An Anniversary Recap

So... Jamie and I did a fair amount of celebrating this year for our Anniversary. It's how we roll, we'll take any excuse to have a good time and eat good food, and we'll milk it for all it's worth!

So, our celebration started last Saturday, two days before our actual anniversary. A good friend of ours agreed to babysit so Jamie and I could go out for dinner. We enjoyed a lovely dinner and even got to stop at St@rbucks for a bit before heading home.

At dinner...

***

On Monday, which was our actual anniversary, we celebrated Kids' Day (I promise, a post on that will be coming soon - probably on Monday). It was so fun to be together as a family, just having fun all day long! We took time to steal a few smooches. :)

*smooch*

Okay, we were going for a nice picture here, and this is how it turned out. Neither Jamie, nor I, have any idea why his face is contorted in such a way. We laughed and laughed and I just had to share it, though I realize the hubby may feel as though it wasn't necessary to share. Hmm...

***

So... my Sister, Jeni, and BIL, David, asked awhile back if they could treat us for dinner to help celebrate our anniversary. So, Thursday night we were able to drive down to the city they live in and share a really great dinner with them. Jamie had Friday off from work so we actually dropped the older kids off at my Mom's and made the whole trip an overnight. A while back we'd stayed in a hotel in their city and our room was kind of gross. After filling out a survey the manager emailed to apologize for our room and to offer us a 1/2 price room any time we wanted. So, we went the cheap route and made a reservation for our 1/2 price room, hoping we had a better experience. Well, as it happened, the manager offered us a spa suite and gave it to us totally complementary! The hotel could still use some better management, in our humble opinions... but, overall, with the room being free and all, we had a great time!

Sweet Haddie and her favorite Uncle!

We ate at a Turkish restaurant! Very cool. Jamie and I enjoyed it so much!

We decided to enjoy some ice-cream after dinner.

Silly!

and Sweet!

We can be silly too!

And sweet... :)

It's been fun savoring the celebration of our 7th Anniversary and getting to share it with our kids and siblings!

Then... and, Now...

One year ago... my sweet Sophia was 4 1/2 and had all her baby teeth fully intact.

Now, though, as of last night, she only has 19 baby teeth intact!!! :)

That's right, my 5 1/2 year old "baby" lost her first tooth last night. It's been loose for over a week, and when she came in from playing last night Jamie noticed the tooth was gone. She didn't even know it had fallen out. :) She was upset to have lost her tooth, but we assured her she'd lose more and the Tooth Fairy would still come. Jamie The Tooth Fairy left her four quarters, a ring pop and a note from Daddy. She is growing up so fast.

***

Hadassah Anne at one month old...

And Haddie, today, at exactly four months old!

Check out that hair! It is so soft, so spiky and quite red!

Haddie has been doing a lot of new things lately. She now rolls both ways, and I will often find her across the room if I lay her on the floor. :) She's also starting to play with toys a bit. She continues to be super smily and giggly and talkative. She is usually asleep around 8p and sleeps till 7a most mornings. We're working on ironing out our daytime nap schedule but she pretty much naps one really good nap and then takes 2 -3 smaller naps. I'm working on getting her on two solid naps and a catnap if she needs it.

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Riley, at 11 months old. He was standing great, but not yet walking. And, clearly he was still cutting teeth. :)

Today, Riley is exactly 1 year and 11 months old! I cannot believe my baby boy will be two in one month! He is done cutting teeth (yippee!!!) and pretty much runs everywhere he can.

In the last month his vocabulary is finally exploding! He's starting to say harder words, like truck and juice. He seems to gain new words every day and continues to melt my heart when he says "MOM!" :)

He's actually saying, "Mom" in this picture. :)

Time marches on and these kiddos, they just keep growing. It's so fun to watch. God is good.

My Little Swimmer

Last Thursday Sophia completed her swim lessons, and on Friday we went to the pool for the certificate presentation.



Soph receiving her certificate!


So


Very

Proud!!!



In other news, Jamie and I celebrated our 7th Wedding Anniversary yesterday and at the same time celebrated our 3rd Annual Abrusci Kids' Day! It was a fabulous day and I'm working on a post for tomorrow all about it!!!

Baby, I love you

Dear Jamie,

Today we are celebrating our 7th Wedding Anniversary! How did that even happen?

I have some thoughts I'd like to share with you today.

Seven things I love about you:
1. I love your sexy looks. ;) Seriously though, you are so handsome and good-looking. I feel so blessed to be married to such a great looking man. I love your deep greenish-brown eyes with your impossibly long and thick eyelashes. I love your strong arms. I love that you don't have gross "guy" feet. :) I could go on...

2. I love that you are here. What I mean is, wherever I am, you are with me. Whether joy, pain, loss or gain, you are here. You hold me, you carry me, you spur me on, you join me. You are here. And I wouldn't rather be here with anyone else.

3. I love that I still learn new things about you. It makes living life together that much more thrilling.

4. I love that you are truly my best friend, and you always will be.

5. I adore that you are the father of our seven children. And I love that you never forget to mention, to give life to, our four babies in heaven. I often don't mention them because it is painful to, but you don't shy from the pain. You give our babies weight in this world when you mention them. Thank you. I love you because I know it hurts you too, but you do it anyways.

6. I LOVE laughing with you. Seriously, no one better to laugh with than you.

7. I love sharing dreams of the future, adventures of our past, and moments of our present with you.

Jamie, as we celebrate seven years today, I'm celebrating God's goodness towards us. You are the perfect partner for me and I couldn't be more blessed. Thank you for loving me with such a God-honoring, unconditional love. You chase me, and I need that. Thank you. :)

Happy Anniversary Baby. I am yours,

Some random thoughts

So, if you watch any "home"shows (think HGTV, TLC, etc...) or read any home decorating blogs, or even if you browse on Etsy much, well, you are probably familiar with the descriptive terms, "custom," and "vintage." All things vintage and/or custom are the Cat's Meow these days. It recently struck me that our dear home, built sometime in the early '50s, is both custom and vintage! :) Score! So, when the irritation of strangely sized cabinets, or the matching yellow oven and sink threaten to bring complaints to my lips, I will simply remember that what I have is not old, nor outdated, or strangely configured/constructed - no, indeed not, they are custom!, they are vintage!, and they are en vogue!!!

It's all a frame of mind after all...

;)

Soph-isms

As I write this, it is a hot July afternoon and I find it's nice to think back to Easter of 2008, when we were cold, cold, cold! And, up to our knees in snow!

Soon enough though, the snow melted and Spring sprung! Just a couple of months after that snowy Easter we found ourselves in the same spot, on the same stump! (okay, so it's not so miraculous - we were visiting my sister and BIL both times and this stump was across from there house)

I look at these pictures and I think, yup, that's my Soph... than I look at her in person and think - hey! Where did my toddler go?? Who told her she could just go grow into a school girl??

***

Yesterday morning Soph was in bed with me. Haddie was sleeping near by. Jamie and Riley were up and doing something in the other room. Riley was causing quite a fuss and being very noisy in the process. Sophia says to me, "Mommy, go help your husband."

Later that same day, sitting on the couch watching a video, and feeling ever so warm, she looks at me and quite dramatically says, "I could just dip my head into a whole bucket of ice-cream!"

:)

Wedding Weekend

Jamie and I attended a wedding Saturday. It was so fun to get out of the house (for 8 hours!!!) and just spend time with Jamie, Haddie and friends. Haddie refuses to drink a bottle, so, for the time being she gets to come along whenever Mommy and Daddy go out. We think she does it on purpose so she can have special time with us. :) I have to admit, as a Mommy, it feels kind of good to know I'm the only one who can provide for her hunger needs right now. And, she's not a half bad third wheel. :) Haddie was so sweet and did just wonderfully!

Two of my friends, Mal and Val, that I was so happy to see at the wedding!

The Happy Couple!

Their wedding and reception was just beautiful.

With our 7th Wedding Anniversary coming up soon, it was fun to be at a wedding and remember all the details of our special day...

Their getaway ride was so cool. It was a huge '57 Chevy stretch limo!

The groom attends our church, so we were seated at a table full of good friends from church. That made the day so much more fun! I think the shining moment of the day was close to the end, when we were thinking about leaving the reception...

...Thinking the table next to us was empty because those guests had all left, Jamie picked up two of the favor boxes of chocolates to eat for himself. He had also inadvertently picked up one couple's place marker. He's chowing down on the contents of one of the boxes and our table is just chatting away. All of a sudden someone approaches Jamie - who's got a mouth full of chocolate, and this man asks Jamie if he had his and his wife's name card!!!! Ahhh! The horror! - Jamie was totally busted! Apparently those guests hadn't actually left yet... :) We laughed about that all the way home, oh, and I might have enjoyed the 2nd box of contraband once we were in the car. :)

Photo Shoot

Sophia and Hadassah - willing subjects.

Easy to pose. Produced many cute shots to choose from.

Enter scene: Riley. Being posed to look cute, not his idea of a good time. And the idea of giving a smile? Preposterous!

And so, Mommy returns to the one who will sit still, pose and smile. :)

Love of an Aunt/That's my boy

Cora Ann, my precious niece... how does one even describe the love of an Aunt? I mean, no, it's not exactly like how you love your own children, but I'm not sure anything could come closer to that than how you love your siblings' children. All I know is, last night when my sister called me in frantic tears because Cora had fallen and hit her head on the floor and she was limp and hardly crying... well, I freaked! I told Jeni to call 911 and I hit the floor sobbing and crying out to my God to save my sweet Cora-girl. I had no details at this point so I really had no idea how bad off Cora was. My heart felt like it was going to explode and I beseeched my Savior like never before.

Thankfully (oh, Thank you sweet Jesus!) Cora is okay. She simply tripped in the living room and fell down, hitting her head on the floor. Jeni went to scoop her up, expecting her to cry and fight to get out of Jeni's arms to continue playing. Instead, when Cora only cried for a few seconds, went limp in Jeni's arms, then proceeded to stop breathing and pass out, well, Jeni knew something was wrong! She shook Cora gently to get her to catch her breath, than called her hubby to come home, than called me. Then, of course she called the paramedics who arrived right quick. They assessed Cora and found all her vitals to be normal and no visible sign of injury. By this time Cora was talking and walking and acting more herself. So, based on the recommendation of the paramedics, they decided not to go to the ER and instead just kept a close eye on Cora all night.

I am so thankful that the Lord chose to preserve Cora last night. My mind reels at the alternative.

While I was on the floor in the kitchen crying and praying, sweet Riley walks in and starts kissing me and hugging me. I told him Cora had a boo-boo and he looks at me sort of puzzled and goes, "Cora, Cora." Oh, my sweet sweet boy.

Speaking of Riley... the other day Haddie was laying on the floor looking at her musical toy. Riley scooted under the toy next to her and just lay there playing with his little sister. It was so cute! I was glad to capture this cute moment so I can always remember it.