Christmas time!

The month of December went by so fast I really don't even believe that it was here. Thankfully I have photos to prove it. This year we put the tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving. Amelia had so much fun picking out the ornaments and helping me hang them on the tree. We moved around some furniture so we could have the tree in the living this year instead of in the office.

Our adventures started on Friday the 18th with nearly 3 hours of packing. Followed by a 3 hour drive to Warren. We stopped at Bob Evans on the way where Oliver had his first taste of real food — meatloaf and mashed potatoes! He loved it! (Until he burped it up 15 minutes later!)

Saturday, December 19 — Tyler and I baptized Jessica and Justin's little boy Hayden Thomas. We are now officially Nasa and Nasu (Godmother and Godfather). It is such an honor for us. That's Hayden above as we got him ready to go to church.

The Hileman's house after the baptism. In the foreground is Nolan and Oliver in his Risky Business outfit.
Oliver, looking quite handsome, with Buni and Beepa at the Hileman's.

This is my Nasa — Carol Zoba. Isn't she beautiful!

Bathtime at Buni's. I'm so lucky to have two kiddos who LOVE bath time!

Kali is such a kid at heart. She brought Torrey over to play outside in Buni and Beeps' backyard.
Beepa wanted to build a snowman with Amelia — it turned out pretty cute.
Time to thaw out after playing in the snow.

Jess and Justin came over so we could have some Christmas time together.

Monday, December 21 — Next stop was my dad's.

I swear, if you put a baby picture of me next to this one you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I'll have to find some of mine and scan them in to do some comparisons.
Dad got Oliver down for a nap. It's such an exhausting feat sometimes that you just have to zonk out yourself!

Wednesday, December 23 — Next stop was Aunt Tami and Uncle Jamie's.
The Candella Cooks. Christmas Eve dinner was amazing thanks to these two!

Our annual Christmas Eve brunch was at Rachel's house this year. Look at all the kids! I can't believe some of us have two each already! Where has the time gone! It was so great to get all of us together again...and we missed all of those that couldn't make it this year. It's going to get harder and harder to do each year.

Back at Aunt Tami's....Before Amelia went to bed on Christmas Eve she left Santa a note with some chocolate milk (she insisted that's what he liked), some (Romanian) cookies and carrots and oats for the reindeer.

Beeps just hung out in the corner and watched the show. Oliver, like most of the time while we are in Warren, hung out with Buni. She's sort of attached to him!

This was Kali's doing. It was her very own Baby in a Box.
Uncle Jamie, Kaitlin and Ajay.

Friday, December 25th — One week later ... we made it back home that evening to spend some time with Granny and all the wonderful toys that Santa left for Amelia and Oliver at our house.
Our attempt at a family photo.

The week of Thanks and Thanksgiving

This week was full of family and friends. I am so blessed and so thankful for the many incredible and wonderful people I am constantly surrounded by.

The kids are starting to play together — it's really fun to watch Oliver's reactions to Amelia. He's doing a great job sitting up all by himself. Oliver turned 7 months this week.

Just me and my little girl.

We had Tyler's family Thanksgiving at our house this year so Nanny could join us.
I used to think our kitchen was big until we tried cramming all of us into it!
This is the time it would be nice to have a dining room instead of a play room.

Nanny and a few of her grandkids and great-grandkids.

I needed to stop in at my office and they put Oliver to work.
He loved all the attention.

Thanksgiving at Aunt Tami's house. She was all too happy to see Ian Thomas! They are so funny together.

Kali dressed the kids up in her fatigues. And they got a huge kick out of it.

Ian, Amelia, Addison Allen, Ellie, Nolan Allen and Oliver. Addison and Nolan are one of my best friend's little ones.

Aunt Tami and Oliver — she was trying to keep him warm on an extremely fridged day in Warren.

Beepa took us to see the WWII Veterans Memorial in downtown Warren. That's his "brick" in the foreground. Thank you Beeps for being such an amazing man.

It's about time — family time

I finally have some photos with all of my family together! This makes me so completely happy I can't even explain it. My girlfriend Gilda and I traded our creative services and she took photos of us today.
Thank you Gil! You do AMAZING work! If you want you can visit more of her work at gmapix.com

I spoke too soon

I was talking with my Grandma on Tuesday and made a comment about how surprised I was that Amelia has never had an ear infection ... dumb move! That very same night Amelia said the words, "Mom my ear hurts. It's ouchy." She made it a couple more hours and seemed "normal" but then it came time to lay down and the tears started. The pressure was just building. I took the first shift of sleeping (and I use that word VERY loosely) in our bed with her as she tossed, turned, kicked, fussed, cried, wimpered, tugged and yelled....and Tyler slept on the couch...it was awful. By 2:30am I begged Tyler to switch with me. I had that nervous feeling running through my body and had a fitful sleep on the couch while Tyler endured what I had been going through earlier. I think by 5am they had fallen asleep.

Thank goodness Oliver had a good night's sleep and made it straight through till 6:15!

Amelia woke up and said, "I have boogers in my ear. I can't hear out of it." Something must have ruptured because her hair was all goopy. Tyler took her to the doctor and found out that she has an inner and outer ear infection. Sounds just like my childhood. Amoxicillin, ear drops and children's motrin was the prescription.

I spent the day at home with both kids and thankfully, with the help of my wonderful mother-in-law, I made it through the day. Amelia even took a 3 hour nap and Oliver took 3 naps — a one hour, 25 minute and then an hour and a half nap!!!! It was a breakthrough day. Yippy!

With all this nice weather...

We've made a couple trips to the neighborhood parks.

Notice Amelia's face in a couple of the photos...she kept yelling at me to stop taking pictures — I can't help myself though.


This is Tyler and Amelia rolling down the hill.

Gorgeous. And surly.