Why is it called "Black Friday"????

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving......we sure did. We had a small and very fun gathering of some of our close friends over for 2 tons of food....and little wine.......ok alot!!! Good wine though...Jon was as protective as ever over our collection. I was going through our wine closet to pick out some to drink and share with our friends and he stood watch....pretending to just be keeping me company. I am on to him though......it's not like we don't have plenty.....there are over 100 bottles in our wine closet...
As you can see here.......Rubi is most thankful for comy sofas.......
The one picture of Ella that I have taken....poor baby.........she isn't doing many things that are snap worthy these days........well looking cute is snap worthy but I have slacked a little in general on pictures this past week.

Here is Edie sitting up like a big girl.........

And standing and smiling for the camera.....

I guess this is her new smile......they love this little annoying shopping cart that I got the other day...Edie is working hard at pushing it but for now just falls forward when it starts to roll......funny.

I GOT AN AWARD!!!!!! THANKS AMANDA!!!!!!!!

I received my very first bloggy award..........from my good bloggy friend Amanda.....she is mommy to Brooklyn and their blog is listed on my right blogroll under "learning to breathe"......Brooklyn is 3 days older the E Squared. Since this is the closest I will ever come to winning and Oscar I would like to thank........God......just kidding. Get it......an acceptance speech!!! Along with the award comes 4 questions to answer and then I have to pass it onto to 4 blogging buddies.........so........
1.) Do you have the same friends since childhood? I AM still friends with some of my childhood girlfriends....my friend Cynthia and I have been pals since we were 5.......and let's see dare I say that's nearly 30 years......phew we're getting old. My friend Letha and I were in the Brownies together.......also around age 5.......we lost touch through most of our childhood though and reconnected in college.....
2.) What do you value most about your friends? I have many friends and I love them all for different things......but my few "best" friends.......wow there are many things that I value about them......they are there WHENEVER......we can go months without talking and pick right back up where we left off.......the friendship is always understood to be there and if we need each other we are there understanding that often life gets in the way of frequent talking and/or visits......Kristin, Letha, Yvonne, Theresa......thick and thin!!!
3.) Are your friends your sounding boards? ABSOLUTELY!!!
4.) What is your favorite activity to share with your friends? Well that depends on where we are......if they are visiting me here in CA....of course wine tasting, eating, touristing........it's wine country after all.......if I am with them in LA......eating, drinking, just being......

Now for my chosen 4......I read ALOT of blogs so this is hard......I love them all otherwise I wouldn't follow them EVERY day right?????? But to stick with the rules....I will pick 4. Of course, if I had not gotten this from Amanda she would be in the list.......keep in mind that I STILL haven't learned how to link in the text but I will put the name of the blog and you can click on it in my blogroll to the right.........

1.) Sara at "gasspasser aka UUer".........she just had a beautiful itsy bitsy baby girl named Brynn....she is a nurse as well.....but does anesthesia hence the name gasspasser. She had a challenging pregnancy with a fabulous ending. Sara rocks!!!
2.) Erica at "mommypix" listed as Ava Brynn in my blogroll........ she takes awesome pictures and will be doing our 1 year pictures when we are in AL for E Squareds first birthday...and no I am not showing favoritism because she is family.......check for yourself she IS talented!!!
3) Danifred at "sippy cups are not for starbucks".......She too just had a beautiful baby girl......named Bean sister to Tot...she is very funny and an extremely talented writer.......also a little on the wild side.........just in the fact that she has a toddler, a newborn and will soon "fingers crossed" begin working on her PhD........NUTS!!!
4.) Missy at "two little monkeys"........she is a very talented seamstress and mommy to identical twin girls........abby and emma!!! She is also an Alabama fan.......so she has Jons vote. She makes the most creative dresses and tote bags and bows.........check her out!!!

Darling Darlings............

Our professional pictures are available for viewing.........oh so cute!!! There are a TON of them.....something like over 150 or so.......so if you choose the slideshow be prepared to sit through many many pictures.....some very similar to the last.........but they are lovely -- for the most part anyway. The photographer did a fabulous job.......the babies cooperation level was sporadic.....so without further ado.........ENJOY

Go to
www.valeriebenvenuti.com

click on bottom right "view your proofs"
our email is jmrbt@sbcglobal.net
password is marbut

Let me know what you think.....you can view our favorites if you would like.....just choose that options there............

Who needs a security blanket when you have a..............sock?

We are having a great time these days with E Squared.....they are SO much fun!!! Edie is crawling on all fours.....EVERYWHERE!! She sees something and jets off as fast as she can for it......it is quite a sight...too cute. She especially likes to snatch toys from Ella...of course Ella does not care for it one bit. Ella moves too......she has sort of an unconventional crawl...like a snakey turtle or something....she can get to something that she wants even if it isn't on all fours. She snakes her way across the room...by sort of army crawling and rolling front to back until she reaches her target. She also does this little flappy thing on her tummy like she is swimming. They are way too cute.....we are sooooooooo lucky!!!
Here is Ella cheesing it up for the camera.........
Enlarge this picture and take a look at those eyelashes.......

So I will probably pay for this next picture when Edie is older BUT I don't care........there aren't many things cuter than a sweet baby butt.....and the main reason I wanted to take and post this picture is because she is standing next to one of their newborn pictures.....Edie is there on the left in that picture all 6 pounds of her at 3 weeks old.......and here she is all 20 pounds of her at 8 months.......UNREAL!!!

Edie has a new odd thing that she does......if she is playing with something and needs to get somewhere she puts the something in her mouth and takes off..........SEE

Here she is playing the piano.....with her sock

and looking for a cookbook.......

and chatting with daddy...........

and helping mommy fold laundry.....she is such a huge help..........

and taunting Rubi in her crate...........

Rubi loves that they are eating food now and are uncoordinated so that most of it ends up on the floor...she sits really really close by and waits......she is never disappointed.......

We had spaghetti for dinner tonight so I tossed a little of the cooked pasta with butter and they lapped it up......they are getting good picking things up but more of it ends up in their seats and on the floor than in their mouths. Jon and I have had fun giving them new things to try...they love pasta, cheerios, bananas, peaches, eggs, sourdough bread and that may be all we have tried so far...they kick their little feet when they see one of us coming with food toward their chairs......cute cute cute

Cuter by the day!!!!!!!!

Edie had fun this morning wearing her daddys OR cap...notice the skull and crossbones.....living on the wild and dangerous side.......biker Edie........
Aside from the major glare I love this picture....look at that face!!!! Oh so kissable!!!

Ella in this old bean bag chair that I put them in today.......the chair lives in the garage but we needed it for some A!W!E!S!O!M!E! professional pictures we had taken today........the same photographer that did our newborn shots came over for some first Christmas pictures and we did some fun ones too.......I will share just like I did last time once I get the link......about a week she says.

Daredevil Edie about 0.4 seconds before mommy had to rescue her for the 1,254th time TODAY from the hearth ledge......she loves to climb up but gets stuck........loads of fun!!!

miss mischief here.......see the guilt in her eyes???

Making up for lost time........

Since I went over a week without giving you guys any new pictures I thought I would go all out and just inundate you.........
We have a park 0.2 miles from our house...actually when we were walking the other morning I counted 3 parks within a 3 mile radius.......we moved to a great new area...very family friendly! Our old neighborhood was great too...but we couldn't find a house for sale there in our price range...we already maxed out at half a million for this one......that was the VERY high end of what we wanted to spend but we did get a great house...the park is awesome too......E Squared L!O!V!E! to swing....we have gone a few times before but today I remembered the camera........well actually today the camera finally had a new card and batteries........
Edie saying weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..........

Ella and her new cheesy grin......if you click on this picture to enlarge it you may be able to see her little tooth there on the bottom...

And of course the obligatory twin picture........of course I could not get either of them to look at the camera at the same time....

I love thie picture......I was lying on the ground under them...

Edie playing with daddy........ Edie saying "hey daddy whatcha doin?"

Edie trying to climb the stairs......the girl is EVERYWHERE!!!

This is Ellas new thing besides her cheesy grin...I think she can feel her tooth with her tongue...whatever the reason it's darn cute........

Edie.......just plain cute!!!

just a cute cute cute picture......of Ella Grace....

Since our pediatrician told me last week to get strict about the sleeping......well, all that I can say is......IT WORKED!!! They have been sleeping ALL NIGHT!!! They each wake once and sometimes Edie doesn't even wake up at all........she was still asleep when Jon came home from work at 8am this morning.....unreal!!! They are also napping 1-2 hours at a time now that I am putting them upstairs in their beds instead of the swings..........So, what's a mommy to do with all of her newfound spare time you ask........well you would think that I would be unpacking the CRAP in the garage that I keep complaining about.......well you would be wrong......

I am putting my old maternity tank tops on the dog.........GOOD TIMES!!!

At last...........

Some biter biscuits in the new high chairs......

WAAAAAAA.....where's my daddy???

aaahhhh.......there he is.....

I love my new house.......

where is that computer?????? I've got some stuff to buy.........

Here's Edie getting ready to.........

pose for a picture......

here is the view from our bedroom window in the new house.....

the backyard......from our bedroom window......