Party pics

We had a beautiful day for Lucy & Bella's party. 80 degrees and sunny, not typical Memorial Day weather. Bella and Lucy had so much fun playing with friends, cousins, aunts & uncles, and grandma and grandpa. When I tucked Bella in that night she said, 'mommy, I have nice friends', talking about everyone at the party. The girls are so lucky to have them all.

Bella tasting her birthday cupcake:
Lucy ate all of her cupcake! She loved it!

Bella and her big girl Dora bike. Watch out!

Bella is 3 today!

My Bella is 3 today. She has changed so much in the past year. Bella at 2:


Puzzles were her obsession then, now she hardly touches them. Elmo was also king back then, now it is Dora, The Wiggles, Caillou, or any other show that has a good simple plot. She moved from a crib into a big bed, had to adjust to a new baby sister, mastered the potty, and has become a chatterbox.

Bella at 3:

• Says 'I love you' and 'I missed you' regularly and gives me big hugs. I love that.


• Reads a ton of books before naptime and bedtime in her bed by herself.


• She always wants to know what we're going to do the next day. One of our nightly rituals is to talk about what a great day we had and what we have planned for the next day.


• Loves going out to eat (she gets that from Carlo).


• Loves to be out and about rather than at home.


• Is timid and shy in new situations - she takes a while to warm up and get comfortable.

Happy Birthday Bella!

Lucy is 1 today!

My baby is 1 today. This year has gone by so fast, its hard to believe Lucy will be a toddler soon!

Lucy at 1:

• still not walking but she's standing and cruising along furniture


• sooo determined! I have seen the tantrums to prove it!


• loves to be in center of all the action. Not content playing off by herself for too long if there are others around.


• tries to talk. She's a great babbler and I've heard 'da da' out of her!


• adventurous. She crawls up on everything, including the top of our coffee table, Bella's bikes, etc!


• has such a sweet laugh. She is a happy baby who loves fun!

Happy Birthday Luciana!

American Idol nostalgia

I am sentimental about this day since both my girls were born on the day an American Idol was crowned.

Bella was born before the big show. Karrie Underwood was crowned and I remember my parents, Beth and her girls in the hospital seeing Bella for the first time when it was on.


Lucy was born after the big show. Jordin Sparks won and I remember the anaesthesiologist turning off the TV (shock!) so he could give me my epidural. I couldn't turn down the epidural though! It was hard to watch that one since I was in active labor.


So this time around I will be relaxing on my couch watching. I voted for David Archuleta. I really like David Cook too, but I thought David A performed the best.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!

Carlo took me to the mall today and entertained the girls while I got to shop for some new clothes. Bella made me a hand print craft at daycare, and Lucy's present was that she slept in this morning until 10:30 AM (wow!). Unfortunately, Bella waking up at 6 kind of counteracts Lucy's gift.

Poor Lucy has been sick this past week with a bad cold/cough which explains the extra sleep. We just call her our sickly child since it seems like her nose has been running constantly since October!

Bella kept saying "happy Mother's day!" all day today but I don't think she really got the meaning of the day. She also kept expecting that we'd be eating a birthday cake. Funny.

Indy Trip

We took a trip down to visit Meg & family near Indianapolis to celebrate Logan's first communion and Cooper's 2nd birthday that was last week. Both our trip down and trip back weren't too bad. I was dreading the 5-1/2 hr drive with the kids, but luckily we didn't hit bad Chicago traffic and we had Beth in the car to help entertain too! The DVD player probably did the most entertaining though!

So basically my whole family was there minus Beth's girls and Jeff. Logan's first communion went well, but with almost 150 kids that had to go through, it was a loong service. We were in the crying area for most of it.

We had a good time and the kids got along really well. Bella loved playing air hockey with Mia and Cooper and Lucy got spoiled by Logan & Bryce and Uncle Craig. I still am not a master at the Wii games, but I can brag that I can at least serve at ping pong where some of my siblings are not so great at it!

Of course the nicest day there was Sunday when we had to pack up and leave. The little ones spent the morning playing with Cooper's new water table.

A great weekend but when we got home we got some bad news. Carlo's cousin passed away unexpectedly on Thursday. He was close to Carlo's age and has 2 young children too. Very sad.