Where the forest meets the sea

2009-01-09T10:27:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years!

2009-01-09T10:09:00.000-08:00

Christmas in PA

2009-01-09T09:51:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

2009-01-09T09:42:00.000-08:00

Playing Quizzo at Bullfrog

Sledding

2009-01-09T09:01:00.000-08:00

New York City
Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

Kids at F.A.O. Schwartz

Sporting his Radio City 3D glasses

Snowman friend by Statue of Liberty

Empire State

5th Ave.

Time Square

2009-01-06T14:42:00.000-08:00

Twin Lakes Christmas Concert

2009-01-06T14:25:00.000-08:00

Christmas Caroling

2009-01-06T13:36:00.000-08:00

Christmas fun

2009-01-06T13:20:00.000-08:00

Holiday Parade in downtown

The toothless wonder twins

2009-01-06T13:04:00.000-08:00

Moss Landing & Carmel

Kid- candy store

Cute couple at sunset

2009-01-06T12:39:00.000-08:00

Surfin' Santa

2009-01-06T11:52:00.000-08:00

Johnson's Christmas Tree Farm

Pumpkin Roll

Jeff makes a new friend

Karen chop's down the tree

a team effort

2009-01-06T10:34:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving

I am thankful I am not the lone west coaster of my family anymore and I am central to the West Coast family. This year we celebrate the 2nd annual west coast thanksgiving together. We enjoyed the long weekend on the central coast with visitors from Oregon and San Diego~ as well as friend & family here in CA. Our Thanksgiving tablecloth

2009-01-06T10:27:00.000-08:00

Roller Skating

2009-01-06T09:31:00.000-08:00

Kaia's 6th birthday!

Cupcakes at school

2009-01-06T08:53:00.000-08:00

Over Fall Break we went to visit Jim, Colleen, & Kelli in Oregon. The highlight for Micah was the Bob the Builder exhibit at the Portland's Children museum. The highlight for Kaia was celebrating her 'actual' birthday at Chuck e. cheese. I enjoyed visiting with my brother & sister.
Kaia's Bday

The star of the show

Can we build it?

Multnomah Falls

Ashland

2009-01-06T08:26:00.000-08:00

Halloween The neighborhood kids gathered for a pre-trick or treating party

The firetruck- 2 monarch's- and a dancer

2009-01-06T08:11:00.000-08:00

Bonny and her kids came for a visit from WA, the kids enjoyed the short but very sweet time they had to visit with each Micah & Aaron

Quinn showing off her walking skills

2009-01-05T18:18:00.000-08:00

Harvest Festival

We did not plan this- Micah & Malakai as a firetruck & dalmation

This is Karen...

2009-01-05T18:10:00.000-08:00

Kevin & I celebrated our 8 year wedding annivesary by going on a Full Moon Kayak tour on the Elkhorn Slough. It was really neat- afterwards we ate at a Mexican restraunt in Moss Landing.

2009-01-05T17:18:00.000-08:00

Kevin's birthday!

2009-01-05T16:41:00.000-08:00

2009-01-05T16:27:00.000-08:00

Cousin sleepover

2009-01-05T15:21:00.000-08:00

Quinn's first birthday- It is hard to believe Quinn is a year already. She had a fun birthday weekend with lots of friends & cousins coming in to town for her party.

The kids had fun swimming and making carmel apples

Great Grandma Rigor above with Uncle Paul, Aunt Kathy, and Katie

3 Textile Designers from Philly Textile

Paul & Violet

Cousin Pam, Laurie, Kevin, Kari with Quinn

Favors & Photos

cake & gifts

2009-01-05T14:48:00.000-08:00

Pumpkin Patch

2009-01-05T13:49:00.000-08:00

Kids visiting...

Columbus replica ship Nina visiting Santa Cruz Harbor

http://www.scsextra.com/story.php?sid=80523

Kinder class

Kaia with friends on a field trip... get it - field - trip (above) ha ha ha

2009-01-05T13:23:00.000-08:00

Our visit to Mariposa & Yosemite Micah's favorite part was going on a quad with Uncle Dan
At Laurie's house

Bad Kitty

Good Kitty

The lake on top of the world

Cousin Forrest hanging off a cliff

2009-01-05T12:45:00.000-08:00

Going to see the Wizard of Oz in Carmel

2009-01-05T12:29:00.000-08:00

Apple Picking

2009-01-05T12:19:00.000-08:00

Swim Lessons
Picture Day

County Fair

2009-01-05T11:27:00.000-08:00

Micah's 3rd Birthday at Santa Cruz Gymnastics
Loving all his car gifts!

The Dads had fun too.

foam pit

The Favors

Celebrations at his preschool

2009-01-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

Micah's first day of preshool- Big sister showing him the ropes.

2009-01-05T10:18:00.000-08:00

Kaia's first Day of Kindergarten- She loves it!

2008-10-19T15:44:00.000-07:00

BABIES!!!!

Finally some picture of my new niece Maia Jean. I was lucky she was born before I left the East Coast this summer so I was able to help my sister out a little by taking care of her other children and stocking her freezer with food. While back east I got to meet several more babies of good friends of mine from High school. fun fun fun! Coming soon: My cousin Judee is due soon. I can't wait!
My best friend Heather also had a baby. Olive Ella was due the same day as Maia, but came early. More pictures of Olive at http://sliceofisaaclife.blogspot.com/. Maia
Micah & Maia
Difference of a year... Quinn & Maia
Congrats also to the Bentley's, Ferringer's, & Ranelli's!!!

2008-10-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

Natalie's fault. I am still waiting for picture's from my sister of my NEW neice (since my camera broke back east) So here are some Fall pics.

Here are some pictures from our neighborhood Block Party on Labor Day.

2008-09-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

2008-09-07T16:39:00.000-07:00

Twin set of twins
The floating baby is typical of my brother.
Joe's Birthday party

2008-09-07T16:07:00.000-07:00

2008-08-19T18:02:00.000-07:00

Our last visitors for the summer Tina & Ari, came from Italy as part of an exchange program. While they were here we celebrated Tina's birthday.
Kinder round up & tea party.

2008-08-19T17:27:00.000-07:00

Berry picking and jam making was a fav. of ours this year

2008-08-19T16:45:00.000-07:00

Elephant Seals & Olallieberry picking

Nicole with friend from Sweden, Alexandria (who was staying with a friend of ours)
Damien learned to surf- He rocks- I was very proud.
Micah enjoying the beach
Kids at Carmel-by-the-sea

Congratulations to Brian & Molly. Another highlight of the summer was a visit from Brian & Molly. I have know Brian for 16 years and he got married this summer on the East Coast and although I missed the wedding (which was a bummer- same day as Kaia's recital) I got to see them on the honeymoon tour of CA, which included a stop in Aptos for the 4th of July Aptos parade. Fourth of July

Some of Kaia's friend were in the parade and jumped out to get a picture with Kaia in matching outfits.

2008-08-19T16:19:00.000-07:00

Pinecrest Lake & Twain Harte with the five families

Getting ready to watch a movie in the pines

2008-08-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

We had a going away party for Myriam at a Capitola Beach concert.

My good friend from College, Amy recently relocated to my area. It has been fun reconnecting with her and her family and now Micah has a new friend also.

Nicole reconnecting with friends in CA

Boardwalk Fun

Ou whirlwind summer began with a week of

VBC Kaia with her group. She has known all these girls since she was a baby- so it was a tight group.
Micah had so much fun. It was his first time being a camper. I did not get a pic. with his group, but here he is attacking his cousin who along with my sister Nicole & her boyfriend Scott flew out for vacation that same week.
Quinn had fun hanging in the nursery.

2008-08-19T15:11:00.000-07:00

Dance Recital

Hair
rehearsal
Thanks to Debra, Kaia got her hair done and dolled up for the big show
Friends

another picture from the dress rehearsal.

2008-08-19T14:52:00.000-07:00

Summer is over?!?!?

I have been telling everyone an update is coming for a few months now. Summer just flew by. So now I am going to attempt one of those get caught up multiple blogs to share some fun summer photo's. AWANA Graduation
We love surprise visitors - Cousin's Paul & Joe Nardi stopped by on a CA tour.
Kaia's last day of Preschool. Below is Kaia with teacher Hollie.

2008-05-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

Butterfly World and the Florida Everglades

2008-05-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

Easter in Florida
Kaia at the beach

Quinn enjoying the water
Ice cream- Yummy!
Quinn
Looking for Seashells
Micah with great- uncle Jan

2008-05-19T10:40:00.001-07:00

"I left my heart in San Francisco"

2008-05-19T10:33:00.000-07:00

Thanks cousin Mike Z. for the tour of the firestation.
Visiting PA March 2008

2008-05-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

Princess's on Ice

March 2008

2008-05-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

Vote for my sister to be the next Supermodel.................

you can vote once a day from a computer till May 19th

Nicole P

http://newphotoproducts.com/beckersphoto/SpokesmodelContest/tabid/5431/ViewContest/18/page/1/order/8/Default.aspx

ww.beckersphotos.com

2008-03-05T09:02:00.000-08:00

If you are in Santa Cruz:
Fresh Prep Kitchens
http://www.freshprepkitchens.com/
There will be a fundraising session for Paul Silva
www.getwellpaul.com
April 17th arrive between 4:30 & 7Pm

You go and create meals for your family to eat throughout the month
There are snacks and a wine tasting
10% of the sales will benefit Paul
You can also choose to donate a meal to Paul (Optional)
They will be raffling off a prize for our party session.
min. of 8 people needed

Julie

2008-02-19T16:03:00.000-08:00

http://www.getwellpaul.com/

2008-01-14T11:07:00.000-08:00

Our trip to Lake Tahoe... Kids with Grandad-

I got almost everyone to behave and look at the camera, GRANDAD!
Kaia on the slopes
Quinn's first taste of snow (figuratively)
Micah tasting the snow (literally)
Kaia after snow fight
Kylee getting attacked with snow, but yet still smiling
Fun in the snow!

2008-01-14T10:42:00.000-08:00

Our year so far...

We enjoyd a visit from Petra, whom I hadn't seen and years and surprised me by coming to our New Years Eve party. Hope we didn;t scare her too much at how wild our party was... with more kids than I count up WAY past bedtime. Micah at the birthday party of one of his best buds.

2008-01-04T09:36:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years Everyone!

Growing up in PA, I did not realize everyone did not eat Pork & Sauerkraut on New Years Day. This is from the Sun Gazette...

Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year filled with good fortune and good luck!!!
Sauerkraut brings good luck

Speaking of that if you have been born and raised in Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania Dutch) you have probably heard of the tradition of eating sauerkraut on New Year’s day for good luck. I do it, and I love the dish, its definitely one of my favorites. The Great Lakes Kraut Company, makers of popular brands of the yummy stinky cabbage, Krrrrisp Kraut and Silver Floss, has released information about just that tradition. The company said it has up its production of the stuff to more than 130,000 tons of kraut for the New Year occasion. Get this: scientific studies show that sauerkraut actually has cancer-fighting properties. See the direct link for more ways to preparing the stuff.

2007-12-28T17:54:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!
A princess circle- Kaia with her cousins Kalia, Grace, & Audrey

2007-12-28T16:57:00.000-08:00

Micah wasn't invited so here is a cute pic of him.

4th annual Mother/ Daughter Tea Sugar High
The orignal girls
Sometimes I have an extra daughter.

2007-12-03T12:01:00.000-08:00

Pugsie was the name of our tree
A team effort

Decorating with Aunt Jeanie

2007-12-03T11:06:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving Weekend

We enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving with the West Coast Family and also friends from our area. If is much easierto get out with 3 kids when the adults out number the kids. So I was finally able to get out and about. After cooking and feasting we spent Holiday weekend visiting Carmel, a tree lighting in Monterey, going to the Christmas tree farm (separate post), Going to a Holiday show, and of course eating some more. Tree lit
Uncle Jim shared his ice cream with Kaia, but did Kaia share her cookie that she won doing a pumpkin roll with him? NO
Carmel
Tree by the bay
Carmel
Visiting Santa
While the boys hiked and kicked dirt clods the girls got pedicures
Carmel
Kaia & Micah with Reindeer

2007-11-15T14:24:00.000-08:00

Our Little Princess turned 5!

Happy 5th Birthday!
Celebrating with her cousins
Yummy cupcake!

2007-11-15T14:15:00.000-08:00

Halloween '07

(Yes, Kaia has two different costume's)

2007-11-15T10:07:00.000-08:00

Pumpkin Patch Oct '07

2007-11-15T09:54:00.000-08:00

Quinn modeling her handknitted gifts.

Blanket & hat by Heather

Barbie poncho by Aunt Christy

2007-10-23T10:53:00.000-07:00

Quinn Makenzie Baird was born on October 18, 2007. She was 7 lbs. 10 oz.

Kaia & Micah could not be more excited to have a baby sister.

Mom & baby are both doing well.

2007-09-20T15:06:00.000-07:00

Micah's 2nd Birthday!

2007-09-20T14:58:00.000-07:00

First Day of Preschool

Sept. '07

2007-09-05T13:37:00.000-07:00

Okay I lied - A couple more summer pictures. Kaia will do anything for a donut, here she is in a donut eating contest at our neighborhood block party over labor day. We are loving our new neighborhood.

Micah practicing to do homework

2007-09-05T11:49:00.000-07:00

Last of the summer pictures... Kaia has a blast at camp Kaia learning to make Pizza at camp
at beach
Cousins
Cousins
Labor day picnic at church

2007-09-05T11:40:00.000-07:00

Lake Tahoe

August 2007

Kaia's favorite part of our Tahoe trip was driving a tractor around her Granddad's hotel

2007-09-05T11:05:00.000-07:00

Kaia with our friend Kylee and our 2 Italian girls Sara & Jessica

Parmigiano Reggiano

Since we were not able to go to Italy this summer we brought Italy to us.

You never know what is going to happen when you host an Italian in your home. (See previous post on Micah's cars). Matteo was staying with us last month and his Dad from Italy showed up at our door. (We did not know he was in the states on business). He happens to be the president of a Parmesan cheese company. So he brought four huge samples. Yum.

2007-08-24T13:07:00.000-07:00

4th of July Parade

Aptos, CA

2007-08-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

2 of our favorite guy's came to visit us this July. My Dad & my Nephew. This is a picture of them hiking near our house.

2007-08-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

Vacation Bible Camp

Santa Cruz Bible Church

June 2007

2007-08-23T14:43:00.000-07:00

Our niece Kalia's 3rd Birthday We hosted her party in our new backyard (We love our new yard!)
I have never gotten so many kids to where party hats and look at a camera. I just had to post this pic. for that reason

Micah with his great- grandma Lauri (Kevin's grandma) and cousin Zach

2007-08-02T15:54:00.000-07:00

Wineries

2007-08-02T15:44:00.000-07:00

Watkins Glen, NY

2007-08-02T15:11:00.000-07:00

More fun Lake House pictures... All Boy
Cousins- Melissa & Brett
Kaia with her Great- Grandma Alice
Kaia & Natasha
Micah practicing for when he is older
The Boys
Some of the girls
DAY by fire
Kevin showing off with Kaia

floating around

2007-08-02T14:56:00.000-07:00

la famiglia

2007-07-26T11:51:00.000-07:00

A very yummy Mexican restaurant in Corning, NY

We are spoiled in Santa Cruz with many good Mexican restaurant's and traveling sometimes we go thru. withdrawl so this was a special find.

Corning Museum of Glass

2007-07-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

This used to be my parents deck.
At great grandparents house (Alice & Joes's)

Loyalsock Creek

Montoursville, Pennsylvannia visit

June 2007

2007-07-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

Congratulations also to Jim, who just relocated to Portland, OR for a new job in Biology. I don't have a picture of him in Portland, but here is a cute one of Kaia with her uncle Jungle Jim. It is from our recent family vacation to the finger lakes, which I will post more pictures of soon.

2007-07-24T10:15:00.000-07:00

Nicole & Scott Prom 2007 MHS

(Check out the background- My parents completely remodeled the house)

2007-07-24T10:09:00.000-07:00

Congrulations Colleen for your graduation from Bloomsburg & your internship. Good luck on the job hunt.

2007-07-20T13:39:00.000-07:00

Micah likes cars.

I told this to our friend in Italy, Federico, who stayed with us last summer. So he sent all his car collection to Micah. It was such a surprise to Micah to open a box full of miniature Lamborghini's, Ferrari's, etc. He never leaves home without a car in hand. These pictures have just some of the cars that were sent.

2007-07-20T09:11:00.000-07:00

It's a girl! Sorry I did not post this sooner, we found out about 2 months ago, but as you will see in the following posts it has been a busy couple months. What can I say- she will be our third. Kaia's baby book has the date each one of her teeth came in, Micah has his first couple recorded, I am sure this one will have teeth come in, but the evidence will be in there existence. Kaia so excited to find out she was having a sister, she was praying every night for one. She has given the baby her nickname 'Sunny'. It is an improvement form what she wanted to name Micah 'highchair'. Name suggestions anyone?

2007-04-10T17:38:00.000-07:00

Easter Picures

2007-04-10T17:27:00.000-07:00

The City of Brotherly Love...

Philadephia, PA

Micah's first real Philly Cheesesteak (with Uncle Jimmy) Kaia at the Liberty Bell

I love this picture of Micah with his great grandpa Joe. I said smile and they both gave me the same big smile. Aren't they cute - see the resemblance?

2007-02-14T11:03:00.000-08:00

Fire Station Field Trip

Feb 2007

Scotts Valley, CA

2007-02-14T11:00:00.000-08:00

Third annual Mother-Daughter Tea

Dec. 2006

Carmel, CA

2007-01-16T14:38:00.000-08:00

Lake Tahoe

Jan. 2007

We got to see more family and visit with more friends. We also had fun, ice skating, skiing & sledding. Is the Holidays over yet?

2007-01-16T14:28:00.000-08:00

West coast party. We flew across the country and made it back to have yet another Christmas with Kevin's side of the family.

New Year's Eve tea party. Kaia with Kalia & Shealyn.

2007-01-16T14:00:00.000-08:00

East Coast Party. We had a fun visit with many family & friends on the East coast. Here are just some of the many pictures. I also had a fun birthday party while I was in PA. It was great to be home and to see everyone.

Cousins- Amber & Amanda

Natasha & Kaia styling in thier Christmas dresses

Kaia & Micah opening Christmas presents.
Lisa & I Hiking behind my parents on Christmas Eve. No White Christmas this year.

<-Just the 10 of us.

Kaia, Natasha, Damien & Micah->

Emma & Kaia saying goodbye after a fun visit with the Hardings in Baltimore

Kaia's favorite present. (this is at our house before we went to PA) Santa came early.

2007-01-16T13:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I upgraded to the new blogger. So far it does not make my life easier, I just have to sign in twice.

Anyway, here is Micah & Kaia after getting Christmas pictures done, I finally get them to smile.

Kaia & Micah with Santa in Aptos villiage. They had a Christmas tree lighting with caroling and Santa Clause. It was real cute and we saw a lot of friends from Kaia's preschool.

Kaia dressed as Sleeping Beauty for the Shakespeare Santa Cruz winter family preformance (Sleeping Beauty) , another new tradtion. Last year we went to see Cinderella and I did not know that most the little girls dressed up as the characters. Kaia did not let me make that mistake twice!

2007-01-15T14:24:00.000-08:00

The Holiday's ...
It's the most (Insert your adjective here as a comment) time of the year.
Well, santa got me a new camera so I have so many picture I would like to share, so I will try to narrow down to our favorite Holiday picture's. I feel like instead of the 12 days of Christmas it was more like around twice that.

-Christmas parade in downtown (Kaia, Micah, Kalia, Frosty the snowman)
-Yes, that is us ice skating in sunny CA
-Yummy gingerbread house
-Kaia & Julie getting ready for ISI party

2006-12-11T09:13:00.000-08:00

I finally got a picture of my new nephew. I can't wait to meet him!

2006-11-29T11:39:00.000-08:00

Our third annual hunt for a Christmas tree at Johnson's Christmas tree farm. We go every year with four other families. Same four families every year, but there are more and more kids each year. It seemed we had to factor in more opinions this year. Micah picked a tree, Kaia picked a tree. Finally, we all agreed on a tree. It was named 'Captian Hook'. Kaia helped cut it down.

2006-11-29T11:01:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving with Cousins

2006-11-16T17:13:00.000-08:00

Southern California Adventure
While Kevin stayed home to remodel the kitchen. Julie, Kaia & Micah

drove to Southern Cali to meet up with the Isaacs (who were also visiting)

and visit family & friends.

2006-11-07T08:52:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween!
<--Piglet

Ariel (the little mermaid)
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