Gabriella's Christening

Yesterday we went to Gabriella's Christening. She looked beautiful and was such a good baby the whole day. After church we went out to eat with everyone. It was an amazing meal! I swear there was around 6 courses....the food just kept coming out. We were soooo stuffed when we left and went to bed early because all the food made us tired.

Hangin w/the neighbors

Saturday night we went to Ceil & Joel's house with Jen & Joe. It's been a while since the 6 of us hung out together so it was a lot of fun. It was like the good 'ole days.....well minus Ceil & I drinking. We ordered food and sat at the kitchen table for hours talking and laughing.

New car

Friday night we turned in my VW Passat and picked up our new car....our family car. We got a Chevy Traverse and it'll be perfect for our growing family. We love it and are so excited to have the whole family driving in it some day.

When is spring?

Ugh! I can't take this winter weather anymore. I'm tired of looking at snow. I want to take Jadie for a walk and not have to wear a jacket. I want to sleep with the windows open. Last week was such a tease when we had a couple days of spring-like weather....until we got more snow this week....really? Such a cruel joke on Mother Natures part. I sure do hope that was the last bit of snow until next winter.

Weeks 13 - 15

Pics from 1st trimester (Weeks 6 - 12)

Beautiful day

After weeks and weeks and weeks of snow, we had a beautiful day today! It was 67 out and sunny. I worked in my home office all day, with the window open and I loved it. I heard all the birds and sounds of the outside world. I took a break in the late afternoon to sit out front with the neighbors. I actually had to take my sweat-shirt off because the sun was so strong. It was awesome. Sadly I don't think the nice weather is sticking around too long. How many days until Spring?

They are gonna be a handful

Thursday we had a check-up at the Dr. office. We got to see the embies on the ultra-sound and they are looking more and more like real babies to us. It's amazing! As the Dr. pressed the wand on my belly it pushed one of the embies into the other and it wasn't too happy. As the one got pushed it got mad and kicked the other! We were cracking up! Even the Dr. was laughing. It was priceless and all Brian and I could do was smile and laugh. Looks like they are gonna be a handful...

Harvey chillin' out....

Valentine's dinner

For our Valentine's dinner last night we had our traditional heart-shaped meatloaf and mashed potatoes. (the heart-shaped meatloaf is something my Mom did every year and something that I want to make sure our kids experience.) For dessert we dipped strawberries, apples, clementines, and cookies in chocolate. Yum!

Family time

Once we hit the middle of winter, the Grace clan starts to crave family time. From May - Sept we get spoiled by seeing each other through out the summer, but once Sept starts we don't all get together that often. So, today we all headed to Mom & Dad's for some pure family fun. We ate hoagies, watched the Flyers game, and talked a mile a minute the whole time. You would think that with today's world of cell phones, email, and texting we would have already told everyone everything...but we still managed to talk today for 5 straight hours. Livi and Char spent equal time with each of us. I asked them what they think our embies are....the votes are: Livi - girls and Charlotte - boys. So, we have a 50/50 chance of making one of them happy. It was a great afternoon and we already planned the next 2 get togethers so that we don't have too much time in between visits.

New Years Day....post-poned

Every year on New Years Day we get together with the Galiano's, Herzer's, and Carey's, however due to some nasty colds by many that day we had to post-pone. Due to the busy lives that we all lead, last night was the 1st time we were all able to gather together. We went to Nicole & Mike's for the evening. We had apps, pizza, and cupcakes for dessert. We sat around the table and chatted for hours. Of course there was the occasional jab as we picked on each other...but that's just par for the course when we are together. The kids all had a ball playing in the play room and then changed into their PJ's to snuggle up and watch a movie on TV. We had a ball and I was proud to say that I stayed awake the whole time. :)

A whole new world

Friday after work I wasn't tired! I told Brian I didn't need to take a nap so let's go out and do something. He was so excited! (apparently I sleep way too much lately) We decided to go to Babies R Us and Buy Buy Baby just to walk around. We didn't buy anything nor did we start our registry...we just wanted to walk around. We checked out monitors, cribs, car seats, strollers, etc. We had fun day-dreaming. As we walked out Brian said, "wow, that was a whole new world for me!"

Late Christmas visit with Galiano's & Franzen's

We haven't had the chance to get together with the Galiano's & Franzen's yet for our Christmas visit, until last night. They all came here and we had so much fun. I let them know that it was a "BYOT" (bring your own toy) event, as we don't have any toys in our house...for the time-being. They came with their bags of toys and then also got to open some new toys. RJ played with his I-pod touch, Luca watched Nick Jr., Alyssa sat with the adults to eat (that girl loves to eat), Gabriella was passed around to be held, and Nicholas and Bella had fun trying to get the cats to come out from behind the couch. We did also set up the TV downstairs so that they could watch whatever they wanted while the adults sat at the dining room table stuffing our faces and drinking wine. Well....I was just eating...no wine for me. We had a ball catching up, telling stories, and laughing. Isn't that what friends do best?

Dr.'s office with my Mommy

Thursday I had a Dr. appt and Mom came with me. I warned her ahead of time that she may not get to see the embies but she wanted to take a chance. She was all giddy when I met her there and you could tell she was sooo excited. We sat in the room waiting for the Dr. and when I saw the Dr. walking in with the portable ultra-sound machine I turned to Mom and smiled. She lit up like a Christmas tree. The Dr. was so nice to her and actually turned the machine towards Mom, not me, to see them. Ha! I watched Mom's face glow and her eyes tear up. It was priceless. She had her hand on my leg and squeezed as she watched her grandbabies move around. The Dr. then turned the screen towards me and I saw them swimming around. I asked if she could zoom in, because I'm so spoiled with the high-tech equipment at the high risk Dr. office. She said she wasn't able to on that machine but it was ok because I still got to see them. That 15 minutes, or so, with my Mommy was a time that I'll never forget.