Israel turns 2!

Birthday bash 1 was yesterday with the Vigneau clan. Memere and Pepere gave Israel a contruction comforter set for his twin bed ( that we hope he will soon sleep in). He also got an awesome Tonka garbage truck and a few other trucks plus a Sponge Bob balloon.


We gave him kid sized power gardening tools because he has to mow when Mike is mowing and weed wack when Mike is using the weed wacker, and the leaf blower etc. We call him our little landscaper! So he got a battery powered leaf blower, weed wacker, mower and chain saw all sized just right for him! ( pics to follow in a different post)

The totally awesome dump truck dirt cake Mike made. Ebay strikes again with the little truck cake toppers.

" Look daddy! There is guys with shovels on it!" he says when he first saw the cake!

Up close of the dump truck dirt cake

Cake pre frosting- We happened to have a pan that was just hte right size to fit in the back of the truck. Mike made the cake, made butter cream/ cream cheese frosting, topper with crushed Trader Joe's choc sandwich cookies and added the trucks and gummy worms.

Portsmouth Fall Festival/ Chili Fest

80 degree day at the seacoast must involve some sand/ water fun right??? We go no where without sand and water toys!

watching a sheep sheering and learning about wool

thinking some deep thoughts

Yay swings!!!

On the Pier

Looking over the Pier

They loved looking at all the big boats in the background

Fun hot (80 degrees in oct!) fall day with the family! We were hoping to see some impressive foliage but maybe its too early yet in this part of NH??

Nairi Anne at 6 months

His last days as a 1 year old :o)

Fire

We have been looking forward to using our fireplace since we moved in last May. This past weekend was cold and rainy so we started it up and roasted some marshmallows with the kids. They had so much fun. Now every night with hope in his eyes Israel says " Daddy build big fire???? " Who can resist such a cute face? We are going to need lots more wood! After the kids go to bed we sit in front of it and drink a glass of wine. Love this house!!!

hmmm " its yummy" says the little man

Yes we are roasting the worlds tiniest marshmallows. If you look really close you can see them!

It takes lots of concentration to get that itty bitty marshmallow on a stick

Fall decorating

I love to decorate and Keira loves to craft so we combined forces and decorated for Fall /Halloween. ( Keira colored and cut for 3 hours straight!) We did the front door ( pictured here)

The garage door

The dining room table

And the family room doors!

Workshop Build: Day 2

http://betterdiy.blogspot.com/2011/10/workshop-build-day-2.html

Mornings at our House

After 3 kids, we have been finally pushed over the edge.  The lack of sleep has gotten to us.  WE have joined the rest of America in taking up a caffeine habit in the form of Coffee.  Neither Mike nor I like the bitter taste of coffee, so we need to mask it somehow.  We really like the Pumpkin Latte from Dunkin Donuts, but our budget doesn't allow a daily indulgence of this.  Also, it goes against our all-natural way of life.  I would rather have something made from scratch, then the packet of artificial stuff they put in the pumpkin latte.

So, we found a pumpkin latte recipe on a website (gotta love the Internet).  It is great!!  Of course there is a shortage of pumpkin, so we have to find other solutions that work for us.  We made some modifications to the recipe in that we used steamed milk.  Mike came up with an ingenious way of making steamed milk without an espresso machine.  I am sure it is not as good, but it works for us.  He uses a hand mixer and mixes the milk as he heats it on the stove.

We started making a Chocolate Mocha Latte this morning.  That is the picture above.  We uses Trader Joe's All Natural Chocolate Syrup and add it to the coffee and then pour the steamed milk on top.  To me, it looks like a Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts latte, but has better ingredients!!

It is DELICIOUS, low in sugar and has the necessary caffeine to get us through the day with 3 children under 4.

The kids on the other hand had Nachos for breakfast, which means they eat the cheese off the chips and then put the chips back on the plate.

Happy 6 Months Nairi!

6 months already!!! No teeth. We have given you food all of once... and I think you put one grain of rice in your mouth! We are letting you self feed and I don't think your pincer grasp is good enough for that yet. Still army/ inch worm crawling and getting pretty fast at it. Sitting up of course. Sleep... not so good. You wake up a million times at night- okay not that many but at least every 2-3 hours and we are so exhausted Mike and I have forced ourselves to start a coffee habit ( or raw milk pumpkin latte's to be exact) just so we can do our jobs. You also refuse to fall asleep on your own and must be rocked, nursed or bounced to sleep on the exercise ball. You remain prima donna baby as everything must be just so or you complain. You don't tolerate baby apparatuses for more than 2 min and even the floor is only so entertaining for 5ish min.

Your siblings adore you and Israel affectionally calls you Nairi Bean!!

But we love you like crazy and can't wait to see who you become.