Yesterday we celebrated Francesca’s second birthday.  She had lots of fun.  My friend Beth took her and the boys so I could bake her cake (pink and purple at her request) and finish shopping and wrapping her gifts.  She was thrilled to come home to pizza in the oven and a pink cake being baked.  We ate dinner late and had her cake (it was a red velvet cake recipe that I used oink food coloring in with purple cream cheese frosting).  After cake was time for presents.  The boys were very willing to help her open them…  Luckily they backed off (a little).  She loved all her gifts, especially her Disney Princess nightgown and Strawberry Shortcake lip balm.

I can’t believe she’s not the baby anymore.  She is really a little girl now.  Between the way she totes around her baby dolls, walks around with her shopping cart and applies her lip balm (50 times a minute), she’s already growing up!  I think Vince is choked up by it a little more than me though.  I can’t wait until she’s a little older and we can start doing more mother-daughter things together, but Vince knows the more she grows the more we’ll have to worry about!

HAPPY SECOND BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!

Well, we’ve made it through five whole weeks of being a family of SIX.  I won’t lie… it’s CRAZY.  We’re loving it though.  It is so amazing how fast it goes by too.

So now for the updates…

Mikaela is doing well.  She’s already growing and changing so much.  She looks just like Andrew!  Her days are still pretty full of sleeping, eating and pooping, fun!  Although, she is having more alert times each day.

Francesca is still in love with her baby sister and doesn’t understand why she can’t walk around holding her like mommy does.  She’s very excited about her birthday tomorrow and had NO problem pointing out all the things she’d like as presents for her happy birthday!  I’m pretty sure she’s also cutting a tooth (the irritable whiny-ness kind of gives it away).  Last week she started the stomach-bug that ripped through the family (thanks for sharing that one!), but she pulled through like a trooper.

Andrew is doing great, you’d be amazed at how much he’s talking and how clear he’s starting to get.  He shocked Uncle Dave last week when he got “THE bug”, he was very good at running to the potty when he felt like he was gonna throw-up, sorry, I know it’s gross but it really was kind of cute at the same time.  Oh, and he’s not Andrew any more, he’s Superman (and he’s not shy about letting you know).  Aunt Laura gave him really cool Superman pj’s (which of course Evan promptly “borrowed”) that even had a cape!  Andrew’s been really great about sharing with his big brother though, he is such a sweet little tough guy!

Evan is, well, Evan.  Vince and I have really been trying to work with him and teach him how to show a little more self-control.  He gets frustrated so easily and we’re trying to get him to push through it.  His Sparks teacher told us she’s seeing him improve each week so we’re hanging in there.  On a more positive note he’s been doing good about helping us more.  Once he’s on task he does really well helping Vince clean up after dinner and he’s even started picking up his room pretty good.

Vince and I are doing good too.  We spent this afternoon doing some “spring cleaning”.  Vince worked on getting the garage done (he’s itching to work on the bike) and I worked in the craft room (it’s been too long since I’ve had a chance to play).  I’ve been pretty lucky since Vince has been doing breakfast duty with the “big” kids to give me a little extra sleep in the mornings.  Mikaela will usually sleep a little bit to give me a chance to wake up before attending to her so hopefully in the next couple of weeks I can get back to a routine with the kids.  We’re so thankful that Vince’s job allows to work from home, it’s been such a blessing.  I made my first drive to NY/NJ with all four kiddies by myself last week.  I did it!  I only had to stop once to feed Mikaela and the other three were snoozing so it was pretty easy.  We spent a few days with Laurie and Dave before heading to NY for her shower and then we spent a couple more days in NJ before heading home.  The worse part of it was how everyone got sick (the gift that keeps on giving).  It was great to get a chance to stay with Laurie though.  She’s gonna be a great Momma!  I can’t wait for my little nephew to get here!

Well, that about brings you current!  I know you want me to post more, but I really can’t make any promises.  Besides, I can only type so fast with one hand (Mikaela is usually eating while I’m at the computer).