dresses, dresses and more dresses!

Amelia loves her dresses. loves them. every morning she gets up and changes out of her pajamas
and into a dress. She loves them all. her casual knit ones, her fancy holiday ones, it doesn't matter
to her. she especially loves the ones that spin with her. For christmas she has already asked
for a cinderella dress, a snow white dress and a sleeping beauty dress. Such a girley-girl, my amelia rose.

flashback

this was amelia performing the giggle-wiggle. seems like forever ago! She was a darling baby
that has grown into a darling little girl! On occasion, I miss the giggle-wiggle days! But thankfully,
they have been replaced with full on giggle days!

He is WALKING!

My little Petrologist

Anywhere and everywhere we go, Mia loves to collect rocks. She has rocks from Andrea's house in Ohio, our old church in Dupo, walks we have taken, our friend Lori's house, her nana's house, stores and shops, parks and even grant's farm! Here is a pic i snapped of her last collection. I wish i could say we had them all, but the ones that we "collected" in the SUV were accidently tossed out!

Halloween revisted

Last Halloween, my friend Nicole took our kids to the pumpkin patch together. We also enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the eckert's restraunt, they have the best bread there. and the apple butter is so good, as well as fresh! Here are some pics from the trip, it was impossible to juggle, mia, 2 month old luca and the camera. these are off my cell phone, which is why the halloween had to be revisted!

Look how little Luca was! awwww

This is what you get when you ask two 2 year olds to sit

down for a quick pic!

Entertaining Miss Amelia

One night when i left for work, amelia decided that she wanted to go out front and color with her daddy-pop. I didn't know that my husband was such a good artist! this is what i found when i came home the next day! Amelia loved it and i think her pop moved up a few notches in her book! These were taken in april, but if i was to blog these in order, no one would see them!

squirt, nemo and a rose

a truck for Lucas
little mermaid, flounder and sebastain

squirt, or is this crush?

another hiatus has ended!

summer - i can hardly believe that you are over! and that you have kept me so busy that my poor blog has dustbunnies on it! never fear - i am still here, the kids are here. we are all doing well! Not that you come to check on me :) We have had a wonderful summer! how about all of you? Here are some things that i will be updating soon!

mia's party

dr. nancy

the edwardsville children's museum

playdate's

the zoo

the morning ritual

dresses!

a haircut for luca!

drunk drivers

the children's zoo

luca's party

dr. nancy again!

the city garden

another birthday party and

a wedding!

Wow - no wonder the blog is lacking - we have been super busy! Here are a few pics to tide you over!

Lucas' first birthday party!

In honor of Luca turning one, we had a giant birthday party for him! We invited the friends, the relatives and ended up with quite the turnout! I tried to time it so it fit Lucas' schedule best, and it did seem to go better than Mia's first party! We started at 11am and ended at 2pm. I think everyone had a good time - Lucas did so that's what really matter right? here are the pics!

all cleaned up!

sweet, sweet baby

Stay-cation, part 2

I split my vacation up over 2 different months so i was due another stay-cation around luca's birthday. i had 10 days off and "planned" to do something every day! Day one i cleaned for his party! Tuesday was Luca's birthday so we went and bought him a present from Mia, had lunch out and then Tina came over with Lexi and Brianna. I made fun-fetti cupcakes for Luca and everyone enjoyed them! Especially Lucas!! Wednesday we went to see Dr. Nancy and got our one year shots. He did pretty well with them. After that, we headed to the City Garden to meet our friends. Madison and tyler were there along with sydney and Tara! It was a wonderful way to spend the day!

Here are some pics from the city garden. this time we remembered the swim suits! My favorite picture is the center one - i love the way the water looks!

Thursday I spent grocery shopping, finishing the house and gearing up for the party. Friday I met up with some awesome moms to go see the children's zoo! I have never been to the children's section and it was free before 9am! Mia loved playing with Chloe, and Luca had 6 other kids to play with! I think it was a great time for everyone! i also love this center pic, it is of Bella and Luca! I was so glad Becca could join us!

Lucas is one!!!

Today my baby is one! Hard to believe one year ago today I was stuck in rush hour traffic, trying to get to the hospital to have him! And here he is today - a big healthy super sweet boy! He is not yet walking, but has been teasing us by standing from a sit in the middle of the room for awhile. I am not worried, when he is ready he will walk, i am sure of it. To keep with tradition (which i am a huge fan of), I made lucas some cupcakes. funfetti cupcakes. always my favorite and always good! I also got out the circus themed accessories to turn it into a carousal big top. These are from Darrin and I's first birthday party! he loved his cupcake - he ate the whole thing! Happy birthday sweet lucas!! We love you!

Happy Birthday Beautiful Bella!

Bella celebrated her first birthday and her parents had a wonderful party for her at forest park. although i thought the party should be at the world's fair pavillion, we had to settle for pavillion Number 9! It was a great day, not to hot and loads of fun! Happy birthday bella!

The City Garden

Recently, St. Louis debuted it's city park. The Mr. and I took the kids down for a day of fun! They both loved it! We tried to take them to the historic crown candy that my parents took my sister and I to when we were younger, but the line was out the door. That can mean a 20 minute wait or a 2 hour wait! So we left there and went to Fitz's on Delmar. The food was great, and the root beer float was awesome!





Tasting the water

Mia and Luca

One happy boy!

And one happy girl!

Lots of Lucas

late night conversation

i don't remember what they were talking about, but they seemed to be having a great time! Even Luca found a phone, dialed them up and said hello!

Cutting of the hair