Visit from J & J

We had a great visit with Vanessa's Uncle Jim & Aunt Julia.  They got to meet Blake and spend some fun quality time with the Bartolomei Family.  Gigi made lasagna (of course!) and it was AMAZING as always!!!  We also celebrated Nana's Birthday since we hadn't seen her yet.  It was a night of great family fun!

We couldn't leave Kacie at home!  Come on!

Happy Birthday Nana!!!

A bunch of goof balls!

50 Years of love

The Lovebirds!  Here's to 50 AMAZING years together.  Cheers!

Of course, we had to be with Mom & Dad on their actual 50th Anniversary...so we loaded up the car with Blake, KC & TONS of stuff and took off!  

Here's our amazing traveler...he was such a good boy for that long drive!

Of course KC was good too!  She has to get as close to us as possible so resting her head on the center console was perfect for her.

We arrived in Prescott about 8 hours later and the reunion was SO FUN!!!  Blake missed his Grandma & Grandpa Willems.  Laughter & smiles were enjoyed by all.

 Then guess what we found in the fridge waiting for us...our stomaches were happy & excited!

Blake felt right at home at Grandma's house!  zzzzzz...........

On their actual anniversary, February 3rd, we went to a favorite Italian restaurant of theirs called Papa's...the food was amazing and the company was STELLAR!!!

Once we recovered from all that food...then it was onto the next great meal!   The next day we were LUCKY enough to enjoy mama's homemade verenika.  There is absolutely nothing like it!!!  More please!!!  No, seriously, more please!!!

Blake loves Grandma and wishes her & Johnny 50 more years of love & happiness!

Milestone Alert - Pre-crawl in action!

He's learning to get on all 4's!!!

Traditions

Martha's Baked Beans by Matt:

Step 1:  Soak the beans

 Step 2:  Add all awesome ingredients

Step 3:  Let time do it's magic!

 Now on to Rugabrote (we need to figure out how to spell it)...an amazing bread that Matt grew up with and Vanessa made from a recipe & help from Shirley!  So good...

Step 1:  Let it rise...

Step 2:  Watch it bake...

 Step 3:  Cut a slice and...

Step 4:  ...spread tons of jam on it!

So good!!!

We are very big on keeping our traditions going...food is just one of the ways.

Sleepover at GP & Nana's

Daddy went to Big Bear to celebrate a friend's 40th birthday so Blake, Mommy, & KC went to GP & Nana's house for a sleepover weekend.  Gigi came over and visited too!  Fun was had by all.

Growin' Up!

This is Blake at 1 month in the Sahara Desert...aka the docs office.  Check out how small he is.  

Here he is at 4 months in the fall trees (to the right)...his personality really started to show!

And here's our guy at 6 months with the snow covered mountains behind him.  What a cutie pie!

It's fun to look at these at once to see how he's grown up!

Happy Half Birthday Blake!