happy birthday(s)

the past couple weeks have gotten by me...but alas, happy birthday (belated) to my wonderful niece milana who turned 2 last week, seth's mom (aka granny apple) who turned 60 last week, as well as to my wonderful sister natalie who is 27 today! my sweet sugar beans is a hoot and a half! she is full of life and fearless. she is so expressive and very sweet. she's a fantastic big sister, and such a special cousin to jackman and lilly jo! i love her so much and thank God for bringing her into our lives.

granny apple, or as lilly calls her, "bee-bop apple" has a special place in our hearts. she's a wonderful, hard working, loving woman and while we don't see her quite as often as my family due to distance, we are so very thankful for her! she's thoughtful and helpful and she just loves her children and grandchildren. she's been through a lot over the past year and continues to remain steadfast in her faith in Jesus - a true testimony of God's love to all of her family!

as for niblet, i have been extremely blessed to have her as my sister. although we've grown closer over the years, the past couple years have been extra special as we've shared many mucho laughs, tears and frustrations by becoming mothers. what a joy it has been to share this time with her...she always makes me laugh like no one else. she reminds me of my dad in many ways, and she's got a way of expressing things that really speaks to my heart. love you nataboo:)

ncaa tourney::kid's bracket

for the second year in a row seth has done a 'kid's bracket' for the ncaa with jack and lilly jo.
you can imagine the thought and time that goes into their decisions...

this year's method was pretty much the same as last year - put the 2 team choices in separate cups and whichever cup the kid picks first is the winner. next year seth hopes to move onto more intelligent forms of picking teams, however, for now, this method seems to work best:)

the last third

hard to believe i'm a week into the third trimester with miss amelia. time is flying to say the least. overall, it's been a smooth pregnancy, but i feel the aches and pains of the 3rd trimester for sure:)
i'm 29 weeks today, feeling lots of movement from amelia, getting lots of kisses from lilly jo, and lots of exercise from chasing jack:)

did you know?

Jesus loves oatmeal, mommy's doctor and mc donalds?
he does.
lj's been singing about it the past few days...

i was starting to think Jesus was a health nut, but now i see that isn't the case.

more beach

marge and matt-me
love this cutie patootie

sugar beans is no stranger to the beach...she's gunna show our kids how it's done this summer!

looking at some "she-shells"

just plain handsome.

bolivia

last week nat and i took the kids down to bolivia to visit her in-laws and we were blessed to have some gorgeous weather! we ventured out to the beach one afternoon...and it was a hit!

a first look at the beach

(lj's only been 2x, but really i think this is the first time she'll remember the beach; and jack has been once, but he was like 6 months old so this is his first good view of the ocean!)

more pics to come...

Lilly Jo says

over the past week lj has been heard saying this repeatedly, for no apparent reason, while she walks around the house or is in her crib for a nap or bedtime -

LJ: "bil-bur, listen na mommy"


i'll admit i wish she'd tell herself this sometimes instead of wilbur:)

Lilly Jo says

LJ:"date dada"
me: "that's right, you're going on a date with dada tonight!"
LJ: "oh-wa-way"
me: "that's right, you're going to chick-fil-a!"
LJ: "bye bye mommy"

a quick 8 hours

that's not a phrase i've used often, if at all, since we've entered the land of parenting. however, today i experienced the quickest 8 hours since january 2010.

seth and i had a day date:)

my brilliant sister came up with the idea awhile ago and we set aside 2 saturdays - 1 to watch the morreale kids and one for them to watch our kids. so we each had an 8 hour day date with our hubbies.

awesome idea nibblet.

8 hours of kid-free driving, eating, shopping, reading, relaxing and talking.

ahhhhh...that was nice:)

this picture was not taken on our day date (obviously), however, i thought it a funny picture and also a good visual of why we need some 8 hour day-dates:)

first observastion: you'd think this was taken first thing in the am with the way i look. but it was sometime in the early evening. and i wasn't even sick. niiiice. but, i actually knew i was pregnant about 4 days before this was taken but didn't tell seth. i was trying to surprise him but he's too darn curious (and zealous for kids) that he made me take another test and this time watched me take it so he could see for himself the results.
second observation: i have no idea why seth is making this face seeing as each time we have a kid his ideal "kid number" increases. no lie. he would really have a baseball team if i were up for it. i actually remember conversations with seth in the recovery room at the hospital, both times we've delivered there, of seth talking about when we're having our next one. i'm talking hours, if not minutes, after i've just given birth.
if you met seth in college (or earlier) i'm guessing you wouldn't have thought that about him. i don't think i even thought that about him the day i married him. but God has surely put in him a desire to love and father his children. and i can't argue with that!

that was a tangent, but oh well. a fun day for sure! thanks nat and john!