Baby, Baby, Baby Oh!

 

My Baby's too Bootylicious for ya! Chiara is my chunkiest baby and I love it! So do the kids. Gianluca and Allegra love to help put lotion on her after her bath and their favorite part is putting lotion on those sweet buns! Watch out Kim Kardation, Beyonce, and J Lo! My baby's got back!

 

Smother Mother! Allegra LOVE'S Chiara so much! She can't stop touching her or squeezing her. It's beyond her control! She's crazy in love with this baby! Chiara is so patient, but I know one day she's going to have enough and start smacking Allegra!

 

These are some old pictures from when she was three months old and was going through a stressful time in her life. She lost a lot of hair, as many men do when they are stressed. I think this hairstyle is amazing! I almost cut it, to make it look better, but Joel loved it, so I left it. You wouldn't believe how awesome it is now! Full and curly. She's a doll!

San Antonio/ Halloween

 

Here is Allegra dressed up for Freaky Friday at her preschool. She was so happy to wear her clothes backwards and have crazy hair!


The kids and I love love LOVE Halloween! We had a lot of fun Halloween activities this year. We had a great time at our neighbors annual pumpkin carving party and our Halloween night block party. We went trick-or-treating with our neighbors. Gianluca, Allegra, Matt and Tyler, Kyle, Thomas, and Seth all scored way too much candy!!!! But it was a blast!

 

Happy Halloween! Allegra was Super Girl, Gianluca was the Grim Reaper, and Chiara of course was an adorable Pumpkin.

We went to San Antonio a couple of weeks ago and had a blast. We have season passes to Sea World and went for their Halloween Spooktacular. The kids loved all of the fun shows like Azul and Seamore and Clyde. They loved feeding the dolphins and Gianluca road the Steel Eel for the first time with Joel and they had a blast!

 

Road trip to San Antonio. The kids had a blast watching Halloween movies and being crazy!

 

Here we are watching Seamore and Clyde with our popcorn and cotton candy. The kids loved it! And so did we!

 

Here are all of the fun pictures from the Halloween Spooktacular. Gianluca is such a ham!

 

River Walk/ The Alamo, oh and of course The World's Tallest Man!


BLAST FROM THE PAST

In March of this year Allegra and I went to San Antonio with my folks for some business meetings they had there. It was so fun having some time with my parents and Allegra before the baby came. Joel and Gianluca met up with us a few days later to go to Sea World.

 

River Walk/ Alamo

 

Sea World. My mom got soaked! Good Times!

Sea World 10/2011 at OneTrueMedia.com

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Why Does Blogging Take Sooo Much Energy and Time!

Hey Ya'll (yes I live in Texas, so don't hate)! And yes I'm kind of feeling dorky and feisty all at once. So I haven't blogged in three months and I find that I have so much to blog about and pics to put up that I really have no desire to blog at all. It's a lot like catching up on laundry! It seems I always have a ton to do, and no desire to do it. I don't mind folding it, as much as I mind putting it away. Case in point, the laundry basket full of the kids clothes that have been folded for three days! I hate putting laundry away! Anyways, for those of you who are awesome bloggers-- I am inspired by you! I'm just going to put up a few pictures that happened over the summer, and later I'll put up our summer vacation pictures.

I have to say that I was Dreading this summer. I think dreading is even an understatement! I was not looking forward to the chaos of having everyone home, the incessant teasing of Gianluca to Allegra. Allegra's constant screaming at Gianluca because he teases her, utter boredom of children who then drive me insane to the point of wanting to lock myself in my room and bang my head against the wall non-stop until I black out, all while taking care of a newborn... but it was-- dare I say-- pretty awesome! Yes! I survived and my children were pretty dang good if I do say so myself. Who cares if I drugged them so they slept all day! :) I kid, I kid! No really, they were really good and being gone for half of the summer actually really helped!

Update... I've been waiting for over an hour for five pictures to load, 5 pictures people! And they haven't yet! This is one major problem with blogging! Dang You Blogger! Dang You! (Just trying to keep it PG). I guess I'll add the pics later! Going to bed now! Three kids are kind of kicking my trash! Ok, Good Night.


My little slugger


First shiner from baseball camp


Sista's


I love, love , love this chunk!

Chiara's Blessing Pictures

We blessed Chiara on May 1st, 2011. It was so nice to have Joel's parents, my parents and sisters there to share it with us. Joel gave a beautiful blessing and we really just enjoyed the time we had with our family. My mom crocheted a beautiful blanket for the blessing and Maggie made Chiara's blessing dress and Allegra's dress. Thank You Both!


Grandpa Paul


Abu Norby


Our sideways Family


Darci, Mom,me, Kim, Allegra


The Decker Clan


The Maggiora Clan


The Grandparents

Chiara Isabella

Well, I had written a long post about the birthing process and saved it to post later with pics, but of course it has disappeared into the universe somewhere.... So how it all went down is like this. I went in for my appointment the day before my due date. I was dilated to a 3, so my doc stripped my membranes and gave me a few "suggestions" as to how to get my contractions going. Needless to say they worked and by three in the afternoon I was getting regular contractions. By 7:00 pm they were a few minutes apart so we went in. When they hooked me up to the monitor they noticed that every time I had a contraction that the baby's heart rate would drop really low. The problem was that I was only dilated to a four at this point and putting me on pitocin would only put the baby in further distress. After about an hour of this my doc decided we needed to take her by c-section. I was not ready for that, but in the moment you don't have much of a choice. Why is it that I know so many women who have their last baby by an unplanned c-section? Anyways, next thing we know, Joel is putting on some super tight scrubs, we're making lots of jokes with my doctor, and then I'm hauled off for surgery. It was just like in Gray's Anatomy where there is music playing and everyone operating on me were talking about what plans they had for the weekend, and who won that game, like it wasn't weird at all that they were about to pull a baby out of my stomach! It was surreal! I felt a lot of tugging and the next thing I know my beautiful little girl was screaming the most beautiful high pitched squeal you've ever heard! It was so hard to not be able to hold her as my arms were strapped down, but I was so happy when Joel put her little peanut head next to mine so I could kiss her. She was 21 1/2 inches and 8 lbs 2 oz. First and foremost... C-Sections suck!!! It is so frustrating having two normal deliveries where I could walk around and feel pretty normal after a couple days, to being in agonizing pain every time I had to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. Joel was my super hero! He was there with me the whole time. He took care of the baby the whole time and loved every minute of it. These two have a special bond. We decided to name her Chiara (key-ar-a) Isabella. She is so sweet and peaceful. She really is an easy baby (knock on wood). I can't believe she is already one month! Our home has been a revolving door for visitors. My mom was here for 10 days, Joel's mom for three weeks, then my father-in-law came, my parents, and sisters for the baby blessing. They all have helped us so much with the kids and our house. We are super grateful. Now Tio Christian is here and we are having a lot of fun. Allegra and Gianluca have been in heaven! They also love and adore Chiara. Allegra is a bit of a smother mother, but she's learning. I'm so happy she loves her sis so much. Anyways, I'll update more details later. That is the initial story. Joel's tight scrubs. He likes to call them his wrangler scrubs! Too funny! The Proud Daddy Our first meeting! All of my labor and delivery glory! Best Friends Already! Well at least while she can't talk yet! Mom, Darci, Kim, and me. I love these awesome women!It was a blast having them here! Abu Maggie, Allegra, and the baby The proud siblings More pictures and updates to come soon!

Baby Name Poll

Just saw on my pregnancy countdown that I have 42 days left!!! I'm not ready! I'm so not ready! And she's coming no matter what! Ok, so we don't even have a name picked out. Here's what we are thinking.... and keep in mind that our other two have Italian names so I'm trying to think of something that is unique and still is something that people can pronounce here in America without slaughtering it. When Joel says the names in his fancy Italian accent it sounds amazing, but I know all of us normal red-neck English speakers will just kill the name! I've had to axe a bunch of the names he liked for that reason. So here is our short list.

1. Giuliana (Juliana)
2. Chiara (Kiara)
3. Giada/ Gia for short
4. Alessandra/ Alessa for short
5. Aviana
6. Liliana (Lilly)

And I might add that we are not in love with any of these. And I change my mind every day. I used to like Isabella and Sofia (ok I still like Sofia a lot) until everyone and there dog named their daughters that around the time Allegra was born. So I need the name to be beautiful, easy to pronounce, and unique like my other kids. What do you think?