Working

Yikes, she needs to clean her desk. She's on the phone too! Is that really how I look?

Memorial Day Weekend

Hope everyone had a good weekend. We decided to brick paver the area just off the deck -- 350 square feet! It was a long process (with a couple suprises that made it even longer) but we're happy with it.
Before

After -- we still have to get a couple cut for the edges.

Everyone has to help with an effort like this.

Zoo!

We went to the zoo on Saturday. It was Catherine's first time at a real zoo (well, Anna's too.) :-) It was a lot of fun and they both did great. Big hits were "monkeys... monkeys eating... monkey breaking the tree" and "oooo, big bear!"

I would love to take them to the National Zoo, so maybe I'll need to combine that with a work trip later this summer. :-) -- Speaking of which, I hope Rosie had a wonderful First Communion and cannot wait to see pictures.

Last funny story of the week, Catherine has been climbing everything lately, and as a result, has been falling off everything lately. She fell hard on her butt on Friday and wanted me to kiss it to make it better. Somehow I didn't think I would get that request until her teenage years. (Also, glad to see that Terrie is having the same problem with Josh falling, and it's not just our "laissez-faire" parenting style. -- Now there are two words you cannot use everyday on your blog!) :-) -- Also, Terrie, we weren't ready to move Catherine to the big girl bed, but the thought of buying another crib didn't seem like a good one either.

Catherine with the polar bears behind her.

Us with a Gorilla climbing in the tree behind us.

Anna smiling at Catherine. We had a nice time.

Romantic Mother's Day

So, right before we were about to eat, our power went out. Thankfully, Jim was making most of the dishes on the grill and Dad had already blended our drinks. :-) But, as a result, we had a candlelit Mother's Day celebration. I hope Father's Day doesn't make us as challenged!

Big Girl Bed

Well, we made the transition. So far, so good. Catherine looks little in her bed, and Anna looks so small in the crib.




One of our IKEA purchases. I'm glad Shana talked me into this one.

IKEA

We (me, Catherine and Anna) met Kim and her sisters-in-law (and kids) at IKEA last weekend. Isn't that a cute picture of Grace and Catherine? This weekend we're going there again to meet my sister Catherine and Shana. This will be good, because I was too overwhelmed the first time to take it all in. I felt like the country mouse in the big city. The place is really something.

Anna is sleeping through the night! Knock-on-wood from 10:30pm until 7am she sleeps. The first couple days I thought the monitor was broken, but it is really true!

Excited to see my peeps in DC next week. -- Not all that excited about work, but seeing everyone will be fun.

Party

Catherine had a party to show off her new place -- I don't know what Tom and Jen are doing next spring break, but our house could use their help! :)

Nice picture of Dad and Anna.

Well, Heidi made the party, but where's Dan...

There he is!

Presenting...

UNCLE DAN! - I borrowed this from Kim's site. I told her that had I known he was being given such an introduction, I would have listened closer. :-) Rich and Jim had some funny comments too.

CATHERINE! -Our friend is a softball coach at Bowling Green. The necklaces are Catherine's idea.


ANNA! Just a cute picture of her. She's already two months old!

Happy Birthday!

What a weekend: Wednesday and Thurs "we" (read, Jim) tried to help Tom and Jen at Aunt Catherine's (until 11pm); Friday was dinner in Greektown with many of the Hull's and Miller's (We should all see eachother more, it was a lot of fun - sorry we didn't make it to the hockey game, but we looked for you on TV); Saturday was Anna's baptism and Catherine's second birthday; Sunday was a day of rest. "We" took over 200 pictures (read, Rich took over 150 pictures with our camera), so I'll just give some of the highlights. :-) (Thanks though, Rich, it will be nice to have all of those.)

Ken and Anna. You know it's not too late to have one more!

Cheers!

Hummm, I think Aunt Ann may have let someone try the cake.

Dancing with the Stars has nothing on Tom and Elizabeth.

Catherine & Anna

Jim's sister, Kim, created this video using some of the pictures we recently had done of the girls: http://animoto.com/play/iz7gAl3o5023QyfozlgPww You should see what she did with the birth announcement too.

Oh, and look out Aunt Ann. We're going to the hockey game this afternoon and we were debating about taking Catherine, because EVERY evening when we go down to watch TV she asks, "hockey?", "hockey?". Although it is sometimes then followed by, "Elmo?", "Elmo?" -- which I doubt is your second favorite.

Moms

Jim's mom came to meet Anna.

How cute is this?


Since the last posting we celebrated my mom's birthday. Tom and Jen got her a case of her favorite wine. I thought this was a great picture of it.


Isn't this a great photo too?

Cute pictures

Here are this week's latest cute pictures. Also, our friend's baby has been taken off the ECMO machine and is now "only" on a ventilator. This is good news, and they say that she seems like a strong-willed baby, so that is great too.



How's that for a smile.

Hard at work.

Sisters

Thanks to everyone for all the well wishes! So far Anna is a pretty easy baby too. She has a bit of day vs night confusion, but it's not too bad. Catherine has been really good with her and, if anything, is trying to kill her with her kindness. -- Waking her up to see if she needs her pacifier, etc. It's very cute.

Also, if you're a praying type person, I ask that you keep our friends in your prayers. Their daughter was born two days after Anna, but aspirated mecunium during delivery and had to be transfered to Children's Hospital in Detroit. For the last six days she has been on an ECMO machine which acts as a partial lung / heart bypass machine. Their other daughter is a week younger than Catherine, so you can imagine how confusing this is for her too.

Tom, Jen, Elizabeth and Adam came in this weekend. Catherine shrieked and ran in circles when she saw them the morning after they got in.

Introducing:

Hello all! It is with a heart swelled with joy that I introduce to you Anna Helen Woloskie. She and Mary are doing GREAT! Mary will return you to her regularly scheduled programming of posts soon; I just hope that this one attempt of mine works... Jim

Sledding

Well, I tried to take Catherine sledding earlier this week. I'm not sure why I thought this was a good idea at 37 weeks pregnant. I mean I have a difficult enough time getting up from the floor let alone trying to control a sled and get both of us up off the ground. Jim tried again with her this weekend, but she just didn't care for it. She kept getting upset that there was snow on her boots and gloves.

Busy Weekend

The weekend went by way too quickly, but it was a lot of fun.

The weekend marked the first time using the potty for its intended purpose. -- She's been wanting to dress herself lately, so this is one of the results.

Saturday started swim "lessons" at our high school pool. The school is new and huge. -- And when did every school start coming with a pool?

Sunday was a bridal shower for my sister Catherine's friend Christina.

I'm not sure Mom was able to enjoy much of her own lunch.

Less than a month to go

Well, we're in the home stretch with less than a month to go before the new baby is born. Or, at least until the due date of the new baby, who knows when he/she will be born. We think we're set on names, but there are still some discussions.

My dad converted their old photos and slides to a DVD. They're pretty good, here are a couple of favorites.

The von Trapp's had nothing on this group.

A vacation we took in '74.

Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Catherine has taken to calling all of her cousins (boys and girls) sis-tah (sister). We're not sure she learned this term, or why she thinks it is appropriate for everyone. One guess is that if people ask if I'm hoping for a boy or a girl, I always respond that I would love for her to have a sister, but a boy would be wonderful too.

Since the term is cute and it seems to fit the Christmas spirit, Merry Christmas, sistahs! We hope the New Year brings all of you joy.

Christmas Day started with Jim's family over to our house. Can you tell Kim and Grace got new cameras?

And Christmas Day ended with a party at my Aunt and Uncle's house. Grandma and Grandpa W. made it in from Florida, so here is a shot of my Dad and Catherine behind the bar and Jim's parents sitting at it. Hummm, Christmas cheer.

Ann and Rich made it in for Christmas too, which is always a lot of fun, so here are the girls in front of my parent's tree on Christmas Eve. As you can tell we quickly change clothes after church and dinner!

Aunt Catherine

So Aunt Catherine babysat for us twice last week so we could go out and celebrate our birthdays. Aunt Catherine has watched Catherine many times and always remarks how tired she gets after watching her. At her second babysitting of the week, Aunt Catherine finally realized that she doesn't have to play with Catherine the whole time and that she'll play by herself for a while. No wonder she gets so excited to see Aunt Catherine!! So here's a cute picture of the two of them. -- Off to DC this weekend for Sarah's Confirmation. We're really looking forward to seeing everyone and the city. DC is beautiful this time of year.

Hat

This is the hat that Catherine likes to leave on all the time. When we go to stores we often take off her coat, but she insists on leaving the hat on.

For baby #2 we have nine weeks left to go. While Jim is home over the holidays I think we will try to start finding all the sleepers, bassinet, etc we'll need. Knock-on-wood, I haven't got sick in the last three days, so maybe my morning sickness is finally over!

Hope everyone had a good weekend.