Wine Tasting and Poker

Saturday morning, Chris and I went wine tasting with some family that was in town. Uncle Eric is still close with the people who work at Artessa, so we naturally went there. Employee discount on fabulous wine? Yes please!

Beautiful!

Later that night we played poker as usual during big family get togethers. I won the first hand, which they say is bad luck. But not that night! I ended up playing till the end and winning $70. I think this is my first victory, and it was so sweet, especially beating Tim who tried to weasel himself into a win.

Rowles-Alba Visit

Gianna told me tonight that she misses Phoebe and Gabby. It was so sad. We really had a great weekend!

The engaged couple graduated!

We pretty much loved on that sweet baby all weekend.

Chris put up a tire swing, and it was a huge hit. Phoebe didn't want to get off!

Till we told her it was bath time:

Half of Grandma's kids were in town in one weekend! Don't know when thats going to happen again.

Grandma is coming back next weekend for a conference. Megan and family will be here too so it will be a full house again!

A New Aunt!

So Uncle Tim popped the question Friday night. Ashley had her Senior Art Studio Friday night and once all of her dresses were modeled, he got down on one knee and proposed. Here is a video of it. (quality is not that great)

We have all been obsessed with Ashley from the day we met her, and these pictures will help illustrate that point. She is incredibly creative and talented. Here are some other dresses she made:

This was taken seconds after he popped the question. She looks so happy! The dress on the right is supposed to represent a perfume bottle.

This one represents the hair curler. Look at the shoes made out of electrical cords!

This dress represents a blow dryer. Same sort of shoe, just a little different design.

This one is probably my favorite, and Ashley spent a TON of time on it. This one represents eye brow pencils. The shoes are so freaking cool. Wish I had a closer up picture.

Now, an art show is probably about the worst place in the world to bring a toddler and a 4 year old to, but it obviously had to be done. UD's art village has lots of balconies to run up and down, and THANK God I had copiuous amounts of m&ms from Teacher Appreciation week. There was some pretty amazing art, including a few rock and pebble formations on the floor that could have very easily been destroyed by a curious Elia. Thats why I didn't get many more pictures, or if I did, they weren't that great. The girls looked beauteous as usual in their dresses.

The white box they are sitting on was for the models to sit on. They were totally cheesing for the camera at the end of the night on their sugar highs!
Afterwards, Chris' cousin Katie, who is a freshman at UD came over to babysit so that we could all go out and celebrate. Welcome to the family Ashley!

Busy Busy Weekend

The Rowles had a great weekend, very busy! Saturday was spent raking the back yard with the girls watching.




G in her coat and Elia bundled up in 2 coats and lots of blankets/pillows surrounding her to stay warm.


Doesn't her hat say it all?

We put our tree up and got lights on it as well. Then Sunday was the usual starting with church. Then Uncle Tim and his gf Ashley (pronounced by G as Actually) came over and helped entertain G until naptime. She is obsessed with them, can you tell?



Uncle Tim and Ashley reading before her nap.

BTW Tim, if you are reading this, Ashley is awesome, do whatever you can to keep her! So then Uncles Matt and Patrick came over and all 3 boys helped Chris rake the front yard and put up lights. The front looks great! Meanwhile G and I decorated the Christmas tree with our ornaments. This is what it looks like.
Just kidding, I wish. Maybe when my kids are older and I have gobs of money.



Right now I am plenty happy with what we have- multicolored lights with homemade and mismatched ornaments. Its funny the many memories I have of different ornaments from my own childhood. There were certain ones that were the favorites, that we would fight over. One such ornament was one that as kids we sent in 2 proofs of purchase plus S & H from a box of cereal called Sugar Puffs. Anyone out there remember Sugar Bear? The ornament was a stuffed Sugar Bear with a santa hat and if you squeezed it it played Christmas music- I'm sure it drove my mom crazy. The ornament, probably at least 15 years old by now, still makes music and is still a favorite of our family :). I think Gianna already has a favorite of her own- one that Grandma Rowles gave Chris 2 years ago that, of course, makes noise. Chris' mom has a WONDERFUL tradition- she gives each of her children an ornament as a Christmas present each year. She would write the name of each kid and the year she gave it to them on the back of the ornament. So the Christmas after Chris and I were married, we actually had ornaments to put on our first, tiny tree. And its really fun to see the ornaments he has recieved through the years. We continued the tradition here at the Rowles house, so no matter what our decorations will never match! Here are some more of the girls and their boys! Thanks for coming over to play!

PS. Two cute things about the girls- Gianna loves to play with our nativity scene, and today she was showing the Baby Jesus to her uncles. "Isn't he a cute little baby?" and "Baby Jesus is Elia's little brother" were just 2 of the many cute things she has said about Jesus!

Elia cut another tooth sometime today! Her upper right tooth is just below the surface of her gums, and still not wanting to eat baby food!