Before and After....

Ok...ok...I said I would be better about blogging and here we are a month later. So maybe I am not much of a blogger...or maybe I have just been busy lately, not really sure but maybe this will be more of a monthly update kind of thing! Well.. what have we been up to lately...adding a room to our house! We started construction (or I should say our contractor started construction in the beginning of July and we finished up in the beginning of August.) They added a half wall to enclose the room, a closet, and a door and then there was a room! A couple of extra things we had them do too where build custom shelving, a built in toy box that is also a bench seat under her window, closet organizer, and a ceiling fan. This all started a domino effect of projects in our house but all things that needed to be done. (Or so says the pregnant lady that is completely in nesting mode right now.) More on that later...

The last couple of weeks we have been moving Ariana's things into her new big girl room and now I think we are finally finished! My mom (Nana) is just making a bench cushion seat for under the window and some fun pillows for the room and then we will be completely done! It started off as our loft and we had it converted to a bedroom. Soooooooo much easier than moving or having to have Sean give up his home office. Since that is his only office it was kinda a no brainer to do this. We are very happy with it and already have made some great memories in there! It also made me realize that "holy crap" we really are having another baby... as I emptied out the nursery and got things back to "newborn" stage it has really kind of starting sinking in. Well that and the growing belly that has kinda been slowing me down lately.

BEFORE:






AFTER:


She loves her new room and sleeps in her big girl bed for naps and bedtime now!



Doesn't look like the same room does it?





Yeah, I know the bed rails really don't go with the room but you gotta have them! She has already fallen out once but rebounded pretty good!



She loves loves loves sitting at her table and coloring and playing with stickers. She instructs daddy and I where to sit each time. Good thing those chairs are a little bigger in order to hold us!



Her reading corner...which she does a lot of too... she also instructs us "More Book Mommy, More Book Daddy"



More storage under the bed... very nice since our loft is where we kept a lot of toys. I was going for ultimate storage in this room and wow did we get it. If you look hard enough you can see part of the new closet...I forgot to get a good pic of that. But she has a BIG closet now and it is already full! Have you ever seen a 1 1/2 year old with so many shoes!?





She has a built in toy box that is also her bench seat. She loves to sit there and read and look out the window! So much fun!

Our week in Redondo Beach

Last week Ariana and I headed to Southern California to spend a week with 3 out of 5 of my college roomates! Samira lives in Redondo Beach so it was a perfect location (5 minute walk to the beach!) Yeah, she lives in a very cool area and has an awesome house that accomadated all of us and the kiddos! It was such a wonderful week to spend time with my friends and to let the kids play together now that they are a little older. We kept joking all week how we could really get used to having 4 wives around the house because we were so darn efficient with 4 kids running around. The house was always picked up, kids fed and bathed, we got a chance to actually chat and catch up on our lives, and it was a constant 5 day playdate! I miss my college friends terribly and wish we all lived closer. They are such a special group of ladies and I feel so special to have stayed so close with them all these years!!! Sean even flew down on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend with us which was great! He used to live there so he got to visit some old stomping grounds and visit as well. Now if I could get the my whole family to move there we would be there in a heartbeat. I love beach life!















Link to all photos from our trip!

Redondo Beach Summer 2009

Missouri Trip Summer 2009

We headed to Missouri to Sean's home town at the end of June and stayed through the 4th of July. This was a special trip because it was partly a surprise to his parents. Sean's mom and dad (Grandma and Grandad) celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary this year AND they both retired! It was a reason to celebrate! So we planned a surprise party along with Sean's sister (Auntie Dani) at their home. Sean's parents had no idea we flew in early for this AND my parent's decided to come too! The look on their faces when Sean and Ariana answered the door was priceless. It was such a special trip and the memories made were so great! It was an action packed 10 days that started with the party. We then took my parents around the Missouri countryside for some wine tasting, a visit to the Daniel Boone house, Purina Farms, swimming, BBQing, playing, and then headed to Bennett Springs for 4 days of 4th of July celebrating that included fishing, fishing and more fishing. Ariana got to fish for the first time (Daddy and Grandad were so proud) and she actually caught a fish! We had a blast and were sooo tired coming home. Then we realized that would be our last trip there with only one kid. WOW...next time we will have two little ones! Crazy thought! Here are a few pics from the weekend and I will include a link if you want to see ALL 200+ photos!














Link to all photos from our Missouri Trip:

Missouri Trip Summer 2009

Spring/Summer Pictures

Ok...this is my attempt to get caught up and back on track with blogging! Slideshow seemed to be the answer. We have had such a busy Spring and Summer and it has been a lot of fun but between traveling a ton and not having the easiest start to this pregnancy has left me very very behind. Enjoy the pics and I hope to be more regular with my posts from here on forward!

Flowers from My Cat and Husband

These beautiful flowers are from my wonderful husband and my cat. We have two cats but they are only from one in particular (Joey). I won't get into the whole story about why my cat sent me flowers but let's just say it may have have just saved him from being put up for adoption. :) Sean has been out of town for 7 days and without complaining or venting about my week I will just say my husband is awesome and truly appreciates all that I do at home. And I love the flowers! It made my week!

Baby# 2 coming December 2009

We are delighted to share the news that we will be welcoming our second child to the family in December 2009. We feel truly blessed once again and are elated to be able to give Ariana a sibling. The little munchkin is scheduled to arrive around 12/15/09 just in time for his or her's first Christmas. We are looking forward to keeping the his or her part a surprise to all of us until his or her's birthday, as it is truly one of the greatest surprises in life! We did it with Ariana and it was so so exciting! Good thing our nursery is neutral colors so we don't have to do a thing!!!

I am way way way behind on blogging....

This is a picture of her and her Dora back pack that she got from her cousin Lizzie at Auntie Dawn's birthday celebration. Sean and I weren't there because we had to take an unexpected trip back to St. Louis for a close family friend's funeral. We decided to leave Ariana with my parents since it was going to be a fast and sad trip. Although the break from mommyhood was nice I missed her terribly. That was the longest and furthest away I had been from her ever and it was HARDER than I thought. She was fine of course with her 5 cousins and Nana, Grandpa, Auntie's and Uncle's fighting over her.

I don't even know where to start it has been that long.... it is not that we haven't been doing anything interesting it is that we have been really busy and this is the last thing that I think to do!!! Our little one is growing up too fast and I need to download some new pics so I can post them on here. She is talking so much now. She says well over 20 words now and has a new one for us almost every day. Some that come to mind are: We-um (that is Liam her cousin who she absolutely adores), baby, ba-ba, wa-wa, moon, shoe, Dora, Go-Go (for Diego), Joe Joe (our cat), mommy, daddy, nana, grandpa, more, co-co (for cookie), no (that is a popular one these days), toe, nose, book, etc...etc... She is 16 months old already and just looking more and more like a little toddler( and her daddy!). We have been swimming almost everyday in our pool and she loves the water which is nice. It makes for a wonderful afternoon nap time which mommy loves very much! I will catch up soon I promise... ok, maybe I shouldn't promise but I will soon... We are gearing up for being gone most of the month of July. We have trip planned back to St. Louis for the 4th of July and then we are heading to Southern California to stay with one of my college roommates and her two boys for a week! Can't wait for lots and lots of beach time!!!