I’m a little behind., BUT if you’re a client of mine, that’s because I’ve been working over time on client work/projects.

Christmas this year was my most favorite Christmas EVER! This was the first year Sunny really “got” the whole Santa thing. She sang every song & knows every word.

She was ready for Santa- her cookies, her list, her fireplace, her spirit.- she was SOOOOOO ready for Christmas this year.

My parents came up, as they always do. We had the Willoughby traditional meat fondue Christmas Eve and then we packed up the babies and headed to a candle light mass at a new to us Church in town. I couldn’t help but cry during Silent Night while holding my babies and candles and parents and husband, praying for families not as fortunate as ours. But like most prayer I prayed for us too- does everyone do that? It goes a little something like, Dear God please help so and so and so and so and so and so and thank you for my family and my babies and keep us healthy and the list goes on.

 Back at the ranch, Santa stayed up until 3:30am putting together the gifts that this little elf mulled over night after night after night. (The same gifts that this little elf (me) had a literal- meltdown in the aisle of Toys R Us, there was crying- lots of crying. How are you out of bikes? You Mother F—ers.)

Anyhow I was up at 5:30 am ready and armed with two cameras, only to be greeted downstairs by my Dad who apparently also couldn’t wait for Christmas morning, then my Mom.

The three of us sat there like stalkers waiting for Sunny to wake up.

FINALLY at 8:30 am she made her way down the stairs only to look at our newly rearranged living room like this…

She. Is. Priceless.

Later my brother and Jazzy came over with Jazzy’s full family and we celebrated some more in what I like to refer to as, Christmas, Round II.

There was singing. Don’t believe me? Please see below.

There was hugs and love and laughter and dancing.

Our first year in our new house with our big family and our new baby and our big girl- wishes come true and dreams become reality and I wish I could. Just. Stop. Time.

I do not know what I will do when my babies aren’t babies any more, but I’m loving the hell out of my babies being babies right now. I’m loving the hell out of them.

Read More...

Read More...

Is it already Thursday? Is it already the middle of August? Ugh. I knew this would happen once Saint got here!

Time is slipping through the cracks, speeding up, stealing my babies babyhood. Don’t believe me?

Case in point.

She looks at lest 5 years old in that photo, from our trip to the zoo yesterday. And let’s not forget my other not- so- newborn

It’s like they enjoy growing up!

Well, at least one of them enjoys it. My sainted boy, he’ll stick with me a little bit longer.

This was our first weekend alone. We’ve had both sets of Grandparents ( Grand Parents) here visiting Saint. It was glorious to have our little family in our new house all to ourselves…but we miss the help, company, and love our family brought with them.

My friend Susan gave Saint the Boppy pillow, pictured below, to help him work on tummy time and so far he likes to use it as a napping pillow.

 That might be the downfall to having such a calm baby- he tends to fall asleep anywhere,  and “goals” like neck muscles aren’t so important to him. He’s so not his sister, Miss Achievement. Here she is in her “princess” dress, ruling her  backyard castle.

I’m not sure about this next photo. A sane person would only post good pictures of themselves- I think we can agree I’m not so sane these days.

***Opps! Forgot to post this one from Memorial Day Weekend….****

It was a hectic holiday weekend. We boxed, repaired, and painted.

Sunny helped.

It’s likely inappropriate to post a photo of your childs’ rear end- but  she has my favorite little tushy butt.

It took 5 movers, one husband, one 2 year old, one super duper awesome Mama (my mama), one creative brother, one amazingly kind and sweet and patient brother-in-law ( who took Sunny swimming for the day), and a giant 8 months pregnant lady ( that’s me), but we’re moved.

We’re moved. We’re moved in. We’re thrilled. We’re in love. We’re grateful.

I promise a longer post with pictures, but for now here’s the update. Sunny has fallen down the stairs twice. We make her wear a helmet now- this is what she thought of that idea.

We purchased our first lawnmower! I’m pretty sure that makes us true blue suburbanites. How long do you think it will be before we hire a lawn company?

My Mom left yesterday- I’m not sure why she left. I, we, begged her to stay. We like to call her Alice and watch as she unpacked us, fed us, cleaned everything we own. Sunny doesn’t understand where Nana has gone. Explaining it over and over is not helping my mental state. Truth be told I think she needed a break from us, all of us, but she’ll be back in a few weeks for the birth of baby #2, so enjoy your time off  Alice.

As far as me- I’m gi-normous and tired. But the push to get work completed, babies rooms painted, and home life settled is feeding me an endless stream of energy.

And yes, this is my 8 month pic in the bathroom at Ikea. I’m very classy. VERY classy.

We’re over the moon, we’re walking on clouds grass. Actual grass. The kind they grow non-contaminated soil. But the best part is whenever I run an erron I can see the NYC skyline  just over the trees- a small reminder that we’re still and always will be from New York, concrete juggle where dreams are made of, there’s nothing you can’t do…..

Weekend update to come….

Hello there! We’re just getting back into the swing of things around here- which is why I won’t bore you with too many words.

I’m happy to report that my Sunshine girl was AMAZING with her grandparents, while we left her in South Carolina for a few days and headed further south to enjoy the wedding of a dear friend.

All that fun in the sun really took it out of my girl who now ask to go to Target everyday and for me to “buy her something”…Maybe Nana/Papa time wasn’t such a good idea after all? Sorry for the repeat of photos- but I can’t make this blog post do what I want it to do, so you’ll all just get the double helping of Willoughby Family Fun!

Here’s our family shot from Easter morning…

 I felt right at home with the whole “bunnies, chickens, eggs, new life theme of Easter at 6+ months pregnant.

 Below is Sunshine with my dog Dallas. He used to live with me, until he migrated south and now refuses to leave my parents home or side. He’s literally the only animal on the face of this Earth that I like. Not kidding, the only one.

When she would get sick of the pool we would take her to the beach. Here she is doing her best impression of a little girl who knows how to swim.

That whole running through the water bit will serve her well as a college student on spring break. Only I guess it will be weird for her given Matt and I will be close by to make sure she behaves herself. I really encourage co-dependant relationships.

What could be better than a little gray mouse on Halloween?

A little gray mouse who insist on wearing her Hello Kitty rain boots and holding a tooth brush.

And what goes awesome with a little boot wearing tooth brush holding gray mouse? A cat of course.

And what goes awesome with a little boot wearing tooth brush holding gray mouse and cat? Cheese of course.

Okay- it’s sad but I was in charge of getting Matt’s costume- this is all I came up with.

Sunny can’t let the Halloween spirit go. So now she walks around like this…

Hope your Halloween was just as exciting as ours.

This is sort of a Stephanieism- I use my husbands vacation days to plan family fun outings, like visiting a pumpkin farm on the first day of fall and picking pumpkins. Great idea, perfect day for it- too bad there were no pumpkins. I often visit a website or see a sign and only get half of the story. I google the NY aquarium and we go in the dead of winter- I might have looked more closely at their website were it tells you it’s an outdoor facility. Great.

So this weekend I google family pumpkin farm and we head 2 hours in one direction to pick pumpkins, er…ahhh…visit a petting zoo.

Here is my attempt at a Christmas card photo- of course it’s blurry!

It was a happy accident, a Stephanieism, my family adjusted and made the best of it. We’re a little team Matt, Sunny, and I.

A little team with big ideas  and big adventures. Maybe this is what Sunny will take away from being a member of this family- do what makes you happy, walk the way you’re pulled, and whatever you do only get half the story before storming the castle. And when people ask you were you get it from, tell ‘em, I get it from my Mama.