I am always trying to get good pictures of both of the kids together....as all you parents of more than one kid have experienced, it's really hard to get them both looking at the camera and smiling at the same time......almost impossible.
So here are my latest attempts, not great, but at least cute;-) Max decided he wanted to get into Chiara's crib with her after her nap, she is now sleeping in Max's old crib as Max finally graduated into a big boy bed!!!

Lucky for us some of our friends from Vicenza were also in Garmisch.
So we had a snow play date with twins, Jude and Aiden.

Recently Jay had a conference in Garmisch, Germany, so we tagged along for a few days of delicious German food.
Some fun in the snow.
A little German dancing.
And more fun in the snow;-)

It was a Dinosaur

Max created his first performance art piece the other day called, "It was a Dinosaur." Chiara and I both enjoyed it and we hope you do too:)

Love this happy girl!!!

Oman

"I can't see anything." said Max when we showed him the view from our hotel room after arriving while it was still dark the night before at a resort in Oman. To which we said, "What do you mean you can't see anything is it because the palm tree is in your way?" "No," Max said, "I can't seen anything, no fishes, no shark-es, no dolphins, I can't see anything."

Our first breakfast on Vacation! We were very happy to be there after a long night of travel;-)

Fun with dad in the baby pool.

Chiara examines the soccer ball, looks like she may have big plans for it;-)

Chiara poses in her pool wrap;-)

Chiara tried Ice Cream for the first time on this trip and was a BIG fan;-)

She seemed to think that if she opened her mouth really really wide she would get an even bigger bite.

Fun by the pool.

Max enjoys his daily chicken nuggets and french fries with lots of ketchup.

Chiara and I enjoy the baby pool.

Chiara was pretty excited about one of the birthday presents I recieved from Max, but who isn't excited about a blow up alligator?

Max tries his hand at beach side chess;-)

Thanks to the fabulous babysitting services at our hotel, Jay took me out for an amazing birthday dinner.

The meal was a four course French dinner with champagne pairings and the main course of pidgeon and foi gras was out of this world.

Our first dessert!

Then they brought a cake, which we took back to our hotel room and Max happily helped us eat the next day.

Ahh a happy Californian;-)

Max and Jay carefully placing stones and shells on one of the many sand castles.

It was VERY nice to be in such a beautiful place with warm weather;-) We all enjoyed lots of time on the beach and Max built a sand castle every day with mom or dad or both of us.

Lots of piggy back rides!

Max practices stearing the stationary boat outside our hotel room.

Just happy to be alive;-)

After a week in Oman, Jay tries out his Omani look....

Good times on the Lazy River;-)

Max decides to try eating sand.....a few times.....

Luckily over all he seemed to like collecting shells better;-)

The most awesome Christmas wreath you, or any one, have ever seen

NB: The following post is by Jay.

Colleen tried desperately to stop me from adding this Buon Natale wreath to our Christmas trappings. She gave other reasons, but I think she secretly was insanely, raging jealous that I was the first to scope out this super, maximally awesome Italian Natale festivity thingy. She was so green with envy she made me keep it in the back room, but I bid my time and waited until we had friends over and debuted it in all its triumphal glory in front of witnesses.

Like you, I didn't think Colleen was so crazy about Christmas decorations, you know, kind of in to them in the holiday spirit like everybody else, but this year, our seventh in holy matrimony, some deep secrets are coming out;)

We had a great Christmas just the 4 of us, unfortunately I erased all the pictures.....yup it is true. So here are a few pictures of some late arriving gifts while our tree was still up.