Backpack

Earlier this evening, the girls were gonna go outside to play. Chris told Elia to go get her shoes. Instead, she brought Chris her little heart backpack. After putting her shoes on, Elia kept giving the backpack to dad and whining. So for the entire time she was outside playing, she wore her backpack. So sweet, love her!

New "Play Room"

We came home from our St. Louis trip to a hole in our master bedroom ceiling. This is a picture of the ceiling after it was all doctored up:










The carpet was completely ruined, so we had it ripped up and taken out. We are still waiting on our insurance check right now, so we have a completely empty room. Since it is so hot out, we brought their bikes into the room. They love playing in there now. I'm sure I will be posting some before and after pictures in the next month or so. Here they are playing!

Faux Hawk

I just love putting Elia's hair up in a little Pebbles-style pony tail:

Makes for a really interesting hairdo when I take it out.

I was trying to take a pic of G kissing E but never had it timed right! Here are some more shots of the faux hawk below. Chris got them matching water bottles from Target, and they are obsessed:

Backseat Driver

As if she isn't bossy enough to Chris and I AND her sister, she found another place to tell us what to do: the car. She gets in her car seat, pulls out the atlas and says, ok, we have 5 minutes to get there. Then after a minute or two one of us will ask her how much longer we have to go and she will say something like 13 miles. Each time there is a different answer. SOOOO cute!

Officer Gianna

Today was my first day of teaching preschool playdates. It was SOO much fun! A few of my mom friends from church have been meeting every Thursday to "homeschool" their kids together. So today was my turn to teach, and it was all about police officers, the letter S and The United States of America. I can't believe how much I miss teaching, it made me miss it so much! It was interesting to see Gianna in a "classroom"setting. She is getting the hang of it, she was so excited the whole time. I read lots of books to them and we did some crafts and the 2 hours flew by! Here is a picture of officer G!

A Day at the Races

Lone Star Park hosted a $1 day, so we decided to take the girls out to see the horses. Everything cost $1- that meant parking, bets, and food! I think the girls cared more about the food at some point than the actual horses, but they still had a blast. We picked up Uncle Tim from the airport right before, so he came along for the fun. Everytime the horses ran around to our side, Elia got VERY excited and would jump around in Chris' arms and talk to the horses.

It had rained a lot before we got there, so Gianna came prepared for puddles. Once we got there, it was ridiculously hot and humid. So much so that Gianna didn't want to walk back to the car, and we rigged her into the single stroller with Elia. Uncle Tim helped carry her boots. So sweet.

July 4ths

Just thought I would share these sweet pictures of Gianna. Elia slept through the fireworks this year and last, but Gianna has always loved them. She has never been scared of them. I hope to document her excitement every year, hopefully adding Elia's reactions too. Here is Chris' post of her first fireworks. If only we had taken Elia this year, maybe she would have learned to say 'wow' like G did.

14 months old

2 years old

3 years old

Family Fun

We went to St. Louis for July 4th weekend...and had a blast! We left very early Friday morning and made it to St. Louis without any major issues- no car battery dying or speeding tickets like last trip home. We sat them next to each other so that we could maximize space in the backseat. Although there were some fights, they ended up entertaining each other quite a bit.

The one on the left is of Elia after she had gone through a few cookies. We kept feeding them lots of horrible goodies to keep them happy.

So the weekend started out with Col's wedding fun. First, the girls all went and tried on bridesmaid dresses, and the sisters got to see Col in her wedding gown! So pretty, and so unbelievable that she is getting married! Then later that night, we had a bbq engagement party. We met Colleen's future in-laws, and they are such a sweet family. Bobby is the oldest, with 5 girls under him! And of course, because were all having such a grand time, I didn't take many pictures of this event. Just a few of the cute cousins together before the party:

Love this one of Uncle Ry carrying Austin in a bucket.

Then, the next day was July 4th. the Lengyels and Rowles and Marschners and Colleen all went to the Cardinal's baseball game. The Cardinals won, so we got to see a few fireworks. Here we all are enjoying the game!

Chris and I got to go out on our own for a while to celebrate our 4th anniversary (july 3) after the game, and we made it home in time to go and see fireworks with everyone. Gianna, who has loved fireworks since the first time we took her to see them when she was 1, was just hilarious. She kept covering her ears saying this is so noisy, but its making me giggle. Then she would go around asking other people (uncle Tom, Colin, etc) if it was making them giggle too. Such a sweetie.

Monday was spent saying goodbye to family and catching up with my highschool friends. We will hopefully be back in August! Miss you all soooooo much.