WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!

I was one year old last time the Phillies won the World Series in 1980. Now, in 2008, Brenna is one year old as the Phillies win again.

Last night was amazing. The city is going wild. I love Philadelphia!

Thank you, Phillies, for making this the most exciting October this city has seen in 28 years! The parade is tomorrow, Halloween, and it's going to be unbelievable.

WAY TO GO PHILLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the cutest school girl ever

I'm sorry for being so biased, but look at this school picture of my 16-month-old:

This is so getting hung up in our house.

Because I'm starting my own photography ventures (not to be judged by all the crappy photos I post on here), Brenna has only sat for another photographer one other time in her life. That was for last year's school pictures (at the old daycare).

If you remember that experience, you will understand my joy over this year's picture. Let me remind you...



Yikes.

As you can see, Brenna is much happier at her new daycare. She's also a much cuter child in general :).

Kidding, baby, you were always cute, but that was just one unfortunate day.

classy kids

My parents recently came home from a long weekend in Chatham, MA, where they attend the amazing wedding of their close friend's son. The bride's father actually lived on the Nantucket Sound.

Highlights from the wedding included the couple walking up the aisle to a huge gospel choir, cavair during cocktail hour, a huge band that came from New York, seals all over the beach that the brother-in-law (from PA, like us) joked were the favors, and the Cuban man that was rolling cigars on the premises for the guests!

They brought back Cape Cod sweatshirts for their grandchildren:

It's always such a joy taking a picture of the three of them together.

pick me a good one

Jamie thinks my last post has been there so long that it's clear I'll always remember (jerk), so I'm updating the blog in honor of him.

Here are pictures of Brenna copying her father.

Always Remember

God bless the victims and families of September 11, 2001.
We will always remember.

Congratulations!

Our hectic life recently has kept me from posting some very important congratulatory announcements.

1. First and foremost, the deepest, most heartfelt congratulations to my brother-in-law, Ryan, and his girlfriend of eight years, Courtney, who is now my future sister-in-law!!!! They got engaged in their hometown over Labor Day weekend, and we were all there to celebrate with them.

The day of the engagement was a beautiful day already. Brenna was playing on the swings, her cousins were running around the yard, and she was having a great time with her many uncles.

(Being lifted up by her grandfather's hand on the left and her great-grandfather's on the right.)

At one point, Courtney was playing in the yard with Brenna, and I said to Ryan, who we all knew was ready to propose in the near future, "Today would be a great day to do it..."

Courtney's family was there, his family was there; it was just a nice atmosphere. He smiled and said, "I know." I was so happy to hear he had been thinking the same thing!

Whispers between me and my mother-in-law (who had the same thoughts) continued, and Brenna even sent Ryan a note that said, "Dear Uncle Ryan, Please do it today! I love you, Brenna P.S. Labor Day weekend is very special. I was made on Labor Day weekend." Ryan laughed when he read Brenna's note.

A bit later, Ryan and Courtney were headed home to Courtney's parents' house to let the dog out, and as we saw Ryan shaking hands with Courtney's dad before they left, a few of us that saw it knew exactly what was happening. When they showed up back at Jamie's parents' house later, Courtney was wearing Jamie's grandmother's ring, and it was beautiful on her. I'm sure Pop will be happy to see his gorgeous wife's ring on Courtney's hand. (Pop, come up from Florida and visit us to see it! Or, even better, come up to live here again.)

They were so excited to announce that they were engaged! With Brenna when they came through the door...

We couldn't be more happy for them!

In the past week, Courtney has been on a mission. She asked Brenna to be her flower girl, me to be a bridesmaid, picked her colors (green and pink), and they chose a date (September 26, 2009) and location already! It is going to be awesome.

2. Another huge congratulations to my Aunt Mare, who has been named a Dean at her University this week! She is an inspiration to us all.

My aunt really is proof that it is possible to go from being at the bottom of the totem poll to a huge big-wig. If you are smart, work hard and are personable, the opportunities are endless.

3. Congrats to my cousin Danielle and her new fiance, Chris! They are having a celebration party in early October and will plan a wedding close to Ryan and Courtney's.

4. Meanwhile, Kelly began teaching her first huge college class as the main instructor (the students were like, "You are our teacher?") and handed in her first draft of her dissertation. Ian will see her this weekend - give her lots of hugs and kisses from us and the kids, Ian! Congrats, Kel!

5. Congratulations to Bobby for successfully not giving a crap that he was just put in daycare for the first time at 7.5 months. As long as someone is talking to him and feeding him, Bobby is content. He is the easiest baby in our family so far!

6. Good for Erin for returning to work for the first time in 8 months. I'd be crying, but she's smiling. Same goes for my friends ending their maternity leaves! Michelle already did and Andrea and Kelly and Jackie to come - it's hard.

7. We're very proud of Maura for being able to write her name at age three and a half. I wrote my name, too, and she said, "That's an M-E-G-H-A-N." She amazes me. She is transitioning well back into daycare as well, and despite her shyness around adults, she tells us that her old friends are fighting over who gets to play with her. We taught her to tell them that there is enough of her to go around. Just as long as she drops that mantra by high school, that is.

8. Congratulations to Kevin and Rose, both of whom started jobs in New Jersey - the new lawyer and the teacher. They are looking at houses now.

9. A big congrats to Sarah Palin for being selected as McCain's VP nominee. The family is very excited and we really enjoyed the RNC. My aunt just had a cute line about her new role as Dean, "You know the difference between a dean and a pitbull? Nothin', I don't wear lipstick." Haha, we're pulling for you, Palin!

10. Congrats to Brenna for doing so amazingly well at daycare. The transition these past few weeks has been a dream, and we couldn't be happier. She's happy, she loves her teacher, she loves her friends and the kids all really love her. The number of goodbyes and hugs she gets as we leave makes it all worth it. She is so excited to "talk" to me about it as we drive home, and she says, "Mommy," clearly now when I arrive to get her.

11. Congratulations to my cousin Ryan and Jaime, who are having a second baby!

12. Finally, I will give myself a pat on the back for being booked through mid-November with photoshoots! I have really been getting better with my love of photography, and working A LOT, which is why I'm falling behind on updating this blog. My portfolio building is finally going somewhere. I have been doing free or low-cost sessions, but as of November 1, I'm going to have make things more official. I'd share my shoots on this site, but I'm working on other side projects now. Basically, I'm just really happy with the direction my photography is going, and I'll continue to use this site to post snapshots and stories, but my portfolio building shoots will go in another format.

That's a lot of congratulations! It's been a fun, exciting time in our family!

teaching her about sports

Now that the Olympics are over, this week was full of athletic firsts for Brenna.

The doctor said she is 32.5 inches and 23 lbs. 13 oz., and she recently began wearing a size six shoe (which you can find in the children's section rather than the baby section at Target). So, we decided Brenna's big enough to start teaching her more about sports.

Yes, she already loves to dance, but she's not exactly full of grace. And, she loves to do somersaults, but considering she will probably be taller than the average gymnast when she's in fourth grade, we are focusing her attention elsewhere.

On the 24th, we went to Jamie's cousin Kayla's soccer game. Kayla and her family are from Long Island, but they traveled all the way to a field near us to play in a tournament. Maura came with us (she was so excited), and the girls had a ball watching the big girls play.

Ryan and Courtney were there, too!

Go, Kayla, go!

There were horses right next to Kayla's field.



After the game we all went to Red Robin before Mike and Kayla headed back to New York. Maura didn't say anything while we were there, but she couldn't stop talking about it when we left. Her first soccer game and her first trip to a Red Robin (that's where they took Mady on Jon and Kate Plus 8)! She gripped her Red Robin balloon all the way home. What a day.

On Thursday, Po decided to take us to see the Phillies Triple A team play a double header while Gram watched Bobby. The girls had a blast there, too. It might not have been the real Phillies, but it was Brenna's first real baseball game.

We broke her size 18-24 month jeans for the first time for the occassion. I thought she'd never be this big!




Hey, Aunt Kelly, we have Ian with us!

Brenna's favorite part of the game was the giant piggy bank. She'd run over to it the second we put her down - over and over and over again - she never tired of it.

If her first soccer and baseball game weren't enough, yesterday we took her to her first Fantasy Football draft party :).

Happy Labor Day weekend!

15-months-old

Brenna was 15-months-old on Saturday. She goes for her check-up tomorrow.

At 15 months, Brenna can run well. She can now come down the stairs on her backside (with us spotting her), and if we hold her hand, she can walk down the stairs holding onto the railing.

She loves to say, "No," to questions that she used to only have "Yeses" for. She talks non-stop, but most of it is gibberish, and we pretend she speaks Chinese. Her favorite words (in my opinion anyway) are, "Quack, quack = Qua, Qua", "Right back = Raa Bah!", "Hi = Haaaa!" and, "That = Dat." She says other words, especially the ones in the "b series" (bat, ball, bye, etc.), but these are used all the time.

She likes to bring us her diapers and throw them out, but she still hates to be changed. It sometimes requires a full pin down by two of us to get the job done.

She's obsessed with planes in the sky, and she loves to watch one episode of Jay, Jay the Jet Plane before bed each night.

We love when she gives us hugs and kisses without even asking for them, it shows how sweet she is! Sometimes she'll run back and forth between me and Jamie, hugging us and "mwah'ing" our legs.

She can point out her belly, hair, eyes, nose, ears, tongue, teeth and toes. She can pick out her dolls and stuffed animals by the names we have given them, and she loves to feed them, rock them and dance with them. She's so caring with them (they get tons of hugs and kisses); it's adorable.

She thinks brushing her teeth is awesome, and she prefers to do it in the tub. She also loves to splash and "swim" in the tub, and she uses her rinse cup to practice drinking out of a big girl cup with bath water.

She is starting to follow directions. She sits down when I tell her to (just like a dog), and she reaches up for me if I say, "Brenna, you have to hold my hand!" She can also help us pack the diaper bag before leaving the house. We send her to retrieve items she knows, like her shoes.

Her most favorite activity, besides going to the playground, is hiding from Daddy when he gets home from work. Every day we hide under a blanket and wait for Jamie. He pretends he can't find us, and every day she laughs and wiggles like she might explode while he searches for her.

That's just a little bit of who 15-months Brenna is. She's definitely becoming a little girl.

We took these after Andrew B's christening party last week.












(a plane was in the sky above her)