Another Birthday...

This one is for my dear friend, Annmarie. About a month ago, we had an incredible opportunity to get away for the weekend. We were so blessed to stay in a cabin belonging to some friends and it was perfectly designed for the getaway that we were looking for - peaceful, quiet, and with just enough fun to make it an adventure. This was how we wanted to celebrate turning 30 together! Today is her birthday, so I thought it would be an appropriate day to post this. Happy Birthday, Am!!

Untitled from Laura Salvatierra on Vimeo.

The Birthday Post

It's been a month or so, and we have all turned one year older. Noah had the first of the birthdays, turning the big 5 on 1/11/11!

We had some of his good buddies over to celebrate!

We had some free Lego building time, since that is something Noah is really in to right now.

We played musical chairs...

and Pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey!

Michael turned 31 the next day. We went out for a dinner date, just the two of us! My birthday was two weeks later. I turned 30. I was sick that day, so we stayed in, made a fire, and I went to bed early. What a celebration?! Hopefully, I'll get a chance to celebrate with Annmarie in a couple weeks and make a getaway for a night or two with her. I'm glad I have a best friend to turn 30 with.
Just ten days after my birthday, Ethan turned two! We were blessed to have both sets of grandparents come into town to celebrate!

We had "Make your own pizza" for dinner - a favorite for Ethan.

He's really into tractors and equates them with his "Pa Pa" (my dad). He is a big talker now and the day after his party he woke me at 6am and said, "Hi Mommy! My happy. My cake. My Pa Pa. My toy." I think the party made an impression on him. So sweet to watch my baby grow into a little boy.

Christmas Time was here

This year we hosted our first musical Christmas party here for our neighbors - a long-standing tradition in Michael's family.

Two brothers, brushin'

All Ethan asked for this Christmas was a "Choo-Choo."
Thankfully, Baba and Papa (aka Santa and Mrs. Claus) had one they didn't use anymore.

Papa and Noah had a Connect 4 duel

Then we made it to Arlington on Christmas night, avoiding the threat of a big storm. Sunday, the day after Christmas, Matthew and Kerry came down and that evening was the Christmas party.

Noah made his Christmas party debut performance.

Monday morning was 2nd Christmas!

Tuesday evening, Michael and I had the chance to see the Caps beat the Canadiens

Matthew and Kerry drove down with us on Wednesday for some fun in C-Ville!

We all went for a little hike on the Appalachian Trail on New Years Eve.

We celebrated the New Year with Matthew and Kerry on the Downtown Mall, with the bubble wrap stomp and a wacky juggler, Mark Nizer. Wish we could have taken advantage of all the other concerts going on that night too, but Noah got the stomach bug, which he passed to Ethan the next day. I think we had all had enough excitement for those couple weeks of Christmas break!

A Snowy Day for Catching-Up

These last several weeks have been quite full! We have had a wonderful time with family and preparing for the Holidays.

Michael took Noah on an adventure in the woods, off our nearby Monticello trail.

Noah and Ethan are having so much fun being brothers.

We had the joy of hosting a bunch of our teammates from Peru before Thanksgiving! Amanda and Jeremy Ross and their girls, Kayla, Bella, and Janna visited for a couple days along with Susan Crenshaw and Anne Langhorne. It was so much fun to reminisce about our time together in Lima and great for Noah to see old friends!

Noah and Bella are 3 weeks apart in age and Janna and Ethan only 10 days!

After our Peru reunion, we left for North Carolina to have Thanksgiving with Baba and Papa.

Cindy, Marlea, and Harmony joined us too!!
We all explored my uncle John's boat that Dad is helping to refinish. They're making good progress!

Proud Papa on his tractor. Now every time Ethan sees a tractor, he says, "Papa!"

Cousins!

There were 13 of us altogether!

Harmony read to Noah before bed.

Noah got his ride with Papa too.

We had a great visit with Michael's parents and Matthew & Kerry after being in NC.

We picked out a Canaan Fir from Stonehearth Tree Farm, near Culpepper, VA.

Noah and Gray got to decorate sugar cookies this week.

Michael and Noah went to NOVA this past weekend and got to visit Union Station with Grandma and Grandpa. It's fun to see a similar picture if you look back to December 2006's blog posts.

And today was our first Snow Day!

We're lucky enough to have Grandma snowed-in with us!!

We ventured out altogether this morning and walked to Noah's eye doctor's appointment. His eyes continue to improve with his glasses and patching one eye a couple hours a day.
Now we are eagerly anticipating Christmas and even more time to be with family, dear friends, and neighbors. We love this season and all the hope and joy it brings to the darkest days of the year.