Angelica's Summer

Angelica has had one busy summer. Here are a few of the highlights...

beating her first pinata at her cousin Jeff's 4th birthday party. 

going down the big slide 4 times (at $3.00/ride) at the Beecher carnival with daddy. 

 We converted her crib to a toddler bed on the 4th of July. She did good with it.



 I thought she would get up and run wild around her room, but at the end of naptime, this is how we found her.



 She was seriously THIS excited about the firetrucks blowing their horns in the Beecher 4th of July parade.

 Angelica taking her BFF Rusty for a ride around the kitchen in her wheeled toy crate.

 Wearing daddy's shoes.

She LOVES technology. My cousin Kara's fiance Jeff has a 6 year old daughter named Kendall. They came to stay with us mid-July when I threw Kara's bridal shower. Kendall was happy to share her laptop with Angelica and Angelica was thrilled!



She did good with the toddler bed and thanks to some very generous friends, we got a full size mattress. We converted her crib futher to a full size bed so that we could move the crib mattress to Fiona's room. I was more nervous about this conversion. She did good though. She fell off the foot of the bed the first night, but since then she has been doing great. She has been in the big bed for over a month now and seems to enjoy it.



her room - rearranged and with new bedding to make for a big girl room



sleeping in the big bed



At Brookfield Zoo sharing lunches with her friend ("step-cousin") Olivia.



eating chips at Mi Ranchito in Lowell with her new friend Lucas.



TUB TIME!



Our old childhood neighbors came to visit us at the end of July. Mike, Kim, me, Nikki, Lisa & Angelica.



enjoying a pontoon boat ride on Lake Holiday at my grandma Lannon's cousins family reunion



Her first french braid...I cannot even tell you how long I have been waiting to do this!!!



 Last day of summer gymnastics

Her absolute favorite thing to do at gymnastics, swing from the bar. She is a strong girl!



getting her medal and hand stamp for completing summer gymnastics 

All smiles, getting ready to go to Jack's 1st Birthday party 

Me and my girl - finally I am not behind the camera!



Playing with baby Lucas. I think she will be a good big sister.

Feeding the deer at Deer Forest in Coloma, MI. She wanted to feed them one kernel of corn at a time. The deer were not into that.



At Silver Beach in St. Joe, MI

Awaiting Fiona

The greatest anticipation in our lives right now is awaiting the arrival of our 2nd baby. From the moment we found out she was a girl, we decided to name her Fiona. We have washed and hung all the baby clothes (that's the nice thing about having an older sister - a whole wardrobe, ready to go!), we have purchased and assembled furniture, we have talked to Angelica endlessly about her new little sister. We have watched my belly grow and we have spent late nights talking and wondering what she will be like, what she will look like, and we have tried to wrap our heads around the idea that there will soon be someone else in our house that we will love just as much as Angelica. It is so hard to understand, but I know when she gets here it will all make perfect sense. In the meantime, I daydream about her, about what we will do, about what it will be like to see Fiona and Angelica holding hands, dancing in circles playing ring around the rosey, and making each other laugh. I am lucky in that I have a sister too. I know what Angelica is in for. It won't always be easy, and the teen years might be especially hard, but once they are grown, they will know that they always have each other no matter what. A sister is like a built in best friend. I am so excited for Angelica to have a little sister. Being the older sister myself, I feel like I can relate to Angelica as a big sister. Knowing how much my little sister means to me I feel like I can look at Fiona and know that she holds this special little surprise of being the best gift that Angelica will probably ever receive, even if it takes her decades to figure it out. I am amazed on a daily basis of how wonderful my husband is with Angelica and I know he will be the same with Fiona. He is the perfect dad to have two little girls. He is so patient when it comes to babies - moreso than me. He loves the snuggling and loving and he doesn't think twice about getting up in the middle of the night, even if I am already up. I can see that he truly cherishes every moment he gets with his daughter, even the moments that I don't particularly cherish myself! While it's been tough for me to cut back on work and make soooooo much less money, I feel like we have been given a real sense of what life is all about and I don't think we have ever been as happy as we are right now.

 Little sister's room, full of big sister's outgrown clothes.

 25 weeks pregnant

 Daddy building the crib

 Grandma painting the nursery

The almost finished nursery 

 Just waiting to rock her to sleep while sitting in this chair

30 weeks pregnant

Stephanie & Steve's Wedding

Stephanie is one of my best friends. I met her in 1995 at our first day of summer band as freshmen at Marian. We had both come from public schools and didn't know many people. We became fast friends. Although I am taller than her, Stephanie is someone I have always looked up to. :) She always worked hard, held her ground, spoke her mind, and is one of the kindest most generous people you will ever meet. She did WAY better than me in french class too. We were roommates in college too. Although I was over 100 miles away, the day I called to tell Stephanie that my fiance had dumped me just 3 weeks before the big wedding we had been planning, she was by my side within a couple of hours, giving me a hug. She is that kind of friend. Stephanie deserves the best and that is what she found in Steve. We were very happy to celebrate their wedding with them on July 2nd.

Stephanie and her dad walking down the aisle.



 Stephanie and Steve - Officially Dr. & Mrs. Conti!

Me & Steph at the reception



Den turns 34

As usual, I am behind on blogging. Here is my attempt to catch up! June 30, was Den's 34th birthday. I can't believe how much time flies. He was 25 when we first met. Although he had to work on his birthday this year, we did our best to celebrate at home.

I got up early to make a german apple pancake for breakfast

 And off to work he went

 When he came home, we had one serious dinner - steak, crab legs, sweet potato, asparagus, lobster bisque, and wine (for him) YUM!

 Angelica seriously LOVED the lobster bisque. After eating all of hers, she finished ours too.

 And to top it all off, we had the coffee lovers cake from cold stone! double YUM!

 She must take after me. Dessert makes her seriously happy :)

Happy Birthday to the best husband and daddy I know! :)

Testing testing 1 2 3

I have been trying to post on blogger and it's not working. I have a big post with pictures and I have been trying to post it for a week, but when I hit the "publish post" button, nothing happens. Hmmmmm. I wonder why.

Apparently I needed to upgrade to the new posting option. I did that and now my posts are showing up.

Video Killed the Radio Star

I tried posting this a week ago, but Blogger wasn't working. So, I am giving it another try. Here we go!

Me, Angelica and Rusty in the pool!

Our "no fear" little girl running and jumping into the pool!

playing dress-up at Bellaboos

Den and I in St. Joe Michigan on our 5 year anniversary

she loves spicy food - enjoying some chips and salsa while we take a break from swimming

our new landscaping - we love the new paver brick sidewalk and patio

me - 20 weeks pregnant with Fiona

playing with her new kitchen - one of my famous garage sale finds!

her first carnival ride - Indiana Beach - she loved it and went on about 10 more rides, all by herself! Such a big girl at 18 months!

Fiona, relaxing with her legs crossed and arms behind her head at our 17 week ultrasound.

Video killed the radio star, just like facebook killed the blog. I have REALLY been neglecting my blog because it is sooooo much easier and faster to post pictures on facebook. With the click of a button, I can upload 50 pictures in 2 minutes and share them with hundreds of people. Being a busy mom, always on the go, I rarely have time to sit and write at my blog.

So let's see....here's what is new.

Angelica is growing fast and learning tons of new things. She is so much better at communicating and can always manage to let us know what she wants either with the actual words or actions. I haven't actually kept track of how many words she knows but I would estimate it to be somewhere around 100 for now. Of course she doesn't speak them perfectly clearly, but for the most part I can understand her. She does a lot of repeating what we say. She is mostly out of her high chair and sitting at the big table with us. She uses her utensils to feed herself (most of the time) and she just loves playing pretend. She often puts her pajamas on her teddy bear and wraps him in a blanket and then sits in the rocking chair with him while kissing him and patting his back. She shares everything she has with Rusty and she always remembers to pour Rusty a glass of "tea" and even holds it to his lips for him when she is playing with her toy kitchen set. Rusty is a very patient dog - let me tell you! And best of all, Rusty is preparing Angelica for what it will be like to be a big sister.

We found out that our new baby is a girl. We had this confirmed at both our 17 week and 21 week ultrasound. I felt comfortable enough to buy a letter "F" charm for my charm bracelet (as we plan to name her Fiona) and to order her crib, dresser, and bedding (even with her name embroidered on a pillowcase!) We are getting excited for baby number 2 to arrive.

It's been interesting adjusting to not really working. I love my job, and I put a lot of "blood sweat and tears" into starting my own business 3 1/2 years ago, branding myself, and making a name for myself in this business. But I don't love my job nearly as much as I love my kids. So, I work during naptime - when I feel like it. I do enough to get by. I know that my job will still be there one day when my kids are in school and I can work more when I want to. I have struggled with the frustration of not being as good as my job as I know I could be, but I am starting to accept it. As the saying goes "God always provides." Although it can be difficult living on essentialy half of the income we are accustomed to, we still manage to pay our bills, keep food on the table and a roof over our head. We are so grateful for the things we do have that we don't miss the things we gave up all that much. Where there is a will, there is a way! I am glad I laid the foundation for my business so that when I do want to work more, I will be able to do it, but that I will still have the flexibility to go with my girls on field trips and be able to volunteer at their schools and other activities as they grow up. On top of all this, I am grateful for my loving and hard working husband who puts in extra hours at work when we want to save up for something special. He firmly believes that mom's should stay home with babies and raise kids. Maybe some people would consider that sexist, but I appreciate it and it works for us. He encourages me when I want to work and he also encourages me when I want to play all day with Angelica or take a nap when the pregnancy is taking it's toll on me. He is the best friend I need and I am lucky to have him.

I thought Dennis might be bummed out about not having a boy. Who knows maybe we will have more kids someday. But for now, he is so excited to have another girl, and that makes me excited too. From the beginning he said he just knew it was going to be a girl, and he was right!

It is hard for me to imagine that this year our Christmas card will have 2 little girls on it. Life is moving fast. This pregnancy has been fairly easy so far and I am more than halfway done. Come October, we will welcome little Fiona into our home.

Angelica has kept us busy with all she is doing and learning. She goes to gymnastics every week and absolutely loves the trampolines! She also likes going to the parks, going down slides, playing outside on her bikes and toys, and visitng with people. She especially loves her cousin Nate. She is pretty well adjusted and approaches most people with a big smile. While she loves us to pieces, she never cries when we leave her with a babysitter. I know someday I will have to give her a good talk about staying away from strangers because I think she would hug everyone if she could. She thoroughly enjoys playing "pretend" and dressing up. She likes to wear our shoes and walk around the house. She knows what she likes and what she doesn't like. She sleeps like a champ - 12 hours every night and a 2-3 hour nap every day. She does have her temper tantrums from time to time, and she can wear me down with whining when I don't want to give her something she wants (usually a bottle of water). But all in all I am grateful that Angelica is who she is. We will see how her sister is! I am hoping she is as easy as Angelica has been.

In other news, Dennis and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary in May. We went to St. Joe, MI for a long weekend - just the two of us. We went to the beach, the movies, out to eat, had a couples massage, and just relaxed. We played board games and watched our wedding video. It was a lot of fun. It wasn't exactly the trip to BoraBora we had always said we would go on for our 5th anniversary, but we were still content. Maybe we will save BoraBora for the 25th anniversary! :)

We have been busy making our house a home. We finally feel very content here in Beecher and hope to stay. Sure we dream about living on the beach or on a lake, but in all reality we do like it here. We put in some new landscaping this summer that really makes it feel more like home and not just a temporary place to stay. Maybe someday...some day far far away....we will be able to get a weekend house on a lake or something, but for now we are continuing to invest in our home here. We have all that we need and even more than that. We have a lot of room and this is a good place to watch our family grow and our kids grow up.