Halloween #2

In Geneva they always trick-or-treat on Sunday afternoon. AnnMarie joined in the fun!

Here is a slideshow.

Anna was all dressed up for pre-trick-or-treat brunch!

New teeth

Anna has been getting some "new teef" for quite some time now, but they've yet to pop out.

Halloween #1

We visited some people at the Geneva Nursing Home. They just loved Elvis' performances!

Here is a short slideshow.


Here the little ones are watching Tinkerbell put on a show, sooo cute!

Early this morning, in her crib, Anna was getting stylish without any help.

Merry May Memories 2007

Last Day of Story Time at the Library

Doesn't she just look ready for school...

Fall fun in the leaves!

Anna and her three cousins (Giuseppe, Violetta, and Dionisio), better known as Seppe, Yetta, and Don-Don, just had a ball in the leaves this afternoon! Fall Fun Slideshow

Anna and Kevin sittin' in a tree

Anna had Kevin over for a play date! We found out that Anna really needs to work on her sharing skills. Sorry Kevin! Thank goodness, when there were no toys to compete for (for Anna to take from Kevin) and there was just space to run around, inside and out, they had a great time together. Lunch was pretty fun too -- they were cute mimicking each other's sounds and words back and forth.

Patterson Fruit Farm and Hawaii and LA Photos

Happy Fall everyone! Here are some pictures from HAWAII! Also here are some pictures from our visit with Billy in Los Angeles. Our trip was so much fun, and now we are having so much fun being back home! Today we went to Patterson's Farm where Anna, David, and Erika all had a ball! Last week we went to the Nature Center with Tyler and Joey, and lately we have been frequenting Squire's Castle in North Chagrin Metroparks.

Anna has also been having a blast playing with her cousins, Seppie, Letta, and Don-Do. Hopefully I will link a video here soon of when she first sees them -- it is totally adorable! - she gets incredibly happy and excited. Thank goodness we did finally catch one of those moments on video because you never know when things like that just morph into some other cute habit.

This beautiful bay is where we swam with wild dolphins!

This was the happy ending
to our hiking adventure that we thought might be leading us to a crazy man's cave.

This water was FREEZING, but the "3 Bears" Falls were well worth the chills!
Behind us is Baby Bear.

Snorkeling was a definite vacation highlight,
and this place was the grand finale!
...perhaps some underwater photos will be posted later.

Squire's Castle and the Nature Center

Here is a link to the photos from the whole day, it's the same as the one above called "Tyler and Joey". Anna had a great time with her cousins hiking and playing around all day!

Marview Street Party

Anna really enjoyed the Marview Street Party (there are a few Geneva photos in there too). She marched in a parade dressed up as Dora the Explorer and even won a prize (we won't tell her that she was the only child in the under six category)! She rode on the Max Wagon Train! Max was the puppy Anna met a few months ago (you may remember the video ~ she was a little scared), and now she and Max are pals even though he now weighs maybe 6x her weight (150 pounds)!! She proudly wore her sheriff's badge even though sitting in the police car was pretty frightening. She ate all kinds of yummy treats all night too! Then we came home to find Mike still painting the deck, and he and I kept on working out there until almost 2am! Happily, our first project of power-washing and painting the deck is complete!

Castle Fun Fun Fun

Home Sweet Home

We are happy to be back from a fantastic trip (Mom and Dad to Maui and LA, and Anna to stay with her grandparents) and are excited to settle into fall! Later you'll hear about our adventures (dolphins, waterfalls, lava rocks!!), but first we have to tend to some backlogged posts! Stay tuned because this time I promise there will be something to see!

PS- now there are several posts for August and September!

Anna was 18 months old today! She seems so much older than just a week or so ago! She is chatting and eating up a storm, loving her letters and clothing (pants, socks, etc), as well as getting crazy excited whenever there is any child near by, especially Seppe, Letta, and Do-o-nicie-o. She's 33 inches tall, 25 pounds, has a big head, and 10 big teeth! Some new words: airplane, abc, "happy birth-day Daddy", yeah/yes (to answer questions - so cute!), plate, ring, watch, Anna's shoes, Mommy's jeans, Grandma's shirt, Daddy's socks, di-aper, peas (please)... Oh, what a joy and blessing from God! Happy October!

Going Bananas

By the way, Anna now (in mid-November) loves to say Anna Banana, and one of her grandmas is now called Nana, but Anna likes to call her Bana.

Story Time in Ohio

Pony and I re-unite!

Grandpa Nardi gave me this horsie for Christmas, but it wouldn't fit in our condo in NY. I've gotten bigger since then, so now I am really good at riding fast on my pony when someone gets me up there! I started saying "pony" recently. Before that, I would call it "ponky" and Mom would have me say "pone" and then "e" and quickly repeat it, so it almost sounded like "pony", but then when she'd ask me again to say pony I would say "ponky" or "ponty". Trust me, it was very funny.

My cousins rule!!!

Here are some more photos!

Let's try this again...

It's been a strange first month in Ohio - yes, we've been here a month!

A terribly horrible thing happened 10 days after we moved back (August 26, 2007). Mike's dad, Warren, had a heart attack while painting the porch and died. We cannot even imagine traveling all the way from NY with this news, so thank goodness we were already here. While death is always difficult, he wasn't even sick, so everyone was (is still) totally shocked. We certainly already miss him immensely, but I don't think anyone really feels that he is actually gone. He always said that he wanted to go the way his father had, so that at least is reassuring. We are so very happy and thankful that we are in town to help Jackie with everything. Warren was one of the sweetest, kindest, gentlest people on Earth, and we only hope to live a life of which he would be proud. God bless you Warren!

Click here to see some pictures of Warren at his best -- being a wonderful grandpa ("Bampa")!

Cheer Bear

Mom lost the camera there for a few weeks...
She found it just in time for my Care Bear cuteness~

Gramma's song

"Put your head on my shoulder..."

More dress up!

Here are some more photos.

Look! We match Great Aunt Genni!

It's not 4th of July, we're all just coincidentally patriotic!

Thanks Aunt Ali for those yummy potatoes!

Seppe, Letta, and Do-o-neecie-o played with me at DeSan Park!


Here are some more pictures.

Our new home!

We are settling in nicely here. Anna is sleeping really well in her new room and the boxes are almost "empty" (one of Anna's new favorite words!)! We've had lots of help from everybody and couldn't have done it without all of you, from cleaning, to carrying and unpacking boxes, to taking care of Anna -- thank you, thank you, thank you! Anna is growing older by the day, doing so many cute, cute things. Mike and I already played in a soccer game last weekend -- it was fun to play with the Blue Ducks once again! Also, Saint Pascal Baylon seems like a really friendly parish and the church is all glass, so it looks like we are in the middle of a rain forest, and with the snow I hear it looks like a winter wonderland. We've been happy to find that our neighbors have all been really welcoming. Stay tuned for pictures of our sweetheart, as well as our new home, coming soon!

Uncle Nick = John Carroll college dude!

Weeeeee!

All that hard work = a good night of sleep

School and yet another hat!

Off to school with Gramma and here are some more photos.

Funny face and another hat

Mommy loves dress-up!

Move-in Day

A huge thanks to everyone that helped!
Movers, cleaners, decorators, babysitters, and entertainers!
Here are some more pics!

Moving from NY

Here are some pictures of the last few weeks in NY and the craziness of packing up our things! The last few are in Denny's when Anna decided that she was ready for a new day - at 1am!
The longest day ever!

Seems Anna has taken to wearing hats!

and sometimes nothing else!

and big shoes!

and yummy bananas... no time for removing the peel! She needs a body bib!

Goodbye NY!