Lucky 7

December 21, 2002

Hola Lina!

Meet Lina.

Isn't she beautiful? Lina was my college roommate while attending my Freshman year at Penn State (Abington). We lived in an attic, in an old mansion across from our campus. I am not kidding when I say ATTIC. There were three (mini) bedrooms, a bathroom and a "kitchen" that had a mini fridge and hotplate in it! It wasn't luxury (even though it was in a beautiful mansion) but we made the best of it. I was a little nervous to meet Lina at first because the owner (Mrs. Joseph) had told me that my roommate was a "princess from an island." hahaha!

I still remember that hot August day as we unpacked our belongings. We were in our makeshift kitchen and at the same time we placed a can of peas&carrots and a can of New England Clam Chowder on the shelf. That was the icebreaker we needed. (I thought I was the only weirdo who ate that stuff) We had a good laugh and quickly learned that we actually had A LOT in common even though we grew up in different cultures. Our year living together was awesome and I will always cherish those memories!

Lina was born and raised in Puerto Rico and she moved back to PR after graduating in 2000. She married her college sweetheart, Kris (funny that we married guys with the same name AND they are both engineers) and they are the proud parents of THREE gorgeous girls! I plan to do a Flashback Friday soon about my 2008 trip visiting her family...it's always fun spending time with them. I wish we had a vacation house there so I could live there in the winter!

Here is Lina and Kris with Ryan. They met Ryan and Kara for the first time this past September. It was a great seeing them and I hope we are able to visit them down in PR soon!

Lina and I do a gift exchange around the holidays each year for the children. This year, she got Ryan this fun spin and hop toy. He really loves playing with it (as does Chris!).

Thank you Lina!

¡Nosotros le perdemos y le adoramos tanto!

~Flashback Friday~

I know you are all waiting soooo very patiently for Ryan's 3rd birthday update with pictures. I mean geez...it's been over a month since the party and almost a month since his birthday! Well, I hate to make you wait longer but I had to post about his first two birthdays first so here is my first installment of

Flashback Friday!

(wow...I used the word "first" way too many times in that last sentence!)

Ryan's Birthday Memories ~ take one

Ryan 1st Birthday....can you guess the theme?

Chris and I LOVE LOVE LOVE to throw parties! We also love having theme parties and look forward to celebrating Ryan's birthday every year....soon we will have two parties to plan each year. Thank goodness they are almost 6 months apart or we would probably go a little crazy.

Ryan was pretty much obsessed with Elmo and Sesame Street at age one so that theme wasn't hard to decide. Chris is very creative with making signs so we put together this one on the front door for the guests to see as they entered....

As pictured above, we made cupcakes instead of buying Ryan a 1st Birthday Cake. We are not fans of store bought cakes and actually make (well Chris is the master cake maker...more on that later) the birthday cakes each year. We decided on cupcakes because it was the perfect size for a toddler to smash and eat. This was Ryan's first taste of chocolate!!! Let's just say...he loved every last bite of his birthday cupcake!

Oh those LIPS...those big kissable lips! Eat your heart out Angelina Jolie!

...and those cheekies! I miss pinching those cute, chubby cheeks!

We had all our family and friends leave a message on this sign before they left. I have it in a safe place all wrapped up for him to enjoy when he is older. Now I know what you're thinking...boy aren't they creative with putting R for RYAN and number 1 for his age, huh? Yea, we surprise even ourselves with the things we can come up with!

Ryan was not only lucky to have one birthday bash....but TWO that year! We also celebrated his 1st birthday at Thanksgiving with Chris' extended family! Grandma High got him this cute cake...which he enjoyed tasting as well.

Did you notice that lovely black and blue mark on his right cheek? Well, that happened the day of his first party. He was playing with his cousins Maddie and Billy on a chair and fell off. It was actually quite comical because when we rushed over, the two older cousins both had their hands up and said, "I didn't do it....we don't know how he fell!"...such a kid response! This was his second big boo-boo...the first one happened the night of my brother's wedding where he got a good goose egg on his forehead from falling off a step. There have been many a boo-boo since...

Come here and give me a KISS!

As I looked back at the pictures of Ryan's first birthday, the biggest memory I have is all the love Ryan received from our family and friends! Sure there were gifts galore (tons of Elmo items!) but the best gift was having everyone together to oooo and ahhh over this sweet precious baby boy!

He is very much loved....

Ryan's 2nd Birthday....this theme is a little harder to guess if you aren't familiar with Eric Carle. The Very Hungry Caterpillar was Ryan's favorite book at age two.

Now here is where I get to show off my husband's secret talent! He made both these cakes from scratch! I didn't even know he could do this until he whipped these babies together the night before the party! I am in complete amazement with the things Chris can do sometimes. Isn't that caterpillar a spittin' image of the one on the book and look at that beautiful butterfly! Ok, so I have to give myself a pat on the back because I did help him mix up the greens so they were the matching shades from the book AND I came up with the crumbled "dirt" that the caterpillar is sitting on. It's chocolate filled oreos! Plus the caterpiller wouldn't have had feet if I hadn't thought about using hershey kisses...BUT Chris was and still is the master cake decorator.

To go along with our theme, our guests enjoyed a yummy feast that included ALL the food that the caterpillar ate in the book! If you haven't read the book, you won't understand...so maybe you should head over to your local library and read it...I can assure you won't be disappointed. :)
This is a picture of my sister Bambi and her husband Drew enjoying our picnic spread. She is almost 8 months pregnant with my nephew Owen.

Here's Ryan hanging out with his girls!! They can't get enough of him! haha

Speaking of being pregnant...so was I! We had found out a month before his party that we were going to have a second bundle of joy. We decided to surprise our family at his party. We had him take in a sign he had created that said "Mommy is going to have a BABY!" to show to all our family and friends. It was great to see the shock and joy on their faces!! I wish we would have gotten a picture of my mom's reaction but we do have it on video. Here is Ryan and Mommy...we are opening gifts. He is one lucky boy each year!

Once again, we celebrated Ryan's birthday at Thanksgiving as well. Grandma High got him two mini cakes in the shape of a kitty and a puppy! He loved them.

Chris' family, including Grandma and Pop-Pop High weren't able to make his first birthday party so they did not know about our exciting news. We decided to surprise them in a different way. This time we had him wear a shirt that said "Best Big Brother" on the front. We put a sweater over it and had planned to surprise everyone after dinner. But it was unseasonably warm last year and Grandma High kept telling me to take the sweater off the poor child so we went to plan B and surprised them all before dinner. I took his sweater off and had him go into the kitchen where Grandma High was so he could show her his shirt. As he was walking in, I told her that he got a new shirt for his birthday and she needed to read it. Well...she didn't get it at first! hahaha...she seriously read it like 5 times before she yelled OH.MY.GOSH! Her reaction was even better than Mom-Mom Delp's. Again, we didn't get it a picture BUT it's on video and watching every one's reactions is priceless. Now of course the birthday boy didn't really understand what the big deal was all about....he was just happy to get more cake!

Ryan's 3rd Birthday...look for a post COMING SOON!

~ 11.19.05 at 6:53 am... ~

...at that exact moment in time, you came into our lives....we were now a family. You weighed 7 lbs. 3 oz. and 20 inches in length.

Such a beautiful baby....still are.

At ONE years old, you amazed us all by communicating through sign language. You had already been walking (toddling) for over 2 months before you turned one. We thought your blond hair and big blue eyes would have changed by now...but they didn't.

Oh what a cute baby boy you were!

Your first school picture at 18 months old. Look at how GROWN UP you look!! This is when we realized that you were becoming a little boy and our sweet little baby was slowly disappearing. You continue to amaze us with how quickly you learn things. You still prefer to use sign language over talking but we know you will join the chatter club eventually....and you did.

TWO years old. A month before you turned 2, mommy shared a secret with you. You were going to be a BIG BROTHER! We had you tell our family and friends at your birthday parties. Even though you didn't completely understand what was going on, we could tell you knew something special was going to happen....and you took to your new role in the family very well. You have such a loving and sweet bond with your baby sister.

THREE years old and such a BIG BOY! Oh my have you grown! You are such a curious and lovable boy. You melt the hearts of everyone around you. We are still waiting for you to decide that potty training is a good thing but we know you will get it some day...hopefully soon! Words can not describe how much JOY you bring to your Mommy and Daddy.

We love you more than you will ever know!

Happy 3rd Birthday, RYAN!

Happy 100 and Halloween

Happy 100 post! Wow. This marks my 100th post since starting to blog in March '08. I think it's quite the accomplishment especially with having two little ones, my hubby and the house to take care of on a daily basis! I wanted to do something cool for my 100th post, like post 100 fun facts about The High Family BUT like I said, I have two adorable little ones, a wonderful husband and a disorganized house to take care of first! haha Maybe I will put that idea on my blog "to-do" list and surprise you all some other time.

In the meanwhile...here is a recap of our Halloween 2008 with a little trip down memory lane first...

It wasn't until 2007 that I was introduced to this wonderful world of blogging. Our little man of the house (Ryan C.) was about to turn 2.5 when I started our first blog in March of this year. I feel like I must take trips down "memory lane" (what a clever title huh?! ;) ) to include his many firsts before becoming a big brother in June. I plan to take many trips in the future, I hope you enjoy them. So here is my "bubba" in his past Halloween costumes! He is such a cutie.

Ryan's 1st Halloween! (Oct. 2006)

RYAN the LION (I loved that it rhymed!)

Halloween 2007

RYAN the KANGAROO (we both loved this cute costume-- I found out I was pregnant with Kara 1 week after purchasing this cute costume. Isn't it ironic that he has a baby Joey in his pouch?!) Ryan's 1st pumpkin!

Now... Halloween 2008

Kara had many "looks" this Halloween. Grandma High got her a cute ghost onesie that she worn during the day. My mother (mom-mom Delp) got Kara her official costume that she wore on Halloween night. This afternooon, we went over to Mom-Mom Delp's work to visit and show off the kiddies costumes. I am glad I did this because I was able to get pictures taken of them as well. Below is Kara in her many Halloween looks.

BOO! I'm a ghost on Halloween night...if you get scared....turn off the light!
Kara doing her best impression of Frankenstein!! Isn't it great?!
Do you like my socks? My "mummy" does!
Our "LOVE BUG"

I thought she would hate being in it but she didn't complain...too much. :)

Due to our busy weekend, we had to run to Sam's Club to get what we needed foodwise for the parties. We got home just in time to walk down one street for trick or treating. Kara was cranky so I took Ryan by myself. HE LOVED IT! It was so much fun watching him get excited to run up to the doors, ring their door bells and yell TRICK OR TREAT! He kept telling me to hurry up..."let's go...more mommy more!" Guess I wasn't walking fast enough for him! It was a gorgeous night too. Nice cool autumn evening....not too cold.

Ohhh...you want to know what Ryan was Halloween??....right....here you go. Introducing...

DOCTOR Ryan C. High
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!