Blowing kisses

Gianna's new talent.

Belly and terrible-ones

Gianna does not like having her hair washed anymore. She flips around and twists and screams. This was halfway through the process today.

My belly at 16 weeks and 2 days. Don't worry--those are couch-marks on my arm.

Oh, the drama!

The last 2 weeks have been exhausting and dramatic. Not only is our house in total chaos due to a previous construction project and the damage from the hurricane, our daycare is still closed due to lack of power. Matt and his grandparents have been handling the majority of the childcare duties. Gianna has been extra crabby--I don't think she likes spending too much time with her parents. She misses the other kids. Then, 2 nights ago we discovered our 11-year old cat, Cleo, was missing. We had been borrowing electricity from our neighbors who were nice enough to throw an extension cord over their back fence, so the window and screen were open. Neither Matt nor I thought it would be a problem. All of a sudden on Monday night I realized I hadn't seen Cleo all evening. I freaked out and we tried looking through our house, but with no power and only flashlights, it was pretty difficult. I knew she had escaped and we walked around the house with an open can of tuna hoping to lure her back, but no luck. Tuesday I spent the entire day worried about the possbile fates she could have met. I was basically a basket case. Luckily, I was home with Gianna and didnt' have to act normal at work. Matt came home and tried to comfort me, but it didn't work. While I was reading Gianna bedtime stories, Matt rushed in saying he had seen a flash of white in the yard. He tried following her, but she was too fast (although it seems hard to believe, it was true). A girl walking around the block pointed where Cleo had gone. Matt and I grabbed a flashlight (and Gianna) and I ended up crawling through some bent chicken wire and many shrubs to find poor Cleo. She hissed at first, but once she smelled me, she let me pick her up and drag her back through the bushes to safety. She seemed a little traumatized, and immediately went to the food dish. I think she dropped a couple of pounds. Anyway, that was the dramatic finale to the past 11 days. Hopefully, better times are to come!

The top of our tree.

The roots of the tree.

Our backyard.

A baby cow and mommy at Matt's parents' house.

Scenes from our neighborhood

When this happens in your yard (electrical wire disconnected from house), apparently the electric company will not repair it. It is the "homeowner's responsibility". We had an electrician come yesterday and for the bargain price of $1995.00, we now have power!!! It is great after living like the Amish for the last 11 days.

This is the tree that fell on our house. It is more dramatic to see the pictures before it was cut down. Hopefully I will be able to post those later.

My cute nephew

Content in the bathtub.



Excited in his "mini-geiger" outfit. It was from his favorite aunt!

Still No Power!!!

Well, it is day number 10 without power. We at least got water back last Monday so we are able to take showers. Currently we are in Columbus, TX staying with Matt's parents. However, it is back to work as usual tomorrow. The daycare is still closed (they also have no power), so we are kind of at a loss with what to do with Gianna. Matt's grandparents have been watching her--extremely helpful. We spent all weekend doing laundry. All of us are exhausted and Gianna is finally at the end of her patience. She has been crying a lot today. I am trying to figure out how to post pictures of all of this, but my computer literacy only extends as far as my own personal computer. I will keep trying, so check back later.

Houston - Disaster Zone

Currently, I am in Portland visiting my sister and her baby. So cute...I will definitely be posting pictures later. Matt and Gianna stayed in Houston to make sure the house and pets were ok with the upcoming storm. Well, I was skeptical, but Matt was correct. Apparently our neighborhood is a mess. One of the trees in our backyard (a very large tree) fell over and crashed through our attic into the garage. Unfortunately, our garage is actually my closet. We are not sure of the total extent of the damage because Matt did not want to poke around in there while Gianna was in the house. All power and water is out, so Matt took Gianna and went to his mom's house about and hour and a half away. They are staying there until Monday. I come back on Monday and I am expected to report back to work as ususal on Tuesday (I got confirmation on this from my boss). So, I am not sure what exactly we'll do without power. Hopefully they will be super quick getting power back to our area. Anyway, I will post soon when I can with photos of the baby and the damage to our house. Thanks Matt for taking care of everything!

Magical Flying Gianna

Gianna seems to be over her fear of the pool. At least if she goes at her own pace.


She thought flying in the air was a lot of fun!