Cousin Evie

Today cousin Evie was over for the day. The kids had so much fun. Actually, so much fun that Evie & Olivia are napping as we speak. Luca is enjoying some non-girl time so he's keeping himself busy. In March, there will be another little girl cousin sitting next to Olivia. They will all be so close in age, I love it.

It looks like Olivia is posing in this picture....she's such a ham!

So precious! Evie will be a good big sister in March.

Evie loved to hold on to Olivia's paci. She would take it everywhere with her. There is a picture of Aunt Ju Ju's wedding behind Olivia and Evie kept saying "Mamma, Da Da".


Luca and Evie play really well together. Luca is always trying to give her a hug then they both fall over on top of each other. They are all great kids. It will be fun as they get older they can have little slumber parties, tea parties, dress-up parties.... oh it will be so much fun!

Beautiful Fall Day

Here's my happy little girl in her "Whatever happens at Grandma's stays at Grandma's outfit". She's very excited that her Nonno and Nonna will be making a visit for Xmas this year. I am also VERY excited b/c I always get a nice break when they are here. We also found out today that Evie will be having a little SISTER in March! YAY! Olivia is super excited to have another girl cousin. Maybe Aunt Mary and Uncle Chris will adopt a boy in January so Luca can have a boy cousin. ;)


Today was a beautiful fall day in Cbus. Luca loves the outdoors and I let him play outside while we were waiting for Papa to get home from work. I love this Japanese Maple tree in our front yard, it's so pretty in the fall and we were so glad that they didn't have to tear it down when they put our driveway in, it just made it!


Luca was having fun riding in his little firetruck.

Here he is playing in our neighbors front yard in the leaves. I think he loved the noise it made when he would run across them.

When he saw his Papa drive down the street he literally hopped off his Firetruck and ran to his car! So Papa gave him a small ride to the house and he was soo happy.

Mommy's Little Helper

Monday's are typically my day to get some chores done around the house. I have a great little helper that follows me around and insists on helping. Here's the proof! :) Olivia lucked out since she takes a nap in the morning but I hope that she will be as helpful as Luca. I also hope that Luca will continue to be mommies little helper forever! :)


Luca loves to push the finished laundry back to our room.

Here he is helping me push the wet clothes into the dryer. Sometimes when he knows I'm doing laundry he'll grab his stuffed monkey from his crib and throw it in the washer so his monkey can get a bath.


He loves to vacuum! He can't quit say vacuum but calls it "back".


Helping me take his trash out - dirty diapers...yuck!

20 Months Old!

Today Luca turned 20 months! Luca loves to throw his stuffed football and jog around the house. He recently got a new outfit from our friends Dina and Ignazio who came to our Hparty. They also gave Olivia this adorable outfit she has on, too. Whenever someone buys them an outfit I try to make sure to take a pic of it and send it to them. Anyway, Luca's shirt has a football on it and absolutely loves it! He calls it Put ball.



Olivia is growing up so quickly. She is started to fake cough because she likes the sound. At first I thought she was sick but I remembered Luca doing this and she likes the sound it makes. She also rolled a few times yesterday when we were doing belly time. Luca was able to sit up at 5 months old, Olivia can sit but she is bending all the way over, she doesn't have it yet but she's working on it. Everyone always comments on how she is such a happy baby. She always seems to smile which will make people smile back.

Brotherly Love

I know I always say this but Luca is really a good big brother to Olivia. Whenever she fusses I'll tell him to go play with your sister and he will make her smile. She loves it when he plays with her, especially in her exersaucer. She'll start to fuss but once Luca comes over and plays with her she smiles. I think she has a little bit of my personality, she doesn't like to be left alone and loves company.



I like to reward Luca when he's good and he LOVES vanilla wafer cookies. We have been trying to teach him that he cannot eat on the carpet, only on the tile. He understands the rules but sometimes likes to break it. Lately he will pick up a book and sit in Olivia's rocking chair on his own while I am changing Olivia. He'll point to the pictures and say what the word is. I really need to go to the library and start getting him some more books so he'll get a better vocabulary.

My lil Sweet Pea

My lil Pea Pod on Halloween.

Trick or Treating Footage

Luca and I having conversation.

Halloween Party - Costumes III

Corey and I threw our very 1st Halloween Party. It was adult only and the kids had a slumber party at their Grammy's she even watched Evie, too which was great. Unfortunately, Olivia must have known she wasn't at home and she woke up at 2am, 4am, and 6am but all she needed was her paci and she went back to bed. I felt bad that Grammy had to wake up but she didn't want her to wake the other 2 and normally Olivia never wakes up that many times throughout the night but I think Olivia must have known she wasn't in her bed and lately she hasn't been digging her pack n play as much.

Corey and I dressed as The Biggest Loser and he was my trainer "Camille Toe". Everyone had a good laugh. Corey definitely likes getting into charachter whenever we have a costume party. He seriously almost made me pee my pants when he was doing squats in his thong outfit.


Here I am at the end of the night after Corey whipped my butt and I lost all the weight.


Pat and Diane as Army people.


Joe and Angie were our costume winners. We had everyone vote and they were 1st place and Jon and Kate were in 2nd.


Disco 70's girl - Raynbow and Sam the prisoner. Both in my mommies group.

Halloween Party - Costumes II

Salwa and Peter as Pirates with "Fierce" boots they are my MnM friends.



Corey's co-workers had great costumes, too!


Mark and Mariangela as Cowboy & Indian.

Julie and Kevin as Chipotle Burrito and Chipotle worker.

Cara and Tom as Jon and Kate. He could go as Johns double.

Halloween Party - Costumes

Here's Mary and Chris they were a HUGE help with the party! It took them each over an hour to get the makeup on them - great costumes!



Dina & Ignazio Perna came all the way from Michigan to come tot he party. His mustache was awesome!


Salt and Pepper - my friend's Rita and Thane from the Mommies Group.


Corey works with Marie and Nikki who were Ralphie and Juno - very creative!


Matt and Crystal as Nerds!

The Andres Halloween Party 2009 - Decorations

This looked neat at night but my flash kept going off. Corey carved 2 pumpkins, 1 was a scary pumpkin and the other was a bat and a moon - it was cool. I wish I had taken better pics.


Mary, Chris and I made tons of food. Here are the spider cupcakes, deviled eggs that look like eyeballs, and chicken salad sandwhiches that were ghosts.



We also made mummy dogs, scary rice crispy treats, your standard veggie tray (didn't know how to make those scary, and Crystals famous cream cheese/chilli dip xtra spicy!

Here's my 7 layer dip that I watched Sandra Lee make on the Food Network. I think mine actually looked better than hers! HA!


I can't figure out how to post more than 5 pics on this blog so I have to upload in sections.

Trick or Treat at Homestead Park

Today Aunt Mary aka Zia and Nanny Mary and Uncle Chris were in town for the Halloween Party we're having on Saturday. We also got to watch Evie and we took the kids to Homestead Park for a Trick or Treat event. It's such a beautiful park and it was a gorgeous day out. I couldn't believe that it went up to 81 degrees! The kids had a lot of fun.

Here's Dr. Luca driving the car. He loves cars!




He picked up Evie and is taking her for a ride.


Evie and Olivia. BFFs!


Evie was such a good girl and LOVED the swing...can you tell? She didn't want to get off.

Trick Or Treat!

Here in Columbus, we typically Treat or Treat a couple of days before Halloween. We hope to have our kids Trick Or Treat with their cousins and make it a little tradition. I'm so glad that Luca and Olivia have a cousin close by and close in age plus another one in March! They will be getting another cousin/s from Ukraine sometime in February. We are very excited to welcome him/her/them into our family.

Here they are....the 3 Musketeers! Dr. Luca, Monkey Olivia and Pumpkin Evie.



We were very smart in purchasing this wagon. It made trick or treating much more pleasant and I think both Luca and Evie enjoyed the ride and playing with the candy.


Here is my little Pea Pod. (We borrowed Evie's costume from last year)



The doctor and the pumpkin are making their trick or treat plans.


Cute little Evie in her pumpkin costume.

Bedtime

Corey typically gives Luca a bath and I'll give Olivia her bath at night. Then we put them together and will read a story. Luca is getting really good if I ask him to point to things in a book like a drill, hammer, car, train, plane, flower, bed, chair, table, and the list goes on and on. He's getting a larger vocabulary but he definitely understands more than he can say. He's also very good with doing what we ask like go get a book, put the book away, get your toothbrush, etc.

Today Luca was FULL of energy and literally was jogging laps around our kitchen island. We are excited for the MnM Halloween Party tomorrow. We get to dress up the kids and there will be 50 moms and everyone will be bringing some food so it will be packed but Luca will have a great time, I'm sure!


Luca giving his sister a good night kiss. I can't explain how good of a big brother he is. He really loves her so much. There are so many times where I will just catch him giving Olivia a kiss for no reason at all. He also likes to try to carry her now. He can't pick her up yet but he tries.


This shot is with Olivia smiling. They are in their new PJ's that Jes & Ante (Olivia's Godparents) bought them for Halloween. They are too sweet!


Luca is smiling in this pic. It's so hard to get them both to smile at the same time.