good ol' fashioned family candids

enjoy.

fun with family and friends

spring has sprung us from our cabin fever. we've been taking advantage of our windows of good weather, heading outdoors for walks in the woods (even at night!!!) and trips to the park. we even had james' first "playdate" (though i hate the term.) isabel yoder (aka. james' girlfriend from his class at montessori- think katie conway's gabriel) came over to play on st. patty's day. i staged an easter egg hunt for the kids after picking them up from school in a neon green wig. isabel was the only one to find it funny. sean screamed "i want my mommy!" and refused to get in the car till i got out of the car and took off the wig. he then found it hilarious and kept asking me throughout the day to put on my "funny hat." wigs are hot, though, i came to find, and could not always oblige.

bath time

splish splash, my boys were taking a bath...

(video footage, too, if you double click on the slideshow above!)

Baby Bella

just past midnight on february 19th came isabella clare romero- 9lbs 5oz with THICK black hair, a dimple on her chin, and beautiful squinty eyes. katie did another fabulous delivery, and the whole family is doing well now (though my mom is off her feet, sick as a dog in their apartment... i guess michael is busier than he was expecting with the other 4 ladies in the place!!!) i was able to head up friday with jeanne to go meet the new wee one, and after many obstacles to finally get to the hospital, i was then told that i couldn't go upstairs to see bear with jeanne since she was under 12 months old and hadn't yet received all her immunizations! SAY WHAT?! so, after michael, my mom and i schemed a bit, we ended up all splitting up in an elaborate covert op where michael managed to smuggle her in incognito, and i followed in shortly thereafter. my mom got denied access to katie's floor from the elevator and someone suggested that might be because someone was trying to steal a baby... man did she have a guilty look on her face when we finally all met up in katie's room! to quote michael, "that was fun! being bad sure does feel good." we did manage to hang out in the room all day. bella was such a trooper, and though only 2 days old at the time, i was amazed at how good she seemed. after watching baby mama with my mama and the new mama and the girls that made her and me mamas, jeanne and i hit the road back home...

Let's see...

it's been a little while. we've been hanging in there. crazy weather as usual and we've been trying to take advantage of it all- sledding in the snow, playing in the mud in the sun, just trying to be sure to get out of the house. cabin fever is definitely setting in. the boys have also been taking swim lessons once a week with miss meg and thoroughly loving it AND improving (good combination!) there's some good (albeit foggy) video footage if you double click on the picasa slideshow link. hope you all have been staying well. we miss you all.

the cressy chicks take on the key west cocks

just got back from a wonderfully relaxing cressy girls' trip to key west. jeanne got to tag along on her first girls' get together by remaining only faithful to my boobies and not at all to the bottle. lauren, kiernan, jeanne and i left south bend late wednesday night to avoid weather and traffic in the morning on our way to chicago only to immediately get rear-ended before even leaving mishawaka! i had to get out of the car in my silly bright yellow canvas ballet flats, no socks, and a thin white jean jacket and scarf in -10 degree weather and about a foot of snow to talk to the other driver and swap info! what a way to start the trip! we then managed to get to the toll road where responsible lauren decides to call the state police to inquire about road conditions on the toll road... they told her to immediately get off the road due to many major slide-offs and white-out conditions... we naturally kept right on! we did indeed see many major slide-offs and definitely hit COMPLETE white-out conditions while driving 20 mph and having the ice build up on our wipers... BUT we made it safe and sound albeit late to our chicago hotel! i suppose that was a good way to manage having everything else about the trip seem SO relaxing and easy in comparison! we left the bend and it's record breaking -20 degree weather (that's WITHOUT windchill) for "cold" temps in the keys (60s!) we took it gladly. we all had an absolute blast (AND lauren reinvented herself with a beautiful star tattoo on her foot... don't you dare remove that bad boy, honey...), ate AMAZING seafood, drank loads of wine and other goodies, got Michael Kors' autograph at a drag cabaret, and jeanne was just an angel all the while. a big thanks to ALL the ladies (but especially mom) for helping out so much with my little one. can't wait till next year!!!!

Jeanne's First Christmas

2009, here we are! we had such a nice christmas here at home. aunt kimmy came home (we met her at the airport with a huge hand-made sign and got quite a few stares... i think people must have thought kim was home from iraq or something!) we had many family get togethers, baked and ate loads of cookies (the last batch of sandtarts was made yesterday...:( , and spent a lot of time in our pjs. JUST what christmas break should be. enjoy the pix to fill out the picture a bit more... hope you all stayed warm and happy this holiday season as well!