Our Fun and Busy Week

This passed week was full of fun happenings. On Monday, Adriana turned 10 months old! It's so hard to believe! She is crawling like a speed demon around the house. She is pulling up on everything and loves table food. She is saying her first words "Dada," "Mama" and "Baba" (for Gabby). About 6 months ago, we noticed that Gabby had two nicknames for Adriana - "Adriani" (she has called her this since Adriana was days old) and a new one, "Baba." It looks like Adriana has picked up on "Baba" and now uses it to call Gabby. It's really adorable.

Adriana loves to crawl and climb on Gabby and Gabby loves it. They sort of wrestle on the carpet together. It never really gets out of hand. We hear all sorts of laughing and squealing when they do this - really funny! They are already becoming very close.

I love the look on Adriana's face. Priceless!

About to take off!

***

Tuesday was Gabby's first day of preschool. She will go two full days each week. She was so glad to return to her school and see her friends. They spent an hour that morning at the local wading pool so she had a great first day back. We still can't believe she's an official preschooler.

Her cool new backpack! She loves it and carries it around all the time.

Adriana wasn't excited for the early morning photo shoot.

***

On Saturday, we headed to Manhattan to visit family. Daddy was with friends for the weekend on a "Guys Trip" so the ladies loaded the car and headed West. We spent the afternoon with Nana doing fun indoors and outdoors activities and then Gabby and I went to one of my friend's wedding in the evening.

Art project time with Nana.

Having fun with the hose. Gabby watered Nana's flowers and garden and hosed Nana, too. Gabby enjoyed playing with the water on such a hot day!

Look who caught the bouquet at the wedding....

That's right....Gabriella! With a little help from the other bachelorettes and the bride, Gabby walked away with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Let's hope she isn't the next to marry. We certainly aren't ready for that one. Mommy and Daddy are having a hard enough time adjusting to the fact she is in preschool! But in all seriousness, Gabby loves princesses, weddings and all that goes along with it. We think it's the Disney influence because we don't really talk to her about such things. It's safe to say she is all GIRL... she loves dresses, painted fingernails and toenails, jewelry, hair bows, etc. She is a lot of fun! (Sorry about the picture's quality - I took it with my Blackberry.)

***

On Sunday, Grandpa brought us to the Country Club for lunch. David arrived in town in the early afternoon so the girls, David and Grandpa swam in the pool for a little bit. It was another hot day!

Daddy and Adriana.

Gabby and Grandpa.

Our Visit to Hutch!

On Saturday we made the spontaneous decision during lunch to drive to Hutchinson, Kansas to visit Uncle Tommy and Aunt Danielle. After the girls woke up from their naps we hit the road and about 3 hours later we were there. We are so happy we made the quick decision to go because we had a great time!

About 2 months ago, after completing his master's degree, Uncle Tommy began his first full-time coaching job with the Hutch Community College Football Program as the assistant coach of quarterbacks and wide receivers. We are so excited for him and looking forward to the football season. After dinner on Saturday, they brought us to HCC to see the football facilities.

Go Blue Dragons!

The girls with "Unc" in his office.

Gabby sporting a Hutch jersey and indicating "Number 1!"

Aren't they the cutest female football players you've ever seen?!

They loved playing around on the field. We took Gabby's photo on the "G" in the "Blue Dragon" end zone and Adriana's on the "A."

The stands and press box.

On the 50 yard line sitting on the "H."

Family photo outside of the stadium.

On Sunday we visited Hutch's zoo. It only took us an hour to walk through and the girls enjoyed seeing the animals. It was another hot day but we still had a fun time.

Checking out the animals.

Gabby walking with some geese.

"Looking" for dinosaur fossils.

"Milking" a cow. Actually, it was a cow statue with water in the utters but it was still fun for Gabby and the adults.

Adriana liked watching the reptiles.

Uncle Tommy and Aunt Danielle, thanks for a fun time in Hutch! We can't wait to visit again and attend football games this fall!

Florida - Take 2!

We had so much fun in Florida a few weeks ago, we decided to go again - one month later! The girls and I headed to Sunny Florida last Wednesday. I thought we could go down again and enjoy our last days of summer before school starts. David is also in an intense 4 week MBA class so I thought we'd get out of his way for a little so he could concentrate on his school work.

The girls did a great job traveling. The hardest part in my opinion is getting through security so when that's over the rest feels like a breeze! We spent the week playing in the pool and sun, shopping and hanging out. Here a few photos from our latest Floridian getaway:

Gabriella got her first manicure and pedicure...well, you could call it her first professional nail painting at a salon. She loved the entire experience (the nail dryer was a real treat) and of course picked out her favorite color to sport on her nails - purple!

Adriana is all over the place now. She loves crawling and exploring. Her new found freedom has her on the move. She loved cruising around Nonna & G-Pa's house. They have huge sliding glass doors and windows out to their pool and she loved staring and squealing at Yogi through them.

We spent some time at the beach one evening. It was a very quiet and peaceful time of day. The girls loved it.

Love the look on her face!

Gabby playing in the sand.

Some pelicans were feeding on the shore and I was able to get up close to them and get a few photos.

We visited the water park twice this time. It's a favorite! The girls love this place!

We had a great time with Nonna & G-Pa. We can't wait to visit again! We love you and miss you!

Adriana is 9 months & Gabriella's BLING!

It's hard to believe that Adriana turned 9 months recently. She is quite a busy baby. She is moving around and crawling all over the floor. She is babbling and saying "MaMa" and "DaDa" all the time. It's so adorable! She's also eating quite a bit of table food. Here are few recent photos of her:

Cheering on Gabby at her last soccer camp.

So excited about bananas and chicken!

******

Today was an exciting day for Gabriella. She got her ears pierced (finally)! I have wanted this to happen for a few years now, but David has been hesitant, and out of respect, I haven't really pushed the issue, but Gabby has! She has talked about having "ears pierced" (which means earrings) for months. This weekend she kept asking if she could get "ears pierced." She notices everyone's earrings. So, on Sunday David said he was ok with it. So, I called our doctor's office yesterday and they had an opening today so I scheduled her ear piercing.

Gabby has been so excited for this moment. Our doctor's office was really good about easing the pain. They gave me numbing cream to apply to her ear lobes an hour before her appointment. While the doctor pierced, a technician applied cool air to the ear so minimize the burning sensation. They were also really good about staying positive and making it fun. Gabby really didn't need any of that because she was bursting at the seams to get these holes in her ears.

The technician applying the cool air on Gabby so she could get an idea of what she would be doing. Gabby laughed really hard and thought it was a cool "toy."

Ta Da! She was a rock star! No tears and no fuss! She did great and they look beautiful! She is so excited about her "ears pierced!" The doctor and nurses were so impressed with how well she handled everything. We are, too!

She couldn't stop smiling or looking in the mirror all evening. She loves her "ears pierced."

Our Two Little Firecrackers!

Happy Birthday, U.S.A.! We had a great 4th of July celebrating this weekend. The girls sported their patriotic dresses on Sunday. They were pretty cute!

Screaming at each other. At this age, it's their way to show affection and laugh. At some point in their lives it won't always be so nice. There may be tears involved. But for now, it's pretty funny to watch and enjoy.

Gabby crawling with Adriana.

Cheese!

Despite a rainy and dreary day, we spent some time in the evening enjoying sparklers, snakes and other fun fireworks. Due to the rain, we didn't attend any fireworks shows at night. Hopefully, the weather will be better next year.

Smoke bombs!

******

On Saturday, we had friends for a cookout. It was wet and rainy so we brought the picnic inside for the kids. They were so cute!

Before the Tadtmans left to go home, we got some photos of Gabby, Colten and Aubrey together. They were all in their pajamas. Gabby of course chose to wear flannel Elmo Christmas ones. I forgot to take them out of her drawer with the rest of her winter clothes so they were fair game.