She Cleans up Well

Not all families look alike

You'll love this one, especially all of you fellow animal lovers!

Swimming

All of a sudden this summer, Ellie could swim. And boy does she SWIM. She is definitely following in Sasha's footsteps/swimstrokes! She's even doing the backstroke! I mean really!

VICIOUS!

Don't ask. Don't tell.

You never saw this picture and if you ever mention it to Dudley, he will deny it.

Strike a Pose

Shopping buddy

Buying a new house means buying lots of new stuff to go in said new house. (shhhhh....don't tell Matt). Eliana was frequently my shopping buddy. Not so much anymore because that kid has learned how to push my buttons!

I guess 3 is a crowd.

For those of you who know me well, you know there was quite a long time when I wanted another baby. I REEEEEALLLY wanted another baby. Now...not so much. Matt works too much and has so much school work that I truly am a married single mom right now. I barely have time for myself. Even when both girls are in school, I'm running errands, cleaning the house or dealing with another home repair. Sometimes, I do go the bathroom, too! I actually had a day to myself the other day and it was soooooo nice to just come home and do nothing. Scratch that. I mean I did nothing AFTER I put away the groceries I had just gotten, folded and put away laundry and unloaded and loaded the dishwasher. The few hours I had after that ROCKED!

Besides, if we had a third kid, we'd have to get a third dog so he/she could rub its belly.

Elephant Mom

What good are kids for if they can't make fun art projects for mom?

We try to get a lot of beauty sleep in this house...

Gardening

Our new yard is gorgeous but not picture perfect and I absolutely LOVE it! The girls have a great section of dirt to dig in and then I'm strangely gratified by being able to HOSE THEM DOWN!

She Works Hard for her Money

Gracie is a really hard worker.

She helps clean the sofas:

She helps fold laundry:

She helps to recycle:

She even keeps your head warm when she wants to:

Harry Potter

The newest addition to Universal Studios, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, opened this summer and Matt was invited to a VIP opening event. I was, still am actually, a huge fan of the books and couldn't wait to see the new area. It was awesome, just like what you imagine in the books (I'm not a fan of the movies and have only seen 2 of them). Unfortunately, during the ride, I got quite nauseous and had to close my eyes. The peeks I took made me believe that it was an amazing ride. We were there pretty late and the crowd was significantly smaller. While Matt and I were waiting in line for the Wand experience when what to my wondering eyes should appear but...HARRY POTTER (Daniel Radcliffe) and his gaggle of friends! Really he walked just a few feet in front of me and in true Kristi fashion, I just watched him walk by.

I did however, get to meet Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), well, I got my picture taken with him at least.

Wedding Reception

Pictures from the Wedding Reception we attended in Pittsburgh. Notice how there are no pictures of Sasha? She immediately made some friends and left us. She was covered in dirt and mud by the end of the party but she had a blast.

Breaking News

Eliana K Pierces Ears!

No really, she did. Sasha wanted to change her earrings and as we were doing it, Eliana said, "I want a pair". We explained to her that she had to get her ears pierced if she wanted to wear earrings. She said, "I want my ears pierced". Sasha and I didn't believe it and double checked with her a few times. We made sure she knew that it would hurt like a shot. Don't even remind me about the time we tried to get her second flu shot. She was one of THOSE KIDS. Anyway, I called her pediatrician and begged for an immediate appointment because we all know that a girl, especially a 3 year old girl, has a right to change her mind.

We got an appointment only an hour from my call which was perfect. The doctor pierced her first ear and she became one of THOSE KIDS. She screamed and wouldn't let anyone touch her other ear. I thought we were a failure but the wonderful wonderful pediatrician distracted her enough to stop the crying and we quickly did the 2nd ear before she realized what was happening. I know, call the authorities, I'm so mean!

Family

How awesome was it that all but one of my Nanny's kids came to my parents house for a picnic. We had a GREAT time together. My Uncle Ricky and Aunt Cheri are in the back. Front row: My mom, my Nanny and my Aunt Deb.

Pools Really do ROCK

As I mentioned in my post "9 Things I Learned on my Blogging Vacation", pools ROCK. Really, swimming is the perfect exercise for Sasha and both she and Eliana are already expert swimmers.


Is there anything quieter..ahem...I mean CUTER than sleeping kids?

Prince(ss) Dudley

Princess Grace

A True Beauty

A few months ago, we signed Eliana up with a local talent agency. She is beautiful and she is a ham. We thought we'd give it a try and see how she liked it. No pressure. This agency just keeps Eliana's pictures and video with her profile in a database. Companies then come to them and search their database. She had only been active for a few weeks when we got and email that Disney Floral wanted to use her for their Princess Gifts on their website! Can you say 'perfect opportunity'?

She ROCKED that photoshoot. My little beauty posed over and over and over again for about 2 hours. They loved her and I was so proud of her! Here she is in her modeling debut. There was nothing in that box but a small light. They instructed her to act surprised when she looked into it. Didn't she look so surprised?

The production company was so sweet and brought Cinderella up to meet Eliana. The look on Ellie's face when she saw her brought tears to my eyes. Cinderella talked to her for about 30 minutes and they took lots of pictures. They sent us two of them AUTOGRAPHED by Miss Cinderella herself!

After the shoot, we went to lunch before heading home. She's still a 3 year old and even threw a fit in the cafe to prove it!

It's hard work being beautiful.


They loved her so much that they asked her back to be the model on their delivery vans. Sadly, her agent didn't like the fee they were paying (don't get me started) and we didn't do the shoot.

Sleeping Cuties

Andrea (can you believe I used to babysit her and now she's a Mommy, too!) with her son, Brace (born one day after Eliana). They chose to do their 3 year old thing before the wedding reception: play hard all morning, refuse to nap despite how tired we are, and then fall asleep on the way to the reception.

Awwwwww...

This picture really brings tears to my eyes. It's just perfect. Sasha and Eliana really are best friends. Sure, they fight and boy can Eliana push Sasha's buttons, but they love each other and it's so obvious.

The Old Alma Mater

A young, old family friend of ours got married and the girls and I went to the reception. We went just outside of Pittsburgh. We flew up late Friday night but the reception wasn't until Saturday afternoon so I took the girls to Pitt, my college. I hadn't been back there since 1997 when Matt and I went up to visit my BFF Laura Jill Steinig who was in grad school.

As I drove up to the campus, which really isn't a campus but just a small suburb of Pittsburgh, Oakland, I started bouncing in my seat. Sasha laughed at me and said, "Mom, you are acting like a kid".

I kept calling Laura. After all, those were the best days of our lives. They were the most fun, anyway! Neither of us believed it when I found our first off-campus house STILL STANDING!

And so was the stinky "Meat Market" next door. Shuddered then, shuddered now!

After just one semester, Laura and I were ready to move out of a house full of 5 girls. FIVE GIRLS...ONE, yes ONE BATHROOM. We moved into a cute little place reminiscent of Melrose Place and despite the disarray of the landscaping, it too was still standing!

It was so great to show the girls all of our old haunts. It was too bad that I wasn't there for a full day of meals because Pamela's was still there! Matt (when he flew up on the weekends), Laura and I used to eat breakfast there every Sunday. Banana Walnut Waffles WITH whipped cream. Thank you!

Next stop, the Beehive, and uber cool coffehouse/concert---whoa what's that? It's now a FREAKING T-MOBILE STORE!!?? So sad. So sad.

And then, Five Guys? FIVE? GUYS? It used to be Zeldas. Zeldas was a bar I went to ahemmyfreshmanyearahem. We had GREAT TIMES there. It was the last time I saw Matt as a Pitt student before he transferred to Uinversity of Maryland. Free food, dancing, nickel beers. We had a blast there and I'm sad to see it go, although I'm sure the health department may have had something to do with closing it down.

The COOLEST CLASSROOM EVER! The Coolest girls!

ROOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!! Pitt Panthers!

The best part of the visit was our lunch at The Original Hot Dog Shop. The O. The O sold gigantic pizzas for like $3 24/7 but you just couldn't beat the fries. The fries were sold by the...pile. With a little cheese and gravy for dipping, it was easy to add the Freshman/Sophomore/Junior/Senior 15! Yes, they still tasted as good as ever and I still dipped the gravy and THEN THE cheese! And if my gravy gets in your cheese, well TOO BAD!