HapHealy Ever After

a very diglio christmas

2012-01-04T21:26:00.000-06:00

christmas week was spent in nj doing the usual. lil and killer followed each other around, ran circles in the house and in general laughed and giggled their way through the week. these two are really something special together--they are the perfect pair of little monsters!

lil also seemed to develop an attachment to maggie. she was very interested in her and wanted to do everything i did to maggie. if i was holding maggie's hand, she wanted to do it or if i was patting maggie's back she wanted to do it too. she wasn't jealous, she just wanted to be involved.

it took us two tries, but amanda and i were able to get the annual santa picture with the kids. and to further the annual-ness of it she and i were the only ones smiling! again. unfortunately they wouldn't let us take our own pics this year so hopefully she will post it (hint amanda).

the tree with the unspoiled gifts

the kids in their matching pj's 'cause at some point amanda and i turned into sisters that do this to their kids

lil opening her "makeup" from grandma - she loves playing with my makeup brushes so now she has a set of her own

getting their remote controlled trains

pile 'o cousins

uncle jerry and maggie

very serious about opening gifts

maggie moo's baptism

2012-01-01T21:43:00.002-06:00

lucky for the 'rents, they have one child who is not a heathen and fulfills all the required church activities. lucky for amanda we have a beautiful family (bongiovanni) church, st stephen's, to go to. we are very fortunate that st stephen's agreed to do a special ceremony for us knowing that dennis and i were coming in from chicago. we got to have the church all to ourselves and had a very sweet, but short ceremony for little miss moo!

she was fantastic the whole time. not a peep out of her, even when the priest put the oil and water on her. keiller, on the other hand, was quite the character and had me holding back tears of laughter throughout the ceremony.

maggie's baptism, a set on Flickr.

'cause we need a little christmas

2011-12-11T10:30:00.000-06:00

right this very instant!

it's easy to forget how great christmas is when you don't decorate for it. we never have any christmas spirit around here until we get to our destination.

this year we kicked our xmas into gear by riding the santa train. so. stinkin. fun. love this thing. for once i only have great things to say about the cat. they really do it up. the train is covered in lights, santa has a sleigh and elf helpers, all the poles inside the train are candy cane striped, all the adverts inside the train are for business in the north pole and so on.

it was hard to tell what lil thought of it all. however she goes NUTS when she watches the videos we took. so she clearly enjoyed it.

the loot

2011-11-02T21:39:00.001-05:00

DSC_0280, originally uploaded by mheal732.

my SIL does a picture of the kids and their loot from the night. i just had to post this, knowing that her kids gets pounds of candy, and here's lil and killer playing with 1 piece each!

halloween is cancelled?!

2011-11-02T21:29:00.001-05:00

yes, but not to worry. we still had good times. and really does it matter? especially when the kids don't even want to dress up!

we had a great time in nj despite an early snowstorm and a halloween with barely passing "costumes". as always, lil had a great time with her cousins old and young.

took forever to get them in the same place for one stinkin' second. all i wanted was one picture of them in their matching cowboy shirts.

on a "walk" with keiller

the virtuoso

best team of trick or treaters on the east coast (thank you morris plains for NOT canceling halloween!)

"i got 5 pieces of candy!"

"seriously? you really think i'm wearing this hat?"

i can't write a caption for this because i'm too busy laughing at amanda hiding behind keiller

and the rest of the fun:

maggie moo

2011-11-02T20:54:00.000-05:00

i had to do a whole post dedicated to this perfect little thing. cutest, happiest, smiliest, little girl ever. love her...although lil might love her more. she couldn't get enough of her.

halloween angels

giraffes and fingers are necessary for sleeping tight

love you maggie

lady bug

seriously? look at that chin.

mcdinan mcpumpkin mcparty

2011-11-02T19:58:00.001-05:00

as always lisa and joe throw one helluva party! and the best part of this one was that we could actually go--having a car has its perks!

while the rest of the party was busy carving ridiculous pumpkins (these are not your spooky face people), we were making a mess with paint and chasing the doogies. too bad we couldn't stay and see the rest of the creations.

power tools were used

dogs were kissed

portals were carved

babies were stuffed

messes were made

saturday in the park

2011-10-22T20:32:00.001-05:00

no nap means a day in the park. lil doesn't move from the swings--big kid or little kid swing--doesn't matter. she's an equal opportunity swinger:)

prelude to a butterfly

2011-10-22T20:28:00.001-05:00

in theory lil is a butterfly for halloween. however, yesterday, at the party she refused to wear the wings or the rest of it for that matter. this morning she wore them with her monkey pi's. don't be surprised if this winds up being her costume!

halloween dry run @ digitas

2011-10-22T20:24:00.000-05:00

apple juice and oreos

hopscotch

tantrum

marimeko reflection

and that about sums up the adventure at the office halloween party. please notice that there is no "her costume" photo.

pumpkin picking

2011-10-15T20:36:00.004-05:00

FINALLY. we got to leave the city and get our annual dose of country. crazy that an hour away from cracked-up homeless people pooping in your alley is this whole other world of beautiful.

we went to royal oaks farm in harvard, il. as long as you ignored all the scripture, the place was fantastic! they aren't organic, but they do use natural methods of pest control which i admire. they had u-pick apples, pumpkins and raspberries. plus a petting zoo, carousel, train ride/hayride and awesome playground. of course the prerequisite apple cider donuts were abundant.

and done.

finish with a flourish

2011-07-09T19:29:00.003-05:00

tutus are one of fav things. we have 3 of them. we use them to finish with a flourish!

jumping

2011-07-09T19:12:00.002-05:00

lil loves her (therapy) toy--the trampoline. we got it a couple of months ago and she jumped right on as hasn't stopped since.

aqua therapy

2011-07-09T18:18:00.003-05:00

lil has come so far with her swimming. her first session, about 2 months ago, was full of blood curdling screams. now she's "swimming" like a pro! her therapist, lisa, is super proud of the little guppy. she was so brave today, she was jumping from the pool ledge into my arms.

we're all very impressed! nice work miss lil!

the sky is falling!

2011-06-30T07:34:00.000-05:00

we've been through some crazy storms since we've lived here but this one took the cake. i thought the world was ending...i was online refreshing weather.com every 5 sec thinking that at any minute we would be running for the basement. but of course we captured pictures and dennis stood outside and got a video.

nj may visit 2011

2011-06-26T16:22:00.003-05:00

nj may visit, a set on Flickr.

it was a perfect nj visit filled with friends, the beach and family. it was one of the few trips that we got to do it all (almost!)

thanks to sonya and joe for haven' a bbq and thanks to my family for having a beach house!

it feels like summer now

2011-06-26T15:18:00.003-05:00

pride/taste wknd 2011, a set on Flickr.

just a hanging-around-town kinda wknd. we putzed around at green city this wknd and stumbled upon a bubble guy making crazy big bubbles.

end of june and it's finally starting to feel like summer!

father's day wknd

2011-06-26T15:13:00.002-05:00

father's day wknd, a set on Flickr.

we had a pretty chill, but very fun father's day wknd this yr! i had time to cook all wknd which was fun for me, and we were able to take den to a local brewery, Revolution, for sunday brunch.

lil and dennis are a sight to see together. she loves him so much--clearly she sees him as "the fun one". everything dennis does is funny.

they have a new game called "POW!" dennis puts his hands out in a fist, and lil hits them with her fists. he screams "POW!". she laughs like a crazy person.

totally. awesome.

ohio may visit

2011-06-19T23:04:00.002-05:00

not nearly enough pictures can describe how much fun we had at the indians game! lil's first.

derby ready

2011-06-19T22:30:00.001-05:00

DSC_0831, originally uploaded by mheal732.

melissa and sean got lil an adorable outfit for her birthday! this was just a piece of it, so cute!

mexican ballerina

2011-06-19T21:53:00.002-05:00

mexican ballerina, a set on Flickr.

a new take on the "ballerina" series. only this time cinco de mayo added it's own flavor.

swinging, and more swinging

2011-06-19T21:46:00.002-05:00

swinging, a set on Flickr.

this seriously makes her happy. can't you tell?

viking ballerina

2011-06-19T21:41:00.002-05:00

viking ballerina, a set on Flickr.

lil put this outfit together all on her own.

so dramatic.

serial stealer

2011-06-19T21:26:00.002-05:00

Mar 27, 2011, a set on Flickr.

whenever lil sees dad eating cereal in the morning she runs over, sits on his lap and spoons milk messily into her mouth.

yes, just the milk. no cereal. go figure.

it's finally nice

2011-06-19T21:20:00.003-05:00

it's finally nice, a set on Flickr.

we had one great day in april. it was 80 and beautiful...and then it snowed:)