Ariana takes her first Pilates Class

Ok...well maybe not a full class...but I took her into the studio to meet some of my old Pilates clients tonight. They have been asking to meet her for a while and we have been sooo very bad at making it into the PM classes! So here she is lying on the trap table with one of our very awesome clients, Lynne, doing her ball work to stretch out in the beginning of class. Auntie Kathy was there of course to teach her and I was trying to snap a photo with my camera phone!
Her and I actually do our mat Pilates every night. She likes to lie next to me and stick her legs up in the air and try and mimic what I am doing. It is pretty darn cute!

Oh I miss going to the studio much!!! I LOVE PILATES! Probably the best thing I have ever done! Everyone keeps asking me when I will get back to teaching.... I promise I will someday... I am a Pilates junkie!

Last minute trip to Squaw

We decided in less that 24 hours to take a quick trip up to Squaw for a few days. Sean was taking the day off to meet a good friend up in Tahoe to ski and they were having a great Spring Special to get people up there to ski and stay at the resort...so... twist our arm...it wasn't a hard decision. This is where Sean's perks of working from "home" come in handy. He travels pretty much Monday-Thursday every week and works from home on Friday's, so Friday he got to work with the view of the Sierra's in the background. Not a bad office view. My friend Shana and her two girls even met us up there while the boys skied. It was so fun to have them there and we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was so relaxing (yes, even with a 1 year old running around... or maybe I have just got used to it...or maybe I have a different kind of relaxing these days, anyways... it was fun!)

The girls ready to ride the shuttle over to the village for lunch

Frankiejane and Ariana at the pub for lunch

Daddy and Ari on our sledding adventure that lasted all of 10 minutes. She did not like touching the snow at all. She didn't mind the sledding part but the walking, touching, falling in the snow part was not her thing! Daddy wasn't too happy about that.

Hanging out of the patio listening to music. It was so warm we didn't have to wear jackets unless it was night time.

Enjoying the music

After dinner walk around the resort

Looking at the waterfalls

Tubby Time

Lake Tahoe in the background. It was the only day we ventured away from the resort and it started to snow and was windy and cold!

Happy St. Patty's Day... a little late...

Sorry I didn't post these on the blog sooner.... was a little behind! But here are her St. Patty's Day pictures! We had a fun day together playing, going to story time at Barnes and Noble, going to the park and enjoying the amazing weather! She is just full of energy and always wanting to go go go!

Baking, Cleaning, Etc...

Ariana has really taken to want to do everything that mommy does. The other day I had to get dinner ready and she was wanting to do something with me so I got a stool and put her right next to me in the kitchen where she could see what I was doing. She loved it!! She helped me make brownies, do the dishes (well take a towel and pretend to dry things), put towels away, throw things in the garbage for me. Lately she really gets what I am saying... Like when I ask her to do something she actually does it. What a concept! (ie. put toys away, go to the stairs so we can go up and take a bath, get ready to go somewhere, which she immediately goes and gets her shoes tries to put on and then proceeds to the door,) Trust me... I know it won't last for long but I am sure enjoying this moment.

We have been teaching her sign language too and she now tries and communicate when she is hungry. She loves fishy crackers so she always signs her "fish" sign and says "cra-ca...cra-ca...". Smart girl... Daddy falls for it every time even if it is 6:30 AM. :-)

This morning I was trying to finish up cleaning and she again wanted to help me so I showed her how to dust everything on her level and she did...laughing the whole time. Hey... she likes it and why not get her started early pulling some weight around here! :-)

Since she was so good helping mommy she got to lick the spoon a few times. I think she likes it!

The McDonald Boys

This past weekend we had all my sister's boys stay with us as part of a birthday gift to my sister. Cool gift, huh? I would love that as a birthday present to be able to spend the weekend at home with no kids and do nothing. hint... hint... :-)

This is the only picture I got of the four of them the entire weekend and it probably the only time that they all sat still long enough for me to take a picture. The only reason it looks so calm is because we put a movie on!!!

We were pretty much running around the entire weekend, ran the dishwasher twice a day, broke up several fights but had fun doing it. Matthew is such a sweetie and offered to help me clean up after every meal. He is almost four and loves to clean! We went the park, went out for frozen yogurt, rode bikes, played Wii, went back to the park, ate a lot! Matthew even helped Sean all day Saturday clean the pool. He really is such a good little helper! Sunday Sean and I came home and literally crashed on the couch while Ariana napped.

The best part was Ariana loved all the attention she got all weekend. She loves the boys...

Uncle Mitch Visits

My dad's brother came out for a visit last week and it was so fun to have him here! I like to sit and listen to them banter back and forth and tell stories of them growing up in Milford, MA. The older I get the more and more I love to hear these stories! We hope he will make the trip out here again! Hopefully we can get to the east coast sometime to visit my dad's side of the family too!

Happy Birthday Auntie Kathy

We celebrated Auntie Kathy's Birthday last week at Nana and G'pa's house with a taco bar. Yum... Yum... We had a couple of Kathy's friends, the family and our Uncle Mitch who came to visit us for a week. Ariana and the birthday girl (she is holding the necklace that we gave her... I guess she wanted to show it off to the camera. :-) )