Splish, Splash!!

Merry Christmas! (...again!)

We all ventured to Marathon for the first time yesterday to celebrate Christmas with the whole Contri family. Here is our first picture with Grampie and Grammie and the three kids! With Uncle Josh's return from Afghanistan, Dustin and Nikki made a sign from all the kids to put at Darci and Josh's. Here is my first attempt at getting everyone in the same shot...but I cut off the sign...
Here is attempt #2...even though everyone isn't looking...oh well!!
Just Grampie and the boys Grampie's little buddy for the day...
Uncle Josh finally unplugging the patriotic lights :) Welcome home!
One last pic with the twins :) Merry Christmas!!

Look at my tongue...

...it's the same color as my outfit!! I planned it!

With gratitude...

When I started to blog Francesca's life almost 2 years ago, I did it to share as much as I could with friends and family about all the little and big things that this little miracle brought to our lives. Some days the posts were probably silly but others heartfelt and moving. At the same time, I became an instant follower of friends' blogs and subsequently friends' friends' blogs. Ultimately, it led to me reading about people I didn't know that well or even at all but I began to learn about them and their families, share experiences with and appreciate the moments they wrote about. Yesterday, I learned that the family of one of the recent blogs I have been following lost their son (who had been diagnosed early in the pregnancy with a chromosomal defect) after he had been with them for just one hour. I pray for little Jeremiah Parker Shelby to watch over and give strength to his family and friends as they try to move on without him. This experience with strangers has made me even more grateful for every second I spend with my kids, and I assure you I held all of my babies a little tighter yesterday.

"There is no footprint too small that it cannot leave an imprint on this world."

Happy New Year!!

What a year it has been already! We celebrated New Year's Eve with quite a bit of snow falling and therefore, we stayed in (ha! ...like we really were going to go out anyway!). For dessert, Francesca and Daddy decided we needed birthday cake to wish the "new year" a happy birthday (I think we started a new tradition)! Francesca picked out a candle for everyone (In case you were wondering, she was blue, daddy was green, mama was white, tj was yellow and ella was pink.) We then proceeded to sing happy birthday and blow out the candles at least three times. She also did quite a bit of her own sampling along the way. After cake, one by one we all tuckered out. TJ woke up around 11:15 to eat, and Brian and I stayed up to ring in the new year...even though TJ had fallen back asleep in my arms. At 11:58pm, a cry from upstairs reminded us that Francesca wanted to be a part of the countdown too (just like last year!). She wasn't up for long, but the good news is that it meant a three hour nap today with baby. What an angel!! We wish everyone a happy and healthy 2009!!