Gianna Christine Martini

We would like to annouce the arrival of the newest addtion to our family.  On Tuesday, August 17th, at 10:06am, Gianna Christine Martini joined the world.  She weighed 6lb 9oz and is 18 3/4inches long.  She has been doing very well, although, a little jaundiced.  So far she has been a good eater and sleeper.  We should be able to go home with her tomorrow morning.  Sister Isabella is always very excited to see the baby.....she doesn't care much about Mom and Dad right now.  It is very cute how she likes to look at Gianna.  We just hope that she continues to love on her once we are all at home.  In the meantime, Isabella is having a GREAT time with Gammy and Gampy, getting very spoiled!    I don't think she will want to come home!  Anthony and I are doing well too.  I am very ready to go home and ready to meet the challenges that will be coming.  We are just so thankful for our healthy little girl and that my c-section went well, without any complications.  Thank you everything for your thoughts and prayers!  I will do my best to keep this blog updated with the newest milestones of Gianna and Isabella!  And, of course, more pictures.

I should also include some things Isabella is up to these days.  She continues to make us laugh and is always learning something new.  It is amazing how fast children grow up and learn things.  I have to brag a little and say that Isabella can now say her vowels.  She also likes to sing along to the ABC song.  She has started to repeat things everyone says.  So, we need to be careful the things we say.  We have had a fun summer and are sad that it is coming to an end.  We spent a lot of it at the neighborhood pool and just playing outside. 

Enjoy the pictures below!

Gianna just seconds old with Mommy & Daddy

Isabella and Gianna

Gianna Day #2

Happy Birthday to Isabella!

Today is Isabella's 2nd birthday!!! Wow has the time gone by fast! This past Saturday, we had an Elmo themed birthday party for her with family and some little neighborhood friends. It was really cute how excited she got when her friends started arriving! She also thought she was pretty special when everyone started singing "Happy Birthday" to her and was excited to blow out the candle on her cupcake. We are very thankful for our family and friends that helped make her day special!

This cupcake is YUMMY!! Can I have some more?

Singing "Happy Birthday"!

Eating lunch with the girlfriends......and cousin Jackson. :)

Opening presents with Maddie and Ellie!

The Joys Of A Child

Most days, don't you wish you could go back in time to when you were a child? They get so much joy out of the most simple things in life. This video I posted shows just a bit of the joy Isabella had on this day after buying her this little slide. She has probably gone up and down the thing 1000 times! We all need to remember to find joy in our everyday lives....even from the simplest things.

July 4th Weekend

Our 4th of July weekend was a nice weekend. We enjoyed have a very relaxing weekend together. On Sunday, we participated in our neighborhood's annual "bike" parade. So, Isabella got an early birthday present, a wagon, so that we could decorate it and then she could ride in that for the parade! She loved it!! As you can see in the picture, she rode in style. Complete with her snacks and drinks in the cup holders! We thought the day was going to be rainy and cold, but it ended up warming up and the sun came out for awhile. So, we went to our neighborhood pool with Gammy, Gampy, U. Nicholas, A. Amy, and some family friends. There we BBQ'd and had lots of yummy things to eat! Isabella also got some pool time in with Daddy!

Unfortunately, we didn't see any fireworks. The rest of the afternoon and evening ended up being a very, very rainy one. We even had some pea sized hail to start it off! The rain caused some places to cancel their firework shows for the evening! We had a great day in spite of the weather spending time with good friends and family!

Starting the day doing a little coloring.

She's ready to go to the parade! With her breakfast in hand.

Isabella loved going around to all of the dogs before the parade started. This dog got a good taste of her!! That was probably the highlight of her day!

Hot Fun in the Summertime

We have been having a pretty busy summer so far. It has been a pretty hot one to! Last week we went to a park nearby that has a little farm where you can pet the animals and it also had a little train you could ride. It is a huge park and there was many more things to do there, but we went just to play and see the animals and take a ride on the train. We went with Aunt Jill, Jackson and Gammy. It was a HOT but fun morning! We will definitely make a trip back there, because Isabella and Jackson loved riding on the train so much, they cried when we had to get off. They just didn't understand that you only get to go around once.

The very last picture I posted is Isabella laying in the baby bassinet. Yes, she can still fit into it! She loved playing in it and was even acting like she was sleeping. It was pretty funny


At the end of the train ride....the kids were still upset they had to get off.

Getting ready to go!

The train

Isabella petting the sheep.

Isabella touching the pigs nose!

Jackson and Isabella petting the cow.

Getting ready to go down the curly slide!

I love the baby bassinet....not sure if I'm going to share it or not!

2 1/2 Months and Counting

Here are some pictures from one of the first day's at the pool for the summer! Yeah! It is finally summer!! Isabella loves the pool, but this year she wants to be in the big pool as well as the baby pool. They also have little slides to play on too. She loves the slides! We have our work cut out for us this year. :)

As I write this blog today I am about 30 weeks along in this pregnancy. I am counting down the weeks too!! Last week we had another follow-up doctors appointment. This time I had to drink the very sweet orange drink to test for gestational diabetes again. Thankfully I tested negative. We also had another ultrasound just to check the growth of "baby sister". It was in the 3rd trimester when the doctors started noticing that Isabella was not growing as she should. This baby seems to be at "normal" size at this time. She is already about 10% bigger than Isabella was at this time. So, that was somewhat a relief. I'm kind of anxious to know what it will be like to have a "normal" sized baby to hold and haul around. It will be quite different I am sure. Isabella is still just a little peanut, but can sure get around ok. As I've said many times, she is small but mighty!! She also is saying so many more words and picks up on everything. She likes to count the stairs as she goes down them. Today, she wanted to be a big girl and didn't want help getting into the car and carseat. That is good for me, because I will need her help once "baby sister" is born. We have decided and already scheduled another c-section for August 17th. So that will be the day, unless "baby sister" decides to join the world before that.

Fun Times in Peoria

On April 30th, Isabella and I flew to Peoria with Grandma H. We were lucky enough to spend 2 weeks there after having my Mom (Grandma H.) with us for 10 days before. Isabella really enjoyed her time with her as I'm sure Mom loved seeing Isabella everyday! Luckily we had some nice days to play outside. Isabella loved playing and riding in the wagons at Grandma's house. She especially liked to pull "Puppy"and "Polly" around the driveway.

We also got to spend time visiting my Dad (Grandpa H.) and all of Isabella's aunt, uncles, and cousins. Unfortunately, Isabella is at the stage where she is acting very shy around all of new people and didn't want to leave my side. If she was around them long enough, she would eventually warm to them.

It has been fun to see how much Isabella is learning over the past month. Children really do learn so much so quickly! She can now count to 10 and the words in her vocabulary are always expanding. Just when you think she wouldn't or doesn't understand something....she somehow shows us that she did in fact get it!! I still don't think that she understands a new little baby will be joining us in a couple of more months though.

It is still hard to get a good picture of Isabella. She is always on the move and doesn't like getting her picture taken. So, here are some that I took while in Peoria.


Mother's Day!

Taking a ride in the big wagon.

Sitting in the little wagon.

Taking "Polly" and "puppy" for a ride.

Isabella loves to get the mail!