Welcome home!

So excited!! My brother comes home today! My amazing little brother (okay, maybe he's not so little anymore - he's 22) has ridden a BICYCLE across the country! Ever since high school and all through college, Larry was very involved in Habitat for Humanity. He was president of both schools' chapters and even when to DC to help lobby for affordable housing. After graduating in May from UVA's school of Architecture in this crappy job market - only 2 kids in his class actually found jobs in the architecture industry - he joined Bike and Build. He raised over $4,000 for this wonderful organization and joined 31 other young adults in a bike ride from Boston to Santa Barbara, CA over about 9 weeks. Along the way, they stopped in cities to help local chapters of Habitat for Humanity build houses. He's amazing! Did I forget to mention that my brother had only actually ridden a bike maybe 2 times before he began training for this monumental ride?? Anyway, I am SO PROUD of him! He tells all his stories much better than I could even attempt, so check out his blog: larrybikesamerica He also has amazing photos of his journey along historic route 66 and everything else from coast to coast.

Welcome home fratellino!!

Still here

Can you believe it's already the end of July?? I can't. Although I finished work over a month ago, my summer didn't really get started until this past weekend. It was a really tough end of June and first half of July for me and my family. We lost two family members - one on my side and one on my husband's all in the span of a week.
My grandfather hadn't been doing well since his surgery in January, and pretty much right after school was out, I was back and forth seeing him in the hospital, then we he was sent home under hospice care, we went there. He passed away with family close by on July 5th after 6 months of suffering. It was a really difficult time for us, but we are comforted in knowing that he's no longer in pain. I was fortunate to be one of the last ones to see him sitting upright and conscious. He smiled at Alessia, played with her hand and spoke with us. Not even 2 days later, he was gone. I miss him dearly, and am filled with regret that I didn't go see him as often as I should. Too late now.
Exactly one week later, Mark's grandmother passed away, also due to an inability to recover from surgery. It was two very long weeks after all this time of uncertainty.
So I haven't really gotten a chance to enjoy my time off from work with Alessia and the summer is quickly passing us by. But you can be sure I going to try as hard as I can to make sure I don't waste a minute of the next month and a half with her.
Didn't mean to be a downer...that's just life lately.

Happy Thanksgiving (better late than never!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Not only was this Alessia's first, but also our first time hosting Thanksgiving. Since both my brother and sister are out of the country, I had my parents over along with mark's, his brother wife and kids. I think it was a success. Of course I continued my mom's tradition of making entirely too much food, but now we have lots of yummy leftovers. For those of you who enjoy cooking, here's two yummy recipes we made: Porcini mushroom turkey and Cauliflower and brussels sprout gratin with Pine nut breadcrumb topping from Bon Appetit magazine. In addition, the menu featured 8 other sides (yes I'm crazy): roasted artichokes, rice stuffing (a tradition in my family), broccoli rabe, cranberry sauce (made fresh), sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, roasted squash and parsnip medley, and corn bread. Oh and we started with a few appetizers: bruschetta, mixed antipasto and cheese and crackers. Thankfully, my in-laws made dessert: apple and pumpkin pies and my sisterinlaw made cookies. Can't wait to see the gas bill after having the oven and stove on all day, but it was well worth it. The turkey came out delicious; I splurged and got an all-natural free range turkey from the local butcher, and I swear you can taste a difference.
Alessia was sooo well behaved and sat at the table through the whole long dinner, mostly in her high chair, then passed around like a hot potato. She enjoyed some sweet potatoes (actually ate all of mine) and some turkey. It was so exciting to see Alessia enjoy her own little thanksgiving dinner. I pureed some of our turkey and added some sweet potato. She sucked it down like there was no tomorrow!


This Thanksgiving, I was so thankful for my beautiful little girl and my wonderful husband (as well as the rest of the family and all our friends).

And now the holiday season has officially begun! We're off to the mall to visit Santa, people watch and get some presents. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Grandpas are so cute!

I love seeing family members interact with Alessia, but I think my favorite are the grandpas. As I grew up, my father and I butted heads a lot because we're so similar, and I think I forgot how affectionate he could be. He is adorable with my daughter. You can see him just melt when he sees her. Yesterday we went down to my aunts house to celebrate my grandfather's 83rd birthday. My dad's eyes just lit up when he saw her and immediately took her from my arms to walk her around. They're just so cute together! He loves taking her outside to show her the flowers and plants and I can hear him telling her how he's going to teach her to pull weeds as soon as she can walk and joking that she'll probably try to eat them. I just love how this tough guy melts with Alessia in his arms!



My father-in-law is the same. Although he already has two grandchildren from my brother-in-law, Alessia is his first granddaughter, so you know she's spoiled. He owns a camera shop and shows her off in the pictures frames on display - he takes out the "fake" family shots and substitutes our family pictures. It's so cool to walk in the store and see her face in the frames, like a model! My favorite thing about him is how he's so careful with her, like he's afraid to break her. He's so cute when he holds her!



She loves both of their mustaches as she is now eager to grab anything and everything with her grubby little fingers.


I also got some cute shots of my grandmother with her. This is her first great-granddaughter. She was so excited when I told her I was finally pregnant and I'm so happy she's still here with us and Alessia gets to spend time with her.