Friday, December 23, 2011

Annual Friends Party

Rob is very fortunate to have a close group of friends from high school who hang out throughout the year. Once we all moved out on our own we decided to have an annual holiday party and rotate who hosts it each year. This year it was at our home and we hope everyone had a great time!

The gang!
Wesley, Joey, Jacki and Chrissy during dinner
Shaun, Kristen, Katie, Ella Grace and Lauren
Group shot

Ella Grace and Bella enjoying a tea party
Any time we all get together we always have plenty of delicious food, but the dessert spread this year was one for the books!
Joey and Bella
Wesley, Buster and Jacki relaxing

After all that prep work, Buster was tuckered out midway through the party. Thanks to Ella Grace for lending Buster her new Princess sleep mask

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Celebrating December Birthdays

Special shout out to a few December birthdays we celebrated recently:

My great Aunt Jay's 85th Birthday:



My mother-in-law and nephews birthdays:


And my very good friend Lisa and her husband Dave had their first child - little Matthew Alexander - on December 1st.


There were several other birthdays in December but I wasn't able to get photos for them. Happy 25th Birthday to my brother, Dominick, and to my mom who is celebrating her birthday at the end of December. We love you all!!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Our Florida Getaway

Things have been hectic lately as we try to prepare for Christmas so I'm going to quickly recap our trip to Florida, which we took back in November.

The main purpose of the trip was to see my good friend Lisa, who was pregnant with her first baby (she just had Matthew on Thursday, Dec. 1). She moved to Florida and that's where they were having the baby shower. Since I wanted to go see her anyway and it was a few weeks before our fourth anniversary, Rob and I took a few extra days for ourselves and had a nice little getaway - our first one alone since we went to Europe back in 2009.

We didn't do anything too exciting the first few days which was perfect since all we wanted to do was have a rest and relaxation trip. We woke up early to a beautiful sunrise from our balcony, hit the gym, ate breakfast and then vegged by the pool or on the beach until it was time for dinner. Since we don't mind walking we explored the area and found some really nice restaurants, including Houstons -- Rob LOVED their ribs and I had a yummy salad.

Although the first few days were very relaxing, we were excited to get our rental car on Thursday and get out of the general area. We hit up Miami Beach druing the day, South Beach at night and also got to visit my great aunt who lives in that area before heading to West Palm Beach for the baby shower. All in all it was a quick trip (aren't they always?) but we came back relaxed and ready to tackle the holidays.

Below are a few photos from the trip:

Sunrise shot

Pretty rainbow on the beach following a brief shower

Daytime view from our balcony

South Beach, Florida sunset

Cool shot in South Beach

Nightlife in South Beach

Friday, December 2, 2011

Disney on Ice: Dare to Dream

These last few years Disney on Ice has come to our area the weekend after Thanksgiving. Although I was not crazy about seeing Elmo at 9am, Rob was able to get tickets to Disney's Dare to Dream on Saturday night, which works much better for me. I'm also a Disney Princess fan so I didn't mind seeing this as much.

The event started off with a performance about "The Princess and the Frog," a movie I was not familiar with -- at all. I perked up with the next skit, "Cinderella," which is one of my all-time favorites, and then they ended with "Tangled," complete with intense acrobatics. In the end, all of the princesses and their prince charmings made an appearance which caused me to act like a five year old yelling out the names of every character as they skated out.

All in all it was a fun show but the next time we go I'm going to have to brush up on the new movies so I know who's being shown.

Cinderella's Carriage looked beautiful all lit up 

The end with all of the characters around the castle

An overview of the set, complete with the floating lights from "Tangled"