A lot to be thankful for!

Thanksgiving was great and even more special as we announced to Mike's family the gender of baby #2. We had the ultrasound the day prior to Thanksgiving and we found out that we are having another GIRL! We are very excited and she has been very busy bouncing around in my tummy as of late. We have a name picked out (which by the way was no easy task!) but that we are keeping to ourselves until her birth.

Anyway, Thanksgiving was wonderful as always. Being pregnant with all that food was FABULOUS. Hahahahaha! It was nice to see Matt and Uncle Steve as we don't see them very often. This was the 1st Thanksgiving with Nonnie and Grandpa Joe as a married couple. :)

Alyssa had a great time on Thanksgiving too as she got to eat a lot of what was offered on the table. She loved the homemade cranberry sauce that Nonnie made. To my surprise, she was not a fan of stuffing. Maybe it's the onions and celery but she wasn't having it. Alyssa was excited to see dill pickles on the table. It's strange but she LOVES them. She's definitely a Nielsen with that regard. I made some dairy free chocolate chip cookies that many enjoyed (especially Alyssa!).

After dinner, we cleaned up and Alyssa was right there next to Auntie Katie washing dishes. Nonna even had matching aprons for them to wear together. So cute!

2 Year Old Photos...

Our little pink Poodle...

So we all know of Alyssa's love for dogs. This year we thought it would be appropriate to dress her up for Halloween as a pink poodle. She LOVED her costume and walked around saying "woof, woof" Hahaha...She enjoyed her first time trick or treating. We went up north to her cousin's house and she trick or treated with the whole family behind her (Nonna, Papa,daddy, mommy, Auntie Katie, Auntie Tricia, Uncle B). She had a blast! She got a hang of it pretty quickly and knew to say "treat" when she approached a front door. The best memory of the night was when she walked up to a house and no one seemed to be home but the owner of the house left a big bowl of candy on the front porch. Alyssa went to town and started stuffing her bag. For someone who has never even had any candy in her life, she was pretty excited to fill up her bag! She was quite possessive of it too - not wanting help holding it when it got pretty heavy. Our stubborn little poodle certainly is very independent! Halloween was a lot of fun this year. We are looking forward to them as the years come!

More birthday pictures!

Alyssa turns 2!

Alyssa had a FABULOUS birthday filled with family, friends and tons of activities. Turning two was definitely much better than turning one. We're so glad she was healthy and able to enjoy her birthday this year! It was held at our home. We had a jumphouse set up for the kids on the driveway. There was a ball pit in the living room. Alyssa's friends had a blast with her new play kitchen. And there was tons of drawing fun happening in the garage. This year, we made it completely dairy/soy free and it was so nice to not have to worry about what Alyssa may or may not put into her mouth. The menu consisted of turkey + cranberry sandwiches, chicken nuggets, tater tots, chicken pasta with garlic and sundried tomatoes, potato chips, fresh fruit, green salad, and lastly dairy/soy free chocolate cupcakes that I made from scratch! The theme was "Minnie Mouse". So cute!!

Pumpkin Patch

In mid October we took Alyssa to the Pumpkin patch. While there, we paid to let her jump on the numerous jump houses they had. Alyssa was so drawn to the one with the giant slide. Too bad you have to be a much bigger kid to go down it. Being the stubborn and fearless child Alyssa is, she attempted to climb the thing while the other kids were sliding down. It was like watching a bowling ball knocking down pins. In this case, Alyssa was the pin. She is tough though, didn't cry at all when it happened. ANYWAY, after tiring her out on the jumphouses, we proceeded to attempt to take some pictures of Alyssa with the pumpkins. It is almost impossible to get this kid to look at the camera. For some reason when she sees it out, she won't look no matter how hard we try! SOMEHOW Mike managed to get a couple decent shots. Here they are:

September Fun!

September was a busy month with birthday parties and a trip to Virginia to visit Maitoni. It was very nice to get away and Mike got to relax a bit before he started his new job. Virginia is so beautiful - so green and certainly didn't seem as crowded as California. I love the homes in the East Coast. Alyssa fell in love with Flora - Maitoni's dog. She was the first and last thing Alyssa spoke about each morning and night. Flora is a great dog, incredibly mellow and PATIENT. Alyssa was harassing her during the whole trip and she was so good about it. I'm sure she was glad when the crazy toddler who took her toys, who followed her, hugged her, etc had gone home.

Maitoni shares our love for wine. So not even minutes after Maitoni came home the day we arrived, I had to break the news that I will not be consuming any alcohol during this trip. She guessed right away that I was pregnant. While in Virginia, we took Alyssa to the zoo, went to the mall, spent some time in DC, and last but certainly not least we hit Georgetown for some yummy crabcakes that Mike had been dreaming about. Tina and Russ drove up from Delaware and stayed overnight one Saturday evening. We celebrated Tina's birthday and Tina and Chiara met Alyssa for the first time. Chiara and Alyssa hit it off instantly. They played so well together. Alyssa did great while we traveled until the last evening when she fell ill with diarrhea and some sort of stomach bug. We had a rough last night there as she couldn't sleep well and as a result we didn't either. We were there for 5 days and as with all vacations, it seemed too short.

Here are some pictures from the trip.