05/31/11: Then there were 5....

Merry Christmas to us!

That's right people, we are officially insane and have decided that children should outnumber the adults in this house. Baby Stoicoiu #3 is set to arrive sometime around Dec 13, 2011 and hopefully not a day later.  Knowing my kids I have no chance in hell this child will  be on time. We are just entering the 2nd trimester here soon and everything has been going well.  I'm totally going to jinx myself here but so far I've felt great with little to no morning sickness.  This was a huge relief after how bad I had it with Rylee. My only complain is being ridiculously tired on the regular but I'm like that whether I'm pregnant or not.  The two toddlers don't help much either.  We are going to be uber busy come this winter but I wouldn't have it any other way!

In other news, Rylee had her 1 year checkup today and weighs in at 21lbs 9oz and is 30 inches tall.  She's doing great and we should be getting her blood results back soon!

5/30/11: Morgan and Mackenzie = BFFs

Not only are they BFFs but now that Mackenzie is getting older they are double trouble. While Kelly and I watched the Bachelorette they spent half the time laying on the floor like good kids and the other half taking every item possible to mine and Paul's bedroom while Paul was trying to sleep.  I found quite a bit of stuff in my closet that night. Hey, my living room sure did look clean though!

5/29/11: Cotton Candy

Because, really?  I can't stop eating it. Yummmmmm!

5/28/11: Rylee's Birthday Party!

Paul and I are incredibly lucky (as are our kids) to have wonderful friends and family. Putting on a party for me is a production to say the least. I love planning a good party right down to the last detail.  All of our friends and family (even Grandma Cindy flew in from Minnesota!) joined us today to celebrate Rylee's birthday.  Paul and I were talking during the party about how quickly things can change. For Morgan's 1st birthday there was one little kid and her name was Mackenzie and she was like 3 months old.  At Rylee's 1st birthday we had tons of kids bouncing all over the place and having a blast together!

We wanted to thank everyone for coming and for the generous gifts.  Special thanks to those who took orders from me and helped us set-up pre-party and those who helped with clean up.

I know someone is going to ask because really why wouldn't you!?!  The cake and cupcakes were made by my fabulous friend Becky Klein. I can only direct you to her FB page which is under the same name. I've actually tagged her in a few of my pics.  From there you can check out her flowers and cakes albums.  She truly does an amazing job!! Thanks again Becky!

Check out more photos of the party here: http://www.ralphphotos.com/slideshow/thumbnails.php?album=19

5/27/11: Happy 1st Birthday Rylee!

The day has finally come.  Paul and I successfully kept another child alive for a whole year! It really seems like yesterday we were bringing her home.  Now she is no longer a baby but a crazy, insane toddler. She takes steps, but prefers to crawl. She eats like you've never fed her and she won't stop until you physically take it away from her and then she gets mad. She giggles with her older sister and has also asserted her independence with big sis.  That's right folks, the sibling fighting has begun. Joy.

She says Hi and waves backwards at herself.  She saids Mama and Dada. She is also very good at saying Cheeeesse when getting her picture taken which is one of her favorite past times.  She does not sit still for anyone or anything. She also likes to stick out her tongue and "talk" on the phone.

Unfortunately I had to take her to get some blood work on her birthday. :(  Lucky for me the two times she has had blood work she hasn't made one peep.  Not one!  She is we think having some sensitivity to whole milk so we've switched her to soy to see if that's the problem.  She got tested for milk, wheat, barley, and rye allergies.  She also got tested for Celiac disease.  I really hope it's only a sensitivity and not any allergies or intolerances.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!! Mommy and Daddy and Big Sister love you soooo much!

5/26/11: New Carpet - Yay!!

OMG - I couldn't take it anymore!  Our living carpet was a hot hot mess.  I had been putting off replacing it as I mentioned it back in April (http://stoicoiu365.blogspot.com/2011/04/42611-extreme-living-room-makeover.html)  Yesterday the new carpet was finally installed.  I could not be happier.  It's so much softer and a lot more forgiving of stains and messes than the old carpet.  It makes the whole room just feel cozier and inviting. The kids love it, Hubby loves it, I love it! Win-Win for everyone!

5/25/11: Morgan's Haircut

I finally got Morgan's haircut more than a trim. The kid has beautiful hair.  Seriously, I wish I had her hair.  I have to admit I was a little sad when I saw all her curls fall off but she looks so cute with short hair and she loves it!  Her hair was so long and with the heat kicking up and swimming on the horizon I didn't want to deal with a massive amount of hair.  Plus, this kids sweats like a pig when she sleeps no matter the temp.  This just has to feel better.  She kept telling me after her haircut that "Daddy's going to love it!"  She looks so old now... :(

5/24/11: I can't believe she's almost 3!

Gosh, where does the time go!?! She looks so big here!

5/23/11: Just Relax, A Night of Relaxation for a Lifetime of HOPE

I have a friend who is a way better blogger/writer than I ever will be.  If you don't pee your pants laughing or cry tears of joy and sadness for her something is wrong with you. Check her out here: http://www.jennepper.com/ and I promise you, you will thank me later.

Last summer, Jen & Mark decided to add to their family and after a successful FET they found out they would be having identical twins. Unfortunately, her pregnancy wasn’t all roses & sunshine – there were lots of concerns and doctors and drama. In the end, Jen ended up in the hospital around 32 weeks with hopes of seeing her girls very soon. A c-section was scheduled and the wait began.
Things went wrong. Very wrong. The girls were born via emergency C-section on December 29, 2010. Itty Bitty Baby, Ainsley, was small but mighty and taken straight to the NICU. Hog Baby, Evelyn, was just as beautiful but born perfectly still.
Ainsley is a fighter. A beautiful little girl who is surrounded by so much love, hope and prayers. She has been through a lot in her short little life – including spine surgery, G-tube surgery and most recently a tracheotomy.

 The road ahead is long and her family has been adjusting to their “new normal” that includes 2 full time working parents, spending time with Olivia and spending whatever time they can with Ainsley along with countless hours in the car coming to and from all of these places.

Who knows what the future holds, all we can do is focus on the now.

When someone is hurting, or in need, as friends we want to do SOMETHING. If we could take away their pain and their hurt we would, but since we can't we typically try to fill their bellies and put a smile on their face in any way possible. 

Myself along with several other "in real life" friends have put together a fundraiser dinner & Reverse Raffle where 100% of the profit will benefit the Knepper family. We spent this morning working out details and honestly being overwhelmed with everyone's generosity so far.
There will be food, booze, reverse raffles, live entertainment, lots of goodies to be raffled off with a side of relaxation.

The event is planned for Saturday July 23rd in Northeast Ohio.

You can check out all the info and buy tickets before they are gone here: 

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=104571292968005&ref=ts

5/22/11: Picture Day!

For Christmas my brother and sister and I (plus our significant others) chipped in and bought my parents a gift certificate to get pictures taken by the fabulous Felicia Lewis of : http://fmlphotodesign.com/   We usually get pictures of the kids or of us taken and frame them for my parents for Christmas.  My mom had been complaining for a while that she had no pictures of her with the kids and I knew there were definitely not any with my dad in them since he is usually taking the pictures.  This seemed like a perfect idea!

After arranging everyone's schedules and getting rained out once, we finally met up at Wingfoot Lake in Suffield to get some family photos done.  I've only seen a preview so far (you can check it out here: http://fmlphotodesign.com/blog/akron_family_photographer_lake/) but they turned out wonderful and I can't wait to see the rest! Thanks Felicia!

5/21/11: Saturday cleaning

Maybe if I crouch down they won't notice me over here....

There isn't a lot of time during the week anymore for us to get all that cleaning I mentioned before done.  We started pretty early this morning and cleaned all day and still didn't finish.  Mind you the kitchen was on the list and that's a big task.  The kids were big helpers as you can see.

Rylee spent her time trying to escape.  Morgan used Ducky as a pillow and played with her happy meal toy and complained about wanting to go outside.  I don't blame here it was beautiful and I didn't want to be inside either. Rylee got tired of trying to escape and decided to play with the dog food. For the most part they stayed out of trouble and Morgan was rewarded with playing outside that afternoon/evening.  There is still an insane amount of work to do this coming week and I'm super tired but I'll be on vacation in two weeks so there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

5/20/11: Baby Carson and the Grose family

Oh babies are in the air.  I feel like a new baby is born to one of my friends every day.  Today I finally got down to see little Carson.  Mandi and I met through our Moms board and have become pretty good friends over the last couple years.  Both of our oldest are only a few weeks apart so we went through our first pregnancy together. Only difference is Mandi is super lame and keeps her baby's gender a surprise for everyone including herself.  I think she could at least have the courtesy to tell me but she disagrees.  Trust me people, I really tried this time to get her to find out and tell me but she held strong.

Mandi and I have pretty similar L&D stories with both of our kids except for the fact that her 2nd was a boy. I think she was a little more shocked than I was even though I thought she was having a girl.  It took a while for baby boy Grose to be named and even though he has born on Cinco de Mayo they opted not to go for Jose and named him Carson.  He was pretty sleepy when I was there and again I don't wake sleeping children so I only got to gaze at him and his cute little face.  I'm sure there will be plenty of time for Auntie Kristy to squish his little cheeks.

Morgan and Avery also got some quality time in today even though the pictures of them say otherwise.  They weren't so into taking their picture together but did think a good pose would be to pull their pants/dresses up. I don't know...  Rylee spent her time crawling up and down the step into the playroom.  Good times.

Thanks for having us over Mandi!  You look great and Carson is super cute!

5/19/11: Grassy feet - Summer is here!

This child is going to need a bath like 3 times a day this summer.  She has absolutely no problem getting dirty and prefers to be barefoot outside.  I can't say I blame her.  The rain finally stopped for an evening (Hallelujah!) and Paul was able to mow our 8ft yard.  This left tons of grass clippings for Morgan to run through and stain her feet green.  This should be an interesting and fun summer with the girls! I'm super excited!

5/18/11: Poms!

OMG! I love this thing!  I saw this a while back on one of my party blogs and since it was only like $10 I decided to buy it.  I'm in love!  I got them today and started making some decorative poms for Rylee's party. It's super easy.  All you do it wrap some yarn around the blue parts (they pull out) and when you are done cut down the middle and tie them.  Poof! Fun yarn balls.  I don't give the best descriptions so check out the website here: http://www.clover-usa.com/products/268067/Pom-Pom_Makers

5/17/11: Ace and Kalie..

..are crazy, crazy dogs.  The End.

5/16/11: The Terminator

Okay so this is a quesadilla but with all the Ahhhnold news this week I thought it was funny.  Paul in fact did order the Terminator. Yum!  We've been super busy lately getting ready for vacation, parties, new carpet, cleaning, me going back to work part-time, oh and I'm helping plan this awesome fundraiser to help one of my friends. (more to come soon!)  Point is I don't have time to cook nor do I really like to do it.  Paul would but he doesn't get home until almost 7.  We opted for Rockne's tonight. Again, YUM!!!

5/15/11: Queen of lists

If I could make a list about making lists I would.  I will put things on my list just to cross them off.  The feeling is so fulfilling.  We did some spring cleaning in increments over the past few weeks to get ready for Rylee's party.  Every Sunday I make the list for Paul and I to let us know what we need to accomplish for the week.  This week we are getting down to the nitty gritty.  Paul cannot walk and chew gum at the same time.  I mean really? What is it with men and doing more than one thing at once.  His brain has one mode and apparently it only fits one task at a time.  If my lists didn't exist Paul would be lost.  What I'm trying to say is a lot of the time it's like I have 3 kids instead of 2.  Paul is the most difficult.

5/14/11: Never wake a sleeping child

Is a motto that Paul and I live by.  I never ever wake a sleeping child. I've been blessed with two great sleepers.  I can only hope any future children follow the same pattern.  It had been a while since I got a picture of Rylee sleeping. I decided to pop in her room to get a picture tonight since she usually sleeps in those funny baby positions with her butt in the air.  When I went in I found her and all her blankets stuffed in one corner.  Normally she doesn't wake up.  As soon as I turned my camera on her eyes popped open like "what the hell are you doing waking me up lady?"  She actually looks scared of me.  I snuck back in a little later to grab the butt shot.  Children are so sweet when they are sleeping.  Lately in my case it's one of the few times they are sweet. ;)

5/13/11: Rylee's First Steps!!!

It's hard to believe Rylee will be 1 in 2 weeks. She's been on the verge of walking for a long time now so we've just been waiting. Well today after I got home from work, I was sitting on the couch with my mom and good ole Rylee just decided to stand up and take a couple steps. She's been teasing us for a while now so I was shocked when she took 3 or 4 steps. Unfortunately I was so shocked I wasn't able to get it on camera.  She was quite proud of herself though.  So proud in fact that she didn't want to walk again, she wanted to keep congratulating herself by clapping, bouncing, and giggling. She was quite impressed with herself.

I tried to get her to do it a few more times and she wouldn't.  She shocked me again when as soon as Paul came home she did it for him. Again, she was impressed and thought we should  be too. This picture is of her right after Paul got home and right before she ate. There is no messing around with her and food so this was the best I could do. Of course Morgan can't be left out when it comes to the camera either.

5/12/11: Gemini Pizza

I'll start this with a disclaimer *Gemini has not paid me for this post!*

Okay, if you live anywhere near the Brimfield area and you haven't had Gemini Pizza, then get thee some! Gemini is a little pizza place right off 76 on 43 near Wendys. We discovered it way back when we first moved to Brimfield and lived over in Sandelwood condos. This might be my favorite pizza of all time! I think what really hooks me is the fact that they put some sort of cinnamon in their crust and it just tastes freakin awesome! They have wings and subs and all sorts of other stuff too that rocks.  If you can't tell we got this for dinner last night.  They have some pretty awesome deals too.  Check em out!

http://www.mygeminipizza.com/