Happy Birthday Aunt Mary Beth!!

We wish Aunt Mary Beth the happiest of birthdays! We couldn't think of a better way to celebrate than spending the day with her in Texas! Our family has been on an extended road trip, starting in Pittsburgh last week, stopping in St. Louis to celebrate Aunt Beth's wedding, then spending awhile with our Texas family in Houston. 

The girls are having an awesome time in Houston, playing cooperatively and even sharing for minutes at a time! 

 Aunt Mary Beth's celebration was complete with cookie cake, time at the salon with Mommy (which was largely a treat for Mommy!), and a trip to Build a Bear Workshop! Katherine and Marie each built a new friend. Katherine picked Applejack from My Little Pony, and Marie picked a classic Bunny. 

We turned around for less than 10 seconds and Marie made herself cozy in this coupe accessory. Don't worry, we didn't let her drive it home!

Katherine immediately insisted on joining the fun. :-)

Thanks, Aunt Mary Beth, for such a special visit! May your year be filled with good health, great joy, and every blessing!

Step by step !

We've made a lot of progress on the house recently-- most notably for Mama is that all of our clothes have finally been unpacked, sorted, and put away!

Probably more impressive has been all of the work Daddy has done on the attic and kitchen. 

We recently traded in both of our Civics for a minivan, which has been incredibly useful for house projects! Here's almost all the wood we used for the attic ceiling and some walls. 

We got a ton of this work done this weekend thanks to a visit from Grambie. Grambie helped out around the garden, house, and  we all enjoyed some special time together. 

Ocean City!

We've had an awesome start to our week in Ocean City! The Cousins stopped by our house on their way out, and we got to show them around the town. Andrew and Alex were most excited about playing video games with Uncle Ted, and Luke enjoyed fishing in our local pond. 

The weather in OCNJ has been just about perfect, and we have made it to the beach pretty much every day. Katherine is brave as soon as she sees the waves, while Marie takes a couple minutes to warm up to the water and sand. 

We have also enjoyed Mack & Mancos, Kohrs Bros ice cream, mini golf, games, and most of all, some great time together with our family!!

We still have a few days left to make more memories, and we will be sure to take lots of pictures to share with you too!

Welcome Summer

Although Marie looks terrified in this picture, I assure you they both have a blast at the playground almost every day. 

There's still a lot of work to be done on our new home, but we haven't waited to start enjoying it! Some of our favorite moments so far have been playing in the yard. Katherine and Marie do a great jobs taking turns in their little pink house, going down their slide, and playing in their pool. 

Last night we enjoyed a Summer Porch Party across our street and met a great family with an 8 & 13 year old girl (hello babysitters!). ;) Katherine had such a good time that as soon as she woke up this morning she ran to see if the party was still going on. 

Today Daddy built a tree swing (wheeeeeee!) and as the girls were flying through the air, the ice cream truck came by! We had told Katherine about a week ago about a magical truck that brings ice cream and plays music, and she has been watching for him eagerly each day. Needless to say, the ice cream truck met every hope and dream. :-)

We can't wait to play with the boys and Grambie this week when they visit on their way to Ocean City! We will be sure to show them all our favorite places inside and outside of our new house. 

Happy Daddy's Day!

We know there are a lot of "best dad in the world" claims out there, but Katherine and Marie are lucky to have the world's truly greatest Daddy. ;) Ted is incredibly patient with our girls (and with Mama), and works hard to make sure we raise a happy, healthy, holy family. Thanks Daddy for your tea parties, games of hide and seek, the hundreds of books you read, and your bedtime kisses every night. We are all so proud of you!

We put Daddy to work today, building Katherine and Marie's pink house. They were thrilled, and started playing in it together immediately! We also celebrated at Daddy's favorite restaurant in town, the Cloverleaf, which is famous for great crab dip and an outstanding craft beer selection. Marie enjoyed too much dip, and wound up very crabby herself! She was in a better mood after dinner when we enjoyed a walk to a big playground we just discovered. 

Happy Father's Day to all the dads we love, especially Grandpop, Opa, Grandpa Elizando, Uncle Dave, Uncle Dante (Katherine's godfather), and Uncle Casey (Marie's godfather). 

Happy Birthday Grambie!

We sure are blessed with a special, generous Grambie. The girls just returned to our new home after spending a very, very special week with Grambie and Grandpop. Grambie makes sure they have just enough popsicles, lots of playtime outdoors, prayers every night, and even ties their hair out of their eyes. ;)

Now Grambie and Grandpop are on a well deserved vacation, and we hope they're relaxing and catching up on sleep!

Katherine was telling me about her favorite book (Berenstein Bears and Too Much Junk Food), and when I told her it was at Grambie's house she replied, "Oh, that's a little far away, huh?". I told her, "Yes, it's pretty far." and Katherine corrected me, "No Mommy-- not pretty far... just a little far." We pray you have a very blessed birthday, and we can't wait to see you again soon!

We moved!!

May 30th seemed ages away when we signed the contract on our house six weeks ago, but the time flew by, and we're officially New Jerseyans (Jersians, Jersey-ites???)!

Mommy and Daddy headed out to the new house on Friday, and started working non-stop over the weekend to get things ready. We're refinishing the hardwood floors, and finishing the attic before our stuff arrives on the moving truck this Friday, and before our beautiful girls arrive over the weekend.

We already miss everyone like crazy, and it was incredibly hard to say goodbye in Pittsburgh. Today we were spoiled with a visit from Grandpop, and got to give him a quick tour of the house. In case you aren't up for the drive to Caldwell, NJ, here's a quick tour (as is) for you too!

front of the house:

Pictures from before we moved in:

kitchen:

dining room:

sunroom:

 living room:

 powder room:

living room/stairway:

master bedroom:

girls' room:

 girls' room again:

 hall closet:

hallway:

attic:

front yard:

Pictures from after moved in, work in progress!

attic framing started:

sanding started... there's still a lot to go!

sanding partially done:

hardwood floors in the kitchen?!? sounded great until we ripped up all the floors. ;)

taking a break to enjoy some pizza from one of the MANY local pizza shops:

Katherine is CONVINCED that our house is going to be a "big pink house." With all of our other home renovations, we aren't up for painting the house pink (we also don't think it would help the resale value), so we're considering a little pink play-house instead. :)

Ted and I are still busy busy busy with housework this week while Grambie and Grandpop generously watch the girls in Pittsburgh. We'll post more pictures as we make progress, and can't wait to show you all in person what everything looks like!