Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone! We went to see Santa Claus this weekend and while Loretta was thrilled to see him she had to explain that she was sorry she was already on the naughty list and she understood she'd have to be very good to get back on the nice list. Little Caroline wanted nothing to do with old Saint Nick, however, as you can plainly see in her "if you move me one inch closer to that man I'm going to lose it" look on her face!

Love to all!

Annie, John, Loretta and Caroline

All About Caroline

Just a quick update to say hello and share a couple of cute videos of our Caroline. She is such a cutie pie these days. She wants to be read to constantly and even her full blown, thrashing on the ground, temper tantrums are still pretty hilarious. Her cuteness factor is going to take her a long way. And she already knows which buttons to push with Loretta and does so often. But, all is fair in love and war and after a year of Loretta tormenting Caroline she is certainly getting her comeuppance. Hope all are well and had a lovely Thanksgiving. Take care and enjoy!

Just a Quick Hello

Hello Everyone, not much to update, just wanted to share a few fall pictures of the girls. Caroline is getting so big and really starting to talk up a storm. Loretta is loving swimming and gymnastics and has now convinced her dad to put her in a dance class too. John and I are both well (constant colds aside). The last picture is of Caroline on the beautiful blanket her grandma made for her. And there is a cute video of Loretta below going down the fireman's pole.

Last, but certainly not least, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORDAN! WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH AND CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!!!

Enjoy the pictures and love to all,
Annie

Happy Halloween and Don't Forget To VOTE

We had such a great Halloween this year. Between carving pumpkins (which reminded us of psycho the way Caroline wielded her carving implement) to costume parades to pesky wing issues to the marathon of trick or treating. I think the best way to tell you all about it, is through pictures! When I say Caroline stabbed at that pumpkin like she had a personal vendetta against the squash, I'm not over exaggerating. It was hilarious and a little scary ;o)

Loretta absolutely loved her Super Girl costume and seriously looked like she was flying like a speeding bullet from house to house with all the big kids.

This was Loretta's daycare costume parade picture. Cutest puppy dog ever!

John dressed up too! this picture was taken after trick or treating and Caroline was all set. Loretta on the other hand was ready to party like it was 1999!

A good old fashioned Airplane ride turns into a pretty cool picture.

Caroline insists on Airplane rides too, as a matter of fact, insists on doing anything and everything her big sister does.

Caroline couldn't get enough of the jack - o- lanterns. She's investigating the inner workings. A minute later, she tried to sit on that pumpkin.

OK, this could have been the winner for funniest Halloween moment. For the daycare parade Caroline was a bumble bee complete with stinger and wings. But when we put the wings on she freaked and looked like a dog chasing his tail spinning in circles for a good 5 minutes trying to grab and remove.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! Love to all and DON'T FORGET TO VOTE TOMORROW!

Catch Up & Pumpkin Picking

We've had a wonderful few weeks full of pumpkin picking, apple picking and decorating for Halloween. Loretta had a Tea Party with some friends yesterday and it was a good reminder that the girl needs regular "girly" play dates. She's grown up around boys, with the exception of our her friend Ainsley, there is Devin and Alex and the 9 boys in her daycare class. She's the only girl and it shows. But, it the midst of tackling and throwing balls she still manages to do or say something really girly. She sings Ariel and just this morning told me she wished she had boobies like me (some day baby girl!). Caroline is doing wonderfully, she's talking more and more and finally has some more teeth, not that it's helped her appetite much. The girl would live on banana and cream cheese on waffles if we let her. She's doing everything her big sister does down to whispering secrets in my ear (full of spittle as she says sps sps sps psps). She is looking more and more like me and my mom. John is doing great and nurturing his artistic side some. I'm doing well too, but feel a bit like I'm in limbo waiting for an answer about returning to work on Fridays.

That's all for now, please enjoy this lovely rendition of "Part of Your World" by Loretta. Wait for the graceful close to the song, it makes it so worth while.

Love to all!

18 Years Ago, When I was 16

I actually thought that the other day. 18 years ago when I was 16. Can that be right? Seems more like it should be 18 years ago when I was 8. Yeah, that seems about right. I would be 26 not 34! I feel more like 26. I think that's why sometimes I'm so surprised that I'm a married mother of two! Don't get me wrong, this isn't a woes me, I'm almost 35, because I don't care about turning 35, I didn't care about turning 30. It's just surprising b/c some days I look in the mirror and half expect to see that 16 year old staring back at me and other days it hits me how much my life and I have changed since then.

So, I started thinking about my 16 year old self. What I was thinking then, wishing for, dreaming of. I realized something remarkable, I realized that all of my childhood dreams had come true. I'm married (had a beautiful wedding), I went to Italy, I finally became a mother, I even came as close to my 5 year old dream of becoming a movie star as I would ever really want by being on a reality TV show!

What do you do when you realize all of your dreams have come true.

1) Be Grateful (check, done - I'm thankful every single day)

2) Get more dreams!...but, does that make me selfish?

I thought about my girls and whether or not I would ever want them to stop dreaming big? No way! Dreams are wonderful, they provide hope, escape, motivation. I have dreams for my girls, but I don't want to burden them with my dreams. I want them to have their own.

So, now that my childhood dreams have been realized, what should my adulthood dreams be? I know what they can't be, they can't be me losing these last 10 lbs or being wrinkle free! They have to be bigger, feel as amazingly out of reach as my childhood dreams did for so long...

How exciting! A clean slate, they could be anything at all! Skies the limit! So, here is what I came up with:

1) I want to live in Europe for awhile at some point. I want to be there long enough to become completely immersed in the culture and fluent in the language.

2) I want to swim with dolphins,whales or manta rays. Some of the ocean's gentle giants.

3) I want to go on an African safari, but a posh one - with enough comforts that I can sleep without thinking some exotic bug is going to infest me with a terrible disease, but enough exposure that I witness unforgettable wildlife.

4) I want to go on a cruise to the Arctic.

5) I would like to do something extraordinary for someone else. I can't imagine what this might be (I even let my CPR certification lapse), but I just hope if given the opportunity to do so, I won't freeze, I'll just know what to do to help.

Mostly, when my girls are older I want them to think of their mom as someone who is ambitious and adventurous. I want to be someone they can be proud of, someone they can look up to (well figuratively speaking at least).


That's all for now. Take care!

Interesting Tid Bits

So, I was recently told I was going to have to stand up in front of 50 or so people at a networking event and introduce myself and tell everyone something interesting about myself. I'm not special, everyone has to do it, but my initial response to this was "oh great, I guess I'll be making something up". It took a co-worker to point out Trading Spaces, which I'm sure I would have come up with given more time to think, it is fairly recent and I'm still asked about it. However, I tried to think of other interesting things and was having a hard time coming up with stuff. It made me wonder, why do we seem to find the interesting and unique in others but can’t pinpoint them in ourselves?

I took the advice given by a coworker, to ask John and did some brainstorming last night and all together this is what we came up with (I've written these about myself, but it's obvious how many of my interesting tidbits include John and other loved ones):

• My name is carved into an interior support beam of the top floor of the sears tower (my dad worked there for 16 years when the top floors were built)
• I did some really bad catalog modeling for Bass Pro shops in the mid 80’s (along with my Dad who can hold his own agains any thermal underware model)
• I was an official crew member of an automobile racing team (my dad raced vintage car racing – the name of his car/team was sundial racing b/c in the early days he was so slow we joked we could toss the stop watch and time him using a sundial)
• I’m a double certified scuba diver whose never been open water diving
• I was married in the Boston Public Garden on the same day Hemp (um I mean) Freedom Fest was celebrated in the Common (I’ve been told all of our guests had the munchies)
• I witnessed Pope John Paul II conduct a mass wedding ceremony in Piazza San Pietro at St. Peter’s Church in Rome
• I was on the Italian nightly news – John and I were traveling by train to Civitavecchia when the tracks were flooded out and we were stranded on the train for several hours. We were in a box car with two priests from Spain. The Red Cross showed up to provide everyone with ham croissants and apples. The film crew showed up too and filmed our box car, John and I were drinking Italian beer and playing cards with the two priests looking on (good and evil in one box car!)
• I met Whoopi Goldberg and accused her of being an impersonator (alcohol was involved)
• I have my apprentice black belt in TKD
• I filmed an episode of Trading Spaces with John and my best freinds (no we didn’t meet Paige Davis)
• one last thing (not interesting really, just memorable for me) on this day, September 11th, 4 years ago, I found out I was pregnant with Loretta. My parents were also married on September 11th. Nice to have some fond memories of this date to help counter the bad memories, ya know?

So, what did I learn from this exercise in self awareness? We are so critical of ourselves. We are often never "enough" (smart, pretty, strong, interesting) in our own mind. But, if we look at ourselves with less critical eyes (like through the eyes of our loved ones) we may just see how interesting we really are.

Teeth and Expressions

Caroline has finally gotten a few more teeth. She has 6 total now. Much more slow going then her big sister. Loretta had 11 or 12 by this age. It's been a difficult few weeks, but when she is pain free (thanks to Motrin) she is her happy wonderful playful self!

So, John and I are more careful lately with our favorite ways of expressing ourselves. Loretta is picking up on everything we say and using our gems in the right context and often. She sometimes combines and mixes them up a little though. Her latest is "SON OF GOD!!!" It's an apparent combination of "son of a gun" (only recently revised from the tried and true version) and one of mine "For the love of God". Needless to say, it pretty much kills us when we hear her scream it from another room b/c her tower was knocked over by Caroline or some other tragedy occurred.

Caroline is now in Parent Child Swim and Loretta has recently started gymnastics classes. She loves it and asks pretty much daily if today is a gymnastics day. She started asking for gymnastics after we let her watch it during the Olympics. It's absolutely adorable watching her. She's much taller than the other kids and a bit of a "bull in a china shop" but she is trying and loves it. Caroline is a little less enamored with the swimming, she loves her baths, but is a little overwhelmed in the big cool pool. But, I'm hoping she'll eventually take to it like her big sister.

That's all for now EXCEPT for a quick call out to Dad T. Happy Birthday DAD T!!!

Tid Bits

Here are a couple of pictures of the girls. I was playing with the settings and taking pictures of a few flowers - movement, etc.

Also - Check out Aryana's blog (link on the right under Fav Links). She's getting so big, such a cutie pie. Also, the very first video is one of us all at the zoo feeding and petting the deer.
Enjoy!

IIIIIIIIII GOTCHA!

Caroline has this fun little game she likes to play. She crawls up the steps and then sits at the top jibbering and jabbering as loud as she can until she gets my or John's attention. Then when we start heading up to bring her back down she crawls (yes crawls b/c that's what she could do when she started the game - even though now she can practically run) away from us into one of the bedrooms. When I catch her I always scream "IIIIIIIIIIIII GOTCHA!" and tickle her. Now, when I catch her she says I gotcha too, but it's not the exact words, just mimicing the sounds. She's not talking a ton yet. She'll repeat us when we say something, mimic the sounds, but not initiating much on her own. Just mama, loleta, and dada and now IIIIIIgoya!


She's really a sweatheart this girl of ours. Such an easy going babe. But when she's angry - stand back - that girl has no fuse at all just immediate self destruction.


Loretta is seeming so old to me now. I have to remind myself that she's 3 all the time. She's showing signs of real compassion and understanding. She also knows when she's been wronged and isn't afraid to let you know it too. I like that she sticks up for herself. She's a tough cookie and demands fairness and her due. She's also stubburn as a bull, but I have no idea where she gets that from ;o)

Loretta has also become quite the picture taker. She loves taking our camera and snapping shots of anything and everything. More often then not, she ends up with something pretty amazing.

Last, but certainly not least, Happy Birthday to Grandma T!!!! We love you!

That's all for now, take care.

Summer Days

We had such a wonderful time on Cape Cod with John's family. They are so good to us and Loretta and Caroline absolutely love playing with their cousins. I don't have many pictues though, my battery died the first day and I didn't have the charger.

Mom buries Caroline's toes.

Caroline bumps heads with Grandpa T.

Loretta loves the water.

Dad and his girls.

We love the deer sanctuary at southwick zoo.

That's all for now. Love to all!

Check Ups and Swim Classes

Caroline had her 1 year check up last week. She's doing great, but so much smaller than Loretta was at her 1st. Caroline is 18 lbs 12 oz. She doesn't weigh enough to turn her car seat around. She's 30+ inches long. That puts her in the 10th percentile for weight, but the 75th percentile for height! How did I end up with these two slender amazon girls??? She's talking a little bit more, will say dog now, but still pretty conservative with her speech, but in no way quiet. She's constantly gibbering or singing. I have a feeling she's going to go directly from mama and dada to full sentences - telling her sister to back off and give her back her toy ;o)

Speaking of our little toy thief...Loretta has fallen absolutely in love with swimming and she's doing a fantastic job. We signed her up for Pike swim classes (the first level after parent child swim) and after the first class we were told to take her from a 3 bubble float to 2. By the next class we were told she could move up to Eel for next session. She's been swimming underwater and has no fear. So much so that she jumped in the pool after I removed her bubbles (after I said "ABSOLUTELY NOT!") and sank right to the bottom. I thought I was going to have to jump in clothes and all, but at the last moment she pushed off just enough to reach my hand. The Blake's were kind enough to give us their pool when they moved. It's big, big enough for a filter and for Loretta to have a blast, but she can touch the bottom. I think it's made her even more confident in the water, but we'll be keeping a close eye on our little daredevil.

That's all for now. Much love!

Vacations & Birthdays!

We have been very busy the last two months. We've traveled to Charlotte to visit the Blakes, attended Dad T's Lions Club and witnessed him receiving a very prestigious award, celebrated Caroline's 1st birthday (twice) and spent a week with my family in Mississippi. It's been wonderful and we're very excited about the rest of the summer too, specifically spending some quality time at the cape with Ed, Sharon, Juliette, Christian and Mom and Dad T.

Here are a few snapshots of the last month or so starting off with some love from Caroline and Loretta:

Bath time with the boys:

Baby Isabel's first swim with her mom:

Naughty Step!:

Birthday cake:

Caroline loving her bath with Grandma ;o)

Loretta's first mg ride with Grandpa:

Caroline sitting pretty:

Our little artist:

That's all for now.

Love to all!

Memories

I always think, there is no way I'll forget she said that, or this moment, but the truth is, I do forget. Crazy life happens and those moments are lost in my memory only to be triggered at some point, totally unexpectedly and wonderfully. A few of these that have recently sprung to mind.

"Grandpa, put your pants on!" (b/c we all know that's what you have to do at 6:00am before you are allowed to go downstairs and watch a show).

"Mommy, I love you all the way to the toilet paper." (our fun with the book which ends with "I love you all the way to the moon...and back")

"When I'm five, I'll be brave." (what was said after the drama of splintergate)

"I'm not a little smarty pants, I'm a BIG smarty pants!"

The way Caroline says "Hiiiiii" in a really high whisper.

How Loretta, as a baby, would put her arms behind her head (assuming the position) and scream bloody murder for her bottle.

The way Caroline hugs your head with both arms wrapped around your neck, doubled over and playing with your hair.

I feel so ridiculously lucky.

adding on from our July trip to MS.
Mom let chris and trish sleep in her bed. Chris was the last one still asleep and Loretta decided it was time to get up. He gave her a message.
"Um Miss Trish, that man, in grandma's bed, wants a coffee".

First Steps!

Caroline took her first steps today! She's been cruising the house with her push toys but today she finally took a couple truly unassisted steps to her Dada and to me. It was very thrilling and I'm so glad I didn't miss it - Loretta and I leave to visit the Blakes tomorrow morning. Not sure who is more excited ;o)

That's all for now, gotta pack!

Loretta's Birthday!

Happy Birthday Loretta!

We had a gorgeous day for Loretta's party and so many friends were able to join us. There was a pinata, water balloon toss, sprinkler time, impromptu water slide, water duck duck goose and dinosaur cake!

Blowing out the candles is serious business - you should always have your game face on!

Loretta had such a wonderful day and wanted to send a thank you to all of her friends and family:



We had a beautiful Memorial day too, complete with parade, picnic and pool time. I put together Loretta's new picnic table from Grandma and Grandpa and John put together our new child bike seat for Caroline and I took both girls for a bike ride, Caroline in her new seat (helmet over her eyes, but still loving it) and Loretta in the bike trailer.


That's all for now!

Holliston 5k

We had a gorgeous day for our annual Holliston 5k road race benefiting Children's Hospital of Boston. It’s a great event for a great cause created by Barry Kriegsman, a former patient of Children’s Hospital Boston. This particular event is special in our hearts b/c it always falls near the date that Meaghan’s niece Brianna past away in 2005 and it’s a way of honoring her memory. I sent our registration info out early (in hopes of getting a t-shirt). Well, John and I ended up being number 1 and 2! We didn't feel up to the task! People kept asking us what we had done to get those numbers, ummm, just anxious to pay I guess!

John pushed Loretta and did really well, finishing fifth in his division in just 24:37! My time, on the other hand, was nothing to be proud of, but I ran the entire race without stopping so I'll take it. Plus, I'm requesting there be a division added for Mom's who have had a baby within the last 12 months and is pushing said child the entire race...As far as I could tell, John and I were the only runners pushing children so it was truly a family affair.

This year they added a 1 mile kid’s race and Loretta participated! She was the youngest (by quite a bit) but she hung tough and finished strong! We're very proud of her.

First Haircut!

Caroline got her first haircut! Just a trim to keep the fly aways out of her eyes. Her hair is really starting to curl in the back just like Loretta's did. The girls had such a great time with their grandma, grandpa and uncle paul while John and I were in Florida. John and I had a great time (he worked while I checked out shopping and the pool ;o) but we had great dinners together and one whole afternoon when we walked the city and found the beach. We saw a horse shoe crab and a stingray.

On Friday we got our long awaited tattoos! Such a great experience, but OUCH!!! I had forgotten how painful they are. John was a champ though and he had to sit for 3 1/2 hours! Mine was more like 2 hours. So worth it though, John's crest is AWESOME and I'm very happy with my piece as well. We've decided they are our Mother's Day and Father's Day gifts to one another.

I already miss my family, I didn't get to spend enough time with them b/c they had to leave yesterday. But, I'll be home in July and I know how 2 months can fly by. I'll get to catch up with Chris, Trish and Jordan then.

That's all for now!