Cicotello Wedding

We attended a wedding on Saturday evening at Lake Las Vegas. Our friends Nate and Natalie got hitched in a gorgeous ceremony at Chapel Fiorenza overlooking the lake. Lake Las Vegas is this massive man-made Tuscany-style community that is simply breathtaking. Celine Dion lives out here, if that gives you any idea of it's splendor.

I knew that it was going to be a pretty formal affair when Natalie told me that her bridesmaids were going to be wearing black gowns. So Chris and I got all dolled up to hit the town!


Mel and Gene were also invited, so we hitched a ride with them and crashed at their place afterwards. Thanks Gene and Mel!! (Mel, we'll take you up on your offer for some Barossa after the wedding next time!)

Here's Mel and Gene, posing out side the Irish pub where we grabbed a pint before heading into the wedding:


The back story on this wedding is that Mel worked with Natalie, and Nate was their investments guy. Mel LOVES to play matchmaker, and so she asked me to invite them both to the housewarming that we had three years ago when we moved into our home. That was Nate and Natalie's first meeting and, well, I guess it was a good first impression because now they are Mr. and Mrs. Cicotello!!

Here's the happy couple (you guys look great!)


Chris and I had so much fun. It was a beautiful wedding.


Ahh . . two fine looking men:


Chris took this pic of the table arrangement:

And finally, a beautiful shot of the villas at sunset:


Nate and Natalie, thanks so much for inviting us. We wish you all the happiness in the world!

Friday Night Fun

We had planned to attend Balloonapalooza, a local hot air balloon fair yesterday, but the weather didn't cooperate! For once here in Vegas it was RAINING and windy. Oh well. We'll try again next year!

We invited our friends the Turners and the Feuers over instead. We ordered some pizzas and had a great time. Lon and Debbie and Jake and baby Josh came over. The boys had so much fun! Here is Garrin and Jake:


Debbie and I and the kids (still windy, but it had stopped raining, thank goodness!!):


Garrin hanging out after he and Jake ran around the grass about 150 times:


Jake tossing the ball. He was the BIG kid in the group and the other two followed him around constantly.
EVERYONE wants to play on the SAME toy at the SAME time!!! Are we surprised????


PIG PILE!!!
Garrin's LOVES the Elmo ride-on toy that Auntie Kimmy gave James:


Garrin and his most favorite Uncle Chris!


The Feuers left for the evening. Thanks for coming over guys! We had so much fun! Time for jammies!
Ummm . . . Chris tried to swaddle Garrin the way he used to when James was a newborn. I don't think it worked, but Garrin seemed to like it!


"Time for bed, buddy!"


"No, I'm serious." (totally laughing because how can I be serious when he is grinning at me like this.) I MEAN IT! LOL Time for bed!

How Many Ingredients are in Maple Syrup?

My little nephew Garrin is spending the night with us tonight, so while Chris was out running some errands today, I asked him to pick up some blueberry pancake makings, and maple syrup. I have an organic maple syrup in the pantry, and was pretty sure that Garrin would rather have Aunt Jemima's or something similar.

When Chris got home, he plunked a bottle of this down on the counter:

"What IS that???" I thought. Of course I have seen it on the shelf, but we have NEVER bought it in all of the almost 10 years that we have been together. I asked him about it and he said that he was pretty sure it was the best maple syrup out there.

"What??" I said. "Yes, and Kimmy thinks so too," he said, talking about his sister back in Massachsuetts. He even called her and got her on speaker phone so we could ask her.

"Ahhhh, no." she said. "The best is Vermont Made." (I tried Googling it Kimmy, but I couldn't find it. Do you mean made in Vermont, or is that a brand name?)

Now, this got me thinking about when I was a kid in Maine and my Dad used to tap the sugar maples, harvest the sap, (see pic below)

and get a big HUGE container of sap boiling early in the morning. It looked a lot like this one:
He would boil it all day long until it was dark and thick, and then we would can it. It was THE BEST maple syrup I have ever had.

At the end of the day, he would scrape down the sides and put the amber-colored, glassy strips in my sister Amy's and my hands for a one-of-a-kind sugary treat. YUM!!!

So I was looking at the ingredient list for the Log Cabin syrup. Here it is:


And then I looked at the organic syrup that I had:

Here is the ingredient list:


I know it is blurry. Can you read it? PURE ORGANIC MAPLE SYRUP. As it should be.

Anyhow, it doesn't matter. The boys will all have a choice tomorrow. And someday, when the sap starts running, I'll take my boy back to Maine and have his Grandpa show him how the real stuff is made, and put some maple candy fresh from the pot in his hand.

We Love the Laurie Berkner Band

So I fell in love with the Laurie Berkner band when I saw her play on the Today show last year. I finally grabbed a DVD for James and no surprise here, he loves it.

Here's the band. The Wiggles ain't got nothin' on Laurie Berkner!!!


Yesterday he and I were dancing and spinning all over the living room to her music. It's great stuff! My personal favorite is "Bumblebee (Buzz Buzz)". He hasn't told me which one is his favorite yet. I'll be sure to let you all know when he does!

I was able to grab a pic when he stopped dancing and decided to view the show from the comfort of his ATV:


Uh, yeah . . . she is still on. How could you tell??

And a shot from this morning. Looks comfy to me!!

WARNING - Lemons Ahead

We went out to dinner last night to the Roadrunner, one of our favorite places. It is a cowboy-themed restaurant. I took a couple of pics to show James playing with lemons (which he apparently loves) and also as a gentle reminder to new parents. If your child is sucking and squeezing a lemon slice, don't forget the potential lemon juice squirted in the eye danger!!!!

He was fine, but there was a little panicky run into the restroom to get some water on him. (sigh) . . .


I love the look on his face in this one. Note the carrot sticks. That is new for him and he really liked them.


On the ride home he was reading his new favorite book.


And I had to slip this one in from this morning. He usually wakes up, has breakfast, and runs at 90 miles an hour until his first nap at 9:30am. NOT TODAY!! He seemed a little sleepy, so Chris put him on the couch and he watched Sesame Street without moving. It was just absolutely precious.


Rocco says "Hmm . . . is it nap time? This looks like a comfy spot!"

A Fun Weekend

James and Chris and I attended a little birthday party for our dear friend Brooke who just turned 2 on Saturday! Mel and Gene and Gini and Hannah and Garrin were also there.

It was a great time, especially because Brooke's parents, Kim and Gary had purchased a toddler-size bounce house for the kids. I wasn't even planning on putting James in it, because I thought for sure he would hate it. Well, Mel grabbed him and threw him right in and HE LOVED IT!!!

Here is a little video of his very first bounce house experience!!



Look at that smile!!! Brooke the birthday girl is next to him, showing him the ropes.

Oops--I think he face-planted in this one, but he is still smiling!

Taking a breather . . .


Here he is with Garrin earlier in the party. Think we can fit another toddler on this car???

Hannah took this pic of James and I and then did this funky thing right on the camera where she added this border. COOL!!

We Have A New Puppy

JUST KIDDING!!! You all can breathe a sigh of relief. I am just referring to something I saw James doing today.

I had put a bunch of pretzels on the coffee table for him to munch on while he was watching Curious George. Well, I turned around and saw him leaning over the table, with his arms crossed behind his back, lapping up the pretzels like a DOG!!!!!

OMG it was just hysterical. Chalk it up to yet another time when I wish that I had a camera permanently attached to my arm!!

ATV-ing at Apex

Chris has a new ATV-ing buddy, Dave, who is my friend Donna's husband. Dave is a Metro Police Officer, and enjoys the opportunity to get out and quad with Chris. The two of them have breakfast and then load up and head out to Apex to ride for a couple hours. This past Saturday they took the camera with them to catch their stunts.

Here is Chris catching some air:


Chris again, making his son proud!!!!

Here is Dave:

And Dave again posing for ATV Magazine's October cover shot.

Here is Chris getting a little C R A Z Y . . .

Here is Dave hauling a@@ over the jump (Donna, don't get worried, Chris has only rolled it once . . .)

You Know You're A Mom When...

You have sold your gorgeous formal dining room set . . .


To make room for a play yard!!!


As you know I am juggling working from home with taking care of James. Well, I came up with a solution recently. Where before I had been barricading him into the family room with some ottomans, I decided to sell the formal dining furniture and use the space for a big play room for James.

The GREAT HUGE benefit of this is that my office is directly across the hall from the new play area, so I can keep an eye on the boy without moving my butt out of my chair. (Do they call that arm chair, ummmm . . . I mean office chair parenting????) LOL


Just an FYI, he LOVES IT!!! No more bouncing into the coffee table, plenty of room to run, the living room doesn't look like a battlefield of toys (well, I mean, yes, of course, if you walk in the front door I guess it looks like I run a daycare) but OH WELL!!!


So, for those of you who have joined us for the occasional formal meal . . . . ummm, don't forget to invite us over!!!

NOTE . . .

Ok, so, I had just finished posting this entry when I saw this from my desk . . .

TOO CUTE!!!!

Screaming & Spinning

James has two new funny things that he has picked up in the last few days. They are SCREAMING and making himself DIZZY.

I think he picked up the screaming thing from me, since I chase him around the kitchen shrieking at the top of my lungs and making him laugh. The twirling around until he is so dizzy that he can't stand up straight thing? I don't know!!

You can tell that the crazies are about to begin when he quickly goes from one activity to another. Here is a video that shows the beginning of the crazies. Note the sudden tossing of the sippy cup:



A close up of screaming:


Let's add a ball:
How about a ball and a construction hat?

And here we have the spinning: