AAAARGH!!!

The title is "aargh" because I'm frustrated at all the catching up that is basically impossible for me to do right now. So I'm going to have to give really quick info for catch ups.
We rang in the new year at Lisa's parents with lots of delicious food, for their annual open house. It was awesome.
Scotts parents were in town for Dan's wedding, which was excellent. The ceremony was very very good, and the reception went really well. We're so happy to have Kelsy as a member of the family. She's perfect!

We also got together with Rob and Stephanie to celebrate and participate in their baby Regan's baby blessing. He's such an adorable little angel.
Of course we also all together to watch the Eagles play in the NFC championships and were all heartbroken when they lost, but we put up a good fight, and it was really fun to get dressed up in all our Eagles gear.

How our Break was

My goodness, so much has been going on and there's so much to write and not enough time to write it!
First of all, right before the Christmas break, Lisa accepted a dental assistant job for Mondays and Fridays...and once spring hits, every other Saturday. They offered her more money than she expected, along with a promise of a raise every three months until she reached a certain amount. She was also promised health benefits and paid holidays. Not bad for twice a week!
For new years Eve, we went to an open house/ party at Lisa's grandparents house. It was nice to see so many in that family we haven't seen in so long. Here are the kids all dressed up for the open house:

That night, we did what is sort of a new tradition, and made a gingerbread house together as a family. Crystal had a blast!

That night after Crystal went to bed, Santa came and made a drop off at our home.

The next morning, we were up at seven, so Lisa's not wearing makeup, but agreed to be in the picture...it's a Christmas miracle! Ha ha ha!

Then we had a wonderful breakfast with orange juice, eggs, bacon, and orange danishes. By ten in the morning we were heading over to Lisa's parents house to have another round of opening Christmas presents with them. Here is what their tree looked like.

Crystal got a many more gifts there...including her own pair of ruby slippers so she could be just like Dorthy. We also had our Christmas dinner together at Lisa's parents house.

After dinner Crystal fell asleep on the couch. Note that she's wearing her new shoes.

Uncle Jared and Aunt Alisa came over and spent some time with us.


We all sat down and watched some old home videos to laugh and remember the past, and then we spent the night there. The next day we decided to play in the snow that the snowstorm left us for Christmas. Crystal got to wear her new snowsuit.

Anyway, I could talk about the holiday forever, but I've been making this post for way too long. It's time to finish it. Other things that happened is that Lisa's cousin, T.C. got married and it was a lot of fun to see him and his beautiful wife Coralee so happy.
Crystal also turned THREE years old. We can't believe we've had her in our lives for three years already! Man time flies. We love her so much and can't imagine our lives without her cheerful voice and laugh in our home. She was sick on her birthday so we couldn't go out, so she sort of had two celebrations. One at our house, and one the next day at Grandma's. Her two favorite presents were a Baby doll from Mommy and Daddy, and a bike from Grandma and Grandpa.

Have a nice day.

FOUR YEARS!!!

Yesterday was our 4 year wedding anniversary. Might not be much for some, but We're pretty proud of it!

Scott surprised Lisa with roses!


We dropped the kids off and enjoyed a long evening at Tucanos Restaurant, then to a movie. We took our time with everything since we didn't have the kiddies distracting us. It was so nice!


In our 4 years together we've had two kids, Scott graduated and got a real job, Lisa became a stay at home mom, We've gone on many vacations, moved to a bigger apartment, learned a lot, strengthened our friendship, argued, Trusted each other, laughed together, grown up together, depended on each other, become less self centered, worried together, forgiven each other, loved our children, compromised, and said "I love you" every single day!


Honestly, we were talking about this last night, and we were talking about how we're just as happy and in love as we were the day we got married. Oh sure, like all married couples, we have our moments, but when we stop and look at ourselves and our lives, we're just as crazy about each other as the day we got engaged. At this point in our lives, we need each other, and not to get too sappy, but we would probably die without the other to spend everyday with.


In the words of Mignon Mclaughlin, "A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person." That's how we feel about our Marriage. Some days are good, some days aren't so good, some days stink, and some days are absolutely wonderful and perfect. The good has always, ALWAYS out weighed the bad days. We're looking forward to the next four years (and hopefully many, many, more) that our married life brings. Being in love is worth it!!

6 months old!

Seth is already a half a year old! The time has gone by twice as fast with him than when we had our first. We don't know why that is, maybe because we've done it once before, or maybe it's because such a happy kid so time flies when your with him. He's always smiling and ready to share his enthusiasm. Seriously, he's one of the happiest babies we've ever seen, again, we don't know why. So here's a quick clip we took of him yesterday to show you our happy little man.

Still Dancing

Despite the disaster my house is in this video I had to post this because you have to see how much fun it is having a toddler in the house. P.S. When nobody's looking I do it with her too. I can't help it.


Dancing daughter from Lisa on Vimeo.

Thanksgiving 2008

I feel bad for not updating this little blog as much as I used to. I've been distracted.
Anyway, This Thanksgiving season we sort of had 2 gatherings. One with Scott's brothers and cousins and the other with My family and cousins.
First off, we put up the Christmas tree 2 nights before Thanksgiving because we didn't have time to do it on any other day. Crystal is almost 3 so her appreciation for the Christmas season is huge this year. Watching her be so excited for Christmas has made Scott and I feel like little kids all giddy for Christmas cause we can see it through her eyes.


Here are some pics of our little dinner the night before thanksgiving with Scott's brothers and Cousins. It's so much fun to get together with the Itri boys. I love Scott's family!

Here are Johnny, Danielle, James, Jason, Dan and Scott


and here's Dan, Kelsey, and Scott



and here are Jonathan and Julia


Scott's talented brother, Todd, cooked the meal. You can get some of his recipes on the link labeled "In Your Kitchen" on our link list to the right.

The meal was delicious. I didn't take pictures of the food, but here we all are at the dinner table.





We had a great time. Of course we were all so loud that I'm sure we disturbed the whole neighborhood, but it's all good. It was worth it.

Okay, so the next day was Thanksgiving day, and I really WISH I took pictures of all the fabulous food. We had a huge turkey, two roasted ducks, an excellent vinegar salad, fruit salad, amazing stuffing and mashed potatoes, Sweet potatoes using Scott's moms magical recipe, and for dessert there was pumpkin pie, apple pie, flan, and Maracuya pudding. (Flan is a latino dessert, also Maracuya pudding...Maracuya is passion fruit in English.) Again, if you could see the food, you would appreciate it. I did, however, get pictures of us hanging out at my parents house that day:

Check out my cute Son!



And my lovely daughter...



and here are Scott and I with our kiddies:





Here are some more family members:

My mom cooking in the kitchen


My aunt and cousin with Seth


Denise (my sister) playing with Crystal


Chris and Maggie with Seth while Seth throws a fit.


Look! A variety of Latina chicks! Ooooh Yeeeah baby!


Oscar Maggie and Crystal, Fio and Maya



Crystal and her second cousin Maya (Maggie's daughter)


So that was our thanksgiving. The day after Scott and I left the kiddies with my parents and we went to a company dinner that his boss held for all his employees and their spouses. We ate at the Asian Star in Sandy. It was a very classy restaurant, I'd never been before. There was even FREE valet parking which was appreciated in the cold weather.

Anyone who goes there HAS to try the Walnut Shrimp! It's a party in your mouth! I'm picky about my seafood, but this plate got 5 stars from me. Go try it!

Have a nice day.