Friday, April 29, 2011

Five Years

Yes, we share our wedding date with Prince William and Kate Middleton. Only we've got 5 years on the Royal couple.

Today is our anniversary.
Matt and I decided not to have as big of a wedding as William and Kate, but I would venture to say it was just as spectacular :)
Here's us on our big day.
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Out of the Temple

In the Trees Kiss

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Cake Cutting

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5 years! Happy anniversary, Matty.
I love you even more today.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

A tribute to 2

Although we only have 1 day under our belt, we are LOVING our 2 year old. He is the greatest!
 
Sam is extremely well behaved. He loves to be praised and is so proud of himself when he does the right thing.

He LOVES his brother Brimley. They are best buds. They play tug-of-war, chase and wrestle. Sam calls him "Bimmy".
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Sam is really great at "helping" out around the house. He hands us dishes from the washer, pulls out clothes from the dryer and puts them into the basket and really enjoys helping Daddy cook dinner. Birthday week 008
Sam has a new obsession with Bananas. When he was a baby he despised them so much, we assumed he was allergic. (He also gets a small rash around his mouth after eating them). Now he eats one a day and loves to peal them on his own.
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Sam can sign please, milk, more, dog, camel, giraffe, apple, candy, sorry and I love you. He is learning the alphabet very quickly as well.
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This boy is all about bugs, sticks rocks and dirt. (Although he HATES to have his hands messy when he's eating.) He can identify lots of bugs and animals that some adults don't even know. (i.e: Geckos and Tapirs? Who is this kid?)
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Sam loves being outside. Its too bad we live in rainy Seattle....February 103
At 2 years old he is 26.4lbs and is in the 25%ile for height and weight. He is still wearing 18-24 month clothes :)

Sam's favorite movies are Toy Story 1 Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3. He loves Buzz and Woody so much.3-1 035
Sam knows how to start a car. Scary, right? He's just like his Daddy. He loves cars, trucks and bikes.Birthday week 153
We are so thankful for Sam! He is truly the coolest kid we have ever met. Its hard to believe its been 2 years! Although its a little sad to watch our "baby" become a "boy", we are loving every moment of it!

Happy 2nd birthday, Buddy!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

We are sick again

Every Sunday that we drop Sam off at nursery, he picks up a bug and brings it home. We are all really tired of fighting off all the colds, infections and exhaustion that come with going to church! It hit Sam and I hard today with horribly runny noses and sore throats.

Does this happen to you? How can we keep this from happening every week?

I hope this isnt the only option....

The zoo, after hours.

Stress levels are extremely high here in the Aprecio household. Its been a little rough for us all. On Tuesday, after working 3 days in a row with Courtney, Sam and I took off to my parents house to leave Matt home to tend to job searching and test taking.

I needed to get out. It was imperative. So my Mom, Sam and I hopped into the car and drove out to Tacoma to go to the zoo.

We arrived at 3:30. The Zoo closed at 4.

Darn it.

I wasn't about to turn around, so we went in anyway. It just so "happened" (quite possibly on purpose) that we were as far as possible from the zoo exit at the time the park closed. So we HAD to meander our way through all of the yet-to-be-seen exhibits on our way out. ;)

It was amazing to be the ONLY people in Pointe Difiance. It wasn't until we had seen it all that we got caught and asked by an employee if  "we knew the zoo was closed."

Oh, we knew! But we're rebels.

Sammy and Grandma at the shark exhibit.
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Watching the big nurse sharks.
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We got to watch the young tigers tackle their mommy. We had no crowds in our way.
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Sam was very entertained.
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I'm not sure what he would have done had he caught it.
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We ended the day back at Grandma and Bub's house for some nice, relaxing hot tubbin'. Ahhh....
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Monday, April 18, 2011

Sam's 2nd Birthday Party

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Although its not official until the 26th, we celebrated Sam turning 2 this weekend with all of our favorite people.

Because of Sam's obsession with "Woody" we had a cowboy themed party. It was so fun! We had hats and bandannas and all of the kids got kits complete with squirt guns and harmonicas.

Sam LOVED opening gifts. It was so great to watch him rip open the paper and get so excited at all the cool new things he was given.

He got all of his favorite things. Books, cars, Toy Story stuff, giraffes, bubbles and shoes. What a spoiled little boy!

Giraffes! He is still very much in love with this animal.bday
All the boys enjoyed the new toys. Sam was fairly good about sharing...
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Sam with Woody's hat in his mouth. Goof.Sam's 2nd 173
My dad. A pretty legit cowboy.Sam's 2nd 156
Sam and his new toys. He has yet to stop playing with these.
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Papa and Tutu brought him books and movies.
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He wanted to experience them right away :)
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Sheriff Eli!
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Matt and Preston opening up the Car toys.Sam's 2nd 143
Mommy the cowgirl having fun!
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Cowboy Knox.
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Baby Tyler couldn't make it to the party so big boy Tyler decided that the cowboy kit was his.
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Sam eating cake with Auntie.Sam's 2nd 061
Cowboy Chase.
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Grace.
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Two little Indians!Sam's 2nd 010
 
Thank you to everyone that was able to attend! We are so thankful for all of our friends and family. Sam is one lucky dude to have such cool people around!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Our First April Post

Yikes. 10 days into this month and I have yet to update. Thanks to my Dad for the brash "friendly" reminder.

We really haven't done a lot since we returned home from California. It took us a good week to cure ourselves of coughs, runny noses and exhaustion but we are starting to mend and get out of the house a little.

On Thursday and Friday there was this bright light that appeared in the sky. We ventured out to see what it was.

Sun? Could it be?!

It was glorious.

The new light made it possible to view our yard in a way that we hadn't seen it in months. Dirty. Messy. Weed-y. Time to work. Sam and I put on our gettin' dirty clothes and started a'fixin'. Matt came home and joined in the party.

We were able to do so much! Its a relief to have yard work checked off the to do list.
BEFORE:
 AFTER:
Such a difference, right?

Matt has been a busy boy with school. Its a lot of work, but he seems to be really enjoying it. It takes him away from us Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but we are 1/3 of the way done! Hooray!

When he's not busy with school, he is working hard running the family staffing agency. (That makes it sound like he staffs families. Need a mom? Haha. This is not the case. Its a Nursing Agency started and owned by his mother. Matts runs it. Got it? Okay, moving on.)  However, it doesn't bring in the money we would like (millions, please!) so he is searching far and wide for another position. We are hoping for something to come along sooner than later.

For now, a lot of our income will be coming in from the photo shoots that I am able to schedule. (which would be a lot easier if the weather would cooperate!) Luckily, my summer is booking up full and fast with weddings and I get to travel for some of them. I'm pretty excited.

I am also busy creating marketing campaigns and informative cards for mine and other business's. Its keeping me on my toes, but it doesn't bring in the money right away. Sigh.

Anyway, our Sam is doing great. And guess what?! His birthday party is this weekend! I cant believe my little brown, crazy-haired baby is going to be 2! When did that happen?

Sammy is all about Woody from Toy Story, so we decided that a cowboy party was in order. I dressed him up in some western wear and asked him to make a grumpy face.

Could this be any more perfect?
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The glare. The pursed lips. The REAL bruise on his forehead. Gosh darn it I love that there cowpoke.

We are pretty excited to celebrate :)

Welp, that's about it for now. Hopefully the spring will bring lots of fun activities for us and we will actually have something great to blog about!