was.  We still love the holiday and love celebrating the New Year, we just do it much differently now.  We decided to have a very low key night this year with just the four of us.  We started the night by having nachos for dinner.  The kids had pizza.  It was a yummy dinner!  Then, we got out a bunch of games and played games as a family.  We had a great time.  Dawson liked Hi Ho Cherry O the best.  Dawson went to bed a little later then his bed time.  We decided that he was still too young to stay up late.  After Dawson went to bed, we put together some of the Lego sets that Ashlyn got for Christmas.  I am new to this whole Lego thing, and I can't get over how much fun they are!  We had a blast putting them together.  While we built, we enjoyed some yummy rocky road milkshakes.  A big family favorite!!!  Ashlyn had a play date the next morning and we didn't want her to be overly tired.  We decided to just have her ring in the New Year with NYC at 10:00.  We watched the ball drop, counted down and cheered with Ashlyn's favorite sparkling apple cider.  We promptly put her to bed afterwards.  She fell asleep very quickly!  Joey and I watched a little recorded TV and made some delicious homemade jalapeno poppers.  Before I knew it, it was midnight!  We watched the ball drop and then headed to bed.  While it wasn't the most exciting New Year's, it was still a great one spent with family.  I wouldn't trade that for the world!

Our pretty princess

In her room

Ashlyn and I

Enjoying her pizza

Dawson and Daddy

The kids playing together

Dawson loves his phone

Playing Candyland

Building her Lego set that Uncle Steven got her

Ashlyn is now obsessed with all things Lego.  Luckily, Papa saved all of Daddy's and she has those to play with. 

The HUGE Star Wars Lego set we are working on.  This one is going to take some time. 

 

Ashlyn and I worked on a Disney countdown earlier in the day.  I had to share the picture because I love the way it turned out.  We are all enjoying watching the tail get shorter and shorter each night!

\