tim tebow

Just wanted to say that Ryan, Francesca and I will be having our second Broncos playoff party on Saturday. Franc willllll be wearing her broncos cheer-leading outfit and willllll be cheering tim and the boys on to another win! We are so excited and still don't understand how you can hate him or anything to do with him.. odd balls.

how cute is she...

xo

all that is pinterest.

If you have not already entered the world of Pinterest I ask you one question... why?!!!!! Granted it is probably the most time consuming website I have ever visited and I have been doing it for the past 5 months. I have wasted many a hours on this site and to be honest I would never take those hours back. It is so much fun! For those of you who are asking pin what?! Well.... Pinterest is a virtual board where you pin all your favorites- crafts, recipes, photographs, ideas, words to live by, gadgets, etc. Everything that is a photo or a video can be pinned to any "board" of your choosing! looooveeee it!

For the past month I have been looking at crafts such and have even tried several of them, but the one I have found most recently is a tissue paper mobile. I have been on the search for a perfect mobile that both the baby and I love. Well to say the least I have come up empty handed. Mostly because I hate the look of just about every traditional mobile that I have purchased! So there's that. I'm the problem. Moving on.. 

I found THE one. And THE one was on PINTEREST. Many thanks to Beth from Sawdust and Embryos for posting the tutorial to her blog and for making it super easy to follow her steps! Here is my final product that I am super happy with!

Yes, I had at least 9 months to finish baby girl's nursery and no it is still not complete.. Which is why this is not a panned out picture :) oh how clever I am. I promise it will be done soon and then just maybe I will post a good picture.. if it's clean!

xo

ps. get pinning!

highchair & cereal extravaganza

While we were in Denver Francine and Loren were so kind as to let us borrow just about all of Adrian's baby gear-- car seat, stroller, pack and play... you name it! and she pretty much liked all of them.. more than what we thought at least! Aunt Debbie has a highchair for Adrian, so we decided to let Franc try it out! Not only did she not hate, but she actually liked it a lot! Which really helped us out while we were trying to get ready for family pictures (more on that later..).  Once we got home I knew I had to get our highchair from Ryan's parents house asap.

We had it set up the night we got back into town and the next morning she was looooovvving it! She also tried cereal for the first time while we were in Denver and LOOVEEEDDDD it! and still does (thank goodness). Every time I bring the spoon in for a bite she is like alllllll over it! Who knew introducing solids could beeee so much fun! 

 Oh and as my friend Aubrey pointed out.. no she is not helping me clean haaa. (that would be too helpful...) This bottle brush is the only thing I have that has a suction on the bottom! Clearly she has mastered the throwing and pushing of all her toys which also means I have mastered the constantly picking up of all of her toys- yay! On a side note... If you find any toys that have suctions on the bottom please don't hesitate to let a girl know!

The one tablespoon of cereal as according to the box was never enough for her to start with. This girl loves to eat. No joke. We went to the Dr's office because she was acting funky, well it turns out that even the nurses think  the 6 1/2 ounces that shes eating at every feeding is a lot for age. And by the way she was acting a funky because she has a mild ear infection. poor baby girl...

xo

denver round 2

Baby girl took her first plane ride to denver the week after christmas. Ryan and I (mostly me...) were very anxious! I was super worried about the change in altitude during take off and landing and I was worried about how I was going to get her to nurse without giving all the other passengers a free show.  It turns out she's a total flying pro. Granted there were a few hiccups going up and down, but nothing too serious.. and yes I'm sure someone saw too much, but like my mom said- I'll never see those people again! (except maybe on my next flight to denver.. haaah)

Our trip was very laid back. We didn't do too much of anything- some shopping, some socializing with family, lots of eating and lots of laughs! Now that my dad has (finally) been transferred back to Denver we will be making many trips to visit and we are very excited! Especially because now we only have one place that we need to hit to visit all of our family. For now Mom, Ang and Joe are staying in California so Joe can graduate with his friends in Ca... and will then be moving to join my dad!

It will be different having everyone back home while I'm still in Illinois without them, but I know we will all be reunited soon enough... mayyybeee. 

One thing we did want to do while in Denver was go to the Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden. This is where Ryan and I got engaged and where, as a child, Granny and Papa would take Angie, Anthony and I. We have always had a tradition of going to the gift shop first, then to light a candle and say a prayer and lastly to pop down and have some water from the fountains. Ryan and I wanted to take Francesca and show her who she was named after. So.. we bundled her up in her (favorite) giraffe jacket and Dad buckled her into her bjourn and just like that we were visiting the shrine. It was a chilly day but it was fun none the less. Francesca even took a sip of the water! What a big girl! 

here are a few pictures from Mother Cabrini Shrine..

xo

Christmas 2011

Christmas was filled with delicious food and lots of people. Which is normal in our family, but you never really realize how stressful it can be to be around that many people until you have a baby who seems to be very sensitive to all the loud noises and insane amount of attention! To say the least, Francesca was not the happiest baby that weekend.

Once we got her into a better mood and in the presence of small groups at a time she did great.

I was so excited to play the role of Santa-- even though yes, I know, she didn't even know what was going on-- it was still fun and exciting. Baby girl was wide awake Christmas morning.. as she is every morning. But you could tell we were starting her Christmas journey off on the right foot! We are so thankful for all of the wonderful gifts so many of our friends and family sent her and every time she lays her eyes on a new toy it feels like Christmas morning all over.. Thank you. 

here are a few pictures from Christmas morning..

xo

rollin'

next week our little girl will be five months old! oh how the time has definitely flown by... I went to get a manicure for Christmas last night and took my usual route to downers grove when I started thinking about that night.. The terrible back labor pain night! it really does seem like yesterday that we were in the hospital room hyperventilating and getting yelled at by the nurses! our little girl has so much personality now and it really brightens our day to see her learn something new. I continually tell Ryan how sad I'm going to be if she crosses a milestone while I'm not with her or if I miss something major happen... Well that almost came true on Monday night when we (baby and I) were sitting around watching Daredevil. Baby girl decided she was going to take this time to roll over for the first time! So in between glances of looking at her and the tv she decided to make her move... Good thing I looked down right before she did it or I would have been super sad! Now we just need to make it a regular thing so dad can see her new trick!

xo