Pino Family Reunion

So what do you get when you have 125 Mexicans in one room during the hottest heat wave of the summer....you get the Pino Family Reunion.  For months now, my family had been putting together this reunion and the day had finally arrived.  I appreciate the hard work of my Aunt Sandra and the committee of cousins who worked hard on the event.

I honestly had no clue how huge the Pino Family is and was shocked by the turn out!  I am just so used to our little group of Pino's from my Papa Tony and Grandma Ramona.  My Papa Tony is 1 of 8 kids, and sadly he is the only Pino sibling who is still alive, so this event was something he was really looking forward too.  The event was held in Corona at the American Legions Hall.  Each family was given a color and a name tag so everyone would be able to see which of the 8 siblings you were linked too.  Some of the families even wore the color they were given to help distinguish them.  We were YELLOW but decided against color coordinating at the event.  They had each family go up for photos and it was crazy seeing how small or how big some of the families were.  Jennie family (the blue family) was by far the largest family. They were probably 50% for the total people at the event. 

There were so many people there that I had never met.  I mostly caught up with close family.  However, it was nice to see people like my Dad, Aunt Sandra, Grandma working the room and catching up with distance relatives.  We did end up meeting some relatives who actually lived just up the street from us, which was pretty interesting.  

There were chips and homemade salsa on all of the tables (of course).  The dinner was catered by Maria who made some amazing tacos and there were even Mexican breads for dessert.  It was getting late, Madden was getting fussy, and honestly it was so hot in that hall, we decided after about 4 hours it was time to leave.  So I'm sad to say I missed out on watching my Dad hit the dance floor for 2 hours.  

It was a really nice event and a great history lesson on our family.  I know how much the whole event meant to Papa so I'm glad we were able to be there to support him and see how big of a family he and his wonderful sibling's all have.

Not too sure who these people are, but I think they are all cousins.

Skylar and her Great-Grandpa (my papa Tony) 

Madden and his Great-Grandma (my grandma Ramona)

Papa with all his 7 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren, with 1 more on the way.

Our attempt at a family photo.

Matthew mingling with our relatives.

Skylar having a ton of fun dancing with cousin Toni.

And other attempt at a family photo that just turned out really bad.

Football is Back!

My Sundays are now complete that football is back!!  We go seven long months with no Sunday football and I count the days until the NFL's returns.  With two kids now watching a full football game is totally impossible which is something I'm trying to get used too.  Jake has been great and taking Skylar to the pool or park Sunday mornings to help tired her out so we know she will take a long nap.  It was the Chargers first home game this past Sunday and we made sure to get the kids in the Chargers spirit.  Skylar was jealous at first to see Madden wearing his Chargers oneies that she immediately wanted her Chargers dress on.  Skylar did a bunch of cheering and clapping whenever she would see us cheering.  We may have a cheerleader on our hands!  

Growing up and watching football with my parents is a memory that I still remember and cherish.  We were huge Raiders fans and I would go to each home game with my parents when they were still the LA Raiders and I have nothing but fond memories from those Sundays.  I thank them for making me the football fanatic that I am today.  I really want Skylar and Madden to enjoy football as much as I do and I hope its something we can all watch and enjoy together as a family.....well they really may have no choice!

 

Madden and Uncle Matthew

Everyone asks me who I think Madden looks like; Jake or I, and I can't say who.  With Skylar I could totally see Jake in her from the day she was born, but with Madden I can't decide who he looks more like.  Well I think we now know who he looks like because here is a comparison picture of my brother Matthew at around four or five months and Madden at three months.  They could be twins!!   

Madden's 4 Months Stats

Yesterday Madden had his four month doctors appointment and the comment from all the nurses was "WOW, he is a big boy!"

Weight = 16.5 Pounds (95th percentile)

Height = 26.5 Inches (97th percentile)

Skylar's Big Girl Room

Okay, so anyone who knows me, knows that I really don't have a decorative bone in my body.  I have never really been good at putting cute things together and I usually get tired of whatever I pick out really fast (probably why Jake and I are on our third comforter set in just a few years).

When we moved into our new house I knew I really wanted to make Skylar the perfect "big girl" room when she was ready to transition out of her crib.  The poor girl is on her third house and third room in under two years and I felt she deserved to have a room she would be able to grow up in.  Luckily for me, one of my girlfriends posted some pictures of her son's bedroom on Facebook and I thought it was the cutest thing I had ever seen.  I asked her how she put it together and she told me her good friend who is a decorator of children's rooms put it all together for her.  I asked if she would contact her to see if she would be willing to put Skylar's room together and thankfully she was happy to help.

When Leyla first came over I had just the bedding (which was the second set I had purchased, since I didn't like the first one enough and took it back).  I just told her that I wanted a room that Skylar could grow with and let her take it from there.  She was great to always be sending me emails or text messages of items she found.  Of course I loved everything and totally trusted her tasted.  She even picked out the paint colors and a few weeks ago I put Jake to work on painting the room.  

The other day Leyla and her Mom came over to put together Skylar's "big girl" room with everything she had bought.  I knew what all of the items were, but seeing them up in the room gave them a different look.  It all came out perfectly!! It was everything that I asked for; something timeless, simple and clean looking, a room that a little girl could treasure.  

It worked out perfectly because right when Leyla and her Mom finished the room, Jake and Skylar walked in the door.  Jake had told her that Mama had a surprise in her room, so she ran straight up stairs.  It was so cute when we let her open the door and walk in.  She was so excited that she wouldn't really say much, she just kept looking all around, waving her arms, smiling and hugging me.  The smile on her face made it all worth it. 

She was so excited to sleep in her new room that she wanted to go to bed early that night!

Dianne & Jake's Wedding

I don't think I could of pictured Dianne's wedding any other way; it was extremely non-traditional, which is so Dianne.  They kept their ceremony very private with just family and even had Jake's older brother officiate it.  There were no over the top wedding dresses, no bridal party, no traditional first dance, no wedding cake and after the wedding everyone went out to a bar to continue the celebration.

The wedding took place in La Jolla at the Darlington House which provided the perfect setting.  When we first arrived, Dianne and Jake had just finished the ceremony and were taking pictures with family.  I couldn't help but tear up when I first saw Dianne.  She looked so pretty and happy that I couldn't hold my emotions in.

We had a great time at cocktail hour mingling with everyone and seeing both Jake and Dianne's families.  Us girls were also a bit of a mess because we knew we had our speech to give and needed to have a couple run-throughs before the reception started.  I think everyone husbands could probably have given our speeches for us since we probably practiced it 100X each.

Jake's Mom and Dianne did a fanastic job putting the whole reception together.  The colors were so pretty, clean and were perfect for a summer night wedding.  The food was not your typical dry chicken wedding food.  They had the most amazing mac and cheese (which is Dianne's favorite) with bacon on top... I thought I was going to die eating it.  When it came to speech time, I must admit I was extremely nervous.  Luckily, I knew that this would be the last speech we would ever be giving at a wedding (since Jackie, Jenn, & Darci were already married)... still... I didn't want to mess it up.  Everyone said very touching things about Dianne and we all let Jake know how much we love him for loving our best friend.

Like I mentioned earlier there was no traditional first dance for the bride and groom.  Instead they requested that everyone join them on the dance floor to all dance to no other than 2PAC and Dr. Dre's "California Love".  I can't lie, our dancing skills aren't quite like they were when we were in college, but we tried our best to keep with the beat.

The night was a ton of fun and I loved seeing Dianne so happy.  She and Jake make the most amazing couple and I wish them both nothing more than a lifetime of love and happiness. 

Madden is 3 Months

Sometimes I feel like the past 3 months were the longest 3 months of my life.  In the beginning Madden was so tough and I remember thinking when he was just 6 weeks that we just need to get to 3 months and it's all going to be better...it's good to have goals, right?  Well, we made it, and it pretty much got much easier around 8 weeks.  It was such an adjustment from one kid to two kids and some days I thought I wasn't going to survive, of course, every day I did and Madden couldn't be a better baby.  

Madden is definitely living up to his nickname...Tank!! He is such a big boy.  Right now he is still wanting to eat every 2 hours.  Everyone who meets him is in shocked that he is only 3 months because of his size.  He holds his head up so well and when laying on his back is already kicking his leg in attempts to roll over.  His personality is extremely mellow and full of happiness.  He loves to just smile from ear to ear whenever you play with him.  His favorite thing to do is to sit back in his chair and suck on his hands.  I think he is going to be a big drooler because he is constantly drooling all over his clothes.  He smiles whenever Skylar walks into the room and he hears her voice.  He just loves sitting next to her while she watches her cartoons.  He makes a ton of cooing noises to which Skylar always asks "What's Madden saying Mama?" He is taking 4-5 naps a day and unfortunately I can't say that he is sleeping though the night yet.  He is getting up about once a night, but luckily I'm able to nurse him right back to sleep.  His hatred of the car seat has gotten a lot better, and especially now that I just have him sit "up" in the stroller he loves being able to watch everyone and everything going on in front of him.  He is just our little boy who we couldn't love any more!!

Despite Jake thinking its a bit ridiculous to celebration a 3 month birthday, I couldn't let is pass.  Just as we did with Skylar I got him a little dessert with a #3 candle to document the event.  

We only let her have less then half of Madden's cupcake and she still managed to come out looking like cookie monster.

Here is Skylar and Madden's 3 Month comparison photo.  I still can't decide it they look alike or not.

Yesterday we met up with Stephanie to get some professional photo's taken of Madden at 3 months.  Madden was not in the happiest of moods and didn't give us too many smiles to work with, but Stephanie still got some amazing shots of him and I couldn't be happier with the way they turned out.  

Our handsome little man!!

My favorite shot!