The Last Four Weeks.......

have flown by. I cannot believe that summer is almost over!

September 12th marked our 29th wedding anniversary. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been married that long but in some ways it feels like forever. We’ve been together since we were 16 years old which means ¾ of our lives! I sometimes look at Danny and remember the first time that I ever saw him pulling up in front of my house for our first (blind) date and remembering what that was like for me. He was the first person that I dated that had a car and a job….lol. I remember how scared we both were when we found out that I was pregnant. We had no business being parents at 17 years old and then again at 19, that’s for sure! My kids lives were a whirlwind of both of us trying to grow up and raise two kids the best we could with what we had. We made a lot of mistakes and probably now, look back and wish sometimes that we could do it all over again but it all worked out pretty well somehow. Looking back, I can’t believe we actually pulled it off!
I could never have imagined (in a MILLION years!) that we would be where we are today. I think about the same thing sometimes when I look at my family and especially the grandkids……I never could have imagined that we’d be so lucky to have such a grounded and close family with good morals and values. They are all great parents and hold staying close as a family, very important. What more can anyone ask for really? In my opinion, nothing!

Okay…..now for other updates:

Nolan is growing and changing every day. He’s already smiling (not gas smiles) and looks EXACTLY like his daddy when he smiles. Same dimple, same smile. He seems to be settling in pretty well and unlike his sister, has gotten used to a lot of noise pretty quickly. He loves being held and really loves his mother right now since she’s always got what he’s looking for. It’s pretty funny to see that he and Avery really don’t look anything alike (at least not right now). I guess we’ll see if that changes in the future.


Petros recently spent a night with us before preschool started for him. We had plans to go out to iHop for breakfast so that Petros could get some of those great looking strawberry topped pancakes with the whipped cream on top! He was so excited to go…… He woke us up (by jumping on the bed) at 6:20 and loudly announcing that it was 6:00 and time to get up. We were going to iHop!! He loved his pancakes and sausage but noticed on the way out that iHop had pumpkin pancakes!! Petros LOVES anything pumpkin L - Looks like we’ll have to take another trip back to sample the pumpkin pancakes soon. He is doing well in preschool and has been a really big help to the teachers and other classmates by helping some of the younger or newer kids with tasks that Petros already knows how to do. I think that he’s starting to figure out that school is going to be a permanent thing for him. He likes it but I think he’d be much more content staying home. After a long weekend, he’s finding excuses not to have to return to school this week. I’m sure that’ll change as time goes on and he gets into more of a routine.


Avery is continuing to adjust to life sharing everyone’s attention with Nolan. She loves her brother though and gives him hugs and kisses (while gritting her teeth) all of the time. She also spent the night with Nana and Papa recently and did a lot better than last time (only up until 9:00 pm instead of 10:30). She’s so smart and is now putting long sentences together. It’s amazing how quickly she has gone from being what we considered to be a baby, into a little girl. She plays very well by herself, which is a huge help to Melissa and Gavin when they need to take care of Nolan. Avery will turn 2 on September 26th! I cannot believe how fast time has flown. It feels like Petros and Avery have been with us for a looooonnnnngggg time.


We welcomed yet another baby into the family only 4 days after Nolan came along. Maya Isabelle was born on 8/13/09 weighing in at a healthy 9 lbs. 11 oz. – Stephen and Maggie are thrilled. She looks just like her father. We are all very happy for them. It’ll be interesting to see Stephen experiencing life with a little girl.

We took on an enormous weekend project of turning our office into the kids play room a couple of weeks ago! It’s amazing that an entire room was painted, a hardwood floor put in (thanks with a LOT of help from our son, Dan) and cubbies and walls were decorated in less than one week! The kids all love the room and it helps with toys being scattered throughout the house.

Life is busy and not always perfect.......but really good!!