today we say goodbye Craig

Well, I will keep this short and sweet because I have family to get to, but today, I have to say goodbye to someone very special to my family, our Uncle Craig.  His passing is sudden, and exactly the way he would have wanted it.  He joked that his body was done here on Earth, and he was ready for what was next, but for those of us around him, we are not ready for him to be gone.  Craig welcomed me into the family immediately, and he is the reason for this blog.  When I first started teaching Craig would listen to hours of my stories from the classroom and always said that I should write them down, and one day, maybe write a book.  Well, I took that advice and started this little blog.  And as silly as it sounds, I love this thing.  It has morphed recently from my profession into the greatest diary of my daughter, and I am so thankful that I have chosen to record my life in this way.  So for now, we will allow ourselves to be sad, try to pick up the pieces from his passing, and remember what an amazing son, father, uncle, and friend he was to those around him.

I hope wherever your energy is now is as amazing as you hoped.

being tourists in san francisco

A few weeks back we took my aunt and uncle who were visiting from Ohio to San Francisco.  I must admit that growing up in northern California, I don't always enjoy my visits to the city.  I'm not a real big city gal, and because I've been so many times, I forget how beautiful this city by the bay really is. We decided to go "full tourist" mode for this day trip, and took a bay cruise that took us around both bridges, and we even saw the back side of Alcatraz [which was almost as exciting as the back side of water on the Jungle Cruise, excuse the Disneyland reference]. My biggest issue with visiting the city is you can never over plan, because let's face it, lunch and one outing is typically what you are going to accomplish when you still have over an hour drive to and from.  So, with that in mind, we tried not to be too crazy when planning this trip, and it was pretty perfect because of that.  Lunch at Barney's in the Marina and then our cruise with the Red & White Fleet made for the perfect day trip.

^three generations of macri women - model pose with grammie, unacceptably cute^

^first boat ride, she loved watching the water^

^selfies with a baby, the only way for me^

^it is amazing the difference in temperature between the two bridges^

^loved the new perspective^

^someone had the best ergo nap on the boat, after acting like a crazy baby for a bit^

 ^love this girl^

The day was really lovely, besides a few fleeting moments.  It was almost like San Francisco knew I wasn't their biggest fan, because within the first five minutes of me stepping out of the car I was bombed by a bird, like all over my diaper bag bad, and down into crevices, you get the picture. Thankfully, my bag is stocked full of everything you need to clean poop, but really?!?  Not the way I wanted to spend the first ten minutes at lunch! Our only other bump in the road came with parking by the pier in order to catch our boat.  We found free parking [what?!?] thanks to Meg's stealthy eyes [thank god she wears her glasses now] and then we had to haul it.  Many, many, many blocks.  Now the distance would not have been an issue, if I had more than a few minutes to make the trek, while holding Everly, and a diaper bag, and a baby carrier, because of course there wasn't even time for me to throw E into the ergo, oh, and I wasn't exactly wearing tennis shoes.  So besides being a tad sore and very winded, we made the boat trip, and were officially the last to board the boat. Oops, we really were acting like tourists.  We should have known that parking was going to be a pain.  Oh well, we made it, we saw, we took lots of pictures, memories made.

oh hey, I'm 35 weeks old!

the past two weeks I've been on a non-stop rampage

the only time I'm still is when I'm napping

I'm also making it very hard on mom to take my picture

because as soon as she sits me down

I'm off on my own accord

this week I had a nurse visit for a couple more shots

and the good news is I now weigh 14 lbs 8 oz, which means I gained

almost a whole pound this past month

and that makes my mom a pretty happy lady

this time I had to get two shots, and I made a scrunched up face

when it happened, and then was done

not a single tear

clearly I got my pain tolerance from my auntie

because she was the same way when she was a baby

and my mom was the opposite

[yes, I may have kicked a doctor or two in my day, oops]

lately I've been getting a bit ticklish

sometimes my mom can get me laughing pretty good at my hips

and daddy always gets my belly or neck

all this laughing really shows off my top tooth, and the little one right next to it

which means I officially have three and a half teeth

I still love talking with all animals

and I always smile when mommy brushes my hair

or files my nails

currently my favorite food is mango

and I love pulling my bows off my head to play with

people over eighty still completely fascinate me

this last week I also had my first official play date

and even though I almost slept through the fun

I did get up just in time to play with Aubrey

and I even got to meet a baby smaller than me

four month old Lucy, who had fun at the play date by showing off

her rolling over skills

I'm currently looking forward to next week

more swimming is on the agenda

and mom and dad are letting me try it out on my own a bit more

and the best news, my auntie is coming home

and I get to meet my great, great aunt for the very first time

happy time for me!

-Everly Mae

independence day

I hope everyone here in America enjoys our Independence Day.  For me, it started in true history teacher fashion with some Revolutionary War documentaries, and I was laughing to myself because all of the commercials were clearly geared towards middle age men, but I'm ok with that.  And after a new shiny manicure, a last minute craft project, a fresh batch of rice crispy treats, and some flower arranging in mason jars for today, I'm ready to relax by my grandma's pool, try to survive the last day of this ridiculous heat wave we've been enduring this week, and most importantly, celebrate this pretty great nation of ours that overcame some pretty crazy odds to gain independence.

oh, and you better believe I hit the 4th of july clearance rack

at target pretty hard the other day

so stay tuned to ridiculously cute patriotic baby photos soon!

happy fourth of july!

grandma turns 86, again

This year we celebrated my grandma Betty's 86th birthday, and if you would have asked her a month ago, she swore she was already 86.  Thankfully, some math by me got her a whole year back, and she was pretty excited about that.  This birthday was really amazing for our whole family.  In May, our little grandma had gotten really sick, and we have been so lucky to not know what it feels like to have grandma be sick.  So, this birthday, with grandma back and going strong, we all really were enjoying the day together, and I think grandma had a pretty great day too.  And of course, Everly might have stole the show, just a bit.

 happy birthday grandma betty

we are all so lucky to have you in our lives

to new beginnings

a couple of weeks ago I had the chance to take some senior photos for my cousin carly

this past monday she graduated from high school

and I cannot believe that the youngest cousin is off to college next fall

I love this time of year, because let's face it

I'm a big sap for all rites of passage

and graduating high school is a biggie

I cannot believe that it has been eleven years since I have been in those shoes

it is such an exciting and scary time in life

so congratulations carly

you give me faith that girls today have a good head on their shoulders

have amazing values, morals, work ethic

and I love knowing that everly will have you as another amazing role model

in our family

keep rockin' it carly - happy graduation

you know it's a good day when...

you already have a jam packed weekend with friends and family planned

and you find out someone else will be joining in on the fun...

that's right

auntie meg is coming to town tomorrow and we are

smiles about it

our first christmas morning

I figured I should probably share our christmas morning

before it loses all relevance

[especially since I still have a few from the actual day as well]

so here we go...

yes, our morning was pretty much focused all around our E
she spent so much time loving on all of us
it was a great way to start off christmas day
the morning was filled with stockings stuffed with rattles
and all things little
a family in new jingle jammies
matching scarves
and oh so many awesome moments with the little miss

christmas eve

as you get older, the more christmases you seem to have

and no, I'm not complaining

but even as we add more celebrations

 there is one day that has stayed the same 

ever since I was a kid

so getting to add our little everly to christmas eve

just made it even more amazing

check out the first present she opened for the evening

I am not a huge shoe person

so even though I am guilty of buying E way more clothes than she needs

I haven't bought a single pair of shoes

however, now that she has these ridiculously cute boots

she has been sporting them on the regular

getting miss everly on the road

before the mr. and I had everly

we had grand plans to try to keep our lives as "normal" as possible

and sure, with E you need to be flexible when it comes to timing

and normal tasks always take an extra minute, or two, or three

but for the most part I am very thankful to have a daughter

who still allows us to have our "normal" life

but exponentially better now that she is in it

today we took our first trip to visit auntie meg in oakland

and I have lots of pictures to share

but for now, it's time to snuggle with my baby

who just was out and about from 9 am until after 10 this evening

you rock everly mae, you rock

christmas eve [photo booth]

now that all the "kids" in the family are in their teens and twenties

and with the new addition to the family - miss everly

I wanted to find a new fun tradition for us to start on Christmas Eve

so that's just what we did

I made a simple backdrop out of black felt and some large ribbon

bought some fun $1 props at Joann's

downloaded the Incredibooth app to my iPad 

[which I already had played around with on my phone as you can see here]

and had fun

I think I will be breaking this out for New Year's Eve too!

we'll be off christmas-ing for a while

I promise that I will have my camera in tow over the next couple of days

to catch all of Everly's first Christmas moments

but for now I'm wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas

and as you can see above

we already started celebrating last night with our first Christmas

and I cannot wait to have so many first Christmas moments with our little E

not many words these past couple of days

since friday morning with the events that took place in Connecticut

I have been without much to say here

so today I want to just say this -

I am so thankful for my beautiful daughter that has completed my life

in more ways than I could imagine

I am so blessed to have a husband who is my perfect match 

and partner for all that comes our way

I have the most amazing family and friends who keeps me close to home

and I wouldn't have it any other way

and finally, I am so proud to be a part of a profession that has shown such heroism

the teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary did the unimaginable

and are proof of the dedication and love that teachers have for their students

hunting for the perfect christmas tree

today the mr. and I helped pick out the family christmas tree for my mom's house

it is something we have done ever since we were dating

and this year we got to bring our little Everly

so we decided we should also bring the camera for yet another first for E

my family has been buying our tree from the same man since I was about seven

so getting to bring our little one with us just seemed pretty special

this is just one of many traditions I am so excited to continue with our little family

happy turkey day

I hope that everyone celebrating today had an amazing Thanksgiving

I know that the start of the holiday season could not have been any better for us

because this little one pretty much could brighten up any day

especially those days that are all about being thankful for what we have 

so no matter how big or small your holiday was today

or whether you celebrated with friends or family

I hope you too found much to be thankful for