DATE NIGHT!!!!!

Tonight was Iofredo Date Night....Daddy and Reagan had a date and Mommy and Riley had a date! It was so much fun! We told the girls last night that we were doing this, which may have been a mistake because they didn't talk about anything else ALL DAY LONG. They were so excited they could hardly stand it, which proves that we need to do this again soon! We let each of them choose whatever restaurant that they wanted to take us to. (We gave them a list of about 5 of our usual spots). Riley didn't need 5 choices...she shouted out "BOB EVANS!!!!" the second we told them they could choose where they wanted to eat. So...our date was set. Reagan wanted to go to one of our other favorite spots, Bruccis. It's a little Italian restaurant right by our house (and next to Bob Evans) that is SUPER family friendly! Matt and Reagan dropped Riley and me off at Bob Evans and went to Bruccis, but it was dollar pizza slices tonight (and dollar beer and dollar wine night too) and Matt said they could hardly get in the door. So...they changed plans and went to the Mexican restaurant next door. Reagan could have cared less because she was just so happy and proud to be with her Daddy! Matt said that she didn't stop smiling and hugging him the whole time they were there. Riley was just as happy but I'm not sure that she wasn't more excited to be at Bob Evans than to be with me. That kid LOVES Bob Evans. Matt and Reagan finished their meal in about 6 minutes (typical Mexican restaurant!) and came back to Bobs to have dessert with Riley and Mommy! It was an awesome night and the girls really did have so much fun. It was so nice to sit and talk with our girls alone for a bit...and Matt and I both agreed that we'll be doing this a lot more from now on. I told Matt we had to make sure and take pictures at dinner tonight...so here they are!!!

And...one of my friends sent this to me the other day. It's from the movie UP...if you haven't seen it, you should. It's so awesome! But I thought it was especially fitting for our day today and something that everyone can benefit from every once and awhile!

School Christmas Party

Believe it or not, even though it's only December 9th, the girls had their class Christmas party this morning! Their last day of school is this Friday. Yikes for me! (Just kidding...sort of!). We continue to feel so blessed by their amazing school, the friends they've made there (and the friends we've made too!) and the girl's teachers, Ms. Janet and Ms. Kelly who love our girls so much! Here are some cute pictures from this morning. (I tried to get pictures of Reagan and Riley together...but they just weren't having it!). Matt snapped a couple on the way out of the party but they were so excited at that point because their teachers had given them each a present and they were dying to get to the car to open them! Riley had put her present down for the picture...that's why she's looking at the ground. She couldn't take her eyes off of it! Such a fun morning!

Mary Had a Baby

We've been reading a lot of books about the real meaning of Christmas and the girls talk about the Baby Jesus all of the time. Nana and BopBop sent a Playmobil Nativity playset and that's been a huge hit! So when the girls started singing this new song last week and I'd never heard it before, at first I thought they were making it up as they went along. But then I realized it was just a little too good and they kept singing it sort of the same way each time!  They didn't have all of the words right but kept singing nonetheless. When we were at school today I asked the teachers about it and they showed me that they had it written down and that the class sings it every morning together. I took a picture of the words so that you could see what they really are in case you can't tell. (sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb!)! Reagan put on a show for us in the car yesterday on the way to the playground so I grabbed the camera to try and get it. Here it is....quite beautiful, don't you think?!?? My favorite part is when she talks about the "swaddling clothes". We love it. 

We LOVE Florida!!!!

We had such a great weekend (minus a Buckeye's loss to Sparty!)!  We couldn't believe the amazing weather on Saturday...85 and sunny all day long. We spent the entire morning at the beach just playing on the beach and swimming in the pool and then took the girls home for naps and decided to head back down to the beach for more fun after they woke up! We laughed because it took the girls quite a bit to get used to swimming again! They hadn't been in a couple of months and it took about 5 minutes before they were back to acting like fish and crying when we made them get out! We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful spot and try our best to take full advantage of the gorgeous weather we have whenever we're able! Here are a few pics and video from Saturday!

Thanksgiving FUN!!!!!!

We had such a great Thanksgiving this year! We were lucky enough to have Nana Susan and T, and Auntie Liza and Uncle Mark travel down here to come to our house for Thanksgiving! We had too much fun and miss everyone already! We missed all of our family members that we didn't get to see this holiday, but rest assured we thought about you and you were in our hearts the whole time!
We did a lot of just playing at the house as it was a little colder than we wished it would have been, but we also went to the playground, the zoo, out to dinner and the beach and did lots of other fun things! It was a packed week! Auntie Liza and Uncle Mark continue to be two of Reagan and Riley's favorite people in the world even though we hadn't seen them since Februaray,  and they had so much fun playing with them. Liza brought the girls each their own little "makeup" kits and they were constantly asking her to play makeup with them and paint their nails. They even talked Uncle Mark and Matt into letting them paint their nails one day! Ha!!!! The girls had fun showing them how to feed the giraffes at the zoo, and Auntie Liza came up with a new favorite game...the "Hairdryer Game" which they keep asking me to do with them now (see the video below!). It was just a wonderful Thanksgiving and we're so blessed to have such wonderful family!

My little reader

Yesterday I was in the kitchen doing a bunch of things while the girls played and read in the family room. I wouldn't necessarily say that I was ignoring them....but I was definitely focused on what I was doing and NOT on what they were doing. All of a sudden, I heard Reagan reading the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle.  She had the words right (yes, it's a super easy, repetitive book, but still!!!!!....) and was reading the book to Riley. I stood and stared at them for about 30 seconds trying not to cry at the fact that my little baby was "reading" a book!!! Then I ran to grab my phone to try and get it on video. It was amazing. I was so impressed!!!! Here is a link to the video...for some reason it was too long so I just uploaded it to YouTube! Check it out!!!!

http://youtu.be/PjbkN28dJ2M

A random assortment!

I know it's time for an update...but truthfully we haven't done anything SUPER exciting in a while. The weather has been great still (I hear it's changing tomorrow!) and so I've taken the girls to the beach every day, every chance I can get. They love it there so much and have so much fun (and so do I!). This morning we were there and were the only ones on the beach for a whole hour...amazing! We've also been going to the playground a lot too which they LOVE. We went on Sunday with Matt and I got some video of them singing for us in the car. They still sing NONSTOP all day long. The videos aren't the best, but you'll get the idea!
Last week we did have a rainy day and I think I've said this before, but the one thing that Jacksonville is lacking is something to do with toddlers when it rains! We're not ready for the movies or museums yet and I clearly can't go to the beach or the zoo! So....I took the girls to the one indoor mall nearby (our biggest shopping area is amazing but like everything else is all outside), and they got to ride the train inside of the mall all around.  It was probably one of my least favorite things I've done in awhile...but they were in heaven and talked about it for the rest of the day, so it was worth it!!! We are having a set of twins (boy/girl) over tomorrow afternoon for a playdate so that should be fun/interesting!!! I'll keep you posted! Anyways, enjoy the random assortment of pictures/video below!!!