Oregon

Thanks for all the" Happy birthday's" to my littlest, little! We're in Oregon right now. It's so beautiful! I want to move here but I couldn't leave my mom in Maryland. Hailee is having so much fun with her four cousin's. I'm taking pictures and will post them when I get home. It's great to see everyone! Hopefully I will hook up with Mrs. Finger while we're her. We were in the same store yesterday but most likely at different times. How cool. We're keeping busy here and the kids are adjusting to the time change. In Maryland it's 3 hours later. So their little bodies are tired. Well off to the park:0)

SMILEY!

SMILEY!
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

Heres the little One year old in action. I could just squeeze her really HARD.

Gianna's new chair

Gianna's new chair
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

This chair is so cute! It's one of her b-day presents! They sit in it and it plays songs or ABC'S. They turn the little lamp on and off and it says "THe light is on" or "off" The little book has animals on it and when they flip the pages it says the animal and sounds they make. Really cute. She however tries to stand on it every chance she gets:0)

Busy Baby

Busy Baby
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

Chicken club wreath

Chicken club wreath
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

Chicken club wreath

Chicken club wreath
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

This is a more detailed picture of it. It was soooooooo good and super easy to make. It's crescent rolls wrapped around chicken salad(chicken, garlic, parsley, mayo, dijon mustard, swiss cheese and crispy bacon) Then you add sliced tomatoes around the top and wrap it up. Bake for like 25min and VOILA, You can really fill it with anything and theres more shapes you can make:0) Easy and Tastey.

Hailee and cousin Lil' JOHN

Hailee and cousin Lil' JOHN
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

She can't keep her hands off of him!

Birthdays

Thanks to all of you ladies for the MALE PMS support! He ended up apologizing and so did I:0) We ended up having a great time on his birthday. We went downtown to a really nice place called The Charleston , owned by chef Cindy Wolf. I think she owns a couple restaraunts in Baltimore. We had a five course meal with some amazing, I mean amazing wine. I'm not a big wine drinker but this was the best wine I've ever had. It was from Austria I think. Wehlner or Frus something. I don't know but we had two bottles of it. Our friends Ephraim and Tara went with us. I guess I was a little tipsy from the wine because we went to pee and my thong underwear were really getting on my nerves. They were pre Gianna thongs. So like two sizes to small for the junk I got in my trunk now:0) Anyway, I took them off and threw them right in the trashcan. I announced it to the whole table when I returned and we started cracking up. The type of laughing where you start crying and everything seems to move in slow motion. It was a really fun night.

So tommorow is my little sweethearts first birthday. I can't believe it's already here! I felt like Hailee's first year went by so much slower. This has just flown by. Gianna is such a wonderful baby and so funny already. What a personality she has. She's got some drama with her! The other day she kept making herself fall down and then extending her arm out for someone to help her back up. She did this like ten times. She laughs all the time and rarely cries. Unless I tell her no. Shes the best sleeper, it took like 7 months of pure hell and finally this baby sleeps in her crib every night. She goes down at 8:00pm and sleeps until about 7:30am. I could write for hours about her. All I'll say is Aaron and I talk about how blessed we are to have these beautiful, sweet little girls everyday. We are so thankful for our children and each other:0) We're just going to have a few people over for cake and ice cream. Then Saturday we leave for Oregon where I'm hoping to hook up with Mrs. Flinger at some point:0) How exciting! I'll leave you with some pictures.

Male PMS

Do the men in your life ever get PMS(Pissed Male Syndrom) Because mine obviously has a bad case of it right now. We went out to eat tonight with the kids, my mom and my Aunt Phyll. I thought we were having a nice meal together, joking around as usual, making a big mess. I apparently was rude to my husband the whole time. The only negative things I said which I didn't think was so bad was that I didn't like his sushi roll(he didn't like mine) Big deal, people do sometimes have different opinions right. Then my Aunt offered to take us out to dinner this week. He suggested two expensive places. I said they're pretty expensive. He didn't think that was nice either. He just would be happy if I said"GEE Honey!, That sure is a swell idea!" after everything he says. I told him not to take it personal if we differ in opinions. It really made me mad. It was ridiculous. I told him not to forget his medication when he went to get his coffee. We've been getting a long really good and tommorows his B-DAY(29th) It's probably best if I laugh it off. But thats hard for me. Oh well, Boys will be boys. God forbid I don't agree with everylittle thing he says:0) I'm not submissive enough:0)I'm sure he'll realize he's being silly. It's not like he's not getting any play. I worked it last night!: 0 He should be happy. I was gonna give it up tonight too but he had to throw a monkey wrench in it: (

Anniversary

So I'm planning a trip to NYC for Aaron and my second wedding anniversary! I really want it to be special and romantic. I want to stay at the Waldorf-Astoria right in mid town Manhattan. A little pricey I think, but worth it. I figured the weather will be great(October) and we can walk to central Park, go out to dinner, sight see...Thats the hotel in the movie SERENDIPITY. I love that movie. So has anyone stayed there or stayed in manhattan? It'll be just for the weekend. I've been to manhattan but only the village really. I visited my friends in Brooklyn when Hailee was like 4 months old.She bounced happily along strapped to my chest as we walked through China Town, rode the subways, took a bus ride to Queens, it was great. Anyway Aaron's never been! Mr. GQ himself! I wan't him to really enjoy it.

Aaron

Aaron
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

Gianna's cracking up!

Gianna's cracking up!
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

My cups runneth over:0) The whole night I was making sure my boobs were in tact!

Squeeze her

Squeeze her
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

LOVES

LOVES
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

She only has two teeth! She'll be one on Thursday. She eats like she has a full set of them.

Gianna

Gianna
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

So we went to the wedding in Cherry Hill. It was beautiful. The wedding was in Latin and the reception was at the Hilton. It was so great to see Jeff & Christine. I would have taken pictures of them but the ones I took didn't turn out. I don't have a nice Nikon like some of you bee-ottz's! I'll leave you with more pictures of some of my favorite people. Notice I'm in there too(JK)

Hailee, Alexis & Austin

Hailee, Alexis & Austin
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

Sippin' on Gin & Juice... LAID BACK

Sippin' on Gin & Juice... LAID BACK
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

Gianna & cousin Ben

Gianna & cousin Ben
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

Hailee

Hailee
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

FRIENDS

FRIENDS
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

How cute are these three kids? We went to the movies this morning with our friends and their two adorable kids, Alexis and Austin. Then had lunch at their house. Free summer movies. Gotta love em. Gianna was a wiggle worm the whole time but thats ok she eventually passed out. Every tues and wed during the summer, Regal plays two different kids movies at 10am. It's pretty cool. We've been keeping busy. Gianna's all over the place and every waking moment of her life I am walking behind her. That leaves like two hours during the day for chores and me and Hailee. Not much. Gianna's b-day is coming up on the 25th. She'll be one! I feel like I just had her. I'm not quite ready to be pregnant again yet but as I said before, if it happened it would be just fine with us:0) We'll have some people over to celebrate that. Friday, we're heading to Cherry Hill, NJ for a wedding. Monday is Aaron's B-day he'll be 29(YIKES) we're going downtown to a restaraunt called The Charleston. It's supposed to be really nice. After that we'll probably go to the Red Maple Lounge, his favorite, for a drink. Then we'll go park the car somewhere and makeout , just for old times sake:0) I miss making out in the car with him. Thursday's Gianna's b- day and then Sat we leave for Oregon for 9 days! His brother lives out there with his wife and 4 cute kids. Hopefully we'll even get to see Mrs. Flinger! How cool will that be?? I'm going to squeeze that little LB let me tell you! So we have a lot of things to look forward to and a lot of great picture opportunities! For now, I'll leave you with some pics. I apologize for my horrible writing and punctuation this evening . My brain is mush tonight and I'm dead tired:0)

NEW Hair DO

NEW Hair DO
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

This is my new highlight job if you can tell. Too bad my forehead is the size of an octopus's. Of course it never looks like when the stylist does it. It only looks that good one time. Then it gets washed and it's lifeless again. I don't have time to blow dry it everyday. Due to the fact that I shower when Gianna is napping and I'm not taking the chance that the blowdryer will wake her! This is like day 3.

On a different note, have you guys seen Diary Of A Mad Black Woman? It's so good. It'll piss you off, make you cry and make you laugh but it's a damn good movie! Go rent it right now:0)

Ruby Red Slippers

Ruby Red Slippers
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

Poor Hailee came down with a fever today:0( So when I went out to Target tonight I picked her up a pair of her favorite shoes. I guess all little girls love these shoes. Why didn't they have them when we were little? I totally would have rocked them everyday!

WHAT up with this?

I think Gianna is trying to phase out one of her naps. I've been very blessed with this child and her sleeping habits. Now, I'm not so sure. Yesterday she fussed at nap time for a while! Same last night. She usually goes in her crib at 8:00pm falls asleep by herself until around 7:00am. Last night I put her down and she kept fussing and I kept going in on and off until she finally fell asleep around 10:30. This morning she woke up at 8:00am and fussed and played for an hour unrtil she finally fell asleep. She napped for 1 hour. This afternoon, I put her down for her normal second nap at 3:00 she fussed and played for more than an hour ,until finally I just brought her down, where she has been content to play in her playpen for the last half hour. What gives? She'll be ONE on the 25th of Aug. Is she phasing out her morning nap? Or afternoon nap. Any suggestions?

GIRLS

GIRLS
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

Kind of fuzzy huh?

A Hailee Original

A Hailee Original
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

Hawaian Girl

Hawaian Girl
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

Smoochies

Smoochies
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

I guess I've been slacking. When I do have the computer Hailee now gets mad. The other day she broke my heart! I yelled at her because she kept asking me something while I was blogging. She started crying and said I didn't ask for this family! She's four years old and she always has to wait because the baby's doing this, or, I have to change the baby... So when the baby's asleep I should be playing with Hailee not playing with the computer. It's not fair to her. My priority needs to be her not the computer. So I'm going to only hop on here when the kiddos are in bed, if Aaron remembers to bring it home;0) We had a good weekend and had some dinner guests tonight. Antoine and Takeisha and their two kids Alexis and Austin. What cute ,sweet , well behaved kids. I really liked Hailee playing with them because I didn't have to worry that someone was going to get punched or dive off the dresser or throw everything that Hailee owns into the middle of the room. I should have taken pictures. Next time. Anyway we grubbed on Bubba burgers, Polynesian chicken(Bitchin Kitchen), corn on the cob, apple crisp and ice cream . Let me just say I totally splurged today but will be back on my no carb diet tommorow for another week:0) I leave you with some more pictures.

Little John

Little John
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

Root Canal

Root Canal
Originally uploaded by Ciao Bella.

Hailee is pictured here performing a Root Canal on Shreck. That is the table that we replaced our coffee table with. Rounded edges and a place that Gianna can safely bang her head on without seriously splitting her head open. My brother got it for Hailee to put her train set on a few Christmas's ago. Genious! I'm sitting here typing and Hailee will not stop touching me or leaning on me. Do we ever get room to breathe?

Sunday

So it's about 9:20am over here on the east coast. We all slept until around 9:00am. Except Aaron, who is still sleeping. He was up late, the little sweetie, cleaning the kitchen top to bottem for me. He cleaned out the fridge and rearranged stuff on the counters, washed the dishes(no dishwasher)and scrubbed all the counters. He's so much more of a help now. I was just laying on the couch at this time with a headache from my no carb diet. Actualy I've had headaches pretty much everyday since Gianna was born . I thought it was hormones or sinuses at first but now it's even worse since I haven't been doing carbs. My dad died from a brain tumor , so of course my mind goes there at times. Anyway, Gianna woke up at 5:00am and just wanted a cuddle. Then she went right back down. I woke up at 8:50 and heard her crying so hopefully she wasn't crying that long. I had gone to sleep around 10:30pm hoping he would come up and wax my ass like he waxed his car earlier in the day. He did but it wasn't until like 12:30am. So of course afterward I was wide awake and he was passed out:0) We went to church that afternoon and came home for lunch. We usually go out to lunch every Sunday after church with our other family members. I love our Sunday rituals. After we ate, Gianna went down and we watched part of The Santa Clause 2. I love, love, love Christmas time!!!! So does Aaron. I'm looking forward to the fall and the upcoming holiday's already. I'm done with these 110degree days!. After we sat around for a while he waxed his car and I sat outside and talked to our neighbor Sharon while our kids played. then my brother and SIL stopped by with their new bambino and I cooked them up some Bubba burgers and corn. So that was our day. I just realized how I kind of told the story Bass ackwards, must be the carbs:0) We had a good weekend.