a few photos from our Thanksgiving...

My Family of Four!

Before we all sat down to a great meal hosted by us this year, we all got together to visited my grandmother aka G.G. at the nursing home. You can just see by the expression on her face how happy she was to see us all there. The kiddos were jumping, dancing, and singing all around and G.G. had a great big smile on her face for most of the day. It was so sad when we had to leave (our meal was planned for 5:30PM and we needed to head home to get the girls down for their quiet time and get things rolling in the kitchen), but we promised her we would see her again after Mass Sunday morning. That's all she needed to hear. Oh G.G. - We Love You So!

(my grandmother who will be 90 next year on April 28th...our Miss Annabelle has the same birthday!)

(Oh how this little girl just loves her G.G.)


Grandma was there too and of course we just had to get her in on the photo action as well with the girls!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We here at the Leonard household had one of the best ever!

While this Thanksgiving will be our last one in the house we are living in now (and have lived in over the past 8 years) we are also so very excited to be moving into our new house in Maryland! (we are thinking we could be moving as soon as early this coming spring!) This Holiday weekend so far has been a quiet one for us. All we have to do is decorate the outside of our house and we are finished! I did take the girls out Wednesday night to our annual "Lighting of Our Local Train Station" and they had a blast! (even when Santa came around on the fire truck!) Francesca...at first...seemed a little shy but once the Big Man himself got off the truck and started making his way around the crowd, Francesca was so excited to see him and Annabelle was even more excited (her little arms & legs were kicking so fast & hard I thought she would just burst if he didn't come over and say hello). We all had such a great time! (sorry only one photo from the train station and it wasn't even taken by me!) I am hoping to get some photos of the girls playing outside this coming Sunday! It is supposed to snow here in the afternoon and we can't wait! Here's to two more full days of fun before Daddy has to head back to work in DC and us girls hang together again while we not-so-patiently wait for next weekend to come! (next Saturday, Santa will again be coming to our train station for the our area's version of the Polar Express. His train...along with his whole crew will be stopping by our train station at 1:45PM! Oh how the girls just can't wait!)

Here's the only photo of the girls...waiting for the "lighting of the train station" to happen!

Being Thankful...

Since Thanksgiving is just around the corner...I thought I would make a short list of things I am very thankful for this year...

- My Husband..."My EVERYTHING"...who is truly the love of my life...You give to me so unconditionally and love me for who I truly am!

- My Two Girls...for "sunshine" alone that they bring into my life everyday, I will always be tremendously grateful for. Oh...how I love you two!

- My Mom...she is my rock and my best friend!

- My Sister...I love you so...You are always making me laugh! :)

- My Grandmother...I am everything I am today because of her never-ending love and guidance.

- My Family...I love you all so much and I wouldn't be where I am today without each & every one of you!

- My very, VERY, close friends (person-to-person and online)...Gina G, Amy & Owen W, Mary H, Mel S, Beth G, Sarah M, Lisa F, and Lisa O ~ I will NEVER find the words to tell you all how much I love you and how much our friendship means to me!

- and to my "faith"...who is always there for me...no matter what!

Now, I want to wish you all a wonderful and very HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!(Oh ya...And I also want to THANK my hair-stylist for my new do! I love it and it is so rock'n! If you can't tell from the photo above...which I don't think you can...I got almost 6 inches taken off!)

ONE MONTH TODAY!!!

(yes, that's our eating machine!)

Just look at that face...do you think she is happy or what!

Our Miss Annabelle has been officially a "Leonard" as of month today! She is truly a joy and is just one amazing little angel that came into our lives at the perfect time! Looking back I can't believe it has been a month already (where does the time go) and I can't believe how well this little girl has adjusted to life in the Leonard household. Annabelle & Francesca have developed a "bond" (yes, already!) that I don't think I will truly ever understand. It is just so beautiful how everything clicked! (you also would never believe the changes...BIG CHANGES...my Francesca has made. It is like she grew-up overnight into this little independent girl and big sister. The drama is not there as it was before and she has a true love and devotion for her sister.) And...even though Francesca did not have any problems with sharing before...it is still not an issue. She shares EVERYTHING with her little sister. They are even sleeping in the same room together and the best part is...I love hearing them chit chat before going down. I always ask Francesca when she gets up what they talked about (since Annabelle is so limited to her speaking vocabulary) and Francesca's response to me is always..."Just some sister stuff, Mom...you wouldn't understand!" Again...how did we ever get so blessed! As again for our Annabelle...she is almost completely off the binki and it was all her doing! She doesn't ask for it and if we don't give it to her...she doesn't complain. I guess she truly does trust us...for I so know how hard it is to get them off that habit and in such a short time!


Francesca posing with her favorite decoration!

(she so loves this Nutcracker...and the ballet!)


(she just takes my breath away!)


Artist hard at work!

Rainy Days...and...

(last week) While taking Francesca to school one day, it was raining and just messy...so what great day to wear our rain gear! (can you believe that the rain coat that Annabelle is wearing was once Francesca's...the girls skipped wearing the matching boots. I was in a hurry and was too lazy to run upstairs to grab them...Francesca so wanted to wear her boots so I promised her, next time!)

And...an update was made to our www.babyjellybeans.com web site featuring our first two weeks home. You so must check it out!

A fun FULL weekend!

As usually, we had a very FUN & Full weekend of "things" to do. First off, Papa and Grandma C. made the long trip from Virginia Beach to NEPA for a visit...we also had my nephew's, Scott Joe, 3rd birthday party...and as I mention before, we had a ton of other things to do. (I also finally got our Christmas cards finished and while I did so badly want a family photo to include to it this year, it will only feature the girls - but - even though it only features photos of our two girls and Honey Bear...it still is so precious!) OK...now onto the photos....!



(this girl loves her pops!)

(she also loves to sing!)

(playing with the birthday boy's new train table!)

The Birthday Boy & one of my little angel!

(check out that face!)

Francesca being her silly self!

(This crazy person...who happens to be my husband and the father of our two girls I think...lost it a long time ago! We were laughing so hard over him doing this little jig that I actually pee my pants!)

The two dearest to my heart....

Papa and his two girls...

What a week!

Where do I begin...



I guess the only thing I can say is...WHAT A WONDERFUL WEEK WE HAD!



Seriously, I thought for sure I was going to have some kind of break-down. Me, alone with two kids under the age of four, 24 hours a day, Monday to Friday, and the youngest just coming into our family only a little time before. Boy, how wrong I was! It went totally, 100% smoothly. I even took the girls out to lunch twice (all by myself), went to see my aunt (who is still in the hospital recovering from the auto accident), went to see my grandmother who currently resides in a nursing home, assisted my oldest while she chocked on a french fry...and than cleaned "it" up (those infant & child first aid/CPR classes we had to complete for Annabelle's adoption really paid off), went to the post office, battled my youngest's fever (going on two days of over 101), my oldest having a bad cough, Francesca going back to school, and got some grocery shopping done (which made me a little nervous). I was also able to get house work done, laundry completed, get my three weeks worth of mail organized, and all the other household duties that we all must do every single day.

(I know, that there are mothers out there that do this every day...with even more kiddos surrounding them...and this is nothing to brag about, but for me...it is such a big deal!)



Every day, I was completely dressed with hair and make-up totally done. I must say...I impressed myself. OK - enough about me, lets get to the photos from this past week!



Oh ya...and the the girls are doing well too! (other than our poor Annabelle being so sick with a fever and Francesca having that cough...my poor girls...and now I am feeling the "funk".) Just check out the photos. The smiles speak for themselves...

Update...

An update was made tonight to our www.babyjellybeans.com web site.