Pictures to go with the Magic!

The general chaos that is our home... Who doesn't have a tent and a circus in their living room?



Meeting our friends at the zoo...

Noah and Marisol had a blast together.


Noah wanted to hold the baby right away!


Butterflies!


Tinkerbell and friends now grace our bedroom wall...


Marisol placed them herself.


Bubbles in the rain


Marisol took this picture of me and Gerry... good job Marisol!
(yes, I am still in my pajama bottoms


Visiting our neighbor's "pet garden".


I love this quirky couple, and we barely know them! They encourage Marisol (and the rest of us) to visit the animals and to move them if we think they would rather be sitting somewhere else. Marisol loves to do this of course!


My friend Allison visited today... she was in DC from California to visit her sister and new nephew. She was my best friend and travel companion when we studied in Barcelona. We were inseparable. It was fun to catch up and take a trip down memory lane.


And last, but definitely not least... trying to catch those elusive baby smiles...


ahh choo!!


Almost... but his full grin is even bigger than this! Too cute... of course it melts my heart. And makes all the fussy (or as Marisol says, fuzzy) times worth it. (Marisol says that fuzzy means when you are screaming)


ps for any folks that actually check my blog but are not on facebook... I have been putting pictures up there a bit more... many family and friends are there and it is sometimes easier. So get on facebook and make me your friend! :-) I'm going to try and keep up the blog too though...

9/9/09 Magic for sure!

Wednesday 9/9/09

An early bedtime last night

a hot shower this morning!

appreciating that I am home with my beautiful children instead of working a less meaningful job

a visit with an old friend and a trip down memory lane!

Marisol making me smile and laugh out loud every day… and sharing all of her funny moments with Mike

making every day magic and appreciating what a MIRACLE life really is…

Tuesday 9/8

25 cent bubbles leading to…
putting rain gear on – coats, boots, umbrella – leading to…
fun on the patio leading to….
a walk in search of puddles, leading to…
the playground! leading to…
meeting a new family with a toddler and a new baby leading to…
helping out a stranger with a raincoat…

an adventure had by 10 am!

So far so good! I've posted my comments on the website 3 days in a row and look forward to it. It only takes a minute really... Plus it makes you feel good to read other people's "magic" too! It really is a great idea!

Hope everyone else is having a magical week

My Everyday Magic

So I found a cool website and put a link to it on the side of my blog. It is called My Everyday Magic:

http://myeverydaymagic.com/

I think it is a great idea. I don't know if I will be able to post every day, maybe even aiming for once a week is more realistic for me at this point. But even thinking about it this weekend helped me stay in a positive frame of mind. So here is my magic from this fun holiday weekend:

Meeting our friends at the zoo, and Marisol running around with Noah

Getting a new Tinkerbell at Target

Sunny day at the playground and throwing a football around

Tinkerbell wall stickers! (see a theme here?)

Lots of baby smiles from Gerard

Mike taking care of our food needs

Getting out 3 days in a row!

There you have it

July and Gerard

So I managed to skip the month of July for blogging... and not because we didn't have things to share! I picked some of my favorite pictures from the month to give a taste of what we have been up to.


Our Princess turned 3 on July 2nd... We went back to Rochester to celebrate and to visit both of our families before the baby came.


Marisol got her own big girl bed for her birthday from Mike and me. It is a purple, Tinkerbell bed, with a canopy. She picked it out herself (on the internet) and loves it! She was sleeping in it a lot for most of July, but is pretty much back in our bed now... for reasons you will see below


This is one of the sunsets we got to see while we were home at my parents. Marisol and I loved being outside every day and visiting with all of our friends and family.


And our biggest news - the arrival of Gerard Walker! He made his big appearance 2 weeks and 1 day early on July 23rd. So I have 2 July babies now


My parents took this picture of a rainbow over the birth center where we had Gerry - this was just a little more than an hour after he was born. It was a pretty crazy day -- for us and weather -- there were storms on and off all day. I thought it was appropriate -- Gerry was like my rainbow after a crazy day of labor! He came so fast compared to Marisol -- we were only at the Birth Center for about an hour and he was born!


Two of the awesome midwives from the birth center. They came to see us the next day at our home. We only stayed at the birth center for 4 hours after he was born.


Too cute! And already well dressed thanks to his Grandmother and Aunts!


Big sister love


Sleepy head!


Who is that giant next to our baby?? Oh, that's Marisol!

Happy Father's Day!

Helping daddy fix our gate on Father's day... what could be more appropriate?



Note: the father/daughter tool sets

Enjoying our new home

Having friends over and eating on the patio!



Ms Katie enjoys the outdoors too!


The following series takes place all on one day:

Marisol and her babies all cozy on the new couch and watching a DVD.


Rainy days are still fun when you have the proper gear!


"Making Orders" - a game involving ties, scarves, or bags... you pick a color crayon, get one piece of paper, "write" the order and match it with an article... and, voila! You have completed an order


A portrait of mommy by marisol


Make up time! Marisol doing mommy's makeup...


The result, beautiful!


More orders and makeup...



All in a day's work!