There she goes...

When did it happen?  When did my baby get so big.  She's in such a hurry to rush off to school this morning for her last FULL day of 2nd grade...weren't we JUST starting 2nd grade.  We were talking about the things that will be different next year this morning as I packed her lunch and she ate breakfast, and I almost broke down on her then.  She moves up to the middle grades lunch, she can start playing school sports, and 3rd grade curriculum.  YIKES.

SLOW DOWN PRINCESS

please.

  I am begging you.  my heart can't take it.

The only way you grew this year is UP and now you're almost as tall as I am.

All she's been talking about all week is that her birthday is coming...two months from now, when she goes BACK to school.  I warned her that she may not want to wish it here so fast, otherwise her summer will be over and done before it even begins.  

And two months.  It is not nearly long enough for all the fun I want to have with them.  Seriously.  

And the worst part about 3rd grade...

Fionn starts PRE-SCHOOL.  

seriously, the tissues...who has some for me?

May--where did you go?

Today is the 27th, can you believe it?  In just TWO days we'll have been in our house for a month and I've yet to write one little blog post about it!  What a month it's been!  We're still not done unpacking and I have a confession to make... 

I've only hung ONE picture on the wall.  Yeah, i'm not kidding.  Can you believe it.  This is OUR house, and I have barely put any of US into it.  Anyone else like that?  I guess I'm just trying to get a feel for where I want everything to go.  Our other house had more wall space I guess, lots of high ceilings so I'm not sure where I want everything to go really.  We had a great big open staircase at the other house, and here it's a smaller closed space so not really room to hang pictures going up.  I need to put my creative hat on and figure out where everything should go and honestly just have not had time yet.

We've been so busy that you've yet to see Maggie's 1st Communion, Fionn's birthday or even more pictures of just our house.  Can you believe THIS month has been my busiest yet with Frames of Infinity too?  I know.  This month, of all the months.  As a matter of fact I have another session tonight so I need to move this post along!

___________________________________________________________________________________

Those words were written once again, weeks ago. 

UGH.  I can't believe how fast time flies.  

We now officially have been in our house for over a month and still we have boxes to unpack and pictures to hang.  We've already had a pipe break and a home repair that needed IMMEDIATE attention.  Thank goodness we caught it quick and only have minimal damage.  A few things in the bathroom need replaced, but at least now we can put a little of US in our home.

We've had another big event.  Maggie's dance recital.  She did AMAZING.  Seriously, blew us away.

So here's the run down.

House.

1st Communion

Trip Home:

Birthday:

Memorial Day:

New Swing set:

 New Puppy:

Field Trip:

Dance Recital:

WHEW...that covers most of it!  Those are just a few of the posts that I promise I'll expand on before the month is out!  Trust me, each one deserves it's own post, not just a "hey, this is where we've been" fly through.

Birthday Princess

That's right, it happened!  Our baby girl turned ONE!  It was rough.  REALLY, REALLY Rough.  There's nothing like kissing your little girl goodnight knowing it was the last night she was going to be an "infant".  She seems to know something happened, because all of a sudden she's in a hurry to walk where she has cared less to this point.  She's also suddenly super bossy.  Sorry princess, but it's true.  You want what you want, and you want it NOW.  

We'll be working on that...

We are packing up the house this week, and moving THIS weekend, but I wanted to still get a birthday post up for our beautiful girl!!

Here are some of her 1st Birthday Pictures!  

and we'll be back soon to show you our new house!

Stream of Consciousness

I'm so SO sorry at my lack of posts this Spring.  It seems every time I sit down to write something up, I get pulled away from the computer!  I never make it back and honestly if I mashed everything I've already written together you'd get this post anyway. 

So here goes....

First off, it's only TWO weeks until our princess's FIRST birthday!!  YIKES, where did the year go??  It seems impossible that it was a year ago that we posted her first pictures, showing her off to the world!  She's NOT a baby anymore.  Almost ready to walk, drinking from a sippy cup now, telling the world just what she thinks of it.  She found her voice, and it's LOUD and shrill.  But we love her anyway!  Especially when she's sleeping like this:

It doesn't seem that the princess is going to get a party ON her birthday though...we're going to be slightly busy that weekend...prepping to move into our NEW HOUSE!  Yep, NEW HOUSE!!!! 

This was on our second visit to our new house, we've now been there a number of times.  Our closing date (so far) is the 29th OF THIS MONTH!  It has a backyard, and OFF STREET parking.  Sorry for the caps, but in Pittsburgh, THAT is big news!!  

and this...one of my favorite features:

or this:

yeah, it has a ROUND wooden front door with this awesome window!

We are in love with this house! Yes, if we wanted to go a little further out i'm sure we could have gotten a bigger, newer house with a larger yard...but that's not us.  We love being just minutes from downtown and all the bustle of the city.  But, we're still considered suburbs and the street we're moving to has lots of other families on it!  

Best part about it, it's 3 blocks away(but down the hill and around the bend) so the kiddos can still go to their school and we can now get a pool pass for them to swim with their friends in the summer!  It's amazing the difference that 1/2 mile makes!

so that's what's new with us...and we'll write more soon!! 

Dear Cate...month 11

You, my precious darling are growing...

Time has escaped me this spring and I've neglected to tell the world just how smart (and beautiful) you are.  You my little love can not only crawl (very quickly) but you are pulling up with ease and trying to just plain stand up while playing with your toys.  You get this look on your face as if to say, "why isn't this working" when you can't.

You are cruising on things, and transferring well between objects and I have a feeling that VERY soon you're just going to start GOING...and not stop.  I'm in no rush to push you, for you are our last babe, and honestly I wish I could just put a stop to your growth right here.  

You are so much fun, and a total ham.  You love when your sister and brother play with you, and laugh heartily at their antics.  Not even Daddy can make you laugh like Maggie can!

At your 9 month check up you weighed in at 18 pounds, but you've been eating everything in sight since then so i'm curious to see what you'll tip the scales at on your birthday.

You are willing to try just about anything, and eat more regular food than your big brother. 

You're wearing 12 month, or 12-18 month clothes now, but for the length...we have to take them ALL the way in at the waist (if possible)  Sadly, some of your 3-6 month leggings make great capris on you!  Your hair is still wild and crazy, and you wouldn't be you without it!  At least it only takes a few bribes and around ten minutes now to do, instead of the two person team and twenty minutes like a few months ago.

Darling girl, we are SO excited about your upcoming birthday and can hardly believe how fast this past year has went by.  Please take your time, you don't HAVE to grow so fast.  

Love, Mommy (and Daddy too)

Wordless Wednesday (11 month old edition)

Wordless Wednesday

Love Pops

  Cake+frosting=cake pops.
 Sounds easy, right?

yeah, I thought so too.
I went over to Pioneer Woman's Blog and read the tutorials from her and Bakerella about how to go about making these cake pops I had heard so much about.  After looking at the pictures and reading both their tutorials I felt confident in my ability to pull it off
(strike one against the momma)
I made a chocolate cake, and let it cool as I went up to get Cate ready for bed...only to come back to this.

 

yeah, he's a peach. 

So I had a trial cake I thought, and good thing, because I needed it.  The cake pops seemed pretty much like the oreo truffle balls that we make so I thought what the heck, I'll just use the WHOLE container of frosting. 

(strike two mommy)

yeah, this is what happens when you use the whole container of frosting.  No matter how long I froze them, they would always be too weak to stay on the stick.  

While I was working on these, I made another funfetti cake for try #2 the next day.  I officially was beaten on day one..

Day 2.  

Funfetti Cake and Frosting

While we were freezing the next batch of pops, we went ahead and melted the chocolate again to perfect our dipping skills for the "good" batch.

{one of my favorite pictures, she's wearing her great grandmothers apron}

I think we got it down...

 

So on the pink we went...

 

ahhhhh,another love day down, but all in all I think it turned out well.  Cake Pop Experiment #1 done.  Maggie already has plans for Cate's first birthday....since you know, mommy KNOWS what she's doing now.  Faith, she haz it in me!

Wordless Wednesday

{okay, so sort of wordless....if you'd like to see more about this snowball fight (and Catie) click the FOI Blog button at the top of the page}

Happy Day

 If you click on the picture above it will take you to Kristy and Howard's Blog, who are Asher's parents.

Last year I wrote about how special Asher was to me (and the rest of his amazing family) and you can read that post HERE

You, sweet boy, are STILL making quite the impact on this world...those little feet are truly miraculous.  So tiny, yet so large all at the same time.  Just the other day I was looking for a t-shirt and just grabbed into the drawer, only to come up with one (of many now) of my Team Issac and Asher shirts.  It brought a smile to my face and reminded me that spring really isn't that far off and it's about time to wear one again.  The things that are being done in your name...it truly is amazing to see.

Last year we send you balloons, we hoped you liked the colors.

 and then we ate some deee-ishious cupcakes according to your buddy Fionn.

This year...we did something a little different.  We didn't want to just let balloons go, we wanted something that would last a little longer and then would just dissolve back in nature...and mother nature provided us with the perfect palette last night.  

We drove to the highest point by our house, one with a clear view of the sky (and downtown) so that you'll just be able to look right down and see your little present.  

Happy  3rd Birthday Asher Joseph, thank you for our Happy Day!!