Been a while

I guess it has been a while since I've uploaded pictures. Not sure where the last 3 months have gone, but they are gone. Work for me is really busy. And I just don't have time to get on the computer at home. So here are a few pictures from the last couple of months. I'll make up for the absence.
Alissa for Halloween, she was the cutest butterfly.

Nicholas was a big blue and green dinosaur. He loved it, he was so adorable.

Alissa is getting so big, she has so much personality. We were missing this smile for a while b/c she was teething for what seemed like forever. But her bottoms are through now and she is back to being happy.
We had her 9 mo appt this month. The dr. said she was the size of an 11th month old. I forgot what her stats were, I'd have to go look that up and I don't feel like it. But she is growing well.

Love this picture. Truly an emerging daddy's girl, she loves to love and snuggle. Especially her daddy.
Goofing around with my kiddos. Thats really all we have been doing lately. This time is so short and is gone in a flash and we really just want to soak it all up and keep it for forever.


For Thanksgiving, Aunt Cheri and Uncle Mark came to visit. We had so much fun! We love them, we love hanging out with them!


Mu little sock monster. This girl, she has a thing for socks. Always has them in her mouth. We have to make sure she always has shoes on, otherwise the socks don't stay on her feet, they stay in her mouth.
What photo collections isn't complete w/out a sweet baby in the tub.

Even better, 2 sweet babies in the tub!
This past weekend we went over to Mikey and Melina's new house and made gingerbread houses. That was fun. Grandmother didn't have the patience and ended up throwing hers. It wasn't sticking. This was the first time we've tried to make them. it was fun. For Nicholas I got some gram crackers and some icing, he LOVED it. and he could eat his ofcourse. Unfortunatly he didn't eat all his dinner so he didn't get it.

Finally, a picture w/ Santa, we've taken Nicholas a few times and he didn't want to go see Santa, so this year his school had breakfast with Santa Saturday morning and we decided maybe being in a familiar environment he would be more apt. And he was. He was the life of the party as usual. He asked Santa for a new fast race car for mommy. And NO I did not coach him on that. He decided I needed a new car b/c some of the paneling on my car is coming up and we need to get it fixed. LOL.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Lightning McQueen

Watch out Ace of cakes, the Duderstadt's are up and coming. LOL!!!

Anyway Nick's birthday is tomorrow but we celebrated w/ family today. Keith and I thought about buying a cake, but when we found out a 3-D cake would cost $130, Keith made the group decision to attempt it ourselves. We've been watching enough cake shows to be dangerous. Well apparently we are really dangerous Ha! Kidding, but I have to say, there is no question about WHO this cake is when you look at it. I'm proud of us. It took us a couple of late nights so it could be a surprise to Nicholas. And it was all worth the look on his face.

Alissa & Nicholas 6 mos and 3 years

Ok, well Nicholas isn't quite 3 years yet. He still has 3 more weeks to go. But these pictures were for Alissa's 6 month photos. We went to the botanical gardens down the street from us.

Her 6 month stats are (and I honestly don't think they are right b/c she hasn't grown any since her 4 month appt??? I say I don't believe that):
Length 26.5 Inches - 74%
Weight: 15.12lbs - 42%
Head - well lets just say its small

She has started crawling, yep already. And she is getting good. She is so much fun, always happy. We started baby food and her favorite so far is bananas. Its just like a little birdie she leans forward and has her mouth wide open for more. And I am having FAR too much fun dressing her in cute girly clothes. So is my mom. She making clothes left and right for her. I love it. She still has the blue eyes, but they aren't AS blue as they were a few months ago. I am pretty sure she didn't get her daddy's brown eyes at this point. The Dr. said that she does have a little green around the edge, so they will probably be similar to mine.

Nicholas is an awesome big brother. He is always concerned w/ what she is going or if she is crying he wants to help her. And when Alissa smiles at him he gets all excited and tells us that "My 'Lissa is happy at me" So cute. He is starting to talk incessantly. I love it. His latest phrase is "thats for sure" makes me giggle every time. I love listening to his endless chatter about everything going on and things that he sees that reminds him of things from a month ago or even a few that have shocked me that he remembered from a YEAR ago. My little smartie.

Beautiful blue eyes. I just can't stop kissing those cheeks.


I don't know how we got so lucky to have to beautiful healthy children. We must have done something right, and we have many thanks to give.

Just love that smile and those BIG puppy dog brown eyes. Just like his daddy.

Alissa is starting to learn so much stuff these days. You can just see all the brain activity, trying to figure out what is going on. She is just so sweet.
Love this picture. She was watching Nicholas play on the playground. She absolutely LOVES watching him do anything. I usually have a hard time feeding her b/c when he is around all she wants to do is watch him.


Self Timer family photo. Didn't turn out too bad. Maybe in a few more months we'll go get one professionally done. Or ask Melina to do one for us.

Here is a quick video of Alissa crawling a bit, and some fun background noise from her brother and his call of nature. LOL. Just for you Aunt Cheri! We miss you and hope you can come soon.

My girl sits up

Alissa turned 6 months old on Thursday. I can't believe how big my baby is getting. Time is going by way too fast. She is already sitting up on her own. She is pretty much crawling. She has all the motions but its on her belly. So we need to start baby proofing everything. I'm not ready for that yet. But I know it will be here before I know it. I have to soak up all this time with her. I feel if I blink once, it will all be gone.

Look at that smile. She is such a HAPPY baby. The smile just makes my heart melt, and my eyes juice up. And she always has one for me.




She loves playing games, and feeling new textures. She is especially fond of shoelaces and her brothers cars.


Nicholas is such an awesome big brother, he loves to help with her still and wants to give her kisses, and wants to make sure she is ok. He will go over to her when she is crying and ask her what the matter is, or tell her "its ok little girl" SO cute. he loves her so much. i couldn't ask for anything more. I know things will change when he can't take his toys and move them to the couch to get away from her. Until then, I'm enjoying all the love.

Alissa's 6 month appt is on Wednesday. I'll update with her growth chart.

Alissa's Baptism

So Alissa was baptized over the weekend at our church. She was SOOOOOOOO CUTE in her dress that my mom made for her. And the bonnet she has on is an old kerchief from my grandma made into a hat and is designed to be pulled apart so that she can carry it with her on her wedding day. In addition, I didn't get a picture of it, but she is wearing a ring that I wore for my baptism, first Eucharist and confirmation. I'm so excited that she gets to wear it now too.


Here is the dress. My mom does amazing work.








Lighting of her candle



Here we are after the festivities. It was quite a comical event. After Alissa threw up all over her dress, and Nicholas came running up from the seats w/ his blanket b/c he was feeling left out and then my grandma knocked over the candle.....I think people were entertained in the congregation.

Quick shot. I don't have alot b/c everyone took off before I had a chance to give my orders. oh well.

Digital Scrapping

Beth, this is for you! :)

My new addiction! Everything comes from www.theShabbyshoppe.com

And if anyone is curious, I also found this place to print 12x12 prints out for $1.50 a piece. Check out www.sbtoshare.com. I got my free examples in the mail on Friday and they are AWESOME!

Alissa is 4 months old

So we had Alissa's 4 month appointment 2 Monday's ago. She is growing.
12.25 lbs - 25%
26.5 inches - 95%
head - I didn't even pay attention to, its 10%

I looked up Nick's stats. I thought for sure he would be lighter than her but to my surprise he was 14.5 lbs and only 26 inches. I feel like she is chunkier than he was, she has so many baby rolls. But she is a girl, so I guess it makes sense. My mom thinks she is going to be the 6'5 girl in the family. Not sure if i want that or not, but I guess if that gets her a volleyball scholarship, then....ok.

She is really bursting with personality these days. She is laughing and smiling like crazy, the kind that just makes you melt and your eyes juice up. And those EYES of hers. Ugh, they are just beautiful! These pictures just don't even come close to doing them justice in real life.

She is rolling over both ways already. She was doing that at 3.5 months. I'm still shocked, but she is just so squirmy we have a hard time holding her. I've almost dropped her so many times b/c she throws her head back and arches her back. So i guess all that squirming equates to advanced physical skills. Most babies don't roll over both ways until they are 5 or 6 months old. They barely are able to roll over in one direction at 4 months.

I just LOVE that face.

So we started cereal a couple of weeks ago. She LOVES the stuff. She is such a good eater and took to it right away. Didn't mind the texture, just got mad because it wasn't going in fast enough for her.

Finally, here is a Muffin Made outfit. My mom made it. She is just SO cute in it! I love all the stuff my mom does! We are so lucky to have her talents. Now if I could just learn some patience and absorb some of her skills....ha. Just wait until I post her Baptism pictures. My mom made her dress that would put anything you find in a store to shame.

Millions of Peaches....

Peaches for me.

We took a trip to Fredericksburg to pick peaches this past weekend and visit with Nana, Keith's mom. It was a beautiful day to be outside. I had planned on being there at 8 when the orchard opened, but that didn't happen. We got there around 10am, we picked I think about 75 pounds of peaches or 1.5 bushels in an hour and a half. It started getting pretty hot around 11, but luckily we were pretty much done at that point.

Nicholas had SO much fun picking the peaches, the trees were just his size. But I did not anticipate his eagerness to pick ALL the peaches he saw, ripe or not. So we had to resort to me telling him which one he could pick, but he was just as happy doing that so it worked out.

Carrying his box to the next tree

Poking his fingers in all the peaches.

Helping daddy. Nicholas didn't get the idea that you couldn't chunk the peaches into the box. We had a few unfortunate accidents

Picking with mommy

Here is our Peach booty.

Yep, it was hot out.

We finally ended up with about 140 peaches according to daddy's counting

Ooooo and finally the prize, juicy, super sweet totally yummy peaches!

Pretty little girl

Alissa is 3 months old already. I don't know where all the time has gone. She is getting so big everyday. I feel like when I pick her up after work she is bigger than when I saw her in the morning. She is getting too big for the 3 month clothes so we are into the 3-6 months. She's smiling and talking alot these days. Its so much fun, she makes my eyes juice up a bit. My happy part of the day.
Crazy girl, she rolled over from her back to her stomach yesterday at 3 months and 5 days. I looked up when Nicholas did that and he was 4 months old when he did that. Not sure if this is a glimpse of times to come. I hope she isn't higher energy than her brother, because honestly I cannot imagine more energy than her brother.

Happy girl playing with her daddy



We finally bought a bumpo, which is a chair for infants and holds them in the sitting position. she loves it and loves being able to look around at stuff.

Look at those BLUE eyes. I LOVE them. Actually this picture doesn't do them justice. but they are so blue they look purple. They are so pretty. I hope they stay that way. Either way I'm positive that she isn't going to be brown eyed like her big brother. And her pasty white skin matches mine so, we have one olive skin, dark boy and one blond hair blue eyes.


And it wouldn't be complete without a picture of my 2 favorite kiddos. I feel so lucky that nicholas is such a GREAT big brother. He LOVES that she smiles and reacts to him playing with her. and he is so gentle. Yes, he does get jealous when people hold her, but thats expected and it doesn't happen all the time. He is such a sweet boy, I'm so proud of him. He is so good with her.