Casagrande Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Casagrande family. I never realized growing up how extended my family really is. The Casagrandes are my mom's mom's siblings and their kids. We grew up all together and never realized that we are closer with our 2nd cousins than some people are with their 1st cousins. And now Riley is going to be able to say that same statement about her 3rd cousins? Is that what the correct genealogy term?
Grammy and Aunt Ruthie

On Christmas morning we all went to my cousin Marci (Riley's Godmother) house. Now my mom's mom and Marci's mom's dad are brother and sister. Make sense how we are related? I never thought it was that complicated. :)
"GG look what Marci got me!! Do I look pretty?!?!"

Riley and my nephew David played all day. NON STOP! Riley did not nap nor get cranky for a nap the whole time we were there! They ran around laughing the whole time. They were so entertaining to watch. Well some of the guys found Elmo's Christmas more entertaining to watch... even when the kids were out of the room.

Lucky for us Alex and Chelsea were here and the kids LOVE them both so much!


Family is so important to us. I hope we are as successful with teaching Riley the importance of family as the generations before us were. Our whole extended family lives all within a half hour. We happily extending our family and developing new traditions. It is so unpredictable where we will all be in a few years but I do know we will always be together enjoying each others company as much as possible.



Riley is always ready to do... SOOOO BIG!!!
Poor Jay was trying to take a nap after lunch... Shireen is the only one who was truly successful at napping undisturbed.





This truly is the most wonderful time of the year!

We had a great Christmas will all of the family... just one more stop at GG and Grampy's house before the CRAZINESS of the Christmas excitement comes to an end. Riley LOVES Christmas!

David rocked Riley to sleep at the end of the evening... such a good cousin!

Did I mention... WE LOVE CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Morning

SANTA CAME!! SANTA CAME!! We woke up with more excitement then Riley because she had no idea what to expect. She thought she was waking up to a regular morning. Little did she know when we walking into the dinning room (yes our tree was in the dinning room due to our little curious walker) that under the Christmas tree would be tons of gifts waiting for her from Santa! Tons of presents to Riley means tons of boxes and tons of wrapping paper to play with!
Until she opened her most favorite gift... her new dolly. She would not let the baby go! She kept kissing it even without us prompting her. She absolutely LOVED her new baby doll!
Ryan helped get Riley's baby doll out of the box when a piece of paper fell out with all the doll accessories you can buy to go with the doll. He could not get over all the different baby doll accessories there were. Oh Ryan... you are a daddy to a little girl who will teach you it all. Riley has already opened her daddy's eyes or should I say nose to the sweet smell of baby dolls. He also never realized that many baby dolls smell like a sweet vanilla. MMM! :) Lets give Ryan a few years and we will be blogging about Ryan and Riley changing that baby doll's diaper together. lol :)

It took us a while to open the gifts because poor Riley didn't realize that after we open a gift, it gets taken away from you so that you can open another one. Riley wanted to play with each gift and then open the next one when she was bored of it. We compromised... we opened the next one when Ryan's attention span ran out. lol I love you Ryan!

Riley even loved listening to Dominick the Donkey on Christmas morning. We relived our memories of the song and danced around the house singing our favorite Christmas song!

With all of this excitement Riley was able to enjoy a nice long nap before the Casagrande Christmas began.

Christmas Eve

We started the day out at Ryan's parents house. Some people think it is crazy splitting the holidays and going to all the family houses we go to. But I look at it as... this way everyone is happy and everyone gets to celebrate!

After Ryan's parents house we headed up to Manchester for the CRAZY and LOUD Diminico family.
At first Riley didn't know what to take of the yelling (Thats how we have to talk when we are there to be heard... or to make your opinion stronger then the rest. Politics is always brought up at the dinner table! And when it isn't we argue over is All Spice... all spices or a spice called all spice... Hey we are Italian we have opinions and we like to eat and drink. Ha!).
After a while Riley fit right in to all the loud commotion. Clapping and singing in Italian didn't confuse Riley. She went right along with it! Besides Nauni has her own Italian... half English and half Italian... How do you say!?!


Riley's first Christmas Eve was full of excitement! Everyone packed in the living room to exchange gifts. It was great having the kids running back in forth from the presents to the dinning room waiting to open the presents. Julia was soooo excited. Auntie Laura was trying to tell her to be patient... Auntie Laura forgot that she was always the MOST excited about present time!

Even though we cut back this year among each other... we didn't hold back on the kids. Riley and Julia had a blast opening all the presents!
Luckily for Riley her cousin Julia was right there to help her open all her presents.
But as we predicted... THE BOX really was the best part! We really need to remember this next year when we are shopping for all the presents.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Santa Baby

We were supposed to meet Santa a few times this Holiday Season... but between getting sick and the snow they all were getting canceled. The night before Christmas Eve the Cuneos called us and asked us to meet up at the mall with them. We have avoided the mall this Holiday season, so it was a tough time convincing us to go BUT Riley HAD to meet Santa! (or did she)



Riley only cries like this for a few people... We joke and say she has a hard time with OLD people... because it takes a while for her to warm up to her Naunis (my grandmothers) and now Santa.
So You know how I know you are OLD? If Riley cries like this for you! lol
Maybe next year she will love you Santa. :) (Well at least Dante liked Santa!)

Sooo BIG!

How big is Riley? SOOOO BIG!

Anytime you say it you get this reaction! It is great. When we got her flu shot and she was hysterically crying... I asked... How big is Riley? And with tears in her eyes she still lifted her arms up and tried to crack her big smile. 

Newsflash: Riley finally hit the 15 pound marker... finally! :) She really is SOOO BIG now!

I love to WALK!

We are getting ready for Christmas. Riley is reading all of the Christmas books and we are talking all about Santa... the big day is coming real soon! I can't believe it is Christmas already! This year has flown by. I know we say that every year bit there is something different about this year. I don't know if it is having Riley here but ahh!! Christmas is just around the corner. We can't wait! 

Christmas is the best! Getting together with all of the family! COOKIES!! The great decorations... our tree is in the dinning room this year away from walking Riley! The energy this time of the year is unlike any other. Did we mention all the Christmas movies at night? This is such an exciting time of the year. We are so excited and Riley has no idea what is coming. But she is enjoying all of her Christmas books and decorations around the house. AND singing our favorite... Dominick the Donkey everyday around the house!

Party Tricks

Riley is so smart. It is so much fun teaching Riley different ways to communicate. When we say key words or phrases to her she really reacts. This is the beginning forms of communication. AND We LOVE our party tricks and she does too!

Wave Hi! and Bye! 

AHH!! When she makes sounds and you mimic her... you can go back and forth like this having a conversation with her. Such a fun dinner conversation!
And our favorite... If you happy and you know it what do you do? CLAP CLAP CLAP! Riley is such a happy kid! :)
Riley also gives and blows kisses, dances by bouncing up and down and waving her hands and plays peek-a-boo. It is so cool to watch her communicate with us with all of these fun tricks. We are so proud of her!

p.s. Today she reached a new milestone... she can now bring herself to stand and walk in the middle of the room with no help! Go RIley Go!

day 2: SNOW DAY

Attempt 2 in the snow. This time Daddy did NOT wear a hat and we had a GREAT time in the snow! :) Riley loved it!


We love SNOW DAYS! We don't care that we will work until the end of JUNE...well remind us of all the fun we had in the snow when we are melting away in the non-AC classrooms! :)

1st attempt in the SNOW

SNOW DAY!!! Don't you love being a teacher?!? :)
We took Riley out to play in the snow on the 1st Snow Day of the year. She LOVED it at first. She was falling in the snow, eating the snow and trying to walk around in the snow... that was all until Daddy came out.

As soon as Riley saw Daddy with his winter hat on it was all over. She FREAKED out! She was so afraid of him. He had to take off his hat and then we had to go inside just to calm her down. Daddy felt so bad that he scared Riley so much. Next time we go out NO HAT for Daddy!

I love to Read!

If you are happy and you know it... CLAP YOUR HANDS! Riley loves to clap! She claps to songs, when you are happy and when she reads her books. She loves turning the page and clapping at the characters in the books. She is really such a happy baby!

GG has taught her to close her hands when she says "Say your prayers." She is praying that she can read another story before nap time! Don't worry Riley we can read a few more books before nap time. :) Happy Baby!!

warm WINTER day

Warm Winter Day! Who would guess it is supposed to be a BIG snow storm tomorrow. But that won't stop us from enjoying a nice day outside. It felt like it has been forever since we were outside in the grass. Riley had so much fun re-exploring the prickly stuff on the ground. AND running up and down the driveway! She is getting FAST! I am not sure what is going to happen this summer when she really takes off!