Just Because

Ella decided to take over our bed no less than daddy was 2 minutes out of the front door (he's enjoying a much deserved boy's golf weekend in Hilton Head this weekend!). I decided to share how she invades my space. Time flies by too quickly so I am not saying no to this visitor any time soon! She'll be 12 and too cool all too soon for this momma.

Also wanted to post some of my pretty peanut with her lip gloss on. I didn't intend to give her these rings with a pot of lip gloss in them so soon but I do chaperone her but there's no stopping her; girlfriend is already into primping. Doesn't she look like a little girl? No longer my baby. Well, she will ALWAYS be my baby.....

We are taking advantage of it being just the 2 of us this weekend. I have many plans for us. Swimming, street festival, tile shopping and brunching with girlfriends. I hope my #1 girlfriend behaves for brunch!

xoxo,

NF

Excuses, excuses, excuses...

Soccer. Ella's not a fan. Boo. Daddy might be slightly heartbroken.
Such a diva.

Such a diva. Ex: 2. Momma, leave me alone. I am dressing up as princess.

Happy 5th Anniversary to us. Chandon it is.

Sassy one shouldered "soup soup" aka swim suit.

Great pic of the Francis family. Except, what the H am I doing? AH well.

Ella likes the "squishy" ball.

Happy 90th, Nana!

I got Nana to wear a hot pink boa. Mission: Accomplished.

Cutting her beautiful cake.

Sunshine and family. Nothing better.

The spread at Nana's 90th pre-food.

Ella playing on the stairs. Can you believe her Granpa played on those stairs at that age, too?! Crazy.

Uncle Keith and Ella- Keith is showing Ella his iPhone or maybe Ella is showing him? =)

Auntie Becky and baby Hudson! We love you, Huds!

G-ma and Ella. I love the blue sky behind these beautiful girls.

Feeding the ducks in Boston. Love. that. city.

Ella on her birthday. I love this girl. So. Much.

Yep, it's time for a bigger pool and/or yard/patio!

Ella and Mommy at Shedd. No, not a back drop behind us. What a beautiful city!

Not a fabulous picture of smiling daddy and baby, however are their faces not hilarious?!

Totally sorry for being so MIA. However, I have very valid excuses!

We have been finding renters, cleaning condos, having inspections, etc. etc.

We are closing on a new house on August 15th! I am so superstitious and don't want to post a picture until we are moved in and our renters are settled at 2801. Yes, I am very superstitious. Always kinda waiting for the shoe to drop. I know, bad quality. Trying to live in the moment as much as I can but I have SO MUCH TO DO.

Like, for instance, finally updating our blog.

Our summer has been jam packed since Ella's party. Between nights out, nights in, weekend trips, it's been non stop. It ain't over yet! We hopefully can get away for one weekend before the summer is finito.

Here's a sampling of what we've been up to:

Birthdays- Kayla's/Lukie's

Nana's 90th in MA

Weekend trip to MI

Weekend Chicago fun outings- Shedd-we are members!

Fun nights out for Momma and Daddy

More to come in the next few weeks. We are so scared and excited for change but are sad to leave our comfortable condo and location. Change is good but I don't like doing it =( We started our wonderful family in this condo and it's hard to think of this chapter closing for us. For now. The market blows so we will still have the condo but it won't be ours officially any longer. Sigh. Very conflicting feeling but we are confident that the space will be good for hopefully growing family!

Love and Kisses,

NF

Happy 5th Anniversary to me + Scott!

Five Years Ago today...

How did this happen? It seems like just yesterday, we were standing under the sweltering Atlanta sunshine, repeating our vows and smiling ear to ear....fast forward, we are both grinning ear to ear, for so many different reasons- laughing at Ella's sassy attitude, playtime with the puppies, just being together as a family, but most importanly, b/c I am married to the nicest, most reasonable, down to earth man in the world.

It truly seems like yesterday, Scott. Look at our amazing lives together. Thank you for your love, support, friendship and kindness. You + Ella make me the luckiest girl in the world. I love you forever.

xoxo,

Nic

Little Pumpkin's 2nd birthday party....

For some odd reason, I can't upload pictures from my computer to blogger. Awesome. In the meantime, feel free to browse the sweet pictures from Ella's 2nd birthday party a week ago via picasa here----

https://picasaweb.google.com/delgroove64/EllaS2ndBirthday?authkey=Gv1sRgCKHzuZfT57_56wE##

I went with an owl theme as Ella loves loves owls. I made everything by hand. Every.thing. I won't do that again! I loved planning and being crafty, I really do, but working full time does not lend itself to having massive amounts of free time. I already have a theme for next year in mind, but I am getting lots more catered and maybe won't feature a dessert bar? We shall see...

So, my little girl will be 2 at 11:45 pm tonight. My heart is heavy and happy at the same time. We made it 2 years, unscathed and completely in love with a sassy little girl that will tell me, "go away momma" with a huge grin on her face and then seconds later kiss my legs and ask while her hands grasp my pants saying, "peas up momma?". Sigh. She challenges us, makes us laugh until our sides hurt and most importanly, makes me such a proud momma.

She is completely over the moon over Dora, choc-at (chocolate), milky, fin(finaly, our dog), lounging on the bed with daddy watching cartoons and playing in massive amounts of water.

This weekend was coined "birthday weekeend" b/c we had a huge birthday celebration for Kayla and Luke! How is Kayla 4 and Luke 1!? Unbelievable. I envy Tiffany's calm and and collective-ness. I so admire that about her. I hope it rubs off a little more on me =) Between birthday parties, play dates, costco, Shedd Aquarium and playing on the deck, mommy and daddy didn't get too much time to relax but look forward to seeing family this week in Boston! It won't be too relaxing, however, it will be so nice to see cousins, and aunts and uncles and Ella's namesake, Ella Francis the 1st! Nana is turning 90 and is an unbelievable lady. She golfs, sells real estate and drives her convertible around the south shore. She's amazing! I can't wait to post pics of the 2 Ellas in action.

I will post some pictures of our Memorial Day weekend tomorrow night. We continue to be so thankful to our troops and service men and women who serve us here in Chicago and abroad every day!

Have a great week everyone!

PS- It was 90 in Chicago today! Bring on summertime....

xoxo

Mexico Momma's Trip 2011

Night out at Xache. We went again. I could go back every night forever. SO BUENO!

I took relaxation seriously. I ended up printing an US magazine onto my torso.

Bikini Hour. Free "drinks" from 2-3 every day. I still kinda miss it!

Well, in between the lost post and now, I have had a birthday and celebrated in both Mexico and Chicago. I had an amazing time with 2 of my sweet girlfriends in Mexico. We danced, laughed, talked about kids, swam, ate guacamole, repeat. Ahh. I am still laughing from our fun times and wonderful memories made in Playa Del Carmen. I will post some oldie but goodies this weekend (I promise) from the last year that never seemed to make the blog. I only have a few Mexico pictures as they uploaded as a gif file? Hmmm. I have posted a few for you to view while I figure that all out...

It is March 30th (how'd this happen!?) and we are almost 2 months away from Ella's birthday. Can you believe our monkey will be 2?! We can't. She is so fun. I really love being with her. We chase each other and she demands that I act like "airpaaaannnne" and I more than oblige. She can be chased and play "airpppannne" for hours. She is really pushing her limits and ours but we are trying our best to show her who's boss. I fear that Scott will be the disciplinarian. I am not good when it comes to this sort of thing. I am trying to be better but who are we kidding? The dogs even know what's up and ignore everything I say unless there is a choke collar around their little furry necks. Seeing as how DCFS would be called to our house before we could say Chicago PD, I will opt to not explore this tactic on Ella D.

That's all for now, lovies. More pics to come this weekend.

xoxo

Northern California Getaway

Gramma's 30th dinner celebration. Our waiter wasn't excited about being a photographer.

Scott's and his parents at Gramma's bday dinner...Who do y'all think he looks like?

Sweet Alex. Almost 5! Where did the time go??

Blow out your candle!

Frightened Ella.

Carmel. Happiest place on earth.

Bliss. I don't know what flowers these are but they are so pretty....

Another view of the beach...

Ella went head first into the sand! She had a ball and her parents forgot a change of clothes. Lesson learned.

Me and my wonderful MIL.

Happy Ella.

So delicious!

I love this picture...

And this one...Gramma is showing Ella something but Ella's giving me her devil smile. Love it.

Me and Scotty + Golden Gate. Is there a better photo opp??

Ella and Daddy playing on Baker beach. She would not give me a smile. At. All.

We went into the city to see some SCU friends...We were able to meet 10 day old Lincoln, Nick and Yenny's little prince! Precious.

Don't they look so happy? They are a pretty family, huh?

Girl talk. Check out the view of the pacific from the Calabreses' pad!

Scott was SOO comfortable holding a newborn. He walked right up and scooped him up. After he sanitized, of course =) So funny how quickly you pick it back up....

Ella and Gramma lounging.

Trying on momma's glasses.

Downtown Sonoma....ahhhh!

Delicious place we ate dinner one of our 2 nights in Sonoma. SO GOOD!

Champagne flight at Domaine Carneros. Yummo...

Scotty outside of Domaine Carneros. So pretty!

Tasting at Etude.

If you squint, you can see the shrubs spell out the vineyard, Etude!

Tasting at Jarvis winery. My fave was the reserve, quite a deal at 185/bottle. Don't worry, daddy didn't spring for it.

Outside of Jarvis. Pretty impressive Cave winery! They don't turn a profit and the bottles START at like $100!?

Tasting some bubbly at Chandon. MY FAVE!

Yum.

The boys being silly.

Vineyards....

Cheers to us!

Our ride for the day!

We will be back!

Dinner in Sonoma at Estate.

First glass in Sonoma.

My girl, Jen. I am so thankful for Scott's introduction to her! She is the best and wish we could hang out more....love you mucho, Jen Bolger!

Boys at dinner. Cute.

Happy with her cousin, Alex.

Happy, california girl in the70's and sunshine!

Helping mommy pack before we left.

Well, we had an amazing trip back west to California. It was time. Time to leave the cold behind. Time to spend time with our sweet family. Time to get away, just the 2 of us to Sonoma, and have some fun. Unfortunately, the Francis Family Travel curse struck yet again and I ended up getting the worst cold! Body aches, fever, chills, etc. I was feeling so crummy the last night in Sonoma, of course!, but was so happy to have the time with Scott and hang out with the Bolgers. We had a blast. Out of all of the wineries, I think Scott and I liked Chandon the best. I am on a mission to find the Rose in the flight we tried at Binny's. So refreshing. So good. We had 7 hours in the limo but it flew right by! We couldn't believe it.

We headed back to Danville to see our family for the remainder of our time. It was so needed. Ella got to spend some time with her aunt Meg, cousing Alex, uncle Tom and Grams and Granpa. She ate it up. I wish we could give her time with her family more often =(

We have been back a week and it's 30's but sunny. Not quite the 60's and sun we left in California, but it's home and it's perfect for us right now. I was truly happy to be back in grey, snowy Chicago when we landed. Is that the feeling you have when you know you have made a place your home? I think I have it b/c we made our family here and it feels good to be back.

We are in town for the rest of the winter- woot- and hope to take is slow and easy. Our little bug turns 2 in 3 short months and this makes my heart beat fast. I want to treasure every single day before it's official that she's a little girl.

Hope all is well and that you are enjoying your time at home, wherever that might be..

xx,

Nicole