Coming Soon

is our new computer! Ours has been broken on and off forever now. We have finally ordered one and it should arrive next week. So watch out because I will be posting like crazy again......

For now, here are a few unedited pictures (my software is not on this computer) to update you.

Our two beautiful children! Gabriella age 4 1/2, Nicholas age 1 year. Easter Sunday.


Our Family on Easter Sunday. Yes, I wore a dress to church...

Uncle Jeff and Aunt Marion on Easter Sunday

Gabriella got to hold a Sea Star on our visit to Sea World in May!

Ed, Tammy, Nana, Papa, Nicholas, Mikayla, Hannah, Pa, Ella (L to R back to front)
at Sea World

Sister in her new stylish purple glasses she got a couple of months ago.
Nicholas chewing on one of his favorite toys: spice jars

Our move brought many good things: Ella can finally stretch out when she sleeps! Goodbye to crib converted to toddler bed and hellow a real twin size bed!

And no more Pack N Play for Nicholas. Here he is checking out his crib for the first time!

Enjoying the first of many Al Fresco meals and grilling on our deck.

Nicholas's jungle birthday party with his Lion cake in the background

Monthly post and 865 to 2287

Apparently I've fallen into a monthly posting pattern. Hopefully this will change and become more frequent again soon. Big news here is that we are MOVING!! No, we did not sell our condo. Surprise surprise. We decided to bite the bullet and rent it out for awhile instead. This allows us to go ahead and move into a bigger rental property ourselves. And no all you realtors out there, we're not going to buy another place until our other one is sold. Two mortgages are not something we desire.

So finding a tenant was painless thanks to craigslist and a good landlord website that does complete tenant screening for you. Well, I had to do some of it. But anyhow. It's done and we found a really great tenant or so we think at this point.

More importantly we just signed OUR lease yesterday. It was a bit strange to sign a rental lease after being homeowners for so long. I guess we are still homeowners, but now we're renters too. Ha! But I'm over it already. Here's why. We now live in 865 sq ft and are movin' on up to 2287. No, that's not a typo. We found a beautiful condo that someone is renting out for a greatly reduced rate due to the rental market being saturated right now. The place is beautiful SPACIOUS and more than we could have hoped for really. And it's only a few streets south of us so the move will be short. I can't wait to see our new neighbor's faces when they see our strollers and bikes parked in our spot in the attached indoor heated parking garage. :-)

Gabriella is loving school and Mrs. Laura is teaching her how to read. She successfully read the first two pages of Hop on Pop over the weekend. Nicholas has finally mastered peek-a-boo and loves to play it now that he can cover his eyes instead of covering his head. He's also a climber and gets into everything. We'll be spending some budget money on babyproofing devices for sure.

David is working hard and hoping to not have surgery on his achilles before our move. We should find out more info on Thursday when he sees the orthopedist. It's a 4-year old injury that's never gone away and recently became much worse.

I'm going a bit crazy trying to figure out packing, moving detail stuff, child watching and trying to find time to sleep in the midst of it all. I think I need a Nanny for the next few weeks. At least my nights are now freed up from apartment searching. Once we settle into our new home we will have plenty of room for overnight guests so NONE OF YOU WILL HAVE ANY EXCUSES ANYMORE! We will even have a sofabed that we just acquired from some friends and multiple bathrooms from which to choose. AND you'll have a place to park your car if you drive here.

We have plans to get the children photographed outdoors around Easter time and will be having Nicholas's first birthday party Easter weekend if you can believe it. I have just a matter of weeks left to get his birth announcements out by etiquette rules. Emily Post please don't check my postmarks.

We had a nice visit to St. Louis over Presiden'ts Day weekend and Nana was just here visiting us for several days too. Here's a few pics to share with you. More later!

At the park on one of our recent winter-spring days

playing with Uncle Jeff

Meeting Titus with Aunt Marion

The 3 polka-dot cousins

At the park with Nana on the one nice day we had while she was here.

The FOUR year old!

Ella

September 29th
Lincoln Square

Yes, it's true that on September 29th Miss Gabriella Marguerite turned four years old. I can hardly believe we've had her for four years. So much has happened and she has grown from our baby girl so fast into our little girl. Stop growing! I keep telling her as a joke, but sometimes I wish we could make time stand still and savor the special moments like holding your newborn for the first time and feeling the strongest instant bond.....spending long hours ummm "peacefully" discussing what her name should be.......finally naming her....... being thrilled when she rolled over, crawled, walked and said Mama as her first word (of course)........ wondering on her 2nd birthday if I would ever get to "fix" her hair in ponytails, pigtails, braids, etc. and then slowly seeing her bald head finally turn into beautiful long golden curls through four years of time..... sighing a big sigh of relief when she finally learned how to jump (seriously I once googled: "age 3 + can't jump")..... being amazed at how her long legs continue to grow and how graceful they can be in third position during ballet class..... loving her beautiful buck tooth smile and being ever so thankful we just acquired dental insurance that includes orthodontia.....wondering how on earth this innocent, sweet child has turned out so beautiful, smart, sweet, considerate, kind, caring, observant and so creative and fun by spending her days with you.....and watching her cherish and love on her baby brother like she needs nobody else in this world.....and then realizing that you can't stop time so you try to soak it all in because you know how quickly another four years will pass........

Reprise of the cake on the real birthday

This little girl loves her Papa

The infamous"If you take a mouse to school" lunchbox cake
And I thought Ella the Elephant was hard last year! (I have more pictures if you want to see them just let me know :-)

Doing the Hokey Pokey with her friends

Ella requested the events of the day: Lunch of PBJ, go see the play "If you take a mouse to school", face painting by Mama, eat cake, do the Hokey Pokey"

My favorite two faces

Ella by "Mouse"

Posing for a picture in the courtyard:
Ryan, Ella, Braden, Asha
Nicholas

Uncle Jeff and Aunt Marion have been at all four of Ella's birthday party's!
This was in the lobby of the Apollo Theatre where we saw the Emerald City Theatre production of
"If you take a mouse to school".

My little dress-up girl