The kids!

Ella! She is now 3 & 4 months to be exact! She is at such a fun age, I LOVE IT. She is such a playful, fun spirited little girl. Loves to play with her friends, be outdoors (digging for worms!), helping mommy watering the flowers, playing at the pool, coloring and painting, watching princess shows, playing with little brother, and loves to chat. She has such a cute little voice, I love listening to her talk. Her pronunciation is a little off sometimes. For the word "forgot" she says fregot and for "idea" she says badea" I try and correct her but she loves to say it her way. I'm fine with that, it's cute!

She can't go anywhere without her "fenny" which is her blanket. While holding her blanket, the thumb goes straight in the mouth (we'll work on that one later!) I think it's still cute, not so much at age 5 or so. We have time. She's still potty training. Won't have an accident. Just doesn't like to go #2 on the potty. Preschool starts in September so we have time on that one too!

Ella is getting quite the sweet tooth and will occasionally ask for a candy cane for breakfast. I tell her she's crazy and then offer her tofu and banana mush, what Nico has. Just kidding. She's a pretty good eater. Loves her broccoli, fruits, yogurt, chicken, oatmeal & berries, soy dogs, cheese, pasta, pretty much anything. Daddy will occasionally take her to get frozen yogurt too, a special treat!

Nico! He is now 1 year old! This boy is a lover and a fussy fighter! He's all boy. He has a good set of lungs for starters. If he wants something, you'll know it! He has the basic needs- feed me, hold me, love me, and let me go to sleep! He is totally a mama's boy and pretty much wants nothing to do with anyone (though lately, he's been lovin' on daddy and it's so sweet to watch)

For months now I've noticed this about him and now that he's one, I can tell it's more defined in him but he definitely can only handle so much. If he's in a large group gathering or there are a lot of people in our home, he will occasionally need to step away and have his alone time. Whereas sister can go go go and is the life of the party, Nico is more introverted.

Tony and I are so thankful for them each and every day! They are true gifts from the Lord and we love them dearly!

Easter!

Nico's 1st Birthday!

We celebrated our son's first birthday this past Saturday!  It's a good thing we kept it small because as it was, he was quite overwhelmed, fussy and a bit clingy to mama.  It's understandable, he's probably thinking, "What's the fuss all about guys? I'm just as cute as I was day the before!" 

We had mostly our family over for some burgers and cake. My mom was able to fly out from OK which was so great having her here. Big sister Ella was so helpful in opening up the presents. We also had both our kids dedicated. Ernie and Debbie Rettino came over and graciously prayed over our little ones and dedicated them to the Lord! It was quite special. 

Ok, so I've been lagging a bit. That's my personality, I get all excited about something and I'm all about it then it fades pretty quickly. But I'm excited to share a first for my baby girl! She had her first sleepover at Grandma Chiarina's house. She was so so excited because her favorite cousin Alina was going to be staying over too. So as you can imagine they had a blast! AND she did great, hardly even missed us. She slept well and even napped there too which I was surprised at. But, no sleeping in for mommy and daddy cause even though little man was still at home and he did sleep in till 8am, we were up for a community garage sale at 6:30. Needless to say, Ella will hopefully be having many more nights at grandma's in the near future!

My Sweet Baby Girl!

Just another fun video of little Ella who at the time was probably 2 1/2 years old. I just love her little sweet voice and silly expressions! Enjoy!

LIttle Brother Nico!

Just a cute video of the little guy (not so little anymore.) He's now 10 1/2 months and a whooping 20 lbs! He now claps, gives a high five, waves bye bye and just took his first step yesterday! But what mama loves best are his cuddles! He loves to be cuddled and is such a mama's boy.
Ella is definitely starting to show signs of jealousy which makes sense it would show up around this time. He's more competition for her now. She'll want to be held at the same time I'm reaching to pick him up or say things like "Nico wants daddy and I want you." Kinda sad but inevitable I guess. But mommy and daddy are giving her lots of extra lovin'!

Remind me...

never to go to those "do it yourself" car washes! I've been twice in less than a week and it still isn't clean, what a joke! Trust me, it wasn't like I was trying to be cheap. I did go to the actual car wash last week and of course, their system was down! My luck. So I've wasted more money than had I either done it myself, free, or just gone to another drive thru one. AND, I got all ucky and tired in the process! However, good news for those of you who still love the "do it yourself" ones. If you go to the one off Lake Forest there is a drive thru Starbucks right by it and so I was able to get two things accomplished today without getting the kids out of the car, now that's awesome!

Can you say GENIUS!?!

So my daughter was drawing by herself and then showed me what she drew. I WAS SO IMPRESSED. Sure an O and I may not be hard to draw (which she did do) but she also did an A! I was like, "Can you do that again?" And of course she won't.

Sorry, I'm now addicted. You probably will end up hearing about my whole day EVERYDAY!

Ella's Visits CA Adventure for her Birthday!

For Ella's birthday we went to California Adventure and saw the parade, Ella loved it. We told her the parade was a big party just for her! It's ok to fib to a 3 year old to make her smile, right!?!?!

Ella checks out her new BIG GIRL bed!

Hi Family & Friends,
So I've finally decided it's time to start blogging. I have all these adorable videos of the kids and no other way to share them. Of course, it's mostly for the family but everyone will get a kick out of em' I'm sure! So, to my family in Oklahoma, New York, North Carolina, Illinois AND California too, hope you enjoy My Life Online!