Hi from Lauderdale by the Sea!

In the Parking Shuttle. Very excited.

View from our window.

Sunrise courtesy of the James/Libby duo.

Happy and Shielded from the sun. ("Mommy's taking good care of me, Daddy. I'm not getting a sunburn. I promise!"-Libby)

"You can't boss me. I'm a co-boss." Becca to Mom-mom.

First on the beach. Last to leave. Having a good time, but missing the Daddy!

Home Photo Shoot

Libby in Jer's guitar case. A friend gave me this idea. I'm going to have to work with it a little more. Maybe try when she is asleep, or outside from a little further distance.

This bonnet was made for me by my great grandmother. It has matching booties.

Here is my handsome James with a reasonably natural looking smile too!

Bubble beards and Hamsters

Okay, so the bubble beard thing is self explanatory, but the hamsters? What about that? Well, our neighbor has two of them. I never would have thought my boys had much in common with hamsters, until I saw what happens when you give them an empty cereal box. The little critters will chew it up into a thousand pieces and spread it around their cage and burrow down into it. My boys demonstrate a similiar skill. I don't know if they're trying to make my kitchen a comfortable place for burrowing, but by the end of the day it looks like two hamsters have been hard at work cutting and shreading all their papers all over the place. I could get annoyed picking it up, but I don't. I'm just really happy that they'll sit at the table and color, glue, paste...and shread happily for the whole afternoon. Now if only those running wheels came in their size:)

The City of Brotherly Love

Here we are with my sister posed with my "first kiss". Not Jer....but rather the Rocky statue. I think I was probably 5 years old and my dad lifted me up to give him a kiss. They probably thought it was hilarious. I think I thought he was real. I sure loved that "Italian Stallion".

We ran to the top of the art museum steps singing the theme song and threw a few punches at the top. From what I observed there is a constant stream of tourists doing the exact same thing all day long.

Here we are at the 9th street Italian Market which claims to be America's oldest outdoor market. I loved all the sights and colors.

For about 400 dollars you could take home one of these cheeses.

Here's Luca on the whisper dish...can you guess who's on the other side?

It's Uncle Gerry!

Here we are in Gerry's apartment. Rebecca pointed out how funny it was that all the girls (and Luca) were lounging on the couch with their feet up watching Rocky while the men were hard at work in the kitchen making dinner.

It was an awesome dinner. I'm trying to remember which movie it is, but the quote is, "All over the world men are the best cooks." It might be true. Gerry made Eggplant parm. Here he is working on an appetizer, pear gorgonzola pizza, and his roommate makes cantalope with prosciutto in the background.

Here we are outside the Betsy Ross house. She is credited with making the first American flag. The old city of Philadelphia makes me feel really patriotic.

That was my brunch. Totally awesome.


Okay, last pic... but how could you tour a city with three little kiddos without your own stroller/train? Our sit and stand can fit all three!

Out and About

We went to a nature center near our house because Luca had off school for election day. We took our sweet next door neighbor, Pariya, with us.

I love this picture. It's a perfect comination. A good friend and a beautiful day.

See those three little dots down there? That's Luca, Pariya, and James. Where we live, kids don't often get the oportunity to run wild in all that open space without another person or building in sight.
That reminds me of a short Luca story...As we were driving by what used to be The Book of The Month Club in my hometown, I pointed to a corn field and explained how if you walked straight back through that field you'd arrive in Mom-mom's backyard. I told him how I used to walk all around in that field.

Then Luca says, "Oh, like back in the old days? Before they had cars?"

Here they are on Halloween posing with their pumpkins. I've noticed that James and Jer have a similiar problem. Neither of them can produce a normal looking smile for a photo. You ask them to smile and you end up with strange expressions like the above. Or you just end up not including them in the picture like below. Just kidding, that wasn't intentional. I just wanted to zoom in on Libby's ballerina costume. I love her huge yawn, and her huge belly. I guess all the excitement wore her out.

Two Stories and a baby girl

A baby girl.
The first story:

For the last couple weeks at school, Luca's teacher has called him "big brother Luca." He is enjoying his role. Everyday at school if they are good they get a check, then on friday they get to pick a prize from the box. Luca came home with a jewel ring for his baby sister. The kids get pretty excited about their prizes, and I was so amazed that he chose to get something for someone else. He couldn't even wait till we got in the car to give it to her. Here she is sporting her first piece of jewelry.

The second story: Unfortunately no pictures for this story starring Jameser.

Every night the boys listen to a Dinosaur Rock tape in their room as they fall asleep. Well...alas...last night the tape player (yes, a cassette player) ate the tape. (This is a rather big deal, because Dinosaur Rock was a traveling musical show from the mid eighties. The tape belonged to my siblings and I...needless to say it won't be easily replaced.)
Well, I made the mistake of exclaiming to my literally minded two year old (who adores this tape) that the Tape player ate it. He was distraught. Then this morning we went out and bought a new cd player for their room (the offending tape player was also a cd player, but the cd player had ceased being operational sometime previously). Anyway as we removed the old player, James crept over to me and leaned timidly over it.

"Mom," he said, "can I see his teeth?"

I did laugh, but I felt sorry for the little guy going to sleep without his music, in a dark room, with a vicious flesh eating tape player just feet away from his pillow.

Here we celebrate Libby's two week birthday with Mom-mom.

Spinach Dip

Alright....some of you have been asking for this...but once you know what's in it you may not be able to enjoy it as much. I got this recipe from Lindsey Walker, a very creative lady and a great cook. It's different everytime I make it because I'm trying to find the ratio of ingredients that I like best.

SPINACH DIP

1/2 stick butter
3/4 block of cream cheese
1/2 tub sour cream
1/2 block of frozen spinach thawed
1/2 jar marinated artichoke hearts
1 cup grated parmesean cheese

-blend or process spinach and artichoke.
-Melt butter on stove top. Add cream cheese and sour cream. Stir till smooth. Then add blended spinach and artichoke and parm cheese.
-finish in oven at 400 for 20 minutes.
-Serve warm with bread pieces for dipping.

Libby Joan

I took the above pics at home yesterday. She was so sweet and agreeable while I laid her in that silly basket:)

Here she is with flowers from her great grandparents. Thanks Nana and Papa!

Here's Our New Baby!

After putting in a 9-5 work or "labor" day we have a new addition to announce!




Okay, so that's not her, but James loved the baby's hospital crib. Here is our newest little love Libby Joan... 7 lbs 4 oz, 20 1/2 inches.

James wanted to feed her from the baby bottle shaped chocolate candy. It was difficult to persuade him that the candy was for him to eat. He'd been planning it all day.

Observing Luca's reaction to his baby sister was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. Here he is so proud of the fact that he can hold her all on his own. He is so full of love for her already that you can almost see it pouring from his eyes. He cried when they came from the nursery to take her for her bath, and he realized he had to go home because visiting hours were over. He wanted to take his new baby home with him that first night.

Here we are headed home happy 100%.

We came home to a surprise. Luca decorated our front door to welcome us. I feel overwhelmingly blessed today.