Shower Time...

Me looking very pregnant...three months to go!


Yaya and I...


Lots and lots and lots of clothes for this little one...


On Saturday, a group of Charlene's friends and my sister-in-law Karen were so nice and decided to throw me a baby shower. All I can say is that with the amount of clothes that Isabella already has, Chris and I are going to have to change her 2 to 3 times a day!! Her Daddy is already building out her closet so she has enough room for her clothes and shoes (yes, she has A LOT of shoes already, including pink, black and red patent leather shoes, sneakers and sandals, possible nickname is Imelda).

It was a nice afternoon and I was amazed at how generous and thoughtful everyone was and even more overwhelmed by how excited everyone is about her arrival. We are certainly blessed!

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New York State of Mind

Chris, Charlene (Chris' mom) and I had a fantastic time visiting his family in upstate New York. The weather was beautiful (except for one rainy day and that didn't stop us ladies from shopping). We went as far up as Lake George, Hudson, and Albany - it was great! I never had the opportunity to spend so much time with Aunt Betty (Charlene's sister) and Uncle Ray, plus I got to meet some of Chris' cousins I hadn't met before.


Aunt B and Uncle Ray live in this fantastic house that is a converted barn. The decorative touches are just amazing. I fell in love with the house and it's in a small town of Coxsackie, NY where Charlene and her sisters grew up. We saw places where they lived, met people they knew growing up, it was fun. We had breakfast at Uncle Ray's favorite breakfast joint Subabaro's, which is a tiny little diner with the yummiest breakfast I've had in awhile.

We also had the chance to drive to Connecticut to see one of my dearest friends Aimee and meet her latest addition to her clan, Nichole. Motherhood agrees with Aimee, she looked beautiful and her kids and husband lookd great. It was nice seeing how happy they all are. I also visited my cousin Enid and my Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Victor. Enid went all out for us - she made dinner, decorated her house and had a mini-baby shower for me. She's too much!!

This trip was a lot of fun and some much needed R&R for both Chris and I.

BABY UPDATE - 6 months along and all is well. She is moving and grooving all the time and I'm feeling great. It looks like we are thinking of Isabella as a name for her.

Say hello to the latest member of the family...

It's a GIRL! Here's her first close up at 19 weeks.

Too Cool...

I'm in Miami for work and on the way to the hotel from the airport, I noticed a slew of banners advertising a Food Network Wine and Food event going on in Miami. I was bummed because with everything we had to do, I figured there wouldn't be any time to check it out.

Well, wouldn't you know it, it's at the same hotel that the conference I'm working on is located. I walk in the lobby and spot Guy Fieri, of Diners, Drive-In's and Dives fame and on my way to the beach, I run into Paula Deen and I HAD to take a picture with her. She is just the cutest person and her personality on air is the same as off the air. I was too excited! Here I was bummed because I thought I wouldn't get to enjoy any of that event, but I got an even better experience than going to the actual event.

2008...

1936-2007



It was a rocky start to the new year with the unexpected passing of Chris' dad around the new year. He was an amazing person and he is definitely missed by all of us.

For those of you who don't know, we have something big coming in the summer of 2008............A BABY! I'm currently 4 months along and so far everything has been going well and God-willing will continue to go well. On March 10th we will find out what we are having (assuming the baby decides to cooperate), so if we find out I'll make sure to post it.

Chris and I want to thank all of you who had us in their prayers during that tough time and thank you for being there for us.

I'm going to try to keep this site updated regularly with upcoming baby news.

Thanksgiving...family style.

Needless to say, we had a GREAT Thanksgiving. It was full house - Mom, Dad, Sean, Tio Jose, Richard, and Yaya (aka Grandma) - all under one roof. Mom and Yaya did a fabulous job decorating the table, while Chris and I cooked up a storm and Dad, Tio and Richard yelled at the TV downstairs. This year Chris wanted to forgo the standard Turkey and make a Turducken. For those of you who are scratching your heads asking yourselves "what the heck is that" - the explanation is as strange as the name. It's a partially deboned turkey, that's been stuffed with a partially deboned duck, which has been stuffed with a whole chicken that has been stuffed with stuffing. Whew, that was chore just explaining it.

We had a little competition that whoever had the pumpkin sticker on the inside of their place card would get the wishbone...well, there wasn't one, so Richard and Yaya got creative and our decorations suffered a casualty. Richard won...he won the JINGLE PIG. It was hilarious, if you pull on it's tail it squeals and it also snorts jingle bells. Quite the prize!

We just loved having everybody here, hopefully we can have even more family join in the fun next time.

Too long...

Russell with his FAVORITE toy.


It's been too long since I've posted anything. Chris and I have been working a lot and for me that means A LOT of travel. Luckily next week is my last trip until January '08.

Fall is finally here and we are so excited that we are having Thanksgiving at our house this year!! We can't wait to have a full house of family...it's going to be a blast.