SNOW...yuck!

We got snow...17 inches.
No one is happy about this. We've been shoveling our way out of the snow since the town is not really capable of clearing snow. When we left on Christmas Eve there was a thick layer of ice on our road because they had only been down with the plow once and didn't really do much of anything. We are hoping that when we get home it's gone (or nearly gone) and we can go back to normal.
Emilia hasn't played in the snow except for picking up what was scraped in from the back deck when I closed the back door. I'm sure we would enjoy it but she was getting her snowsuit for Christmas. LJ hates the snow and only goes outside when it's absolutely necessary.

Livia Harley Rechtorovic

Emilia is a big cousin!! With the hullaballoo of the holidays I haven't gotten a chance to post that our newest niece was born on December 14, 2009! Jaime was in labor for about 20 minutes, and then there was Liv. She weighed 6 lb. 7 oz. and was 18 1/4" long. Everyone is doing great, and her big siblings LOVE her!

My "27th" birthday

I turned 27 again on the 16th. Lauren sent me a beautiful and delicious edible arrangement. Emilia really enjoyed it, too!!

Brian came home with sushi (my favorite dinner), a Carvel football cake (the one with the most chocolate crunchies), and a big package wrapped in print paper from work. When Emilia and I unwrapped the package we found a laptop case. (I have been complaining about my laptop for a while now, because it just can't keep up with me.) He said that he got it used from work but that one of the guys could fix it up and get it running well. Here's a couple of pictures...





Once I saw that it was literally falling apart I got a bit suspicious. When I flipped it over I found a gift card taped to the bottom so that I can pick out a new one!! I'm very excited to have a computer that I don't have to wait for!!


Thank you so much to everyone for the birthday wishes and gifts. It was a great birthday!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILIA!!

Emilia celebrated her first birthday with lots of friends last Saturday. We had a wonderful party despite the snow. It was snowing when we woke up in the morning and continued until about 4 or 4:30. No one seemed to mind and everyone braved the snowy roads to celebrate with our little girl. (I was told to put palm trees on the invitations next year, though.) Everyone was so generous and the party was a success!



Emilia made us very proud with her cake. We told her that she had big cake-smashing shoes to fill and she certainly did! There was hardly any left when all was said and done.

On Friday Grami came down to help us celebrate her birthday. We had a quiet evening at home and shared an ice cream cake. As if she didn't get enough presents at her party she had another pile of gifts from Mommy and Daddy, Grami, Uncle Mike, and Aunt Lu.


There are even more birthday celebrations planned when we head up to PA over the holidays. Emilia has joined a not-so-exclusive club of December birthdays. Thanks so much to all our friends and family who have helped us celebrate so far!

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We hope everyone had a relaxing holiday! We all went to PA for the long weekend. Mom made dinner (as always) and it was wonderful (as always)! Emilia thoroughly enjoyed a holiday centered around eating!! She also had a ton of fun playing with her cousins, grandparents, and great grandparents!

Here is Nanny occupying Emilia while we were trying to get dinner on the table. She is beginning a separation anxiety phase and had a fit whenever she wasn't physically connected to me (yikes!). Thankfully she is still pretty easily distractible.


Here she is ready for dinner. We had to strip her to her onsie and tights because she means business at mealtime!

The ladies relaxing after dinner and clean-up. Yes, that is Emilia eating again!


Here is the guys' idea of relaxing after dinner and clean-up (you would think they participated in anything but the eating).

Playing in nature

Brian blew all the leaves into a big pile for Emilia. We played in them the other evening, but Emi wasn't too crazy about touching "nature" with her hands. She doesn't really like her hands in grass or leaves...

...so she poked it with this stick.


Then she decided to taste "nature"...not so good!



I also wanted to share that Emilia has started eating with a fork (thanks AJ and UK for the great toddler flatware). She doesn't always make it to her mouth with the food still speared, but she's getting better and she loves to practice.

Emilia's haircut

I did this about a week ago but I didn't get a chance to post it. Emilia got her first haircut!! Well, she had her bangs trimmed. She probably won't get a real haircut for a while because it's growing so nicely. I used the only sure distraction tool I have...food. Here are a couple of pictures.