Peaceful

i just love how she's holding her hands and looking so peaceful. makes my heart skip a beat.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

the weather may be warm, but we are still getting in the Christmas spirit around here! when mommom was here, she bought all the supplies for roman to make his own advent calendar. she made one for him last year and sent it down and he had so much fun with it, so we are doing it again this year.

but first, a pose with the boys...

i cut out numbers on my cricut and had them all ready to be glued onto the bags
roman kept saying how he was so excited to be doing this "project". i guess they learn all those fancy words at school!

after he went to bed, i filled them with goodies and hung them up

for kids this may seem like forever, but when i see them all hung up, i get a little anxious...the 25th is only 20 days away!

saturday was a pretty busy day...first up was the Christmas parade. roman was in it this year with his taekwondo class, so gianna and i got up early to drop them off at the beginning of the parade and then went home to get ready to walk down and watch. it was chilly in the morning, so i got my little sugarplum all bundled up...
...then, when we got there, it was warm...like really warm. so, slowly, she came out of her fuzzywear...and as you can see, slept through the whole parade.

a lot of colellas were there...here's mikey and gage

i don't know this kid, but i thought it was pretty funny that he was all slumped over asleep with his santa hat covering his face...all while in the parade.

we were all lined up on the corner...here's rylee, chase, britton, christina and gage

...and santa!

reese was in the parade too...see her in the blue shirt?

...and finally...there was ro! poor thing had been walking/running for almost 2 miles already!

after a much needed nap for all of us, we got busy decorating. don't you love a tree with all the ornaments at the bottom?

yeah, he's a little nuts about Christmas, just like his momma and mommom!

...and just as an added bonus, Click here for a short video of roman singing his new favorite song...

We Had Visitors!

sorry that i've been slack on updating the blog lately. we've had visitors and for some reason when people visit, i'm really bad about taking pictures. we did manage to get a few, though.

uncle josh and aunt colleen came down the day before Thanksgiving. long story short, they brought a motorcycle...and a motorcycle helmet with them. roman wore the helmet the whole time he watched the polar express. his head was really sweaty by the end of the movie. gross.

as you can see, i got my kids all dressed up for their picture with uncle josh and aunt colleen.
awww, a nice sweet moment with aunt colleen...

and then this was happening right beside the sweet moment...

mimi and aunt maddy also came down to visit!

i think gianna's got them wrapped around her tiny little finger!

mimi's crew

roman really loves gianna and always wants to hold/kiss/hug her, so we had a little brother/sister time today...

The Kiddos

looks like someone's practicing taekwondo...hi-yah!

this is what happens when the tamminen girls visit!he loves her SO much. makes my heart melt a little...

Life with Gianna

things have been pretty quiet around here. we are just hanging out, getting used to being a family of four. gianna has been nothing short of amazing. she sleeps a lot and you literally have to wake her up for her to eat. i'm so blessed. it's still sinking in that i have two kids now and one of them is a girl!

getting girly with her first (of many) hair accessory

roman helping give gianna her first bath he loves to hold her

Home Sweet Home

we're home now...and boy, does it feel nice. we're just veggin' out, enjoying Gianna. my mom is waiting on us hand and foot and we're taking naps and such. roman got to play hookie from school yesterday, but today, he's back to his routine, hanging out with his friends. life is good.

don't you just wanna kiss those luscious lips?

God is Gracious

she's here, she's finally here! we were patiently, okay, maybe not patiently waiting for our newest little Colella to arrive and yesterday was our lucky day. can you believe she waited until 11/11/11? i can't. i'm still in shock. i have a daughter. that is so weird for me to say out loud.


here's the story, morning glory: at about 12:30am, i started having some noticeably consistent contractions. i started timing them at around 1:30 and by 2:30, i knew that we needed to go to the hospital. i woke toby up and he called his sister, Heather to come stay with Roman. when he called her, he didn't even have to say a word. she answered and said, "i knew it, i knew it...i'll be right there!" he didn't even get a chance to say anything.


we got to the hospital around 3:30 and i was about 3cm dilated with consistent contractions, so they said they would keep me. the wait was on. around 9:30 or 10ish, missi and heather came to keep us company. my mom was on her way too. when the doc came to check me around 1:15, she said i was ready to push. i pushed three times through one contraction and then on the next round, she told me to stop. it looked like we were getting close to 1:34, which is the time of day that roman was born (on a Friday too!). so, we waited through 2 more contractions and even though the baby was trying to come out on it's own, we actually made it to 1:34 and i think that is pretty cool to have both my kids born at the exact same time of day.


the doc said that the baby had the cord around the neck and so she needed to cut the cord to get the baby all the way out. when the doctor finally pulled the baby all the way out, Toby got to announce (and i was able to catch a peek) that we had a BABY GIRL! what a freakin' surprise. i had really thought all along that it was a boy. so much for mother's intuition. i should have listened to Roman all along!

so that's the story. she's here. she's perfect. her name is Gianna Heather Colella. it means "God is gracious". i know He is. i have proof. she weighed 7lbs, 10oz and is 20 inches. she's laying on my lap right now making kissy faces. i could eat her up.

big brother Roman loves her so much already. he calls her by her full name. Gianna Heather. so cute.

probably a yawn, but it looks like she's singing. i'm so happy i could sing too! the "team": toby, me, Gianna, Dr. DT and our nurse, Kristen me and my daughter (i still can't believe i get to say that!)