Mother's Day Brunch

I hope all you moms had a lovely Mother's Day! We had a very nice brunch at our house. My wonderful husband cooked up some goodies for us and we enjoyed hanging out. I also got to see my beautiful niece do her new trick---sitting up!

My daughter made me some cute things from school. Those are the gifts I treasure most. I also got a beautiful pair of garnet earrings from hubby and the kids.


Some photos from our day...


Me & my Mom.





Beautiful baby girl doing her new "trick"...





Brunch...






Kids

Just a little update

I feel like I've been neglecting to update my blog lately. It's that crazy time of the semester when all the projects are due at once and it's time to begin studying for finals. It's hard to believe that in less than 2 weeks I'll be graduating. Finally!

Thursday we are taking our daughter to see an orthopedic specialist to figure out why she broke her tibia twice and why it's been slow to heal both times. It's a little scary, but we also need to get to the bottom of this.

On a happier note, our cousins from "up north" visited us last weekend. It was SO good to see them.



Cousin Melanie meeting my niece for the 1st time.





Cousin Craig playing Don't Break the Ice with Abby.




Aunt Joan, Mom, Abby, Melanie and Craig

"A" is for Adorable Baby!

Happy Friday! Just wanted to share some quick, but adorable photos of my niece. She just gets cuter & cuter. I have a bunch more photos to share and I'm sorry I've been lax about blogging. I'm working on catching up.







Laughing!

Christmas Photos

Some pictures from our Christmas celebration:


Kids on Christmas Eve.

Abby & I in our matching Christmas nightgowns.

Evan, Abby and their baby cousin.

Grandma and the girls.

Candy cane cast.

My Christmas gift from Josh. I really wanted a rocking chair to rock my niece in and also as a place to sit and read. I love it!

Cookies with Santa

Saturday morning Josh & I took Abby to Cookies with Santa. We met up with my sister, brother-in-law and baby niece there as well. It was a lot nicer than going to see Santa at the mall. The park district provided cookies, hot chocolate, crafts and a free photo with Santa. All they asked for was a donation to Toys for Tots.

The girls

The girls with Santa.

I didn't go all out with Christmas decorations this year, but here is our tree.




HIghlights

Evan & Papa

This is how I want to remember my Dad. Being silly and happy with my kids. I know it was a struggle for him sometimes to have enough patience for their energy. But I also know how much he loved them. He also jokingly said when Cassandra & I were growing up "shoulda had boys" when we couldn't do some "manly" job. He finally got that boy when Evan was born and then years later he gained 2 wonderful sons-in-law.

Your daily dose of cute

Have I mentioned that my niece is adorable? She is.

Babies are Slimy

Yesterday Abby and Evan met their new cousin Adeline for the first time. Evan didn't want to hold her because she is so tiny (still under 6 pounds). Abby didn't want to hold her because she feels that "babies are slimy when they come out of tummies". Even though I reassured her that Adeline had been bathed, she wouldn't change her mind. Maybe next time...

Uncle Josh:

The proud parents:

Sweet baby Adeline:

As cute as a pea in a pod

Baby Adeline modeling her cute pea suit that Grandma made her. Aww :-)

Definitely worth the wait!

Tonight I got to see and hold my niece Adeline for the first time. She's not even 6 pounds...she looks like a little baby doll. My goodness, she's amazing. I am so thankful that she's here and healthy.



Her eyes are open!



Proof that we held her. I got to hold her first. You can tell how much I was looking forward to that moment!


This guy wanted to hold her too, so I let him have a turn.

Adeline

My beautiful baby niece Adeline is still in the hospital. She is still in the NICU, although no longer in an incubator. She is starting to be more pink and the jaundice is going away. By all accounts, she is doing really well. I still haven't seen her myself so I am really treasuring the pictures my sister and brother-in-law share with me. I can't wait until she comes home in the next day or two so I can meet her.

Here's a photo my BIL sent me today:

Introcducing...my niece!

Adeline Leona
Born: 11/3/209 at 6:22pm
6lbs 6ozs

I was hoping to have more pictures before I posted the news, but I haven't actually been able to see her yet because she's in the NICU and they only allow grandparents in there. Both Adeline and my sister are doing well now and hoping to go home soon. And you can bet when they go home, I'll be taking a lot more pictures to post!

Birthday & Anniversary Pics!

So although our anniversary and my birthday were both pretty rough this year because of Abby's broken leg and my Dad's diagnosis, we did make the best of both days.

On our anniversary, our awesome friend Matt came and watched the kids so that Josh and I could go out for dinner to our favorite place, Nat's on Maple. This was prior to our new camera purchase, so it's all camera phone pics.


On my birthday, Josh and the kids took me to Rosati's which is my favorite pizza place. Love their stuffed cheese pizza! They gave me a Hello Kitty that they made at Build-A-Bear. She is sooo soft and she has a heartbeat you can press and hear and feel.