"I have stripes!"

Hi friends!  I know it's been forever since I wrote a blog - I couldn't resist sharing these Tigger pictures with you!  This was by far the best Halloween I've ever had.  We spent the evening with our wonderful friends who moved down this summer from Massachusetts.  Their girls are Zaiya's big sisters now - he absolutely adores them so going trick or treating with them made his Halloween very special!  I think every aspect of Zaiya's personality is pictured here... so enjoy!

Happy Tigger!

Hilarious, badass Tigger!

Little brother Tigger!

Too cute for words Tigger!

Contemplative Tigger 

Fascinated Tigger!

 Grumpy (for reasons none of us could figure out) Tigger!

Gene Kelly Tigger!

Generous Tigger - gathering acorns for our friend, Lewis the squirrel!

                                               

The highlight of the evening for me was watching Zaiya hand out treats to the trick-or-treaters... he was so sweet giving out the candy and saying, "Happy Halloween!" after every "Here you go!"  He finally got bored with this, however, and ended up standing in front of them while I gave out candy and saying, "I have STRIPES!"  This night was one of my happiest of the year and I'm very thankful to have such close friends so close by who helped make it so memorable!

Happy Halloween!!

A Holiday Update in June... so??

Happy Holidays 2011!

We spent the holidays in Raleigh for the most part last year.  We gathered at my sister's house so all the boys could open their presents together and it was quite the gathering!  I had never seen so many presents in my life under one tree!  We had a great time and certainly are very thankful for all of our gifts - material and not! Marc's daughter and niece were in town for two weeks over the holidays and while I think most of the time they were bored to death (even with a toddler), we made some amazing memories and they got a good rest from their real lives (college life for Shaine and job search after college for Lourdi!)

This was the tree at the cabin where we spent New Year's this year - so beautiful!

 

I'm pretty much the luckiest step-mom in the world!  And, when I grow up, I want to have the body and guts to dress like my step-daughter, pretty please.

I love this girl!  Not sure what I would've done without her over these holidays - she came up to Asheville with me for New Years and we had a BLAST!

We had so much fun showing Raleigh off to Shaine and Lourdi - of course after living in New York and Boston they were laughing that we call it a "city" but they were surprised to see all the tall buildings anyway, lol.

Marc and Lourdi - lookin' like twins!

So hard to keep this little guy still!!  This was the best one of the two of us and I still love the lil look on his face.  

Madre and Padre.

YES, it was the absolute best one of all of us together, the others you could see even less of Z's face in!

Mom and dad got a canvas of their view from the mountain, so they can always see it now, even when they aren't there!

 

I hope Zaiya learns to play the piano and loves it... and does a better job of practicing than his mommy did!  He absolutely loves pianos and begs to play them whenever he sees one.  He is very focused and gentle while playing and I just love the look on his face when he gets excited about being able to play music!  Also, I love that my brother was there to help him get it set up, John is so great w/the kids!

Lourdi definitely bonded w/my parents on this trip.  My mom made her an official stocking that has been passed down for generations in our family.   Now, we all have matching stockings hanging for the Holidays!

I did it again, folks.  I actually wrote all that and never published it. It is now July.  I have lost 40 pounds since this was written.  I am going to write a post about that with before/after pics b/c I'm so amazingly proud of myself!  Lots of things contributed to the transformation and not all of them are fun, but back to the 2011 Holidayz - It was fabulous!  I am lucky to have such a wonderfully diverse family.  I love them all to the moon and back!

Playing catch up

Hi!  It is now April.  Halfway through April... I started this post in March... sigh.... see below:

 Happy March New Year!  Wow... it.... reallyyyyy.... is.... MARCH.  Sigh.  What can I say, folks?  He moves faster these days, and I'm even more exhausted than before.  No more late night blogging for this chica!  Hence, the lack of an update since August... which was already belated.  I just pretty much decided to do some serious prioritizing in my life and unfortunately, the blog didn't make the top 5.  I know some of you rely on it for updates on the little guy, so I do apologize for that!  I can't possibly catch you up on all the adorable photo opps that I've taken advantage of since August, so I just picked a couple of my favorite moments/events and I hope that they put a smile on your face! 

I love the Radio Flyer pics!  :)

We went to the pumpkin farm with my family again this year and it was so much fun watching the boys run through the corn field maze!  Zaiya loved picking his own pumpkin, too!  

We went to Massanutten Resort with my parents in November, something my dad has been dreaming about for a long time.  It was such a wonderful time together, as it has been a while time since our entire family (including the young Navy dude :)) has been together for Thanksgiving.

We tried getting pics of the three of these boys... and we tried... and we tried.  This is my favorite of all the attempts because it TRULY sums up their personalities.

Cutest. Thing. EVER. Especially considering that the proportions increase as age decreases.  :)  LOL

Zaiya's first time visiting a farm!

He obviously loved it.

I just love these pics, especially Zaiya's facial expression waiting for the food!

My little man is the cutest thing I've ever seen and WHAT an outfit!  Of course, his stylish mamma picked out these classic pants for him.

We officially made the transition from crib to toddler bed after we learned to jump out of the crib and the pack-n-play!  Wow!  This one was tough... for mommy.  Haha, I coudln't handle that he was already big enough to actually crawl into bed himself and STAY there.  We had so much fun tucking him in the 1st night, and he did a great job of staying there and the actual transition was quite smooth.  He's officially a big kid now.  I still can't believe how fast he's growing.  It is quite awesome, though, that now he can wake up, get himself out of his room and come crawl into bed and give hugs and kisses early in the morning to us.  It's adorable and precious and I love every minute of that par tof his amazing leap into toddlerhood!

Yes, you are correct if you guessed that this is Zaiya, Dimitri, and Landon.  Landon and Dimitri are the same age, btw.  Dimitri is doing GREAT!  He is such a little miracle.  He is still in treatment and still needs your thoughts and prayers, for sure.  But, he is a trooper and brings our hearts so much joy when we get to see him laughing and playing like this.  He came over to play with Zaiya one night when Landon was spending the night w/us as well.  It was quite the time, with three boys in our house!

Christmas was at the Coles this year; and it was so much fun.  Zaiya has really taken a liking to playing any and every kind of piano he can get his hands on, so my parents got him a little Melissa and Doug piano this year.  He is on it all the time.  And, it's very sweet... I... kind of wish it sounded a little more "in tune" lol but it's fine, he really loves it and this is a love we certainly want to nurture!  We also enjoying nurturing his love of computers.  Zaiya and Connor got the same Leapfrog computer this year, because, well, if they hadn't our Christmas would've been a lot more interesting.  Haha!!  There are so many cute pics of the two of them sitting at this table computing together; this one is one of my favorites because Connor looks like he's just received some life changing information! 

Zaiya also got a doll this year from his grandma!  This doll has been a *little* controversial in our mutli-cultural house, but, as you can see we cannot deny how absolutely adorable this scene is.  This was one of the first nights he had with the doll.  We watched him take this doll through every routine we've taken with him nearly every night since he was born.  It was precious.  I firmly believe that teaching little boys and little girls nurturing skills is vital.  Therefore, I freaking gotta say that I LOVE to see this happening.  I love watching my little boy developing such a tender and sensitive personality.

Kristen and I continue to love that our boys get to grow up so close to one another.  This particular night after Landon's birthday party in January, Kristen and I brought our pj's upstairs for the boys and realized we'd both picked out the same ones.  Of all the pj's in both our houses, this was hilarious!!!  Of course, Zaiya and Connor LOVED getting into their dinosaurous (as Zaiya calls them) pj's together.  It took stuffing them in this chair and spinning them around to get them still and together enough to snap this pic!  Worth it!

We spent New Year's on the mountain with my parents.  Correction:  Zaiya spent the night on the cabin and my neice, Shaine and I, headed to Asheville to spend the night w/a good friend of mine form college.  We had a blast.  This is a pic of Zaiya chilling in the abnormally warm December weather with my parents, who were eating crabs and drinking beer on this gorgeous day!  It was a super fabulous weekend!

                                                 

(PAUSE:  That's it... that's all I had accomplished and written back in March... but somehow I felt it was not complete.  So... I will blame perfectionism which I cannot deny.  I am sorry that I kept this delayed for an entire month just because of my neurosis.  Oh well, at least I don't have a problem with denial too!)


Moving right along... ahem....

The following will just be a slide show because you all know how adorable I think my baby is :) and how cute and adorable and smart he is.  These are some fun pics, all from my phone because they are the only ones available to me at the moment!  Zaiya did have a 2nd birthday party and we did take pictures... at some point... I will try and post some because it was quite a lot of fun watching him eat his cupcake/cake/cake balls!

This is now his favorite thing to do... :)  He looks like a natural!  And, yes, he is in my lap!

 

I discovered INSTAGRAM.  It's fun, I probably won't use it b/c it's quite overwhelming the number of things we are meant to share our photo-life-stories with today.  BUT, isn't' this sweet?

This is the coolest toy at Zaiya's daycare.  I'm glad I snapped these pics before they removed.

Mr. Cool!!!

The next update will be about Christmas 2011... you'll just have to forgive me, it's worth the wait I promise!  HAHAHA

Love to everyone!!

The Obas Family