Auntie Kristin's Almost 30th Birthday Party

Since Auntie Kristin lives out in CA and will be turning 30 this year, Cioci Sue and Uncle Steve decided to throw her an early 'Almost 30' birthday party while she was in CT for the week!  The weather was definitely hot and humid so all of the kiddos got great use out of Cioci Sue's pool!

Everyone was loving the pool!

Refreshing!

AJ had to wear a hat cause his poor head would have sunburned with that hot sun!

Me and my little man

Having fun with Allie and Dziadzi

AJ was loving the float  while Allie was digging the noodle!

Floats all around!

Someone was happy after having some ice cream cake

Back to pool time with Daddy!

Katie the little fish!

Allie just hanging around

The kiddos playing with Cioci Sue

AJ wanted to badminton paddle fight with Cioci Sue!

Auntie Lauren and Kristin and Mel and Kaleigh

I think someone enjoyed their ice cream cake a little to much

Traditional cousins pic!

Auntie Kristin and Auntie Lauren with the kiddos

Cousins

Maddie is already two months old and these are the first pictures of Maddie and AJ together.  How did we let that happen!?

First we placed them on the chair together...

Both seemed a bit curious as to what we were up to!

Look at those faces....!!

Then we decided they needed to cuddle!

But AJ wasn't being much a cuddle bug unfortunately....

But at least we finally got his attention and a semi-cuddling pic of the two littlest cousins!

Thanksgiving 2012

It was a quiet Thanksgiving this year with just our immediate family and Great Gram.  The food was super yummy, the company was great and Black Friday shopping started at 11pm!  Another great Thanksgiving in the books!

Babcia was showing GG mine and Cioci's blogs and AJ got super excited to see himself on the computer screen!

So interested in the blogs!

Sporting his new Thanksgiving onesie

Once Katie arrived, she wanted to see what everyone was looking at too!

Our annual Thanksgiving photo

I just loved how AJ was wearing a play necklace!

Babcia and Madeline on Maddie's first Thanksgiving!

Little Maddie and Me

Finally...there's a picture of me and Sweet Madeline!  It took a little longer than I would like to admit, but without further adieu....

Cioci Lissa and her sweet little niece, Miss Madeline

The Family of Five

The girls were so excited to meet their new baby sister... they've already given her lots of kisses!

Madeline's Sweet Sound

The video isn't all that exciting to watch, but just listen to the sweet sounds of Madeline as she is just a few hours old.

That sound never gets old.

LR3 has Arrived!

I got a text around 4am this morning from my sister letting me know that she was having some contractions and was going to make her way to the hospital after having talked to the on-call doctor.  My mom met Jason and Kimmy at Backus Hospital around 4:45/5am-ish to pick up the girls and then came straight to my house.  Kimmy wanted me to be in the room with her and Jason when LR3 was born so I could video the momentous occasion so Babcia was going to watch AJ for me as well.  I ended up getting dressed and was almost ready to go when Jason text me around 5:45am that Kimmy was 2cm dilated.  I figured I had plenty of time to make a coffee, have a bathroom break and get my camera ready before having to walk out the door.  Well, not less than about 10-15 minutes later, I got another text from Jason saying Kimmy was now 9cm dilated. (HOLY CRAP - that was some fast dilation situation!) I dropped everything I was doing and rushed out the door leaving Babcia with the three kiddos.  I whizzed down the back roads, did about 80mph on Route 2 and then ran into the hospital trying to get to the maternity ward as soon as I could.  I finally got to the maternity ward door and I heard my phone go off. 'It's a girl!!!!!!!!!' wrote Kimmy.  I missed it.  :(  In the back of my mind I knew the labor was going to go fast, but I didn't think that fast so I thought they were just playing with me.  But when I finally got buzzed into the maternity floor and made my way to Kimmy's room, LR3 really had arrived and she was on the warming table.  As I walked into the room, I started crying and with tears streaming down my face I said 'I missed it'.  I was devastated.  Right then, Dr. Hendsch said to me 'Don't worry honey, I almost missed it too!'  It didn't make me feel any better for having the missed the birth of my new niece, but it put it into perspective how fast the labor went.

After having a minute to get over the fact that I missed LR3's birth, I fired up the video cam and began taping the first moments of LR3's life.  She was absolutely beautiful and I was just so overcome with emotion that I started to get teary-eyed again.  Another beautiful and healthy niece - what an awesome gift from my sister and Jason!

Introducing the newest member of our family.... Madeline Josephine.

Looking up at Mommy for the first time.

Isn't she just precious?!